“Main Manager, Miss Nangong and Alchemist Xue, they…” An alchemist covered in soot rushes over, his lung heaving for air.

“What, what's wrong with my Qinglin?” Chou went straight for the man's collar, causing the latter to fall into a stuttering mess at the grim face coming his way.

“Alchemist Nangon is dead from the explosion, and Alchemist Xue is seriously injured as a result too.”

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Shuddering at the news, Manager Chou loses all the blood from his face like a piece white paper.

Dead, she's dead, my disciple's dead.

Meanwhile behind the elder, Deputy Manager Meng immediately connected the dots and understood why Nangong Qinglin would buy the black powder several days ago.

While Manager Chou remains pained by the loss, his heart could not help but become suspicious at the whole outcome.

Why did her stove explode instead of that Lan Ying Yue's? This question kept nagging in the back of his head.

“Manager Chou, please keep yourself together now that things have come to this. First and foremost, we must report this to Miss Nangong's family so they can come in person.” Manager Meng puts on a concerned face and offers this suggestion.

“Inform… No, this matter is definitely not an accident. I must find out who's responsible for the death of my disciple.” He roared, keeping his gaze firmly on the perfectly well Alchemist Mei and Ling Yue standing in the crowd.

Those who deserve to die isn't dead, and those that don't deserve to live is still alive. d.a.m.n it!

Something must have happened somewhere in-between that I don't know.

I won't let this end, I swear it!

Due to the intensity of the blaze, it didn't die out until half an hour later.

Although the commotion caused by the explosion was very big, there's one good thing that came out of this and that was the injured remains on the low side. Aside from the seriously injured Alchemist Xue and the now deceased Nangong Qinglin, the rest of the alchemists inside the public cauldron at the time only got a few burns at most.

“My child, my Qinglin!” A mournful cry shook the air in the Royal Hospital.

By now the family members of the girl had arrived on the premise after getting news from the hospital.

Rus.h.i.+ng over first was Mrs. Nangong under the support of several maids, followed by a husky looking man with tears trickling down the side of his cheek.

“General Nangong, Qinglin her…” Chou sighs with shame upon seeing their mournful faces.

Waving his hand, he had his people carry out the corpse in question.

As the one closest to the epicenter of the blast, Nangong Qinglin faced the full brunt of the force. Not only did her face become destroyed by the searing heat, even her body were burnt to a crisp with nothing remaining of her former self. If not for eyewitness account of her being engulfed by the flame, those here might have taken longer to verify the cindered corpse's ident.i.ty.

Seeing her precious daughter becoming like this in one single morning, Mrs. Nangong broke out into a heart-breaking wail and fainted away after finally losing it.

“Qinglin.” Even for General Goldsword – a real man – he could not help but weep at his daughter's fate. Nevertheless, he's still a veteran of the battlefield. After the brief pain of his loss, his gaze turned sharp again.

“Why did my daughter's cauldron suddenly explode?” As his only daughter, General Goldsword knew very well of the girl's unruly ways, but never did he think his intentional indulgence would cost Qinglin her life.

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His daughter may be dead but he will never let the perpetrator off the hook!

“General Nangong, it just so happens that I want to discuss the matter with you. These shards are from Qinglin's cauldron.” Right after the fire was extinguished, Manager Chou immediately had his people spread out to collect the fragmented pieces of the cauldron from the rubble.

He knew instantly after a quick inspection, someone had replaced Qinglin's cauldron with Alchemist Mei's.

As to who's behind the task, only the one responsible would know then.

At this moment Manager Chou suddenly casts a glance over to Ling Yue, the latter likewise doing the same to him.

What a foolish girl, your end is close at hand and you still don't even know it. The elder sneers inside at the impending outcome.

Though the cauldron had been blown to pieces already, the familiar scent cannot escape someone like General Goldsword who spent most of his life in the military. One touch, that's all he needed to recognize the odor.

Black Powder!

“Someone sprinkled black powder on the cauldron. Who was in the cauldron room this morning?” Scanning the crowd with his intense gaze, he eventually noticed a certain man averting their eyes from him.

“General, this-this morning I saw Alchemist Yue coming out of the public cauldron room.” The man directly points at Ling Yue standing not far away, sending the crowd's focus all on her.

p.r.i.c.king her brow, Ling Yue herself was little confused because according to her memories, there shouldn't have been anyone else when she was here this morning.

It seems that this Chou's not going to give up and is resorting to his backup plan now that Qinglin's dead.

“Alchemist Yue, you are Princess Yue right. I heard you and my daughter got into quite a lot of conflicts before.” Venomous in his glare, he looked like he would rip the girl in two at any moment.

Intuition tells him the matter must be related to this Lan Ying Yue.

“General Nangong, so you are suspecting me of sprinkling black powder on your daughter's cauldron? And why should I do that. I and Alchemist Mei here have moved into an independent room with a bright future ahead of us, as if I would need to go through such means to bring trouble to myself.” Without blinking or turning away, Ling Yue rebukes the claim with leisure in her tone.

Since the explanation felt very reasonable, the rest of the crowd couldn't find fault with this. In fact, if anyone should be jealous, it should be Nangong Qinglin sprinkling the black powder.

“Whether or its you we will know once you are in the military prison. After I interrogate you all will be known. Someone, take away this girl.” He had long wanted to capture this Lan Ling Yue and this gave him the perfect excuse.

At the command, around four to five soldiers rushed up with their shackles in hand.

“Hold on, how can you people randomly arrest people, and to use a shackle?!” Alchemist Mei calls out, obviously anxious in her demeanor.

The military prison was an inst.i.tution meant for foreign spies, their means cruel and ruthless. If a girl like Ling Yue gets locked inside, who knows if she can even make it back out alive.

Not backing down, Mei blocks in front of her friend in a protective manner.

“Alchemist Yue was with me the entire morning. I dare to use my life as a guarantee that she had nothing to do with the explosion.” Despite her shouting, Mei's effort clearly fell on deaf ears for these soldiers.

Rudely pus.h.i.+ng the woman away, the soldiers went ahead with shackling their target. But as if Ling Yue would be so easily constrained. Sneering, six dangerous daggers flew out at her will.

Tink-Tink-Tink Sweeping across the shackles with the blades, the chains making up the constraints instantly broke apart.

For a minute there, these soldiers of the lower celestial realm didn't know how to advance because those daggers floating next to the girl's body told them if they did, their life will be in peril.