Murder

Monday. The weather was clear.

In a place like Songhai, getting around during the morning rush hour was always a headache. Whether on the elevated roads or at street level, the congestion was enough to send anyone's blood pressure soaring.

Ordinary office workers who took the subway didn't have to worry about traffic jams, but they did have to endure the ordeal of being squeezed from all sides.

In the morning sunlight, Zhang Yuanqing rode a shared bike at full speed through Songhai's bustling streets, a jianbing guozi clenched between his teeth and a backpack slung over his shoulders.

He effortlessly overtook one private car after another, along with vans and buses. The vigor of youth seemed to fly along with his bangs.

Songhai University was five or six kilometers from Grandmother's home. It took only fifteen minutes to get there by bike, so he usually didn't live on campus.

Since advancing to Night Wanderer, he had pedaled the bike—which usually left him exhausted—in one nonstop sprint all the way to the university gates. When he pulled out his phone to check, it had taken only ten minutes.

If there hadn't been so many electric scooters on the bike path, he could have gone even faster.

Songhai University had been founded at the start of the last century. It was now 120 years old and ranked among the country's top universities.

Aside from its excellent faculty, Songhai University was best known for two things: beautiful flowers finding worthy caretakers, and brave warriors daring to cross swords.

Grandmother had once warned his aunt to know how to protect herself at school. Now that she was older, she had to warn her grandson to protect himself at school, too.

Grandmother was deeply dissatisfied with the state of the world.

After entering the gates and passing the main avenue, where a statue of the founder stood, he slowly rode toward the classroom buildings along a road lined with plane trees.

The campus was elegant and quiet. Some students filmed short videos, others chatted on benches by the road, and still others hurried to class with textbooks in their arms.

With its wide, clean streets, landscaped lawns, and old dormitory buildings, the campus looked more like a quiet, upscale residential neighborhood. It didn't feel much like a school.

Zhang Yuanqing parked the bike outside the building, shouldered his backpack, and entered the main academic building.

When he reached the tiered lecture hall, he glanced around. The students were scattered in small groups, and quite a few had skipped class.

He casually chose a seat. As soon as he sat down, he heard two male students behind him speaking in low voices:

"I just saw Xu Yingying at the school gate. She's waiting for her sugar daddy again."

"Don't talk nonsense. How could my goddess be kept by some rich guy?"

"It's true. A man picks her up every Monday, driving a luxury car worth hundreds of thousands. I saw him last Monday, too."

"You sure? Maybe it was a ride-hailing driver."

"Would you kiss a ride-hailing driver?"

"...Damn it. In middle school, girls liked the top students. Now that we're in college, they like rich men from outside. When are ordinary guys ever going to get a chance?"

Xu Yingying was a classmate of theirs. She was very pretty, their class belle.

Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help turning around and teasing them with a grin. "The wife on your hard drive can help you get it up."

The two male students seemed not to have expected him to butt in and froze for a moment.

Zhang Yuanqing looked at them. "What?"

Li Lesheng, one of the students, let out a laugh. "Zhang Yuanqing, did something good happen to you today? This isn't like you."

Zhang Yuanqing paused. "Why do you say that?"

Li Lesheng was about to answer when the teacher, wearing black-rimmed glasses and carrying a stack of books, walked in. The chattering classroom immediately fell silent.

Maile Hotel, Kangyang District.

"Ding!"

The elevator doors opened on the sixteenth floor. Li Dongze stepped out, leaning on his cane. He wore a formal suit with a black vest and white shirt.

His gaunt face was etched with solemnity. Guan Ya followed behind him.

The guests on the entire floor had been cleared out. A barricade blocked the entrance to the corridor from the elevator, and two public security officers stood beside it.

Guan Ya approached in her high heels and showed them her credentials.

The officers immediately stepped aside.

Several uniformed officers were busy along the corridor leading to the room, taking photos and collecting fingerprints, hairs, and other evidence.

Li Dongze passed them and entered the hotel room, where he was immediately hit by the smell of blood.

His gaze swept across the hotel suite. Two bodies lay on the bed beneath white sheets, the pristine bedding stained with broad swathes of dark red.

Li Dongze used his cane to lift the sheet. A naked man and woman lay on the bed.

He fell silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "It really is Zhao Yingjun."

Guan Ya carefully examined every corner of the room. Wisps of white mist spilled from her pupils. After a while, she said:

"There are no signs of a struggle in the room, and no signs that anyone tried to clean up. The trash can only has two condoms, but three condoms are missing from the box."

As she finished speaking, she glanced at the female victim with a hint of pity.

Li Dongze covered the bodies with the sheet again and said gravely:

"Guan Ya, stay here and help the officers collect fingerprints and hairs, and obtain the surveillance footage. I need to contact Centurion Fu and the team leaders. We may need to hold a meeting."

Guan Ya nodded slightly. "I'll send the scene details and the people's information to your phone shortly."

Zhao Yingjun was a consultant for the Xiangshui Road Police Station, a member of the White Tiger Corps, and a Level 2 Scout.

A member of the Five Elements Alliance had been murdered. This was a major incident.

Second floor of the villa, small conference room.

The conference room was exquisitely and luxuriously decorated. Soft wool carpeting covered the floor, and a long solid-wood table stood in the center.

The table was laid with an elegant fruit platter, translucent slices of ham, expensive imported red wine, boxes of cigars, and delicate desserts.

At the far end of the table, a white projector screen hung down, showing footage from the hotel's surveillance cameras.

In the video, a man wearing a baseball cap and a mask walked over from the elevator. He stopped at the guest room door, took out a key card, opened the door, and went inside.

Forty minutes later, he came out with his hands in his pockets and his head lowered, then left.

The video ended. Li Dongze paused it and looked at the team leaders seated around the table.

"We got a call from the hotel this morning. A cleaner couldn't get the door open while cleaning the room, so they went inside to check and found that both victims had been killed. Zhao Yingjun was tortured before he died. He was covered in knife wounds, and there were marks on his hands and feet from being bound. But the fatal wound was a sharp object driven through his heart.

"The female victim was named Liu Xiao'e. She was also stabbed through the heart, but she wasn't tortured. Since condoms were missing from the scene, we suspect the killer assaulted her before she died.

"Also, after examining their phones, the Public Security Bureau confirmed that Liu Xiao'e was Zhao Yingjun's mistress.

"We checked the surveillance footage at the hotel's other entrances, but couldn't find out how the killer left. He must have had some special means of avoiding the cameras. Our preliminary assessment is that the killer is a Spirit Realm Walker."

Six people were seated around the table.

At the head sat a young man in a white suit. He had the haughty air of an aristocratic young master, with a handsome short ponytail and sharply sculpted features so striking they were almost impossible to look at directly.

The first seat on the left was empty. That was Li Dongze's seat.

On the right sat a woman holding an orange cat. She wore a qipao patterned with ink-wash paintings, its fit accentuating her mature, curvaceous beauty. Her well-maintained face was fair and taut, her makeup light, and her manner calm and refined.

Beside her sat a middle-aged man in work clothes and a miner's helmet. His dark skin bore the marks of a laborer's hard life.

Across from them sat a gym instructor in a tight-fitting outfit. His thick upper arms were as large as a woman's waist, his brows were sharp, and an air of irritability radiated from him whenever he glanced around.

The last was a woman in her late twenties, dressed in a white racing suit and tight leather pants. She had wavy black hair and an oval face, looking both stylish and cool.

These five were the team leaders of the Kangyang District Spirit Realm Walker squad. Several others had been unable to attend for various reasons.

The young man in the white suit looked around the table. His dark brown eyes were as calm as a still lake as he asked evenly, "What are your thoughts? Team Leader Green Vine, you go first."

The elegant woman in the qipao furrowed her brows slightly. "Ordinary Spirit Realm Walkers wouldn't dare kill one of our people in the official organization. Could this have been the work of an Evil Profession Spirit Realm Walker?"

Li Dongze replied, "We're still looking into Zhao Yingjun's recent social contacts."

If an Evil Profession Spirit Realm Walker was responsible, the severity of the incident would rise another level.

Big Muscle Tyrant, a Fire Master, raised his brows, his anger surging. "Evil Profession? Those filthy rats hiding in the gutter dare kill someone from the Five Elements Alliance? I'll make them pay for it!"

The others looked grave. White Dragon, dressed in her racing suit, mused, "How strong was Zhao Yingjun in combat?"

Li Dongze looked at Fu Qingyang.

"He had a defensive item," Fu Qingyang said.

At this, White Dragon's expression grew more serious. "A Level 2 Scout may not specialize in combat, but with a defensive item, he wouldn't be easy to kill. And the killer did it without alerting the guests in the neighboring rooms. We can use that to make an initial estimate of the killer's strength."

Tang Guoqiang, the construction company owner in the miner's helmet, said gravely, "Very powerful."

Big Muscle Tyrant snorted and repeated what he'd said earlier. "So what if he's powerful? He dared kill someone from the Five Elements Alliance. No matter how strong he is, he's dead."

White Dragon silently rubbed her forehead, thinking that they should kick the hotheaded fool from the Red Fire Gang out before the meeting.

Li Dongze said, "Our investigation found that Zhao Yingjun had many mistresses, and he especially liked keeping female university students. We're checking them one by one."

Big Muscle Tyrant frowned. "Why?"

"Zhao Yingjun didn't always meet his mistresses at the same hotel, yet the killer knew which hotel he'd be at and which room he was in. That means the killer had some knowledge of Zhao Yingjun's movements. He was either someone Zhao Yingjun knew or had been following him for a long time," Li Dongze said.

"The people who know you best are the women in your bed. We may be able to get some leads from Zhao Yingjun's mistresses."

The team leaders nodded solemnly.

Li Dongze continued:

"Zhao Yingjun was interrogated and tortured before he died. Think about it: what did the killer ask him, and what did he find out? Whether the killer was motivated by revenge or belongs to the Evil Profession, this is something we need to take seriously."

The team leaders' expressions shifted.

The Evil Profession and the Orderly Profession had always been bitter enemies, hunting and tracking each other.

Naturally, what the Evil Profession was interested in was information about the official Spirit Realm Walkers, perhaps even their hiding places.

And if the killer wasn't from the Evil Profession, then a powerful Spirit Realm Walker had risked offending the official organization to sneak into a hotel, interrogate someone, and kill him. The truth behind it might be even more complicated.

Green Vine said gravely, "We need to catch the killer as soon as possible."

At this, Big Muscle Tyrant looked around and said, "Where's Yuan Ting? Have him devour Zhao Yingjun's spirit and obtain his memories. Then we'll know who the killer is."

The importance of a Night Wanderer capable of controlling spirits suddenly became clear.

Fu Qingyang shook his head and said:

"Yesterday, the Taiyi Sect summoned all official Night Wanderers to the capital for a meeting. Yuan Ting isn't in Songhai."

His expression had been calm from start to finish, as if even the sky falling wouldn't rattle him.

A meeting in the capital? The team leaders' hearts sank. If Yuan Ting wasn't here, the Night Wanderers from the other districts were probably away as well.

Wasn't this too much of a coincidence? The killer could have acted earlier or later, but had chosen to strike right when all the Night Wanderers were in the capital.

Big Muscle Tyrant snapped, "What's wrong with the Taiyi Sect? They could've held that meeting any other time, but they picked now? We should've been training our own Night Wanderers ages ago."

Li Dongze replied helplessly:

"You've got the cause and effect backward. The killer chose this time. Anyway, that's not important. Don't worry, we have our own Night Wanderer."