Peerless ( Meng Xi Shi )

Using the identity of the Kucha King's nephew was only to suppress the fat one's temper and arrogance. The thin one, however, would still look at Cui Buqu and the rest suspiciously.

However, here in Qiemo, a place far away from the capital, let alone not respecting officers of the Imperial Court like Gao Yi, it was impossible that the Kucha King would send an army to receive his nephew, so never mind the fact that Cui Buqu is only a nephew of the Kucha King right now, even if he is the Kucha King himself, there are a hundred ways Duan Qigu and Xing Mao could make them stay here for ever. In fact, they can achieve that goal without drawing attention.

Both corpses were in the monastery at the moment. Gao Yi refused to go to the monastery, believing that it's bad luck, so he ordered people to use wooden boards and brought the corpses to the front yard of the manor.

The weather is cold, so even though the bodies were placed there for a whole night now, they have yet to radiate any stench, in fact both of them were burned to death, so the corpses were simply a bundle of pitch black, from the surface, it looked very difficult to find any clues.

The fat one simply showed a face of "I want to see how you are going to examine the corpse". Cui Buqu walked around the corpse once, then he beckoned Feng Xiao with a hand, "A-Feng, isn't this what you do best? Come and have a look!"

Feng Xiao: ".…"

A mild scent of something burning entered his nose, and Feng Xiao's lips twitched, "Husband, I just painted my nails last night, can you be the one to examine it, and I simply do the talking?"

Cui Buqu smiled mildly, but he surprisingly said something nice in return, "Of course I can."

He wasn't fuzzy with cleanliness, so he immediately reached out to put a hand on the corpse and begin to examine it.

Cui Buqu touched the chest and made his way up. The corpse's clothes were all burnt to ash, some pieces of it still stuck to its skin, the feeling of touching it wasn't really a good feeling. However, the people watching felt their hairs standing on their skin, the fat one and the thin one could not bear to see and had to use a piece of cloth to cover their nose and mouth. Even Gao Yi took a few steps back, yet Cui Buqu looked completely normal, as if what he was touching is a women with fair and smooth skin, and not a corpse that was burnt into a state and no one was able to recognize him.

Feng Xiao's martial arts were unrivalled among the world, and his intelligence could easily rank among the top below the Heavens, but he knew nothing when it came to examineing corpses. However, Cui Buqu gave him an identity of scholar, so he had no choice but to continue the show by following after Cui Buqu. As he looked at Cui Buqu feeling the corpse, he asked, "What is on the body?"

Cui Buqu, "No wounds on the chest, and on the back..."

He flipped the entire corpse over.

It fell with a 'ka!' sound, and an arm fell onto the ground.

Cui Buqu said innocently, "My strength wasn't much."

Then he turned towards Feng Xiao and said, "A-Feng, please pick up the arm for me."

Qiao Xian immediately turned away, to avoid Gao Yi noticing that she was laughing uncontrollably from the scenery that unfolded.

Feng Xiao touched his forehead with the back of his hand, "Ah, suddenly I'm feeling dizzy. Husband, your wife has just remembered. The physician said that our baby is not even a few months old yet, so I cannot touch anything with negative energy. I think, your wife I should listen to the physician. You wouldn't want your child to be born with an arm missing, wouldn't you?"

Cui Buqu. "….."

He shot Feng Xiao's tummy a glare, remained for a moment, before turning back to the corpse expressionlessly.

"His back bones are unharmed, there are no wounds." Cui Buqu flipped the corpse over and over a few times.

The fat one couldn't help but said, "You've looked at it for half a day now, and you haven't managed to discover anything?"

The thin one, "Isn't this just obstructing our duties?!"

The fat one, "Officer, I think that Li Fei's death is certainly suspicious, please retain these four people and question them thoroughly, from what I see, let us send someone to Kucha and inquire about his nephew, to see whether such a person exist or not. If not, they are definitely the murderers, in fact, they are likely to have taken orders from someone else to murder Li Fei!"

The thin one felt displeased and said, "What orders? You need to speak clearly, don't frame others without basis!"

The fat one, "Who am I talking about?!"

It seemed like both of them were prepared to argue with each other again. Gao Yi was already long used to it. Never mind that Cui Buqu has just taken out the golden seal and verified his identity, even if they were masquerading as people from the Jianghu province, he had no interest in meddling with their business.

After he came to this place and knew of Duan Qigu and Xing Mao's relationship, Gao Yi had extinguished the fire in his heart that originally wanted to climb up the ranks. When these years have passed, he wouldn't even mind simply getting an ordinary, average status. As long as he could leave this place behind, even if he was a low-ranking magistrate of a very small city, it would definitely be better compared to this place. In Qiemo, although he obtained quite a lot of benefits from both Xing Mao and Duan Qigu, the fact that he was trapped in the middle, often put between a rock and a hard place, was a difficult life to live.

From the side of his ears, Cui Buqu's voice sounded in a slow and steady pace, "Although these two people have no wounds on their chest or backs, but they are definitely victims of evil hands, before being burned to death."

Three of then looked stunned, even the fat one and the thin one stopped arguing.

"Don't you dare speak whatever you please and spread nonsense!"

Cui Buqu said, "You people, look at his mouth."

He opened the mouth of one of the corpses. Gao Yi couldn't help his curiousity and looked, the fat one and the thin one also had no choice but to stomach their disgust and walk up to look as well.

"If he was burned to death, his nose and mouth would have definitely inhaled the smoke and ashes, but these two people's mouths are clean, so they were dead long before they were burned."

Gao Yi originally didn't want to interfere in the matter, but when he heard that they were burned to death, he also did not suspect anything to it, so he simply asked, "Then how did they die, can that be revealed?"

Cui Buqu reached out to hold the nape of the corpse's neck before stopping for a while, "A-Feng, come here and take a look."

"It's fine if you just tell me from there." Feng Xiao assumed as Cui Buqu was purposely setting up another pit and that it was waiting for him, so he refused to go forwards no matter what.

Cui Buqu turned around and looked at him with a smile, saying softly and gently, "Lives are at stake, if we discovered the reason of death, we can help the dead reclaim justice. A-Feng, I know ever since we lost our baby, you never stopped being devastated, and kept imagining that the baby is still in your womb. This is why we need to return the justice owed to these victims, and earn a little good deed in the name of our baby, isn't that right?"

Feng Xiao twitched his lips "...You are definitely cruel.

Cui Buqu raised an eyebrow: Who asked you to spout lies like a river, so now I can continue your lies? If you don't roll here soon, I'm going to show you more of my 'moves'.

Both of them had incredibly intense gazes, until Feng Xiao finally gave in and forced himself to take a step forward, walking to the corpse's side. He stomached his disgust and reached out to touch the nape of the corpse as well.

After a while, he said, "There is a crack at the back of his neck. The murderer's skills are superb, he should rightfully be one that practiced martial arts. The bones are cracked, yet they did not fell apart. If one did not feel properly, they could not have discovered it."

Gao Yi ordered a coroner to examine the corpse as well, and they reached the same conclusion as Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu.

The fat one suddenly said, "I knew he was murdered. Li Fei usually only minded his own business in the stall, and he seldom went out. Who would he make an enemy of? This is obviously because someone wants to end all the loyal subordinates of my Master!"

The thin one said angrily, "If you have the guts, then name the culprit yourself! Don't waste time vaguely hinting!"

The fat one, "So what if I point him out? In Qiemo, who wouldn't know that Duan Qigu could break gold and shatter jades with those hands of his?!"

The thin one laughed coldly, "If our Master wants to murder someone, why would he need to do it himself? Don't you have any brains?!"

Their bickering made Gao Yi feel himself slowly getting a headache, so he couldn't help and shouted at them, "Shut up both of you!"

The fat one and the thin one dare not get over themselves, so they immediately shut up.

Gao Yi, "The truth of this case is not yet clear, so you people do not need to argue pointlessly among yourselves. Later I will sent people to investigate everything in detail, if there are favourable results, you lot will be informed."

After he spoke, he sent both of them away.

As they watch Gao Yi let out a breathe of relief, Cui Buqu smiled a non-commital smile, "Officer Gao, you should be the reigning power of this city, why do you need to conduct yourself according to the mood of others?"

Gao Yi has a good temper, so he was not angered by those words, instead, he laughed bitterly, "Marquis, there is something you do not know. This city is controlled by Xing Mao and Duan Qigu, and has been for a long time, I am simply a representation of the Imperial Court's orders, but my powers are limited."

Cui Buqu, "My uncle, the Kucha King, ordered me to roam the Central Plains. So I went to the Sui Empire and the Northern Dynasty, and I discovered that compared to the South, the North possessed a stronger desire for advancement, therefore, I believe that not long later, the Sui Empire could rein over both the Nothern and Southern Dynasties, at that time whether it is Duan Qigu or Xing Mao, how could they stand against the soldiers of the Sui Empire? Officer Gao, you, too, need to show your contribution."

Gao Yi said in his heart, "At the present the Sui Empire could not even do anything towards the Göktürks, how would they pay attention to a small city like Qiemo?" But he is an officer of the Sui Empire, so he could not eliminate his own dignity in front of a foreigner, so he simply answers with a few meaningless words that showed his acknowledgement, and moved on.

Of course he could not have guessed that, not long later, it was this young nephew of the Kucha King that looked sickly and ill, and his strange wife who couldn't stop pinching her throat when she spoke, would be the two people that stabilized the entire Qiemo. They are the ones that flattened the three pillar of powers and put the city officially on the map of the Sui Empire, accomplishing what Gao Yi himself could not have done.

At that moment, Gao Yi also did not know that the back of these four people are incredibly shocking, he heard Qiao Xian asked, "Duan Qigu was born a horse thief, what fate does he have to be one of the reigning powers of Qiemo, and could garner so many followers?"

Gao Yi, "I am not too sure of it myself. I heard that he is skilled in earning the hearts of his followers. Even if he earned a copper penny, he would share it with all his subordinates. Naturally, all the people loved him. He is the leader of his pack with a heroic heart. In this city, one third of the business here belonged to him, even when it came to martial arts, it was said that he was an extraordinary fighter himself."

Comparing both of them, it seemed that Xing Mao depended on his background as the descendant of the Shanshan King, his wealth, men, followers, and provisions were superior compared to Duan Qigu, only could he hold his stance and became one of the ones in power.

The case was had no beginning or motive, other than the cracks found on the corpses, it was very difficult to look for other clues. They would not be getting any conclusion in a short amount of time. Gao Yi had no heart to investigate the case. He naturally wouldn't treat Cui Buqu and his company badly, so he allowed them to return back to the inn. His only request was for them to remain in the city for a while, so they could be summoned whenever they were needed.

Feng Xiao asked Gao Yi for a basin of water. He used detergent to wash his hands a dozen times, but he still felt that the smelled lingered, so he went to a cosmetic stall to purchase a few fragrance pouches to rubs his hands with.

Qiao Xian couldn't help herself mocking him, "He really treats himself like a lady now!"

Feng Xiao, "Are you looking down on yourself, or looking down on Jin Lian?"

Qiao Xian rolled her eyes. Jin Lian tried to make peace and said, "Although we are women, we do not have your level of fuzziness."

Feng Xiao, "For myself to be happy, compared to looking at someone else being happy, I myself often chose the first."

Cui Buqu felt that it was boring in the inn. He preferred to go out and take a walk, so he let Qiao Xian and Jin Lian return first, while he accompanied Feng Xiao to the cosmetic stall to purchase fragrance pouches.

Both of them wanted to take the shortcut, so they both a small alley that only allowed two person to walk through. Since with this way, they did not need to take a huge detour in order to reach their destination.

Who knew that this decision was a wrong decision, for Feng Xiao met an old familiar.

From a corner in front, a white figure floated towards them.

The strategist of Prince Jin, Yu Xiu the monk.

This time he wasn't alone, someone else was at his side.

As the four people are about to meet, turning back would be impossible. With Yu Xiu's slyness and sharpness, he might be able to recognize them from their disguises.

Feng Xiao decided to go big or go home, he immediately tore openhis collar then pulled Cui Buqu on top of him, pressed himself against the wall.

He even said in a very seductive, womanly voice, "Husband, don't be in such a hurry ma ~ Doing things like these under broad daylight, how would I have the face to see others later!"

Cui Buqu "..…"