"So it was really done by Ren Mengyao?" Fu Jie questioned. For some reason, he had the feeling that this wasn't the case. Although he had never met the man or known him personally, Fu Jie could still feel that Ren Mengyao wasn't a person who would do something like this. He had no idea where this feeling came from and he was shocked at himself for thinking like this.
Putting your trust in a person nobody else trusted? Fu Jie would have to be stupid to do something like that and thankfully, he was stupid enough to do something as useless as that.
Dai Xiaobo frowned and shook his head as he answered, "Not necessarily."
Xu Lifen also nodded as she added, "This wasn't him."
Fu Jie looked at them curiously as he waited for one of them to speak up and give a reason for their belief.
This time it was Chen Qiao, who had spoken up, "The resentment Ren Mengyao uses is different."
Fu Jie furrowed his eyebrows as he wondered how they were able to tell the difference between resentment energy.
Resentment was resentment! How could it be different?!
Dai Xiaobo, who had been the first to find out about this new clue finally decided to share the knowledge that he had gained by slicing the hand of the corpse, "This man was poisoned, but before the poison could kick in, his eyes were gouged out and the cause of his death wasn't the poison."
Fu Jie was even more confused and shocked.
Just how bad of a death did this guy get?!
"His blood was sucked out when he was still alive and he died from excessive blood loss. The resentment was naturally built after the death, but since the murder was fresh, the resentment shouldn't have been this much. " Dai Xiaobo continued, "It should have been hardly detectable and not so strong."
Fu Jie had always thought that the newly formed corpse had higher resentment energy inside them, but it seems that he was wrong.
Xu Lifen nodded as she added, "The man was poisoned and tortured before he died, however, there wasn't enough time for all the resentment to build in."
Fu Jie, "Then how come there is so much resentment?"
Chen Qiao, "The culprit used something to amplify the resentment."
Dai Xiaobo stood up and this time, he used his sword to poke the corpse.
"Eh! Stop! " Fu Jie moved forward to stop his senior martial brother who seemed to have not been in his right mind.
The people standing around already thought that these Maple passion pavilion cultivators were the culprits so if they were to see Dai Xiaobo poking holes on the dead body, there was no way they would be able to clear their name after that.
Even if they weren't the culprit, it was still disrespectful to go poking holes in a dead body. Poking holes on a person who was still alive was much better than poking a dead man, at least, this was what Fu Jie believed in.
"What are you trying to do?" Fu Jie questioned.
Dai Xiaobo pursed his lips but said nothing.
They heard Xu Lifen suddenly exclaiming, "Could it be that the resentment was mixed with the poison?"
"Eh?"
Chen Qiao's eyes widened as he understood what Xu Lifen was trying to say, "So the poison was used to amplify the resentment?"
Xu Lifen nodded in response, "Think about it, why poison someone when you weren't even aiming to kill them with poison? The blood loss was the reason for the death and had nothing to do with the poison. The poison is certainly deadly and erodes your skin. Such poison is hard to come by and super pricy. Nobody would want to waste it on a person they weren't even planning to kill with the poison."
Fu Jie tried his best to catch everything and he couldn't help but question, "Maybe the poison was used to weaken the victim?"
Dai Xiaobo suddenly shook his head as he answered, "The poison takes time to act. In this case, the poison eroded the tongue after the person had died."
Fu Jie, "Oh..."
Fu Jie suddenly thought about something completely out of context: If this man's death had been a question that the students were given to solve in the university examination paper, Fu Jie was sure that nobody would have passed that exam, him included.
Xu Lifen, "A poison that erodes the skin and attracts resentment energy in a corpse... Senior martial brother Dai, have you ever heard of such a poison?"
Dai Xiaobo shook his head and didn't say anything.
Chen Qiao, "A new poison?"
Xu Lifen pursed her lips and nodded.
That really seemed to be the case.
Dai Xiaobo frowned as he added, "The poison is made out of resentment energy."
"I get it!" Xu Lifen suddenly exclaimed, "If the poison is made out of resentment energy, it would stay in the body and try to collect more resentment. Once the resentment gets strong enough, it would start to harm the physical body."
Fu Jie suddenly understood that this resentment energy was like a magnet. If it was added to a body, it would sit there and attract more resentment.
Chen Qiao cringed as he heard this, "Who would make something like that?"
Xu Lifen sighed, "If I knew the answer to that, we wouldn't have been standing here."
Fu Jie squinted as he asked, "Senior martial brother Dai, can I ask you a question?"
Dai Xiaobo looked at Fu Jie and nodded reluctantly, "go ahead."
Fu Jie, "How did you know that the wine was poisoned?"
Dai Xiaobo was silent for a minute as he seemed to ponder over the answer, "The smell."
Fu Jie, "If you figured it out due to the smell, how come you didn't know about the resentment energy contained within it?"
Chen Qiao and Xu Lifen both seemed to be shocked as they heard this. For the first time, Fu Jie had actually managed to ask a logical question.
Resentment energy had no smell, but if one was a cultivator that had achieved a certain level of cultivation, they would be able to detect resentment energy. Dai Xiaobo had noticed the resentment energy inside the corpse and so he sliced the arm of the corpse. According to the theory given by Dai Xiaobo, the poison was made from resentment energy and if that was really the case, how come they didn't notice it in the wine?
Dai Xiaobo frowned as he spoke up, "The resentment energy was concealed."
Xu Lifen also seemed to be a bit confused as she asked, "But how could it be concealed just like that? The smell has nothing to do with it. If someone were able to conceal the resentment energy, wouldn't that person have to be... a demon?"
Dai Xiaobo nodded, "The culprit is certainly not just a ferocious ghoul or a mere human."
Fu Jie gulped as he felt a shiver go down his spine.
Chen Qiao, "Then it's definitely not Ren Mengyao."
Xu Lifen and Dai Xiaobo nodded.
Ren Mengyao was an amazing demonic cultivator, but in the end, he was still just a cultivator and not a full demon.
The culprit, they were dealing with was definitely a demon.
Fu Jie didn't know what his current feelings were. He was somehow happy to know that he was right about trusting Ren Mengyao but he was also worried about the fact that it wasn't Ren Mengyao.
Ren Mengyao was still a human so it was easy to deal with him, whereas, the one they were currently dealing with was a demon. Fu Jie didn't trust himself enough and he had every right not to trust himself.
With his current knowledge of this world and his own control over his powers, there was no way he would be able to beat a demon. If he were to fight a demon, Fu Jie was sure that losing would be the last of his worries. The first thing he would need to worry about would certainly be keeping his life intact. He would surely be dying if he were to fight against a demon.
"This would be a bit troublesome," Xu Lifen commented.
Chen Qiao, "So a demon is after us now?"
Shit...
Fu Jie just realized that the culprit, he wanted to catch was a demon. Maybe he needed to thank the other three for being cowards and stopping him in time. They were right in leaving the tavern without trying to cause any extra trouble.
But...
Fu Jie couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding in his stomach when he thought about it.
A demon was after them...
I'm gonna die, aren't I...?