The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"That night, the bandits who committed the crime at Manager Wang's house numbered no more than twenty. They were all skilled and must have received professional assassin training. They left no extra traces, so such people must also be good at disguise. However, no matter how the skin or complexion is, the bones and muscles cannot be disguised."

Qiao Yelan nodded.

"Of course it's not impossible—but there are quite a few eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department sent by His Majesty. Please, Lord Yu, do not show any disdain when you examine the bones."

Wang Zhi paused for a moment, looked up at Qiao Yelan, then lowered his head again, remaining silent.

“Eunuchs are human too, and I am not the kind of person who looks down on others.”

Yu Cheng stood up and massaged Qiao Yelan's muscles and bones.

This young official, whose veins were congested and whose bones were thin, was clearly bedridden due to a long illness and had no martial arts skills whatsoever.

Then he pinched Wang Zhi, and then the others from the Shaofu.

He already had a calculation in his mind.

Apart from Zhu Ronghui, who was assigned to be Qiao Yelan's personal bodyguard, everyone else was an ordinary person and none of them could be the murderer.

This Zhu Rong Hui was no nobody; he was the head of the Zhu Rong family. His ancestors were bestowed the surname by the Emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty, and from then on, they became one of the famous henchmen of the Great Yan royal family. The Zhu Rong clan was born with the ability to control fire, and their secret technique of "Blood Melting" allowed them to fight against hundreds of enemies.

But that's the problem. Once the Zhu Rong family makes a move, the scene is extraordinarily large. If Manager Wang's house had been burned to the ground, Yu Cheng would have some doubts. But the other party was wiped out by hand.

At least within the Shaofu (Imperial Household Department), there was no trace of the murderer.

"Please forgive me, Lord Qiao. After Manager Wang was killed, the biggest beneficiary was you, the Junior Supervisor of the Imperial Household Department. There may be areas where you will need to cooperate with the Junior Supervisor. Please forgive me."

"If you have any requests, please just tell me—but could you tell me the current progress of the Dali Temple's investigation? Besides me, who else have you investigated?"

"I'm sorry, this is confidential and cannot be reported to Lord Qiao."

Yu Cheng directly rejected the request.

Watching the people from the Dali Temple leave, Qiao Yelan sat in her chair and gently waved.

Zhu Ronghui bent down, listening carefully to Qiao Yelan's next instruction.

“Kill the entire Wang family—but leave one child alive. This time, leave behind very clear evidence, and that evidence will point to the Imperial Guards, the Feathered Forest Guards.”

Zhu Ronghui nodded slightly, without asking any further questions.

This command was heard not only by Zhu Ronghui, but also by Wang Zhi. He looked up in shock at Qiao Yelan.

"Lord Qiao?"

Shh—wait a little longer.

Qiao Yelan smiled and raised her index finger.

"This fire isn't burning bright enough."

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PS: Happy New Year to everyone!

January is here, so everyone can start casting their monthly tickets and swords now! Please support this book, thank you!

Chapter 85 Giving the Celestial Masters a Little Shock from Zhang San

Just as people in the streets and alleys of the capital were still discussing the case of the Wang family, the head manager of the Wang family, being murdered, another shocking piece of news arrived.

The Wang family, whose head was a vice minister in the Ministry of Revenue, was also wiped out, and no clues were left at the scene of the crime.

Of course, this was just a rumor spreading around, but those who were better informed would know one more thing than the common people—something they wished they didn't know.

The Wang family was not actually completely wiped out; a child survived, and this child identified the Imperial Guard's insignia on the bodies of those who slaughtered the Wang family.

The Imperial Guards, the emperor's personal troops, were stationed within the imperial palace and obeyed only the emperor's orders.

Everyone who is qualified to know about this matter understands one thing—

The big one is coming!

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The atmosphere at today's morning assembly was unusually somber.

"...The surviving members of the Wang family pointed out that this mark appeared on the weapon used by the people who slaughtered the Wang family, and this mark is the one that is only branded on the weapons of the Imperial Guards."

Yu Cheng spoke words that made all the civil and military officials tremble with fear without changing his expression.

After he finished speaking about the findings of his investigation at the crime scene, there was complete silence.

"Does Minister Yu mean that the killer was one of my personal guards?"

The emperor spoke slowly.

"This possibility cannot be ruled out."

Yu Cheng's words almost shocked the Minister of Justice. People from the Court of Judicial Review might not care about what they say, but he was not a Taoist priest, and the Court of Judicial Review was nominally under the Ministry of Justice.

He quickly stepped forward to interject.

“Your Majesty, Minister Yu only said that such a possibility exists. He also did not rule out the possibility of framing someone. Although the Imperial Guards are stationed in the palace, it is not impossible for their weapons to have leaked out. It is also possible that he misread it, after all, it was late at night, and the orphan of the Wang family was hiding in a secret place to spy on it. All of these are possible.”

Yu Cheng did not refute these words, after all, what the Minister said was indeed correct, and the examples he gave were all possible. This was only the result of a preliminary investigation.

"Based on Young Master Yu's experience in investigating cases, do you have a direction for the next step?"

The emperor ignored the Minister of Justice's attempts to cover up his grievances and continued to keep a close eye on Yu Cheng.

"Your Majesty will investigate further. If the Imperial Guard is indeed involved, I wonder if Your Majesty could grant me the authority to thoroughly investigate those who went out that day and whether any weapons used by the Imperial Guard were lost."

Yu Cheng maintained his absolutely neutral stance in investigating the case.

"I grant your permission. From this day forward, I will issue an order that no member of the Imperial Guard shall leave the premises until the results are found."

The emperor stood up, his gloomy gaze sweeping over the assembled officials before finally settling on Chen Shang and Cai Yan.

"When the Wang family was wiped out, I said that the Court of Judicial Review could act expediently before investigating the case thoroughly. This time, my Vice Minister's entire family was wiped out, so we must investigate even more thoroughly!"

"Minister Yu, I hereby appoint you to oversee these two cases of massacre. Regardless of whether these two cases are related or not, I want to see the most truthful result! Until then, the Dali Temple may investigate anyone, even members of the Imperial Guard, and execute them first and report later—I will back you up!"

His voice was cold and authoritative, and the anger within it made everyone feel his will.

Cai Yan lowered his head, as if in awe of the imperial authority.

Although Chen Fan also kept his head down, his mind was in turmoil.

The reason why the Celestial Masters are such special beings is that they are not involved in court politics or factional struggles, and they abide by the laws of the Great Yan Dynasty even more than the emperor's decrees.

They never care about any unspoken rules or engage in any deals, and therefore, they are a sharp sword in the investigation—and this sharp sword has even hurt the royal family.

Therefore, if the emperor uses the Dali Temple, it means that the emperor must see the results.

In other words, the truth of this matter must be something the emperor wanted to be made public—otherwise, he would never have used the Dali Temple, much less given them such power to investigate the case!

While many could kill the entire Wang family, killing the entire family of a vice minister...

Minister Chen dared not think any further.

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"Is this the way you speak of using a double-edged sword?"

"Your Majesty has keen insight."

Qiao Yelan bowed respectfully.

"People who have been in officialdom for too long are always good at compromising. In their view, everything and interests are negotiable. Therefore, they regard the Dali Temple as an anomaly, because in the eyes of the Celestial Master, there is no compromise, no interests, only laws."

"Therefore, they would think that Your Majesty must be absolutely certain that the Court of Judicial Review cannot harm you, which is why you chose to let the Court of Judicial Review investigate the case and granted them so many privileges."

The emperor nodded slightly, but that was not what he wanted to ask.

"I understand this principle, but what I am curious about is how you are so certain that the Court of Judicial Review will not be able to find out the truth?"

"Your Majesty, the reason is very simple—because human strength is finite."

The man chuckled softly.

“His Majesty’s secret guards will not leave any additional clues unless they are witnessed by someone – so the murder case has become a cold case. And the most important thing to solve a cold case is to find the direction of the investigation.”

"What does the killer want? This is the most fundamental question and the only basis for finding a direction to solve headless cases—because no one kills without a reason. Killing can be the goal or the means, but there is definitely a reason."

The emperor listened attentively, and Wang Zhi listened even more attentively.

"Seeking wealth, lust, or power—these are the reasons for killing. Some people kill in the heat of the moment, committing crimes of passion, where killing is not their goal but a means of venting their emotions. Even the most notorious serial killers kill to please themselves—these are all what killers seek."

"Therefore, if you want to deceive the investigators, the most important thing is to hide your motive for killing."

Qiao Yelan picked up the two cups and placed them upright.

"The fact that Manager Wang's body was not desecrated after his death shows that the killer was not motivated by revenge, that he did not take money shows that he was not greedy, and that he did not leave any survivors shows that he did not act on impulse. That's why Yu Shaoqing came to see me the next day, because I am the biggest beneficiary of Manager Wang's death."

He picked up the third cup and leveled it with the cup representing Manager Wang.

"The methods and style of Minister Wang's death were exactly the same, except that a child was overlooked. And this child happened to see the perpetrator's identity mark - this would make the Dali Temple suspicious and dare not immediately combine the two cases for investigation."

"This means that the Dali Temple must temporarily separate the two cases for investigation, as well as manpower and energy. In addition, the Yulin Guard is involved, so they will have to investigate tens of thousands of Yulin Guards and weapons that have been marked with the Yulin Guard's mark. The amount of energy and manpower required will be astronomical."

At this point, Qiao Yelan picked up three more cups and placed them under the cup representing Minister Wang.