Chapter 397: Investigation!

The cocktail party turned into an assassination ground, so the attendees naturally became suspects. As for Bai Xiaofei’s and Shang Youdao’s accountability in this mishap, it wasn’t yet time to pursue as the priority first was to figure out the attack itself.

Fortunately, Bai Xiaofei, having made great effort in the rescue, was protected and appointed as one of the investigators by Imperial Concubine Qing. After the royal members left, he and the garrison commander began to cross-examine the rest of the people present.

“You can leave.”

The tedious examination didn’t bring about any gains, and the attendees of this banquet weren’t the kind who could be locked up for interrogation, so the garrison commander had no choice but to let them leave one after another.

Meanwhile, Bai Xiaofei simply didn’t participate. If they could really gain any clues from this kind of questioning, such an attack wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“Did you find anything, Huskie?” asked a frowning Bai Xiaofei after checking the five corpses for half a day.

Huskie’s response was rather unsatisfactory. The five guards had no smells in common. In other words, there was nothing to connect them for now.

“Brother Bai, everyone has been checked…” The garrison commander walked to Bai Xiaofei with disappointment in his voice.

Because of Imperial Concubine Qing’s manner towards Bai Xiaofei, the garrison commander was very polite. As she was the favored and trusted confidant of the emperor and Bai Xiaofei had made great efforts to save her, the final result probably would not have any negative impact on him even if he was one of the banquet organizers. Therefore, this was a rare opportunity to befriend him.

As long as he got through this ordeal, Bai Xiaofei’s status would grow to the point that he wouldn’t have a problem pulling up a garrison commander’s career.

“Do you know these five?” The fruitless interrogation was completely within Bai Xiaofei’s expectation. To find out the root of this attack, these five attackers were their only breakthrough.

“They are all elites of the royal guard. Two Martial Artists and three Proficient Rank puppet masters. There shouldn’t be any doubt about their loyalty, otherwise, they wouldn’t be arranged to enter the banquet hall. I really didn’t expect them to be assassins…” The tone of the garrison commander was full of confusion. What happened seemed to be completely beyond his understanding.

“You said three of them are puppet masters?” Bai Xiaofei froze a little, then his frown grew deeper.

“That’s right. What’s the matter, is there a problem?” The garrison commander couldn’t help but look at the dead bodies upon Bai Xiaofei’s sudden question, then replied after confirming that he didn’t make a mistake.

Of course there is a problem, that’s why I asked!

“Which three?” asked Bai Xiaofei as he turned his gaze to the corpses.

The garrison commander pointed at the three puppet masters.

There was nothing about the first two. The third one Bai Xiaofei recognized as the guard to be the first who he broke the neck of and killed. What was noticeable was that this person’s attack was very weak. Compared with the Martial Artist who almost chopped off his arm, this guys’ attack was simply tickling.

This then begged the question, why didn’t puppet master attack with his puppet’s ability, but instead used his substandard martial arts?

If a single person did this, he was probably out of his mind, but there were three of them lying on the ground right now! In the assassination, none of these three puppet masters used their puppets! Theoretically, an attacker on an occasion like this was basically a sacrifice, but who had actually seen a sacrificed pawn that went easy on their opponent? Afraid they wouldn’t die fast enough?

One might argue that they were arranged to go easy, but then, what about the two Martial Artists? Why did they go all out?

A total of five assassins, three went easy and two did the best they could. The victims – killed or injured – had nothing in common. After all kinds of information were strung together, Bai Xiaofei came to a conclusion: This was not a premeditated assassination!

This begged another question: What was this now that it was not assassination? A ruckus just to mess up the banquet?!

Fck, who have I offended? Why would you want to fck me up like this? Going to all this trouble just to wreck my plan?!

Upon this thought, Bai Xiaofei’s eyes suddenly lit up. He looked at the garrison commander and asked, “How many puppet masters were there at the party?”

His ecstatic look startled the commander.

“A total of five,” replied the garrison commander after thinking for a moment.

“Who are they?” asking this, Bai Xiaofei felt that he had seen the dawn.

“The personal guards of the crown prince, the third prince and the fourth prince, as well as the direct boss of these five – the deputy commander of the royal guards.”

“What about the last one?” None of the four above met Bai Xiaofei’s conditions, so the fifth was his last hope.

“You…” uttered the garrison commander slowly while pointing at Bai Xiaofei.

Bai Xiaofei was speechless, all those questions turned out to be for nothing. This also meant that the person who started it must have been concealing their real strength. A high-ranked puppet master who hid their strength…

A candidate popped out in his head!

But, could it really be her? One of them was hacking at her with a blade. If I had been a step slower, she wouldn’t be able to avoid it. Did she count my possible moves into her plan?

But in that case, why arrange for two people to attack both of us at the same time? Wouldn’t it increase her own danger? Or did she just want to leave me with no doubts?

Bai Xiaofei felt a headache. No wonder they all said the water ran deep in this place. They really didn’t exaggerate. Some people actually dared to throw a tantrum in the imperial city!

Then, another problem arose.

If it was really Imperial Concubine Qing who was behind this, then who was she? One of the Thunderstorm Bandits?

But what was in it for them? If this was just to drive Shang Youdao crazy, then the price was too great. Originally, the imperial faction didn’t care about them, but after something like this, it would not continue to let them go wild. This wasn’t something a smart person would do, and the Thunderstorm Bandits were obviously a smart group.

Upon this, Bai Xiaofei felt like he was going to collapse. Just what the hell is going on!?

“Brother Bai?” Bai Xiaofei didn’t know how long he had been standing still, but the garrison commander couldn’t help but call out.

“Imperial Concubine Qing said that everyone must cooperate with my investigation, right?” Returning to his senses, Bai Xiaofei stared fixedly at the garrison commander. His rapid change rendered the latter somewhat speechless.

“Er… yes! That’s right. Do you need to see anyone?” the garrison commander hurriedly responded, not daring to neglect.

“The Deputy Commander of the royal guards!”

“No problem, I and Deputy Commander Li are like brothers. Calling him is very simple.” The garrison commander patted his chest.

“There is another one.” A sharp glint flashed through Bai Xiaofei’s eyes.

“Who?”

“Imperial Concubine Qing!”

As soon as these words dropped, the garrison commander was dumbstruck.

If he remembered correctly, the last person who said he wanted to see Imperial Concubine Qing alone was sentenced to the death of a thousand cuts…