Five Elements Life-Draining Formation

On a stretch of embankment, spiritual light surfaced in Yan Kuan's hand. He pointed ahead, and a flash of white light immediately appeared over the sea.

"The wooden box was originally beneath that patch of light."

Yan Kuan looked at Yang Wenqing as he spoke.

Yang Wenqing thanked him, then raised his left hand and lightly tapped the air before him three times. Three spell seals swiftly formed—the seals of the Water-Repelling Charm. As they took shape, two landed on Ding Lang and Wu Yan, while the last sank into Yang Wenqing's own body.

As the Water-Repelling Charm took effect, an invisible barrier of spiritual light enveloped the three of them. Wu Yan took the lead, diving cleanly into the water like a fish, with Yang Wenqing and Ding Lang close behind.

The seawater was not particularly clear, with visibility limited to around ten meters. Sunlight filtered through the surface, casting swaying patches of light below. The deeper they went, the dimmer the light became and the more noticeably the temperature dropped. Their surroundings grew quiet and oppressive.

After descending five or six meters, the seafloor gradually came into view. Guided by the patch of white light Yan Kuan had marked, they quickly found the target area.

On a relatively level stretch of sandy seafloor, a circular formation roughly three meters in diameter had been inscribed!

The formation's lines were traced in some dark red material. Even after being soaked in seawater, it still emitted an ominous faint glow. At the center of its structure was a symbol formed from countless entwined tentacles, with a shallow groove in the middle of the formation.

Ding Lang swam closer to the formation and took a crystal magnifying glass and several specially made talismans from his waterproof tool bag. He carefully began collecting samples of the material along the formation lines, while attempting to make an imprint of the complete rune structure.

Wu Yan circled the outside of the formation, his sharp gaze sweeping the surrounding area for other suspicious traces, footprints, or abandoned objects.

Yang Wenqing hovered above the formation. It indeed matched the characteristics of the Water-Spirit Formation, one of the Five Elements Life-Draining Formation formations recorded in the case files.

He cast the Tracking Technique again. The spell seals flickered faintly within the water-repelling barrier. This time, he tried to capture the aura of living beings that had been active here for an extended period, but found nothing.

He then inscribed the Retrospection Art before him. It was a relatively spirit-energy-consuming spell that could quickly review the images recorded in this place over the past few days—the exact number of days depending on the caster's cultivation. Yet the spell was scattered the moment it formed.

Someone had set up spell interference in advance!

"That's right. It's a Life-Draining Formation, a fairly standard version." Having finished collecting the samples, Ding Lang swam back to Yang Wenqing's side and spoke through the internal transmission formed by the Water-Repelling Charm. "The person who set it up is experienced, and they've very likely performed this kind of ritual more than once."

Wu Yan swam back as well and shook his head at Yang Wenqing, indicating that he had found no other obvious clues around the perimeter.

Yang Wenqing nodded, then pointed upward. The three began ascending. Once they returned to shore, Yang Wenqing told the approaching Yan Kuan, "We need to confirm the victim's identity as soon as possible, and we also need to find any possible witnesses."

With that, he looked at Ding Lang. "Forensic Doctor Ding, I'll leave the formation sample analysis and autopsy report to you. Notify me immediately once you have results."

"Understood!"

Ding Lang nodded and walked toward the other forensic examiners who had come with him.

Yan Kuan assured him, "Don't worry, brother. I've already recorded his bloodline aura. As long as the victim is in the port district, I can identify him."

Yang Wenqing gave a suitably warm smile. "Then I'll have to trouble Captain Yan."

"It's part of my duty, not trouble at all. I'll contact you immediately if I find anything."

Yan Kuan's smile was equally polite. Given the rank of his badge, his communications could be transferred directly to the Major Crimes Unit.

The various Public Security Offices also had the authority to investigate cases. They generally solved ordinary murder cases themselves and would not report them to the sub-bureau at all. But special cases like this had to be reported, or they would be held accountable if anything went wrong.

After giving his assurance, Yan Kuan headed toward his team.

Yang Wenqing instructed Wu Yan, "Contact Liu Qin and have her enter this case file into the city defense system as soon as possible."

Wu Yan nodded and used his badge to contact Liu Qin at the office.

Yang Wenqing walked to the other side and contacted Deputy Director Gao. He needed to give a brief report on the case's current findings, as required by standard procedure.

After hearing the report, Deputy Director Gao showed little emotional reaction. He merely instructed, "Be patient when handling a case. Solving it quickly is naturally a good thing, but don't ruin the case just to be fast."

Yang Wenqing could only nod and say, "Yes." After ending the exchange with his superior, Wu Yan had also settled the case file issue. Yang Wenqing glanced at Wu Yan before walking toward the wooden box. There were no useful clues here. The forensic examiners were recovering the corpse and wooden box using an iron container engraved with a special isolation formation.

"Let's go look at the port's recordings."

Yang Wenqing called to Wu Yan, then headed toward the port administrative building.

The port administrative building stood at the center of the dock district, a five-story stone structure. After Yang Wenqing and Wu Yan identified themselves, a staff member led them to the monitoring room on the third floor. A security officer from the port district Public Security Office was already there reviewing the recordings.

The core of the Image-Recording Formation was a massive crystal panel embedded in the wall. Complex rune circuits connected around it, extending all the way to the ceiling and linking with the subsidiary formations covering key points throughout the port.

The staff member explained that this formation could record light and images in designated areas for ten days, but it could not capture sound or spiritual energy fluctuations. Its image quality was also limited, becoming particularly blurry at night and in bad weather.

Yang Wenqing walked over to the security officer from the port Public Security Office, took control of the formation on the crystal panel, and said, "I'll do it." He had learned to use this thing at the Security Academy.

He directly set the recording speed to maximum, then secretly drew upon the power of the Golden Core World to bolster his consciousness. His thoughts accelerated severalfold, allowing him to rapidly process the images flashing past in the recordings.

Wu Yan and the security officer from the port Public Security Office watched quietly from the side. Noticing Yang Wenqing's focused gaze and the occasional images flickering in his pupils, they were both stirred. They instinctively kept their movements smaller so as not to disturb him.

Half an hour passed quickly.

Yang Wenqing let out a soft breath, rubbed his slightly swollen temples, and patted Wu Yan on the shoulder. Only after they had left the administrative building did he say, "No people or vessels approached that area at any point during the past ten days."

Wu Yan immediately replied, "The wooden box may have been placed there more than ten days ago, or someone may have dived over from farther away. We'll have to wait for the forensic results."

Yang Wenqing looked up at the sky and said to Wu Yan, "It's still early. Let's check along the coastline."

Wu Yan nodded in agreement, though he felt it was unlikely they would find any clues, since there were simply too many ways to erase traces.

The two boarded the flying shuttle again and patrolled the paths along both sides of the port's coastline twice. Yang Wenqing continuously used the Tracking Technique to search, yet found no clues at all.

Just as Yang Wenqing was about to search a third time, Wu Yan reminded him, "Judging by the victim's clothing, he should have been a fisherman from a nearby fishing village. We could check the nearby villages."

As Yang Wenqing was about to speak, Wu Yan added, "But I'm guessing the port Public Security Office has already begun looking into the fishing villages. It wouldn't be appropriate for us to interfere again. We'll probably need Captain Yan and his people many more times in this case."

After thinking it over, Yang Wenqing ultimately returned to the sub-bureau with Wu Yan. The forensic team had already concluded that the victim was a fisherman from near the port. He was forty-two years old, and traces of the Water-Repelling Charm seals were found on his body. Therefore, he had most likely still been alive when he was placed in the formation, while the exact time of death was still being determined.