Zhu Hanyun was dead. No one had expected something like this to actually happen when such strict precautions had been taken for this national cultivation high school body technique competition.
Hadn’t they been assured at the very beginning that everyone would be safe?
Seeing Zhu Hanyun lying in a pool of blood, all the students had panicked expressions on their faces.
It wasn’t just anyone who had died, but an expert – it was Zhu Hanyun! Titan High’s team leader! A man who, by his strength alone, had directly hurled all his fellow brothers and sisters past 700,000 steps to the top of the pagoda!
There were more and more onlookers now. The surrounding students were seized by intense panic, and listening to the grief-stricken cries of the little junior sister from Titan High, they were suddenly at a loss, and didn’t know what to do.
“Get a teacher! Hurry up and save him!” someone said calmly at that moment.
“He’s already beyond saving.”
At that moment, an extremely tall boy crouched down and confirmed that Zhu Hanyun was dead. “There appears to be no external wounds. The bleeding from his stomach is probably a spillover from the massive bleeding caused by his spirit root breaking inside his dantian.”
“He’s really dead…” Everyone was panic-stricken.
When a person died during a competition, everyone’s first reaction was naturally to look for a teacher to take charge of the situation. However, the students who ran out to find a teacher quickly noticed something unusual.
“The windows are locked! And it looks like a forbidden array was set up and our spirit energy is restricted! We can’t get out at all! The hole from earlier has also been filled up!” someone screamed.
This referred to the large hole which Zhu Hanyun had smashed open when he had been throwing people to the top of the pagoda.
But while the students had been resting in their rooms, the hole had been completely filled up. In other words, they had no way of letting the teachers outside know of the current situation here.
“What should we do?”
“Someone’s died during this competition; can we even continue?”
“This is Zhu Hanyun! If the murderer is among us, and attacks, who would be their match?”
“And it’s already after 2am. Didn’t they say that they would announce the second elimination round now?”
At that moment, the crowd buzzed with discussion as everyone expressed their own opinions.
“Calm down first, everyone.”
At that moment, Gu Shunzhi stepped forward. “Everyone, calm down. Maybe the second round has already started.”
Everyone: “???”
What did he mean that it had already started?
“Normally, if someone really has died, it would be impossible for the teachers not to notice, unless Zhu Hanyun’s death was already planned earlier on.” Gu Shunzhi calmly analyzed the situation. He had in fact already picked up on something, but he couldn’t reveal it outright, and so tried to lead them in the right direction.
“Maybe the rule of the second elimination round is for us to find Zhu Hanyun’s murderer.”
When everyone heard this, they were struck with realization. However, looking at where Zhu Han’s body, which was still warm, lay on the ground, they all sucked in deep breaths.
If this was the assessment for the second elimination round, it really was too cruel… They had actually killed a person???
At that moment, No.1 Demon-Subduing High’s team leader Gao Tianming spoke up again. “This person isn’t Zhu Hanyun.”
Not Zhu Hanyun? What did he mean?
The crowd was a bit confused.
“Zhu Hanyun cultivates the Titan Art, and has long reached a weight of five thousand jin. However, the Zhu Hanyun who’s lying on the ground now…” With one hand, Gao Tianming easily flipped the body over. “As you can see, his body is very light.”
In light of this situation, Gao Tianming had already thought of a possibility, but just as he was about to share his guess –
On the other side, Gu Shunzhi abruptly said first, “Construction Spell.”
After Gu Shunzhi said that, Gao Tianming shot him a glance.
Everyone knew that this was one of No. 60 High’s transfer students. No one knew his background, but it was obvious that he wasn’t an ordinary person.
The Construction Spell was a relatively advanced spell which one usually only came across in university.
Thus, Gao Tianming kept silent and started to listen carefully to Gu Shunzhi’s explanation; he wanted to hear what Gu Shunzhi had to say.
But after being the one to open his mouth first, Gu Shunzhi felt that he had jumped the gun, and shouldn’t have spoken up so quickly.
This was in fact an occupational disease.
As the keeper of order for the universe, there were a lot of things that he had to investigate, which naturally included some odd cases. Thus, Gu Shunzhi had vast experience in deducing cases. In addition to this, he had actually already seen traces of the Construction Spell on Zhu Hanyun’s “body” before it was turned over.
But since he had already spoken, there was no need for him to go on pretending too much.
Gu Shunzhi could only continue and say, “The Construction Spell is a combined spirit and space spell. Space spells are rare, but the Construction Spell is actually the simplest of them all.
“It can transform spirit energy into an image in the spiritual world, and then project a material form that can essentially be touched, and which usually will gradually disappear in five hours.
“Nowadays, this spell is commonly used in film production in the cultivation world, and almost every props manager has to learn it since it not only saves on cost, but also on the time spent on creating props.
“In short, the body we’re looking at now isn’t really Zhu Hanyun’s – it’s just a prop that was created with the Construction Spell. However, we still need to find the real Zhu Hanyun.”
“Are you saying that Zhu Hanyun isn’t dead? Then why do we need to look for him? He might just be playing a prank on us!” someone said at that moment.
“That can’t be the case.” Gu Shunzhi shook his head. “You can’t create something out of nothing with the Construction Spell. For example, those prop managers have to study pictures of what they want to create first before they use the Construction Spell, or model it on the real thing.
“Therefore, Zhu Hanyun might not really be dead, but he is indeed lying in a pool of blood somewhere – this, we know for sure!”
After Gu Shunzhi said that, the atmosphere, which had already calmed down, tensed up again.
But the problem they faced now was that in order to find the “murderer” who had hidden the real Zhu Hanyun, and thus pass this round, they had to check everyone’s alibis one by one.
Apart from the missing Zhu Hanyun, there were still seven hundred and ninety nine students; trying to collect all their alibis clearly wasn’t realistic.
Thus, Gu Shunzhi decided to use a particular method of exclusion. “Now, those with friends who can provide mutual alibis, raise your hands. Also, perception-type students, please step forward. We now need to work together to pass this round.”
Why was he looking for perception-type students?
The answer was actually very simple.
After cultivators used spells, there would definitely be some spirit energy molecules left on their hands. This was from the spillover of spirit energy molecules, and there would often be residue on the hands that would gradually dissipate in thirty minutes.
These perception-type students just needed to check each person, and would be able to very quickly narrow down this large group of people.
Whoever had performed magic in the last thirty minutes would be suspected of having used the Construction Spell!
