In the Qinglong Temple, less than half a day after Pei Tan left, the temple had returned to its original tranquility, as if the six days had never existed.

  Master Xu Lian sat cross-legged on the cushion, muttering to himself as he recited scriptures. A young monk came in, holding an envelope: "Master, Temple Master has left a letter for you."

  Master Xuánlián stopped, Little Monk came forward and handed over an envelope, Master Xuánlián took it.

  The wax seal on the envelope had melted a bit. Master Xuanlian slowly opened it and pulled out the letter inside, only to find that there was nothing written on it, completely blank.

  A voice in the corner said: "Just now that little monk secretly tore up the letter, unfortunately, he didn't have the ability to understand the meaning of adults."

  Xuanlian immediately looked over and saw Jing Yuanyu walking out. She hadn't followed the carriage back to Chang'an, but instead stayed behind.

  Xuan Lian looked at Jing Wanniang and said thoughtfully: "Why is Miss Jing here?"

  Jing Wanyi smiled: "The adult has a few words, and wants me to tell the abbot in detail on his behalf." It seems that doing so is correct. Just now, the behavior of that little monk who delivered the message was not acceptable at all.

  Xuan Lian's eyes were slightly deep: "What does Pei Si want to say to me?"

  Jing Wan'er looked at the face of Master Xuanlian who was in meditation, his face and the Buddha behind him were very similar, with kind eyebrows and eyes, so gentle and sorrowful.

  She finally managed to move her mouth and slowly uttered a sentence.

  ——

  The crime does not extend to the family members. This is a bottom line that many people exist in the world, even if they are struggling to survive, they would rather die than violate it.

  Zhong Zong stared coldly at Pei Tan, but when an emperor gets angry, many people will suffer along with him.

  "Your Majesty needn't worry." Pei Tan raised his pale face, "Apart from me, no one knows who Wang De Fei is, and even less would care whether she's dead or alive."

  No one cares about De Fei's life or death, so no one will investigate further. To put it bluntly, a generation of imperial concubines, until death, can't even stir up a ripple.

  Zhong Zong's voice was cold and stern, "You dare to continue speaking to me, what have you been doing at Qinglong Temple these past few days?"

  Pei Tan said: "Your Majesty wants me to say, I am willing to tell you one by one."

  "Are you provoking me?"

  "Your Majesty, I dare not."

  Zhong Zong stared at him: "Go on, I'll listen to what you have to say."

  "Your Majesty, the coroner from the Ministry of Justice has examined the body of Consort De and is certain that she died from drowning. It appears that she took her own life by throwing herself into the well."

  Zhong Zong leaned against the desk with a cold expression. Even if he was certain that De Fei had drowned, there was still a great distance between this and throwing oneself into a well.

  "Your subject had just arrived at the Qinglong Temple, preparing to escort Your Highness back to Chang'an City the next day. On the second day, the abbot's disciple Hui Gen was found dead in the Longle Wangye's meditation pavilion, and Your Highness was implicated without cause. Later, I discovered that the murder weapon was a wooden fish displayed in the room, but in Hui Gen's throat, I also found a poisonous fruit of the sea buckthorn, which had not been swallowed into his belly before he died."

  The entire hall was filled with only Pei Tan's lonely voice.

  "I have been puzzled by the case of Hai Yu Guo all along, and the death of Hui Gen really has nothing to do with the toxicity of Hai Yu Guo. I can only rule out Hai Yu Guo and investigate who killed Hui Gen from another angle, that is, who can kill a young and powerful monk. Until that night, De Fei panicked and revealed her true intentions by trying to take away the wooden fish from the scene, making me believe that it was indeed De Fei who committed the crime. Only the murderer would dare to return, but unfortunately, after seeing De Fei, I really couldn't believe that she could have taken the action of killing Hui Gen with one blow."

  The reason is that Huiergen is much younger and more powerful than De Fei, who is still a weak woman who doesn't understand any martial arts.

  "If it wasn't De Fei, then De Fei's unusual behavior cannot be explained. The case of Qinglong Temple is indeed the most bizarre, the murderer is not the real murderer, and the deceased has an even greater mystery surrounding him, I also lost confidence in this case at one point."

  Zhong Zong finally sneered: "The Grand Justice I chose has never disappointed me."

  Pei Tan is now able to kneel directly in front of Zhong Zong, which means that he not only hasn't lost confidence in this case, but has also successfully cracked it.

  Pei Tan said slowly: "When analyzing the motive of this case, someone deliberately used Wang Ye's reputation. Hui Gen discovered the ugly affair between Wang Ye and De Fei and was silenced. No matter who intentionally spread this rumor, it was to interfere with the line of sight, aiming to confuse the truth. In fact, Hui Gen was not silenced, on the contrary, he was the assassin sent to silence Wang De Fei."

  Zhong Zong's expression had become extremely sharp by this point.

  "Your Majesty, I do not understand the reason for ordering the death of Consort De. A person like her was destined to die outside the palace. When Your Majesty sent her to Qinglong Temple, you must have told her that it was just a matter of sending her into seclusion." No one would knowingly go to their death without making a sound along the way.

  "Your Majesty must be certain that the virtuous consort has gone to Qinglong Temple, and she will definitely die. Even if the virtuous consort is unwilling to go to her death, someone must still send her on her way. Such a matter can only be entrusted to the monks of Qinglong Temple. Ordinary monks cannot serve as Your Majesty's confidants; only the abbot can be trusted by Your Majesty."

  Bai Tan slowly looked at Zhong Zong. The status of Qinglong Temple destined it to no longer be an ordinary Buddhist temple, and behind it could only be the imperial power in control. "Before the dead soldiers carry out the assassination mission, they must hide poison in their mouths. Your Majesty, Hui Gen received your secret order to kill De Fei, right?"

  The sea radish enters the abdomen, and wisdom will surely die.

  Zhong Zong coldly said: "Pei Tan, you are not qualified enough to interrogate me."

  Pei Tan lowered his eyes, and under the heavens, there was no one qualified enough. Even today, when he stepped into the Purple Imperial Palace, he had put his life on the line to enter.

  "From the very beginning... the king was made a target of public criticism. The Abbot of Genryu had already hinted to me about this when I first met him."

  It was implied that the Temple of Great Rites should not investigate this case, hinting that the other party was the current Prince's identity. However, anyone who knew Pei Tan understood that he would not give up on investigating because of this, and such a hint was nothing more than a retreat to advance, hoping that the Temple of Great Rites would continue to investigate. Sure enough, Pei Tan continued to investigate.

  "I have been toyed with by Your Majesty, I mistakenly thought myself noble, but in the end, I am just a pawn for you." A faint, indescribable emotion flashed across Pei Tan's eyes.

  It wasn't until a while later that he continued, "As it stands, the Haiyue flower was brought to the temple by the prince, and the late Empress De's death is also directly related to the prince. If the Dalisi Temple investigates along these lines, the prince will inevitably be the only suspect. Even when I went to see the prince for the last time last night, he had already anticipated the outcome, but still didn't explain a single word to me."

  Li Xiuzhi has always been very silent, even to the point of being overly silent. Anyone, when all signs are pointing towards oneself, should at least make a few excuses.

  "The king did not defend himself, perhaps because after the death of De Fei, the king had already decided to follow the emperor's arrangement and take this case on himself."

  Even if Li Xiuyi was a king, when Emperor Zhongzong wanted to deal with him, he couldn't do anything. Especially since Empress De had already died by throwing herself into a well.

  Zhong Zong began pacing back and forth in the hall, his murderous intent still clearly visible on his face as he looked at Pei Tan.

  He suddenly stopped in his tracks: "Pei Tan, I ask you, who killed Hui Gen?"

  Pei Tain just said that Hui Gen's death had nothing to do with the toxicity of the Haiyue fruit. He was killed before he could even swallow the poisonous fruit.

  Jungjong stared at Bae Dahn, he also wanted to know the answer.

  Now Wang De Fei is dead, but it was not Hui Gen sent by Zhong Zong who killed her, and Hui Gen also died afterwards.

  As a high-ranking official in the imperial court, Zhong Zong was completely unaware of the secrets within. How could he not be curious?

  Pei Tan and Zhong Zong's eyes met, "In the temple, Jing Yuanyu used fumigation to reveal the bloodstains on the wooden fish. It also allowed me to confirm that the wooden fish was a murder weapon. On the revealed bloodstain, I saw the fingerprint of the murderer."

  The two steps of the fumigation method, Jing Yuanyu only showed in front of Pei Tan, and the wooden fish presented the fingerprint of the murderer.

  Zhong Zong's eyes narrowed: "Where is Jing Yu'er? Why wasn't she by your side when the city gate was being checked?"

  Not only Jing Yuanyu, but also Pei Wei's personal guard, who had been protecting him like a shadow, did not return to Chang'an.

  ——

  "Master Hsuan Lien, why did you have to kill your own beloved disciple?"

  Jing Wan'er asked this question with a mind full of incomprehension and indignation, just like the overwhelming reaction she had when she first found out that the kind-hearted old monk in front of her was the real culprit.

  Compared with her shock and confusion, Master Xuánlián slowly raised his eyes, and the wrinkles covered all his expressions.

  "Pei Si-kong gave the old monk a letter with no words, and it made the old monk think that when Empress Wu Zetian passed away, she only allowed her descendants to set up a wordless stele. In this regard, how can I be compared to Empress Wu?"

  Jing Wan'er's heart was racing fast, and it turned out that Xuan Lian was just pretending to be stupid, he knew everything.

  Xuan Lian said: "Hui Gen, was sent away by me personally."

  A monk, for the words "life" and "death", still has a different taboo than ordinary people. He said that when he sent her off in person, Jing Wanyu was unwilling to believe that he had spoken so easily.

  In the Qinglong Temple, everyone says that Xuanlian is depressed because of Hui Gen. A monk cannot have a biological child, but Hui Gen was raised by Xuanlian himself. It's not just monks who eat vegetarian food and recite Buddhist scriptures, even ordinary people can't bear to kill someone they've raised for many years.

  "In order to frame the prince, you wouldn't even hesitate to kill your own disciple?" It was precisely this that made Jing Wan'er find hard to understand.

  Killing one life to frame another person, what can be gained from such a sinful act.

  Only then did Xuan Lian shake his head: "Hui Gen couldn't bear to kill Wang De Fei, he begged the old monk, willing to take her place."

  Jing Wan'er was taken aback, her mind racing with a loud "thud", "You said Hui Gen was the one who died in place of Wang De Fei?"

  De Fei was supposed to have died quietly on the first night, so that Jing Yu'er and Da Li Temple would not discover anything later. However, De Fei lived until yesterday and still did not escape her bad luck.