Holy Bone

Chapter 1992: Examining the Corpse Using the "Corpse Collection Record"

"what happened?"

Jin An arrived at the main hall of the Prince Wu's mansion, where twenty or thirty people were lined up.

Jin An glanced around and spotted Instructor Zhang, so he asked him a question.

Instructor Zhang was a martial arts practitioner hired by the Wu King's Mansion. His martial arts skills were unfathomable and beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. Therefore, he was hired by the Wu King's Mansion to teach his disciples martial arts and cultivate martial arts.

Instructor Zhang clasped his hands in apology and said, "I failed in my duty to protect the Prince's residence and am willing to accept the Prince's punishment."

It turns out that someone died in the Prince Wu's mansion today.

And four or five people died at once.

These people were all maids.

Jin An waved his hand, not immediately blaming or punishing Instructor Zhang, but first inquired in detail about how the maids had died.

Instructor Zhang replied, "Reporting to King Wu, none of these maids had any obvious injuries or other unique characteristics when they died. After the coroner's examination, the cause of death has been tentatively determined to be drowning."

"However, it is strange that they were all clean and dry, with no signs of drowning or drowning."

"but……"

Instructor Zhang paused slightly before continuing, "However, their entire bodies were dry without any water stains, except for their faces, which was quite strange."

Jin An didn't rush to speak, but instead turned to look at the coroner.

The coroner quickly bowed and replied, "Reporting to Your Majesty, what Instructor Zhang said is true. I have found characteristics on all five of them that suggest they died from drowning, with a large amount of water in their mouths and noses."

After receiving the coroner's reply, Jin An nodded, then bent down and examined each of the five bodies one by one. He found that all five bodies had a lot of water stains in their mouths and noses, which indeed looked like drowning.

Jin An pondered as he examined the body.

He was pondering how those five maids had died.

He was certain that the person targeting the Martial King's Mansion was Han Yichuan, who had sent him into the Ancient Shoe Illusion, or the mastermind behind Han Yichuan...

However, there was one thing he couldn't understand: what exactly was the other party's purpose in targeting the Wu Wang Mansion?
Since it's an illusion, it means that the Wu King's Mansion is fake.

Since it's all fake anyway, why would the other side target the Wu Wang Mansion? Isn't that redundant?
In the end, he could only think of one possibility: if the other party had used so many bizarre and mysterious methods against the Wu Wang Mansion, then there was only one possibility: that they were targeting him and wanted to make a move against him!
It would have been simple to deal with him; a direct kill would have sufficed. But why did he go through all this trouble, even managing to create the Daoist Huangting Inner Landscape and making him the dignified Martial King of the Martial King's Mansion...

The other party is either not human, making them impossible to understand from a normal person's perspective, and can only kill through illusions;
The opponent is either not strong enough, so the only option is to trap him with an illusion.

After pondering for a long time, Jin An could only guess at these two possibilities.

"Hmph, this place is getting more and more interesting," Jin An thought to himself with a cold snort.

Now that he had figured out the other party's thoughts and intentions, Jin An planned to launch a counterattack. His identity was not just that of a martial arts immortal or a primordial spirit master. If the other party wanted to target him, he would definitely make them pay a heavy price.

"Instructor Zhang, have your men surround and cordon off the main hall. I want to personally examine the bodies and find out exactly how these people died."

“They were born into the Wu King’s Mansion and will die in the Wu King’s Mansion. I must find out the truth, find the real culprit, and avenge them so that I can wipe away all my hatred.”

Jin An told Instructor Zhang that in addition to being a martial arts immortal and a master of the primordial spirit, he was also a coroner.

The Corpse Collection Record.

To pray for the deceased and to keep vigil for the living.

Although the imperial court established strict laws and regulations, clan-based private punishments were still common in various places. In some villages and towns, clan-based private punishments were even more severe than those of the imperial court. Sometimes, even the government dared not interfere with some mountain people in remote and impoverished areas.

Human nature is more wicked than ghosts. The various extreme punishments invented by local ancestral halls through the abuse of private punishment fully demonstrate how twisted human nature can be. It is difficult to leave a complete corpse. Because these people die tragically, they also encounter many strange and bizarre things. In order to appease the resentment of the deceased, they will find some experts to bury the corpse.

The "Corpse Collection Record" contains corpses with all sorts of bizarre and unusual deaths, mostly caused by human actions, with only about 10% being accidental, fully proving the saying—

The ghost didn't harm me in the slightest, but the man left me completely battered and bruised.

For example, dismemberment by chariot, tearing apart by five horses, skinning, sawing, branding with hot irons, scorpion pit, human pig, waist-cutting, riding the wooden donkey...

The "Corpse Collection Record" details the manner of death, the reactions of the corpse, the proper preparation of the body to ensure the best appearance, the proportions of the bones and internal organs of corpses of different ages, and how to determine the cause of death based on the wounds, thus determining whether the person died unjustly, by suicide, or accidentally, because different causes of death evoke different resentments and require different handling methods...

For example, not only can two pieces of a corpse be sewn together with paper dolls, cloth dolls, and straw, but even corpses that have been torn apart by chariots and crushed into mincemeat, or dismembered by five horses and left with only a bare torso, can be sewn together with paper dolls, cloth dolls, and straw! Even if the skin has been peeled off, a life-size paper doll body can be put on for you, and whatever kind of handsome man or beautiful woman you want, a good paper craftsman can create it for you...

Jin An, who had mastered the "Corpse Collection Manual," was the best candidate to be a coroner.

He knew the characteristics of all sorts of bizarre ways people could die.

This "Corpse Collection Record" is actually "A Thousand Ways to Die"!
Therefore, Jin An planned to use the "Corpse Collection Record" to examine the five maid corpses on the ground to see if he could determine the specific cause of death of the five people.

Finding out the cause of death will make it easier to solve the case.

"King Wu, don't we have a coroner?" Upon hearing that Jin An wanted to personally examine the body, wouldn't it be better for Instructor Zhang to hand it over to the coroner first?
Even the steward who followed behind looked surprised and advised Jin An not to do everything himself, as the corpses had a foul odor and he was afraid that Jin An would be contaminated by the smell if he touched them. He was thinking of Jin An's best interests.

Jin An shook his head and said, "Thank you all for your concern. I learned some autopsy techniques in my younger years, and I plan to perform an autopsy myself."

“They were people from my Wu Wang Mansion. They died mysteriously in the Wu Wang Mansion. It is only right and proper for me to find the murderer for them and to avenge them.”

"Please stop trying to persuade me, everyone. Instructor Zhang, have someone isolate the main hall."

Seeing that Jin'an was very decisive in his decision to examine the body, the steward and Instructor Zhang stopped trying to persuade him and began to drive away the bystanders and isolate the main hall to give Jin'an enough space to examine the body.

Soon after, only Jin An, Instructor Zhang, the steward, and the five corpses of maids remained in the main hall.

Everyone else was kept outside by the soldiers of Prince Wu's mansion.

"Gentlemen, I am here today to find the truth behind your deaths, to find the real culprit, and to avenge you. If the autopsy proceeds in any way, please forgive me. Once I find the real culprit, I will surely kill him and avenge you."

"May you find peace in the afterlife, Supreme Taiyi Du'e Tianzun." Jin Anchao softly recited a Taoist incantation, inaudible to outsiders, to the five corpses, thus praying for the deceased.

Subsequently, Jin'an began the autopsy.

He first noticed that the faces of the five men were damp and began to investigate. After some investigation, he found that the faces of the five men were normal and there were no obvious injuries or signs of secondary stress.

He then began to examine the five people's entire bodies, which were no different from those of ordinary people. He did not find any new wounds or traces of secondary injuries.

Instructor Zhang: "Did they just die in vain?!"

"hateful!"

"How could someone just die like that, and we can't find a single clue!" "Damn it! Damn it!"

"This is absolutely infuriating!"

Even the steward sighed repeatedly, glanced at Jin An, and kindly advised, "King Wu, don't worry too much about this matter. We will certainly have other ways to find the real culprit."

Jin An remained calm on the surface, showing no anger or resentment. He instructed the steward to bring some ice stones and white plum cakes.

"King Wu, what is the purpose of these? Could it be... that these can also be used for autopsies?" the steward asked in surprise.

Jin An smiled and said, "That's right."

"Both ice stones and white plum cakes can make hidden wounds on the surface of a corpse reappear."

"The fact that they have no injuries does not mean that they were not harmed before they died. I plan to use ice stones and white plum cakes to examine their bodies to see if there are any injuries. If there are injuries, it means that this case was committed by humans and has nothing to do with ghosts or evil spirits."

Upon hearing Jin An's words, both the steward and Instructor Zhang looked surprised, then filled with admiration as they gazed at Jin An. They hadn't expected their "Martial King" to actually be able to perform autopsies and to possess so many autopsy details that even they didn't know.

The manager immediately accepted the order without delay, saying "Okay!" and hurriedly went out to prepare the things.

Ice stones are readily available; the Wu Prince's Mansion has ice stones stored year-round in its cellars for use in summer to cool off or for preserving food on ordinary days.

White plum cakes are easy to prepare; they are a very common folk delicacy and can be bought anywhere.

So the steward prepared these two items very quickly and brought them to Jin'an in no time.

Jin An did not use ice stones at first, but instead used white plum cakes to examine the body.

Firstly, white plum cakes cool down quickly, so they must be eaten hot to be effective.

Secondly, the ice melts slowly, so waiting a little longer won't cause any problems.

Next, Jin An began to examine the body with white plum cakes. He applied white plum cakes to the limbs, heart, and abdomen, as these areas are the most vulnerable to injury and death if the person is injured.

Then he applied a hot white plum cake to each person's face.

Jin An was particularly meticulous in applying the white plum cakes to the faces, making sure to apply them to all five people's entire faces.

The rest of the five people's bodies were clean and dry, but their faces were extremely damp, which could very well be one of the key pieces of evidence...

When the steward and Instructor Zhang saw Jin'an applying hot plum cakes, they followed suit and helped him.

Jin An did not refuse their kindness.

So in no time, the white plum cakes were all pasted on the five corpses.

Now all you have to do is wait for the results.

The white plum cake hot compress method doesn't require waiting too long. Soon the time was up, and Jin'an began to personally lift the white plum cake.

He first opened the white plum cake covering the heart; the heart was normal, and there were no signs of external injury.

Then, the white limbs were lifted, and the result was that the limbs were normal, with no trace of external injury.

Finally, he slowly lifted the white plum cake covering the largest area of ​​the face.

His face is normal, without any hair loss...

"what?"

Just when Jin An thought the maid's face was normal, he noticed a small mark when he moved the head of the deceased to observe the side of the face.

It was a very shallow and fine indentation, as if something had stuck to the face for a period of time before the person died, leaving a slight indentation...

Jin An quickly looked at the other side of the deceased's face, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

Because there are similar marks on the other side!
"Huh, why is there a slight indentation on the side of her face?"

"Indeed, these indentations are strange..."

The steward and Instructor Zhang, who had been helping Jin An, also noticed the pressure marks on both sides of the deceased's face and exclaimed in surprise.

Jin An did not answer, but instead, not daring to delay, hurriedly went to examine the faces of the other four corpses...

result!

The other four people had very slight indentations on both sides of their faces!
If it weren't for the fact that white plum cakes can make wounds more visible, this slight indentation would never have been noticed!

"This is……"

"King Wu, could these marks be related to their cause of death?"

The steward and Instructor Zhang both hurriedly looked at Jin An. They had completely acknowledged that Jin An knew how to perform autopsies. Jin An had an amazing talent for autopsies, so they hurriedly looked to Jin An for help, wanting to know the answer as soon as possible.

Jin An did not answer immediately because he was still examining the facial indentations on the five corpses. He was thinking about what kind of indentations they were that could produce such even indentations.

Soon, a possibility came to his mind...

"Manager, go and bring over those masks from the well that you just showed me," Jin An said to the manager.

The steward was not stupid. Upon hearing Jin An's words, he looked at the evenly spaced indentations on the faces of the five corpses and immediately connected them to the well water in the mask.

The steward exclaimed in surprise, "King Wu, you don't actually think that the marks on their faces are from those masks that surfaced in the well water when they were alive..."

Jin An didn't speak, but simply nodded slightly.

The manager no longer hesitated and hurriedly summoned his men to fetch the mask.

The masks arrived quickly, and the steward handed them to Jin An, who was in charge of putting them on the corpses on the ground... The moment they were put on, the results were immediately apparent: the positions were remarkably consistent!
Jin An changed the clothes onto the second corpse, and the position was still surprisingly the same!
He then tried the mask on all five corpses and found that it fit all of them perfectly, and that the pressure marks on the faces of the five corpses were very consistent!
Jin An finally found one of the pieces of evidence. He stood up and said coldly, "It seems that this mask is the piece of evidence we are looking for."

"And I have a rough idea of ​​how they died."

At this moment, the steward said with a grim expression, "King Wu, could their deaths be related to these masks that mysteriously appeared in the well water?"

"These masks are associated with water, and their cause of death happens to be related to drowning!"

Jin An nodded: "That's probably the cause of their deaths."

(End of this chapter)