The midnight mist crawled slowly over the decaying leaves.
By the time the group arrived, Han Jin's corpse was still hanging from the dead tree.
Zhou Yi took only one look before collapsing onto his rear in sheer terror.
“H-Han Jin...”
Su Xiaoman covered her mouth and gasped. She looked as though she wanted to cry, but when her eyes fell upon his mangled, bloody lower body, nothing remained but uncontrollable terror.
Xu Zhiheng stood at the very front. Instead of immediately approaching the corpse, he scanned the churned black mud beneath the tree, then turned to Kolo, who was standing nearby, and asked.
“Did you find him?”
Kolo nodded, her tone honest. “The unicorn brought me here.”
Zhou Yi whipped his head around. “A unicorn? You mean that super rare, legendary creature?”
Kolo looked up at him. “Yes.”
“Then when you saw it, why didn't you wake us up first instead of chasing after it alone?”
Kolo was calm and unhurried, as if she were imparting a piece of common knowledge.
“When tracking, the more people there are, the more noise you make.”
Zhou Yi and Xu Zhiheng exchanged a look.
Xu Zhiheng didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes as he watched Kolo grew deeper.
This was indeed far too coincidental.
Han Jin had left the campsite alone, Kolo had vanished shortly after, and in the end, she was the one who led everyone to the corpse.
As for the so-called unicorn, only Kolo had seen it so far.
But suspicion was just suspicion; Xu Zhiheng was not ready to jump to conclusions just yet.
This masked woman possessed incredible strength, and her identity remained a mystery.
Turning against her without sufficient evidence would only push the native mercenaries to her side.
What's more, Zhou Yi was already losing his patience.
Letting him speak first was the perfect opportunity to see how Kolo would react.
If she felt guilty, she would naturally expose a weakness, which he could then use to demand conditions and extract benefits.
If she truly had nothing to do with Han Jin's death, then only Zhou Yi would have offended her.
Zhou Yi didn't realize he was being used as a stepping stone to test the waters.
Seeing the look Xu Zhiheng gave him, he immediately understood and pointed a finger at Kolo.
“You vanished right after Han Jin left. Now that he's dead, you claim a unicorn led you to him. How could there be such a convenient coincidence in this world?”
Kolo understood his suspicion, but she couldn't comprehend this way of reasoning.
There was no scent, no trace, and no eyewitness. Could they really pin a murder on her just because she was the last one standing near the corpse?
In her mind, things either were or they weren't.
The way humans judged prey was truly an incomprehensible absurdity.
“What are you trying to say?”
Zhou Yi felt a chill run down his spine under her icy gaze, but he braced himself and spoke anyway.
“Who's to say Han Jin didn't catch you chasing the unicorn, and you silenced him to stop him from stealing your lead!”
“What nonsense are you talking?”
Milo suddenly spoke up, quickly stepping in front of Kolo.
“Kolo was still at the campsite when Han Jin left. She was leaning against the rock the entire time; she didn't follow him at all.”
Zhou Yi sneered. “And then? Did you watch her stay there the entire time?”
Milo's lips twitched.
He hadn't, because his eyes had been glued to Rena all night.
At his sleepiest, he could barely make out the firelight, let alone keep track of when Kolo had slipped away.
Recovering from her panic, Su Xiaoman shrank behind Xu Zhiheng and spoke.
“After Han Jin left, she was the only one who chased after him, and she was the first to find the body. Maybe she really did kill Han Jin!”
Kolo glanced at her, her voice calm. “If I wanted to kill him, why would I bring you here?”
“Maybe you just wanted to use this to clear your name,” Zhou Yi countered immediately.
Kolo finally understood.
She had brought these people here out of goodwill, only to be treated as a murderer.
She unslung the massive weapon from her back, letting its base crash heavily onto the ground, crushing a large patch of decaying leaves.
“I said, it wasn't me. If you still doubt me, come and fight me.”
“Whoever wins is the one in the right.”
Zhou Yi instinctively took a step back. Damon thrust his iron shield between them, glaring coldly at the Descenders.
“Shut your mouths if you don't have proof. But if you insist on fighting, I won't stop you from joining him in the grave.”
Ryan held his bow, using a torch to closely examine the wounds on the corpse, and analyzed the situation.
“These wounds weren't caused by a heavy weapon.”
“The bones aren't fractured, and there's no large-scale tearing of the flesh. It looks more like it was repeatedly sliced by something sharp.”
“If the little girl really did it, there would be no need for her to go through the trouble of hanging him from a tree.”
Zhou Yi wanted to say more, but Xu Zhiheng raised a hand to stop him.
“Stop arguing for a moment.” His gaze locked onto Kolo. “I only have a few questions.”
“When did you leave the campsite?”
Kolo said, “After I saw the unicorn.”
“How long had Han Jin been gone?”
“I don't know.”
“Was he still alive when you found him?”
“He was already dead.”
“Did you touch the body?”
“No.”
Having finished questioning Kolo, Xu Zhiheng turned to Milo.
“You said just now that Kolo was still at the campsite when Han Jin left.”
Milo nodded immediately.
“Yes.”
“What about Rena?”
Milo's body stiffened, his gaze slowly shifting to Rena, who was standing outside the crowd.
Xu Zhiheng's tone was calm. “Haven't you been watching her this whole time? Did she leave?”
Milo desperately wanted to say yes.
If only Rena had left, if only he could find a single flaw, then everything would make sense.
But the reality he had witnessed was unfortunately not like that.
Rena had been sitting by the fire from beginning to end.
She had poked the fire and even spoken to him.
She hadn't taken a single step away.
“No.”
Milo squeezed the word out with great difficulty.
Zhou Yi said immediately, “Did you hear that? That woman didn't leave. After Han Jin went, only this masked woman chased after him.”
“It wasn't her!”
Milo suddenly raised his voice, startling the birds roosting in the trees, their dark shapes flapping into the night mist.
Zhou Yi frowned, refusing to back down. “If not her, then who? Don't tell me Han Jin was killed by a ghost?”
Milo opened his mouth, but no answer came.
Kolo was a helper he had hired; she had no reason to kill Han Jin.
Yet Rena had indeed never left his sight, and Han Jin had died barely a hundred meters from the campsite.
The two conflicting facts repeatedly clashed in his mind.
“She didn't leave...”
Milo murmured, repeating the words, but his eyes suddenly snapped to Rena, his voice growing frantic.
“But there's definitely something wrong with her.”
“She isn't Rena.”
Zhou Yi stared at him as if looking at a madman.
“You just proved she was at the campsite the entire time, and now you're saying there's something wrong with her?”
“I didn't say Rena killed him!”
Milo suddenly clutched his head, his voice growing more and more frantic.
“The real Rena died a long time ago!”
“It wasn't Rena who killed him, it was the thing wearing her face!”
“Why can't you guys understand?!”
Falling into a daze, Milo suddenly stopped. He realized that the way everyone was looking at him had changed.
Milo felt as if his head were crammed with voices.
One voice told him that the real Rena had been left behind in that castle, and there was no way she could have appeared in Grey Oak Village completely unharmed.
Yet another voice constantly reminded him that the person in front of him had not shown a single flaw.
The two voices tore at each other, almost ripping his skull apart.
Rena remained silent throughout.
She stood outside the crowd, quietly watching Milo.
It was as if the harder he tried to explain, the more it proved her innocence.
Xu Zhiheng withdrew his gaze and spoke flatly.
“Milo is not in his right mind. His words cannot be taken as evidence for now.”
Milo snapped his head up. “I am perfectly sane!”
Yet no one around him paid him any attention.
Xu Zhiheng finally walked toward Han Jin's corpse.
He first used his scabbard to push aside the hanging vines, confirming that the roots had already lost their vitality. Only then did he cut the vines, lowering Han Jin's body slightly, and pressed his hand against his intact chest.
A moment later, a prompt visible only to Descenders floated before his eyes.
【Death of a party member detected.】
【The party leader may take over the ownerless inventory.】
【Do you wish to claim all remaining items?】
Xu Zhiheng did not hesitate.
【Yes.】
Rate on N.U.
