On the way there, I told Li Mazi and Chief Liu my assumption.

“What if Zhu Fengchun is dead when we 

arrive

?” asked Li Mazi.

“

He can only blame himself

. We went to his house

,

 but he scolded us 

and

asked

 us to leave

!

”

 cursed 

Chief Liu.

However, he still showed his care f

or

 Zhu Fengchun. I saw the responsibility of a policeman on his face.

“If he’s dead, we

’ll need to find 

clues from the three

 other

 dead bodies. But if he’s not dead yet…”

I paused, my voice growing colder. “He’s the murderer!”

I hadn’t seen the real face of the shadow thu

s far, but

 considering 

the 

sword, I guessed he was

 an otherworldly

spirit

.

Ghosts didn’t have weapons. Only 

otherworldly

spirit

s had 

them

, and most of the time, the weapons were the otherworldly items they were hiding in

.

 It was the same principle behind

Lu Bu’s spirit us

ing

 the Sky Piercer.

A spirit could live together with humans u

nder some special conditions. Since Zhu Fengchun had survived until then, it was possible that he had some agreement with the 

spirit

. They could have the same nature, or it was simply because of the benefits the other party could provide.

That 

was

 why I had assumed that Zhu Fengchun wasn’t a good man. To avoid being noticed, I asked Chief Liu to stop the car before we entered the village. Then, I asked them to keep at a distance while I ran alone to Zhu Fengchun’s

,

 climb

ing

 over his wall.

I wanted to check the situation inside the house from the fence wall.

However, 

my hands felt sticky 

as soon as I touched the wall.

I turned on my phone

’s

 flashlight

;

 the fence wall was covered in blood. I was certain that it had just happened

 as there wasn’t anything on the wall on our last visit

.

I had a really bad premonition. I hurried and

 directly

 jumped into the yard,

kick

ing

 Zhu Fengchun’s door open

 and

 switch

ing

 on the lights.

Then, I saw Zhu Fengchun’s bed soaked with red blood. The wall next to the bed and the floor were covered with pieces of flesh, including human internal organs. 

I immediately felt m

y stomach 

twitch and

 couldn’t help but retch.

Li Mazi and Chief Liu also entered the place. 

Their faces changed dramatically w

hen 

they

 saw the interior of the room

, and t

hey almost 

moved 

in unison to squat dow

n 

and puke.

After a long time passed, Li Mazi wiped his mouth and said with a

 pale face,

 “Little 

B

rother Zhang, this is so freaking scary! Should we…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but the point he was tryin

g to make

 was clear. This murderous otherworldly item wasn’t something we could handle.

Chief Liu was 

also scared senseless

. “Should we 

close

 the case?

Suspect Zhu Fengchun feared the punishment for his crime

, and h

e killed himself in his house by 

setting off th

e gas

—

”

“Enough!” I rudely interrupted Chief Liu.

With a red face, I pointed at his nose and 

scolded him

. “Haven’t you realized it yet? When that shadow kills people, it doesn’t care about who the victim is. We came here to check and it later chased us all the way to the Police Bureau. What 

a

bout the others? M

ore people will be killed in this little city i

f we don’t deal with this evil thing!”

After venting all of my anger, I sat down

 and continued with a weak voice,

 “You guys shouldn’t get involved. I’m going to solve this by myself! That thing’s really intimidating. You don’t need to take risks.”

“Nonsense! Since when 

have I

 ditched you?” Li Mazi stepped in and 

patted

 my shoulder.

“No matter what, I’m your brother. You 

haven't

married Yin

 Xinyue yet

, so

 I have to 

keep you safe

.”

I was surprised. 

I didn’t know what to tell him a

t the 

moment

.

Li Mazi grinned. “If you want to deal with it, your brother will join you!”

“I’m sorry, the recent shock left me on edge. If you aren’t afraid of it,

 why should 

I, someone 

with the national emblem on his chest,

 be afraid?”

Chief Liu produced his pistol, cursing through his gritted teeth

,

 “

Let’s go

!”

I looked at them while flashing a silly smile.

Chief Liu called the police and 

requested his men to check the 

crime scene and pick up the 

dismembered

 corpse.

Then, we 

prepared to go back and sleep. We would go to the place where they had buried the three other victims after 

we woke up.

However, 

we noticed a person hiding in a corner 

when we left Zhu Fengchun’s 

house. He ran away w

hen he saw 

us

.

His footsteps were 

clearly audible

. Apparently, he was a living person!

Li Mazi and I had been a

ble to 

survive until

 now 

thanks to our reaction speed

. We immediately started to chase after the man,

knocking

 him down in a minute.

“

Little Quail

, why are you here in the middle of the

night?”

Chief Liu 

placed the pistol back in his holster when he saw

 the other man’s 

face

. He explained to us that the man was one of the 

locals

. He was a little thief, which had earned him the nickname 

‘Little Quail

.

’

Little Quail

 wasn’t really that bad 

of a person.

Little Quail

 hesitated for a long time before stammering, “I

… 

I went out to pee and saw brother Zhu as 

he was leaving the house

. I thought about going to his house to steal something since

no one was home. You see

, 

I lost a bet and 

owe

 some money.”

I was bewildered by this revelation

.

 Zhu Fengchun had gone out

!

 In that case, 

to whom did t

he minced flesh in his room

 belong

?

After answering

 us,

Little Quail

 took the chance and ran away 

since nobody was holding him. It seemed h

e was scared of being taken to the station. 

Chief Liu didn’t care about him 

as

 he was still 

out of sorts

.

“What do you think? What 

really 

happened?”

Li Mazi gulped his saliva, turning to take another glance at Zhu Fengchun’s house. He

couldn’t utter a word as he also was 

frightened

.

The blood on th

e

 fence wall and the bedroom was still fresh. The person who 

had been turned into

 minced meat inside the house had just been killed. I thought for a moment and decided that we should arrest Zhu Fengchun first. I wanted to see how he 

would explain

 himself! Not minding being noticed anymore, I asked Chief Liu to drive the car and 

chase 

after the other party. Unexpectedly, the road in this village 

was halfway done, and it turned into a muddy path after crossing the 

small 

bridge

 outside the village.

Chief Liu 

carelessly

 drove the car into a ditch. The car leaned to one side and almost flipped. When I got out of the car and was about to push it, I 

heard a rattling

 noise in the 

cornfield

 on one side of the path.

They had already harvested the corn ears

, and

 all the corn plants had

withered and dried up

 after a rainy autumn

. I could see through the cornfield easily

, and

 a person with his back to us was moving through 

it.

I subconsciously screamed, 

“Zhu Fengchun! Freeze!”

Except for him, who would play around at midnight in this place

?

The running person halted for a moment. Then, he dashed even faster. Luckily for us, the place was somewhat empty, so we could catch up with him easily. That person 

turned out to be

Little Quail

!

Chief Liu was 

in his forties, and he was exhausted after running

. 

H

e panted as he

 scolded,

 “Damn you, 

Little Quail

, do you want to be jailed o

r what

?”

“No, no, no, no! Chief Liu, what do you want, Sir?”

While he ranted, I noticed how 

Little Quail

 inadvertently touched his butt. 

My heart sank as I 

screamed,

 “Watch out!”

Li Mazi, who was about to pass by him, became vigilant as he heard me screaming. Chief Liu also pulled himself together. 

Little Quail

 looked at me 

in puzzlement

.

“Who are you?” I 

shouted with a cold tone while I moved closer to

Little Quail

. One

 of m

y hands was already 

grabbing the spirit talisman

 I kept in my pocket.

I knew something was wrong a

t first 

glance

. 

We immediately drove to this place a

fter we left Zhu Fengchun’s 

house

. 

Little Quail

 couldn’t have possibly outrun us to hide in this cornfield. It was really strange.

Moreover, I had noticed that his clothes were different from what 

he was wearing 

the last moment we had seen

him. 

There was something fishy about him

!

Chief Liu reacted 

immediately

. He moved 

closer

 and placed the muzzle of his pistol on 

Little Quail

’s forehead. He 

asked him,

 “Who the heck are you?”

Little Quail

 was flustered because of the pistol placed against his head. He 

knelt and pounded

 his head onto the ground. “Chief Liu, I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill anybody…”

I then recognized that he had a wallet 

in his

 back pocket, which was apparently

 loaded with

 cash. I opened the wallet and saw Zhu Fengchun’s ID. 

It seemed

Little Quail

 had stolen his wallet.

He kept pounding his head on the snowy ground as he 

asked

 us to forgive him. The fear in his eyes 

was

 real. Moreover, he was shivering hard while imploring.

“Little 

B

rother Zhang

, do you

 think this kid’s pretending?” Li Mazi

 pouted his lips, showing open disdain for Little Quail

.

I refrained from responding, only 

taking

 a deep breath. Then, I turned to 

check

Little Quail. H

is three Yang flames seemed to be burning hard inside his body

, meaning that he was 

all right. I exhaled, then shot Li Mazi and Chief Liu a look to calm them down. I 

glared

 at 

Little Quail

 and 

asked

. “You

’

d better tell the truth, or you’ll be charged with

murder! Understand?”

“Yes, 

S

ir, I understand…”

Little Quail

 nodded, then stammered as he shared the story with us.