Liu Ye's eyes reddened at once.
"My lord, you must uphold justice for our Inkstone Town!"
In a trembling voice, he explained why he had come.
Over the past three months, the young people of Inkstone Town had been disappearing one after another.
Not one or two, but dozens.
There were both men and women, all between sixteen and twenty-five.
They had been at home in their own beds, only to vanish into thin air upon waking, leaving behind no trace whatsoever.
The town yamen was utterly useless, treating them as ordinary cases of running away from home.
"My son, Liu Hua... You remember him, don't you? He was a constable in town."
Shen Che nodded. He remembered Liu Hua, an honest and sturdy young man.
Half a month ago, Liu Hua had told him he had found some clues and gone after them alone... Then... then he never came back!"
Liu Ye's voice took on a sobbing tone.
"Neither dead nor alive!"
Shen Che listened quietly.
A remote town, missing young men and women, and an impotent government.
Put those elements together, and they pointed to one clear possibility.
This was no ordinary case.
This matter reeked of demons.
An opportunity delivered right to his door.
And a debt of gratitude that had to be repaid.
"Uncle Liu, stay in Cangyun City for now and get some proper rest."
"I'll go back to Inkstone Town with you."
Five days of hard riding.
The farther they got from Cangyun City, the bleaker the surrounding landscape became.
When Inkstone Town's familiar outline appeared on the horizon, Shen Che felt as though a lifetime had passed.
He had only been gone for a year, yet it was as if the world had changed.
The town was eerily quiet.
There were few pedestrians on the streets. Each kept their head lowered and hurried along.
The bustling market from his memories had also become desolate and deserted.
An invisible fear hung over the entire town like heavy storm clouds.
Young faces were especially scarce. The occasional one who passed by wore an expression full of vigilance and worry.
This was not the hometown he remembered.
Shen Che did not go home first.
He went straight to the town yamen.
When the guard at the entrance saw him approaching, he impatiently moved to stop him.
"This is an important government office. Unauthorized persons are forbidden from entering!"
Shen Che could not be bothered with nonsense.
He directly took out the black iron token engraved with the words "Demon Suppression."
The guard's expression froze instantly.
"L-Lord Shen! This lowly one failed to recognize Mount Tai!"
The guard bent at the waist to a full ninety degrees.
"This lowly one will report to Constable Sun at once!"
A slightly plump middle-aged man in a constable's official uniform hurried out from inside to greet him.
He was Sun De, the chief constable of Inkstone Town and Liu Hua's superior.
"Ah, Lord Shen has returned!"
Sun De's face was piled high with smiles, his enthusiasm somewhat excessive.
Shen Che got straight to the point.
"Constable Sun, I came because of Liu Hua's case. What had he discovered before he vanished?"
The smile on Sun De's face stiffened for a moment.
He sighed and invited Shen Che into the main hall.
"Lord Shen, you have no idea how strange this case is."
According to him, Liu Hua had indeed been following a suspicious person before he disappeared.
On the night of his disappearance, Liu Hua had followed that person into Black Wind Mountain outside the town.
Then he had never come out again.
"We sent men into the mountain to search, but all we found at the foot of the mountain were scraps of his torn official uniform."
Sun De's face was full of helplessness.
"Oh, right. Before he disappeared, he left a note in the yamen, seemingly intending to record some important clue."
"But by the time we found it, the note had already been torn into pieces."
Shen Che's attention sharpened.
"Where is the note?"
"We gathered every fragment we could find," Sun De said, shaking his head. "But several pieces are still missing. It simply can't be put back together. Who knows what ghostly scribbles were written on it."
Sun De sought instructions from his superior before retrieving an oil-paper packet from the evidence room.
He carefully opened it. Inside were more than a dozen scraps of paper in varying sizes, barely pieced together.
On the paper, one could vaguely make out the character for "Heaven." The rest was either incomplete strokes or simply blank.
"Lord Shen, look. This is all there is."
Sun De looked troubled, though there was also a hint of watching a good show in his expression.
Even the authorities were helpless with this case. What waves could a young man who had only left the town not long ago possibly stir up, even if he had joined the Demon Suppression Division?
Shen Che thanked him and put away the oil-paper packet.
He did not linger at the yamen and turned to leave.
Watching his retreating back, Sun De curled his lip and muttered, "Young people are just too hot-blooded."
Shen Che found an empty alley.
He opened the oil-paper packet and spread the scraps across his palm.
He closed his eyes and sank his mind into his consciousness.
"System, restore this note to the state it was in before it was torn apart."
[Initiating Time Reversal. Repair target: note. Estimated Time Value consumption: 300 points. Confirm?]
The system's prompt sounded.
Time Reversal was far more expensive than accelerating time forward.
This meant traveling upstream against the river of time. The price to be paid was immense.
His remaining 300 points of Time Value.
"Confirm."
Without the slightest hesitation.
An invisible force enveloped his palm.
The motionless scraps of paper began to tremble and piece themselves together in a manner that defied all reason.
As if they had come alive, the torn marks along their edges wriggled shut, while the missing portions formed out of thin air.
In no more than a breath's time, a complete note lay intact in his palm.
[Time Value -300] [Time Value: 0]
Shen Che's entire fortune had been wiped clean.
He lowered his head and looked.
Three large characters danced across the paper like dragons and phoenixes.
Heavenly Profound Pavilion.
Shen Che firmly etched those three words into his mind.
He had some impression of Heavenly Profound Pavilion.
It was a fairly renowned martial world faction in nearby Qingfeng City. Its main business was pills and weapons, and it had always kept a low profile.
Qingfeng City was several hundred li away from Inkstone Town.
Why would a member of a Qingfeng City faction appear at Black Wind Mountain outside Inkstone Town?
Liu Hua had followed that person and, before being silenced, hurriedly written the three words "Heavenly Profound Pavilion."
That meant he had recognized the other party's identity and noticed something wrong.
After killing him, the murderer had destroyed this note to erase the clue.
Committing crimes across regions was indeed a clever method.
Who would connect a respectable shop hundreds of li away with a missing persons case in a remote town?
Liu Hua was most likely doomed.
Shen Che clenched his fists.
He had to make a trip to Qingfeng City.
Several days later, Qingfeng City.
It was far more prosperous than Inkstone Town. The streets were packed with carriages and horses, and the air buzzed with voices.
Following the clues, Shen Che quickly found Heavenly Profound Pavilion.
It occupied the most prime location in the city: an imposing three-story pavilion, with the three gilded words "Heavenly Profound Pavilion" hanging above its entrance. The strokes flew like dragons and danced like snakes, brimming with an extraordinary aura.
People came and went within the pavilion, and business was flourishing.
The first-floor hall was filled with all manner of weapons and pills, while attendants warmly greeted the customers.
Everything seemed perfectly normal, perfectly proper.
No one would have imagined that a place like this could be connected to the disappearance of dozens of people.
Charging in and demanding answers would only alert the enemy.
He had to find a way to draw out the true person in charge of Heavenly Profound Pavilion.
Before you continue