CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 26: BLACK IRON

Zhu Yu, hearing his description and then seeing the gestures he made, suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of confusion.

What she feared most in the past was exactly this thing, which she ultimately couldn’t avoid.

"I will need the help of you two brothers for this." She summoned Fu Lu to her side. "In a moment, cover your mouth and nose with a cloth. Once inside, don’t bother with anything else, just move the largest and weirdest one to a place closer to the cave entrance.

Remember, you’ve got to be gentle and slow, handle with care and don’t use too much strength!"

Fu Wen and Fu Lu exchanged glances, a bit puzzled but without objection, they accepted Zhu Yu’s instructions. The brothers improvised by tearing a piece of cloth from their clothes, covered their noses and mouths, and entered the cave.

Shortly, the two of them could be seen struggling to move outward, and as they moved, the stench grew stronger.

At a point not too far from the cave entrance where it was less suffocating and a bit brighter, Zhu Yu signaled for them to place the corpse on the ground.

Lu Qing frowned, noticing this, Zhu Yu pushed him outward. "You all should go stand in the breeze over there, otherwise the stench will overwhelm you."

Once she sent the three away, Zhu Yu put a cloth mask on herself, retrieved a small cloth bundle from her pocket, and approached the massive figure that Fu Wen and Fu Lu had just moved out.

The person didn’t seem particularly tall, yet was enormous like a mountain, with a belly round as a drum. The face and neck exposed outside looked eerily greenish-gray.

Clearly dressed like someone from Jin Country, yet a single glance showed the eyes bulging and the lips thick, unlike the features of Central Plains people.

Zhu Yu sighed resignedly, stopping near the corpse, placing the small bundle beside her, and undoing the string tied around it.

After an imperial edict for marriage fell on her, Zhu Cheng summoned her, asking what she wanted. Zhu Yu thought for a moment, saying she just wanted a set of tools forged from Black Iron.

This simple request only made Zhu Cheng smile, not taking it seriously at all. He instructed his guards to take Zhu Yu to the Weapon Supervision so she could tell the craftsmen there what she wanted.

Thus, Zhu Yu asked a craftsman to forge a set of tools for her. At the time, she didn’t think much of it, just holding onto some complex feelings, wanting to leave a memento of her past.

But now, seeing it come in handy again, Zhu Yu didn’t know whether she should believe in fate.

Despite her internal doubts, her hands didn’t pause. There was no time now to ponder these things.

She crouched down before the enormous corpse, enduring the overwhelming stench, quickly examining it, noticing its mouth slightly open, revealing a glimpse of a large, fat tongue that seemed on the brink of bursting out.

Zhu Yu deftly uncovered the already torn clothing on the corpse, carefully pressing the skin with her fingers, frowning, shaking her head slightly, and extracted an item from the small cloth bundle she had spread earlier.

While Zhu Yu was engrossed in her work, Lu Qing quietly approached her from behind, immediately identifying the item in her hand, forged from Black Iron, a shade much darker than ordinary metal, with a kind of ghostly light glowing around it.

Black Iron was unique to Shuo Country, so it wasn’t surprising at all that Zhu Yu, as the daughter of Prince Shuo, had tools made of Black Iron.

However, the object seemed peculiar: about the thickness of a pinky, tapered to a point, resembling an Emei Needle but missing the spearhead, it was hollow in the middle.

Zhu Yu carefully probed the corpse’s bloated belly, soon identifying the right spot, promptly inserting the strange "thin rod" of Black Iron into it, then swiftly dodged to the side.

A truly indescribable foul odor spread instantly, as purulent yellow filthy liquid spewed from the Black Iron "thin rod" and spilled onto the ground.

With the expulsion of the dirty liquid and foul-smelling gas, the corpse that had been swelled like a mountain rapidly deflated, returning to the size of a normal human, yet still hardly resembling a "person".

If not for the intense stench, Zhu Yu would have loved to take a deep breath of relief, seeing as the immediate crisis seemed resolved, at least removing the threat of the corpse swelling too much and exploding, drenching them with "human juices".

"With the current weather, cool mornings and evenings with hot noons, calculating from experience, this person has been lying here for over five days," Zhu Yu remarked, pulling out the hollow Black Iron pipe, flicking it to clean off the remaining mess, "If he initially had a puncture wound in his waist and abdomen, he wouldn’t have ended up like this..."

Talking to herself, she reached to examine the ribs of the corpse, soon noticing an unusual dent, a sign of realization spread on Zhu Yu’s face.

The series of foul stench waves were dizzying. She quickly checked the corpse from head to toe before stopping, packed up her tools, stood up, and swiftly exited the cave, heading to the breezy spot to catch her breath.

Seeing Lu Qing approaching out of the corner of her eye, Zhu Yu instinctively dodged to the side, but Lu Qing quickly pulled her close.

"I’m reeking terribly," said Zhu Yu hurriedly.

Lu Qing glanced behind her: "A bit of smell is fine, just be cautious of the cliff.

If you fall from here, you’re either going to break some bones or lose your mind."

Zhu Yu looked back at where she had just stood, realizing she was just one step away from the cliff at the cave’s edge.

Her realization made her break into a cold sweat.

"Master, your complexion doesn’t look well. Should I go buy some baizhi and cangshu to burn?" Fu Lu inquired, having observed government office examiners burning herbs before examining bodies, to scatter evil spirits and prevent the stench from overwhelming them.

"No need," Zhu Yu shook her head. "Ordinary people don’t purposely buy all those herbs. If you go buying those things, would you also need to get a burner and some vinegar to stew and burn?

It would just alert others to the private investigation taking place.

Not only should we avoid detection, but later, you and Fu Lu have to put all the corpses back as you found them, so no one notices they were examined."

Fu Wen and Fu Lu, both efficient with their hands, soon restored the place to its prior state.

Except for that colossal corpse, which had returned to its original size.

Fu Lu took out a waterskin from his waist, and the few of them washed the filth from their hands before Zhu Yu was eager to leave the foul-smelling cave.

"Master..." Fu Wen hesitated, glancing into the cave one last time, unsure. "That corpse was swollen like a drum and is deflated now. What if the thieves return and..."

Zhu Yu paused, turning her face to him: "When you found this place yesterday, was he like that?"

After a moment of thought, Fu Wen shook his head: "He didn’t seem as swollen as today."

"Exactly, there’s no need to worry. The perpetrator might not even know the corpse could become like that." Zhu Yu waved her hand, "Let’s move, staying any longer risks getting overly affected by the stench."