The Strange Crime Scene

Yeah, why would a vicious Evil God suddenly go mad and start doing good deeds?

Yuan Zhu could not help but search his own heart. Of course it was because: Kitty was actually me?!

A super-sized Kitty that could swallow dozens of Aberrant Fiends in one gulp—tell me, was that vicious or not? As for why I came back from the dead and had the Deviation Degree on my body conveniently erased... was it wrong for Kitty to treat herself a little better? The Little Elf popped out as well. "That's right! There has never been any savior, nor do we rely on immortals or emperors. We fought through thorns and brambles all this way, weathered wind, frost, and setbacks (half a day), and relied entirely on our own unrelenting efforts! With no external buffs, we became our own cheat!"

Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture: ??? Listen to the two of you—do those sound like human words? Have you already assumed I was thoroughly dead and divided up my inheritance in perfect tacit agreement? After recording the doubts surrounding Yuan Zhu in his notebook, Young Man Han issued an order. "Expose your wounds. I need to examine them."

Since they were conducting an investigation, they naturally could not take Yuan Zhu's word alone. They needed verification.

Yuan Zhu confidently raised his hand, pulled back his ill-fitting sleeve, and revealed an old scar on his wrist that looked as if it had healed years ago.

On his fair skin, there was a glaring hypertrophic scar on the inner side of each wrist. They looked like old wounds from four or five years ago. Yet judging from the contours of the injuries, the cuts had been extremely deep. It was obvious they had been made with the intention of successfully committing suicide.

Friends who often slit their wrists should know that ordinary people lack both the relevant experience and the courage to face death. Afraid of pain, they often stop after merely sampling it during their first attempt. They always think that as long as they cut open a blood vessel and blood came gushing out, it would never stop flowing, carrying them straight to the immortal realm.

Yet the cuts were often not deep enough, usually only opening the slow-flowing superficial veins rather than the deep arteries that sprayed blood with a hiss. Add to that how physical pain was magnified by a mind focused entirely upon it, while psychological fear likewise grew without limit, and one developed the illusion that one had successfully ascended to immortality.

But after all these years of human evolution, flimsy flesh might be flimsy, but how could the body be such a useless thing? It came with clotting functions, and veins had their own special valve structures. Boosted by layer upon layer of passive self-rescue procedures, a person might pass out from excessive blood loss, but the wound often kept bleeding until it eventually clotted and solidified.

Then, while half-dead, the highlights of your life would start playing before your eyes. In the end, you would jolt upright from your dying sickness, laugh toward the heavens, and call 110. Stocks wiped out? Mortgage project unfinished? Your son dyed with soy sauce... none of it mattered anymore.

From today onward, be a happy workhorse. Love life and work hard. Cherish life so you could work overtime better! Work overtime to earn money, earn money to treat illness, then crawl back up and keep striving! Yet the old wounds on Yuan Zhu's wrists were different. They had clearly been made to ensure a successful kill.

And to guarantee the death rate, the murderer had made deep cuts on all four limbs to let blood gush freely. Finally, one stab had pierced the heart, ensuring death beyond all doubt—and a quick death at that.

Trash Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture. This lousy cheat could not even manage scarless restoration. It had clearly restored my health to 100%, yet it still left scars. At this rate, Du Ling Star is so dangerous—if I die dozens or hundreds of times in the future, wouldn't all those accumulated scars leave me disfigured? How would I ever get a girlfriend? After examining the scar on his chest, the middle-aged man nodded in acknowledgment, then patted his shoulder and consoled him. "The method was very professional. Based on the reconstructed autopsy findings, you died very quickly. You would not have struggled for long before dying rapidly, so you probably did not feel much pain."

"...?!?" Yuan Zhu stared wide-eyed in surprise and hesitated. "But I'm not dead yet."

"Don't dwell on such insignificant matters. Judging by your injuries, I am more inclined to believe that you did die. That is the danger of illegal Sacrifice Rituals—abnormal situations always occur, and resurrection is nothing unusual. Since you managed to pick your life back up and live once more, live while you can and cherish it. What if there are hidden dangers and you die again soon? Listen to Uncle's advice. If the case can be closed smoothly, find a girl and have children as soon as possible. Investing in futures or stocks can go wrong, but investing in descendants can never go wrong."

Middle-Aged Wang spoke with the tone of someone who had been there before.

Yuan Zhu's eyes lit up. "Oh? From what you're saying, there's a good chance I'll be released? Rather than locked up for all sorts of messy tests, subjected to long-term imprisonment, or even sold to those major corporations and turned into an experimental specimen for research?"

In the memories of the original owner, many commoners, after reaching the age of fifty, had their bodies drained by endless labor and harsh living conditions. Their Deviation Degrees accumulated too high, leaving them at tremendous risk of mutation and loss of control.

Either they died first while scrambling for a living, or they knowingly sensed their end approaching and sold themselves to certain companies for a high price. Likewise, those unwilling to sell themselves would band together and forcibly sell people who had suffered severe contamination through accidents to large corporations.

Although Yuan Zhu's current condition showed a Deviation Degree of 0 and made him appear harmless, without danger to man or beast, he was also an extremely special experimental material of great research value.

Fatty Wang stroked his beard and agreed. "Your concerns are quite normal. If you had suffered corrosion from an evil spirit and retained severe contamination traces, then you would be a humanoid time bomb and would have to be controlled. But we conducted preliminary tests on you. Your reactions were entirely ordinary, with no signs of contamination whatsoever. You are even absurdly healthier than noble-born children. So I believe that as long as you truly have no other problems and are not deliberately putting on an act, then according to the relevant regulations, you will regain your freedom and will not be imprisoned. You will, however, still need to undergo regular physical examinations."

"Besides, there are actually quite a few cases like yours, where innocent people are dragged into anomalous events. But becoming a victim, being sacrificed, even dying and returning to life—those are rare circumstances, and you meet the requirements for compensation and emotional damages. The murderers who organized the Sacrifice Ritual are suspected to be dead and their whereabouts are unknown. This estate and their other properties will all be confiscated. If you choose to forgo a compensation claim, then you will be kicked out of the Security Bureau as quickly as possible."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man's gaze fell upon Yuan Zhu's bulging pocket, and he gave a knowing smile. "But seeing how stuffed your wallet is, I assume you have already personally completed your emotional-damages compensation and need not submit an application."

Upon hearing that, Young Man Han immediately spoke up. "Hm? Why haven't you handed over the stolen goods yet?"

"There are no stolen goods at all. This is all my hard-earned money!" Yuan Zhu clutched his pocket tightly and retorted without yielding. I'm fucking the victim here, dragged into this murder case. Can't I even take a little compensation? Didn't you hear him? I'm entitled to emotional damages too.

Fortunately, the Little Elf had reminded him that simply burying the valuable stolen goods was not enough to call it a day. He also needed to carry some cash on him, pretending that his horizons were limited and that this was the extent of what he would take.

"Alright, alright. How much can a bit of paper cash be worth? Why make things difficult for him? We've gained much larger real estate, after all. Just look at this villa—it's built like even I couldn't afford to live here. Little Brother Yuan, come here. I'll take a few pictures to preserve the evidence, then you can lead us to the Sacrifice Ritual site."

After photographing several of Yuan Zhu's critical wounds, the three carried their detection devices and advanced while scanning.

Sure enough, once Yuan Zhu himself was no longer the target, the instruments began operating normally. As they drew closer and closer to the sacrificial hall, the alarm noises grew louder and louder. The Deviation Degree swiftly broke past 20.

"As expected, traces of an evil spirit's descent. Before we've even entered, it has already soared past 20. The enclosed space behind this door may even show signs of spatial barriers distorting and weakening. Here, wrap this chain around your wrist, just in case."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man pulled two silver chains from his pocket and wrapped one around his own wrist.

Yuan Zhu took the other one and asked curiously, "What is this?"

"Defensive equipment supplied by the Law Enforcement Division. It has been soaked in a special liquid and strengthened with blessings. Once wrapped around the wrist, it isolates the interaction between the human body and external contaminating forces. It has a minor anti-curse function and can resist mental interference, though its strength is limited. Watch it carefully. If the silver chain gradually changes color and turns black, it means you are suffering an invisible contamination attack. You must escape the sacrificial hall before the chain turns completely black," the middle-aged man explained.

Yuan Zhu turned the chain over in his hand and clicked his tongue in amazement. "This is the legendary transcendent item?"

At the same time, the Little Elf activated her online detection function. Using the artifacts previously found in the bedroom as a comparison, she confirmed that the silver bracelet also emitted contaminating radiation, though much weaker. Wearing it close to the body for around fifteen minutes would only deal a single -1 instance of damage to Yuan Zhu's human body—and that would be blocked and defended against by his Blank Immortal Scripture.

Little Elf: "Trash! They actually dared to fob you off with such inferior goods? If it were anyone else, this piece of junk definitely couldn't block the contamination residue inside the hall."

While the Little Elf looked down on it, the middle-aged man also replied, "It does not count as a transcendent item, merely a one-use tool with special functions. Silver is mixed into the chain, allowing it to temporarily retain certain special energies. Once the power it contains is exhausted, it must be collected and given a second blessing charge before it can continue being used."

Those words also extinguished Yuan Zhu's thought of asking for a chain to protect himself. After all, during missions, they often encountered parties caught up in cases who would beat around the bush to ask for chains, hoping to protect themselves from evil spirits and ghosts. Or they would simply pocket them in secret and falsely claim they had lost them.

Though the item itself was neither valuable nor rare, it had silver mixed into it. They had to buy it using their salaries. The Security Bureau provided the blessing enhancement for free, but the chains themselves were sold at prices far above their cost, and it was a monopoly business besides.

When they returned to the sacrificial hall, a bloody stench rushed at them. The two investigators did not change expression as they stepped into the room where blood was gradually coagulating. Each time they lifted a foot, sticky strands of blood came up with it.

Yuan Zhu disliked this environment very much, so he chose to wait at the doorway. From time to time, he raised the arm wrapped with the silver chain to observe it. The Little Elf, meanwhile, diligently calculated the defensive effect provided by the chain.

Though the thing meant nothing to him, it could serve as a reference coordinate, allowing him to understand how ordinary people in this world resisted contamination. How strong was this standard-issue equipment, and how long could it last? Once enough similar data was gathered, he could indirectly analyze the current society's level of application of transcendent power. Going one step further, he could begin cracking the Strength System humanity possessed. In the end, he could explore and unravel the mysteries of the universe's rules. And this was the correct way to use the Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture.

Yuan Zhu waited patiently, watching as the chain gradually blackened bit by bit. At the same time, the young man held his device and continuously shone it over, scanning one high-energy node after another.

Unfortunately, the Aberrant Fiends that had truly carried the Evil God's power had all been swallowed into the Universe Within the Belly for containment and sealing. The few remaining chunks of flesh and severed fingers were severely mutated, but they did not count as high-energy reactions.

In the end, he fixed his attention on the ritual offerings one after another. These offerings had once served as coordinates anchoring the real world. They were the first to be invaded by the Evil God's energy, which had then used Yuan Zhu as a springboard. After the invasion failed, it had turned toward those believers instead.

The trail broke at Yuan Zhu. He himself had already been cleansed by himself—the Immortal Scripture. Thus, the spearhead of suspicion pointed entirely toward those offerings: a Crow with clipped wings, a skinned and beheaded frog, a Mushroom with hands and feet...

The young man scanned them one by one, and mockery gradually appeared on his face. He clicked his tongue in wonder. "A senseless hodgepodge with no logic whatsoever, simply piling up the number of offerings to serve as markers, then naively believing they could gamble on summoning an evil spirit? And the ritual array drawn on the ground is equally a case of a horse's head paired with a cow's mouth. There are several fatal mistakes in a row. It is already remarkable that this thing could operate at all. Not only did it draw the attention of evil spirits, every offering even bears contamination traces of varying intensity. This is practically a divine miracle!"

The middle-aged man had worked in the field for many years, handling all kinds of cases, and possessed rich experience dealing with anomalous events. Yet in terms of specialized knowledge, he fell far behind the young man. He had graduated from an ordinary school and received an ordinary education, without professional training in such fields.

He asked, "Oh? This Sacrifice Ritual was not compliant? Can you determine the identity of the target the sacrifice was directed toward?"

The young man set the detection device aside, then took several square white paper slips from his pocket. He lightly kicked several offerings in turn with the tip of his shoe, then waved the slips above them. It seemed as though he were catching some kind of scent from the air. Next, he drew a flat metal flask from the inner pocket of his coat, unscrewed its cap, dampened the paper slips with liquor, and observed them carefully. The liquor-soaked paper revealed faint traces of different colors, forming different patterns on the white sheets.

Finally, he took out a lighter and set the slips alight. Flames of varying intensities burst forth in the air before vanishing in a flash.

Once the test was complete, the middle-aged man hurriedly asked, "How was it?"

Confusion and incomprehension filled the young man's expression. "Strange. Extremely strange! Logically speaking, this was not a professional Sacrifice Ritual at all. The steps and procedures were riddled with errors and omissions, and there was not even a true target for the sacrifice. The organizers had no idea where they heard a heap of rural legends, some real and some false. They made corresponding offerings according to the rumors, intending to try their luck. If they randomly attracted one descending entity, they would consider it a profit."

"But the strange part is right there. Their sacrifice succeeded, and it was an unprecedented success beyond all expectation. Look—every offering at this scene has been corroded and occupied by contaminating power from a different source. In other words, whether the sacrificial targets truly existed or not, a source took that identity's place and appeared here. They were drawn by something and descended together, ultimately turning this low-grade sacrifice with only seven sacrificial offerings into a tragedy that killed over forty people."

At that moment, the young man raised his head, his gaze once again locking directly onto Yuan Zhu. "So what exactly was it that drew the attention of so many filthy evil spirits at once?"

Why are you looking at me? Yuan Zhu glared back. You want to know what drew the attention of all those Evil Gods? Fine! I'll tell you. It was the Immortal Scripture Old Geezer! A loser who crossed time and space to arrive here—of course he could attract the attention of evil spirits.

At this moment, the middle-aged man broke the standoff and asked instead, "When you tested just now, did the test paper show any aura marked as taboo?"

The young man ignored Yuan Zhu and shook his head. "No. They were all obscure, insignificant small-fry evil spirits. A scattered few were powerful, but they were merely secondary derivative systems of those taboo powers, or even tertiary derivatives. They did not qualify for a special danger rating."

The middle-aged man also sighed in relief. "That's good. When I heard you say multiple powers descended at once, I thought we had encountered some major incident that we simply could not handle, and that we should run first."

"The obvious danger has temporarily disappeared, but the vanished believers and sacrificial offerings, along with the evil power that suddenly broke off and vanished, all indicate that this matter is not simple. I think we should search this place carefully and see whether we can find any useful rats."

"Rats?!" Yuan Zhu, who had been pricking up his ears to eavesdrop on their conversation, was drawn in by the word. It even stirred his dormant memory fragments, making them restless, as though some strange knowledge was about to overflow.

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