"How strange," Weiming Zhao muttered to himself.
Even after two days, the spiritual fragments that were used to kill someone should remain in the location of the crime. Especially, when the murder looked so messy as Zu Bingwen explained. However, there wasn't a single fragment left in this place. Just like in every other crime location they visited before.
Did someone remove the traces before they arrived?
"Is there any improvement, senior brother Zhao?" Da Jian asked in a matter-of-fact tone. It was the first time Xie Ra heard him talking. For some reason, this tall senior reminded him of his idol, Huang Fu.
Weiming Zhao sighed. "Nothing," he said in a disappointed face. "It seemed like the murderer wasn't a newbie to this field. They cleaned everything perfectly. Let's go to meet the witnesses, Zu Bingwen." He directed the last sentence to the assistant of the second elder. The short youth smiled and nodded.
"I don't like him." Xiao Lan said to Xie Ra. "I don't like him either." He replied as watching Zu Bingwen prepare the cart to go to their next destination. He seemed like a very good person but his cunning smile made Xie Ra uncomfortable.
"Oi, I didn't talk about Zu Bingwen. He's a good lad. I mean that one. I'll show him with my ear. Don't look at him fast." She pointed her ear in the direction behind Xie Ra.
Guess what? Xie Ra Turned his head in that direction with lightning speed.
The silhouette of a tall man disappeared behind a house. Xie Ra only managed to catch his beardless face and commoner's clothes for a moment but, it wasn't enough to identify the man.
Xie Ra reached there fast. However, to his disappointment, the only thing he found behind was an empty alleyway. He wanted to follow the culprit but, there were multiple side roads at the end of the alleyway. He knew even if their entire crew followed the stranger, there wouldn't be enough to go to each side road.
He returned to his previous spot beside scrawling Xiao Lan.
Smack.
Xiao Lan smacked him with all her might. "Ouwee, it hurts," Xie Ra whimpered.
"You deserved it dumbass. I told you not to look so fast. And you have to do the exact same thing. Do you have any brains?"
Xie scratched his head. He couldn't help it. It was a bad habit of his that put him in trouble even in his past life.
"The cart is ready, Daozhangs. Shall we move then?" Zu Bingwen invited the Jade sword crew. Xie Ra looked back for once and left.
The investigation team couldn't find any valuable information to proceed further from the witnesses, except for one thing. All of them died without struggling or screaming. It was unbelievable as every victim was killed cruelly. Some witnesses still didn't recover from the shock they received by seeing the crime scene.
So, How didn't they didn't even scream? The most bizarre statement they received was related to a victim who died when his sister was sleeping in the room next to his. According to what she said, she has insomnia. And she was a light sleeper as well. However, she said she didn't hear anything that night at all. The investigation crew was amazed when they saw how thin the wall between the two rooms of these siblings was.
How in the world was that possible?
"Either they killed the victim and created a mess after killing them, or they killed the victim after putting a silent spell on them." Wei Ming, the short-haired senior said thoughtfully.
Xie Ra shook his head.
"Second one isn't possible unless the killer puts a paralyzing spell on the victim. If not they would struggle and that would definitely make a sound.
But, if they used so many spells inside a room like this, the room would be filled with spiritual energy and start to emit the energy to the outside.
In incidents like the case of two siblings, the sister would surely feel the pressure even though she is still a mortal."
Weiming Zhao nodded his head.
"I agree with this junior. I thought the same thing. And we couldn't prove that point until we questioned the Phoenix sect investigators.
Even if they agree with it, we have to check that for ourselves. There isn't much evidence for us to conclude yet."
Others nodded. Then they followed Zu Bingwen to their cart, to return to the sect.
The first thing they did after returning was, questioning the disciples in the sect, who went for the investigations.
There were twelve people, who investigated these cases as two teams. Three of them were nascent souls, who were famous for solving many mysteries like this.
Somehow, they couldn't grab many shreds of evidence, even when they had the chance to investigate when the crime scenes were fresh.
"We checked thoroughly the locations, seniors, But. there weren't any spiritual fragments in those places. Yet, the bodies were clearly destroyed by using spiritual energy. These bodies were oozing with destructive energies."
"Were there any suspicious things around the room? Like formations, arrays, any things like that?"
Xie Ra asked them last, after the other four of the Jade sword team finished questioning them. The phoenix sect disciples shook their heads to state no.
He asked this as he had two more theories about this. He didn't want to share it as he didn't trust anyone in the Phoenix sect. He must find evidence to prove it.
The first theory was- Someone put a sound barrier around the room before killing the victims. If someone did that before the killing time, it would explain why there wasn't any sound.
But, this sound barrier would surely leave marks as they had to draw an array around the location before casting the barrier. This was why he asked that final question from the Phoenix sect investigators.
However, Phoenix sect disciples denied that they saw any suspicious markings in the crime areas. Even, Xie Ra couldn't see marks of sound barrier around any murder locations.
Maybe the killer or their supporter removed the markings. He should search it if there would be another murder here.
The second theory was something he couldn't share with anyone. If he does, his safety would be in danger. So he should investigate secretly by himself.