Late at night, five days after the first murder, I received a call from Xiaotao. "Song Yang, these bastards have committed another crime!" she said solemnly.

I asked for the address and took a cab there alone. The crime scene was located in the urban area–the top floor of a newly capped high-rise building. It was discovered by an old security guard on his night patrol who almost got a heart attack.

When I arrived at the scene, I was greeted by two bodies lying on the ground, a man and a woman. Upon seeing their faces, I couldn’t resist a sharp intake of breath. The victims’ faces had melted like hot wax, corroded beyond recognition!

Not only their faces, but also their fingers suffered the same treatment so no fingerprints remained.

"It doesn’t look like sulfuric acid,” Xiaotao remarked. “The corrosive effect is stronger than sulfuric acid, so even the deep muscles are melted."

I picked up a cotton swab, swiping a little bit of the rotting flesh. After further examination, I wiped it on the thenar webspace of my own hand.

Xiaotao yelled in horror, "What are you doing?!"

"It has no response to living bodies, only to dead ones,” I said, showing Xiaotao my hand. “This is actually a kind of bacteria that feeds on rotten flesh called corpse-dissolving bacteria. When they break down proteins in the flesh, they release heat, creating the effect of skin eroded by high temperatures!"

"Don't test it on your own body!” chided Xiaotao. “What if something goes wrong?"

I did a double-take. Corpse-dissolving bacteria was a secret handed down from ancient times that was known to few. The corpse-dissolving powder often seen in martial arts novels was an exaggeration of it. So how did the murderers get their hands on it?

The victims were left in a bizarre posture. Dressed in a blood-stained shirt, the male victim’s legs were bent forward, resembling a sitting position.

The female victim lay with her legs slightly opened with clear ligature marks on her limbs and neck. Much like the previous victim, she was also violently raped, evident by the leaking blood and vaginal discharge.

Because the victim’s body was overlapping the other, I asked an officer to place the male victim onto a tarpaulin before I began the autopsy.

The male victim was about twenty-five years old and slightly overweight. The preliminary time of death was around twenty-four hours ago and the cause of death was very obvious, that is the striking injury on the temples on both sides, causing a skull fracture. Apart from the long, bloody lacerations on the temples, both auricles were also torn. There were also obvious binding marks on his wrists and ankles. Before removing his clothes, I emptied his pockets but found nothing. So I proceeded to cut his garments and listened with the Echolocation Rod.

The victim’s internal organs were almost completely intact, except for a puncture wound in the lungs. Using my hands, I felt the victim’s ribs and found three of them broken. Upon listening carefully to the wounded area, I noticed no clotting in the lungs. There were no signs of hemoptysis in the victim’s throat either.

All of this indicated that the rib fracture and punctured lung were caused postmortem!

When I moved the victim’s wrist, I noticed they showed obvious strains due to being violently yanked and were dislocated at a 30-degree angle to the arm. For the moment, I remained uncertain as to the exact cause of the dislocation.

There were no injuries on the victim’s legs, but a clear indentation on the inner side of both thighs, which might have been left by a huge impact. Due to the lack of vital reactions to the injury, I concluded it was caused after death.

As I stood up and contemplated, Xiaotao asked, "Do you know how he died?"

"He was repeatedly beaten to death by a weapon resembling a baseball bat," I surmised.

"What sadistic animals!" Xiaotao uttered through gritted teeth.

"Get me a chair,” I instructed.

I placed the Echolocation Rod on the victim’s joints and listened carefully as I gently moved the limbs. A few minutes later, an officer brought over a chair. A thought suddenly crossed my mind and I looked up at the ceiling. Confused by my actions, Xiaotao asked what I was looking at.

"I need a flashlight!" I said.

Directing the light at the beam above, I focused on one spot. "A rope was tied there," I remarked.

"Why can’t I see anything?" Xiaotao furrowed her brows.

I placed the chair directly under the beam and sat down with my hands behind my back, imitating the victim’s position before death. "The victim was sitting on the chair with his hands tied behind his back and his feet tied up, but he couldn’t sit properly," I analyzed.

Then I stood up, lifted the chair and adjusted it at an angle. "The murderer threw a rope onto the beam, tied one end to the back of the chair, and tied the other around the victim’s wrists,” I described. “So the victim’s body was tilted at a thirty-degree angle to the ground and suspended in midair!"

Upon hearing my deductions, the officers all frowned.

After adjusting the height of the chair, I continued, "According to the location of the injury inflicted by the murderer, the victim was hung at this point."

Leaving the chair in place, I walked in a parallel line till I noticed a footprint under the beam. "At the time, two of the murderers were holding baseball bats and standing at both ends, pounding down on the victim’s temples, letting him swing from one side to another as each murderer took their turn inflicting the torture…” I explained. “They simply hung him up and brutally battered him! Roughly fourteen times until his skull fractured and he died! Then, the murderers untied the rope so the victim fell heavily on the ground, causing the indentation in his inner thighs and the broken ribs which punctured the lungs."

"Cold-blooded beasts!" Xiaotao bit her lip.

While everyone else condemned the murderers’ cruelty, I didn’t want to add fuel to the flames. "I’ll continue with the autopsy," I said.

This time, I didn’t need the Autopsy Umbrella because the victim wasn’t actually beaten. Although I sprinkled a handful of seaweed ash on the body, I found no fingerprints left behind. Then, sniffing at the victim’s corroded face, I confirmed no smell of sedatives.

After a thorough search of the body, I finally discovered a needle hole on the side of the victim’s waist. The puncture wound was infected and slightly inflamed with red rashes on the surrounding areas of the skin. An earthworm-like bulge covered the blood vessels which indicated some sort of drug allergy.

From my estimates, the time of injection was about thirty-six hours ago, though I had to test it to be certain.

After taking some samples and placing them in an evidence bag, I walked over to examine the female victim.

The female victim was about twenty-five years old with a slim figure. Her time of death was around the same time as the male victim. However, the cause of death wasn’t immediately evident due to the lack of any obvious trauma. She was naked with clear binding marks around her wrists and ankles. Strangely enough, the marks under her wrists were darker than the marks on the top, suggesting she was also suspended from the ceiling. The blood vessels around the binding marks were swollen, indicative of a prolonged period of hanging.

Most notable were the ligature marks on her neck. From the shape of the indentations, it appeared as if the rope was tied into a knot that was wrapped so tightly around the skin it left a line of blood spots underneath the surface.

"Was she strangled?" asked Xiaotao.

I shook my head, "I'm not sure yet!"

Using the Echolocation Rod, I listened to the victim’s internal organs. They were basically intact, though I noticed a slight abnormality in the heart. It seemed to have been in an excited state for a long period of time, yet there was little perspiration.

There was no sign of blood clotting in the lungs but the hyoid bone was broken and the spine showed signs of overstretching and dislocation. When I opened the victim’s mouth for further examination, I found no blood clots in the trachea, which proved the victim didn’t die of suffocation. Hence, the dislocation of the spine and fracture of the throat bone was caused after death.

The lack of severe bruising made me wonder why the male victim was tortured to death and rudely dropped to the ground but the female victim received gentler treatment.

I certainly wouldn’t believe these four animals were gentle with the female victim’s body just because of her gender!