That

 was

 why I 

didn’t think they were 

killed by 

a

 spirit. Someone had murdered them. That murderer was so excellent that he didn’t leave any evidence behind at the crime scenes.

After listening to me, Xiao Quan pondered for a while. Then, he lowered his voice and said

, 

“I understand your idea. At first, we 

also

 thought that 

an

 elite foreign agent had caused trouble! However, those deceased experts and researchers didn’t work at the same departments when they were alive! 

T

hat’s not all. Not only were they experts in 

different

 fields, 

but some were 

ordinary office workers. That’s why we

’ve

 decided to eliminate the possibility of an agent committing all the murders.” Xiao Quan was talking fast, but his explanation was clear and orderly. 

I subconsciously frowned after listening to him. The victims had worked at different departments and their ranks were also different. They didn’t even know each other when they were alive. The possibility of a group murder case was reduced

 by

 a lot

… 

However, we couldn’t cross off the possibility yet. I contemplated, then asked Xiao Quan to take me to the murder scenes. 

Our country 

had always

 treated talented people generously

, so they were

 each 

given a house

, which is why all of the victims lived in Haidian District. 

This made things

 convenient for us. 

Xiao Quan and 

I had visited

 the houses of five of the deceased in one morning. All the crime scenes were well

-

preserved. However, to prevent the bodies from decomposing, they had sprayed formalin on them. I had to endure 

the

 pungent

smell of chemi

cals the entire morning

. 

The situations were exactly 

as

 Xiao Quan had 

described to me

. All of the victims were dismembered

.

 Some of them had their eyes opened wide in fright as it was the last facial expression they had right before their deaths. 

I

’d

 heard that people’s eyes could preserve the image of the last thing they saw before they died. With that thought, I loomed over 

the head

 of a victim to take a close look. However, I didn’t see anything. 

From the surface, there was nothing that could 

be considered evidence

 in the crime scenes. It was in line with the nature of a murder case done by 

a

 ghost. 

However,

 I knew it wouldn’t be that simple. 

In theory, after the spirit killed people and left, the wounds on the dead or the interior of the dead’s house would retain some Yin energy. Sometimes, there would be some unusual changes to the corps

e

. For example, molds and fungi could grow crazily within a short time. In some stranger cases, the deceased’s hair could grow longer. 

In

 the cases I had accepted before, I knew 

some

 information 

about

 most of the otherworldly items. And, I could investigate and solve the case based on the Yin energy left 

behind

. I had never encountered such a situation before. For the time being, I had no idea what to do. 

Xiao Quan thought that I didn’t want to put my best effort 

into

 this

. He said in a reprimanding voice,

 “The fate of the nation is in the hands of the capable and responsible ones. The experts who contributed to the development of our country were murdered. Mr. Zhang, how could you just stand and…” 

“

I’m not

!” I rudely interrupted him. 

After

 seeing the remains of the victims, I had kept thinking

 a

bout how to find clues and how to help those dead victims rest in peace. 

It was the first time I had boldly snapped back while talking to Xiao Quan. The 

man

 was somewhat bewildered. Then, he changed his attitude

 and talked in a 

softer tone to me. “I’m just anxious. Please forgive me.” 

“All right, I know you just want to solve the case quickly!” I waved my hands and asked Xiao Quan to return to the base of his Special Operation Team. I would go to Panjiayuan

,

 the biggest antique market in Beijing. 

Panjiayuan

, also known as 

the Dirt Market, was the biggest domestic antique trading market. It was like 

a

 holy land to antique businessmen like us. 

There were so many vendor stalls in the Dirt Market, including minor ethnic vendors. It was said that eighty percent of the antiques here were fake. I

’d

 heard that the counterfeits in this market were so excellent that they could even trick the experts in the field. It was also the reason why when a new antique business

man

 wanted to start his or her new career, they would come to this place to train their eyes!

Of course, I wasn’t here to look for something interesting. I wanted to collect some Five Emperors coins. The Five Emperors coins

 were differently sized

. The

y were

 the coins cast during the times of Emperor Hanwu of Qin, Emperor Taizong of Tang, and Zhu Yuanzhang. Unfortunately, since it was 

s

o long ago, there weren’t many coins left. It was impossible to have a large coin collection. 

The small Five Emperors coins were the coins produced and circulated during the 

reigns

 of Emperor Shunzhi to Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty. There were many of them and the prices weren’t high, which made them a top exorcising tool. 

Anyway, people did make fake coins. I was lucky that my keen eyes were well

-

trained. After an entire afternoon, I had selected around one hundred coins of a bright bronze color. I called Xiao Quan to visit the victims’ houses one more time and placed a coin next to their dead bodies.  

Xiao Quan watched me 

do

 that and didn’t have a clue. 

He doubtfully

 asked, “Mr. Zhang, it’s just a small antique coin. How could it know if there’s something foul in this place?” 

Since we had no clue and I didn’t know if it 

was

an

 evil spirit that had 

committed

 the murder, that

 was

 all 

that

 I could do for now. As long as the

spirit appeared, the bright light on the coins would be gone. At least, I could confirm if 

a

 spirit 

was behind the murders.

After listening to me, Xiao Quan nodded. Then, he asked, “Do you want to have someone watch the scenes?” 

“

There’s n

o need. 

W

e aren’t even sure if 

there is a

 spirit

.

”

I then asked Xiao Quan’s driver to go back to their department. 

That night, I was accommodated in the dormitory of the State Security Ministry. 

While l

ying on the bed, I replayed what I’d seen today. Still, I wasn’t sure if 

a

 spirit had troubled them

.

To be honest, using those small coins was just a makeshift method

. It was 

like using a dead horse as a living one. I didn’t have confidence in it. 

Perhaps it was because I was in a state’s dormitory, b

ut

 I was restless and 

c

ouldn’t sleep. Before midnight, I was still rolling 

in

 the bed, trying to sleep. After midnight, I was weary but suddenly felt uneasy. It was a panicked feeling I couldn’t name. My heart raced. The air around me suddenly stagnated. It seemed time had stopped at this moment. 

Subconsciously, I thought something foul had 

entered

 my room. I got up and looked around. There was no wisp of Yin energy in the room. However, the temperature was so low 

that I was chilled 

to the bone! 

My thoughts wandered back to the fact that I found no wisp of Yin energy in the houses of those dead researchers and experts. 

Did that thing keep track of me

? 

My heart sank at this instant. I felt a pair of sharp 

eyes

 lurking in

 a

 dark corner, watching me. I gulped my saliva

 and 

instinctively 

turned

in that direction

. Eventually, my eyes stopped at the door. 

I grabbed the Sirius Whip 

from the

 side of my pillow. I stood and got a hold of myself. Then, with all of my courage, I walked to the door. 

It was the 

first 

time I

’d

 felt so much danger since I had 

joined

 this business

.

 I hadn’t seen that thing

 yet

, 

but

 it had already

 brought out

 fear from the depths of my soul! 

When I 

approached t

he door, I closed one eye

 and focused 

on the peephole from a distance. Although it

 was a hassle

, 

it made me

feel

 safer. I was afraid that once I 

went

 close to the door, the other party would suddenly attack

 and leave 

me no chance to dodge. 

I squinted. My heart started to race when I found an eye gazing at me from the other side of the peephole! That eye was scarlet

, just 

as if it 

was

 bleeding. When it faced me, it looked arrogant yet hateful. 

I

nstantly, I confirmed that it was the murderer! But I didn’t know why it looked like it hated me. That thing on the other side of the door gave me a dangerous feeling

. I

t was the only clue I could grasp 

at this

 moment. I pulled myself together and opened the door. At the same time, I lashed the Sirius Whip right 

into

 the void!

Attacking

 first to 

gain

 the upper hand was a good habit I had formed.

Moreover, this time, I had confirmed that the

spirit was out there

.

 I thought my whip could hit it. Unexpectedly, I hit nothing

.

T

he eye had disappeared. Instinctively, I retreated into the room

 and 

cautiously 

looked

 around. I was afraid that it would ambush me. I looked around 

but

 found nothing.

Suddenly, I recognized that when the eye disappeared, the pressure and panic I felt had also disappeared. 

“Phew…” I heaved a long sigh of relief. I slumped 

to

 the ground and 

rested

 for a long moment before I could pull myself together

. I 

reluctantly 

got

 up. 

It was just a short encounter, but I knew that if I had to face that thing, I wouldn’t be its equal opponent. However, I was skeptical as to why it 

had come

to

 my door

. 

If it wanted to kill me, why 

didn't it

 enter the room? And, 

i

f it didn’t want to kill me, what 

did

 it want? 

After t

hinking for quite a long time without any result, I felt tired. I went to the door to close it. I wanted to rest. However, I caught the sight of two blood streaks right outside my door

.

I was scared.

When I finally got a hold of myself, I stepped forward to see. They were two big words written in blood. One 

word read,

 ‘

L

oyalty,’ but 

it 

was crossed by a dark streak of blood. The other word 

read

, ‘

D

eath’! 

I looked at the two words for a long time as I 

was

 bewildered. I vaguely thought I could grab the purpose of the spirit’s current visit. He wanted to 

convey

 some information through these two words. However, I hadn’t figured out any possible clues with these two words yet! 

I h

elplessly closed the door and got on my bed

 as I tried

 to figure out something. 

I slowly 

drifted into sleep until I was 

woken

 up by someone banging on my door. I sat up and cleared my head. 

No matter what, Xiao Quan was a staff of the State Security Ministry with great composure. If it weren’t something important, he wouldn’t be in 

such a panicked

 state. I didn’t have time to put on more clothes

 and asked 

him

, “What’s wrong?” 

“Another person was 

attacked

…” 

“What?!” I hadn’t expected that the spirit had gone to kill someone after a sudden visit to my room. “Xiao Quan, what happened? Someone died last night?” 

“

Ugh, our target is not dead yet.”

 Xiao Quan was still 

in shock

. 

I exhaled when he said that

. I

 signaled at him to continue talking. 

“This time, it happened to a leader of the Weapons Research and Development Department. His name is Ye Weiguo.” 

Last night, Ye Weiguo had 

drunk

 with his peer officials until it was almost dawn before going back home. However, as soon as he went through the gate of his house, he felt a strange chill wafting from inside the house. Being cautious, he didn’t enter the house but asked his subordinate to go first. 

As soon as his subordinate went through the door, he screeched painfully and collapsed. At the same time, Ye Weiguo felt 

a

 warm liquid 

splash

 on his face. He reached and wiped his cheek, then found warm blood all over his hand. His drunk head sobered up in that instant. He looked into the house and was frightened, as he saw his soldier being chopped into 

pieces

!

Ye Weiguo screamed. He turned and stumbled his way downstairs. Recently, people from different departments had 

been

 discuss

ing

 these serial murder cases. Of course, Ye Weiguo had heard something about this. 

After s

eeing the scene, he knew that thing had made him its next target. 

“How could Ye Weiguo escape? The spirit didn’t chase after him?” I asked, thinking it was somewhat strange. 

Xiao Quan nodded and continued to talk

.

 “

When

 Ye Weiguo rushed downstairs, he felt a strange cold wind blowing behind him. His instinct told him that he was in an extremely dangerous situation. He knew that thing was after him. In that difficult moment, his witty brain worked well. He directly ran toward the military base which is next to the experts’ residential area. It was already dawn and he was lucky

 to see 

the troopers 

do

 their morning exercises. He ran to them. That’s how he 

was able to

 save his life.” When Xiao Quan came to this part, his face became serious

. He asked, 

“What should we do now?”

I didn’t answer him. From the surface of the incident, it seemed the collectively strong Yang energy from the soldiers had forced the spirit to leave. However, after thinking about my short encounter last night with the

spirit, I had a feeling that it wasn’t afraid of the Yang energ

ies of low-ranking

 soldiers

...

W

hy did it leave last night? 

And, the spirit had 

locked onto

 me as soon as I had joined this case

. What

 about Xiao Quan and his Special Operation Team’s members? The

spirit should

 have kept an eye on 

them, too.

However, they had never told me a

nything about 

that. From the

 way they talked 

and their gestures, 

there was no indication that they 

had encountered any spirit before. It was the 

strangest

 point 

in

 this case. Still, I didn’t ask him to clarify 

the matter

.