"Seal this place! It's become a crime scene."
One of the patrol guards took out a small iron cube. They tossed it onto the ground. It clattered, bouncing up and down before exploding into a massive square bubble. Everything, excluding the guards, came to a complete halt. People barely had the time to notice the small stream of blood before the alley was sealed in a separate dimension.
"There were three people here. Where did the other two go?" El Mun asked, utterly confused. "Take a look at this dried blood against the wall. It's round towards the top and then trails downwards. This means that someone bumped their head here."
El Mun examined the bloodstain on the wall. He channelled his qi to his eyes, magnifying his vision. This allowed him to see the finer details. An extremely thin line caught his sight. He increased the Qi output. The thin line was a microscopic strand of hair. Raising a finger, he pointed at the blood spot. A small ball of translucent qi floated from his finger and absorbed the bloodstain, preserving it. He pulled out a small glass jar from his interspacial pouch and dumped it in.
"I'm more surprised that an entire city's worth of Soul-Forming experts hadn't noticed a fight between Qi Gathering kids," El Mun rubbed his chin.
What could have happened here that made it impossible for them to notice it? Even Nascent Soul beings couldn't hide from tentative Soul-Forming experts. It'd be much easier for them to notice it when a person of that level acts as each of their moves utilises the vital essence of the earth along with its qi. If it weren't them then that would only mean that whoever hid this from their eyes was most likely in the Absolution Realm or higher.
El Mun hissed. That definitely couldn't be what happened. Could it?
"Jun, check for trace amounts of Qi," El Mun moved Jotire.
He placed his index and middle finger on the kid's pulse and injected a strand of Qi into his meridians. With absolute gentleness, he nudged the strand of Qi through the meridians. It took him more than a solid minute to enter the kid's dantian.
"Qi reserves are almost empty," El commented. "A few bruised meridians and the type of wounds sustained indicates raw hand to hand combat."
"Sir, the wisps of Qi floating around definitely belong to a Qi-Gathering Realm wayfarer, the concentration doesn't make sense though. It's extremely small, for what can be considered a death match between three wayfarers of that level. If we assume the other was a mere mortal it doesn't add up either. As the injuries this kid suffered can only be inflicted by someone with the same cultivation base as him," Jun reported. "And I found these, sir."
Jun held a blood-stained brick and sword. This proved that there was at least more than one person here. The thing that terrified him the most was the origins of the blade. Which stupid idiot would go through great lengths to beat up the owner of this blade to a pulp? Wasn't that just asking for a beating? Or the extermination of one's own nine generations?
"Sir, I believe that this case is beyond our jurisdiction," Jun gulped. "If this blade isn't a fake."
"Let me look," El Mun wore his gloves and took the blade. Less than a second later his face contorted into an ugly frog.
"This is a Myriad Star Identity token," El Mun rubbed his temple. "I guess we have to leave it here. Just take a few notes. Record the scene using one of our cubed recorders. We have to report this to the higher-ups asap. You! "
El Mun pointed to a guard that squatted around the small crater Jotire and Ast caused when the latter speared him into the ground. He measured the force and required qi-output that would be required to replicate the scene. He snapped towards El Mun once he realised he was being called. Standing up, he straightened his back and threw the notebooks in his pouch.
"Yes sir!"
"I want you to go back to the headquarters and report this incident to the chief. We can't investigate anything here until we get explicit permission from Myriad Star Academy. "
"Yes sir!" the guard pulled out a small marble and crushed it. His form disappeared from the spot.
"Sir, why were we forbidden from using most of our abilities?" A young-looking guard shook away hee nerves and asked him.
"I'm assuming this is your first day," El Mun didn't want to humour the kid but he had to for the sake of future investigations and crime scenes. "They should start teaching you this at the fort. Some of our abilities and items do not affect the environment whatsoever. The abilities that are required to investigate a crime scene are rather intrusive, regardless of how minute the impact is, we would still change the environment if we used them. Now imagine what would happen to this place if everyone activated their Soul Sense, and used their mystic techniques to get a good picture of what the scene was like? This place would be worthless. We might as well start investigating when next the sun will poop. The introduction of our abilities would do more damage than that. We need specialists for that. And our little team doesn't have anyone of that calibre."
"Sorry for disturbing you, sir!" She saluted.
"What's your name, young girl?"
"Orna l, Sir," El Mun didn't find her too hard now that he thought over it. He'd seen the way she worked today. She was far better than most newcomers in the way she handled herself. "You know what, I like you. Work a little harder and you'll be promoted within the year."
Before El Mun could turn around more than ten people materialised near the crater. They each wore purple robes and had their hair tied into ponytails. El Mun had no choice but to bow in the presence.
One of them nodded at him.
"Your discovery of such an incident was well appreciated, Divine El, but this investigation has come under Myriad Academy's Corps. Please take your team and excuse yourself," the man said with a dignified expression. He added a smile after, trying his best to sound and be polite.
Countless foul words and nasty torture ideas rushed through his mind when El watched the upright fuck, throw him out of the crime scene. He knew they would do something like this the moment they arrived. He hadn't expected to meet the fabled arrogant idiots. Most of his colleagues had met these types and he'd thought the gods had spared him from them.
He clenched his fist, choosing not to run his mouth and create more problems than there were.
"Let's go!"
Each one of the patrol guards crushed a white marble before they disappeared.