Chapter 745 The Tragic Crime Scene

When they were having lunch, Lin Huang quickly skimmed through the information he had.
Based on the detailed information provided, it was clear that the 16 victims had no relation to each other. Basically, they came from different footholds and their family members did not know each other as well. Nothing odd was found from the victims' journeys and call logs a month ago before their death.
"How is it? Is there any useful information?" Xia Hou asked. He could not speak clearly as he was munching on a rare steak. His mouth was covered in juice.
"No." Lin Huang shook his head. He was lost after sifting through the information.
"What should we do next?" Xia Hou swallowed the steak and asked again.
"Let's decide later after going to the crime scene." Lin Huang had no other ideas though.
After lunch, the both of them headed to the crime scene.
Lin Huang decided to investigate the time when the incident happened. He went to the crime scene where the first victim was killed 16 days ago. It was located in a small lane with low-rise housing.
The both of them followed the coordinates provided by the Union Government. Soon, they got the exact location.
The small lane was completely isolated by the Union Government using the supreme relic and there were only two guards. After Xia Hou and Lin Huang had shown them their investigation and assistant passes, they were allowed to enter.
The lane was paved with blue stones and it looked like it had existed for years. The lane was about 30 meters long and it was less than 1.5 meters wide. Despite the houses on both sides not being tall, they had a height of at least eight meters. This was the reason why the lane was rather dark.
"It's such a small lane. Why did the victim come here at midnight? Was he looking for a place to pee?" Xia Hou mumbled.
"Didn't you read the information?" Lin Huang turned back and glanced at Xia Hou. Before he replied, Lin Huang continued, "The black market is located less than 300 meters away. The victim was killed at a place like this probably because he just got out of the black market since it closes at midnight."
"Why didn't he use his dimensional relic to leave?" Xia Hou immediately asked.
"So, you really didn't read through the information given… He was staying at a homestay which is very nearby. It's just a few minutes walk from the black market. There's no need to use a dimensional relic."
Soon, they arrived at the crime scene while chatting with each other. The outline of the victim's dead body had been sketched by the Union Government staff with a white thread.
As it was covered by a relic, the thread was still there despite the rain and it was as clear as it had been half a month ago.
According to the outline of the thread, the person had fallen to the ground as soon as he died. His head that had been chopped off had flown a meter away.
On both sides of the wall and the ground, blood splattered over a terribly large area. As Lin Huang saw the crime scene, he could almost imagine the horrifying scene when the victim was killed – his head was chopped off in one blow and soon, blood started oozing out from the headless corpse.
"Killed in one hit. It's really a tragedy," Xia Hou mumbled.
"It's a narrow lane. If a stranger happened to come to me in the middle of the night, I'll definitely be on alert. However, based on the autopsy report, there's no evidence that the victim was engaged in a fight before he died. He was killed without a struggle. That being said, the killer might've been very close to the victim and the victim was caught unprepared. Otherwise, the murderer must be good in his movement skills and managed to make such rapid attacks that the victim had no time to respond to it," Lin Huang said while taking shots of the crime scene.
After examining and capturing photos of the first crime scene, both of them did not stay any longer. They immediately left the small lane and rushed towards the second crime scene, which was located in a luxury hotel room.
Due to the incident, the hotel had stopped operating. Other than the investigators and the assistants, nobody else was allowed to enter.
Lin Huang and Xia Hou were granted entry by the guards. They then entered the floating staircase and went up to the 91st floor. They found the room where the incident had happened which was room No. 091021.
Apart from the dead body not being in its original location, everything looked exactly the same as how it was when the crime had been committed. Even the bed sheets and the pillows had not been moved.
"It's kind of clean. Did the staff do the housekeeping?" Xia Hou asked.
In the living room, everything was clean. It did not look like a crime scene at all. Lin Huang had read through the information earlier. There was indeed no traces of fighting found at the crime scene.
Seeing Xia Hou reading through the materials, Lin Huang did not say anything. He walked towards the master bedroom which was located on the right.
When he entered, he saw a bed. The blood stains on the bed sheets had turned black. The stains covered almost three-quarters of the bed.
The moment when he saw that, a scene of how the victim was killed was pictured in Lin Huang's mind. His head and limbs were chopped off while he was sleeping and he could not retaliate at all.
"His death is way more awful than the first victim's. He was mutilated while he was sleeping." Xia Hou slowly entered the bedroom. "If he had slept later, he might not have died."
"Whether he sleeps or not, he'd still have died. The only difference is that the place where his dead body would've been found would be different." Lin Huang offered a different opinion. "The killer murders a person every day at 12 a.m. sharp. That being said, the victim has been targeted by the killer beforehand. Therefore, regardless of where the person is, what he's doing, the murderer will definitely kill him when the time comes."
"According to what you just said, the murderer must've targeted the victim beforehand." Xia Hou nodded in agreement. He paused for a moment and continued, "However, there's something that I can't figure out why. Martel City is a B-grade foothold. There are only a few of them on immortal-level. There are less than 100 of them who are permanent residents of Martel City. Under normal circumstances, the probability of encountering an immortal-level in Martel City is less than 1/200,000. The probability of encountering an immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3 will be even smaller. With such a low probability, how could the murderer have targeted those victims? I don't think they would just randomly pick someone on the street."
However, after reading through the information provided, Bloody actually mentioned, "I've thought of this before." The both of them had secretly discussed this issue. "There are two possibilities. The first one would be that the murderer has the name list of those who have registered to travel in Martel City. The second possibility is that the murderer has been hiding somewhere near the dimensional portal in Martel City."
"I think it's less likely for the second possibility to have happened. There are two dimensional portals in Martel City and the both of them are thousands of kilometers apart. How can the murderer keep watch over both of the dimensional portals at the same time? Even if he has clones, it's impossible to control the two clones when the portals are thousands of kilometers away. Even an imperial-level wouldn't be able to do so," Xia Hou disagreed.
"Who says that he'd be keep watching the dimensional portal on his own? Don't you think it's possible that he might have companions? Couldn't he have spent some money to hire people to do it for him?" Lin Huang asked with a wry smile.
"Alright." Xia Hou was speechless and immediately changed the topic. "The first possibility that you mentioned just now… Do you mean that the murderer is a staff from the Union Government?"
"I'm not sure. There are three possibilities through which the murderer could've gotten the name list. The first one is that the murderer's partner is working with the Union Government. Next, the murderer must've hacked the relevant department of the Union Government and obtained the name list. Lastly, the only possibility is that the murderer himself is the one from the Union Government."
"Are we still going to the next crime scene?" Xia Hou asked again.
"Yes, of course. What if there is some other evidence? If we're not going over, we might miss out on something." Lin Huang was excited after getting a new direction in the investigation of the case. Looking for a suitable Life Fire monster was no longer his main concern. He found it interesting as he was one step closer to the truth, causing him to temporarily forget about the need to level up.