Chapter 2459  Mysterious a.s.sa.s.sin

While Lin Mu had managed to sense the presence of the Black Ying Empire members before due to his experience with them, he still wasn"t as good as Little Shrubby at it.

Thankfully, the beast was fast and returned within a minute.

~WHOOSH~

~ROAR~

The large form of Little Shrubby landed in the courtyard, startling the servants. "Hoho, is that the Crimson Phantom?" The Treasury minister was surprised. "This is the first time I"m actually seeing it in person." "Little Shrubby, is she the same as others?" Lin Mu asked.

The minister was intrigued hearing this. "So the Crimson Phantom is his tamed beast? That certainly suits the position of an Imperator." He couldn"t help but think.

The rotund man had to admit the beast was rather imposing with its size. Not to mention the fearsome aura that was radiating from Little Shrubby was enough to make weaker individuals tremble. Some might even pa.s.s out just from the pressure.

Many immortals would be intimidated facing a beast like this, but thankful for the Minister he was no normal immortal either.

He might not look like it, but he was one of the elites and had received great training too. ~sniff~

Little Shrubby lightly sniffed the air, and shook his head.

"She"s not." Little Shrubby reported. "She does have some peculiar scents on her though." He added.

"What kind of scents?" Lin Mu asked. "Not from the Black Ying Empire… is this just a normal a.s.sa.s.sination attempt?" he wondered.

While a.s.sa.s.sination were rare, they weren"t all done by the Black Ying Empire. It was normal for n.o.bles and other people of high positions to be targeted for obvious reasons. Plus, since they had come after the Treasury Minister despite the fact that Lin Mu was there, he reckoned they didn"t have total information about them.

It would be ridiculous to try an attempt something like that in the presence of Lin Mu.

Though he had to admit, the a.s.sa.s.sin was quite fast.

"If I hadn"t stopped the dagger, she certainly would"ve managed to stab the minister in the head." Lin Mu thought to himself.

~sniff~

Little Shrubby took another sniff and differentiated the scents before identifying them.

"I can smell poison on her… quite a lot of it." Little Shrubby said first.

"Hmm, that"s expected. There was poison on the dagger too." Lin Mu had known that right away. "There"s some traces left on her body too I suppose." "There"s a smell of ink on her too…" Little Shrubby said next.

"Ink?" Lin Mu raised his brows. "That will be a bit hard to figure out. Many individuals will have that scent." In the Imperial Grounds, literally everyone wrote things or did paper work, thus it was normal for them to have the scent of ink on them. It might not be apparent to others, but Little Shrubby was not going to miss it.

"It"s not normal ink though." Little Shrubby replied. "I can smell a mix of herbs and beast blood in it." He revealed.

"Herbs and beast blood?" Lin Mu now understood what it could be. "Talisman ink." That narrowed it down a bit but not much as there were many immortals that dabbled in talismans.

"There"s also a smell of Resin of some kind… Wooden." Little Shrubby finally said.

"Wood Resin? Pine Resin or something like that?" Lin Mu reckoned this could be more accurate. "Does it match any of the others you"ve smelled before?" he asked.

"No… it"s rather unique." Little Shrubby stated.

"Good… looks like we just might be able to find more about them then." Lin Mu was pleased by it.

Even if the a.s.sa.s.sin didn"t seem to be part of the Black Ying Empire directly, Lin Mu wouldn"t put it out of the question yet.

"Its always possible they"ve been employed by the Black Ying Empire as a third party." Lin Mu remembered that Crown Princess Shang also had a bounty on her head.

As such, it was hard to tell who might get tempted by the price and decide to take the task up.

Having learned all this, Lin Mu explained it to the Treasury Minister.

"You figured all this out just from scents?" The minister couldn"t help but be impressed. "That"s better work than half the Intelligence pavilion personnel." "We"re not done yet though. We still need to see who hired them or where they have come from." Lin Mu stated. "And I doubt they"d speak if they"re a professional a.s.sa.s.sin." He added.

"We"ll take care of that." Another voice was heard, as Lin Mu sensed a few presences. "Left Elder, Right Elder." Lin Mu recognized the man whom he had met a couple days back.

"You can leave this to us, Lord Imperator." The Right Elder spoke.

"Alright." Lin Mu decided to let them handle it. "They"re unconscious right now but it"s best you paralyze them and restrict them first." He stated.

"Of course." The Left Elder nodded and quickly got to work.

He used several silver needles to seal the a.s.sa.s.sin"s cultivation before feeding them a liquid.

With that done, a group of guards from the discipline hall quickly carried the a.s.sa.s.sin away.

"How did someone like that even get into the Imperial Grounds?" The Treasury Minister asked, his tone serious. "All the servants are vetted for years before being allowed here." He added.

"We do not know yet." The Left Elder shook his head. "We"ll throughly investigate it."

"Yes, this has been a lapse on our part. We"ll take full responsibility for it." The right elder apologized.

"You better." The Treasury minister said with a frown before turning to Lin Mu. "And Lord Imperator, I can"t help but be in your debt now too. Perhaps if I didn"t come to meet you, I might have already been dead." The man held a bit of fear in his voice.

"It"s fine." Lin Mu accepted the man"s grat.i.tude. "Though this is also good, since we now know they"re making mistakes on their part. They did not judge the situation before acting."