Chapter 497: Chapter 430: The Rule
"Xi Menxiu, what do you want to do by setting an alarm for 12 o’clock?" Beibei turned her head, looking puzzled at him.
Hunching his neck, Xi Menxiu revealed an awkward smile, "Well... I’ve made plans with a friend to go out for a drink tonight, to talk about life and dreams."
"Bullshit dreams, it’s more like a deep exchange on biology and human anatomy study, isn’t it? I don’t know what to say about you!" Beibei saw through Xi Menxiu’s pretext and expressed her indignation.
Yang Xiao also joined with some mild criticism of Xi Menxiu. It wasn’t until a heart-to-heart conversation with Director Nalan last time that he realized Xi Menxiu wasn’t as ludicrous as he seemed. On the contrary, Xi Menxiu was very slick and even quite scheming.
After getting out of the car, they quickly met the person in charge on the scene, but the appearance of these people really shocked Yang Xiao—they were all white-haired elderly.
Yang Xiao’s first reaction was that these people had been affected, harmed by some bizarre power, and had aged decades in an instant.
However, when the lead old man spoke, Yang Xiao suddenly recognized him. It was Wu Zhe. He then remembered that the captain of the Luming Bureau was Wu Zhe. He had cooperated with Wu Zhe and Wu Zhengwu before, when they cleared out Granny Hong and other members of the Yu Yuan Sect. The latter was the captain of the Anping Public Office.
"Captain Wu, how did you all end up looking like this?" Yang Xiao was both shocked and grieved, knowing Captain Wu to be a good person.
At that moment, including Wu Zhe, his entire team was grey-haired, their faces lined with wrinkles, but the next second, Wu Zhe gave a bitter smile and actually took off the white beard on his chin, "Captain Yang, this is all fake. I’ll explain the specifics to you later. It was I who specifically requested Director Nalan to assign you to this case, so please don’t take it amiss."
"What on earth is going on?" Beibei was utterly confused.
Wu Zhe sighed with a mix of urgency and helplessness, "Half an hour ago, another person died. The body was discovered in a garage. The frequency of that thing’s attacks is getting faster and faster. Last night there were only two people, but tonight, up to now, three people have been killed. According to the tech department’s analysis, the attacks might be even more frequent in the latter half of the night."
"Have the residents in the area been evacuated?" Yang Xiao inquired.
Hearing this, Wu Zhe frowned, "That’s the most troublesome part. The situation in this residential area is very complicated. Due to the many abandoned houses, there are some scavenging elderly and homeless people who sneaked in, and we aren’t clear on the specifics. Moreover, we don’t have the conditions to conduct a full-scale search—that would be too dangerous."
"It seems we need to resolve this quickly. Captain Wu, please fill us in on the specifics," Yang Xiao said urgently.
Waving his hand, Wu Zhe gestured to a female team member who took out a map from her briefcase. After unfolding it, it turned out to be a floor plan of the Scientist Garden. The area near the top-left corner was marked prominently, "According to our investigation, this zone is within the range of supernatural events. These red marks are where the victims’ bodies were found."
There were a total of four red marks on the map, which not only numbered the sequence in which the bodies were found but also included the forensic doctor’s estimation of the time of death.
Besides these four cases, a staff member belonging to the Patrol Defense Office had gone missing. According to Wu Zhe, this individual was not one of his investigative team members but a technical expert dispatched by the tech department responsible for recording abnormal signals.
"Has this person still not been found?" Da Xiong asked in a muffled voice.
Wu Zhe shook his head. Having disappeared within the range of the supernatural events for so long, the outcome for this person was quite clear, which is why Wu Zhe reported the number of deaths as five right from the start. Within the team, Da Xiong was mainly responsible for equipment use, including monitoring the source of abnormal signals. Empathizing with the situation, he felt a pang of sorrow.
"However, we’ve also deduced some things during this period, including the attack pattern of that thing," Wu Zhe mentioned one by one, "First, its range of activity is within the interval marked on the map. Second, it prefers to attack people who are alone, but from our last experience of being attacked, the so-called ’alone’ also includes not being witnessed by a third party."
"So being out of sight of your teammates means you’re alone, is that right?" Yang Xiao was quick to understand.
"Exactly. The person from our team who got attacked last time, he was always at the back of the group, and he was out of our sight for less than 10 seconds," Wu Zhe emphasized.
Pointing at the map with his hand, Yang Xiao pointed to a location marked with a blue X, asking, "So this is his last known location when he disappeared?"
"That’s correct," Wu Zhe nodded and then continued, "The third point, which we just summarized not long ago, is that thing seems not to attack the elderly. So far, the confirmed attack cases include victims who are children, teenagers, young adults, and middle-aged individuals, but no elderly. We speculate this might be a rule."
"No wonder all of you are disguised like this." They were trying to trick a ghost, Yang Xiao finally understood.
"Does it work?" Yang Xiao asked.
"We don’t know yet. We hadn’t gone in before you arrived," Wu Zhe replied with a bow, "You arrived faster than I expected. Swift action is invaluable in warfare, and I thank you all for this."
Yang Xiao waved his hand dismissively, "It’s our duty, no need for thanks. We’ll take over from here. You stay as our backup. Also, get us some disguises too, just like yours."
"Alright."
Wu Zhe was a man of decisiveness, realizing that they were incapable of handling a crisis of this magnitude. Any forced intervention would only lead to increased casualties.
Soon, Yang Xiao and his team were all in disguise, a group of five crossed the police line from the west gate and entered the Scientist Garden Residential Area. At the moment, the neighborhood was silent, with only a few lone streetlights emitting a half-dead, half-alive glow.
Leading the way was Da Xiong, wearing headphones, carrying an equipment case, and holding a long-handled device similar to a mine detector; Beibei was second, flashlight in hand. Following them were Xi Menxiu, who kept looking around suspiciously, then Yu Shu, and bringing up the rear was the team leader, Yang Xiao.
By now, Yang Xiao had secretly put on the Underworld Robe, and it had to be said that the longer he wore it, the better it fit. It was so roomy that Yang Xiao always had the bizarre and oddly comfortable feeling of running naked without wearing anything.
Suddenly, Da Xiong, who was at the front, stopped in his tracks, raised his left hand level with his head, and clenched his right fist. Everyone immediately followed suit and stopped.
Moments later, Da Xiong reported in a low voice, "There’s an unknown signal nearby, not very strong. It must have lingered around here."
Under Da Xiong’s guidance, the group arrived at a low bridge within the residential area. Beneath the bridge was pitch-black darkness. Three flashlights shone downward and soon, the sharp-eyed Xi Menxiu spotted something unusual. There was an object floating in the dark water, which reflected broken pieces of silver when the light hit it.
Beibei inhaled sharply and said in a low voice, "It’s one of our people, he’s wearing the Tech Department’s jacket."
Yang Xiao remembered the Tech Department personnel, whose distinctive sign was their special silver-material clothing.
It was pitch-dark below, and attempting to retrieve the body was not only impractical, but also dangerous. Yang Xiao asked Yu Shu to mark the location of the body on the map; they would deal with the supernatural event first before sending someone to retrieve it.
Following the predetermined route upon entry, Yang Xiao’s team cautiously proceeded. Before long, Da Xiong’s equipment detected another abnormal signal, much stronger than the last. Tracking the signal, they ended up locking onto a building.
It was an old building, only six stories high, its architectural style stuck in last century’s aesthetic standards. With no elevator and its mottled concrete walls already cracked, they looked up from the bottom of building 14 to see that, unimaginably, one of the units was still lit.
It was on the fifth floor, unit 501.
An entirely dark building with only this one room lit up made everyone feel uneasily that this looked more like a trap than anything.
"Beibei, swap positions with me, guard the rear. Da Xiong, take point behind me."
Everyone had complete respect for Yang Xiao’s abilities and strength, so they had no objections. After the team repositioned, they lined up and started ascending the stairs.
"Be aware of each teammate’s position, don’t stand too close together," Yang Xiao paused and whispered. The stairwell in this old building was too narrow, and he was worried that they would not have enough room to maneuver if a fight broke out.
They arrived outside unit 501 without incident. Looking down, Yang Xiao noticed a bag of trash just outside the door. After gently kicking it over with his foot, he saw that it contained what seemed to be relatively fresh vegetable stems and fruit peels, the kind of kitchen waste one might find.
This at least confirmed that someone had lived in the apartment within the last couple of days. After some thought, Yang Xiao told his teammates to step back and knocked on the door by himself.
The door was the old-fashioned type made of heavy iron, black in color with inevitable rust marks around the edges and the simplest kind of vertical keyhole.
With the situation unclear, Yang Xiao did not rashly use the Soul-Capturing Mirror to take a look inside. Xi Menxiu volunteered, and with a thin piece of wire that he bent a few times, inserted it into the keyhole and gently poked a few times. Soon, a crisp sound of the spring lock being triggered came from inside.
The door opened.
After making sure Xi Menxiu stepped back, Yang Xiao opened the door. In the next second, a scent of blood rushed to meet them. The further they went inside, the stronger the stench of blood became, until he pushed open a bedroom door that was ajar. The bedroom was a mess, and the scene was more gruesome than any they had witnessed. There were no complete bodies, only pieces of body remnants scattered everywhere. Even the ceiling was covered with splattered blood and flesh, and droplets of blood continued to fall from the surrounding furniture.
"It just left, no more than ten minutes ago," Beibei observed, feeling slightly uneasy despite her experience with brutal scenes.
Yang Xiao removed his wig and then tore off the fake white beard he had worn on his chin. "Let’s throw all this away; it’s of no use."
Everyone did as told, for they had found a small piece of scalp on the scene, to which gray hair was still attached.
The victim was an elderly person.
The pattern of not killing the elderly was broken.
Apart from that, the scene was so dreadful that they couldn’t even determine the victim’s gender. Yang Xiao could feel that the entity’s methods were becoming increasingly brutal.
