Chapter 23: Murder Case
It was a clear Monday morning.
In a place like Songhai City, rush hour travel was always headache-inducing. The traffic congestion, whether on elevated highways or surface roads, was always bad enough to make anyone's blood pressure spike.
Ordinary office workers took the subway to avoid traffic jams, but they had to endure being packed like sardines and squeezed from all sides.
In the morning sunlight, Zhang Yuanqing carried his backpack and rode a shared bicycle through Songhai City's bustling streets, taking bites of a jianbing pancake along the way.
He easily overtook vehicle after vehicle, whether they were private cars, goods vehicles, or buses. The vitality of his youth was on full display, as his bangs fluttered in the wind.
Songhai University was five or six kilometers from his grandmother's house. Cycling there only took fifteen minutes, so he usually didn't live on campus.
Because of his elevation to a full Nocturnal Specter, he was able to ride the bicycle, which he used to find particularly tiring to pedal, non-stop all the way to the university gate.
He took out his phone to check the time. It had only taken him ten minutes.
If there hadn't been so many electric scooters on the bike path, he could have made it even more quickly.
Songhai University was founded early in the last century. It was a top tier institution with a hundred and twenty long years of history, and ranked among the nation's finest.
Aside from quality teachers, Songhai University had two main distinguishing features: beautiful flowers skilled at finding good masters, and warriors brave enough to fence.
Grandma used to warn his aunt that girls at school needed to know how to protect themselves. Now that her grandson was getting older, she now had to warn him that boys at school needed to protect themselves as well.
Grandma was very dissatisfied with this world.
He entered the campus gate and passed through the main axis, in the middle of which was the founder's statue. He rode slowly along the right-side road, lined with plane trees, toward the teaching building.
There was a quiet elegance about the university campus. Students were filming short videos, sat chatting on roadside benches, or hurrying to class with textbooks in their arms.
At first glance, the clean and spacious walkways, landscaped lawns, and weathered dormitory buildings made it look more like a quiet, upscale residential community than a school.
Zhang Yuanqing parked his bike outside the main building, shouldered his backpack, and entered.
He reached his classroom and looked around. Students were scattered about in small groups, and there seemed to be quite a few who were skipping class.
He casually picked a seat. Just as he sat down, he heard two male students behind him talking quietly.
"I just saw Xu Yingying at the school gate," said one of them excitedly. "She's waiting for her sugar daddy again."
The other replied indignantly, "Nonsense! How could my goddess possibly be taken by someone?"
"I’m not lying to you! Every Monday, a man picks her up in a luxury car worth hundreds of thousands. I just saw it last Monday."
"Did you see it clearly? Maybe it was a rideshare?"
"Would you kiss a rideshare driver?"
"Damn it. In middle school, girls liked academic high achievers. In college, girls like rich guys from outside. When will ordinary guys get to stand up and be counted?"
Xu Yingying was a beautiful female classmate of theirs, widely considered their class belle.
Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help turning around and flashed them a teasing smile.
"The wives in your hard drive can help you stand up," he offered helpfully.
The two male students seemed surprised that he would chime in, stunned for a moment.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.
The classmate named Li Lesheng asked curiously, "Zhang Yuanqing, did something good happen to you today? This isn't like you."
Zhang Yuanqing was startled by his remark.
"Why would you say that?" he asked.
Li Lesheng was about to reply when their teacher, wearing black-framed glasses, entered the classroom carrying textbooks. The classroom, which was full of chatter, immediately fell silent.
***
On the 16th floor of Mile Hotel in Kangyang District, an elevator chimed, and the doors opened. Li Dongze, dressed smartly in a black vest and white shirt, walked out, cane in hand. There was a seriousness to his gaunt features.
Guan Ya followed behind him, wearing her signature high heels.
All the guests in the entire floor had been cleared out. Police tape stretched across the elevator to the hallway entrance, and two public security officers were standing guard.
Guan Ya stepped forward and presented her credentials to them, and the officers immediately stood aside to allow them to enter.
Several uniformed officers were busying themselves along the hallway that led to the guest rooms, either taking photos or collecting fingerprints, hair, and other physical evidence.
Li Dongze swept past all of them and entered one of the guest rooms. Immediately, his nose was assaulted by a strong scent of blood.
He swept his gaze over the hotel suite. On the bed lay two corpses covered with white sheets. The clean white bedding was stained with large patches of dark red bloodstains.
He extended his cane to lift the white sheets away, exposing the naked bodies of a man and woman.
He was silent for a moment, then he remarked in a low voice, "It's definitely Zhao Yingjun."
Guan Ya carefully examined every corner of the room, wisps of white mist flowing from her pupils.
After a moment, she reported, "There are no signs of struggle in the room, no traces of deliberate cleanup... There are only two condoms in the trash, but three are missing from the box..."
After speaking, she looked at the female victim with some pity.
Li Dongze covered the bodies again, then said in a serious tone, "Guan Ya, stay here to assist the officers with collecting fingerprints and hair, and retrieving surveillance footage. I need to contact Centurion Fu and the other captains. We may need to hold a meeting."
She gave him a small nod and replied, "I'll sync the scene details and personnel files to your phone shortly."
Zhao Yingjun was an advisor to the Xiangshui Road Public Security Bureau, a White Tiger Legion member, and a Level 2 Scout.
A member of the Five Elements Alliance had been killed. This was a major incident.
***
The small conference room on the second floor of the villa was decorated with exquisite luxury. The floor was covered with a soft wool carpet, and a solid wood conference table stood in the center of the room.
There were platters of fresh fruit, gleaming slices of ham, expensive bottles of imported red wine, boxes of cigars, and trays of exquisite desserts and pastries laid out on the table.
At the foot of the conference table hung a white projection screen, and a segment of surveillance footage from the hotel was being projected onto it.
In the video, a man wearing a baseball cap and mask walked from the elevator area to the door of the guest room, took out a key card to open it, and entered the room. About forty minutes later, the man emerged from the room, head down and hands in pockets as he left.
The video ended. Li Dongze pressed pause and looked at the captains around the table.
"We received an emergency call from the hotel this morning," he said without preamble. "When housekeeping knocked on the door, no one answered. The service staff entered to check, and discovered both victims were already dead. Zhao Yingjun was tortured before death. There are signs that he was bound hand and foot, and his body was covered in knife wounds. But the fatal wound was a blade through the heart.
"The female victim is Liu Xiaoe, also killed by a blade through the heart, but she wasn't tortured. Based on the missing condom at the scene, we suspect she was assaulted by the killer before death.
"Additionally, the Public Security Bureau examined both victims' phones and confirmed Liu Xiaoe was Zhao Yingjun's mistress.
"We retrieved surveillance from the hotel's other entrances and exits but found no trace of how the killer left. He likely has special means to avoid surveillance. Initial assessment suggests the killer is a Spirit Realm Walker."
There were six people sitting around the table.
At the head sat a young man in a white suit, with the aloof and noble air of a young master of the aristocracy. His hair was tied in a striking short ponytail, and his chiseled facial features were so handsome to admire that looking at him was almost blinding.
The first seat to the left of him was empty. That was Li Dongze's seat.
On his right sat a woman holding an orange cat, wearing a patterned qipao. She had an unmistakably mature voluptuousness and allure to her. The skin on her beautiful face was well maintained, tight and fair, and she wore light makeup that gave her a serene and elegant air.
Beside her sat a middle-aged man wearing a miner's helmet and work clothes, his dark, weathered skin clearly that of a laborer.
Across from her sat what appeared to be a gym instructor in a tight-fitting outfit, his thick arms comparable in girth to a woman's waist, with sharp eyes that radiated an aura of volatility.
The last person was a woman in her late twenties, wearing a white racing suit and tight leather pants, with black wavy hair and an oval face. She looked both cool and striking.
These five were the Spirit Realm Walker squad captains of Kangyang District. Several others were absent for various reasons.
The young man in the white suit looked around, his deep brown eyes calm as the surface of a frozen lake, and said quietly, "Everyone, what are your thoughts? Captain Green Vine, you speak first."
The beautiful woman in the qipao frowned slightly.
"Ordinary Spirit Realm Walkers wouldn't dare kill official personnel," she observed. "Could this be the work of an Evil class Spirit Realm Walker?"
Li Dongze replied, "We're still investigating Zhao Yingjun's recent social connections."
If this was the work of an Evil-class Spirit Realm Walker, the severity of the incident would escalate significantly.
The Fire Sage Big Muscle raised his eyebrows, his anger flaring.
"Evil classes?" he spat. "These sewer rats dare kill members of our Five Elements Alliance? I'll definitely make them pay the price."
The others looked grave. White Dragon, the lady in the racing suit asked, "What were Zhao Yingjun's combat capabilities?"
Li Dongze looked over at Fu Qingyang, who replied, "He had one defensive item."
Hearing this, White Dragon's expression grew serious.
"Although Level 2 Scouts aren't skilled in combat, it wouldn't have been easy to kill him if he had one defensive item, especially without alerting guests in adjacent rooms. We can use this information to make a preliminary assessment of the killer's strength."
Tang Guoqiang, the construction company boss wearing the miner's helmet, said gravely, "They are certainly very powerful."
Big Muscle snorted coldly and reiterated his earlier words.
"So what if they're powerful?" he growled. "Anyone who dares kill anyone in the Five Elements Alliance must die, no matter how strong."
White Dragon rubbed her forehead silently. Perhaps we could kick this Crimson Fire Gang hothead out of our meetings, she thought to herself.
Li Dongze stepped in, saying, "Our investigation revealed that Zhao Yingjun had many mistresses, and especially liked keeping female college students. We're investigating his mistresses one by one."
"Why?" asked Big Muscle, frowning.
"Zhao Yingjun didn't have a fixed hotel for trysts with his mistresses, yet the killer managed to find out both the hotel and the room number. This shows he had some understanding of Zhao Yingjun's movements, either as an acquaintance or through long term surveillance," Li Dongze explained.
"The person who knows you best is always the woman beside your pillow," he concluded. "We might be able to get some leads from Zhao Yingjun's mistresses."
The captains nodded gravely.
Li Dongze continued, "Zhao Yingjun was tortured before his death. We need to consider what the killer was interrogating him about. What did he learn? Was this revenge, or the act of an Evil-class Walker? This is a question we must treat seriously."
The seated captains' expressions changed slightly.
Evil-class and Lawful-class Walkers had always been irreconcilable enemies, tracking and hunting each other relentlessly.
Naturally, Evil-class Walkers would be interested in information about official Spirit Realm Walkers, especially information about their safehouses.
If the killer wasn't an Evil-class Walker, then a powerful Spirit Realm Walker willing to risk offending the official organization by infiltrating a hotel to torture and kill one of their own might be and indication of an even more complex truth.
"We need to root out the killer quickly," Green Vine said gravely.
Big Muscle looked around the room, then said angrily, "Why isn't Yuan Ting here? We could have him devour Zhao Yingjun's spirit body to obtain his memories. Then we'd know who the killer is."
The importance of Nocturnal Specters who could control spirit bodies was immediately highlighted.
Fu Qingyang shook his head and replied, "Yesterday, the Taiyi Sect summoned all official Nocturnal Specters to Beijing for a meeting. Yuan Ting isn't in Songhai City."
His expression remained calm throughout, as if the sky falling wouldn't disturb him.
When they heard he had been summoned to Beijing for a meeting, the captains' hearts sank. If Yuan Ting wasn't available, then the Nocturnal Specters from other regions certainly weren't either.
Wasn't this too coincidental? The killer hadn't struck early or late, but had chosen the exact moment when all the Nocturnal Specters were collectively in Beijing.
"What's wrong with the Taiyi Sect?" Big Muscle demanded angrily. "They don't meet earlier or later, but pick this exact moment? We should have cultivated our own Nocturnal Specter long ago."
Li Dongze said helplessly, "You've got the cause and effect backwards. The killer chose this timing to—Forget it, that's not important. There's no need to worry. We have our own Nocturnal Specter."
