With that thought, I glanced into the room, realizing 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 panicked.

“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 it 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 the 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. It 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.

There 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 Brother 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. We 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 the rooms were relatively clean.

The 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 suffocating. 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 struggling to breathe. However, the air felt so cold, so how 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 my eyes shot open. I then saw a shadow sitting on the edge of my bed.

It was holding a bloody 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 the 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.

The 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 represented justice and righteousness. A place like this had strong natural Yang energy. At the same time, it was protected by the gods.

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 Brother 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 he wasn’t asleep, he wasn’t attacked.

Moreover, the 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,” said Chief Liu.

I nodded. “It’s true, then. That 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.

“We have to go back there to see! Otherwise, 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.