Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 490: Killing People in Dreams

With that thought, Iglanced intothe room,realizingthat Zhu Fengchun hadn’t slept yet. He was standing quietly in his room, holding a candle.

I was certain that it was Zhu Fengchun.Still, what kind of normal personwould standin the living room with a lit candle in his hand instead of sleeping?

I didn’t hesitateto askLi Mazi to pick the lock. At the same time, I asked Chief Liu to prepare to barge into the house.

Li Mazi’s lock-picking skill wastop-notch. Zhu Fengchun’s house wasequippedwith an old-style locking system thatconsisted oftwo locks. Thissortof lockhad beenpopular in the countryside for years. Li Mazi opened the first lock easily. Then, he saw the second lock.

The door slit allowed him to worm one hand into the house. However, to open this lock, he would need two hands. Li Mazi was puzzledand rubbedhis headto thinkofa solution.

AsLi Mazi was opening the lock, Chief Liu asked me, “Did you see something?”

I nodded.“I’m sure Zhu Fengchun’s not normal. Ithinkthere’s something foul in the room with him.”

“Whatdowe do?Should Ishoot him?” Chief Liu directlytook outhis pistol. He was panicked.

“No, don’t shoot. We’re here to check the situation. We betternot lethim recognize us. If he sees us, we’llhave toleave quickly. If we provoke that thing, itmight hauntus as well.”

As soon as I finished, we heard a crackle. The final lock was opened. Li Mazi had used only one hand and hisgut feelingto open it. I gave him a thumbs-up!

At the same time,thevoice of a middle-aged man arose from the room. It seemed someone was talking.

I carefully pushed the doorand triedmy best to not make it squeak.Unexpectedly, before the door was fully opened, a loud noise resounded by my feet. Iloweredmy head to check, and it was a beer bottleplacedat the door.It seemedZhu Fengchun had deliberately set it up!

Sincewe were exposed, I didn’t eventryto hide. I strode into the room. At the same moment, thecandlelightextinguished.

Everything went dark in the room, andI vaguely saw a shadowlungefast in front of me. Right after that, Li Mazi and Chief Liu entered the house. Chief Liu hadthe moves of a professional. As soon as hewentin, he turned on the light.

I cursed under my breathas the light wouldcover upthe otherworldly item’sYin energy. However, I wasn’t fast enough to stop Chief Liu. The only thing I could do was use my intuition to look at the direction the shadow had run away. It was the bed.

A middle-aged man was tucked under a thick quilt, layinginthe bed. It seemed he was the real Zhu Fengchun.

Zhu Fengchun slowly got up. He rubbedhis eyes andlookedat us. He looked as if he was awakened by our intrusion.

At first, he shot me a hostile look. Then, his gaze turned to Chief Liu, who was standing behind me. His face stiffened. “Chief Liu, whyhaveyou intrudedintomy house?”

“We workby therules. Before the serial murder case is solved, we’ve got the right to do a sudden house check to support the investigation.”

Chief Liu shot me a glance, andI gave him a secret nod. While he was talking with Zhu Fengchun, I turned around and quicklyputtwo drops of ox tears into my eyes. Then, I moved to the window and looked back to the room. There was a mass of black mist hoveringthere.It was dispersingquickly under the light.

Thisproved my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. My eyes moved along the trajectory of the black mist. Eventually, I saw ithead towardZhu Fengchun’s bed.

There was no Yin energy on the bed, butthe moment the light was switched on, Isawthe shadowrushtoward the bed!

Is it attachedto Zhu Fengchun?

With this thought, Isecretlytook out a spirit talismanand hidit in mypalm, slowly approachingZhu Fengchun.

He seemed to recognize my move and retreated. He cautiously asked,“What do you want to do?”

I didn’t mind himand strodeforward. I suddenly jumped and directly tagged the talisman on Zhu Fengchun’s forehead.

“Are youfreakingcrazy? What did you stick on my head?!” Zhu Fengchun was stunnedbymyaction. He was in a daze for a while before he pulled himself together. He cursed loudlyand torethe talisman off his forehead. Then, he crumpledit andthrewittothe ground.

His voice and facial expression didn’t change beforeorafter Istuckthe talisman on his head. I didn’t see anything foul being expelled from him, either. I frowned.

“I’m sorry for bothering you.” I put on an emotionless faceand apologized to ZhuFengchun. Then, Ileft the house withLi Mazi and Chief Liu.

Right aswewalkedthrough the door, Zhu Fengchun scolded loudly,“What the heck is good aboutthepolice? Youfreakingmess with people! I’m going to report you!”

Until we reached our car, I hadn’t figured where that shadow had gone. How could it disappear just like that,without leaving anytraces of Yin energy?

“LittleBrother Zhang, why do youhave that expression?” Li Mazi was concerned about me.

“Thisthing we’re dealing with isn’t ordinary.” I sighedandtold themaboutthe situation.

“Perhaps you justdidn’t see clearly. We rushed into the house right asthe candlelight extinguished. Even if that thing could disappear intheblink of an eye, Zhu Fengchun couldn’thave reachedhis bed in just a short time. He didn’t even makeanoise.”

Chief Liu sounded logical. However, I didn’t think thatit was a hallucination. I asked them to leave firstasIwanted togoback there tocheck onZhu Fengchunagain.

“No! You shouldn’t!”

Li Mazi rejected my idea without a bit of hesitation. Chief Liu alsovoiced his opinion.“If that thing’sso dangerous,you shouldbecautious.Why don’t we halthere? We can startwiththe other cases.”

I thought, then asked,“Chief Liu,cremation isn’t popular in this area, right? Do you know where the threeothervictims were buried?”

“Do you want to open their coffins to check their bodies?” Chief Liu was stunned.

“If we can’t find any clues, we’llhave to do that!” I said boldly.I thought abouthow creepyZhu Fengchunlooked when he was holdingthe candle.

Whenwe had returned to the Police Bureau, Chief Liu arranged two rooms for me and Li Mazi.The rooms werededicated to the leaders of the Police Bureau to rest. Normally, no one would stay here, so the rooms were relatively clean.

The onlyproblemwas that they had to use coal to keep the rooms warm, which left a strong smell in the room. I didn’t want to close the window since I was afraid of poisoning myself. But whenever I opened the window,acold wind howledand rushedinto the room.

I hesitated as I didn’t dare to play with my life. In theend,I pushed the window slightly open. It was good that the blanket was thick enough. Not long after I had tucked myself in the bed, I fell asleep.

I didn’t know how long I had slept,butI suddenly felt as if I was suffocating. My head felt like dough and my chest felt heavy. Instinctively, I opened my mouth to gasp for air. I took in a mouthful of cold air, which sent a chillstraightto my heart.

Fortunately,it also cleared my mind. My first thought was that I was poisoned by carbon monoxide. Thatwaswhy I was struggling to breathe.However, the air felt so cold, so how could I get carbon monoxide poisoning?

Before I could figure out the situation, I felt waves ofair onmy neck, just as ifsomeone was looming over me and blowing his breathonme.

Inadvertently, I remembered the shadow I had encountered in Zhu Fengchun’s houseandshivered.

I hurried tobitethe tip of my tongue. My mobilityreturned, and my eyes shot open. I then saw a shadow sitting on the edge of my bed.

Itwas holding a bloodysword.In the end,ithad comehere!

While I was bewildered, the shadow guffawed strangely. Both ofitshandswieldedthesword, hackingat my neck.

It seemed the previous victims were decapitated like this!

At the last minute, I suddenly remembered I had seen a hand mirror on the bed. Iquicklygrabbed itand showedit to the black shadow.

The shadow screechedanddisappeared, and the pressure on my chest slowly subsided.I got up and found my back soaked with sweat. Moreover, I had usedtoo muchstrengthearlier, which resulted inasore neck.

I checked myself in the mirror. There was asmallcut on my neck. If I had been late by just for a second, my head would have beenchopped off.

At thismoment, I heard the noise ofsomeonestruggling from the room next door. Li Mazi and Chief Liu would bethe black shadow’snexttargets!I jumped off my bedand ranto Li Mazi’s room with the mirror in my hand. I didn’t even put my puffer jacket on.

Through the window, I saw the black shadowraisethe sword, readyto chop off Li Mazi’s head. Li Mazi’s body was wiggling, trying toescapeatthe last moment.

The locktothe room was simple, soI forcefully kickedthe dooropen. As soon as I got into the room, I shone the mirror at the shadow. The shadow’s eyes turned crimson. It shot me a furious glance before leaving unwillingly.

When I was about to go to Chief Liu’s room to wake him up, I saw him running toward us with a pistol in his hand.Hewas awakened when I kicked the door.

I heaved a sigh of relief. Now, I was even more afraid of the black shadow.

What kind of placewasa Police Bureau? Itwasthe law enforcement body of the government. It representedjustice and righteousness. A place like thishadstrong natural Yang energy. At the same time, itwasprotected by thegods.

Tonight, that shadow had come and left easily. Washea member of the imperial court when he was alive?

Chief Liu waved his handto showthat he was going back to sleep as I hadn’t said anything for quite a long time. When he told me hewas going tohis room to sleep, I suddenly realized something and screamed, “I’vegot it!”

“LittleBrother Zhang, what did youdiscover?”askedLi Mazi.Chief Liu alsowalked over.

Li Mazi and I were attacked while we were sleeping. Chief Liu rushed herebecausehe heard the noise. Ashewasn’tasleep,he wasn’t attacked.

Moreover, the four previous victims were killed while they were in their beds!

Thiswasn’t a coincidence. The black shadow could only kill people while they were sleeping. To verify myguess, I asked Chief Liu, “Did you know where Zhu Fengchun was sleeping at the time the murder happened?”

“He was drunk and fell asleep on his table. I had that written in my document,”saidChief Liu.

I nodded. “It’s true, then.That day, Zhu Fengchun didn’t sleep in his bed. That’s why he dodged thistribulation!”

“Awesome! If you didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t have noticed this. We are the police, but we aren’t as sensitive as you, an antique merchant!”

Chief Liu gave me a thumbs-up. Li Mazi also took the opportunity to praise me. However, I still felt that something was strange. If Zhu Fengchun had dodged his deathbecausehe was sleeping on the table that day, whywasn’t hekilled the following days?

Moreover, we saw the black shadow in his house tonight.

“We have to go back there to see! Otherwise,Zhu Fengchunmightbe killed!”My scalpwent numb. I didn’t have more time to explain.After puttingon thick clothes, I pulled the other twoand rushedto Zhu Fengchun’s house.