Chapter 219 - A Direction? Yuwen Tongs Conjecture (1/2)

Chapter 219: A Direction? Yuwen Tong’s Conjecture

Translator: DragonRider

Soon a court physician hastened over, named the poison and explained, “Your Majesty, what the a.s.sa.s.sin consumed was a poison of an extremely high level of toxicity. It was not difficult to prepare. Anybody with the right formula can get all the ingredients in any drugstore.”

All other people’s faces slightly darkened at the court physician’s explanation. This meant that tracking down the culprit by tracing the source of the poison was no longer an option.

“Court physician, does this kind of poison has any defects?” Yuwen Tong suddenly asked.

The court physician replied, “Well, speaking of defects, this kind of poison inflicts great misery on the consumer before their death, which is why in the ordinary course of things people tend not to give it to a member of a death squad. On top of this, ingredients need to be added in strict orders and very precise amounts during the process of compounding it, because even the minutest error would cost its efficacy of inducing instantaneous death, which means people might be able to rescue the consumer, so normally, members of a dare-to-die corps don’t use this kind of poison to commit suicide. It’s too risky. Because there’s a very high chance that the amounts of ingredients haven’t been handled with required precision and they won’t be able to die an instant death.”

After hearing the court physician’s answer, all others lapsed into contemplation.

The emperor inquired of Yuwen Tong, “Was it because something occurred to you that you asked about this, Aiqing (a term of endearment used by an emperor or an empress to address an official in feudal China)?”

Yuwen Tong said, “Your Majesty, I just felt that since the a.s.sa.s.sin was carrying a weapon n.o.body had ever seen before, those he served are definitely no common people, and they don’t seem like the kind who would use this sort of ordinary poison. This is slightly against common sense, so I asked the court physician that question, whose answer made this departure from reason even more distinct. Therefore, I conjecture that the mastermind’s ident.i.ty is very special. They have at disposal the kind of poison specially compounded for a death squad, but they don’t dare to use it, because once they use it, they would instantly be identified. What kind of poison would result in sure exposure of the consumer’s ident.i.ty? Maybe the kind that is uncommonly rare and unique – the growing areas of the herbs needed to prepare it are easy to ascertain, for example, or maybe those people are the only group in possession of this kind of poison, and it has become one of the symbols of their ident.i.ty.”

Light suddenly dawned on Ling Zhang who had been standing on the side listening. Yuwen Tong was right. The mastermind clearly was aware that this kind of poison had the defect the court physician had just mentioned that would probably led to exposure of their ident.i.ty, but they had chosen to use it anyway, which showed that use of the poison they had at their disposal was even likelier to cause exposure of their ident.i.ty than that of this defective poison!

“The Marshal is right. I think the schemer is probably still in the city, and he or she has under their command someone adept in compounding poison. Otherwise they wouldn’t have used this kind of poison and ensured the a.s.sa.s.sin’s death,” observed Jiang Changfeng.

“But this doesn’t make much sense. I mean, he or she could have chosen to use another kind of poison of more reliable toxicity instead of this kind. After all, there are drugstores everywhere in the capital city. Maybe the reason was that this kind of poison was the only choice the plotter had rather than that he had misgivings?” said the King Duan.

Yuwen Tong commented, “You’re neither right nor wrong.”

“What do you mean?” asked the King Duan.

Yuwen Tong explained, “Maybe it’s true that this poison was the only choice he had, but that would be because this is the only kind of poison his subordinate is capable of preparing that is both common in the Great Yue and made from easily accessible ingredients.”

After Yuwen Tong said this, faces of others grew thoughtful once again, and this time they seemed to have come to a new understanding of the situation. Even the emperor appeared to be deep in thought.

Ling Zhang felt that by making this remark, Yuwen Tong was faintly insinuating something.

Unsurprisingly, the court physician said, “Indeed, just like the Marshal said, there are many widely-known poisons in our country that could cause instantaneous death if ingested, any of which could’ve ensured immediate death of that a.s.sa.s.sin and been a safer choice than the one consumed by him, unless the behind-the-scenes mastermind had no acquaintance with any of those virulent poisons or was incapable of compounding any of them, but given that they’d managed to successfully prepare this poison of a high failure rate, they must have a very high level of proficiency in compounding poisons – at least in the Great Yue, it’s very unlikely that someone with this degree of mastery is not capable of preparing other poisons. a.s.sa.s.sinating people under the nose of Your Majesty is a very risky task, and the schemer should know very well what consequences they’d have to take once their ident.i.ty is exposed. As long as there’s an alternative, I believe they would never have chosen to use this one.”

There was even more manifest insinuation in the court physician’s remarks.

Everybody present was no fool and came to realize whom he was referring to.

At this moment, Yuwen Tong added, “Of course, we should not exclude the possibility that the mastermind was so conceited as to be one-hundred-percent sure that his poison would produce the desired effect.”

This could indeed have been one of the reasons, a less likely one compared with the previous conjectural one, though.

The emperor said, “No matter what, first the court physician is to make a list of the ingredients of the poison, and then a citywide search is to be conducted to find out who has recently purchased medicinal herbs required to compound it.”

Naturally, someone immediately left to execute the orders given by the emperor.

Though n.o.body present expressly pointed it out, almost all of them, including the emperor, actually had begun to suspect the Wan Kingdom.

Moreover, in the eyes of those who didn’t know any inside information, the attempted a.s.sa.s.sination had been targeted at Yuwen Tong, and the possibility of the president of the Oriental Rite Academy being the target had been completely ruled out by all others. Who else could hate Yuwen Tong so much apart from people of the Wan Kingdom?

In the sight of others, this was a very reasonable deduction, and a conclusion could almost be drawn.

But Ling Zhang was aware that he was indeed the one that the a.s.sa.s.sin had tried to kill, that he was indeed the target. Judging from the poison, it was very likely that the Wan Kingdom was behind this, but why did the Wan Kingdom want him dead? Because he was Yuwen Tong’s betrothed? But what difference could it possibly make if he died?

As a result, Ling Zhang himself was more inclined to believe that the preparer of the poison had been so wildly arrogant as to be positive that the poison would kill the a.s.sa.s.sin had he failed, and this also meant that this person was probably one of those in the capital city.

After the discussion about the poison, the emperor had palace guards pitch some tents for him and officials to rest in. Yuwen Tong naturally had a tent of his own. Ling Zhang followed him heading for the tent to get some rest. He happened to have a lot of questions to ask Yuwen Tong. All those remarks made by Yuwen Tong a while ago had been aimed at the Wan Kingdom, which greatly puzzled Ling Zhang. Had Yuwen Tong by any chance found something else?