Of course, the so-called "ghost fire" was really just the terrified lament of the security personnel at the scene, who couldn't make heads or tails of what had happened. But in a universe where the answer to every unsolved mystery was "psychic theology," there was always someone to blame for anything that couldn't be explained. And so the Supernatural Affairs Bureau got involved.
The Alliance's security agencies had indeed linked this fire to the "General Gujiao Assassination Case" from earlier that year. Both incidents had come out of nowhere, and after several days, there still seemed to be no clues.
But the lack of clues was itself a clue. After all, anyone who could pull this off under such tight security clearly had master-level stealth skills. The universe was vast, but the number of people like that was still limited.
One imaginative agent at the Supernatural Affairs Bureau even suggested that both incidents might be connected to the mysterious "Count Blackmoon."
Then someone in the know pointed out that this famous urban legend from Earth was no legend at all—it was real. Half a year ago, on the New World, he had even shown up to take part in an "archaeological expedition" to an Enlightener ruin, and then vanished without a trace once more. From that angle, it wasn't an unlikely possibility. At the very least, that man certainly couldn't produce an alibi.
Incidentally, the "archaeological expedition" Count Blackmoon had joined included the Commonwealth's "Guardian Immortal" Lan Jiufeng and Major General Yu Lian, who was on official business in Nefe. The former was so elusive he could probably be ruled out, but the latter could be brought in for questioning.
...All right, at least that line of inquiry made sense from an investigative standpoint.
After that, the imaginative security agent