Spontaneous Human Combustion

At 4:30 a.m., the sky was still dark.

A large crowd of parents had gathered at the entrance to Suzhou University. There were at least a hundred of them at a glance, and the spacious three-way intersection was packed so tightly that not even a drop of water could get through.

Seven or eight police cars were parked by the roadside, keeping the crowd outside the university gates.

More than a dozen officers stood in front of the police line, maintaining order and trying to calm the parents.

Several dozen meters away.

Su Bai saw the scene through the car window and frowned slightly.

Chu Ning called Qingxue. "Fifty meters north of the university's main gate. Send someone to meet us."

Su Bai got out of the car, took the bone sword from the trunk, and strapped it to his back. He asked casually, "When a supernatural incident happens, isn't the news supposed to be suppressed immediately? Why are there so many people gathered at the entrance?"

Chu Ning slipped the phone into her pocket, parked the car, and turned off the engine. After a moment's thought, she said:

"At 2:07, a student fell from a building and his body spontaneously combusted. The police received an emergency call at 2:08, and a large number of detectives arrived at the scene at 2:20. Nearly another two hours passed before the case was classified as a 'suspected supernatural incident.'

"During that two-hour gap, the university administration urgently evacuated everyone to the basketball court, while the detectives were busy investigating and securing the scene. They had no time to suppress the news, which is why all these parents gathered here.

"University students these days fear neither heaven nor earth. Whenever anything happens, the first thing they do is take pictures and post them to Moments. There's simply no stopping the news. Not only have the parents heard about it now, but it's also spread all over social media."

In the distance, Qingxue came jogging over. "Sister Chu Ning, over here!"

Two uniformed police officers followed her, one fat and one thin.

After a brief introduction, they learned that the thin officer's surname was Chen. He was the captain of the Suzhou criminal investigation unit and was in charge of investigating the case. The somewhat overweight officer's surname was Wang. He was an officer from a nearby police station, responsible for maintaining order at the scene.

"Special commissioners, would you like to examine the scene first, or go to the surveillance room to review the footage?"

Su Bai said, "The surveillance room."

On the way there, Officer Chen gave them a brief introduction to the case.

"The deceased was named Zhang Tao, male, nineteen years old, sixty kilograms, and a first-year student. His registered residence was Youfang Township on the outskirts of Suzhou. He had an outgoing personality, excellent grades, and no physical or psychological impairments.

"At 2:07 this morning, Zhang Tao jumped from the seventh floor of the men's B2 dormitory and died on the spot. Before his death, parts of his body spontaneously combusted. In just three minutes, his entire body was burned to a cinder.

"According to several of Zhang Tao's roommates, a few minutes before he jumped, he showed symptoms resembling an epileptic seizure. He trembled all over, foamed at the mouth, and had a vacant look in his eyes. It's suspected that he suffered a mental shock."

Su Bai had a general understanding. It was probably because of that last part that the case had been classified as a "suspected supernatural incident."

Inside the surveillance room.

Officer Chen instructed the security staff to pull up the footage.

A figure engulfed in flames plunged heavily from above, trailing wisps of white smoke. Blood and severed limbs flew everywhere. The image was so shocking that even standing in front of the screen, they could almost smell the blood.

Su Bai watched the surveillance footage over and over, his brows knitted tightly.

For the moment, there were three suspicious points.

First, judging by standard floor heights, a seven-story building should be between twenty-one and twenty-five meters tall. If a sixty-kilogram university student fell from a height of more than twenty meters, taking gravitational acceleration and the area of impact into account, there was a high probability he would die. But his body certainly wouldn't burst apart in all directions like a splash of water, as it did in the footage.

Second, human skin, bones, and flesh were not readily combustible. From a scientific standpoint, even pouring twenty kilograms of gasoline over someone would not reduce him almost to ash, as in the video.

Third, a large amount of white smoke appeared during the burning. Clearly, some substance had undergone a violent chemical reaction on contact with the air, causing the spontaneous human combustion. But how could a university student have such a substance on him?

Qingxue pointed at the white smoke constantly rising in the footage and asked in confusion, "Why is there so much smoke?"

Su Bai explained, "It's not just smoke. It's phosphorus pentoxide, chemical formula P2O5, a white amorphous powder produced when white phosphorus reacts violently with oxygen in the air."

Chu Ning frowned and said thoughtfully:

"White phosphorus has an ignition point of around thirty degrees Celsius, so it could indeed act as an accelerant for spontaneous human combustion. But to produce the burning effect in the footage, the entire surface of the body would have to be coated in white phosphorus. That's impossible."

Su Bai froze the video one second before the body hit the ground.

"If we work from cause to effect, it's impossible, of course. White phosphorus burns violently as soon as it's exposed to air or subjected to slight friction, so it's impossible to coat a whole body with it.

"But we've already more or less established that the white smoke is P2O5, so the accelerant that burned the body must have been white phosphorus. What we need to do is work backward from effect to cause.

"What I mean is, we shouldn't be thinking about how to coat a human body in white phosphorus. We should be thinking about why a large amount of white phosphorus appeared on the body."

The former was the logic used to solve a criminal case; the latter was the logic used to investigate a supernatural incident.

Chu Ning was having some trouble following Su Bai's reasoning. "What do you mean?"

Su Bai lowered his voice. "If I'm not mistaken, this case was caused by a supernatural creature... Do you remember the description of Oracle Sequence 107 in the Grave Keepers' handbook?"

Divine Oracle Sequence 107 (Dustless): The user can gain the unique "Boiling" attribute bonus for x (unknown) length of time. The user can distort the fundamental properties of microscopic particles within an x (unknown) range (within the bounds of the rules). Note: Turning stone into gold is nothing to you, but remember, an illusion is always an illusion.

Chu Ning suddenly understood. She immediately turned around and said:

"Qingxue, call Section Seven. The case classification has changed: it's now a 'supernatural incident.' No supernatural creature has been found yet. The mission difficulty is provisionally set at Tier Seven. Officer Chen, can you take us to the scene?"

Soon, under orders from Section Seven, wave after wave of fully armed detectives rushed in as reinforcements. They sealed off the dormitory area so tightly that not even a drop of water could get through, setting up checkpoint after checkpoint.

On the distant sports field, hundreds of students squatting or sitting on the grass and playing on their phones suddenly discovered that their phones had lost both network and carrier signals. Not only could they no longer upload any of the footage they had taken, but they couldn't even make calls.

Military trucks drove into Suzhou University one after another. Quite a few heavy weapons had even been brought in.

The university administrators were so frightened that cold sweat streamed down their faces. How was this a case investigation? This was clearly a counterterrorism operation.

Could terrorists really have infiltrated the university?

B2 dormitory building.

Su Bai examined the traces at the scene and took a close look at Zhang Tao's remains scattered all around. He found that, just as the surveillance footage showed, tissue such as the hair and skin had been burned to a cinder, and even the flesh and bones had been reduced to ash. The only human remains still recognizable were the head and fingers.

"Officer Chen, is there anyone still inside this building?"

Officer Chen kept pace with Su Bai and explained:

"After we arrived, the first thing we did was urgently evacuate everyone. Then we sent a group of experienced detectives up to examine and inspect the scene. On their way back down, they checked every floor and found no one left behind."

Su Bai nodded and was just about to enter the dormitory building when he suddenly heard a shrill, agonized scream from above. He snapped his head up, his pupils contracting sharply.

In the night, under the moonlight.

A dark figure wrapped in crimson flames fell vertically from above and struck the ground heavily at Su Bai's feet with a boom, sending blood and flesh flying.

The scattered flesh, bones, and organs were still burning with roaring flames. Great clouds of white smoke rose amid a sizzling sound.

The stench of blood and burning filled the air in an instant.