With that thought, I 

glanced into

 the room

,

 realiz

ing

 that Zhu Fengchun hadn’t slept yet. He was standing quietly in his room

, holding a candle. 

I was certain that it was Zhu Fengchun. 

Still

, what kind of normal person 

would stand

 in the living room with a lit candle in his hand instead of sleeping? 

I didn’t hesitate

 to ask 

Li Mazi to pick the lock. At the same time, I asked Chief Liu to prepare to barge into the house. 

Li Mazi’s lock-picking skill was 

top-notch

. Zhu Fengchun’s house was 

equipped 

with an old-style locking system that 

consisted of

 two locks. This 

sort

 of lock 

had been 

popular in the countryside for years. Li Mazi opened the first lock easily. Then, he saw the second lock. 

The door slit allowed him to worm one hand into the house. However, to open this lock, he would need two hands. Li Mazi was puzzled

 and rubbed 

his head 

to think

of

 a solution. 

As

 Li Mazi was opening the lock, Chief Liu asked me, “Did you see something?” 

I nodded. 

“I’m sure Zhu Fengchun’s not normal. I 

think

 there’s something foul in the room with him.” 

“What 

do

 we do?

 Should I 

shoot him?” Chief Liu directly 

took out

 his pistol. He was panic

ked

. 

“No, don’t shoot. We’re here to check the situation. We better 

not let

 him recognize us. If he sees us, we

’ll

 have to 

leave quickly

. If we provoke that thing, it 

might haunt

 us as well.”  

As soon as I finished, we heard a crackle. The final lock was opened. Li Mazi had used only one hand and his 

gut feeling

 to open it. I gave him a thumbs-up! 

At the same time, 

the

 voice of a middle-aged man arose from the room. It seemed someone was talking. 

I carefully pushed the door

 and tried 

my best to not make it squeak.

Unexpectedly, before the door was fully opened, a loud noise resounded by my feet. I 

lowered

 my head to check

, and i

t was a beer bottle 

placed

 at the door. 

It seemed 

Zhu Fengchun had deliberately set it up! 

Since

 we were exposed, I didn’t even 

try

 to hide. I strode into the room. At the same moment, the 

candlelight

 extinguished

.

Everything went dark in the room

, and

 I vaguely saw a shadow 

lunge

 fast in front of me. Right after that, Li Mazi and Chief Liu entered the house. Chief Liu had 

the moves of a professional

. As soon as he 

went

 in, he turned on the light. 

I cursed under my breath

 as t

he light would 

cover up

 the otherworldly item

’s 

Yin energy. However, I wasn’t fast enough to stop Chief Liu. The only thing I could do was use my intuition to look at the direction the shadow had run away. It was the bed. 

A middle-aged man was tucked under a thick quilt, laying 

in

 the bed. It seemed he was the real Zhu Fengchun. 

Zhu Fengchun slowly got up

. He rubbed 

his eyes and 

looked

 at us. He looked as if he was awakened by our intrusion. 

At first, he shot me a hostile look. Then, his gaze turned to Chief Liu, who was standing behind me. His face stiffened. “Chief Liu, why 

have

 you intruded 

into

 my house?” 

“We work 

by the

 rules. Before the serial murder case is solved, we’ve got the right to do a sudden house check to support the investigation.” 

Chief Liu shot me a glance

, and

 I gave him a secret nod. While he was talking with Zhu Fengchun, I turned around and quickly 

put

 two drops of ox tears into my eyes. Then, I moved to the window and looked back to the room. There was a mass of black mist hovering

 there.

I

t was dispersing 

quickly under the light

. 

This

 proved my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. My eyes moved along the trajectory of the black mist. Eventually, I saw it 

head toward

 Zhu Fengchun’s bed. 

T

here was no Yin energy on the bed

, but

 the moment the light was switched on, I 

saw

 the shadow 

rush

 toward the bed

!

Is it attached

 to Zhu Fengchun? 

With this thought, I 

secretly

 took out a spirit talisman

 and hid 

it in my 

palm, slowly approaching

 Zhu Fengchun. 

He seemed to recognize my move and retreated

. He cautiously asked, 

“What do you want to do?” 

I didn’t mind him

 and strode 

forward. I suddenly jumped and directly tagged the talisman on Zhu Fengchun’s forehead. 

“Are you 

freaking

 crazy? What did you stick on my head?!” Zhu Fengchun was stunned 

by

 my 

action

. He was in a daze for a while before he pulled himself together. He cursed loudly

 and tore 

the talisman off his forehead

. Then, he crumpled 

it and 

threw

 it 

to

 the ground. 

His voice and facial expression didn’t change before 

or

 after I 

stuck 

the talisman on his head. I didn’t see anything foul being expelled from him, either. I frowned

.

“I’m sorry for bothering you.” I put on an emotionless face

 and apologized to Zhu

 Fengchun. Then, I 

left the house with

 Li Mazi and Chief Liu. 

Right as

 we 

walked

 through the door, Zhu Fengchun scolded loudly

,

 “What the heck is good about 

the 

police? You 

freaking

 mess with people! I’m going to report you!” 

Until we reached our car, I hadn’t figured where that shadow had gone. How could it disappear just like that,

 without leaving any

 traces of Yin energy? 

“Little 

B

rother Zhang, why do you 

have that expression

?” Li Mazi was concerned about me. 

“

This

 thing we’re dealing with isn’t ordinary.” I sighed 

and

 told them 

about 

the situation. 

“Perhaps you just 

didn’t see clearly. W

e rushed into the house right as

 the candlelight extinguished

. Even if that thing could disappear in 

the

 blink of an eye, Zhu Fengchun couldn’t 

have reached 

his bed in just a short time. He didn’t even make 

a

 noise.” 

Chief Liu sounded logical. However, I didn’t think that 

it was a hallucination

. I asked them to leave first

 as

 I 

wanted to

go

 back there to 

check on

 Zhu Fengchun 

again

. 

“No! You shouldn’t!” 

Li Mazi rejected my idea without a bit of hesitation. Chief Liu also 

voiced his opinion.

 “If that thing’s 

so dangerous

, 

you should

 be 

cautious

. 

Why don’t we halt

here

? We can start 

with

 the other cases.” 

I thought, then asked, 

“Chief Liu,

cremation isn’t popular in this area, right? Do you know where the three

 other

 victims were buried?” 

“Do you want to open their coffins to check their bodies?” Chief Liu was stunned. 

“If we can’t find any clues, we

’ll 

have to do that!” I said boldly.

I thought about 

how creepy

 Zhu Fengchun 

looked when he was holding

 the candle. 

When

 we had returned to the Police Bureau, Chief Liu arranged two rooms for me and Li Mazi. 

The rooms were 

dedicated to the leaders of the Police Bureau to rest. Normally, no one would stay here

, so t

he rooms were relatively clean. 

T

he only 

problem

 was that they had to use coal to keep the rooms warm, which left a strong smell in the room. I didn’t want to close the window since I was afraid of poisoning myself. But whenever I opened the window, 

a 

cold wind howled

 and rushed 

into the room. 

I hesitated as I didn’t dare to play with my life. In the 

end, 

I pushed the window slightly open. It was good that the blanket was thick enough. Not long after I had tucked myself in the bed, I fell asleep. 

I didn’t know how long I had slept, 

but

 I suddenly felt as if I was suffocat

ing

. My head felt like dough and my chest felt heavy. Instinctively, I opened my mouth to gasp for air. I took in a mouthful of cold air, which sent a chill 

straight

 to my heart

.

Fortunately, 

it also cleared my mind

. My first thought was that I was poisoned by carbon monoxide. That

 was

 why I was s

truggling to breathe. 

However, the air felt so cold

, so h

ow could I get carbon monoxide poisoning? 

Before I could figure out the situation, I felt waves of 

air on

 my neck

, just as if

 someone was looming over me and blowing his breath 

on

 me. 

Inadvertently, I remembered the shadow I had encountered in Zhu Fengchun’s house

 and

 shivered.

I hurried to 

bite

 the tip of my tongue. My mobility 

returned, and m

y eyes shot open. I then saw a shadow sitting on the edge of my bed. 

It

 was holding a blood

y

 sword

.

 In the end, 

it

had come

 here! 

While I was bewildered, the shadow guffawed strangely. Both of 

its

hands

 wielded 

the

 sword

, hacking 

at my neck. 

It seemed the previous victims were decapitated like this!

At the last minute, I suddenly remembered I had seen a hand mirror on the bed. I 

quickly

 grabbed it

 and showed 

it to the black shadow. 

The shadow screeched

 and

 disappeared

, and t

he pressure on my chest slowly subsided.

I got up and found my back soaked with sweat. Moreover, I had used 

too much

 strength 

earlier

, which resulted in 

a

 sore neck. 

I checked myself in the mirror. There was a 

small 

cut on my neck. If I had been late by just for a second, my head would have been 

chopped off

. 

At this

 moment, I heard the noise of 

someone

 struggling from the room next door. Li Mazi and Chief Liu would be

 the black shadow’s

next

 targets

! 

I jumped off my bed

 and ran 

to Li Mazi’s room with the mirror in my hand. I didn’t even put my puffer jacket on. 

Through the window, I saw the black shadow 

raise

 the sword

, ready 

to chop off Li Mazi’s head. Li Mazi’s body was wiggling, trying to 

escape

at

 the last moment. 

T

he lock 

to

 the room was simple

, so

 I forcefully kicked 

the door

 open. As soon as I got into the room, I shone the mirror at the shadow. The shadow’s eyes turned crimson. It shot me a furious glance before leaving unwillingly. 

When I was about to go to Chief Liu’s room to wake him up, I saw him running toward us with a pistol in his hand. 

He

 was awakened when I kicked the door.

I heaved a sigh of relief. Now, I was even more afraid of the black shadow. 

What kind of place 

was 

a Police Bureau? It 

was

 the law enforcement body of the government. It represent

ed

 justice and righteousness. A place like this 

had

 strong natural Yang energy. At the same time, it 

was

 protected by the 

g

ods. 

Tonight, that shadow had come and left easily. Was 

he

 a member of the imperial court when he was alive?

Chief Liu waved his hand

 to show 

that he was going back to sleep as I hadn’t said anything for quite a long time. When he told me he 

was going to

 his room to sleep, I suddenly realized something and screamed, “I

’ve

 got it!”

“Little 

B

rother Zhang, what did you 

discover

?”

 asked 

Li Mazi

. 

Chief Liu also 

walked over. 

Li Mazi and I were attacked while we were sleeping. Chief Liu rushed here 

because

 he heard the noise. As 

h

e 

wasn’t

asleep,

 he wasn’t attacked

.

Moreover, t

he four previous victims were killed while they were in their beds! 

This

 wasn’t a coincidence. The black shadow could only kill people while they were sleeping. To verify my 

guess

, I asked Chief Liu, “Did you know where Zhu Fengchun was sleeping at the time the murder happened?”

“

He was drunk and fell asleep on his table. I had that written in my document

,”

 sa

id 

Chief Liu

.

I nodded. “It’s true, then. 

T

hat day, Zhu Fengchun didn’t sleep in his bed. That’s why he dodged this 

tribulation

!”

“Awesome! If you didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t have noticed this. We are the police, but we aren’t as sensitive as you, an antique merchant!”

Chief Liu gave me a thumbs-up. Li Mazi also took the opportunity to praise me. However, I still felt that something was strange. If Zhu Fengchun had dodged his death 

because

 he was sleeping on the table that day, why 

wasn’t he 

killed the following days? 

Moreover, we saw the black shadow in his house tonight.

“

W

e have to go back there to see! O

therwise, 

Zhu Fengchun 

might

 be killed!”

My scalp 

went numb

. I didn’t have more time to explain. 

After putting

 on thick clothes, I pulled the other two

 and rushed 

to Zhu Fengchun’s house.