Leaving aside the "carriage robbery" they had passed by on their way back to Lilai City, where they had not seen a single member of the Heretical Inquisition, only two crime scenes remained in the city: the stolen potions and the sacrificial murder.
The four of them first arrived at the alchemy workshop where a large batch of Holy Potions had been stolen. Peering through a hole in the wall, they saw that the magical seal preserving the crime scene was still active, and no one was sleeping inside.
That left only the "murder" A'yu had encountered at the beginning.
Under A'yu's guidance, they soon found the scene of the crime.
It was a fairly large residence, apparently belonging to a wealthy family by Lilai City's standards.
The open front door and the two Heretical Inquisition members sprawled unconscious on the ground—apparently knocked out while standing guard—showed that they had come to the right place.
Huang stepped over the two unconscious members of the Heretical Inquisition and entered the house.
The scene inside made Huang slightly startled before undisguised disgust appeared on her face.
"Indeed... it's quite horrific."
A'yu had not exaggerated. It was truly a sight that made one want to vomit.
A large quantity of blood had been used to draw an Octagram Array across the living room floor, with one organ placed at each point of the octagram.
The heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, stomach, intestines, and brain.
On the wall opposite the octagram hung a woman, nailed to it. Her abdominal cavity had been slit open vertically and emptied, while iron hooks pulled back the muscles and skin on either side, keeping her abdomen permanently "open."
Her head was intact, but there was an obvious incision across her skull—the skull itself had been pried open.
Although