After a quiet meal at one of Red Wall City’s fancier restaurants, Shao Qing and Tao Yun returned to their hotel room. Tao Yun improved the formations while Shao Qing closely examined the room’s decorations. Tao Yun looked away from the reinforcement formation he was planning to alter and stared at Shao Qing, who was currently admiring a set of drawers. “Why are you doing that?” Shao Qing took a few moments to respond. “You’ll see when it’s my turn to take watch. I’ll go first.” Tao Yun didn’t dig deeper into the subject and returned to his reinforcement formation.

The night passed like this. Around midnight Tao Yun stopped working on the formations. “I’ll sleep then. Three hours, right?” “Yep.” As Shao Qing said this he sat down in the corner of the room. A paint brush appeared in his hand, and a moment later an array of paint bottles appeared from his interspatial pouch. Tao Yun held off on sleeping for a moment and watched. “Do you always need to carry all that around?” “No, it’s not difficult to emulate with qi. Just far more taxing on me.”

Shao Qing covered his own robe and body with paint, and over the course of a few minutes began to blend in with the surroundings. When he was done, it was almost impossible to tell that he was there. Tao Yun could tell that it was some sort of technique beyond normal painting, but hell if he knew the specifics. He curiously glanced at the area from different angles, trying to find a flaw. He then lightly kicked the area, his foot running into Shao Qing’s shin.

Paint came off on Tao Yun’s shoe, and an annoyed Shao Qing revealed himself. “Just because you can’t see me doesn’t mean I’m not there.” He took out a paintbrush and began fixing his camouflage. Tao Yun glanced away, embarrassed. “Impressive. Well, I’m going to go to sleep then.”

For the next few hours Shao Qing sat there, almost completely still, near the window. Nothing interrupted him. At 3 AM Tao Yun woke up and took watch. Shao Qing made his paint fall off of him and form into a semi-solid orb, which he disposed of before going to sleep. A few hours later Shao Qing woke up and they returned to their various tasks. It wasn’t until 8 AM that they left their room to start their investigation.

Upon entering the lobby, the two were greeted by a boy handing out leaflets. They had traces of qi left on them, and appeared to be mass-produced through some sort of odd technique. “Divine Investigators Shao and Tao have arrived in our city to find the culprit behind the serial killings! With the wit of the Divine Investigators and the strength of City Lord Dong it will be impossible for them to escape, no matter how far they run! Attention…” They couldn’t help but laugh. “He’s working fast, isn’t he.” Shao Qing remarked, still chuckling. Tao Yun just nodded, trying to hold back his amusement.

While walking down main street, Shao Qing noticed a figure in the air. He drove qi into his eyes and caught a closer look at the figure. It was an Acupoint Opening cultivator flying around… air-dropping leaflets. He could guess what they were about. “...He might be taking this too far.” Shao Qing stared on with a somewhat shocked expression, while Tao Yun laughed much, much harder.

“So you’re Divine Investigators Shao and Tao? My name is Jin Ru, I’ll be your bodyguard for the day.” The woman speaking to them had 60-something acupoints opened, around the divide between Middle and Late Acupoint opening. After introducing herself she blankly stared at them, holding a hand out. After a couple of awkward handshakes she lowered it. “Let’s begin then. Would you like to examine the victims’ homes or corpses first?”

Well, that was direct. “We’ll look at the corpses first.” Jin Ru nodded and led them through the winding streets of the city. As they did, Shao Qing could notice people muttering and pointing at their group, unaware that they’d been noticed. ...News sure moved fast. He sighed, but upon looking for someone to complain to he saw that Tao Yun was currently struggling to hold back more laughter, and Jin Ru had absolutely no expression on her face. He supposed he was the only one bothered.

After a seemingly endless walk through the city, the group arrived at a sizable hospital. It was focused on the treatment of mortals, but through some innocent snooping Shao Qing caught sight of some spiritual medicines. Mostly pastes and powders rather than pills. The cultivators past Body Tempering probably went somewhere else.

The bodies were in a dark, freezing room underneath the hospital. The walls were made out of bricks mixed in with some sort of ice attribute material, and a formation surrounded the room. Shao Qing asked Tao Yun about it, and he muttered that it concentrated the ice attribute energy inside. He seemed to be more focused on examining it than speaking to him, so Shao Qing left him to it.

Jin Ru approached a few alcoves built into the walls and carried out cloth-covered corpses, lowering them onto tables in the center of the room. “These are the victims. They’ve been…” She paused and glanced at Tao Yun, who had condensed a meter-long icicle in his hand. “...Please leave the ice attribute qi alone.” Tao Yun waved his hand dismissively. “It’s fine, it’s my specialty. It will return to the room.”

Not eager to get involved in this standoff, Shao Qing cleared his throat. “Have the corpses been examined by an expert?” A barely-visible scowl disappeared from Jin Ru’s face as she turned to face Shao Qing. “That’s what I was about to mention. If you mean an expert as in a doctor, yes, but as in a cultivator who’s an expert in these things? No. Maybe you’ll have more luck with them.”

Shao Qing and Tao Yun approached the covered corpses, and Shao Qing slowly lifted off the first cloth sheet. The corpse made the two recoil. It was a dried out husk, almost more prune than human. Several slashing and force wounds were visible on the body, likely evidence of a struggle.

“The reports mentioned it but… not the extent of it.” Tao Yun continued to stare at the body while Shao Qing began to uncover the other corpses. All four of them were in the exact same state. The blood had been drained out, and contorted expressions covered their faces. More blunt and slashing wounds were visible on their bodies.

“All of them were like this after you found them? With the blood drained out?” “Yes.” Jin Ru responded simply to Shao Qing’s question. “This is probably the work of someone cultivating a blood technique then.” “We also had such a theory. Unfortunately there aren’t any known blood technique cultivators in Red Wall City who have the strength to do this.”

After examining the corpses for around half an hour, Tao Yun found something. “Hey, look here. It looks like they all have a couple of the same type of wound.” Jin Ru, still mildly upset, responded. “Of course they do. They… oh.” Besides the slashing and blunt force wounds, barely visible underneath all the carnage, were a couple of round holes in each corpse. They differed in size but were all rather small, and they seemed to penetrate deep, deep into the body.

“Maybe that’s how they extracted the blood?” Tao Yun shrugged at Shao Qing’s proposition. “Could be.” After a few more minutes of staring, Shao Qing walked away from the corpses. “I think we figured out all we’re going to from these. Can you arrange full autopsies?” “Sure.” Jin Ru left, the two trailing behind.

The autopsies revealed no useful information. Just as expected the bodies were bloodless, and the sight of them being cut open and examined was almost as unsettling as the body themselves. Still, Shao Qing and Tao Yun stood there and “Hmm”ed and “Ahh”ed over the bodies, pretending to notice things. Like a so-called “Divine Investigator” would.

After the autopsies, the three went around and examined the crime scenes. They were all the homes of the victims, and they provided only one notable discovery- the culprit had some ability with formations. Two of the victims had reinforcement formations built into their homes, but for the other two crude reinforcement formations had been built around the area, on the outside. The first had already collapsed, causing the victim’s house to collapse from damage sustained during the murder, while the second one was close to unraveling. Shao Qing stood to the side while Tao Yun examined it more closely.

“So. How’s his skill in formations?” “Nothing worth noting. They just have some surface level knowledge.” Tao Yun pretended to cough and Shao Qing received a voice transmission. “Not enough to see through my concealment formation.” Shao Qing let out a deep breath. That was good. If the killer noticed the formations around their room they’d probably be scared off.

With the corpses and crime scenes examined, their investigation for the day was over. On the surface they were leaving to organize their notes and think about new leads, while in truth they were returning to be bait. It’d be lovely if the investigation actually bore fruit, but that wasn’t their actual goal here.

On parting with Jin Ru, Shao Qing let out an audacious bluff. “I already have some ideas about who the killer is. We’ll be sure to catch them within the week, if not earlier.” A smile appeared on her face for the first time that day. “Of course. I’ll let City Lord Dong know.”

“Wait, really? Who is it?” Shao Qing received a confused voice transmission from Tao Yun on the way back to the hotel. A disappointed glance was enough for him to get it. “Don’t look at me like that, I get it now. I was just a bit absorbed in the mystery, ok?” Shao Qing’s expression returned to normal.

“If you need me after we’re done organizing notes, I’ll be at the office down the street. Alright?” Shao Qing said this a bit too loudly, allowing others to overhear it. Tao Yun nodded. The two headed up to the hotel room.

Around 15 minutes later, a figure that looked like Shao Qing left the hotel. Its facial details were partially obscured by a hood, but for someone waiting for his exit, it wasn’t much of a disguise. It walked down the street before entering a government building.

Dong Tao was 147 years old, and had opened 83 acupoints. Over a century ago he had married City Lord Dong’s third daughter, and became a member of the esteemed Dong family. He wasn’t the brightest, but that didn’t matter much to him. As long as he had strength he would be of use to City Lord Dong and the citizens of Red Wall City.

As the city lord’s trusted aide and a longtime relative, Dong Tao had been trusted with one of the most important roles in this operation. He was to quietly empty out one of the city’s municipal buildings and wait inside with himself and a small force of his subordinates. They’d wait there for a ‘clone’ of the esteemed Divine Investigator Shao to arrive, and then hide it inside the building. This was to obscure his true location.

While the task seemed simple, Dong Tao had been told it was risky and that the culprit might attack. He still took it though. His step-father was more of a father to him than his own, and if he couldn’t take a little risk to help him and the city, what could he do?

The doors to the building suddenly opened, and a hooded figure walked inside. A couple of the subordinates inside pushed the doors closed from the inside. The figure stopped moving and suddenly collapsed onto the tarp in front of the door. A pile of paint appeared, a few wooden parts and pieces of clothing floating within it. Dong Tao looked at it all, impressed.

”Such an amazing technique. The Divine Investigator must use this to trick criminals a lot.” Dong Tao began rolling up the tarp and then moved it into a dusty closet. Now they just had to wait here in case the killer came after the fake Divine Investigator Shao.

Hours later, in the dead of night, the doors creaked open. Everyone in the room glanced towards it, when suddenly a red tube, resembling a proboscis, darted through the door and at one of the room’s occupants. They tried to dodge, but their Dantian Creation cultivation was too low to do anything. The tube pierced through the man’s chest and he suddenly started shrivelling up, the blood exiting his body.

As the blood was sucked dry from the first victim, the culprit entered the room. A thick hood fell from his body as he entered, revealing his unsettling body. It seemed partially dried out, skin stuck to his skeleton, but thick, sprawling veins bulged across his body. They pulsed grotesquely, almost as if they were alive. More noticeable than the veins though, were the countless red tubes piercing out from his body… or maybe they were veins as well. The tubes wriggled in the air, differing in length and size, but all smelling thickly of blood.

The killer stared down the rest of Dong Tao’s forces, a crazed look in his eyes. Most of them were frozen in place, but Dong Tao reacted almost immediately, slashing out with his sword to break the vein assaulting his subordinate. The killer ignored this, continuing to examine the area as the tube was sliced in two, blood pouring out of it. The victim fell to the ground, and it was difficult to tell if he was still alive.

As Dong Tao took another move forward, the killer’s eyes suddenly locked onto him. “More… I need more. Feed me.” Dong Tao took a combat pose, and his subordinates waited for his command.

Two words echoed through Dong Tao’s mind.

Qi deviation.