Chapter 953: Chapter 821: The Gathering Storm
At the moment he saw the corpse, the landlord broke down instantly.
No matter how mentally prepared he was, how indifferent to life and death, after all, his whole family was gone. He couldn’t control his emotions.
However, the Imperial people ultimately don’t believe in tears. He only cried for a few minutes before gritting his teeth and contacting the City Guard.
After the City Guard arrived, they checked each deceased and began to ask him what exactly happened.
Although the landlord wasn’t a professional, he could still see from the degree of decomposition that his family had been dead for more than a day.
He hadn’t heard of any Awakened who could accelerate the decomposition of a corpse, so his family must have died at the hands of kidnappers.
To say he didn’t hate the tenants and their group was impossible. If those people hadn’t appeared, how could his family have been harmed?
Yet the dead are gone, and he must first consider avenging his family.
Moreover, the tenants might be even more domineering than the kidnappers, as they had already blatantly threatened him.
Thinking of this, his recently mended arm began to ache again faintly.
Looking at it from another angle, how did the other party know about the kidnappers’ burial site? Clearly, it couldn’t have been stumbled upon by chance.
The City Guard technicians confirmed this—the time of death was the night of the kidnapping.
The landlord had reason to believe that the tenants at least captured part of the kidnappers and extracted the burial site’s information through interrogation.
Then there’s another question: if any of the kidnappers are still at large, who is more trustworthy, the tenants or the City Guard?
The landlord believed that the fierce tenants were a bit more reliable.
If the City Guard were truly so trustworthy, he would have called the police as soon as his family was kidnapped.
Moreover, the kidnappers’ demand was for him to evict the tenants and sell the estate to the government, which couldn’t help but raise his suspicions.
Some City Guards were inspecting the scene, while others were questioning him: how did he discover this place?
The landlord answered without hesitation, "I dreamed about it... thinking I couldn’t find anyone anyway, I came to try my luck."
This answer was a bit excessive, but it wasn’t intentional disruption.
Despite the Imperial technology being so advanced, there still isn’t a scientific explanation for the soul.
The current mainstream thought is that the soul objectively exists, since it has already been observed.
But where this thing comes from, where it is going, especially whether there’s an afterlife... there isn’t an authoritative answer.
Even the theory of "soul capture" is questioned by many Supremes, and few can skillfully master it.
When the Paranoid met Qu Jianlei, he was cautious, partly for this reason.
If he could skillfully capture souls, he might have already acted. The key issue was his own uncertainty.
He agreed only after hearing Qu Jianlei talk about soul capture and promise to find him a body.
Even when he was carrying out the process, he wasn’t very confident, but since the chance was in front of him, he didn’t want to give up without trying.
After all, his current way of existing was already like that. How much worse could it get? He might as well take a desperate gamble.
This is straying a bit from the topic, but in such an advanced society, talk of reincarnation often arises.
Thus, family members appearing in dreams can’t all be dismissed as false—even if the likelihood is almost legendary.
A more scientific explanation is that it’s somewhat similar to a Supreme releasing spiritual power, which not only can perceive but also convey some thoughts.
As for how ordinary people achieve this, it truly falls under the scope of mysticism.
Anyway, the landlord’s reason made the City Guards a bit annoyed, "Speak clearly, stop talking nonsense!"
"That’s the truth," the landlord replied irritably, "My son’s family of six is gone, do I have the mood for jokes?"
The City Guards still didn’t believe him, but they didn’t press further—couldn’t they find out without him saying anything?
"You’d better think it over, the Patrol Guard will come to inspect too, and they’re more professional!"
The Patrol Guard and City Guard both belong to the public security system, but the former has higher status and greater authority.
The landlord felt a faint pang hearing this—he hadn’t done anything to cover up his recent interactions with the tenants.
Let alone the Patrol Guard, even the City Guard could easily verify these details.
But he then thought, if you want to verify, then go ahead. I’d like to see what happens when you confront them.
He’d already chosen to rely on the tenants, so he had to continue down this path; being indecisive isn’t a good quality in the Empire.
However, just then, a member of the City Guard came running over, "Something happened with the Patrol Guard, they can’t come for now."
"Something happened?" The other City Guards perked up with interest, bombarding with questions.
Unfortunately, the City Guard who brought the news didn’t know what happened, only hearing that the situation was significant.
In fact, even the Patrol Guard was at a loss: how could the second-in-command, Harman, disappear so suddenly?
Because Harman had his own resting area, the Patrol Guard didn’t initially notice his nighttime disappearance.
It wasn’t until someone came to Headquarters looking for him in the morning that the Patrol Guard was puzzled, "He was on a night shift, didn’t he go home?"
Harman is the second-in-command of the Patrol Guards, with considerable autonomy. Who would bother to check his post?
But the visitor got the news from Harman’s home, knowing he hadn’t returned home, which is why they came to the unit to find him.
Everyone went to the deputy’s office, but didn’t find anyone. The key thing was that his three attendants weren’t there either.
By this time, the patrol guards felt something was odd, some called Harman’s wristwatch, while others checked the entry and exit monitoring.
Then everyone discovered that the second-in-command only had records of entering headquarters but none of leaving!
Not only him, but even his three attendants only had records of entering, with no images showing their departure.
This bizarre phenomenon proved almost certainly that something was wrong, and the Patrol Headquarters became instantly busy.
It’s unclear whether other patrol guards knew of Harman’s recent activities.
But there’s no doubt, even if someone knew the deputy’s secrets, they wouldn’t possibly reveal them.
As time passed, the atmosphere at Patrol Headquarters became increasingly tense—unable to contact all four people, it’s a major incident!
At this point, patrol guards on missions outside were being recalled one after another; who could care about new tasks now?
However, the City Guard squad on site hadn’t realized the matter encountered by Patrol Headquarters was connected to the situation before them!
Since the patrol guards weren’t needed, the City Guard had its own technical staff, just less professional expertise.
No matter how lacking in professionalism, checking communication records shouldn’t be a problem, nor querying the landlord’s whereabouts.
Less than an hour later, the City Guard pinpointed a group of highly suspicious people—namely Qu Jianlei’s group.
Recently, the landlord had frequent contact with this group, occasionally visiting them.
Even this morning, he first went to the manor for a while—even if he’s the manor’s owner, wouldn’t need to be so diligent?
So the tenants in the manor were definitely problematic.
Since the landlord wouldn’t speak, we’ll go find that group and don’t believe they, as outsiders, would dare remain silent.
Hold on! Cough cough... it’s the Rhodiola rosea team? Then we definitely should maintain necessary respect for the Supremes!
In fact, once the City Guard realized the tenants were the Rhodiola rosea team, they didn’t even want to deal with the murder case.
Matters involving the Supremes shouldn’t be meddled with lightly; the City Guard, even as a law enforcement force, functions as a "civil affairs" attribute.
In this situation, should they offend the Supremes, they might not even know how they died.
The waters here are too deep; better to honestly remain uninvolved.
Actually, some recall that supposedly a Balrog Supreme is currently planning to confront Rhodiola rosea Supreme?
One Supreme is enough to terrify anyone into trembling with fear.
As for being caught in such a typhoon-like vortex—how hopeless must one be to embrace such reckless abandon?
Thus, a strange occurrence unfolded.
The death of the landlord’s son’s family, on its own, was rather tragic, and the tenants’ identity and origin suggested they were likely linked to the tragedy—not just anyone could have such big enemies.
Yet, the City Guard investigating the case completely ignored this lead, pretending they weren’t aware.
The City Guard serves as a law enforcement agency to maintain public order; though a violent machine, most people consider it merely a job.
Meanwhile, the landlord carefully observed the City Guard—as he hadn’t told the truth, his conscience bothering him?
After discerning the City Guard’s reaction, he relaxed: indeed, they’re scared too.
Qu Jianlei and Granny Jia returned to the manor and didn’t venture out again—the direction was set, practicing stillness overcomes motion.
With potential enemies secretly watching, Qu Jianlei felt somewhat distracted—not that his sense of security was poor, there were real adversaries!
Otherwise, who was Harman? Could he exhibit behavior resembling a death warrior?
But sometimes things are truly strange; while his mind was constantly on guard, his cultivation level unexpectedly advanced quite swiftly.
This feeling really seemed akin to "Born in adversity, dies in ease,"—was this the true way to open the physique of attracting trouble?
From the day he and Granny returned to the manor, within tens of thousands of square kilometers around them, ominous clouds began to slowly gather.
The clouds accumulated so slowly that ordinary people almost couldn’t feel it.
The local meteorological department noticed the situation, finding it somewhat odd, "Would there be a rainy period at this time?"
Celestial Blade Star does occasionally have prolonged rainy periods, but it isn’t seasonal yet.
"Isn’t it normal? Yet, with such a vast area, it doesn’t actually count as a rainy period and might disperse in a few days."
"The troposphere hasn’t shown significant large warm moist airflow, which doesn’t support a rainy period hypothesis, but short-term impact is apparent."
After another two days, the clouds thickened slightly, the area reaching over ten thousand square kilometers.
In the manor, Flower Scorpion looked up at the sky, "Such a large spread of ominous clouds, sufficient now?"
Granny Jia sat beneath a large tree and calmly spoke, "I can still hold on."
(Latest update till now; expecting a call for monthly votes, subscriptions, and recommendation votes.)
