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 for 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 thus far, but considering the sword, I guessed he was an otherworldly spirit.

Ghosts didn’t have weapons. Only otherworldly spirits 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 using the Sky Piercer.

A spirit could live together with humans under 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, climbing 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, kicking Zhu Fengchun’s door open and switching 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 my stomach twitch and couldn’t help but retch.

Li Mazi and Chief Liu also entered the place. Their faces changed dramatically when they saw the interior of the room, and they almost moved in unison to squat down and puke.

After a long time passed, Li Mazi wiped his mouth and said with a pale face, “Little Brother Zhang, this is so freaking scary! Should we…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but the point he was trying 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 he killed himself in his house by setting off the 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 about the others? More people will be killed in this little city if 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 at 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 when he saw us.

His footsteps were clearly audible. Apparently, he was a living person!

Li Mazi and I had been able 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 the minced flesh in his room belong?

After answering us, Little Quail took the chance and ran away since nobody was holding him. It seemed he 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 the 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. He panted as he scolded, “Damn you, Little Quail, do you want to be jailed or 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 my hands was already grabbing the spirit talisman I kept in my pocket.

I knew something was wrong at first glance. We immediately drove to this place after 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 Brother 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. His 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, Sir, I understand…”

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