Deadlock

The chime of the notification announcing the failed accusation felt like a bucket of ice water dumped over their heads. Even with two Saints and a Dominator who had braved fierce storms and perilous trials, an impending sense of sheer dread gripped all three. Zhao Chenghuang's face drained of color in an instant. A failed accusation meant that Guan Ya, Sun Miaomiao, World Returns to Fire, and Brother Red Chicken would all truly die. These were his closest companions, his childhood playmate, and the network of allies he relied upon for his future. Zhang Yuanqing froze, utterly dazed. The notification's verdict of "Accusation incorrect" nearly shattered his resolve. All of his deductions and analyses had been overturned—everything had been wrong. The outcome of failing the accusation was something he could not bear. Guan Ya, Sun Miaomiao, World Returns to Fire, and even Brother Red Chicken were brothers in arms and cherished friends and family he could not afford to lose. Not even for more money! Under the tremendous emotional shock, his brain temporarily lost the ability to think, leaving him with only a single thought: *Impossible!* "*Sigh...*" A heavy sigh echoed through the room. Just as Zhang Yuanqing and Zhao Chenghuang sank into despair, Zhai Cai let out a sigh and raised his left hand high. His expression turned solemn and grave, stripped of any cynicism, and he spoke word by word: "I declare this accusation invalid!" As soon as the words left his mouth, the notification sounded again: [Exorcist Daniel has used the Judgment skill. This accusation is invalid! Daniel will die within three seconds.] A spark of hope suddenly flared in the despairing eyes of Zhang Yuanqing and Zhao Chenghuang. Hearing the prompt, Zhai Cai breathed a sigh of relief, looked toward Zhang Yuanqing, and shrugged. "I brought you all in, so I have to bring you all out. Kid, I'm betting my life on you! Deduce it one more time—don't let me down." He could have chosen not to use his skill. He could have abandoned the companions who had already died in the case and departed the Castle Mystery scroll. As a Dominator, there was truly no need to take such a risk for a few Saints. Compared to a Dominator, the life of a Saint was as far apart as a beggar from the richest man in the world. Yet he was a Knight! A proud, righteous Knight! Zhang Yuanqing looked back at him and nodded in silence. Only then did Zhai Cai close his eyes. His body fell straight back, collapsing into a corpse. This was the price of Judgment! Silence fell over the room. As if drained of the energy to stand, Zhang Yuanqing slumped on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the floor. Zhao Chenghuang leaned against the wall with a grim expression, utterly silent. *How could it not be David? How could it possibly not be David?* The question echoed relentlessly in Zhang Yuanqing's mind. The revelation from the fuji divination had been the letter "d." The werewolf's vomit had also proven that Ya Lance had ingested a lethal poison—one so toxic that not even a werewolf could stomach it. And inside David's room, a pot of poison had been found. Only his room had poison. Furthermore, based on the examination of the scene, it was practically certain that Ya Lance had died of poisoning, which had undoubtedly occurred prior to the fatal wounds to her chest and abdomen. This didn't require clues; it was the conclusion drawn directly from examining the crime scene. Where had things gone wrong? Where on earth had the mistake been made? Had the fuji gone wrong? Were the results of the crime scene examination flawed? Had the werewolf thrown up for a reason other than poison? Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts were a tangled mess, impossible to unravel. Time flew by. After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Chenghuang said in a deep voice: "I think we should review the case instead of staring into space. If you're thinking, disregard what I said. But if you're drowning in the frustration of a failed deduction, please consider Mr. Knight's sacrifice." Zhang Yuanqing finally snapped out of his reverie and looked up. "How much time until the next nightfall? I didn't keep track." Zhao Chenghuang's tone was grave. "Ten minutes!" "Ten minutes..." Zhang Yuanqing rubbed his face hard. "Counting tomorrow, we would have forty minutes. But if I die tonight, the accusation is bound to fail. So we really only have ten minutes. We have to deduce the true culprit within ten minutes. That way, even if I die, you'll still be able to name the killer." With a heavy heart, Zhao Chenghuang nodded. "Do you have any leads?" Zhang Yuanqing shook his head. "None." Zhao Chenghuang's expression grew even grimmer. Zhang Yuanqing glanced at Zhai Cai's corpse and said, "Now that it's just the two of us, I can switch to my main account!" He raised his hand and pressed a fingertip to his forehead. A milky-white glow surfaced, spreading across his face like liquid, while black pigments outlined his eyes and brows. In Zhao Chenghuang's sight, Yuanshi Tianzun visibly transformed into someone cunning and treacherous. White Face! Zhang Yuanqing looked at his teammate, the corner of his mouth curving upward. "This state is far better suited for thinking!" The sly and treacherous White Face was exceptionally skilled at plotting conspiracies; combined with the foresight and strategizing of Stargazing, it was unmatched. However, Zhang Yuanqing rarely did this, as White Face cared nothing for human decency and lacked moral boundaries, stopping at nothing to achieve its ends. He worried he might do something unforgivable. Therefore, he usually treated it merely as a mental boost to broaden his perspective. Someone who excelled at concocting conspiracies was bound to excel at seeing through them as well. Zhang Yuanqing sat on the bedside, crossed his legs, and spoke in a rather sinister tone: "Let's use the process of elimination first. Out of the six roles, the ones we can completely eliminate are Monroe the Bigfoot and David the tutor. The remaining four—Sorcerer Dong, Sandy, Lenn, and Daniel—are all suspects. "If David isn't the killer, all our previous deductions must be overturned. We definitely overlooked some critical clue." Zhao Chenghuang said in a heavy voice, "Sun Miaomiao and Brother Red Chicken's rooms can't be opened!" If any crucial clue was missing, it had to be inside their rooms. "We don't need to worry about the locked rooms. What we must do is deduce the true culprit using the clues we already have." The corner of Zhang Yuanqing's lips curled. "Among the four suspects, suppose Lenn is the killer. What was his motive for killing Ya Lance? Can we deduce that from the existing clues?" Zhao Chenghuang said, "His cannibalistic nature on the night of the full moon..." He glanced at the silver crucifix lying on the floor and added, "Ya Lance was a vampire." "Was Ya Lance a vampire?" "No!" Zhang Yuanqing's smile widened. "So, Lenn can be eliminated." Zhao Chenghuang nodded in agreement. Among Lenn's role clues, there was no solid proof that he was the killer; devouring the castle owner's internal organs had occurred after her death. "Next is Daniel. This exorcist's storyline connects to Lenn the werewolf. On the night of the full moon, he appeared in Ya Lance's room and left a fatal wound on her chest, but Daniel's role clues contain no motive for killing Ya Lance. The chest wound was inflicted after her death, so we can eliminate Daniel as the killer," Zhang Yuanqing said. Zhao Chenghuang gave an affirming grunt. "That leaves only Sandy Lance and Sorcerer Dong." "Sorcerer Dong is the only one among the four with a motive to kill, and the murder weapon has already been found. His suspicion is the highest. If David isn't the killer, the probability of Sorcerer Dong being the culprit exceeds ninety percent." Zhang Yuanqing sat with his legs crossed, lightly tapping the outside of his thigh. That crafty, treacherous face seemed permanently fixed with a cold sneer. "Then, if we assume Sorcerer Dong is the killer, can we reconstruct the entire sequence of events?" Without waiting for Zhao Chenghuang to reply, he continued his analysis: "Sorcerer Dong had always coveted the witch sealed beneath the Lance family castle, intending to refine her into a puppet or spirit servant. So on that night, he used the ice pen to kill Ya Lance..." At this point, he pondered for several seconds before his eyes suddenly lit up. "The ice pen pierced the heart and froze the wound, preventing the blood from immediately pouring out, which explains why there was relatively little blood on her chest. That night just happened to be the full moon. The werewolf craved blood and couldn't endure the bloodthirsty urge, so it treated the castle owner as its prey. Its sudden intrusion left Sorcerer Dong no time to deliver a finishing blow, forcing him to flee the scene. The werewolf broke into Ya Lance's room, found her dead, and happily began feeding on her. Daniel the demon hunter arrived after hearing the noise and drove the werewolf away." "Then why did Daniel stab the castle owner with a sword?" "There are plenty of possibilities. Perhaps with her heart frozen, Ya Lance wasn't completely dead. Gnawed by the beast, she might have still clung to a final breath, so Daniel put her out of her misery, piercing her heart with a greatsword and destroying the ice pen." "Barely plausible..." Zhao Chenghuang frowned deeply. "I still feel something isn't right." "What isn't right?" "Maybe it's preconceived notions. I remember you saying Sorcerer Dong came to Lance Castle only after receiving Ya Lance's letter pleading for help. Before that, the castle owner frequently heard cats crying late at night, which meant the seal underground was already loosening and the witch was gradually awakening. But according to your reasoning, Sorcerer Dong was the mastermind behind everything. The order of events feels wrong." Zhao Chenghuang racked his brain for a moment, then his brows suddenly twitched. "Then why did the werewolf vomit? If the castle owner died from an ice pen, why would the werewolf throw up the flesh it ate?" Zhang Yuanqing didn't speak. That gloomy, crafty White Face fell into silence. This was the very reason his resolve had crumbled earlier. Only if the castle owner died of poison could all the disparate clues connect together. If David wasn't the killer, many phenomena could not be explained, and the deduction hit a dead end. After a brief silence, he said: "David isn't the killer. The failed accusation just now already proved the castle owner didn't die of poisoning. The werewolf must have vomited for another reason—perhaps it was injured by Demon Hunter Daniel at the time." Zhao Chenghuang seemed to recall something, his expression turning solemn. "I have a way to verify whether the castle owner died of poison." With time running out, he strode out of the foul-smelling room, dashed up to the second floor, and returned to Ya Lance's room. Stopping before the corpse, Zhao Chenghuang leaned over, flared his nostrils, and sniffed deeply at the slightly decomposing body. Trailing behind, Zhang Yuanqing watched this and felt a flicker in his mind. *A werewolf skill?* After sniffing for ten-odd seconds, Zhao Chenghuang silently straightened up, exited the room, and made his way to World Returns to Fire's room. Walking past World Returns to Fire's corpse, he picked up the small ceramic pot left on the desk, opened it, and sniffed deeply. Cradling the pot, Zhao Chenghuang fell silent. He froze in that posture for ten-odd seconds before turning around, speaking in an immensely grave and strange tone: "This case is even more complicated than we imagined... Ya Lance's corpse carries the scent of the liquid in this ceramic pot. She... was killed by poison..." "David is not the killer!" A rare trace of fury flared on Zhang Yuanqing's gloomy, crafty face. "If she was killed by poison, we should have left this place already! That poison kills the moment it draws blood; an ordinary person would drop dead on the spot upon drinking it. Could David's poison and Sorcerer Dong's ice pen have killed Ya Lance at the exact same moment? Did the two of them coordinate beforehand? "Or did Sorcerer Dong steal David's poison, using the poison first and then the ice pen? Fuck, there's no connection between the two roles at all! If that's the case, this Castle Mystery is just fucking toying with us! "Besides, if you've already used poison, there's no need for an ice pen. It's completely pointless—like taking off your pants just to fart!" The realization that Ya Lance had indeed died of poison once again caused Zhang Yuanqing to lose his temper. Just then, Zhao Chenghuang said with an odd look on his face: "World Returns to Fire was a vampire!"