Qin Ye had departed, yet everyone in the Special Investigations Department was still rooted to the spot in silence.
Not long after Qin Ye’s departure, another gust of Yin wind blew into the building, following which Arthis emerged. She swept a cold gaze around the hall, then declared, “I am Reincarnation King Arthis, and I’ll be taking over this matter.”
Zheng Shuguo knew that he had already lost the right to oversee this matter any further. Four Yama-Kings had been deployed by Hell, yet due to the oversight of the Special Investigations Department, the soul fragment of a being above the Yama-King level had been allowed to escape. Under these circumstances, he was already very fortunate not to have been even more heavily insulted.
How could Qin Ye and the others not be enraged?
Arthis was making no attempt to hold back her Yin energy, allowing it to spread through the room like masses of venomous vipers, and that was a clear display of her displeasure.
All he could do now was cooperate to the best of his abilities in order to redeem himself as much as possible.
“The Special Investigations Department is willing to fully cooperate. I hereby delegate full leadership rights to you on this matter,” he declared.
Arthis nodded in response. “Good. In that case, my first order is that no one in this building is allowed to leave without my permission!”
Her purple hair danced wildly around her like menacing serpents as she threatened in a cold voice, “If you dare to try and leave without permission, don’t blame me for crossing out your name on the Book of Life and Death!”
As the warden of the six paths of reincarnation, she held significant power in Hell.
Everyone exchanged a few glances, and no one raised any objections. Furthermore, they all distanced themselves from one another in a subtle manner.
The city gods and the lords of the land had already informed them of the special properties of the inner demon. They had initially thought that they were dealing with a normal Yin spirit, which meant that there was no way it would be able to infiltrate a place like the Special Investigations Department, but they were sorely mistaken.
Anyone in this room could’ve been the culprit!
Arthis continued, “My second order is for all those with access to the supernatural perimeter activation facilities to step forward and assemble in front of me.”
Around a dozen figures stepped forward in silence.
Zheng Shuguo faltered slightly upon seeing this, then said, “With all due respect, I think Secretary Zhang and Mayor Ji should be…”
“Is there a problem?” Arthis interjected before he had a chance to finish.
Zheng Shuguo paused momentarily before replying, “Secretary Zhang and Mayor Ji do indeed have access to the supernatural perimeter activation facilities, but their access rights are of the lowest level of priority. In order of high to low priority, first comes the director of this city’s Special Investigations Department, followed by the vice-director, then the military representative, and only after that do we have the secretary and the mayor.”
“Director Zheng.” Zhang Junliang shook his head with a serious expression as he said, “Let’s not give special treatment here. Anyone could’ve been responsible for this.”
A wry smile appeared on Ji Changqing’s face as he sighed, “If we don’t step forward now, it would be fine if the culprit is discovered, but if that doesn’t turn out to be the case…”
He shook his head and didn’t finish that thought.
If no culprit were discovered, then they would stick out like sore thumbs, and their political careers would be as good as over.
“I’m glad you’ve got the right mindset, at least,” Arthis said. “Everyone, come with me. Director Zheng, bring up the surveillance footage right away. Check to see who was absent from the hall at the time of the incident, as well as all footage of the supernatural perimeter activation facilities.”
“Yes.”
Arthis was never one for wasting time, and after giving those instructions, she immediately made her way toward the control room, not giving anyone a chance to react.
However, in the instant that the door to the control room was opened, everyone drew a sharp breath in unison.
Zheng Shuguo was staring at the scene in front of him with a stunned expression as he murmured in a trembling voice, “How could this be…”
Right in front of them was a blood-red corridor.
There was blood everywhere, as well as countless corpses!
All of the police officers, soldiers, investigators, SRC officers… They had all perished in extremely strange ways.
Arthis’s eyes narrowed slightly as she curled a finger, and one of the bodies slowly drifted over to her.
She intentionally paused momentarily, but no sound rang out from behind her.
Looks like the culprit is hiding themselves quite well…
Arthis was willing to bet that the culprit was among the group of people standing behind her.
They had returned to the scene of the heinous crime they had just committed, yet they weren’t giving off any abnormal emotional fluctuations. Could this be a special ability of the inner demons? An ability to repress one’s emotions?
She didn’t say anything as the corpse hovered in front of her. Having seen Yin spirits in Hell who had perished in all types of different manners, she was already desensitized to the sight of death.
The way that this man had died was very special. Directly from the front or the back, there were no visible injuries on his body, but right on the top of his head, there was a fist-sized hole, which was completely empty inside.
Arthis gently set down the body, then turned her gaze toward the other deceased victims.
“All of the people here have died in two different ways, the first of which is through a gun wound on the body, while the other way is the hole on the top of the head, as seen with him there. There are only a total of three people who perished in the latter fashion, while the others all died from gun wounds. Director Zheng, do you have any insights or theories that you can offer?”
Zheng Shuguo took a deep breath, then stepped forward as he analyzed, “Not a single one of my fallen colleagues have even drawn their gun here, so that means that everything happened very abruptly. Also, I paid close attention to Ghost King Zhao as he was pursuing the inner demon, and I noticed something different.”
He squatted down and gently closed the eyes of his deceased colleague. At the same time, he seemed to be arranging his own thoughts, and after a few seconds of silence, he continued, “Why is it that the rat here suddenly activated the supernatural perimeter?”
“It must be because the inner demon failed to predict that we had a being above the Yama-King level among our ranks. If its true body had come here, then it wouldn’t have any cause for fear, but there was no way that a soul fragment would’ve been able to escape from Ghost King Zhao,” Arthis replied.
“That’s right!” Zheng Shuguo agreed. “At the time, the inner demon was doing everything in its power to flee from Ghost King Zhao. We’ve already received satellite footage of the incident, and I viewed the footage multiple times before Yanluo Qin’s arrival. As a result, I noticed that in the final instant, the inner demon chose to self-detonate its soul fragment. In that case, can we assume that it was under the opinion at the time that its soul fragment’s fate was sealed? In other words, even it had failed to anticipate that the rat among us would be able to suddenly save it.”
Arthis’s eyes lit up upon hearing this, and she was rather impressed as she prompted, “Continue.”
Zheng Shuguo nodded in response before continuing, “In the final instant, right as the supernatural perimeter was activated, even the inner demon’s soul fragment faltered slightly, indicating that it was surprised. If it had failed to anticipate that the rat would save it at that crucial juncture, doesn’t that mean that this rat has an autonomous will? In other words, prior to receiving an order from the inner demon, the hosts that it’s possessed in the past are only normal humans, but deep in their hearts, they worship the inner demon and are willing to do anything for it. Is it possible that those who have been possessed by it have only had the seed of eternal servitude at all costs planted into their minds, not completely controlled by the inner demon as we theorized?”
Arthis’s eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this. Zheng Shuguo didn’t clarify his statements, but she understood what he was saying.
He was telling her that there could be no way to track down the hosts of the inner demon as there was no way to tell them apart from everyone else under normal circumstances. Only when the inner demon was in danger would they display completely different reactions from everyone else!
Thus, they had to adopt a different approach, rather than a traditional investigative method.
It wasn’t that he was unwilling to clarify things, he simply didn’t trust anyone aside from himself at this moment.
Arthis offered no opinion on his theory. Instead, she merely turned back toward the corridor as she said, “Let’s inspect the control room first.”
They soon arrived in the control room, but there was only a single corpse in there.
The lethal blow had been dealt by a bullet to the back of the head, and the weapon in question was right beside the entrance.
It was a black pistol that was completely ordinary and unremarkable.
The culprit was also at the entrance. It was a young man holding the pistol, lying on the ground with his eyes wide open. There was also a hole right on top of his head.
Perhaps he had no idea what he had done even in the moments leading up to his death.
“He’s dead? How is that possible?” Ji Changqing asked with a stunned expression.
The rat was dead at the scene of the crime!
“He’s my bodyguard,” Zhang Junliang said with a grim expression. He could virtually hear his political career coming to an end, and he closed his eyes in despair as he said, “I’m willing to accept all investigations from the authorities.”
No one seemed to have heard him at all. Everyone was staring at the scene of the crime with slack-jawed expressions.
How could the rat be dead? Was he really the rat? How could the investigation continue now?
“Nobody move!” Right at this moment, Arakshasa’s Yin energy erupted forth violently, sealing the entire corridor.
Her gaze was like a sharp sword as it roamed over everyone around her, and she said in a cold voice, “He’s just a scapegoat. The inner demon was indeed surprised by the sudden emergence of the supernatural perimeter during its escape, that much was clear both from my own observation and your satellite footage. I also clearly saw that it wanted to detonate its own soul fragment. If it knew that the rat that it had planted was going to do this, then that wouldn’t have been its reaction!”
Her voice was like rumbling thunder as she continued, “This means that perhaps the situation was too urgent at the time, and it didn’t even have the time to consider these things, which meant that it was acting purely on instinct. However, a bodyguard has no right to enter the Special Investigations Department! Why would he be aware of what’s happening in here? How did he know that the inner demon was in danger? It can only be because someone tipped him off! Someone told him to do this, and that person was definitely at the scene at the time. That person is among you!”
Her purple hair was dancing through the air like snakes, circling around one person after another.
Shortly thereafter, her hair was slowly withdrawn, and she smiled as she flipped a hand over to reveal a black phone.
“The rat was somehow able to deliver the message to the bodyguard while staying in the building. That can only be achieved through this type of technology, right? There were no text messages sent to his phone within the past hour, and the last WeChat message that he received came from you, Secretary Zhang! Why don’t you explain to us exactly what’s going on here?”
Everyone around Zhang Junliang immediately backed away from him as they watched him with shocked and wary expressions.
