"Stop! This is sacrilege!"
Before Iris's hand could even reach the corpse's collar, a furious shout nearly split her eardrums.
An elderly man with a goat beard, clad in the official robes of the Shuntian Prefecture, stormed forward and planted himself in front of the body. His face was flushed with rage.
Wu—the Chief Coroner.
"Your Highness!" Wu dropped to his knees before Prince Chen, his voice trembling."I have examined this corpse three times! The body is intact, the complexion rosy, the lips curved in a smile. This is clearly a joyous death—a sudden failure of the heart!"
He spun around and jabbed a finger at Iris, spittle flying.
"This wild girl dares suggest cutting the body open? Flesh and bone are gifts from one's parents! To destroy a corpse is blasphemy—witchcraft that invites heaven's punishment!"
The guards whispered among themselves, their gazes fixed on Iris with fear and revulsion.
To them, opening a body was no different from cannibalism.
Prince Chen said nothing.
He merely covered his nose and mouth with a pristine white handkerchief, his peach-blossom eyes drifting lazily between Wu and Iris—as if watching a street performance.
"Finished?" Iris asked flatly.
She didn't spare Wu a glance. Her eyes never left the corpse.
"Rosy complexion? Post-mortem blood pooling.""Smiling lips? Muscle spasm.""As for a joyous death…"
She let out a short, humorless laugh.
"A healthy sixteen-year-old girl, found dead in the wilderness—and you call that joyous?""Quack doctors kill without knives. Quack coroners leave the dead without peace."
"You—!" Wu shook with rage.
"Move."
Iris stepped forward.
Wu instinctively took a step back.
Only then did Iris frown.
She was empty-handed.
No scalpel.A regular dagger would be too thick—too destructive.
And then—
That familiar, welcome sound echoed in her mind.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Professional challenge detected.][Starter Pack unlocked: "Spectral Scalpel" x1][Description: Hair-splitting sharpness. Maximum precision. Sterile coating. Appears as an ordinary silver knife to others.]
Perfect.
With a flick of her wrist, a slender silver blade materialized between her fingers, cold light glinting along its edge.
"What are you doing?!" Wu screamed. "Guards! Stop this madwoman!"
Several guards reached for their weapons.
"Let her proceed."
Prince Chen's voice was lazy—and absolute.
"I want to see what she finds by opening the body."His eyes cooled."If she finds nothing…"
"Then open hers as compensation."
The hall fell silent.
Iris's lips curved.
That was enough.
She slipped on the semi-transparent gloves the system provided—thin as cicada wings to ancient eyes.Left hand braced the sternum.Right hand raised the blade.
No hesitation.No tremor.
Shhk—
The sound was faint.
And horrifyingly clear.
A collective gasp swept the hall.
Her movements flowed with terrifying precision—starting beneath the chin, cutting down the sternum, curving past the navel—
A perfect, textbook Y-incision.
Blood welled up instantly.
Iris moved faster, binding, clearing, controlling the field.
"Ugh—!"
A young eunuch gagged and fled, retching violently.
Even iron-armored guards—men who had slaughtered enemies on the battlefield—turned pale, scalps tingling as they watched a human body treated like livestock.
This wasn't a woman.
This was a butcher wearing human skin.
Only Prince Chen did not look away.
His brows knit in disgust, his body rigid against the throne—
But his gaze changed.
The moment her blade went down, the woman before him transformed.
No fear.No revulsion.
Only a focus so intense it bordered on sacred.
And disturbingly—
He didn't hate it.
His eyes narrowed, studying the blood-soaked figure.
He despised filth.
Yet in that moment, he found himself staring at hands everyone else called unclean—and questioning why.
"Found it."
Iris's voice cut through the silence.
She ignored the exposed organs and sliced directly into the stomach.
There was no expected stench.
Instead, a thick, unnatural fragrance burst into the air—rich, cloying, overpowering the smell of blood.
Wu stared, stunned."What… what is that smell?"
Iris lifted something from the stomach contents with tweezers.
A dark, half-digested mass.
"Talisman ash?" a guard blurted out.
It was swallowed talisman paper—reduced to sludge, mixed with undigested medicinal residue.
Wu gathered his courage and lunged forward.
"It's Longevity Cult talisman water! Your Highness!""That cult outside the city—luring young girls with promises of purification and ascension!"
"So it's them," Prince Chen said coldly, killing intent flashing in his eyes."Daring to play gods beneath the capital."
The hall erupted.
It made sense.A cult.A convenient culprit.No nobles implicated.
Only Iris remained silent.
She lowered her head, cleaning her tools—then subtly leaned in and smelled the residue.
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS: Trace rare compounds detected — gold powder, dragon-bone ink.]
Her pupils tightened.
Dragon-bone ink.
Priceless. Imperial tribute.Not something a street cult could ever afford.
The logic didn't hold.
"Su Mo."
Prince Chen's voice carried faint approval.
"You've done well. Now that we know it's the Longevity Cult, the case has direction."
Iris lowered her gaze.
"It is my honor to ease Your Highness's burdens."
She removed the blood-soaked cloth strips and tossed them into a bronze basin.
Red bloomed across the water's surface—
Like the capital itself.
Calm above.
Drowned in blood beneath.