The deflated cultivator refused to give up and vowed to turn the tables.

The person knocking on the door late at night was naturally Qin Xiangxue.

Qin Xiangxue anxiously pulled Su Zinong to Donghai Village.

The victim was the second young master of Donghai Manor. He was in his bedroom at the time, and the doors and windows were locked from the inside. The doors, windows, and walls were all intact.

The second young master collapsed by the window inside the room, his liver and intestines ruptured, and he died.

Apart from the fact that the second young master had fallen and messed up the tables and chairs when he fell to the ground, there were no other signs of a struggle or any suspicious clues inside the house.

The murder was discovered by Guo Zaitian, the owner of Donghai Manor. He noticed that his second son hadn't left his room all day, so he knocked on the door, but there was no answer. Later, he broke down the door and discovered the murder.

An experienced constable from the yamen was summoned, but no suspicious circumstances were found.

“Miss Xiang Xue, last time Huang Chenghe took me to Green Wave Manor to solve the locked-room murder case. We did solve the murder method, but afterwards we were chased for thousands of miles, and I even had my cultivation destroyed and fell into an abyss. It’s still vivid in my mind, and I tremble when I think about it…” Su Zinong was indeed afraid. He had been telling himself to keep a low profile, keep a low profile, and keep a low profile as much as possible.

“It’s alright,” Qin Xiangxue said. “This Donghai Manor is different from that Green Wave Manor. Everyone here is a good and honest person. They would never betray you. I guarantee it with my life!” Qin Xiangxue spoke with great conviction, as if Huang Chenghe had possessed her.

Su Zinong sighed and muttered, "I'll be killed by you and Huang Chenghe sooner or later..."

******

The second young master's bedroom was about the same size as the study in Yutao Manor, and it also had three windows. The windows and doors remained closed and locked to this day, and no one touched them. There were special servants guarding them.

Seeing that the lamp oil in the room had burned out, Su Zinong asked, "Excuse me, did this happen last night?"

Guo Zaitian nodded and said, "Young Master Su is very insightful. The old constable of the yamen examined the body and said that it happened last night."

Su Zinong spent a full half hour meticulously inspecting every corner of the house.

"Have you noticed anything unusual?" Su Zinong asked again.

“We’ve checked it ourselves, and the old constable has checked it too, but we haven’t found anything. The technique the murderer used seems very special, but we can’t determine what kind of technique it is. We’ve sent people out to search everywhere, but because we have no direction and so many people are coming and going, we don’t know where to start.” Guo Zaitian shook his head sadly. Hearing Su Zinong ask this question, he assumed that Su Zinong had also found nothing after checking, and he couldn’t help but fall into despair.

"Can you find out?" Qin Xiangxue grabbed Su Zinong's arms with both hands, her eyes filled with concern.

"Master Guo, could you please have someone bring two or three bright lamps to shine through the windows so we can take a closer look inside?" Su Zinong said to Guo Zaitian.

Guo Zaitian immediately instructed the steward of the manor to do so.

After the lights outside the window shone brightly, Su Zinong blew out the lights in the room and went closer to the window to take a closer look.

After looking through the three windows, return to the large central window for a closer look.

"Master Guo, please step forward." Su Zinong pointed to the large window in the middle.

Guo Zaihui, puzzled, walked over and looked at the window Su Zinong was pointing to, and discovered a handprint-shaped mark. This faint mark was almost invisible without careful observation or a bright light.

"Please look, Master," Su Zinong said, "this hand is smaller and shorter than mine, so it must be a woman's hand, and it's her left hand. She's wearing a ring on her hand, which is quite round and looks like a jade artifact. While I can't say for sure that the owner of this hand is the murderer, she might be related..."

"Young Master Su is indeed exceptionally intelligent and perceptive. The old constable of the yamen had not discovered it in over thirty years, but you did. I am extremely grateful!" Guo Zaitian first praised Su Zinong, then turned and ordered the people in the manor to immediately go out and investigate whether there was a woman nearby who was left-handed and wore round jade rings on her fingers.

"Master, please don't rush. Let me first share my conjecture. I've heard of a wondrous skill in the world, where someone can smash a stone through a layer of tofu, while the tofu remains intact. This wondrous skill is called the 'Striking a Cow Through a Mountain' Divine Skill. In the beginning, it was mostly men who used this skill, but nowadays it's said that it's mostly women."

“This window is very transparent and relatively thin. If someone were to use ordinary techniques to break in, the entire window would have shattered long ago. If that were the case, the Second Young Master would be alert, and that person would not be able to hit the Second Young Master so easily.”

"So I guess the Second Young Master was killed by someone using this amazing skill of hitting a cow through a window."

Last night, the second young master stood by the window, and the light behind him shone through, casting his shadow on the windowpane.

The murderer could accurately determine the location of the second young master by looking at the shadow on the window and door, and thus accurately hit him.

Another possibility is that the second young master knew this woman at all. After talking to her, they may have had an argument, and the second young master rejected her or for some other reason, he immediately closed the window and locked it from the inside.

Enraged, the woman harbored malicious intent and unleashed her "Striking a Cow Across a Mountain" technique, killing the second young master.

"If it's the latter case, the Second Young Master and that woman might have a deep connection. You could ask the Second Young Master's page, attendants, or servants if such a woman exists."

Su Zinong rattled off his conjecture, and Guo Zaitian nodded repeatedly.

"Laifu, you've been serving the Second Young Master. Do you know any women from Qinglian Mountain who are very close to him?" Guo Zaitian asked a young page standing on the right.

“Oh, it’s because in the last three months, you met a woman from Qinglian Mountain. She was quite beautiful, and at first, you and she chatted and laughed happily. But later, you discovered that she was already engaged to someone else, so you refused to associate with her. Three days ago… three days ago, this woman came to the city and stayed at the seaside inn in the east of the city. But I didn’t know she had ever been to our Donghai Manor.” Lai Fu recounted what he knew in detail.

"Hey, why didn't you say so sooner?" Guo Zaitian hissed, he was getting anxious and angry.

Lai Fu felt wronged, thinking: "The Second Young Master and that woman were always bickering and arguing, who knew it would lead to a murder? He's dead, am I supposed to expose all his personal affairs? Besides, he had entanglements with so many women, I can't possibly tell them all one by one..."

"Someone, let's go to the seaside inn right away!" After giving the order to the people at the manor, Guo Zaitian turned around and said gently, "Young Master Su, Xiang Xue, you two come to the living room for tea. I'll go find that woman first."

Su Zinong tugged at Qin Xiangxue's sleeve, signaling that he was about to leave.

Qin Xiangxue then said, "Uncle Guo, you have to go ahead with your urgent matters. Young Master Su and I will be leaving now."

"Ah, you're leaving so soon after arriving. It's all our fault for what happened here, we've neglected you two. We can't thank you enough, let's meet again sometime." Guo Zaitian went back to the inner hall to retrieve three Thunderfire Pearls and handed them to Su Zinong, saying, "These pearls will explode if thrown forcefully on the ground, with a kill radius of one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters). Use them with caution. Also, I've heard about Young Master Su's Green Wave Manor, I'll definitely keep it a secret for you!"

Su Zinong took the three Thunderfire Pearls, which were red and black in color, and put them in his pocket. After thanking Qin Xiangxue repeatedly, he left Donghai Manor.

Qin Xiangxue asked, "It's the middle of the night, the inn is closed, and you only have one room. How are we going to get by, a man and a woman all alone..."