"A vampire? World Returns to Fire is a vampire?"
Zhang Yuanqing's fury suddenly jammed in his throat. He did not doubt whether the information Zhao Chenghuang provided was genuine, because Zhao Chenghuang's role was a werewolf—the natural enemy of vampires.
The werewolf's role skill seemed to be related to smell, allowing him to discern David's vampire identity from the scent lingering on the earthenware jar.
"David is a vampire..." Zhang Yuanqing immediately recalled the parchment recording the Lance family's history. "The Lance family is a witch family, and witches possess supreme yin constitutions. Their blood is bound to be a material rich in spiritual energy, and like vampires, they are creatures of the night. So David went undercover in the Lance family for the witch beneath the castle as well?"
Understanding dawned on Zhao Chenghuang, and he said with renewed excitement, "Every clue in these rooms has a purpose! David coveted the witch beneath the castle. He lurked in the castle, secretly breaking the seal. That's why Ya Lance heard cats yowling at night—because the witch was gradually awakening."
The threads of the mystery were finally coming together.
Zhang Yuanqing glanced at him. "But David isn't the murderer!"
Zhao Chenghuang felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over him, his mouth opening and closing without words.
Zhang Yuanqing's face gleamed with pale light, that treacherous official's visage growing increasingly grim. "Ya Lance was indeed poisoned, which weakens the suspicion on Sorcerer Dong. But if David isn't the killer, it has to be Sorcerer Dong."
Yet if they worked backward with Sorcerer Dong as the murderer, many details could not be explained. Sorcerer Dong and David were two entirely unrelated roles; David's poison could never have fallen into Sorcerer Dong's hands.
If, as he had suggested earlier, Sorcerer Dong had stolen David's poison, then that would only mean "Castle Mystery" was toying with them rather than presenting a legitimate murder mystery to solve.
If Sorcerer Dong could steal poison, then other roles could steal poison too. There would be far too many possibilities, making deductive reasoning completely impossible.
A scenario like this would never be so frivolous. Since the poison was found in David's room, Ya Lance's poisoning had to be tied to David.
In truth, having confirmed that Ya Lance died from poison, Sorcerer Dong should have been ruled out.
Yet the result of the fuji divination pointed so distinctly: if not David, then it had to be Sorcerer Dong—unless 'd' had another meaning.
However, among the information collected so far, there were no clues to support an alternative interpretation of "d." It had to be a name.
All of this backed Zhang Yuanqing's deduction into a dead end.
After several seconds, he looked at Zhao Chenghuang, the corners of his mouth curling upward. "Three minutes left until nightfall. Let's go to Sorcerer Dong's room. If he stole the earthenware jar, there should be lingering clues in his room."
Zhao Chenghuang's eyes brightened slightly, and he hurriedly left David's room.
As the two walked through the corridor, Zhao Chenghuang abruptly stopped, twitching his nose.
"There's a strange smell..."
Tracing the scent, he looked at the human silhouette left on the floor of the corridor—the charred mark remaining after Sun Miaomiao's death.
"What is it?" Zhang Yuanqing halted and looked back.
"Miaomiao has the scent of candle wax on her," Zhao Chenghuang remarked. Pulling his gaze back, he said, "Time is running out. Let's head to your room."
The two arrived at Sorcerer Dong's room. Zhao Chenghuang paced slowly along the walls, his nose twitching as he earnestly sniffed the entire room, before shaking his head.
"No scent of poison."
The castle's walls were made of thick granite, and the doors and windows were firmly shut. If Sorcerer Dong had stolen the poison, a werewolf's sense of smell would have picked it up.
Zhang Yuanqing nodded.
"Now it's certain: unrelated roles had no intersection. David's poison would never have appeared in Sorcerer Dong's room. Among the six roles, Sorcerer Dong and Ya Lance form one storyline; Daniel and Lenn form another; Lenn and David form a third; and David and Sandy Lance form the last.
"The poison was in David's room. If David isn't the murderer, then the most likely culprit is a role connected to him. Lenn can be ruled out, which leaves the most suspicious person..."
Zhao Chenghuang's eyes widened sharply. "Miaomiao? No, Sandy Lance? Why would she kill her own mother!"
"That love letter is the reason. She fell in love with David the vampire, but her mother, Ya Lance, wanted to marry her off to a local nobleman." Zhang Yuanqing sneered. "So, malice sprouted in her heart, and she poisoned her mother. Quite the insidious plot."
He didn't actually want to sneer, but the White Face naturally came with sneering, cynical, and sarcastic traits.
"But she had no reason to poison her mother. Wouldn't running away with David have been better?" Zhao Chenghuang shook his head.
"What if David urged her to do it? Don't forget David's identity and why he infiltrated the castle." Zhang Yuanqing chuckled darkly. "I even suspect the method to undo the witch's seal was wheedled out of Sandy Lance by David. Coaxing the daughter to poison the mother to covet the family's seal—what a delightful scheme. I like it!"
Zhao Chenghuang fell silent. After a few seconds, he said with a solemn expression:
"These are all conjectures unsupported by evidence!"
"There are six people in total. If it's not David and not Sorcerer Dong, that only leaves Sandy Lance," Zhang Yuanqing said. "Time is short. We can make the public accusation now!"
Less than a minute remained before night fell.
Zhao Chenghuang said in a heavy voice:
"Yuan—Jumang, when you accused David, you were just as confident. We've already been wrong once. If we're wrong again, Guan Ya will die, Miaomiao will die, and Brother Red Chicken and World Returns to Fire will die too.
"I need evidence. Evidence proving that Sandy Lance is the killer."
It wasn't that he refused to support Yuanshi; rather, this concerned the lives of their companions. There was no room for error.
Even if Yuanshi Tianzun's reasoning made sense, without evidence, Zhao Chenghuang did not dare gamble with Sun Miaomiao and the others' lives. The more he cared, the more cautious he had to be.
Zhang Yuanqing's expression turned grim. "Sun Miaomiao is already dead. Sandy Lance's room will never open. In our current situation, gambling is the only choice."
Right then, a sharp, mournful cat's yowl rang out by their ears.
Night had fallen!
Before the shroud of darkness enveloped them both, Zhao Chenghuang whispered:
"There's still half an hour left. Don't rush into a public accusation. If I die, I hope you'll review the whole case one more time. If you die, I will do the same..."
His voice cut off abruptly.
Moments later, the darkness receded, and dawn arrived. Zhao Chenghuang lay stiff on the ground, turned into a corpse.
Zhang Yuanqing was the only one left in the deduction team.
By now, Zhang Yuanqing had reverted to his original appearance. The fall of night had sealed the White Face, along with its selfish, sinister, and crafty personality.
He instinctively raised his hand toward his forehead, but after a moment's thought, he lowered it again.
If he activated the White Face, he would undoubtedly make the public accusation against Sandy Lance without hesitation. Zhao Chenghuang's "parting words" made Zhang Yuanqing choose to forgo the White Face.
"Then let's review it one more time..."
He closed his eyes and visualized the face of his biological father over and over, letting his mental faculties surge until his old affliction was triggered.
Before long, chaotic images and meaningless noise flooded his mind. Unlike before, Zhang Yuanqing could now easily endure the burden of this boiling mental strain, waiting quietly.
A few seconds later, the noise vanished, and the imagery became orderly. From the moment they stepped into "Castle Mystery," every frame replayed slowly and with crystal clarity.
Day One: Entered the castle, found Ya Lance's room, examined the crime scene... found the castle basement, discovered the witch's seal... returned to the castle and unlocked Sorcerer Dong's room.
That night: Brother Red Chicken died.
Day Two: Unlocked Demon Hunter Daniel's room and found information regarding the werewolf... Afterward, he exchanged points for the fuji divination skill...
When the scene of the fuji revelation replayed frame by frame, Zhang Yuanqing saw it with heightened clarity, and he suddenly froze.
At this moment, he saw with absolute clarity that what the ice pen had written on the table was not the letter "d," but the letters "c" and "l"! It was just that the ice pen had been melting at the time, and the moment it finished writing, the melted water blurred the two adjacent letters together, merging them into a "d."
That night: Sun Miaomiao died, leaving behind only a scorched human silhouette.
Day Three: Unlocked David's room. That night, World Returns to Fire died.
Accusation failed. Zhai Cai died.
The memory review quickly concluded. Having reconstructed the entire sequence of events, Zhang Yuanqing listed three anomalies:
First: The result of the fuji divination was "c" and "l."
Second: World Returns to Fire had no skills!
Third: Sun Miaomiao left behind no corpse after dying, only a scorched human silhouette.
"What does 'cl' mean?" Zhang Yuanqing knitted his brows tightly. "Could it not be a name? But my divination petition asked for the killer of Ya Lance. The result had to point directly to the culprit. Besides a name, what else could point directly to the culprit?"
Suddenly, like a flash of lightning through his mind, he understood the meaning of "c" and "l."
Cindy Lance!
"The male spelling of the name is Sandy, but the female spelling is Cindy. Cindy Lance is spelled C-i-n-d-y L-a-n-c-e! 'cl' stands for Cindy Lance—she is the killer! I should have realized it sooner. An investigative scenario like this was bound to have deceptive clues. I was too confident in the information provided by the instance."
Zhang Yuanqing sprinted out of the room into the corridor, halting beside the human silhouette. He rubbed a pinch of the scorched, oily ash between his fingers and brought it to his nose.
He smelled a slightly pungent burnt scent and the odor of grease, but not the wax scent Zhao Chenghuang had mentioned.
Yet if a werewolf had said so, it couldn't be wrong.
How could a human smell like candle wax?
Unless she wasn't human... A bolt of inspiration struck Zhang Yuanqing's mind. He exhaled streams of lunar energy, which materialized into Little Doubi, the Ghost Bride, and a host of spirit servants.
"Find any living person in the castle."
Turning into plumes of black smoke, the spirit servants phased through the walls and scattered.
With Zhai Cai already out of the game, there was no longer any need to hold back.
Before long, Little Doubi was the first to return, poking his head up through the floorboards and hugging Zhang Yuanqing's calf while babbling, "Ah-ba, ah-ba!"
"In the basement?" Zhang Yuanqing scooped up Little Doubi and dissolved into starlight.
The next second, brilliant starlight illuminated the pitch-black castle basement.
"Ah-ba, ah-ba..." Sitting on Zhang Yuanqing's arm, Little Doubi pointed toward the coffin.
Zhang Yuanqing stepped forward and looked inside. Sun Miaomiao lay fast asleep in the coffin.
Sun Miaomiao, who was supposed to have died on the second night, was lying inside the basement coffin, her body completely intact without a trace of ash.
My guess was right... Zhang Yuanqing felt half the weight lift from his shoulders. Leaning down to check Six Waters' pulse and breathing, he confirmed she was still alive. Without hesitation, he raised a hand and delivered a resounding slap to her chubby, fair cheek.
Stung by the blow, Sun Miaomiao startled awake instantly, bounding upright and looking around in alert vigilance.
"Why am I sleeping here?" Finding herself in a coffin in the basement, she was thoroughly bewildered.
Zhang Yuanqing told her everything that had happened afterward.
Sun Miaomiao was deeply shaken by what she heard. Tilting her head, she said, "That was close. We almost got wiped out! But why would I end up here if I was supposed to be dead?"
"If you want to know why, you'll find out once we check your room." Zhang Yuanqing flicked her forehead. "Hurry up. I still need to verify a few theories."
With that, he snapped his fingers and vanished from the basement in a flash of starlight.
Seeing this, Sun Miaomiao mimicked him, raising her little hand to snap her fingers properly, and vanished after him in a shower of starlight.
Back in the castle, Sun Miaomiao located her room along the quiet corridor and spent points to open the door.
As the heir of the Lance family and the young mistress of the castle, Cindy Lance's quarters were rather lavish. A thick woolen rug covered the spacious wooden bed, the chairs, tables, and wardrobe were coated in red lacquer, and the teapot and cups were crafted of silver.
The two searched the room thoroughly, uncovering a parchment scroll inscribed with dark magic from the wardrobe, along with a stack of love letters from David to Cindy Lance inside a wooden chest under the bed.
There were also over a dozen bottles and jars containing materials used for casting dark magic.
Zhang Yuanqing glanced briefly over the magic scroll and spotted a spell called Waxwork Effigy. That was the trick the witch had used to spirit Sun Miaomiao away undetected.
Huddling close together, Zhang Yuanqing and Sun Miaomiao skimmed through the love letters:
"Beautiful Miss Cindy, you may not know this, but the Lance family is a great family of witches. The bloodline of witches flows within you, and you are a natural-born mage. I have here a tome of magic that I am willing to offer to you, but please keep it a secret..."
"I am terribly sorry, but my abilities can no longer suffice to be your teacher. My beloved girl, you need a better teacher to instruct you in dark magic—she is right beneath the castle floor..."
"Your mother is the most selfish person in the world. She lacks the talent to learn magic and envies your gifts. She only wants to marry you off to some rustic nobleman rather than let you become the master of the castle and restore the Lance family's glory..."
"Our plan is proceeding smoothly. Tonight is the full moon, the moment when yin power is at its peak. It is time to invite that great witch to return to the mortal realm. However, her body has withered after centuries of imprisonment, and she requires a new vessel. She is your ancestor, the most gifted witch of the Lance family. You and Madame Lance share her bloodline, making you the finest vessels. As clever as you are, you surely understand my meaning..."
Reading letter after letter, Zhang Yuanqing gradually pieced together the truth of the Castle Mystery in his mind.
To obtain the witch's power, David the vampire had infiltrated the Lance family's castle, using his identity as a tutor to seduce and deceive Cindy Lance.
The cats yowling that Ya Lance had heard at night stemmed from the witch's gradual revival as Cindy and David slowly dismantled the seal.
On the recent night of the full moon, incited by David, Cindy Lance poisoned her mother. Ya Lance's physical body was intended to serve as the vessel for the witch's descent.
However, an exorcist had arrived at the castle. Detecting the aura of dark magic before the witch could descend, he pierced Ya Lance's heart with a greatsword, completing the exorcism.
Sorcerer Dong had likely intervened as well, as evidenced by the ice pen.
Perhaps pursuing the witch, the two had hurriedly left the castle master's room. The scent of blood from the corpse then drew the bloodthirsty werewolf. The werewolf gladly devoured Ya Lance's internal organs, only for the poison to transfer into its body, upsetting its stomach and leaving behind the puddle of vomit in the room.
"It was a simple case after all! If I'd known, we should have opened my door first!" Sun Miaomiao declared with total confidence. "Opening my room would have brought everything to light!"
"No!" Zhang Yuanqing shook his head. "Your door could never have been opened."
"Why?"
Zhang Yuanqing turned his head to look at her round face. "The ritual of the witch's descent was disrupted by Exorcist Daniel and Sorcerer Dong. Who do you think a bodiless witch would choose to possess?"
Sun Miaomiao wasn't foolish, and her expression changed instantly. "Me!"
"Exactly. The witch wouldn't have let us enter this room. Pure deduction is no match for Saints and Dominators; the true difficulty of this instance lies in missing information. That's why you had to 'die.' However, the witch was also bound by restrictions: she could only kill at night, and she couldn't kill herself. That's why you were put into a state of suspended animation. And precisely because of that fake death, no corpse was left behind—that was a hint provided by the instance. If I hadn't realized your death was faked, Cindy Lance's room would never have been opened," Zhang Yuanqing explained.
Sun Miaomiao knitted her brow. "But the witch kills one random person every night. If the person who died on the second night wasn't me, then who was it? Nobody else was gone!"
"The one who died was World Returns to Fire!" Zhang Yuanqing said with absolute certainty.
Sun Miaomiao gasped in astonishment. "Didn't he die on the third night?"
Every role had a skill except World Returns to Fire. Perhaps it wasn't that he lacked a skill, but simply that he didn't know about it—such as a passive skill, or one that offered no notification.
Assuming World Returns to Fire's passive was resurrection or damage immunity for a single attack, he was the one who died that night, but his passive skill triggered and kept him alive without his knowledge.
That explained all the anomalies.
Zhang Yuanqing's hypothesis wasn't wild speculation; it was grounded in fact—World Returns to Fire's role was a vampire!
The defining traits of vampires were longevity, resurrection, and vigorous vitality!
"I'll explain that after we leave the painting! Let's name the killer first," Zhang Yuanqing said.
Role skills were confidential information. Having come this far, he didn't want to fall right on the cusp of dawn.
"All right!" Sun Miaomiao nodded, smiling happily. "I can't believe we're the ones who survived to the end."
What are you so happy about... Zhang Yuanqing gave her a sidelong look. In tacit unison, the two called out the culprit's name:
"Cindy Lance!"
The next instant, a prompt sounded in their ears:
[Ding! Correct answer! Congratulations on identifying the true culprit of the Castle Mystery.]
Zhang Yuanqing let out a long, heavy breath. He saw Sun Miaomiao look up at him, happily flashing her little canines. Immediately after, her face began to blur, and the surrounding scenery grew indistinct.
A moment later, he returned to the room hung with four paintings. Around him, Guan Ya, Zhao Chenghuang, Brother Red Chicken, World Returns to Fire, and Zhai Cai emerged one after another from the painted canvas.
Chapter 745