Finding People Is My Specialty

"Making trouble, huh!"

Lu Zheng hailed a cab outside the City Bureau, then headed straight home.

"Trying to frame me? You really don't know how formidable I am!"

"Well, fine, there's not much I can do. You really don't know how formidable the People's Police are!"

He paid, got out, went upstairs, and returned home.

By the time he got home, it was already noon. Lu Zheng changed clothes, then traveled back to ancient times for lunch.

"Young Master, the Liu family's second miss came looking for you early this morning. She said she wanted you to accompany her shopping."

Lu Zheng smiled when he heard that. What shopping? Her pocket was probably out of candy.

But Lu Zheng couldn't go play with the Liu Family Sisters right now, because then he wouldn't be able to travel between worlds whenever he wanted.

"I won't be around this afternoon either. Later, help me send them a bag of candy and tell them I've got things to handle these next few days."

"Sure thing!"

As Lu Zheng ate, he thought, This won't do. The case can't be dragged out forever, and the police could come looking for me at any moment. Wouldn't that tie me down completely?

But this wasn't something that could be shifted by his own will. He couldn't exactly catch the murderer and deliver him to the police, could he?

He didn't even know who the murderer was!

"Huh?"

Lu Zheng put a piece of tofu into his mouth, and inspiration flashed in his eyes.

"Am I an idiot?"

He wolfed down lunch, returned to his bedroom, took a bag of fruit hard candy from the drawer, then pulled out several talisman papers he had drawn last night at the cost of exhausting his true qi.

Exchanging the Light of Luck for talisman-drawing proficiency had this advantage: Lu Zheng skipped the beginner practice stage entirely and raised his talisman success rate to one hundred percent.

Five Peace Talismans, one Qi Seeking Talisman, two Evil Expelling Talismans, and one Swift Travel Talisman.

After thinking it over, Lu Zheng took one Peace Talisman for himself and gave the other two, along with a bag of candy, to Uncle Li to pass on to the Liu Family Sisters.

Then he ground cinnabar, spread out yellow paper, and drew two more Qi Seeking Talismans.

"Travel!"

"Buzz!"

Feeling the true qi still locked within the yellow paper talisman in his hand, Lu Zheng beamed. "It worked!"

This time, Lu Zheng wanted to see whether, aside from himself crossing over bodily, objects containing true qi energy could also cross between worlds.

The result was delightful. It worked! Well, cinnabar should be about the same on both sides. But would the yellow paper and talisman brush be different? Next time, I can bring some over from this side and test the effect.

Right now, confirming his guess wasn't the priority. The priority was catching the murderer.

"So, what should I do next?"

"The object with the strongest trace of the murderer's aura would naturally be the murder weapon."

"Find Lin Wan and have her show me the murder weapon. Then I'll cast a spell on the spot, use a Qi Seeking Talisman to extract the aura, fold the paper into a crane, and have it lead the police to the murderer?"

Lu Zheng: "Heh heh!"

He should first see whether the murderer's aura still lingered in his home.

True qi flowed into the talisman. Lu Zheng gave a light shake with his right hand, and the vermilion talismanic script began to glimmer.

Right after that, he sensed several strands of aura gathering around the talisman, slowly drifting around it.

The largest clump was his own. The other three, smaller ones, should have been the lingering auras of the three police officers from that morning.

And there was another... thread?

It was faint, almost nonexistent. If Lu Zheng had used the talisman even half a day later, it probably wouldn't have gathered at all.

"Time is tight. Gather! Draw!"

Holding the talisman in his right hand and forming a seal with his left, Lu Zheng first scattered the other four strands of aura, then gathered and drew the remaining thread into the Qi Seeking Talisman.

"Buzz!"

The Qi Seeking Talisman trembled lightly, as though it had formed a connection with something far away.

"Go!"

This was Haishi. Lu Zheng couldn't possibly fold the Qi Seeking Talisman directly into a paper crane. Besides, he hadn't stored enough true qi in the talisman for the paper to fly.

So Lu Zheng merely folded it into a small square, held it in his hand, and immediately headed out following its guidance.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry. The aura collected in the talisman is limited. It'll disappear soon."

He hurried out of the residential complex, unlocked a shared bicycle at the entrance, leaped onto it, and pedaled furiously.

Meanwhile, at the City Bureau.

"Team Leader Li, after comparing the surveillance footage, we did find five targets that fit the criteria. It's just that..."

"Just that what?"

"They were all dressed as delivery riders, wearing helmets and masks. Not a single distinguishing feature was exposed."

"So either Lu Zheng was lying, or the other side is an expert?"

"Yes!"

Li Jinglin stubbed out his cigarette and fell into thought.

The aura and true qi in the talisman were being consumed at an incredible speed. Lu Zheng pedaled north all the way, quickly passing more than ten intersections.

Then he turned toward the entrance of a hotel that looked exceptionally upscale and grand.

"Buzz!"

The Qi Seeking Talisman clenched in his palm trembled lightly, its effects completely spent.

Lu Zheng looked up. "Good thing it didn't fail halfway there. At least I found the destination."

He got off, locked the bike, and looked up at the hotel sign.

Sunny Rain Hotel.

The target was currently inside this hotel. As long as Lu Zheng confirmed another place this person had definitely visited and used the Qi Seeking Talisman again...

Then, having already memorized the man's aura, Lu Zheng would be able to immediately sift out the target aura from among all the tangled, chaotic traces.

For example... the hotel front desk? Ah, why had things suddenly become so easy?

When the time came, he could catch the murderer, send him to the police station, and just say he had run into him by chance and remembered seeing him in the residential complex.

He hadn't committed any crime, so the process didn't matter. That was that! Lu Zheng swaggered into the hotel and walked up to the front desk. "Get me a room."

"Certainly, sir. What type of room would you like, how many days will you be staying, and may I see your ID, please?"

Lu Zheng took out his ID and handed it to the young woman at the desk. "A standard room is fine. Three days for now."

In the blink of an eye, Lu Zheng had already come up with a reason for staying at the hotel.

"Alright, please wait a moment!"

A moment later.

"How would you like to pay, sir?"

"Phone."

"Thank you. Your payment has gone through. Here is your room card. We hope you enjoy your stay!"

Lu Zheng accepted the room card, turned, and headed toward the elevators on the side of the lobby.

As he walked, Lu Zheng took a Qi Seeking Talisman from his pocket, folded it into a square, and gripped it in his hand.

His other hand formed a seal, and in an instant, hundreds of auras surged toward him.

"So many!"

The true qi within the Qi Seeking Talisman was rapidly being consumed, but Lu Zheng recognized that aura in an instant.

"Gather! Draw!"

"Buzz!"

"Nice, nice, nice!"

Lu Zheng stepped into the elevator and smiled as he pressed the button for the eighth floor.

If someone had looked at the room card in his hand at that moment, they would have seen the four digits 1210 written clearly on it.