Chapter 741: A Free Piece of Information
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
According to the information provided by the black market, there were only 31 triple mutated monsters. Compared to the information that he got more than a month ago when he leveled up to purple flame-level, the number of triple mutated monsters had reduced by three, and there were eight newly added monsters in the list. However, 11 of them had been removed from the list.
Among the 31 triple mutated monsters, none of their Life Fire tinder could satisfy Lin Huang.
After scanning through the information, Lin Huang frowned. "Is there no suitable tinder among all the monsters in Division 3?"
Though it was within his expectations, he did not hope to see this happen.
He remained silent for a moment and called Chan Dou.
Chan Dou answered the call on the second ring. As usual, he appeared in the video dressed in his white shirt as if he had never changed his clothing before. He was holding a green drink, slouched on a leather sofa as he raised his glass.
"I know you're still alive. I heard from Shen Tao that an imperial-level Frostyape Corpse attacked you and you guys lost each other. They never saw you after that. He even told me that you're most likely already dead."
"I'm lucky as I managed to run away," Lin Huang said humbly.
"So, did you get anything from the floating land?" Chan Dou sipped his drink while he asked.
"Yes. However, with my ability, I only barely managed to survive over there. It's quite satisfying to get some rewards from the floating land." Lin Huang did not reveal the truth. Although Chan Dou was kind, Lin Huang was not that close to him to tell him that he had gotten the Sorcerer Goddess's inheritance.
"That's great. I didn't expect you guys to get anything over there. It's just about gaining some experience." Chan Dou did not think any further. Although he knew that Lin Huang was strong, his combat strength was somehow restricted. Regardless of how strong he was, his ability was still being controlled. From what he learned from Shen Tao, the level of danger in the floating land far surpassed the range which Lin Huang could explore freely.
"Oh yeah, we've been chatting for a while. Why did you call me?"
"I'd like to look for the information of the triple mutated monsters via the Heaven Alliance's databank," Lin Huang immediately requested when Chan Dou asked.
"You're looking for the monsters in Division 3? We didn't build any information network in Division 3 as we don't have many people over there. It costs a lot to build the information network on our own. We got the information in Division 3 from the black market," Chan Dou explained calmly without feeling sorry at all. "If you're looking for the monster distribution graphs in Divisions 1 and 2, I can get it for you and send it to you by tomorrow the latest."
Lin Huang was speechless. He knew that there was only a small number of the Heaven Alliance members were in Division 3. However, he did not expect them not to have an information network in Division 3. "Alright, send me the information about Divisions 1 and 2."
After thinking for a while, he decided to get a copy of the information in the two divisions in case he needed them. If he could not get a tinder that suited him in Division 3, he might have to go to the other two divisions.
After hanging up the phone on Chan Dou, Lin Huang poured another glass of blue-green algae liquor and took a shot. He then summoned Bai. After instructing Bai, he walked towards the bedroom and quickly fell asleep.
Only on the first day when he returned from the floating land, he slept. In the next four days, food and sleep were far from his mind.
Lin Huang could finally relax as he was not as stressed as he was when he was on the floating land. Also, his training had ended. In addition to having Bai to keep watch over him, he could sleep tight. He dozed off from about one o'clock in the afternoon until seven o'clock in the next morning.
Lin Huang felt energized after he woke up.
He then got up from the bed and walked to the living room after washing up. He realized that Bai was sitting on the floor, resting its mind with its eyes closed.
When it heard the sound of footsteps, it slowly opened its eyes and looked towards Lin Huang.
"I'm going for breakfaster later after changing. However, I have something to deal with after breakfast. I'll have to store you back into your card form. What do you want to eat for breakfast? I'll buy it for you," Lin Huang said to Bai.
Bai nodded its head, pointing at the bottle on the tea table that had been emptied. "It's quite tasty."
Lin Huang then found out that Bai had finished half a bottle of the blue-green algae liquor.
"I'll buy you another bottle later." Lin Huang knew what Bai was trying to convey. It meant that it wanted that for breakfast as it found the blue-green algae liquor tasty.
Bai never ate any solid food. He used to be interested in all sorts of red drinks. Lin Huang had no idea why it would be interested in the blue liquor all of a sudden.
Bai tilted its head and thought for a while as if one bottle was not enough. It hesitated for a while and said, "Two bottles?"
Although Bai sounded like it was asking a question, it could hardly hide its excitement.
"Alright, two bottles then." Seeing it smiling happily, Lin Huang said, "You're so genuine."
It was how Bai behaved. Bai would never snatch things out from another's hands. Also, it would always obey Lin Huang's instructions and was quite reliable.
Lin Huang always had faith in his first summoning monster. If there were chances to level up, it would be the first summoning monster that Lin Huang would think of.
After changing, he went for breakfast. Upon returning, he saw that Bai was looking at him with enthusiasm.
"Here's your blue-green algae liquor." Lin Huang took out a box of blue-green algae liquor with a dozen bottles. "I've bought 30 boxes, and all of them are yours. The boss wanted to keep some for his customers, so he could only sell me 30 boxes."
"However, that's liquor. It's not healthy if you drink too much. Keep it moderate," Lin Huang reminded.
"Two bottles a day." Bai nodded, setting a limit for itself.
"You promised. You can't drink more than that." Lin Huang smiled.
After downing the two bottles of blue-green algae liquor, Lin Huang then recalled Bai back into its card form. At the same time, he stored a box of blue-green algae liquor in his storage box.
Having got all these done, he then summoned the Golden Wheel and entered it.
He fixed the coordinates somewhere near the black market street of Sweep City. As he got out of the dimensional relic, he appeared on the roof of a skyscraper.
Lin Huang took a leap and soon, he disappeared from the black market street. A few minutes later, he went deep into the black market street and stopped at one of the shops.
In a room, Lin Huang took out an Emperor's Heart Ring and gave it to a woman in a dress. "Everything is stored in the Emperor's Heart Ring. Please quote me the price."
"Alright. I'll ask someone to do it for you." Hu Lu grinned as she took the ring. After checking the items in the ring, she looked even brighter. She asked a female staff to come over and instructed her. She then passed the ring to the staff. Seeing that the staff had left, Hu Lu then turned back and looked at Lin Huang. "Mr. Lin, let's drink some tea while waiting."
"By the way, about that monster list that I gave you yesterday, is there any monster that meets your needs?" Hu Lu took a sip of the tea and asked.
"No. I wanted to ask about this. Do you have any other information?" Lin Huang could not wait to look for a suitable Life Fire monster.
"All the information that we provide to our customers has been verified. We don't sell information that hasn't been verified. We don't want to ruin our reputation." Hu Lu smiled, shaking her head.
"It's okay if the information hasn't been confirmed. I'm willing to buy it at its original price as long as you're not selling me fake news," Lin Huang insisted while looking at Hu Lu.
"That's not right," Hu Lu insisted.
"Rules are dead, and people are alive. Please lend me a hand." Lin Huang was not giving up.
Hu Lu remained quiet for a short while and said, "I'll give you the information for free. If it's fake, just don't mention that you got it from us."
"Okay. It'll just take me some time to verify it," Lin Huang promised, "Whether it's reliable or fake, I won't get you into trouble."
"Regarding the serial murders that have occurred in Martel City, the deceased aren't ordinary residents. They range from immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3 instead. Some people suspect that the parasites or the highly intelligent monsters might be the culprit. Many of them from the Union Government is investigating this issue. More than ten days have passed. Still, they have no idea who the suspects are at all…"
Chapter 742: The 16 Dead Men
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Returning to the hotel from the black market, Lin Huang immediately summoned Bloody and discussed the incident that happened in Martel City.
After sharing the information provided by Hu Lu with Bloody, Lin Huang projected the images of the deceased victims that he retrieved from Hu Lu.
From the photos, all of them had died in different ways. However, it was apparent that they were all murdered.
There were blood and pulp all over the dead bodies. They were severely injured. One of them even had their head chopped off. Also, there was also a victim whose heart had been extracted from his chest. Some of their heads had exploded as if a heavy weapon had attacked them. Besides, some of them had no injuries all over their bodies, and the reason for their death was still unknown.
The combat strength of all 16 victims ranged from immortal-levels rank-1 to rank-3. None of them were killed in the same way.
"What did you discover?" Lin Huang asked after Bloody had looked through all the photos projected.
"The information provided by the lady is limited. Despite having the photos of the victims, I can't confirm that the culprit of the murder cases is a highly intelligent monster." Bloody was unsure.
"The causes of death of the 16 victims are different. From the wounds on the dead bodies, it's obvious that different weapons injured them since it's rare for highly intelligent monsters that can fool humans in such a way."
"Do you have any other useful information?" Lin Huang asked.
"Yes, I do." Bloody nodded, shifting its gaze to Lin Huang. It did not continue. Instead, it raised another question. "If you've murdered someone in Martel City and the people from the Union Government are investigating this case, what would you do?"
"There's nothing else that I could do other than escape." Lin Huang raised his brows and paused for a moment. He stroked his chin and continued, "If I can't run away, I'll definitely look for a place to hide. I'll try to escape after the investigation has ended."
"Yes, that's what a normal person would do." Bloody nodded slightly. "However, according to the information provided by Hu Lu, the murderer killed one person each day. Even after the Union Government started investigating on this, the slaughter didn't stop. It's impossible that the murderer didn't know this as the news was spread everywhere in the city. Since the murderer continued killing, what does it mean?"
"The murderer is confident that he won't be caught!" Guided by Bloody, Lin Huang came up with a firm conclusion.
"That's one of the possibilities. Another possibility is that he doesn't care at all if he'll be captured," Bloody explained, "If the murderer is a madman whereby killing is his only intention, this would be the reason why he doesn't care about the Union Government's investigation at all.
"However, from the fact that he's not been captured after tens of days, we can ignore the second possibility. Therefore, there's one possibility left – he's pretty confident that he'll not be caught.
"Such a confident person must be intelligent and is conceited. Psychologically, the person must've treated the slaughter as a game, and the Union Government staff are the toys in the game. Therefore, he has no fear of the investigation at all. He enjoys the game more after the pursuers joined. That's why he didn't stop killing."
"Are all intelligent people self-conceited?" Lin Huang mumbled after listening to Bloody's analysis.
"That's possible. However, I won't be that silly to offend the Union Government." Bloody snorted, shaking its head. "If I were the murderer, I'd choose to maintain a low profile before I'm capable of wiping out the entire land. I won't appear in front of humans unless there's a need to do so. Even if I were to get humans into trouble, I'll do it secretly and immediately leave if anything happens. I definitely won't maintain a high profile and be so daring."
"I didn't know that you're so mean…" Lin Huang had an incredulous expression on his face.
"Alright, back to the topic." Bloody immediately interrupted, "We don't have many clues yet. The place where the murderer will commit a crime and the killing methods are random. We can't determine the murderer's motive. Aside from the combat level of all the victims ranging from immortal-levels rank-1 to rank-3, there's nothing else related that we could get from the information provided. However, I can roughly estimate that the murderer is of at least immortal-level rank-5. Otherwise, he won't be able to kill the few of the immortal-level rank-3s in one hit. He's currently targeting those on immortal-levels rank-1 to rank-3. This might be due to the limit on his ability. However, it can also be a trick for him to convey misleading information. Therefore, his combat level is yet to be confirmed."
"The information is minimal." Lin Huang frowned as what Bloody concluded was very much similar to his thoughts.
"However, from the information provided, it's highly possible that the murderer is a monster," Bloody added.
"Why do you say so?" Lin Huang immediately asked.
"Humans' behavioral pattern is rather complicated especially when it comes to the decision to murder. Humans need to have a valid reason to make the ultimate decision. Unless the person is crazy, nobody will kill someone without a valid reason. From the information we currently have, the 16 victims have no relation to each other. Being killed for an unknown reason is most likely what a monster would do as if they want to hunt for food."
"If the monster is hunting for food, I supposed that the organs or flesh of the dead body must've gone missing." Lin Huang did not agree with Bloody. "However, based on the information provided, not all the organs of the victims have been extracted. Some of the dead bodies are complete."
"It's just an example. The slaughter is definitely not because the monster is hunting for food," Bloody explained further, "What I'm trying to say is that monster is different from humans as they don't need any motive to kill. It's instinct."
"I think that we can't exclude the possibility that a human might be the murderer." Lin Huang remained silent for a while and said, "Perhaps a certain person or a certain organization has a motive to kill. However, we can't figure it out due to the limited information available. This doesn't mean that the motive doesn't exist."
"Yes, I just wanted to emphasize this." Bloody nodded. "The information that we currently have is very limited. We can't make any conclusions on this since there are many things that we don't know yet."
"We shall go to Martel City for more accurate information."
"Are you sure you want to go? If the murderer is a human, our efforts will go in vain," Bloody asked.
"Since we have nothing to do, let's go and have a look. What if we happen to encounter a suitable Life Fire monster by chance?"
Chapter 743: Xia Hou
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Martel City which was also known as the foothold No. 3B47 was an ordinary B-grade foothold in Division 3.
It was an ordinary foothold because be it the economic prosperity, the culture or some other aspects, the B-grade foothold was of moderate level in Division 3.
The landlocked foothold was far from the Peaceful Ocean and the Abyss Brink, which were the two moderate danger zones and were the most dangerous areas surrounding the foothold. To some extent, it was considered a stable place for the elders to stay.
This was also the reason why very few of the strong people would stay there. Aside from those who were stationed outside the foothold, most of them were on immortal-level and above. They would not stay at the foothold for a long period of time unless they were on duty or due to some exceptional condition.
If not for the serial murders, many of them might have never heard of Martel City.
Before Lin Huang received that information, of course, he himself had never heard of the city before.
After getting the news from the black market and further analyzing it with Bloody, Lin Huang soon arrived at Martel City along with Bloody.
However, on the first day when they arrived at Martel City, their investigation was hindered.
"What f*cking rules are these?! One must be at least on immortal-level rank-4 to be qualified to investigate the serial murder cases? One must get the approval from the Union Government in order to access the detailed information of the case and carry out the field investigation?" Lin Huang was standing at the lobby of the Union Government division at Martel City. Just as he saw the content displayed on the big announcement screen, he was triggered. "Can't I lend a helping hand?!"
"We're actually here to look for the tinder of the triple mutated monster…" Bloody thought to itself. However, it articulated something different instead. "It's understandable why the Union Government set these rules as the killer is capable of killing an immortal-level rank-3. I guess that these rules are established because they didn't want the investigators to be the victims. Moreover, without any restriction, anyone can simply enter the crime scene, and it'll adversely affect the investigation."
Of course, Lin Huang knew the reason behind it. He was upset about it because even after using the Transformation Card to improve his combat strength, he only managed to get to immortal-level rank-3. Even then, he would not be qualified to earn the investigation pass from the Union Government.
"What should we do in order to get the investigation pass without which we won't be able to get a complete set of information regarding the case?" Lin Huang frowned deeply. It was an electronic investigation pass which would sync to one's Emperor's Heart Ring. There was no way to get it illegally.
"The only way is to look for a qualified person or those who have gotten their pass to bring us in," Bloody suggested a solution. "It's stated in the announcement that whoever who owns an investigation pass can bring an assistant along during the investigation. Since our main purpose is to go to the crime scene, just look for a person who needs an assistant. I'm a summoning monster, and I can go in together with you."
"That's a brilliant idea." Lin Huang just thought of asking Yang Ling to make him a fake pass. However, what Bloody suggested was indeed a better choice.
Lin Huang turned back and was about to walk towards the door where the receptionist was standing. Just as he wanted to ask about the application of the investigation pass, he heard chatter from a group of people. He immediately stood still and looked in the direction where the discussion was heard.
"I'm here to apply for the investigation pass for the murder case," said a man who was standing at No. 1 counter. He did not say it loudly. However, when he said "murder case" and "investigation pass", Lin Huang and Bloody's attention were caught.
"Found it!" Lin Huang grinned as he patiently waited for him to complete the application.
In less than two minutes, the man had completed his application. He then left the No. 1 counter and headed towards the exit.
Lin Huang observed his face. He was a man around the age of 30. He had dark skin, thick eyebrows, and big eyes. He was about 1.8 meters tall. However, he was big-boned and muscular which caused him to look as if he was slightly shorter than Lin Huang who was only 1.78 meters tall.
"Bro, are you here to investigate the serial murder cases?" Lin Huang took a step forward, blocking his way.
"Yes, I am. I just got the investigation pass." The man was momentarily stunned, and soon, he nodded his head. "Why are you looking for me?"
"My name is Lin Xie. May I know your name please?" Lin Huang extended his hand and greeted.
"If you're here to sell any products to me, I'm sorry, but I'm not interested. You're kind of brave to promote your products at the Union Government office." The man took a glance at the officer as if he was about to call the guards.
"Bro, I think you've misunderstood me. I'm not a promoter." Lin Huang was nervous. "I'm actually interested in the serial murder cases. However, due to the restriction imposed on the combat level, I'm unable to apply for an investigation pass. Therefore, I can only rely on the quota given to the assistant. I hope that I could get it from you…"
Before Lin Huang could even finish his words, the man answered, "The assistant quota? I'll just give it to you if you want it." Lin Huang thought that the man would request for something and that he would have to spend some time bargaining with him. Unexpectedly, he got it with ease.
"You suddenly blocked my way, so I thought that you're trying to promote your products. It's good that you're not. It's good that you're not…" The man was relieved, smiling with his mouth wide open. "By the way, my name is Xia Hou. Let's work together on the murder cases."
"Eh, why did he suddenly change his attitude?" Lin Huang thought to himself. "Could he have been hurt by a promoter in the past?"
"To be honest, I was fooled by a promoter last time. That's why I'm afraid of strangers who suddenly block my way…" Before Lin Huang could ask, Xia Hou was friendly and volunteered his history about being fooled by a promoter before Lin Huang.
After listening to Xia Hou's tale for more than half an hour, Lin Huang was speechless.
Despite Xia Hou being rather strong as he was an immortal-level rank-4, he could be cheated easily. Just by encountering an eloquent speaker, he could be easily convinced. This was the reason why he was fooled by many of the promoters for hundreds of time over the past ten years, causing him to buy a lot of unnecessary stuff.
Also, it was the reason why he was afraid of the promoters.
"Can't you say no to them if they persuade you to buy stuff that you don't need?" Lin Huang gave a simple suggestion.
"Sometimes, the items are really appealing when they promote it." Xia Hou looked helpless. "For example, they would suggest using a bar soap to wash clothes, to take a bath, to induce vomiting (during food poisoning), to be used as a lubricant (don't get me wrong, it's used for stuck zippers)... It can even be carved…"
"You don't even need some of the functions at all! What's the point of having tons of bar soaps at home? For fun?!" Lin Huang thought to himself. He knew that the man was brainwashed after listening to what the promoters said and regretted each time after the purchase. However, the next time he bumped into another promoter, he would be brainwashed again and fooled by the promoters.
Lin Huang knew very well that the problem did not arise from the promoters. It was Xia Hou's problem instead. There was a pit in his brain. No, to be more accurate, it was a black hole. This was the reason why he was fooled every time and had never been able to learn from his mistakes.
Chapter 744: Examining the Corpses
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After chatting with Xia Hou, Lin Huang had a brief understanding of him. He could conclude that he was a kind but naïve person.
Upon registering as an assistant at the Union Government with Xia Hou, Lin Huang was finally allowed to join the investigation into the serial murder cases.
"Bro Lin, we're now done with the registration. Let's go." Xia Hou turned back, walking out of the Union Government office.
"Where are you going?" Lin Huang asked.
"We're going to the crime scene." Xia Hou turned his head back, looking at Lin Huang curiously.
"Hey… The detailed information about the case and the dead body of the victim are stored at the Union Government office. Maybe we could go there first?" Lin Huang reminded.
"You're right. If we were to go to the crime scene first, we might have to come back again." Xia Hou mumbled in a low voice and immediately nodded his head. "Let's have a look at the corpse first."
"Bro Xia, you go to the morgue first. I'll catch up with you as soon as I get the information from the data office." Lin Huang was lazy to go to the data office with Xia Hou.
"Why are you going to the data office? Didn't I share the information to you upon your registration?" Xia Hou was staring at Lin Huang puzzledly.
"Those are the basic information. I still need some other relevant information for the investigation." The Union Government sent the information which Xia Hou had shared with him. They were the court records and the case report. Lin Huang and Bloody felt that the information provided was far from enough.
"Alright then. Let's distribute our tasks." Xia Hou nodded and headed towards the morgue.
Lin Huang then brought Bloody along and arrived at the data office.
A Violetcrystal Brain managed the Union Government data office. It was not Lin Huang's first time seeing such a monster as he had previously seen it at the Martial Hunter College library in Division 7. It was a librarian.
Its body looked like a huge blue brain which was wrapped in a semi-transparent purple jelly. It was hanging on the dome of the data office. Light purple tentacles grew on the border of its body that looked like a layer of jelly. It resembled a gigantic jellyfish.
Lin Huang took a seat under one of the tentacles and quickly retrieved the information that he needed.
The moment when the Emperor's Heart Ring was connected to the tentacle, the Violetcrystal Brain could identify that Lin Huang was an assistant and allowed him to access the relevant information.
After sitting down, Bloody's voice was heard. "A lot of information is missing from what the black market has provided that. We need detailed information if we want to make things clear. Other than the court records and the autopsy report, all the information regarding the victims' backgrounds, including the information of the victims' relatives are required. Also, the victims' daily activities before their deaths and their call logs are needed."
"Yes. I'll download all the information and look through it carefully when we go back to the hotel. From the way Xia Hou behaved, I guess he can't wait any longer at the morgue." Lin Huang stayed concentrated on his work.
After about ten minutes, all the information that he needed had been downloaded. He then left the data office.
Just as Lin Huang arrived at the morgue which was situated in the most western part of the building, Xia Hou had started examining the fifth corpse.
"You're finally here." As he heard the door opening, he turned around and caught a glimpse of Lin Huang. Xia Hou waved at him and exclaimed, "Quickly have a look at this dead body!"
"What happened?" Lin Huang strode quickly towards him.
It was the dead body of a muscular man whose chest was ripped apart. Both his lungs had gone missing. It was the heart that had been sliced into half in his chest which caused his death.
Lin Huang frowned as he looked at the dead body at a close distance. It was much clearer than the photos provided by the black market.
"Looking at the wound on his chest, it was a smooth cut," Xia Hou said, pointing at the chest of the dead body. "I don't think a monster is capable of doing this. It looks more like a human who's skilled at dissecting."
Lin Huang took a glance at Xia Hou who was not as weak as he expected. At the very least, he had careful observation and analyzing skills.
Lin Huang compared the autopsy report and the personal information with the dead body. Unexpectedly, he made no comment on the dead body. Instead, after a long while, he said, "Let's look at the next dead body."
They took out the sixth dead body from the next cold chamber. It was a corpse without a head, and there were irregular shapes that appeared on his neck. Before the forensic pathologist cleaned him, there must have been flesh and blood everywhere.
Lin Huang knew the cause of death of the victim at first glance.
"It's a tragedy. His head exploded, and there are flesh and blood all over his neck." Xia Hou laughed but soon, he stopped, "He died in a different way. It looks like it was the gunmaster who did it."
Lin Huang compared the corpse to the autopsy report, and again, he frowned.
The seventh corpse was a man that looked rather plump. It was a miserable death as there were injuries all over his body. There was a hole of the size of a basketball in his stomach, and all the internal organs went missing.
"Tsk, tsk… He's more pitiful than the previous one. He looked as if the small predatory monsters ate him. Not only were his internal organs extracted, but his bones were also exposed." Xia Hou paused for a moment. "It's obvious that humans didn't kill him."
They examined the dead body one by one right until the 16th dead body. Lin Huang then looked at the first four corpses that he had never seen before.
Xia Hou examined the corpses again with Lin Huang before leaving the morgue.
"Why are they called serial murder cases? It's obvious that the same person didn't kill them. Some of them are killed by humans, and the monster killed some of them," Xia Hou said as the walked out of the morgue.
"If they were not serial murder cases, how could you explain each of the cases happening one after another? Also, the forensic pathologist determined that their time of death is at about midnight." Lin Huang refuted, "Do you think everything that's happened in the past 16 days is merely a coincidence?"
"It's less likely to be a coincidence. However, how can you explain why they're killed in a different way?" Xia Hou thought for a while and asked.
"There are only three possibilities. The first possibility is that the killer is not a person but a criminal gang. Next, it could be mimic crimes. After knowing what the first murderer has done, the second criminal killed the rest of them, following the time and details of when the first victim was killed. The third possibility is that the murderer can be a person or a highly intelligent monster whereby they intentionally create different ways of killing," Lin Huang told him what he and Bloody had concluded.
"I don't think that a monster is possible of dissecting a human in such a way!" Although he agreed with the three possibilities suggested by Lin Huang, Xia Hou still asked.
Again, Lin Huang explained, "As long as the highly intelligent monster has been living with humans who are good in dissecting for a long period of time or it's been taught dissection skills by humans, the monster is capable of doing so."
"The probability must be low," Xia Hou lamented as he felt that Lin Huang was overthinking it.
"The probability is indeed low, but it's not zero. We can't ignore it." Lin Huang was being frank with him.
"Since we've examined the dead bodies, what shall we do next?" Sensing that Lin Huang could analyze much better than him, Xia Hou gave up on being a leader. He felt that following Lin Huang's plan could save him some effort.
"It's about noon now. Let's take our lunch first so that I can have a look at the information that I just got."
Chapter 745: The Tragic Crime Scene
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When they were having lunch, Lin Huang quickly skimmed through the information he had.
Based on the detailed information provided, it was clear that the 16 victims had no relation to each other. Basically, they came from different footholds and their family members did not know each other as well. Nothing odd was found from the victims' journeys and call logs a month ago before their death.
"How is it? Is there any useful information?" Xia Hou asked. He could not speak clearly as he was munching on a rare steak. His mouth was covered in juice.
"No." Lin Huang shook his head. He was lost after sifting through the information.
"What should we do next?" Xia Hou swallowed the steak and asked again.
"Let's decide later after going to the crime scene." Lin Huang had no other ideas though.
After lunch, the both of them headed to the crime scene.
Lin Huang decided to investigate the time when the incident happened. He went to the crime scene where the first victim was killed 16 days ago. It was located in a small lane with low-rise housing.
The both of them followed the coordinates provided by the Union Government. Soon, they got the exact location.
The small lane was completely isolated by the Union Government using the supreme relic and there were only two guards. After Xia Hou and Lin Huang had shown them their investigation and assistant passes, they were allowed to enter.
The lane was paved with blue stones and it looked like it had existed for years. The lane was about 30 meters long and it was less than 1.5 meters wide. Despite the houses on both sides not being tall, they had a height of at least eight meters. This was the reason why the lane was rather dark.
"It's such a small lane. Why did the victim come here at midnight? Was he looking for a place to pee?" Xia Hou mumbled.
"Didn't you read the information?" Lin Huang turned back and glanced at Xia Hou. Before he replied, Lin Huang continued, "The black market is located less than 300 meters away. The victim was killed at a place like this probably because he just got out of the black market since it closes at midnight."
"Why didn't he use his dimensional relic to leave?" Xia Hou immediately asked.
"So, you really didn't read through the information given… He was staying at a homestay which is very nearby. It's just a few minutes walk from the black market. There's no need to use a dimensional relic."
Soon, they arrived at the crime scene while chatting with each other. The outline of the victim's dead body had been sketched by the Union Government staff with a white thread.
As it was covered by a relic, the thread was still there despite the rain and it was as clear as it had been half a month ago.
According to the outline of the thread, the person had fallen to the ground as soon as he died. His head that had been chopped off had flown a meter away.
On both sides of the wall and the ground, blood splattered over a terribly large area. As Lin Huang saw the crime scene, he could almost imagine the horrifying scene when the victim was killed – his head was chopped off in one blow and soon, blood started oozing out from the headless corpse.
"Killed in one hit. It's really a tragedy," Xia Hou mumbled.
"It's a narrow lane. If a stranger happened to come to me in the middle of the night, I'll definitely be on alert. However, based on the autopsy report, there's no evidence that the victim was engaged in a fight before he died. He was killed without a struggle. That being said, the killer might've been very close to the victim and the victim was caught unprepared. Otherwise, the murderer must be good in his movement skills and managed to make such rapid attacks that the victim had no time to respond to it," Lin Huang said while taking shots of the crime scene.
After examining and capturing photos of the first crime scene, both of them did not stay any longer. They immediately left the small lane and rushed towards the second crime scene, which was located in a luxury hotel room.
Due to the incident, the hotel had stopped operating. Other than the investigators and the assistants, nobody else was allowed to enter.
Lin Huang and Xia Hou were granted entry by the guards. They then entered the floating staircase and went up to the 91st floor. They found the room where the incident had happened which was room No. 091021.
Apart from the dead body not being in its original location, everything looked exactly the same as how it was when the crime had been committed. Even the bed sheets and the pillows had not been moved.
"It's kind of clean. Did the staff do the housekeeping?" Xia Hou asked.
In the living room, everything was clean. It did not look like a crime scene at all. Lin Huang had read through the information earlier. There was indeed no traces of fighting found at the crime scene.
Seeing Xia Hou reading through the materials, Lin Huang did not say anything. He walked towards the master bedroom which was located on the right.
When he entered, he saw a bed. The blood stains on the bed sheets had turned black. The stains covered almost three-quarters of the bed.
The moment when he saw that, a scene of how the victim was killed was pictured in Lin Huang's mind. His head and limbs were chopped off while he was sleeping and he could not retaliate at all.
"His death is way more awful than the first victim's. He was mutilated while he was sleeping." Xia Hou slowly entered the bedroom. "If he had slept later, he might not have died."
"Whether he sleeps or not, he'd still have died. The only difference is that the place where his dead body would've been found would be different." Lin Huang offered a different opinion. "The killer murders a person every day at 12 a.m. sharp. That being said, the victim has been targeted by the killer beforehand. Therefore, regardless of where the person is, what he's doing, the murderer will definitely kill him when the time comes."
"According to what you just said, the murderer must've targeted the victim beforehand." Xia Hou nodded in agreement. He paused for a moment and continued, "However, there's something that I can't figure out why. Martel City is a B-grade foothold. There are only a few of them on immortal-level. There are less than 100 of them who are permanent residents of Martel City. Under normal circumstances, the probability of encountering an immortal-level in Martel City is less than 1/200,000. The probability of encountering an immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3 will be even smaller. With such a low probability, how could the murderer have targeted those victims? I don't think they would just randomly pick someone on the street."
However, after reading through the information provided, Bloody actually mentioned, "I've thought of this before." The both of them had secretly discussed this issue. "There are two possibilities. The first one would be that the murderer has the name list of those who have registered to travel in Martel City. The second possibility is that the murderer has been hiding somewhere near the dimensional portal in Martel City."
"I think it's less likely for the second possibility to have happened. There are two dimensional portals in Martel City and the both of them are thousands of kilometers apart. How can the murderer keep watch over both of the dimensional portals at the same time? Even if he has clones, it's impossible to control the two clones when the portals are thousands of kilometers away. Even an imperial-level wouldn't be able to do so," Xia Hou disagreed.
"Who says that he'd be keep watching the dimensional portal on his own? Don't you think it's possible that he might have companions? Couldn't he have spent some money to hire people to do it for him?" Lin Huang asked with a wry smile.
"Alright." Xia Hou was speechless and immediately changed the topic. "The first possibility that you mentioned just now… Do you mean that the murderer is a staff from the Union Government?"
"I'm not sure. There are three possibilities through which the murderer could've gotten the name list. The first one is that the murderer's partner is working with the Union Government. Next, the murderer must've hacked the relevant department of the Union Government and obtained the name list. Lastly, the only possibility is that the murderer himself is the one from the Union Government."
"Are we still going to the next crime scene?" Xia Hou asked again.
"Yes, of course. What if there is some other evidence? If we're not going over, we might miss out on something." Lin Huang was excited after getting a new direction in the investigation of the case. Looking for a suitable Life Fire monster was no longer his main concern. He found it interesting as he was one step closer to the truth, causing him to temporarily forget about the need to level up.
Chapter 746: The 17th Victim
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After investigating all the 16 crime scenes, it was already just after six in the evening.
Lin Huang and Xia Hou went to a ramen restaurant to have their dinner. Soon after, they went back to their own hotel.
As soon as he was back, Lin Huang started looking through all the information again together with Bloody.
Since he was an assistant, all the information that he got from the Union Government was pretty complete. However, due to the time constraint, he only managed to briefly browse through the information. If Xia Hou did not urge him to go to the crime scenes, he would have spent a whole day looking for clues from the information he had.
At about 11 p.m, only did the both of them finish looking through all the data.
"Still, there isn't any useful evidence. Each time before the crime is committed, the monitor bird, Surveillance Mosquito, and all the other monitoring monsters were killed in less than two minutes. The Transmission Shell that records voices was destroyed as well. The murderer left no trace at the crime scene," Lin Huang sighed. "The Union Government didn't just keep watch on the content of the monitoring monsters on the day itself when the crime was committed. They even cross-checked all the surveillance videos that have been recorded earlier before the incident happened at all the 16 crime scenes. Still, they got no clues even after watching 30 days of the recordings."
"What I can't understand is if the murderer hasn't been to the crime scene, how could he have known the position of the monitoring monsters and kill all of them?" Lin Huang expressed his doubt, "Could the person possess a territorial skill like I do?"
"One normally obtains a territorial skill after leveling up to imperial level as the person would have a Life Palace. The murderer was said to be an immortal-level. Therefore, it's quite likely that the murderer has a territorial talent," Lin Huang then explained.
"Perhaps he has disguising skills and appears as a different person each time. Therefore, the Union Government can't figure out who he is even after cross-checking all the information. Of course, like what you just said, the murderer might probably have a territorial skill and is capable of sensing the number of monitoring monsters and their exact locations within a specific region." Bloody agreed with Lin Huang and suggested that the murderer might have disguising skills as well.
"If it's the former, it'll be troublesome." Lin Huang frowned.
As a person who possessed disguising skills, he knew how terrifying the talent was. Despite the fact that his disguising skills were much weaker than the masters, he almost managed to cheat all those who ranked below imperial-level. If the murderer's disguising skills were more advanced than his, even imperial-levels might not be able to detect it. He could definitely enter the foothold freely by disguising himself despite there being many guards on duty. He might have even passed by the guards without being discovered.
"Perhaps the 17th crime will happen in less than half an hour." Lin Huang took a look at the time and said, "Unfortunately, we've no idea who the next victim is and where the next crime scene will be. We can't stop this from happening."
Bloody was helpless. "We can only wait for it to happen and rush to the crime scene as soon as possible, hoping that we'll find some clues over there."
Half an hour passed. Despite it being midnight, Lin Huang did not feel sleepy at all. He was sitting on the sofa, patiently waiting for the announcement from the Union Government.
When it was almost about 12.10 a.m, his Emperor's Heart Ring suddenly vibrated. A message popped out as soon as Lin Huang opened the communication page.
"All the investigators and their assistants, please come over to Chenxing Building as soon as possible!"
With that single sentence, Lin Huang instantly knew that a murder had happened at Chenxing Building.
Attached to the message from the Union Government were the coordinates. The coordinates were automatically synced to the map of the Emperor's Heart Ring and the route was determined.
"The crime scene happened at the center of the area and it's only about 100 kilometers away from us." Lin Huang closed the communication page and walked towards the balcony.
Bloody then transformed into a purple shadow and twisted around Lin Huang's left hand.
Lin Huang took a few steps to the balcony. Lazy to summon Thunder, he directly flew towards the destination.
In just a short while, Lin Huang arrived at Chenxing Building.
The building was quite big. Its logo was about 30 meters high and was made of tens of thousands of sunstones. They would all light up at night. Even those who were thousands of meters away could see it clearly.
As Lin Huang landed on the ground, about 10 of them were already gathered outside Chenxing Building.
Many of them caught a glimpse of Lin Huang and started sizing him up doubtfully. Soon, they shifted their focus to the others and a few of them were grinning because Lin Huang was just a purple flame-level and the majority of them were ranked above immortal-level rank-4.
Lin Huang looked at the crowd and saw everyone's expression at a glance. Of course, he discovered those who were laughing at him. He did not bother, gazing at them calmly. Soon after, he shifted his gaze away from the crowd.
In less than a minute, a few of them arrived one after another and finally, Xia Hou was there.
"How's it? Have you seen the corpse?" Xia Hou asked as soon as he landed on the ground.
"No, I haven't seen the corpse yet as I've just arrived." Lin Huang shook his head and looked towards the guards stationed outside the building. "Perhaps they'll only let us in after everyone has arrived."
At about 12.20 p.m, there were about 50 of them, including the investigators and their assistants. Soon, two people came out of the building.
One of them was in a grey coat and wore a trilby, holding a cigar in his mouth. Another man was dressed in a suit. He had short hair and looked energized. However, he had a serious expression on his face.
Seeing the both of them, the crowd shifted their attention to them and immediately remained silent.
The man in the coat studied the crowd. He took the cigar out from his mouth with his right hand that was originally in his pocket, exhaling the cigar smoke. Without saying anything, he put the cigar back into his mouth. He squinted his eyes and looked at the man in the suit that was standing on his left.
After exchanging glances with each other, the man in the suit nodded his head slightly and moved a step forward. He said, "The victim was 61 years old and was the boss of the Jingchen Financial Group. Li Jingbiao was an immortal-level rank-3 and he was usually accompanied by two immortal-level rank-9 bodyguards who were poisoned to death. We'll provide more detailed information to all of you by tomorrow afternoon. You may come in now. The crime scene is on the 186th floor, room 001. We'll carry out an autopsy at 1 a.m."
The crowd rushed into the building. Lin Huang frowned. He noticed that when the man mentioned the name of the victim, many of their facial expressions changed, including Xia Hou's.
"Xia Hou, is the victim a very popular person?" Lin Huang whispered.
"Don't you know who Li Jingbiao is?" Xia Hou was surprised and asked. However, seeing Lin Huang's perplexed expression, he realized something. "I guess you're not from Division 3."
"Yes, that's right." Lin Huang nodded. The conversation ended. Apparently, Lin Huang did not want to tell where he was from.
After waiting for a while, Xia Hou caught a glimpse of Lin Huang and continued, "The Jingchen Financial Group that was operated by Li Jingbiao is the second largest financial company in Division 3. He's a legend. His parents are just ordinary people in the small foothold. However, it took him more than 40 years to build a business empire. It's on par with the Royal Star Group which has been established for hundreds of years. He's a commercial genius and his story has been written in the textbook of the schools in Division 3 more than 20 years ago. In Division 3, even a six-year-old kid knows who he is. I've never expected he'd be attacked..."
"It seems like the murderer has stirred up a nest of hornets." Lin Huang smiled wryly, shaking his head. He could already guess how Jingchen Financial Group would react. With such a big financial group joining the investigation, the murderer would be unable to escape.
Chapter 747: The Murderer Has Appeared
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Seeing everyone enter the building, Feng Yuan lit a cigar and slowly walked towards the stairs in front of the building. He straightened his coat and quietly sat down. After inhaling and exhaling the smoke for several times, he shifted his gaze towards Lan Luo who was in a suit.
"After the case has ended, you can apply to transfer to Division 2. I'll inform the leader about it. I guess the approval shouldn't be a problem."
"Bro, we handled the case together and we should bear the responsibility together. I don't want to go to Division 2. I'll follow you wherever you go," Lan Luo refused.
"I'm getting married and having kids. Are you going to marry me? Can you give birth?" Feng Yuan teased.
Seeing that Lan Luo did not dare talk about it anymore, he inhaled the cigar deeply and said after a long while, "The victim is Li Jingbiao. I'll bear all the responsibilities. There's no need to get others involved. I'm retiring a few years later. You're still young. If you are loyal to me, listen to me. Don't meddle in this case. Unlock your achievements in Division 2 so that there's a place for me to chill in the future."
"Bro…"
"Stop harping on. Let's call it a deal. If you happen to resign, I'll turn against you. Don't blame me if I ignore you in the future," Feng Yuan stared at his partner who had been with him for almost 20 years and said with a serious expression.
It seemed like Lan Luo had something to say. However, at that moment, both of their Emperor's Heart Rings vibrated at the same time.
The communication page then popped up in front of them, projecting the same person.
"Leader!" Lan Luo immediately stood as straight as a ramrod.
It was a middle-aged man in a short-sleeved checkered shirt that appeared in the projection. He was their boss.
Feng Yue put out the cigar calmly and slowly stood up. Before the man in the projection spoke, he said, "I'll take full responsibility for the case. Lan Luo…"
The man in the short-sleeve caught a glimpse of Feng Yuan and interrupted him, "The victim isn't Li Jingbiao. The victim is just a substitute for Li Jingbiao."
They were stunned when they heard that. After a moment, they recovered from their thoughts and felt relieved.
"However, this is not the end. Despite the fact that he's just a substitute, Li Jingbiao is angry. He feels that the murderer is coming after him. A few minutes ago, he contacted the Union Government headquarters in Division 3 and the top management pressured me. Both of you are given three days to find out who the murderer is. Otherwise, please get ready to file for your unemployment benefits!" The man showed no mercy as he gazed at the both of them with a stern face. After quietly sizing them up, he hung up the phone straight away.
Seeing the projection disappear, Feng Yuan immediately took out another cigar. "I' didn't expect that there'd be good news. Li Jingbiao is still alive."
"Why don't I think that it's good news? Did you miss out on the last sentence? The leader warned us that we'll be fired if the case isn't solved within three days." Lan Luo was worried.
"Do you think he'll fire the both of us because of a substitute?" Feng Yuan smirked.
"I don't think so." Although that was Lan Luo's answer, he was uncertain.
"I'm going home to sleep now. See you tomorrow!" Feng Yuan stood up and waved his hand at him, without turning back. Soon, he placed both of his hands in the pocket of his coat and disappeared as soon as he strode towards a dimensional relic.
"I have to pick up the slack again." Lan Luo was speechless, shaking his head. He turned his head back and looked towards Chenxing Building.
…
On the 186th floor of Chenxing Building, in the brightly lit room No.1.
The living room was about 300 square meters large. It was slightly packed with about 50 of them gathered there. However, most of them stayed for a while in the living room and soon, they rushed towards the bedroom.
There were two corpses in the living room. Both of the victims were muscular and were wearing black suits. One of them was found dead on the sofa whereas the other victim died on the floor next to the wine cabinet. Obviously, the both of them were the security guards.
After the crowd had dispersed, Lin Huang then looked at the two corpses that had turned black. Obviously, both of the dead bodies were tainted with some kind of poison.
Since they had no idea what type of poison it was, Lin Huang dared not touch the two corpses for further investigation. One of the reasons was that they had to properly preserve the crime scene. Also, they would be poisoned if it was the type of poison that could enter their body.
"Can you identify what type of poison that is?" Lin Huang asked Bloody.
"Since an imperial-level rank-9 could be poisoned in a short period of time, it's highly possible that it's a type that's been extracted from the body of an imperial-level rank-9. However, to provide a more accurate answer, it has to be tested." Bloody knew more about this than Lin Huang did. While Lin Huang was a teacher in the Martial Hunter College, Bloody would be summoned whenever Lin Huang was in the library. Its speed of reading was several times faster than Lin Huang's and it had memorized almost all the contents in the books available in the Martial Hunter College, including the knowledge about the use of various types of poisons. "However, for the sake of our safety, we shall just wait for the autopsy report."
"By looking at the position of the two dead bodies, the poison acted very fast as they didn't struggle when they died. The sofa, the tea table, and the liquor cabinet are still in good condition. The poison has a terrifying effect." Since they could not get any other information from the corpses, Lin Huang shifted his attention to the surroundings. Soon, based on the information that he got from the surrounding he concluded, "From what I know, there are 11 types of poisons that are extracted from imperial-level monsters which can result in deaths like this. These are only the raw poisons that are extracted, not considering complex poison which is a mixture of various types of raw poisons." Bloody was not interested in the two corpses since it could not get any other useful information. "Since we can't confirm if the poison can spread and we can't figure out what type of poison it is, let's have a look at the victim in the bedroom."
Lin Huang nodded. He did not stay there any longer and walked towards the crowd in the bedroom.
A minority of them had left after looking around. However, it was still very packed in the room.
Lin Huang finally managed to squeeze through the crowd and reach the dead body. He then saw the "fresh" corpse.
"That's awful." It was the first thing that came across Lin Huang's mind just as he saw the dead body. He had seen many of the corpses in the past two days and still, he gave such a comment.
The bloated corpse was out of shape as he had puncture wounds all over his body that were made with a sharp weapon. There were at least 100 wounds on his body and all of them were about the size of an adult eyeball. The sharp weapon had penetrated through his body and the naked body looked exactly like a human honeycomb.
After observing for a while, Bloody who was hiding in Lin Huang's sleeve said, "The fatal injuries were the two attacks on his eyeballs. The weapon pierced right through his eyeballs and poked out of the back of his head. The victim's brain was smashed into tofu in an instant."
"If the murderer is the same person, he does really have a lot of killing tactics. Since he uses different methods to kill each time he commits a crime, is he trying to show off his skills?" Lin Huang mumbled.
Many of them had activated their detection skills next to the fake Li Jingbiao's dead body. A thought suddenly ran through Lin Huang's mind. "The guy has died for less than half an hour. I remember that there's a chain rune that can recover the scene in a given period of time."
"You're talking about the Backtracking Mirror, right? So, can you really go back in time?" Bloody recalled the Witchcraft Rune as well. However, harsh terms were imposed on it. The rune must be activated at the crime scene and it had to be used within 24 hours after the incident happened. Besides, the time that one could backtrack varied according to one's strength.
"I've used it once and it shouldn't be a problem to set the clock back by half an hour. I should be able to turn back time by an hour if I were to do it at a full stretch."
"I'll do the task. I can set the clock back by about three hours." Bloody was not showing off. "It'll be better if there are fewer people who know that we excel at the Witchcraft Rune. Since the Sorcerer Dao is somehow related to the floating land, it'll easily catch the Union Government and the rest of the organization's attention. We shall activate the Backtracking Mirror after the rest of them leave."
Many of the investigators left after examining the dead body.
At about 1 a.m, Lan Luo, who was in his suit, and a few of the staff with their protection suits entered. There were about seven investigators there.
"We're storing the dead bodies now." Lan Luo gazed at Lin Huang and the rest. He did not urge them to leave. Instead, he nodded his head at the staff.
The staff started taking out a few body bags and stored the corpses.
The investigators did not intend to stay there anymore after the staff had put the corpses away.
"I'm going home to sleep. Aren't you leaving yet?" Xia Hou yawned.
"You may leave first. I'll stay here for a little while." Lin Huang stared at the mattress in the bedroom and did not leave.
Lan Luo glanced at Lin Huang, feeling weird. However, he did not think any further and warned, "Don't damage the evidence at the crime scene." Soon, he left with the staff.
"I guess the guy will be back within a few minutes. We have to be quick." Monitored by the Leech Pods, they ensured everyone in the room had left, then Bloody and Lin Huang then returned to the bedroom.
Bloody's Book of Sorcerer Dao was different from the one that Lin Huang had as it was purple in color. As Bloody flipped opened the book, it quickly inserted Life Power into it, activating the chain rune called the Backtracking Mirror.
The runes appeared in mid-air one after another. Ultimately, all of them collapsed, transforming into a scene with rapid playback.
Bloody could soon capture the scene that happened an hour ago which was the scene that Lin Huang had been waiting for.
They could see from the scene that there was a semi-transparent monster, which body was in liquid form, breaking through the window and making its way to the sofa. It spat a cloud of white mist at the back of the neck of the security guard. The white mist was very thin and was almost invisible. The white mist entered the security guard's body as he inhaled. As soon as he inhaled the white mist, he looked like he had fallen into a kind of trance. However, it lasted for less than three seconds and his skin started turning black from head to toe. Soon, he died soundlessly and the entire process lasted less than ten seconds.
Soon after that, the semi-transparent monster quietly appeared next to the second security guard. A cloud of white mist was released at the back of his neck. The second security guard collapsed as well.
The semi-transparent monster then headed towards the bedroom. He appeared above "Li Jingbiao" who had fallen asleep in a spherical shape. The spherical body started transforming rapidly. In just a few seconds, it transformed into a human form and it looked similar to Li Jingbiao.
After the transformation had been completed, the monster slowly opened its mouth, extending its tongue which was of the size of a human arm. Its soft tongue extended up to a meter long. It looked like a poisonous snake revealing its upper body. It was about ten centimeters away from "Li Jingbiao's" chubby face.
All of a sudden, the tongue broke in half, resembling a shooting arrow and pierced through "Li Jiangbiao's" eyes.
A weird sound was heard coming out from the monster after "Li Jingbiao" was killed. Soon, its body transformed again. Sharp thorns that looked like tentacles were constantly growing from its body, penetrating through "Li Jingbiao's" dead body.
Seeing the entire process, Lin Huang frowned and he attempted to look for information about the monster in his brain. However, it was in vain. "Bloody, do you know what monster that is?"
"I don't know. I've never seen this monster in the monster guide," Bloody answered confidently, "However, we can basically confirm that this monster possesses Enhanced Intelligence and powerful mimicry ability."
"I used to think that the murderer was a human before activating the Backtracking Mirror. I've never expected it to be a monster." Lin Huang smiled, shaking his head. "It possesses both Enhanced Intelligence and powerful mimicry ability in addition to having a variety of attack skills. It must be extremely difficult to kill."
"Yes, indeed. We're now facing the first difficulty. How do we find it!"
Chapter 748: Planing to Sit Back and Wait
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Despite the answer that he got from the Backtracking Mirror being less than satisfactory, it was still better than no progress.
It was relatively easy for a monster with Enhanced Intelligence and mimicry ability to hide in an area that was two million square meters wide with more than 60 million residents. To look for it was like fishing for a needle in a haystack.
In addition to it being a new monster that had not been recorded in the monster guide, nobody knew where would it be hiding.
After they returned to the hotel, Lin Huang did not sleep. Instead, he continued discussing the case with Bloody.
"I thought that the murderer would be capable of finding the victims because there's a spy in the Union Government. Based on what we know now, it disguised itself as the first victim and got the name list of the immortal-levels rank-1 to rank-3 from the Union Government. It was lucky though since its first victim was an executive of the Union Government."
"I doubt if it was lucky or if it intentionally chose him to be its target. Its intention was to obtain the name list in the first place." Lin Huang's heart skipped a beat when he heard what Bloody said. He had never expected that a monster could be so scheming.
"It's really a terrifying monster…"
"It's okay. We'll catch it one day." Bloody was extraordinarily calm.
"We can monitor the entire foothold with Leech Pods. However, if it can really disguise itself as anyone, the monitoring pods can't do anything to it. Moreover, this is a human foothold. They have many types of skills that can probably detect the presence of your Leech Pods. You have to be extra careful to avoid being discovered. Also, there are many buildings in the foothold. The obstacles that you're going to encounter far surpass whatever you faced in any of the wild zones and danger zones. The performance of the monitoring pods might be affected as well. You have to consider all these factors." Lin Huang stated all the problems that might arise.
However, after listening to what he said, Bloody slightly shook its head. "It's not that troublesome. We don't need to monitor the whole city. We just need to monitor the potential victims. It will act soon. Instead of putting in a lot of effort to look for it, why not wait for it to fall into the trap?"
Lin Huang's eyes brightened as he heard that. "I almost forgot about it! There are only a few immortal-levels here. Those who are on immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3 are even lesser. Perhaps there are only 100 of them. Our workload is much lower if we were to monitor the 100 of them. With their combat strength, it's less likely that your Leech Pods will be discovered."
"I plan to find out all the potential victims by tonight. Right when the Leech Pods are released into their body to monitor their position, I'll set up a surveillance system without blind spots near their residential areas. I don't think that it can run away!" Encountering an opponent with Enhanced Intelligence just like Bloody, it was ambitious.
"Remember to send me their coordinates after you've found out where they are staying at. I'll have to save them in my dimensional relic so that we'll be able to reach there in the first place when it appears." Lin Huang did not miss out on any detail.
Lin Huang fell asleep very quickly as he had to prepare himself for the battle in the morning.
Bloody was busy until at about eight o'clock in the morning. It managed to find out about 118 of the potential victims who ranked immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3. It searched through the foothold repeatedly three times to make sure that it did not miss out on any of them.
After secretly releasing the Leech Pods into the body of the 118 potential victims, Bloody did not activate them. Instead, it allowed the pods to lie dormant. Bloody did not intend to control them. Instead, it wanted to determine their position and monitor them. The Leech Pods would take over their body when necessary so that it could control them to run away and avoid being killed.
Aside from releasing Leech Pods into their body, their house and toilet were being monitored by the surveillance system without any blind spots as well. Other than that, the area within a 10-kilometer radius from their house was being monitored by Bloody. The surveillance system was activated for 24 hours. All of these were done to avoid the monster from escaping. Although the probability of this happening was relatively small, they had to consider whatever situation that might happen.
After setting everything up, Lin Huang had already finished his breakfast.
He got 118 of the coordinates from Bloody and summoned Thunder. He then started another round of his work.
Soon, Thunder sent Lin Huang to each of the coordinates marked on the map.
He did consider asking for help from Kylie since her speed was on par with Thunder. However, as he thought about everyone in Martel City being in fear and they might assume Kylie to be the murderer, so Huang decided to ask for help from Thunder.
An immortal pet monster which had gone through its third mutation was rare in Martel City. Once Thunder was summoned, it caught many people's attention. Thanks to Thunder's tremendously terrifying speed, before the rest of them could surround it, it flapped its wings and left together with Lin Huang.
Thunder took about three to four minutes to travel from one coordinate to another. In order to save the coordinates, Lin Huang would need only a few minutes. However, he spent more than seven hours saving 118 of the coordinates in his dimensional relic.
It was slightly after four in the afternoon when they returned to the hotel.
Lin Huang then noticed that Xia Hou had called him for a few times. In order to save the coordinates more efficiently, he had disabled the communication function of the Emperor's Heart Ring so that it would not keep vibrating.
After calling back, soon, Xia Hou answered the video call.
"What are you doing? Why couldn't I reach you all day long? I've sent you a few messages and you didn't reply as well."
"I had something personal to deal with today. That's why I disabled the communication function," Lin Huang explained.
"The autopsy report is out. Have you seen it?" Xia Hou asked.
"No, I haven't. I just returned to the hotel."
"I'll briefly tell you about it. The autopsy report indicates that both of the immortal-level rank-9s were killed by a new form of poison. Although it won't spread, it's fatal. The poison can get into the human body through breathing, pores and more. If any of the immortal-levels are poisoned, the death rate is 100%. One might only be able to survive for less than ten seconds. However, the body of an imperial-level might not be able to defend against such a poison completely." Xia Hou continued, "I've been thinking about it for a long time. Since the case is too dangerous, I'm not going to investigate any further. In fact, after obtaining the autopsy report, about half of the investigators have left Martel City. I advise you to quit. It's not worth dying for a few resources. The case can't be handled by an immortal-level. They have to look for an imperial-level."
"Thank you for reminding me. However, I'll make my decision only after reading through the autopsy report on my own."
He then hung up the phone with Xia Hou and quickly checked the autopsy report. He did not expect so many of them to quit. After carefully reading through the autopsy report, he understood everyone's concern.
They used to think that the murderer's ability was very limited since the murderer was only capable of killing immortal-levels rank-1 to rank-3. However, after knowing that the monster's ability was far beyond their imaginations and could even kill an immortal-level rank-9, in addition to the new type of poison which nobody had ever seen before, it was pretty understandable that they decided to quit.
Lin Huang did not persuade Xia Hou to stay since he was not going to ask him to join the operation that night. He had too many secrets and would definitely reveal his ability if he were to act together with Xia Hou.
"They don't know that regardless of whether they quit or not. It makes no difference." Bloody laughed.
"After tonight, the monster will no longer appear." Closing the communication page, Lin Huang said what Bloody wanted to very calmly.
Chapter 749: The Murderer Showed Up
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before midnight, there was complete silence in Martel City as if the big foothold had fallen asleep.
It was almost 12 a.m. now. It was drizzling with rain and there were only a few people on the street. The street lights had equal distances between each other and they were placed along both sides of the street. The lights gave a faint yellow glow and apparently, the sunstones had not been replaced for a long time.
Martel City itself was not a prosperous city, which was why it had a rather boring nightlife. On a normal day, one could hardly see any people on the street after 10.30 p.m, let alone on a rainy day.
"How long has it been raining for?"
In the hotel room which was brightly lit, Lin Huang, who was sitting with his legs crossed on the sofa, slowly opened his eyes. He had been connected to his soul for the whole day to learn about the Sorcerer Dao and now, he was recovering from his thoughts. He heard the rain pelting the window right after he regained his senses.
"It started raining since 8.30 a.m. and the rain has never stopped since then." Bloody was floating on top of the tea table in front of Lin Huang. It was lingering in the air and it looked like purple cotton candy that had been magnified ten times.
"Is the weather going to affect the investigation of your Leech Pods?" Lin Huang slightly frowned, looking out of the window.
"To be honest, it does affect the Leech Pods. On a rainy day, there's less sunlight and the rainfall will affect their ability to see. With the weather like this, the detection ability of the pods will be reduced by approximately 15%," Bloody explained in detailed, "Another problem is that the monster is capable of transforming itself into its semi-transparent state, so it can definitely take advantage of the weather."
"Is it going to have a significant impact on it?" Lin Huang immediately asked.
"Not that significant though. Despite its capability of transforming into a semi-transparent state, it doesn't mean that it'll completely disappear from sight. The rain isn't going to pass through its body. Instead, raindrops that fall onto its body help in outlining the shape of its body. With careful observation, it shouldn't be difficult to figure it out," Bloody explained further.
Lin Huang was then relieved and nodded. He got up from the sofa and walked towards the window, standing in front of it and looking through it.
There were only three walls in the hotel room. One of the walls was made completely of bio-resin glass. The two large windows in the living room were attached to the glass wall, through which he could look from the room.
As the rain hit the resin glass, the water accumulated and trickled down the glass.
Lin Huang did not fix his gaze on the raindrops. Instead, he looked through the transparent glass as if his vision could pass through the dark night.
There was a potential immortal-level rank-3 victim living in the luxurious area which was about two hundred meters away. Lin Huang only realized that the potential victim was so near to the hotel that he had chosen two days ago after Bloody had completely identified all the potential victims.
There were the villas in the luxurious area. Lin Huang's hotel room was on the 128th floor. As he looked down from the top, he had a clear view of the entire vicinity.
The area was empty. Aside from the guard house that was located at the entrance, there were only three houses that still had their lights turned on, including the potential victim's house.
The small region was within the range covered by Lin Huang's territory which had a radius of 3,000 meters. He could monitor everyone's activities in the region without his eyesight.
In the guard house, the security guard on-duty was having his supper. In one of the villas that were brightly lit, there was a couple exercising on the bed. In another villa, a muscular man was taking his bath. As for the last villa, the potential victim was sitting up straight in his study room. It seemed like he was checking the mails on his Emperor's Heart Ring.
Lin Huang managed to look through the entire region in just one glance. Realizing that there was nothing odd happening, he shifted his gaze and lowered his head to look at the Emperor's Heart Ring. As projected by the Emperor's Heart Ring, it was already 11.46 p.m.
"Nothing happened, has it?" Lin Huang looked in the direction where Bloody was. He believed that with Bloody's monitoring ability, it was impossible for it to miss anything. Since there was no news coming from Bloody, it indicated that the murderer had not acted yet. However, the clock was about to strike 12, causing Lin Huang to frown.
As doubt arose in his mind, he looked out the window again. As his sight penetrated through the dark night, he fixed his gaze on a street which was devoid of presence.
The street looked the same as what he had seen earlier. It was still empty. As the street lamps shone down the street, an extremely thin, green shadow appeared in a flash.
Due to the interference caused by the raindrops and the mist, the green shadow could be barely detected. Lin Huang sensed that something had broken into his territory. Otherwise, he might not have been able to discover the presence of the shadow.
"The murderer is here! It's right below us!"
"What a coincidence!"
Lin Huang smiled, shaking his head. He indeed had never expected that among 118 of the potential victims, the murderer would choose the one right below him. There was no need to use the coordinates that he had saved into his dimensional relic previously.
Bloody immediately transformed into a purple glow and hid in Lin Huang's sleeve. Without a moment of hesitation, Lin Huang then left the hotel room through the window. Like a night bird, he flew down from a building that was hundreds of meters tall. His target was the shadow that was barely visible to the naked eye.
Despite the fact that its body was close to being transparent, the murderer which was within the coverage of Lin Huang's territory resembled a lamp in the dark. Regardless of how it was going to hide, Lin Huang would be able to sense it.
The method used by Bloody was rather stupid. Its Leech Pods noticed that the raindrops in that area splashed in mid-air before they hit the ground.
Seemingly, the murderer did not know that it had already been discovered. It moved swiftly and killed all the monitoring monsters in that area.
After killing the last surveillance mosquito, it then realized that something was amiss and gradually turned its body around.
Right at this moment, Lin Huang landed on the ground. He was like falling leaves in autumn as he landed on the ground quietly.
Although he could hardly see his opponent's body, Lin Huang knew very well that the murderer was less than ten meters away from him. Also, he knew that the unknown monster was sizing him up curiously.
"You have quite a strong detection ability. I tried to restrain my aura to the most I could, but I've still been discovered," Lin Huang said as if he was talking to himself.
The monster that was almost transparent knew that it had been discovered. It did not bother to hide anymore and its body gradually solidified.
Seeing the body apparition, Lin Huang frowned. His opponent appeared in a human form without fear. Its body and face looked exactly the same as the muscular corpse that he had seen in the morgue two days ago.
After its body was formed, a heavy coat appeared on the surface of the monster's body, covering it. Obviously, it had a certain degree of understanding about the human lifestyle.
"I know that you can understand what I'm talking about. If you don't mind, could you please tell me what type of monster are you? I couldn't find you in the monster guide," Lin Huang asked as if he was teasing the monster. In fact, his body was actually ready to be engaged in a fight.
"You've not even achieved immortal-level. How dare you provoke me?" The monster narrowed its eyes. He did not act immediately as he could not understand why Lin Huang had the courage to do so. He even doubted if Lin Huang had set a trap for it or if he might have some other people to back him up.
"You don't need to look around. I didn't bring anyone here," Lin Huang said with his palms up in mock surrender. However, he thought to himself, "Summoning monsters aren't humans anyway."
The monster guessed that what Lin Huang said might be true since it detected nothing. Its eyes then flashed with a trace of fury. "Since you want to die, I'm not going to be kind to you!"
Chapter 750: Evil Spirit Type
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was about midnight right now and the night was pitch black. The sky was covered by a cloak of dark clouds and the stars could not be seen.
Without the street lamps, one could see nothing in the dark as they walked along the street.
Martel City experienced a light drizzle, which made the weather a little chilly, adding to the joys of autumn which had just started in August.
On a lonely street next to the luxurious area, there were two figures standing on the opposite side of the street lamp.
One of the figures was about two meters tall and was dressed in a dark-colored coat, looking very muscular. Lightning crackled through the sky and its face could be clearly seen in an instant. It had extremely short hair which was very close to the scalp. It looked ferocious and the scar on the bridge of its nose enhanced its terrifying appearance.
As for another figure, he looked like an ordinary teenager at the height of about 1.8 meters. Compared to the man next to him, he looked rather skinny. He was in casual wear. He wore a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans. The only difference was that he had an attractive appearance. His pair of black eyes looked brighter at night as if they were two priceless, black gemstones.
The sunstones emitted a faint yellow glow, projecting light over up to ten meters away. The light highlighted the shimmer of the rain, resembling snowflakes that were falling from the sky. However, the two of them who stood under the streetlight, did not get soaked in the rain. With careful observation, one would notice that the raindrops were actually repelled before touching their clothes. Seemingly, there was a layer of thin, transparent film that repelled the rain.
Sleet Repel!
Only those who were on holy fire-level possessed such a skill.
With a slight activation, the rotating Life Power in the body of the holy fire-level would cause a force field to appear on the surface of their body. Despite the fact that the force field did not possess the ability to defend them, it was sufficient to protect their body from rain or hailstones. It was also one of the differences between transcendents and ordinary humans.
In fact, after getting to the immortal-level, one's Life Power would be further strengthened and there was no need to deliberately activate their Life Power. The force field would be activated on its own and it would last for 24 hours. Not only would it protect them from sleet, even dust would not settle on their clothes. Generally, it could keep one's body away from dirt even if one did not shower for a year. (Hmmm, I feel like spa therapists are going to lose their jobs…)
Lin Huang sized his opponent up through the rain. If he had not witnessed the entire process of his transformation in addition to knowing that the human that he transformed into had already died, Lin Huang might have thought that he was indeed a human.
The aura exuded by the monster was exactly the same as a human's. Despite Lin Huang only being ten meters away from it, he could not figure out anything odd. Furthermore, he could sense just from its aura alone that the strength of the monster was the same as the victim's; the both of them were on immortal-level rank-3.
An ordinary immortal-level rank-3 would mean nothing to him. However, he dared not underestimate the monster that had appeared right in front of him. He witnessed how he managed to poison two immortal-level rank-9s through the Backtracking Mirror. He could not even confirm whether the monster's ability was of immortal-level rank-3 or not as it might be trying to mimic the victim's combat strength.
Just as Lin Huang was carefully sizing the monster up, the monster was studying Lin Huang as well. Not only was it sizing him up, it looked at the surroundings carefully as well.
After confirming that nobody was there to back Lin Huang up, it suddenly released its aura that was initially suppressed. Earlier, the aura resembled Mars, but eventually, it burnt the entire grassland.
At that moment, only then Lin Huang was able to sense its fiendish aura that was different from humans.
"The aura… Are you a fiend?" Lin Huang frowned. However, he could vaguely feel that the aura it released was slightly different from the fiends'. Although it was as brutal as the aura released by the fiends, it was rather wicked.
"No, it should be an evil spirit type. The aura of the fiends tends to be darker, but the evil spirit's aura will be eviler." Bloody's voice was heard.
Lin Huang frowned again as he heard of the evil spirit type. He had to be careful and his dark combat sword instantly formed in his hand.
Since Lin Huang used to be a teacher who had read through all the monster guides and other monster information in the Martial Hunter College, he knew very well what the evil spirit type was.
Most of the evil spirits were created after going through a spiritual transformation. Some of them were transformed from the spirits of the dead due to resentment. Also, some of the spiritual creatures were transformed into evil spirits as they were contaminated. Evil spirits were also formed simply due to the accumulation of negative emotions.
In short, this type of monster was extremely wicked and they had shockingly sinister attack skills.
"Isn't the evil spirit type often controlled by their negative emotions and that there's a limit to their intelligence?" A thought suddenly came across Lin Huang's mind. "The monster managed to plan chain murders without leaving any evidence. It doesn't look like it's a monster with low intelligence."
"I wouldn't get it wrong based on the aura it released. It's dark, brutal, and evil. They're all mixed up… It's definitely the evil spirit type," Bloody said confidently, "Although it's smart, it might just be a special case."
As soon as the aura emitted by the monster reached its peak, the evil spirit suddenly moved.
Despite moving with a bulky body that had a height of more than two meters, its speed was terribly fast, which far surpassed an immortal-level rank-3. Lin Huang could only see a moving shadow.
However, not being able to capture its motion was not a big problem for Lin Huang as his territory managed to cover about three kilometers. Even an ant would not be able to escape him, let alone a muscular man that was more than two meters tall.
Lin Huang reacted just as his Territory sensed it. He brandished his sword forward without a moment of hesitation.
The purple Life Fire in his Life Wheel was burning vigorously. His Life Power resembled a river, flowing through his body. Right at that moment, the black combat sword turned purple and a purple glow covered its blade. The blade which was about 80 centimeters long instantly transformed into a giant blade that was about two meters long.
Bang!
At almost the same time when the purple blade was formed, the evil spirit came right in front of Lin Huang. It was so muscular and had bulging veins. One could even vaguely see the blood coursing through.
The evil spirit did not hold any weapons in hand. However, it had a gigantic fist. After stretching it back, it struck a heavy blow at him.
At that moment, there was a loud explosion in the air. Before the blow struck, a vacuum was formed and the rain stopped.
Lin Huang's pupils dilated as he witnessed the attack unfolding. He immediately activated his Life Power to its maximum and the purple blade expanded a few more feet.
The blade was extremely sharp as the air was slightly distorted while it flew by. His sword slashed through the raindrops right in front of him.
The both of them did not hold back, striking with murderous intent.
Right under the streetlamps, a white and a black shadow crashed into each other.