The next crime scene was in another poorly run small apartment complex, with a tall building, dirty exterior, visible broken windows and a mess of entangled power and cables wrapped around a tormented and slightly tilted wooden pole outside, which looked like it could fall at any time.
There was no attendant at the gate, but the gate was already open. And judging by the condition of the gate and the barely standing up fences made with rusty metal nails and broken wood, it was not hard for anyone to sneak in anyway.
The smell of neglected garbage bins full of all kinds of waste filled the air, even though it was late in the afternoon and the heat had started to wear off. Aimee and Detective Lee walked into the main building with their hands covering their mouths and noses. This was especially hard for Aimee, for her body was strengthened and so were her senses including smell, but she was not at the point where she could easily block off foul smell in the air with her power.
"This is definitely creepier than the previous complex." Jason shook his head and said to Aimee and Detective Lee when they just came through the front door of the building: "And … have you smelled that?"
"What? The garbage?" Aimee's voice was muffled by her hand: "Seriously, how could I not?"
"No! The same smell from the coffee shop." Jason looked around and said: "It's like a mixture of blood and some kind of magic, but I can't tell what it is yet. Better keep your eyes open. You want some weapons Aimee?"
"No, thanks, I've got mine from Ms. Wong." Aimee showed Jason a metal ring on her left index finger: "But - what happens if something similar happens, like someone trying to pull us into a limbo again?"
"The Demon Suppression Sigils I gave you should help, and once we are in the room, I will light these Illusion Breaking Incense with the Spirit Calming Incense. They should help you strengthen the protection of your mind..." Jason thought for a while, then turned to Detective Lee and Aimee: "Come to think of it, give me your left hands."
Aimee and Detective Lee gave their left hands to Jason, without any hesitation.
"Okay, don't resist, I am going to give you a buff - like in video games before going into a team fight." Jason tapped Aimee and Detective Lee's palms and wrists and placed an Internal Fortification spell on them: "These are the same spells I used on those two, which will harden your internal defences and give you resistance towards toxins and curses. No guarantees that you won't get pulled into limbos, but it's extra insurance."
The apartment they were looking for had police tapes at the front door, but the police tapes already fell on when they got to it. It was however unclear if it was because of the tapes losing adhesion, or because of the paint on the old door frame peeling off, or because someone ripped it off.
"I'll report this later, ideally when we have found something." Detective Lee took a picture of the tapes with his phone, then led the way into the room to look around: "Looks like nothing changes from this scene."
Jason frowned as he looked around, the strange smell intensified when they came into this room, but he was still not able to tell what kind of magic or special power it was. And after sensing the energy signatures in the room, he was relatively convinced that the same "grudge harvesting" also happened here.
"Where's the body found?" Aimee asked.
"The bedroom. " Detective Lee answered: "The two victims were found on the room, very limited signs of struggle. Later forensics confirmed that they had really elevated levels of drug residues in their bodies, though their blood had been drained almost completely. They had to resort to collecting muscle and liver samples to run tests."
"Any other differences from the last scene?" Aimee asked while looking around in the living room and kitchen.
"No guns, but a lot of stashed drugs. That's the biggest difference." Detective Lee picked up a small sculpture that looked like some sort of monster from a video game.
"When did the victims die?" Jason looked around the bedroom and asked.
"Around three weeks ago, could have been a month. Due to the dryness of the body and that nobody found out about them for more than a week, we can only narrowed down on a rough range."
"Okay, understood, incense please, in each corner of the bedroom." Jianmen took out his silver ball, then turned it into a silver pen as he walked into the bedroom: "And we may have to open the window, just a little bit."
"We can't leave burn marks or additional dust in this room." Detective Lee looked around trying to find something to hold the incense sticks.
"Here." by simply closing his hands and then pulling them open, Jason conjured up four silver incense burners with dirt inside: "Put the sticks inside the dirt."
With burning incense sticks at the four corners of the bedroom, Jason stood at the foot of the bed and drew in the air using his silver pen. A long and slightly asymmetric silver symbol gradually took shape with Jason's each stroke, and was pulsating some kind of silver energy wave.
"Alright. careful." Jason finished the entire symbol in the matter of around two minutes, though the symbol seemed to be relatively simple, Jason was quite spent when he completed the symbol. Unknown to Aimee and Detective Lee, this was a spell he had yet to fully master - it was a powerful spell of detection and revelation, one that seemed to require him to be in a higher layer than he was currently in. "One, two, THREE!"
A wave of energy pulse burst out from the silver symbol in the air when Jason struck it with the silver pen, just like when he cast other spells to reveal residues of energy signatures. But this time, Jason kept his silver pen on the symbol after the strike, and both Aimee and Detective Lee could see silver shadows that looked vaguely in human shapes moving in the room, as if they were watching a holographic movie in fast backward or forward. They also heard muffled and sped up speech resounding in their ears, most of which was unintelligible. But from the few words they could make out, it seemed to be just daily conversations between a young couple.