Urban Martial Saint

When Huangfu Ziyu departed from the Capital, he had already informed Tianfu, who was in Xi Hang, to send the Cold Moon Blade to Shenchuan City. In other words, Huangfu Ziyu had already decided to stay with Ye Qing from then on, and develop in Shenchuan City.

At four-thirty in the afternoon, Tianfu arrived in Shenchuan City with the Cold Moon Blade. Seeing Huangfu Ziyu again, Tianfu couldn’t help but shed tears. During the incident with the Twin Life Gu, everyone thought Huangfu Ziyu was doomed, but unexpectedly, she was able to return alive. You have to know, Huangfu Ziyu was raised by Tianfu since childhood, and rather than being her servant, Tianfu is like the closest family to her. Therefore, his concern for Huangfu Ziyu is akin to a father for his daughter.

Seeing Tianfu, Huangfu Ziyu was also a bit emotional; being able to return alive was indeed not easy. She didn’t say much, only slowly nodded to Tianfu, first letting him settle down in Shenchuan City, while she took the Cold Moon Blade to head towards Tianhui City together with Ye Qing and Liu Mubai.

After visiting the orphanage, Su Kaicheng left Shenchuan City directly. He was quite busy with work, so Ye Qing didn’t need to stay in Shenchuan City to host him. Now there was time freed up, just right to go towards Tianhui City with Zhao Chengshuang.

Ye Qing had not had a good impression of Tianhui City. The first time he came to Tianhui City was to look for his brother Ye Jun. At that time, the Beggar King was in Tianhui City, nearly controlling all the beggars in the Eastern Province. In fact, the Beggar King was Wang Tian’an’s subordinate, in Tianhui City, he appeared to use those beggars to beg, but in reality, he mainly dealt in drug trafficking to raise revenues for Wang Tian’an.

Ye Qing’s second impression of Tianhui City was the affair with Ding San. In Tianhui City, Ding San was driven to ruin by the powers at play, he sent his son to Ye Qing’s orphanage and headed back to Tianhui City for revenge. Ye Qing even sent Black Bear to Tianhui City to save him, but Black Bear was ultimately a step too late, unable to save Ding San. Ding San finally fell off that cliff, and when Black Bear went down the cliff the next day, he couldn’t even find his body, likely devoured by wild beasts nearby.

These two matters left Ye Qing with a very poor impression of Tianhui City. Not only was the public security terrible, but more importantly, the officials oppressed the ordinary people, making them very despised.

The journey from Shenchuan City to Tianhui City was just a two-hour drive. Liu Changping had received the message long ago, so when Ye Qing and the others got off the highway, they were directly picked up by people sent by Liu Changping and first brought to the hotel where Liu Changping was stationed.

In less than ten days, over three hundred people had died. Moreover, there was only one killer, a rare case even in the history of Huaxia. Needless to say, Liu Changping valued it highly, even the Capital City Police Department was keeping an eye on the case, so Liu Changping was under a lot of pressure, stationed in Tianhui City specifically to solve this case.

Liu Changping had been in Tianhui City for two days, yet they still had no clues. That white-haired murderer was agile, very powerful, and not afraid of bullets; the police couldn’t catch him at all. Also, the most crucial point was that this person was elusive in daily life, only appearing when killing, and vanishing without a trace after committing murders, no matter how much the police pursued, they couldn’t find him at all.

After listening to the police narrating the specifics of the case, Ye Qing pondered for a moment and suddenly said, ”Has anyone seen how the murderer looks?”

”Even if someone has, it’s useless,” Liu Changping said, ”We’ve checked several times, and no one recognizes that murderer. His hair is very long, covering his face completely, so normal people can’t even see his face clearly.”

”Isn’t there anyone who finds him familiar?” Ye Qing asked, ”This person couldn’t have just appeared out of nowhere, right?”

The police looked at each other, the one who briefed Ye Qing was also helpless, saying, ”To be honest, it seems this person did just appear out of nowhere. We’ve been investigating for so long without any leads; many people even think it’s a haunting!”

Liu Changping sternly said, ”It’s this modern age, and there’s still talk of haunting?”

Ye Qing slightly frowned, remained silent for a while, and said, ”Have you investigated the people he killed?”

”Yes, with so many people, there are no connections. It means, this person kills without any pattern!” the policeman paused, then said, ”However, it’s not entirely without pattern. Most of the people he killed were hooligans and bullies in Tianhui City, the rest were some officials; there were no ordinary civilians among them.”

Hearing this, Ye Qing’s eyes lit up. He looked at Liu Changping and said, ”Do these officials also have some issues?”

Liu Changping paused slightly, then said in a low voice, ”Investigated, most have severe disciplinary issues.”

”That’s it!” Ye Qing nodded and said, ”So, can we understand it as this person killing guilty people?”

”No matter who he killed, killing so many is a crime!” Liu Changping said sternly, ”Moreover, he doesn’t just kill guilty people, he exterminates entire families. Whoever he decides to kill, the whole family, regardless of age, none survive, not even sparing three- to five-year-old kids!”

Ye Qing’s face changed. He had thought this person was fine, at least those he killed deserved it. But hearing the latter part, his perspective changed immediately. Those people indeed deserved to die, but exterminating entire families, that’s wrong. Children as young as three or five don’t know anything, and this person even kills them; that’s absolutely wrong!

”Are these the only clues?” Ye Qing asked.

The policeman glanced at Liu Changping, hesitating to speak, evidently having something to say but didn’t dare with Liu Changping present.

Ye Qing noticed the policeman’s concern and didn’t press further, and said to Liu Changping, ”Uncle Liu, I heard from Cheng Shuang on the way that this person usually acts at midnight. It’s still early, why don’t we rest first, gather our energy, and wait for him to act tonight!”

”That’s fine!” Liu Changping nodded. Ye Qing traveled from afar, so he certainly wouldn’t have him work without rest. He left the policeman behind to arrange accommodations for Ye Qing and the others and went on to sort through the case details.

Ye Qing precisely wanted this policeman to stay, because he noticed the policeman had something to say earlier. Seeing Liu Changping and the others leave, Ye Qing immediately turned to the policeman and asked, ”Any other clues?”

”This...” The policeman hesitated slightly, then said softly, ”I’m not sure if this counts as a clue, actually it’s something local people here in Tianhui City said. Someone saw that murderer, and he... he even knows that murderer!”

”What!?” Ye Qing immediately frowned, staring at the policeman. This was a significant clue; why wasn’t it mentioned earlier? And why didn’t he dare to speak when Liu Changping was here?

”Didn’t you investigate it further?” Ye Qing asked.

”Investigated...” the policeman said frustratedly, ”But, do you know who that person said the murderer is?”

”Who?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

The policeman said, ”Recently, there was a case here in Tianhui City where students were forced into prostitution; you know about that, right?”

The first person Ye Qing thought of was Ding San. Not only did he know about it, but he had also personally investigated it. However, this serial murder case was related to this matter?

Ye Qing nodded and said, ”Are the two matters related?”

”In the student prostitution case, there was a victim named Ding San, who could be said to have lost everything. His wife, children, parents all died, even he himself fell off a cliff and died,” the policeman paused, then continued, ”But, according to the eyewitness, the murderer he saw was actually Ding San’s deceased wife!”

”What!?” Ye Qing’s face changed again, blurting out, ”How is that possible?”

The policeman said, ”That’s why locals say it’s a haunting, it’s the unjust soul of Ding San’s wife, hence she came out to kill so many people. Plus, after people died, their corpses were drained of blood, making the haunting rumor spread more and more. But, you know, Director Liu doesn’t believe in ghosts; he thinks someone is deliberately interfering with the case. So, we don’t dare to mention the haunting clue in front of him.”

Ye Qing finally understood why the policeman hesitated to speak in front of Liu Changping. After all, Liu Changping was a formal graduate, and he believed in science more. So, in his view, talk of haunting was purely nonsense. As a leader, he couldn’t lead his subordinates to believe in hauntings, hence certainly prohibited further discussion of such matters, so the policeman didn’t dare mention it in front of Liu Changping earlier.

Ye Qing also doesn’t believe in hauntings; although he witnessed many things with Old Wang Ba that couldn’t be explained scientifically, he wouldn’t believe in ghosts. His view is similar to Liu Changping’s, thinking it’s deliberate misinformation to obfuscate the investigation.

”Did you investigate this matter?” Ye Qing asked.

”Yes,” the policeman replied, ”Ding San’s wife is truly dead. To be sure, we even dug up her coffin; the corpse has mostly decayed. To confirm, we had a forensic examination to verify it was indeed Ding San’s wife. Moreover, she’s been dead for quite a long time!”