Chapter 1431: Destroying the Evidence, Framing Another!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha entered the imperial city and arrived at the site of the fire, a large circular building made of wood.
The building had collapsed from an explosion, and fierce flames lit it up like a beacon.
Eastsea Eagle looked dumbly at the flames, and the fat and fair-skinned Chief Steward had an ashen complexion as he commanded the guards to put out the flames.
“What happened?” Xia Fan frowned and sniffed the air.
“It’s gone.”
!!
“What’s gone?”
“Father, father’s corpse and the altar… it’s all been burned up!”
Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha were startled. In other words, the old emperor’s body was in the fire?
Wasn’t that too much of a coincidence?
Xia Fan had just made plans to inspect the corpse the next morning, but the corpse was destroyed in a fire that night?
It was like some mysterious power was stopping Xia Fan from getting closer to the truth!
—
The other Investigators came over from the hotel. When they heard that the emperor’s body had been burned up along with the altar, they were all stunned.
“How could there be such a coincidence? Suspicious, very suspicious!” Wu Zhuo muttered in displeasure.
Xia Fan said nothing, standing nearby as the imperial guards carried out their investigation on the fire.
The altar was forbidden ground, exclusive to the imperial family. Within was not only the old emperor’s body, but also the remains and memorial tablets of countless ancestors. Xia Fan was just a guest, so casually going in might have ended up with him being accused of offending the imperial ancestors.
Around an hour later, the guard captain, a middle-aged warrior with his hair tied in a ponytail, came up and bowed to Eastsea Eagle.
“What in the world caused the fire?” Eastsea Eagle asked urgently.
The guard captain stood up and sternly said, “Your Majesty, we have identified the cause of the fire. It was because some Azure Unicornite was suddenly ignited.”
Azure Unicornite!? Eastsea Eagle was stunned.
Azure Unicornite was a naturally-occurring azure-colored ore that was extremely flammable. After it was ignited, it had almost instantly engulfed the enormous altar.
“Why would there be Azure Unicornite in the altar!?” Eastsea Eagle demanded to know.
The guard captain frowned. “Your Majesty, based on the previous investigation, the previous emperor was poisoned to death by a long-range control ability.
“Since the criminal poisoned the previous emperor over a long distance, they naturally could secretly transport Azure Unicornite into the altar, and then while you were gone, they could ignite it.
“Mister Xia Fan had already decided to perform an autopsy on the corpse tomorrow, but now, all the evidence has gone with the flames. In this way, the criminal is now safe.
“There is no doubt that this was all the criminal’s doing!
“He’s probably still in the city and hasn’t gone far. Please permit me to lock down the city and do a building-by-building search!”
Everyone nodded at the results of the investigation.
It was a conclusion that made sense. The culprit had decided to set a fire in the night to prevent Xia Fan from getting close to the body.
After all, Xia Fan had the rare Scent special ability. He might have been able to find a clue about the culprit from the old emperor’s corpse.
This fire had truly come at a timely moment, burning everything away.
It was quite amusing, actually. Xia Fan was a Speed warrior, his speed almost at the Heavenly Sovereign level.
But when chasing criminals, it was always his Scent special ability, which had little combat power, that played the pivotal role.
Scent was Xia Fan’s ace in the hole, and it had made him the first detective in the history of the Skywings. Even in the Xia Clan, which was bursting with talents, Xia Fan was unique.
Eastsea Eagle frowned. He prepared to order a lockdown of the city to search for the criminal.
But he suddenly thought of Xia Fan, so he turned to him to ask his opinion. “What do you think?”
Xia Fan’s colleagues and the investigators from the Sacred Federation Special Bureau all looked curiously at him, wondering if this mysterious young man had any other ideas.
Xia Fan scratched his head. “Since Your Majesty has asked, I will be honest.
“I don’t think this fire has anything to do with the criminal who poisoned the old emperor.”
Everyone paled, shock in their eyes.
After the previous emperor was killed, destroying the evidence before the autopsy made complete sense, so why did Xia Fan think that this wasn’t the work of the murderer?
The guard captain was put on the spot. He asked hastily, “Sir, what do you mean?”
Xia Fan smiled and nonchalantly said, “My meaning is simple. There are also skills involved in setting a fire.”
Xia Fan took a pen and paper from his spatial ring and began to draw and calculate in front of everyone.
He first estimated the height of the flames, and then he calculated how long the fire had lasted and also the amount of Azure Unicornite that was needed to create the explosion that had resulted.
The formulas on the paper grew more and more complicated, and more and more numbers appeared.
Finally, he managed to calculate the total amount of Azure Unicornite needed for this fire!
Xia Fan pointed at the final number and said, “Look here. To create a fire that could completely burn down the altar building which covers three thousand square meters in only a few minutes, it would take 56.7 kilograms of Azure Unicornite.
“Azure Unicornite isn’t very dense, so all of this Azure Unicornite would take up at least 2.3 cubic meters, which is a pile this big.” As Xia Fan spoke, he gestured, illustrating to the crowd how big a pile of fifty over kilograms of Azure Unicornite would be.
Xia Fan cocked his head. “This is the Imperial City. Such a large pile of Azure Unicornite flying in from outside, traveling a dozen or so kilometers from the outer edge of the Imperial City to the altar, and then getting it into the altar while all the guards are keeping watch and then igniting it, do you really think that wouldn’t have been noticed?
“At the time of the fire, there was an internal explosion first. The cause was a sudden expansion of air, which was created by igniting a large amount of Azure Unicornite.
“A small amount of Azure Unicornite would only create a large fire, but it wouldn’t create an explosion in the building. From this, we can see that there was a significant amount of Azure Unicornite.”
Everyone was speechless. None of them had considered the area taken up by the Azure Unicornite.
Azure Unicornite was a low-density flammable ore; it was basically impossible for someone to sneak a large amount of Azure Unicornite into the imperial city without being noticed!
“You know the math!?” Wu Zhuo was stunned as he took the paper that Xia Fan had covered with formulas and numbers. As he looked at, he immediately felt a little dizzy. What little math he had learned in school had been returned to his teacher long ago.
Everyone looked at Xia Fan like he was a monster.
When they knew that Xia Fan had a Speed special ability, they had taken him as a more physical kind of investigator.
But when they found that he could control animals and had a Scent special ability, they took him for the sensory type.
Now, he was like a scientific investigator, even understanding mathematics and geometry.
Normally, fields were specialized. For a person to be specialized in one aspect was already very impressive.
But Xia Fan was like an honor student, excelling in everything from combat to perception to theory!
Of course, these people had no idea that the most important of Xia Fan’s teachers had been Machinist Grandpa. Learning mathematics was essential for learning mechatronics, so Xia Fan had always excelled in that field.
They were convinced, thoroughly convinced!
The Investigators from the Sacred Federation, who should have been his enemies, looked at Xia Fan in admiration. As for Eastsea Eagle, he felt like Xia Fan was a miracle sent by the Eagle God to assist him.
“Mister Xia Fan, if the one who set the fire wasn’t my father’s killer, who is it?” Eastsea Eagle urgently and sincerely asked.
Xia Fan cast his gaze at the fat Chief Steward and sighed softly.
Countless people turned toward the Chief Steward, their shock at maximum. Did Xia Fan believe that he was the arsonist!?
Impossible!
Everyone had seen him desperately trying to put out the flames as if it had been his own ancestral tomb, rather than the Imperial Altar, and the expression on his face was even more aggrieved than the emperor’s!
The Chief Steward paled, but he remained silent.
Xia Fan sternly asked, “Sir Steward, you must have served the imperial family for some time now, no?”
The Steward slowly raised his head, meeting Xia Fan’s gaze. “27 years ago, I was the Deputy Steward, and my father was the Chief Steward.”
Xia Fan nodded. “Two generations, nearly one hundred years, in the service of the imperial family. That’s rather hard.
“This afternoon, I didn’t quite understand why you immediately objected when I proposed an autopsy.
“Of course, your objection was very tactful, using the dignity of the imperial family and the affection between father and son as a shield, phrasing it so that His Majesty couldn’t refuse you. Otherwise, His Majesty would have ordered the autopsy to be performed on the spot, rather than waiting for the next day.
“Now, I finally understand. You needed time, time to destroy the corpse in a fire, and with it, the last of the evidence. In this way, I wouldn’t be able to find any clues regarding the culprit, and the old emperor’s death would remain an eternal enigma.
“But why would you do this? You’re someone who’s served the imperial family for so long, so I don’t think you’re someone who would play both sides. From the way His Majesty speaks to you and the way you communicate with your eyes, it’s easy to see that there is a deep trust shared between you.
“Then, why would a Chief Steward who enjoyed the trust of the imperial family for so long join with another to kill the previous emperor?”
All was quiet. Sure enough, Xia Fan was suspecting the Chief Steward.
The most shocked of all was Eastsea Eagle. He had almost stopped breathing, his heart on the verge of breaking. He found it impossible to imagine that his most trusted subordinate had betrayed him.
The fat Steward ground his teeth, and then, perhaps realizing that he couldn’t run, decided to confess, his face breaking into a smile.
He could have denied it, but there was no point.
Xia Fan was an investigator from the Special Bureau, and they possessed an advanced and most insidious substance: truth serum!
Perhaps some experts could resist the torture of truth serum, but definitely not him!
“Mister Xia Fan, how did you notice?” the steward asked. “I changed clothes so that there was no trace of the Azure Unicornite odor on me.”
Xia Fan nodded. “I know. You didn’t just change your clothes, but also your shoes, underpants, and hairband.
“When taking a bath, you also used Flower Aroma No. 5 soap liquid and Aiga Company’s famous scent removal liquid, and also DV Men’s cologne and body spray, all so I wouldn’t discover that you had been in contact with Azure Unicornite.
“But it was that meticulous cleansing of your scent that makes me suspect you.
“His Majesty was saying farewell to his father, and at this tense moment, His Majesty didn’t even have time to bathe or change his clothes. But as his Chief Steward, when would you find the time to clean yourself so thoroughly? Not unless you were hiding something!
“I can understand you taking a quick shower in the middle of your work, but who would use scent remover?
“Your meticulous preparations ended up selling you out. Yes, your body doesn’t have the scent of Azure Unicornite, but it’s awash with many strange aromas.
“Only the arsonist would need to remove the odors from their body. Moreover, you’re the Imperial City’s Chief Steward, so you arranged all the ritual preparations. Thus, no matter how I thought about it, you were the prime suspect.”
Those words were earthshaking!
Everyone saw the Chief Steward turn ghastly pale, his eyes slowly narrowing as killing intent flashed within them. Eastsea Eagle’s guards quickly surrounded him.
“I see.” The Chief Steward shook his head and smiled bitterly. “I was taking precautions against your Scent special ability, but I forgot that your deductive powers were also top-class. Too many meticulous plans ended up revealing a flaw.”
Xia Fan calmly replied, “Yes. If you had not attempted to intentionally remove the scent, I might not have discovered that you were the arsonist.
“Why? Why did you want to kill the previous emperor and frame Scarleteye Eagle?”
Frame!? Scarleteye Eagle was being framed!?
The crowd was in an uproar, and felt like they had to reevaluate Xia Fan once again!