Universe Infinite Canteen-Chapter 371: The Nonexistent Murderer

Chen Er’s face turned pale at these words, and he shouted, "Woman, stop spouting nonsense!"

The middle-aged beautiful woman was so intimidated by his shout that she dared not speak any longer and shrank back behind the sick man.

Upon seeing this, Gu Qingyi swiftly stepped in front of her and said, "Don’t be afraid, I am here, no one will dare to touch you!"

Then she asked the middle-aged beauty, "Sister, aside from Escort Head Shen, did you see anyone else go out?"

"Ah, I am not sure about the others, after I finished nursing I went to sleep," the middle-aged woman whispered.

Gu Qingyi combined what Chen Er had said before with what the middle-aged woman had just said.

If someone else had left the Ruined Temple after Shen Zhou, there was no reason for the people from Xingtong Escort Agency to hide it.

Because that could not entirely remove suspicion from Shen Zhou but at least it would distribute the pressure among more people.

In that light, the case seemed very clear, unless there were assassins lurking outside the temple, Shen Zhou was the murderer of He Qisheng.

Thinking this, the look Gu Qingyi gave Shen Zhou turned chilly.

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A sense of dread fell over Shen Zhou as he quickly said, "Alright, I admit I did go out in the middle of the night, but it was because I was worried that the downpour would trigger a flash flood, destroying the Plank Road ahead and delaying our journey tomorrow.

"I didn’t see Young Hero He when I went out; Chen Er lied just now, only because he didn’t want you to suspect me."

"How can you prove that?"

After thinking for a moment, Shen Zhou said, "When I went out to check, I left footprints behind. Although some might have been washed away by the rainstorm, some are still there."

Without another word, Gu Qingyi stepped out of the temple gates.

Sure enough, the open area in front of the temple was scattered with many messy footprints.

The heavy rainfall tonight had mostly washed away the footprints and horse hoof prints that were there before; now only four kinds of footprints could still be recognized, all left recently.

The two disciples from Songxi Sword Sect stepped forward and identified their footprints first, leaving two kinds of footprints. Ma Lu took off one of He Qisheng’s boots, the shape and size matched perfectly with one set of the footprints.

The remaining set of footprints could only belong to Shen Zhou.

Just as Shen Zhou had described, those footprints indeed went south from the Ruined Temple toward the Plank Road, circled around, then returned to the front of the temple.

Although there were gaps in the middle, the movement trail was still quite clear.

Upon inspecting the footprints, Gu Qingyi found that just as Shen Zhou himself had said, he hadn’t gone behind the Ruined Temple.

On the other hand, He Qisheng’s footprints went straight from the exit towards the back wall, indicating that he indeed had likely gone there to relieve himself.

It seemed that the two had left one after the other and, indeed, hadn’t encountered each other.

Wait, could it be that He Qisheng was actually killed by someone from outside the temple?

Gu Qingyi frowned, but aside from the footprints of He Qisheng and the two Songxi Sword Sect disciples, there were no fourth set of footprints under the back wall.

Could it be an internal conflict within the Songxi Sword Sect?

Gu Qingyi gave the two Songxi Sword Sect disciples a strange look.

The thin and tall disciple said with a dark face, "Catcher Gu, what are you implying; are you suspecting us of foul play in killing our senior brother?"

In her heart, Gu Qingyi was indeed thinking along those lines, mainly because there didn’t seem to be anyone else around judging from the footprints.

Unless He Qisheng had taken his own life, then these two brothers were now the prime suspects.

Fortunately, Ma Lu spoke up once again at this moment, "In addition to Escort Head Shen and these two members of the Songxi Sword Sect, it’s not certain that others haven’t been here."

"What?" Gu Qingyi was somewhat surprised, "Do you mean to say that Chen Er, the courier from Xingtong Escort Agency, lied again?"

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Chen Er immediately said, "I didn’t lie, I didn’t see anyone else go out while I was on watch, and in my opinion, Young Hero He must have been killed by someone ambushing him outside the temple!"

Ma Lu said, "Don’t be so certain for now, I went to sleep late last night and saw you doing the night watch, facing the temple gate, right?"

"That’s correct," Chen Er nodded, "So if anyone went in or out, I would have definitely noticed."

"But what if that person didn’t use the main entrance?"

"Hm?"

"This is a Ruined Temple," Ma Lu said, "The very name speaks of its many holes; earlier, while I was wandering around the temple, I discovered holes in the walls and the roof."

"If someone were to crawl through these holes, then you wouldn’t have seen."

"That..." Chen Er hesitated for a moment, "I actually didn’t keep my eyes on the main gate the whole time, I checked our surroundings periodically."

"However, your attention was mostly on those Jianghu folk, right? And although there was a fire in the temple, you probably could only see clearly up to about three or four zhang away from the fire. Beyond that, you could only make out vague shapes."

"You’re referring to..." Gu Qingyi raised her eyebrows.

"The Old Beggar," Ma Lu said, "Ever since I entered the temple, he had been lying motionless in the corner, covered by a mat. Most people would overlook his presence."

"If in the middle of the night he slipped away through a hole, Brother Chen who was on watch likely wouldn’t have noticed, because nobody would check if someone was still beneath that mat."

"Hmm, I didn’t really pay much attention to that area..." After recalling the situation, Chen Er admitted.

"But there are no footprints of his here," Gu Qingyi still furrowed her brows.

Ma Lu looked up at the ceiling and then asked Gu Qingyi, "If someone here used hidden weapons to launch a sneak attack, choosing a covert mode to duel with Young Hero He, would the site of the duel be above or below?"

"Under those circumstances, it should be below," Gu Qingyi said, "Because the hidden weapons reached Young Hero He from below, so the location of the fight must also be below. If the attacker chose a covert mode, we in the temple wouldn’t hear the sounds of the fight, but they would still leave footprints on the ground."

"Hm?" Now Ma Lu was also stunned.

Mainly because he had just started learning the rules of this world and he only understood them superficially.

However, this put a block in his reasoning as well because if someone carried out a sneak attack, and the fight happened below, there would surely be traces left.

Could it really be that He Qisheng had taken his own life, or was he killed by his two fellow sect members?

Apart from that, it seemed no other explanations could be found. Yet, Ma Lu still felt that there were serious issues with the Old Beggar.

Gu Qingyi also seemed to realize this and, as all other leads had been exhausted, decided to try her luck with the Old Beggar.

At least the first part of Ma Lu’s analysis was quite reasonable.

The group returned to the temple, and Gu Qingyi walked to the corner where the Old Beggar was curled up and softly called out.

"Old sir, wake up, I have something I would like to ask you."

She called out three times in a row, with her voice getting louder on the last two occasions, but the figure beneath the mat didn’t respond at all.

Gu Qingyi then reached out and patted the Old Beggar’s shoulder, but he remained motionless.

Finally, the tall disciple from the Songxi Sword Sect lost his patience and lifted the man from under the mat brusquely, "Old man, playing deaf and mute, huh? Catcher Gu is asking you..."

However, in the next moment, his voice abruptly stopped, as he realized that the Old Beggar had already died.