Chapter 340: Chapter 339: Too Cruel (Please Subscribe)
As Xiang Long’s voice fell, the room plunged into a brief silence, quickly followed by a chorus of agreement.
"Brother Xiang is right. That person dared to target Brother Du. Clearly, they don’t take our Jiulong City seriously. Without Brother Du’s sacrifices, we wouldn’t be where we are today."
"That’s right. We must find out who killed Brother Du and then skin and dismember him to bring peace to Brother Du’s spirit in the afterlife."
"That’s all well and good, but the issue is, how did the killer manage to poison the tea without anyone noticing?"
Someone interjected.
Instantly, the room fell silent.
Yes, that had always been the perplexing part for them.
Besides confusion, they also felt a bit of fear.
Because if someone could poison Du Hao without them noticing, couldn’t the same be done to any one of them?
If they didn’t find out who it was, they would never be at peace.
"Don’t worry."
Xiang Long’s pupils contracted slightly, his voice icy as he said, "I’ve already had someone inform Wan Qinghua. Soon, we will know what happened."
Hearing this name, most people were confused, but a few understood immediately.
Wan Qinghua wasn’t as strong as a C-level Awakened, but his superpower was quite unique.
He could trace back events that had happened at any place within a certain timeframe and convert them into images to play back.
Currently, his power could trace events up to 12 hours back, and Du Hao’s time of death was far less than 12 hours ago.
Suddenly, urgent footsteps approached from afar.
A short man in his thirties quickly passed through the crowd and entered the secret room.
His gaze fell upon the corpse that Xiang Long was holding, and his face turned pale instantly.
"City, City Lord."
He then looked at Xiang Long, his voice filled with anxiety.
"You should know why I called you here, right?" Xiang Long glanced at him.
"Yes, City Lord, don’t worry. I will do my utmost to find out what happened."
With that, he gritted his teeth, and the spiritual power in his mind began to whirl rapidly. At the same time, an image appeared on the wall of the secret room!
Xiang Long and the others turned to look at it.
In the image, there was only one figure in the secret room—Du Hao.
"Brother Du’s incident happened about seven or eight hours ago. Before that, he was indeed in the secret room cultivating," someone said.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"No," a heavy voice sounded. It was a tall man, "Why is Brother Du alone in the secret room? Where’s his clone?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the room became noisy.
Indeed, there were two corpses in the secret room now.
"Relax, just keep watching."
Xiang Long spoke up.
Everyone nodded.
The image continued, but it seemed so still that it made people drowsy.
"Speed it up."
"Yes, City Lord."
Wan Qinghua responded, and the image sped up accordingly.
Of course, this speed was nothing to the people present.
No one knew how long had passed when Du Hao, who had kept his eyes tightly shut, suddenly opened them and started speaking.
Without needing to be told, Wan Qinghua replayed the segment and increased the volume.
"Damn it, what is that guy trying to do?"
Du Hao’s urgent voice sounded, "Could he be trying to do something to my clone? Damn it!"
"?"
Everyone exchanged looks and then turned their gazes simultaneously to Xiang Long.
Frowning, Xiang Long said, "Continue."
The image continued. After two or three minutes, Du Hao closed his eyes again.
The image returned to its former tranquility.
A few minutes later, Du Hao stood up once more, pacing the secret room while talking to himself.
His words were just more of the same doubts.
On the one hand, he suspected that someone had tampered with his clone. On the other hand, he affirmed that it was impossible for anyone to tamper with his clone.
As the saying goes, "the onlooker sees more of the game." The people watching this scene vaguely understood something.
The heavy voice spoke again, "Brother Xiang, it seems the truth is coming to light."
"Oh?"
Xiang Long also turned to look at him, "How so?"
Zhang Yan said in a deep voice, "Though I don’t know what happened in the two or three minutes when Brother Du suddenly opened his eyes, there is no doubt that his clone was tampered with. If I’m not mistaken, the one who poisoned him was his clone."
"What!"
Though everyone was already on guard, hearing Zhang Yan say that Du Hao was poisoned by his clone still made them open their mouths in shock.
"Brother Zhang, that can’t be right, can it? How could Brother Du’s clone poison his true self?"
"Yes, the one most loyal to Brother Du is his clone."
"I think so too. If Brother Du’s real body dies, the clone should go with him. Besides, who could control his clone besides Brother Du himself?"
"I know, it seems unbelievable."
Zhang Yan’s eyes swept over the crowd, "But what if Brother Du’s clone was controlled by someone else? In that case, such actions wouldn’t be surprising, right?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell silent.
Indeed, it was possible.
After all, there were many Awakened with mind control, spiritual control, or puppet manipulation abilities. Controlling a clone wasn’t difficult.
But if that was the case, then another problem arose.
If his clone was controlled by someone else, wouldn’t Du Hao have noticed at all?
"Continue," Xiang Long spoke once more.
In the image, Du Hao took out his phone.
Xiang Long clenched his fists.
If he had noticed Du Hao’s call at that time, would this scene have happened?
Zhang Yan and the others behind him also remained silent.
In the image, Du Hao made several calls but received no answer. He put the phone away, and then the door of the secret room opened. Another Du Hao walked in.
"Here we go!"
Everyone was instantly invigorated, eyes wide open, watching the scene closely, not daring to miss a single detail.
The Du Hao in the image looked very cautious. He carefully examined his clone, and after a while, he smiled.
"?"
Everyone was puzzled.
Had he finished checking? Confirmed there was no issue?
But it made sense. No one knew better than Du Hao whether there was something wrong with his clone.
Zhang Yan frowned.
No issue?
That shouldn’t be right?
In his theory, if the clone had a problem, everything that happened made sense.
If there was no problem, how was the poison administered?
Was someone really powerful enough to do that?
No way!
An idea flashed across his mind.
There was another possibility, which was that Du Hao couldn’t find the problem with his clone!
In the image, Du Hao sat on a mat. After a while, he opened his eyes and took a couple of sips of tea before speaking.
In an instant, the room’s atmosphere became extremely tense.
Everyone’s eyes were fixated on the clone.
The clone picked up the teacup, walked to the side, emptied the dregs, and then tore open a packet of Calming Tea, pouring the leaves inside.
So far, everything seemed normal.
Some even sighed in relief, but just then, a small white packet appeared in the clone’s hand.
"What’s that!"
"Poison?"
"The clone really did the poisoning!!!"
At that moment, the room was filled with exclamations.
Even Xiang Long couldn’t help but open his mouth wide.
Wan Qinghua quickly paused the image, waiting nervously.
After a moment, Xiang Long’s voice was ice-cold, "Continue."
At this point, the result was pretty clear.
Du Hao’s real body must have been poisoned by the tea prepared by his clone.
However, some things are hard to believe without seeing them with one’s own eyes.
The image continued,
Du Hao’s clone opened the packet, emptied the powder into the teacup.
The next moment, the packet vanished as if nothing had happened. The clone took the cup to Du Hao, placed it down, and returned to its place to meditate.
"..."
Everyone felt a chill down their spine.
They looked at Du Hao’s corpse and then at the fallen clone.
The result was now obvious.
Du Hao didn’t know that the Calming Tea in front of him had been poisoned.
Actually, if it were any of them, they would never have thought their clone would be the one to kill them.
The following scenes were as they expected.
Du Hao drank the tea and soon died from poisoning.
His actions before his death confirmed their suspicions.
The remaining scenes showed a large group rushing in, witnessing the horror, many turning pale, some even collapsing to the ground.
Then they received word and came.
"Brother Li Yan, your earlier guess was correct. Brother Du Hao indeed died at the hands of his clone," someone sighed, "The mastermind is truly vicious. Knowing that normal methods wouldn’t work on Brother Du Hao, they devised this plan. So ruthless."