I'm guilty? Of murder, no less?
Xialuote stood by the window, dagger in hand, her mind going blank for an instant.
What Zhuli'an Laite had just spoken was not the Yindisi language, nor was it the Hermes language she had recently been struggling to memorize, yet when the words reached her ears they seemed to plunge straight to the depths of her mind, so that she needed no understanding of the syllables themselves to grasp what he meant.
This was clearly some kind of language capable of prying at the forces of nature—could it be Ancient Hermes, or Giant...? A chill crept down Xialuote's back as she realized at once that Zhuli'an had not merely been threatening her with words, but unleashing some extraordinary ability.
The instant she heard "You are guilty," she had indeed felt her body go immobile, as if pinned in place by some invisible rule. Only after the specific charge—"the crime of murder"—was declared did that sense of binding rapidly fade, causing no further effect.
The confusion on Zhuli'an's face was proof enough. He had clearly expected Xialuote to be wounded, weakened, or completely stripped of her ability to move once the specific charge was declared.
But the question was, had she truly committed the crime of murder?
Xialuote's mind flashed to the image of herself gripping the dagger and thrusting it at Aidian, watching his face turn pale and his blood flow without end. But Aidian had ultimately died from a gunshot fired by a manservant of the Gusitafu household, and at the time she had been the one kidnapped, resisting in order to stay alive. Even if his death were truly laid at her feet, it was nothing more than legitimate self-defense.
As for the original Xialuote's more than ten years of life, there was even less there that could be tied to such a charge.
Could it be that Zhuli'an's information was inaccurate—that he had simply learned, by virtue of his position, the account of Aidian's death that Baron Gusitafu had submitted to the Municipal Hall, and had guessed that the one who truly inflicted the fatal wound was not the pistol-wielding manservant, but the daughter of Baron Suolun, shielded by her family's power—and so, in his haste, had tried to use that information to "convict" me...? Was the confusion on his face because he had misjudged? At that thought, the motion Xialuote had prepared to flee out the window came to a halt.
She ought to have leapt down to the street at once and rejoined the Purifiers below, especially Weiyefu, who could keep him in check. But Zhuli'an's "conviction" had not fully restrained her, and she still had the dagger and the holy water in hand. More importantly, ever since she had gripped the dagger, the confidence spreading from her palm to her heart gave rise to a dangerous yet tempting thought:
she might be able to deal with this evil cultist, who from beginning to end had never truly shown any attacking ability, all by herself.
Though her reason told her she should not indulge such arrogance, Xialuote's body had already acted ahead of her thoughts.
She pushed off from the ground, dashed across the carpet scorched somewhat black by the intense light, and charged straight at Zhuli'an, all the while fixing her eyes on his. The "Arbiter's" Majesty was released in an instant. This power did not rely on incantations or rituals, but worked through expression, gaze, and state of mind, making the target instinctively hesitate for a moment and incline toward obeying her judgment.
Zhuli'an's gaze did indeed change, revealing a look of submission, like the hounds on a hunting ground crouching low.
But in an instant he narrowed his eyes and shook off that state, his lips beginning to move again as if he meant to complete another "conviction" in that strange language.
Yet Xialuote had already rushed up before him, swinging the lightless Sealed Artifact dagger, and he had no choice but to step back, retreating once more into the shadow squeezed out between the door and the wall, his whole body melting into it like liquid.
I knew it... With a flick of her left hand, Xialuote sent the glass vial—long held in her palm—flying out. It shattered against the wall, and the clear liquid splashed onto the carpet at its base. At once, fine golden points of light lit up within that patch of shadow. The shadow in Zhuli'an's shape let out a pained cry like a shriek, and his body was forced out of the darkness, burn marks surfacing on his exposed skin—his face, the backs of his hands, and more.
This was none other than the holy water Weiyefu had prepared in advance, infused with her devout prayers and the power of a "Sun Priest"!
Seeing the shadow wounded and forced back into human form, Xialuote gave the evil cultist no chance to recover. The dagger in her right hand drove toward his chest, and he barely twisted aside to evade this strike aimed straight at his vitals, fleeing the shadowy crevice that should have been his perfect hiding place but was now splashed with holy water, his movements hurried and clumsy.
He was no good at close combat—in fact, he lacked the ability entirely!
This discovery greatly boosted Xialuote's confidence. Without hesitation she pressed forward in pursuit, and once more released the oppressive force she had long since mastered, imagining her opponent as panicked prey fleeing for its life.
She knew that a Sequence 9 power had an extremely limited effect on an Extraordinary clearly stronger than herself—at most it could make him hesitate for an instant. But in close-quarters combat, that was already enough to let her close in one more step. Reversing her grip on the dagger, she slashed at the right arm he raised to block the blade.
Zhuli'an's expression changed drastically. Never mind pulling his arm back—the instant he broke free of the "deterrence," he declared at incredible speed in that language whose meaning sank straight into the mind:
"You are committing a crime!"
Not this again... No sooner had a mocking smile appeared on Xialuote's face than her body froze once more, and she lost all control over her movements.
And this time the effect was clearly much stronger than "You are guilty."
Fortunately, her dagger hand had already swung out. Even though her limbs had lost control, momentum still drove the dagger across the forearm Zhuli'an had raised to block. That blow, which would originally have cut through only the sleeve and a bit of flesh, changed direction at the very moment it touched him—precisely because Xialuote's motion had stalled—and easily sliced open the deeper blood vessels.
Blood gushed out in an instant, splattering onto the hem of Xialuote's dress.
Zhuli'an clutched his right arm and staggered back, his left hand pressed over the wound, worried that the bleeding would not stop yet afraid that pressing down might aggravate the injury. His face twisted with indecision.
He glared hatefully at Xialuote—her limbs rigid, the smile frozen on her face, her dagger hand thrust out ahead of her—and did not try to use his ability again. Instead, enduring the pain, he walked toward her and reached out to seize the weapon: a blade with a pitch-black surface that, though stained with fresh blood, seemed to have absorbed it, its color unchanged.
The goal of sacrifice and pleasing the great being no longer mattered. Now he wanted only for her to die!
When those few "Purifiers" returned to the room and found a fresh corpse, what a sight their expressions would be... If only his identity hadn't been exposed, how he would have loved to return to the scene and enjoy it... Different thoughts kept surfacing in his mind as his bloodstained right hand, heedless of the blood still dripping, reached out to grab the dagger.
But at that very moment, Xialuote's face at the edge of his vision moved. The smile that had frozen stiff the instant his conviction took hold came alive once more.
The dagger, mere inches away, whipped back and then thrust toward Zhuli'an at even greater speed.
The tip of the blade passed through the hand he reached out to grab it, through the bleeding arm, pierced the white cravat and shirt, and—along the most vulnerable spot below the sternum—angled upward into his heart.
Just as written in Aidian's body examination report.
Pff. His beating heart was pierced through by the sharp blade. Zhuli'an's eyes flew wide open. Feeling the stabbing pain in his chest and his strength draining rapidly away, he looked in confusion at Xialuote's smiling face.
He could not understand how she had broken free of the binding once more, seemingly utterly unaffected by her own crimes, while his own spirituality had given no warning of danger, letting him foolishly move in close and offer his vital point up to the blade.
The smiling face drew nearer, lips parting, coming close to his ear.
"You struck first, so why slander me with guilt?"
So that was it... The confusion in Zhuli'an Laite's eyes faded as he seemed to accept this conclusion. His eyelids slowly closed, his knees sank onto the carpet, and his body slumped toward the side of the door, sliding into the crevice of shadow he loved most. Blood still flowed from his right arm, mixing with the holy water on the carpet and giving off a faint sizzling sound.
Watching Zhuli'an's expression ease as if he had come to understand something, Xialuote suddenly felt as though she had declared some correct truth, and her heart filled with immense satisfaction.
Could this count as becoming—or, rather, playing the part of—an "Arbiter"...? Wait, the plan had been to take him alive for interrogation. How had I stabbed him in the heart again...? A flash of insight crossed her mind, and then a sense of foreboding struck her hard. She immediately snapped out of the confidence the Sealed Artifact had instilled in her and turned to look at the window.
Weiyefu, who had left through the window half a minute ago, was now crouched on the window frame, one hand braced on the sill. Her white shirt and dark waistcoat clung slightly to her body from the climb and the fight, and below, her tight trousers traced the lines of her long, powerful legs. Her expression remained calm as ever, her gaze moving back and forth between Zhuli'an's corpse and Xialuote's face.
Surely she hadn't heard that defense of mine just now...? No—the worst case was that she had eavesdropped on the whole thing, had heard Zhuli'an declare me guilty of murder... Xialuote was startled at first, but then she felt she had done nothing wrong, and had certainly not exposed her identity as a transmigrator, so she forced herself to straighten her back and appear as self-assured as possible.
But she soon realized that Weiyefu was not looking at her expression, but at the dagger Xialuote had thrust into Zhuli'an and left buried in his chest.
The blood welling from the wound in his heart did not drip down along the blade; instead, it was seeping bit by bit into the metal, as though being absorbed by this Sealed Artifact.
That wasn't me—it was the overly confident me who did it... The excuse rose to Xialuote's lips, yet she could not bring herself to say it. But Weiyefu did not keep looking at her with that calm gaze. Instead, she hopped down from the window frame and quickly came to the side of the dead Zhuli'an, taking candles, essential oil, and other such things from the inner pocket of her waistcoat, and arranging them there on the spot.
"What are you doing?"
Xialuote could not help asking. Though she had guessed that the other meant to perform some ritual, the "mysticism booklet" had said nothing about any ritual that could be used beside a corpse.
"Spirit mediumship," Weiyefu answered briefly, setting up an altar with the candles and using a Wall of Spirituality to cordon off a safe space. "In the world of mysticism, the dead are sometimes more useful than the living."
As the candlelight took on an eerie, ghastly green, a faint wind stirred within the Wall of Spirituality. Xialuote, who had opened her spirit vision in advance and was watching Zhuli'an's corpse with full attention, noticed a translucent shadow—identical in appearance to him—rise from the body and float in midair, its face blank and expressionless, as if it had already accepted the fact of its death.
So this was spirit mediumship... Surprised as she was, Xialuote also felt a little nervous, worried that Weiyefu might ask a question about her and hear something she shouldn't.
"Under the right conditions, spirit mediumship combined with dream divination can reveal more detailed content, but performing it on an evil cultist is very dangerous," Weiyefu explained from the side. "As for ordinary spirit mediumship, it can only ask three questions, and it must be done within one hour of the victim's death."
Only three... Xialuote felt somewhat relieved.
Seeing that Zhuli'an's spirit body had grown stable, Weiyefu asked the first question outright:
"Who else shares your faith?"
Chapter 39