"WHAMM!”, this time Mingliang couldn't avoid the giant's punch.

The fist almost as big as Mingliang's head, it directly hit his chest. Mingliang reaction was late. Luckily, Cheng Ying sword was a spiritual sword and had consciousness. When the sword realized the danger, the small pieces of the sword, formed a small shield and protected Mingliang's chest.

The small shield flew an inch away from Mingliang's body and bore most of the brunt from the punch, but it couldn't stop the punch entirely. The fist kept moving forward and landed on Mingliang's chest. The runes on Mingliang's body glittered and held out, but his body flew like a kite and hit the wall behind him.

Mingliang fell down to the floor, gasping for air.

A strong iron-like hands grasped his arm. Mingliang quickly ordered Cheng Ying sword's pieces to protect his elbow. It was just in time. The giant was going to break his elbow and found his hand stabbed by many sharp metals.

In his pain, the giant threw Mingliang away. Mingliang's body hit the wall once more.

1st layer Xuan Wu body protected his body, but the giant was too strong and Mingliang found himself dizzy from the constant thrashing to the wall. But at least, he got free from the giant's hand.

Mingliang forced himself to jump away from the giant. He prepared to complete Cheng Ying sword form when he heard people shouting.

"Stop! Drop your weapons! Raise your hands above your head!"

The shouting came from many directions. Knowing the police force finally came, Mingliang felt relieved and closed his eyes.

“Stop! I warn you!”

There were sounds of fighting.

“Stop! Stop damn it!”

“Bang!”

Someone shot his gun.

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Several other shots quickly followed.

The shooting woke Mingliang up. He never thought someone would dare to disobey the police. He anxiously looked for Somad. He found Somad followed his example and sighed in relief. The boy squatted right next to the wall. That little monkey didn't scare at all, he was excited by the fight. He looked around and saw Mingliang. He grinned from ear to ear and raised his thumb.

Minglian shook his head, leaned to the wall and closed his eyes once more. He didn't care how the fight would end. From a glance, he could see the police and his opponent were fighting. No one cared about him and Somad.

Amidst the confusion, the Cheng Ying sword quietly flew to a dark corner near that place. Mingliang didn't worry about losing the sword. No one could find the sword once it decided to hide.

Mingliang used the chance to recover. Although he didn't have any serious injury, he wasn't free from wounds. He realized the limitation of 1st layer Xuan Wu body. When the opponent had overwhelming power or incorporated qi in their attacks, the attack could break through the skin layer and wound his muscles, bones and internal organs.

When the tumult subsided, Mingliang opened his eyes. He saw several police officers surrounded him. He raised his hand above his head and obeyed their instruction. Their emotion still ran high after the fight, but his submissive behavior reduced the tension.

Mingliang glanced around as a cop took him to a police car. It seemed the muscular man and the giant managed to escape, while the other five were caught. Several police officers were wounded during the fight. No wonder, the cops seemed to feel unhappy. He checked on Somad, Mingliang felt relieved since they didn't handle the boy roughly. The two cops who were responsible for observing Mingliang didn't show themselves in the whole process. They secretly watched from afar.

---o---

An hour later, Mingliang was sitting in the interrogation room. He finally met with Detective Jim, the one who led the serial murder investigation. At this moment, they had gone through all the basic questions. The detective pretended not knowing of Mingliang's involvement in the serial murder case.

"What were you doing so late at night at that place?", the detective coldly asked, his face like a chiseled wooden mask, flat and expressionless.

Mingliang began his story from his meeting with Dr. Sunyoto. He knew the detective knew, but he pretended he didn't know about it. The detective just sat there and let him talked.

Mingliang went on to his first encounter with the muscular man at the haunted house this morning, "We visited this haunted house, out of curiosity. About a week before this incident, I got a case of a girl who was possessed by something after she came to this house. You can ask Dr. Ibrahim, he knows."

"When I investigated the house, I found a small building in the backyard. There, I found a rune closely resembled the rune on Dr. Sunyoto's corpse.", Here Mingliang twisted the sequence of events. For a few seconds, Detective Jim showed interest in his face, before returned to the expressionless face.

"We were going to leave the house when three men came and threatened us for entering the house without permission. One of them was the leader who led those who attacked me tonight."

"You haven't told me why you came to that alley tonight.", Detective Jim asked with flat intonation.

"I kept thinking about the rune in the haunted house and on the corpse. Previously, I asked Dr. Sunyoto about the location of the murder, but he refused to tell me the location. Today I was looking on the net and found it.", Mingliang observed Detective Jim's expression, but this time the detective kept his face flat and cold.

Mingliang waited for the detective to respond, but he just stared at Mingliang in silence.

"I just want to help.", Mingliang added after waiting for a long time without any result.

Once more there was nothing but silence for a very long time. This time Mingliang refused to break the silence. Two men were sitting face to face, staring at each other without any words.

"You broke the law.", after a long time, finally, the detective opened his mouth.

"What law?", Mingliang asked back. He kept his calmness.

"Breaking police line without permission from a police officer.", said the detective without any intonation.

"I broke through no police line.", Mingliang smiled.

"But you plan to."

"That's only your assumption."

"You said yourself, you wanted to investigate the location."

"You assume that I would break the police line to investigate. The truth I would only take a look from outside the police line, without breaking it.", Mingliang and the detective were arguing back and forth.

"What do you know about those men who attack you?", the detective asked.

"I just met their group twice. Once at the haunted house and then tonight at that alley. If I guess right, then likely they have something to do with the murders.", Mingliang happily answered.

Detective Jim observed the young man before him. He had been working as a detective for more than fifteen years now. His excellent record got him where he was right now. Two years ago he was offered a promotion. It was his own choice to stay in the criminal investigation department, in homicide division as an active investigator.

He was fascinated by human psychology and was proud of his ability to observe and judge people's character.

"Okay, come with me.", the detective stood and gestured Mingliang to follow.

"Where?", Mingliang followed the detective left the room.

"The crime scene, you want to see it right?", The detective called one of his colleagues. A little while, a police officer came with Somad. The boy observed his surrounding with lots of curiosity.

"Teacher! Are you okay?", he ran to Mingliang.

Mingliang rubbed the boy's head, "Ha, of course, I'm alright. Lucky for us the police came quickly and saved us. Have you said thanks to them?"

Somad's eyes flashed mischievously. He turned to Detective Jim and bowed, "Thank you, officer. Thank you very much. You saved our lives."

Detective Jim glanced at Mingliang and saw him smiling. The detective shook his head and snorted. He ignored their play and walked to a nearby desk. He called one of his colleagues, a few minutes later two men came.

"This is Detective Anton, and this one Marzuki, from forensic.", he introduced his colleagues to Mingliang.

"You can call me Jim. Captain.", Captain Jim added.

He then turned to Anton and Marzuki, "We're going to check on the serial murder's crime scene. Both of them."

Anton and Marzuki were used to Detective Jim's style and followed his lead without much question. They curiously looked at Mingliang. As part of the investigation team, they had heard about him when Captain Jim ordered a stakeout on him.

Less than half an hour later, they were back at the alley. This time Mingliang came with the investigators. He didn't have to worry about breaking the law. When he stepped out of the car, his eyes happened to met Somad's eye. The boy winked and grinned mischievously. Mingliang silently laughed, everything went well, thanks to the muscular man. He wished he knew the muscular man's name.

When he thought about it, he remembered something. Mingliang nudged Detective Jim's arm, "I forgot to tell you something. About the group that attacked us."

The detective nodded his head, encouraged him to continue.

"One of them mentioned a name, Rangga. I believe it's the name of the older one. The one with gray hair. I think he's the leader of their group.", Mingliang told everything he knew.

The detective gave it a thought then spoke to Mingliang, "Later today, I need you to come to our police station once more. I need you to help our artist to draw their pictures. I'll call you when the artist is ready."

"I'm glad to help.", Mingliang gave his best smile. The detective just snorted.

Somad followed closely behind Mingliang, who was checking the crime scene. A drawing of man body was outlined by chalk, on the cemented floor. Mingliang closed his eyes and spread his spiritual senses on the location. As he expected, he found another crack in the border between the worlds, centered around the chalk drawing.

'What were they trying to achieve?', Mingliang rubbed the stubble on his chin.

Mingliang turned to Somad, "Can you sense it? See what you can do with your medal."

Somad nodded his head, after his advanced training, he could sense the energy around the chalk drawing. The boy knew what Mingliang wanted him to do. He took out the bronze medal from his pocket, squatted next to the crack and started to absorb the energy into his bronze medal.

Meanwhile, Mingliang stood and started to talk about his theory to the detective and his colleagues. Marzuki, the forensic guy watched Mingliang and Somad closely. His intuition told him they were doing something, but he couldn't tell what they were doing.

Captain Jim and Anton were listening to Mingliang's long-winded explanation. Half belief, half disbelief, they couldn't tell whether Mingliang just made it up or telling the truth. But Mingliang could point at each rune in the array around them and explained what it was supposed to do.

"And do you see the same thing in that haunted house, where you meet with those three men?", Captain Jim waved his hand to stop Mingliang's chatter and asked.

"Yes. If you want to, I can show you the place.", Mingliang sportily answered and added a big smile over it.

Somad stood up and put a frustrated expression on his face, "Sorry teacher, I can't find anything with the medal."

"Nevermind, maybe you just need more practice.", Mingliang comforted the boy.

He turned to Detective Jim and asked, "It seem I can't find any further information here. Perhaps we can check the second location?"

Detective Jim turned to Marzuki the forensic, who just shrugged his shoulder.

"Alright, let's check the other site.", finally, the detective grudgingly agreed.

On his way to the car, he felt something crawled on his foot. He froze on the spot for a second, but soon he felt a familiar feeling. Smiling, Mingliang entered the car. That was Cheng Ying sword. Now the sword partly wrapped on his right ankle and the rest on his left ankle, covered by his pants, hidden from sight.

While he was driving the car, Anton asked Mingliang, "Since the ritual used human life to perverse nature, or as an act of rebellion against the law of nature. What characteristic they look for in their victims?"

"In most cases, it is youth. Some ritual even use child or babies.", Mingliang answered seriously. He happened to wonder about the same thing too.

"But in both cases, it's adult men.", Anton quickly argued.

"I know... That's why there is something we don't know yet. I haven't cracked this array meaning. I only grasped the surface knowledge of each rune meaning.", Mingliang seriously replied, this time even the detective could hear his seriousness.

"But the victims must possess something, that made them perfect candidate as a sacrificial offering.", Mingliang was seriously thinking about the problem. He felt he had missed something.

When they arrived at the second location, Mingliang repeated the same procedure. He spent time, discussing with the police, while Somad was busy absorbing energies into the bronze medal.

"Sometimes, the sacrificial offering was chosen based on their family lineage.", Mingliang tried to suggest a link between the victims.

Anton quickly shook his head, "Not likely, the first victim was a Javanese, while the second was Chinese. No record shows any relation between them."

"Maybe certain physical qualities? Strength, speed, agility, even intelligence. Since it is an offering, if there is something extraordinaire about them, maybe that's the key?", Mingliang kept throwing suggestions.

Aside from giving more time to Somad, Mingliang himself wanted to know more about the serial murder case.

Anton hesitated, he turned to Captain Jim. When Detective Jim nodded, Anton turned to Mingliang and told him, "The first victim was a martial art master. He actively taught and trained many young Muslim from a various Islamic youth organization."

"How about the second one?", Mingliang felt he found something within the information.

Anton shook his head, "There is no indication of any physical superiority. He was just an old man working as a gardener in nearby Catholic Church."

Mingliang stared at Anton. An idea flashed through his mind, "What did he do?"

"A gardener.", Anton felt the change in Mingliang's attitude, "... in a nearby Catholic Church."

"When you talked with their families and friends. What did they say about their faith in their religion?", Mingliang couldn't hide the tension in his voice.

Apparently, they all had similar ideas, carefully Anton said it, "Both were known as a devout follower of their faith. People praised them for their religious lifestyle, kindness and other spiritual qualities."

Mingliang turned to look at the runes. Ancient Jewish rune, a Catholic and a Muslim. A crack in the seal between the two worlds. A sense of crisis suddenly overwhelmed him.

A vision or mere imagination of his overactive mind, Mingliang saw in his mind. A fissure appeared in the sky. It grew and proliferated. After that, one by one, winged creatures passed through the fissure.

Suddenly Detective Jim's phone rang and broke his fantasy.

Jim picked up his phone, "Yes... What!?