Chapter 1053: It was a female who died (2/2)

Jun Yixie’s tigers had already been nurtured into poison corpses, which rendered them immune to most toxins. Only seldom-seen high-level poisons were capable of causing their deaths. In other words, anyone who killed these tigers had to have consummate poison skills.

Ignoring Hao San, he asked, “Are you sure Mu Linger and the rest escaped while riding the white tigers?”

“Your Highness Duke of Kang, this subordinate and the rest witnessed it with our own eyes. When Mu Linger was giving birth, it was a white tiger who blocked the midwives from entering as well!” a guard reported.

If they hadn’t been so reluctant to attack the tigers from the beginning, thus causing massive losses, perhaps Mu Linger and the rest would have never escaped. Extremely large numbers of guards had fallen to the beasts, leaving the rest hating their existence. Of course, they only dared to hide the loathing inside their hearts.

Jun Yixie still remained silent as he walked deeper into the woods. Here, the other two bloody puddles had dried up as well into unwashable stains. Jun Yixie squatted by the human-shaped cameo left in the dirt with them and carefully touched the blood with his finger before bringing it up to his nose for a sniff. Then he brought the sample away with him.

It took him half a day to determine that the blood belonged to a human, not a tiger. Moreover, it was a woman who died from poisoning.

Just what had happened here?

Jun Yixie was certain of one thing: Han Yunxi hadn’t poisoned the tigers. Besides her, who else possessed such expert poison skills capable of killing five white tigers at once?

And where had the last white tiger gone? Who was the female victim that also died of poison? What about the remaining people?

Han San’s eyes flickered with a complex expression. “Master, could it be him…?” Naturally, he was referring to Bai Yanqing.

“If he made the move, why wait until now? Why take all the pains?” Jun Yixie retorted. Compared to the poisoner, he was more concerned with the identity of the black-robed man.

It was then that another guard rushed over to report, “Your Highness Duke of Kang, we’ve already found Uncle Cheng. However...we haven’t found Manager Jin yet.”

Jun Yixie looked over in displeasure. “Bring him in!”

After the chaos broke out in Tiger’s Prison, Uncle Cheng and Manager Jin had both disappeared. The guards kept searching the grounds until they found Uncle Cheng today. Tiger’s Prison was surrounded by dense forest filled with their men lying in ambush, so even if Uncle Cheng had fled, it wasn’t likely for him to get far.

Jun Yixie had always assumed the black-robed rescuer was an interloper and never realized it was actually Manager Jin himself.

--

Uncle Cheng was brought inside, but before he could plead for mercy, Jun Yixie gave him a sharp kick that sent him sprawling. “Where’s Jin Zi?” he demanded.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since that night! Your Highness Duke of Kang, won’t you spare this humble one on account of my trustworthy reports?” Uncle Cheng begged. He was also reminding Jun Yixie that he was one of the senior members of the Di Clan who could gain their trust, someone who couldn’t afford to be killed. Jun Yixie knew that well, or else he wouldn’t have spared Uncle Cheng for so long.

“What are the origins of Jin Zi?” Jun Yixie demanded. By now he was beginning to get suspicious.

“Nothing in particular. He was just a slave sold to Three-Way Black Market from the Wintercrow Clan, then bought by Master Ning,” Uncle Cheng said honestly.

Jun Yixie had found that out himself as well.

“Could he have saved them?” Jun Yixie wondered.

Uncle Cheng rejected the idea. “Your Highness Duke of Kang, if Jin Zi could have saved him, he would have done it long ago. Why wait until now?”

There was logic to his words, which irritated Jun Yixie. He lifted his foot off Uncle Cheng’s back, causing him to exhale in relief. Yet before he could rise, Jun Yixie kicked violently at his face and sent him flying.

“Someone come, escort him to the dungeons! Tell Ning Cheng that he was the one who betrayed the Di Clan!” Jun Yixie said icily.

He couldn’t kill Ning Cheng now, but he could torment him well enough.

Tonight, let Ning Cheng experience the taste of betrayal as well![5]

1. A thought occurred to me: will I finish translating all these late winter/early spring chapters before real spring hits in my part of the world? It’s February as I type this, so prospects look bright...I think it’s cool to read a translation happening in the same “real-time” season as our world! Apologies to southern hemisphere peeps and tropical island dwellers in advance, hehe~

2. I actually don’t recall when LFY and HYX found out Bai Yanqing was related to/part of Heretical Sword Sect, do any of you? We readers checked in on him while he was hiding there, but when did our heroes discover this fact? And if they knew about it, why didn’t they check the Heretical Sword Sect grounds first to see if he was there?

3. You mean those crawling piles of stinking masses we read about in the last chapter with Lil Thing? Epare…