Homicide

On Monday, the sky was clear.

In a place like Songhai, traveling in the morning rush hour was always a headache. Whether it was elevated or ground level, the road conditions were so crowded that one's blood pressure soared.

Ordinary office workers did not have to worry about traffic jams when they took the subway, but they had to endure the test of being sandwiched on all sides.

In the morning sun, Zhang Yuanqing carried a backpack and rode a shared bike through the bustling streets of Songhai, chewing on a pancake.

He easily overtook private cars, business cars, and buses one after another, his youthful vigor swaying with his fringe.

Songhai University was five or six kilometers from his grandmother's house. It only took fifteen minutes by bike, so he didn't usually live on campus.

Due to his advancement to the Night Wanderer, he sped to the entrance of the university without stopping or feeling tired at all. He took out his phone and saw that it only took ten minutes.

He could have gone faster if there hadn't been so many scooters on the bike path.

Songhai University was established at the beginning of the last century, 120 years ago. It was one of the top universities in the country.

In addition to its high-quality teaching resources, Songhai University's two biggest features were: women good at finding men, and men good at finding men.

Grandma used to warn his aunt that girls had to know how to protect themselves in school. When she got older, she started to warn her grandsons to protect themselves in school.

She was unhappy with the world.

After entering the school and passing through the spindle where the founder's sculpture stood, he rode slowly toward the school building along the path planted with sycamores on his right.

The interior of the college was elegant and quiet. Students were taking short videos or sitting on benches by the side of the road chatting, or hurrying to class with their textbooks.

Looking at the wide, clean streets, the green lawns, and the old dormitories, at first glance, it looked more like some quiet, upscale neighborhood than a school.

Zhang Yuanqing parked his bike outside the building, carried his backpack, and entered the complex.

When he arrived at the trapezoidal classroom, Zhang Yuanqing glanced around. The students were scattered in twos and threes. Many of them had skipped class.

He picked a seat at random. As soon as he sat down, he heard two boys whispering behind him.

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

"Nonsense. How can my goddess be a sugar baby?"

"Really. Men pick her up every Monday and drive luxury cars that cost hundreds of thousands. I saw that last Monday."

"Did you get a good look? Maybe it's a cab."

"Do you kiss your cab drivers?"

"…Damn it, when I was in high school, girls liked top students. When I went to university, girls liked rich people outside. When can we ordinary boys stand up?"

Xu Yingying was in their class. She was very pretty and was their class belle.

Zhang Yuanqing couldn't resist turning around and teasing, "The wife in your hard drive can help you stand up."

The two boys seemed taken aback by Zhang Yuanqing's interruption.

Zhang Yuanqing looked at them and said, "What is it?"

The male classmate named Li Lesheng chuckled and said, "Zhang Yuanqing, did something good happen to you today? This isn't like you."

Zhang Yuanqing was stunned. "Why do you say that?"

Li Yuesheng was about to speak when the teacher with the black-framed glasses walked in with his books. The chattering classroom immediately fell silent.

...….

Myle Hotel, Kangyang District.

Ding!

On the sixteenth floor, the elevator door opened. Li Dongze, who was dressed in a formal suit with a black vest and a white shirt, walked out of the car with his cane.

He had a grim expression and was followed by Guan Ya.

The entire floor was cleared of guests. A police cordon had been set up at the intersection where the elevator led to the corridor. Two security officers stood guard at the perimeter.

Guan Ya stepped forward in her high heels and took out her ID.

The guards immediately stepped aside.

On the way to the room along the corridor, several uniformed constables were busy, taking photographs or taking fingerprints, hairs, and other items.

Li Dongze swept past everyone and entered the hotel room. He immediately smelled blood.

He scanned the hotel suite. Two bodies lay on the bed, covered in a white sheet. The crisp white sheets were smudged with large patches of dark red blood.

Li Dongze reached out with his cane and removed the white cloth. A man and a woman lay naked on the bed.

He was silent for a moment, his voice low. "It is indeed Zhao Yingjun."

Guan Ya, on the other hand, examined every corner of the room carefully. White mist seeped out of her pupils. After a while, she said, "There are no signs of a struggle in the room. There are no signs of evidence removal… There are only two condoms in the trash can, but three of the condoms in the box are gone…"

Then she gave the female victim a pitying look.

Li Dongze covered the white cloth back up and said in a low voice: "Guan Ya, stay here and help the constables with the collection of fingerprints and hairs. Get the surveillance video. I need to contact Centurion Fu and the captains. I might need to go to a meeting."

Guan Ya nodded slightly. "I'll sync the details of the scene and the characters to your phone later."

Zhao Yingjun was the consultant of the Xiangshui Road Security Bureau, a member of the White Tiger Soldiers, and a Level 2 Scout.

A member of the Five Elements League had been killed. This was big news.

...…..

On the second floor of the villa, in a small conference room.

The conference room was exquisitely and luxuriously decorated. The floor was covered in a soft wool carpet, and a solid wooden conference table was placed in the middle.

On the table were exquisite fruit platters, crystal-clear slices of ham, expensive imported wine, boxes of cigars, and delicate desserts.

At the end of the conference table, a white projection curtain hung down, playing a hotel surveillance video.

In the video, the man in the cap and mask walked over from the direction of the elevator. He walked to the door of the guest room, took out the key card, opened the door, and entered the room.

Forty minutes later, the man came out of the room with his hands in his pockets and his head down.

The video ended. Li Dongze pressed the pause button and looked at the captains around the table.

"This morning, I received a call from the hotel. When the waiter was cleaning the room, he couldn't open the door, so he went into the room to check. In the end, he found that the two of them had been killed. Zhao Yingjun had been abused before he died. His body was covered in blade wounds, and his hands and feet were tied up. However, the fatal injury was his heart that got pierced by a sharp weapon."

"The female victim's name is Liu Xiao'e. She was also pierced through the heart with a sharp weapon, but she did not suffer any abuse. According to the missing condoms at the scene, we suspect that she was sexually abused by the murderer before she died."

"In addition, the Security Bureau checked their phones and confirmed that Liu Xiao'e is Zhao Yingjun's mistress."

"We pulled the surveillance footage from the other entrances and exits of the hotel, but we didn't find out how the killer left. He must have had special means of avoiding the surveillance. Preliminary speculation is that the killer is a Spirit Realm Walker."

There were six people seated at the table.

The leader was a young man in a white suit. He had the arrogance and nobility of a young master from an aristocratic family. His hair was tied in a handsome short ponytail, and the lines of his face were like a carving. He was handsome to the point of being impossible to look at.

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

On the right was a woman holding an orange cat. She was wearing an ink painting cheongsam. The voluptuousness and charm of a mature woman were obvious. Her well-maintained beautiful face was tight and fair. She had light makeup on and her temperament was quiet and elegant.

Beside her was a middle-aged man in a miner's hat and work clothes. His dark skin reflected the toughness of a manual laborer.

Opposite her was a gym instructor in a tight-fitting suit. His thick arms were comparable to a woman's thin waist. His eyes were sharp, and he looked irritable.

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 that was cool and handsome.

These five were the leaders of the Spirit Realm Walker team in Kangyang District. There were also a few people who did not attend for various reasons.

The young man in the white suit looked around, his dark brown eyes flat into the lake. He said calmly: "Everyone, what do you think… Captain Green Vine, you go first."

The beautiful woman in the cheongsam frowned slightly. "Ordinary Spirit Realm Walkers wouldn't dare to kill our officials. Could it be done by an evil Spirit Realm Walker?"

Li Dongze replied, "We're still investigating Zhao Yingjun's recent interpersonal relationships."

If it was done by a Spirit Realm Walker with an evil class, the seriousness of the matter would rise to another level.

The Fire Master raised his eyebrows in anger. "Evil class? These smelly rats in the gutter dare to kill people from my Five Elements Alliance. I will definitely make them pay."

The others looked solemn. White Dragon in the racing suit pondered and said, "How strong is Zhao Yingjun?"

Li Dongze looked at Fu Qingyang.

Fu Qingyang said, "He has a defensive tool."

Hearing this, White Dragon's expression turned solemn. "Although a Level 2 Scout isn't good at fighting, it won't be easy to kill him when he has a defensive tool, let alone without alerting the guests in the next room. We can roughly determine the murderer's strength based on this."

The owner of the construction company, Tang Guoqiang, said in a deep voice, "Very powerful."

Big Muscle snorted and repeated his words. "So what if he's strong? Anyone who dares to kill people from the Five Elements Alliance will die no matter how strong they are."

White Dragon silently held his forehead. He wondered if he could kick out the fools of the Crimson Fire Gang during the meeting.

Li Dongze said, "After our investigation, we found that Zhao Yingjun has many mistresses. He especially likes female university students. We're investigating his mistresses one by one."

Big Muscle frowned. "Why?"

"The hotel where Zhao Yingjun and his mistress met wasn't fixed, but the killer was able to find the hotel address and lock in the room number. That means he had some knowledge of Zhao's movements. Either he knew someone or he had followed them for a long time."

"It's always the woman on your pillow who knows you best. We might be able to get some clues from Zhao's mistresses."

The captains nodded grimly.

Li Dongze went on: "Zhao Yingjun was tortured and abused before he died. Everyone, think about it. Why did the murderer torture him and what did he get out of it? Regardless of whether the murderer was a revenge murderer or someone with an evil class, this is a question worth taking seriously."

The captains around the table paled slightly.

Evil and lawful classes had always been incompatible. They hunted and killed each other.

What interested the evil classes, of course, was information about the Official Spirit Realm Walkers and even their hiding places.

If the murderer was not an evil class, the truth behind a powerful Spirit Realm Walker risking offending an official organization by sneaking into a hotel to interrogate and kill people might be even more complicated.

Green Vine said grimly, "We need to find the killer as soon as possible."

Big Muscle looked around and said, "Why isn't Yuan Ting here? Let him devour Zhao Yingjun's spirit body and obtain his memories. Then we'll know who the murderer is."

The importance of being able to control a spirit body was instantly highlighted.

Fu Qingyang shook his head and said, "Yesterday, the Supreme Solitary Sect summoned all the official Night Wanderers to the capital for a meeting. Yuan Ting is not in Songhai now."

His expression was calm from beginning to end as if he wouldn't panic even if the sky collapsed.

Entering the capital for a meeting? The captains' hearts sank. If Yuan Ting wasn't here, the Night Wanderers of the other regions definitely weren't around either.

Wasn't this too much of a coincidence? The killer didn't make a move earlier or later. Instead, he chose the moment when the Night Wanderers entered the capital together.

Big Muscle said angrily, "What's wrong with the Supreme Solitary Sect? Why didn't they have a meeting earlier? Why did they choose this time? We should have nurtured our own Night Wanderers long ago."

Li Dongze said helplessly: "You got it backwards. The murderer chose this moment precisely… Forget it, it's not important. Don't worry, everyone. We have our own Night Wanderer."