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Chapter 451: You Win

Chu Qingli’s followers couldn’t be the ones either. They were weak enough that he saw through them with ease.

As for the jianghu warriors eating in the restaurant, their tables were far enough that he would’ve noticed if they had tried something.

It could be the doing of an exceptionally powerful warrior, but if they were that strong, then they wouldn’t need to go through the trouble. They could just snuff him out like an ant.

If it wasn’t a person, then it could only be an object. His intuition immediately pointed him toward the strange food he ate, specifically Where Goes The Soul.

The reason he arrived at this conclusion was because his companions had partaken in every strange dish on the table except Where Goes The Soul. More accurately, they had exactly one spoonful of the soup.

That was most likely the reason why he was the only one who had succumbed to the influence.

Was it the waiter? Assuming that the dish was tampered with, then the waiter who brought them the dishes was the most suspect.

Ye Qing immediately dashed toward the back kitchens.

“He’s trying to run away! Stop him!”

The three shadow guards thought Ye Qing was trying to escape and blocked his path immediately. However, Ye Qing easily knocked them out by tapping the space in front of him with his finger.

Ye Qing found the waiter immediately after he entered the back kitchens. He rushed forward and grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Customer?” The waiter recognized him and asked in a puzzled voice, “Can I help you with something?”

The back kitchens were a fair distance away from the dining hall. Clearly, neither he nor the kitchen staff was aware that a prince had just died in their establishment.

Ye Qing frowned. His demonic thought told him that the waiter wasn’t really feeling anything, and he especially couldn’t sense a shred of fear, worry or guilt from him. It didn’t fit the mentality of a person harboring malicious designs at all.

He couldn’t say he was surprised. If the waiter really was the culprit, then he would’ve booked it a long time ago. He wouldn’t be staying here and waiting for Ye Qing to catch him.

“Did you encounter anyone when you were carrying that Where Goes The Soul to my table? Or did something unusual happen?” Ye Qing asked.

“I don’t understand…”

“Answer me!” Ye Qing raised his voice and released his aura.

Blood draining away from his face, the waiter stuttered, “N-No, warrior. I-I mean, I carried the Where Goes The Soul to you as soon as it was ready. I did walk past a few waiters on the way, but as far as I’m aware, nothing out of the ordinary had happened.”

Ye Qing’s brows knitted deeper. “Who’s the chef of this dish? Where is he right now?”

Besides the waiter, the only one who had many opportunities to make contact with the dish without arousing suspicion was the chef themselves.

“It’s… It’s… Chef Yun Wu. He’s working in Kitchen No. 9 right now,” the waiter answered.

Every strange chef had their own signature dish, and they hoarded the recipes and cooking methods like their own life for obvious reasons. That was why they were afforded individual kitchens to work at.

Ye Qing let go of the waiter and appeared at Kitchen No. 9. As expected, it was conspicuously empty.

Got you!

Ye Qing’s triumph only lasted an instant, however. This discovery confirmed that his guess was true, and that this was yet another attempt to take his life. But so what? The culprit was already long gone. Moreover, the fact that this person dared to conspire against him and the prince meant that he must be fully prepared. The chance he would leave behind some sort of clue for him to pursue was exactly zero.

Yun Wu was obviously a fake name. Even his appearance could be fake. He could be a she for all he knew.

Since the culprit had joined Food Is Heaven just a few days ago, he highly doubted that they knew much about his background either.

He might have figured out how his enemy had put him in this situation, but it didn’t help his predicament one bit.

It reminded him of the day the Corpse Ship had kidnapped him, and the moment Zhao Lan had suddenly transformed into the Hanba. Both dangers had happened without warning, and there were no clues left behind to be traced afterward.

This incident reeked of the same modus operandi. Yes, he was certain that this was done by the same person behind the two incidents.

“What a careful, devious bastard,” Ye Qing muttered darkly. He looked calm on the outside, but on the inside he was a raging sea of shock, indignation, and cold fury.

A web of cause and effect slowly appeared in his head. The mastermind wanted to kill him through Zhao Lan, but he defied everyone’s expectations and successfully overcame the crisis. So, they came up with a different plan.

The mastermind was well-studied in the potency and effects of the Hanba’s blood essence. They also knew what kind of damage it inflicted upon its victims. That was why they secretly joined Food Is Heaven to spread the news about Where Goes The Soul, a strange dish that could supposedly treat such wounds. They knew he wouldn’t be able to resist if he heard about the news, and he had fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

Was it a coincidence or a deliberate effort that Chu Qingli had died in his hands? Having experienced the mastermind’s death traps not once, but twice during the short time he was participating in the Hidden Dragon Meet, he had to believe that it was the latter.

The mastermind had learned of the Corpse Ship’s appearance at Yonghe Lake before the Pacification Bureau. They also played Zhao Lan like a fiddle. If he was anyone else, he would be dead already, and even then, the real reason he survived those two ordeals was, frankly, luck.

Considering how meticulous the mastermind was, there was no reason to believe that Chu Qingli had appeared here by chance. In fact, the whole plan was to manipulate him into killing Chu Qingli, son of the Harmony King, in public and earning himself the death sentence.

Despite knowing full well that someone was conspiring against him, he didn’t have a shred of evidence to support his theory whatsoever. His opponent was like a veteran strange hunter who concealed themselves perfectly in the shadows while laying bait after bait to lure their preys into their death traps. No matter what choice they made, they were always moving toward a death trap that would rip their bodies into pieces. They weren’t even given the satisfaction of knowing who their killer was before their souls were delivered to the Western Paradise.

He had been lucky enough to survive the hunter’s first two death traps. He didn’t know if he would survive a third. He truly didn’t.

Hong Jianglong would believe him because he was a member of the Pacification Bureau. But what about the others?

Would the Harmony King believe that he was innocent?

Would Lei Xiaodan believe that he was innocent?

The people only believed in what they saw, and at least a hundred pairs of eyes had seen him killing Chu Qingli with his own two hands. He could commit suicide this instant, and he still wouldn’t be able to clear his name.

“You win.”

Ye Qing looked up and exhaled deeply.

Rumble!

Someone kicked open the door to the back kitchen. The next moment, a troop of soldiers filed through the entrance. They were wearing heavy armor and wielding a heavy shield and a heavy crossbow.

When the squad leader spotted Ye Qing, he yelled harshly, “The punishment for killing a prince is death! Kill him!”

Twang twang twang!

The soldiers pulled the triggers and sent a hail of crossbow bolts sailing through the air. The kitchen staff was still in the kitchen, but the soldiers couldn’t care less about them. Every room, every piece of furniture in the back kitchen was turned into pincushions, and everyone except Ye Qing died not because they were guilty, but because they were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“The Hengshan Army?!”

Ye Qing slowly thrust his fist forward. Space shook, and the crossbow bolts flying toward him abruptly changed directions and planted themselves in the floor.

These soldiers belonged to the Hengshan Army, and his demonic thought told him that the whole restaurant was surrounded. Considering that it had only been minutes since the prince died, their appearance clearly wasn’t a coincidence. This must be another one of the mastermind’s gifts.

The Hengshan Army wasn’t originally part of the city patrol, but the Regional Inspection Office was running low on manpower due to the sheer number of jianghu warriors flooding into Tian Yong for the Hidden Dragon Meet. That was why the Hengshan Army was brought back to keep them in line and preserve the order.

The mastermind had included the Hengshan Army into their scheme. They certainly planned for everything and left nothing to chance.

On a related note, the Hengshan Army had tried to kill him as soon as they saw him. There were only two possibilities. One, the mastermind was part of the Hengshan Army. Two, the Hengshan Army was driven by their hatred for the Pacification Bureau. Hong Jianglong had rubbed their faces on the floor not long ago, and Zhou Hengshan made it crystal clear that he was against Hong Jianglong and the Pacification Bureau. Now that a golden opportunity to take the Pacification Bureau down a peg had fallen into their laps, of course they were going to wring it for all its worth.

Whatever the truth might be, he was in a terrible spot. Surrender wasn’t an option, so the only path left for him was to escape.