Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 491: Dismembering

On the way there, I told Li Mazi and Chief Liu my assumption.

“What if Zhu Fengchun is dead when wearrive?” asked Li Mazi.

“He can only blame himself. We went to his house,but he scolded usandaskedus to leave!”cursedChief Liu.

However, he still showed his care forZhu Fengchun. I saw the responsibility of a policeman on his face.

“If he’s dead, we’ll need to findclues from the threeotherdead bodies. But if he’s not dead yet…”

I paused, my voice growing colder. “He’s the murderer!”

I hadn’t seen the real face of the shadow thus far, butconsideringthesword, I guessed he wasan otherworldlyspirit.

Ghosts didn’t have weapons. Onlyotherworldlyspirits hadthem, and most of the time, the weapons were the otherworldly items they were hiding in.It was the same principle behindLu Bu’s spirit usingthe Sky Piercer.

A spirit could live together with humans under some special conditions. Since Zhu Fengchun had survived until then, it was possible that he had some agreement with thespirit. They could have the same nature, or it was simply because of the benefits the other party could provide.

Thatwaswhy I had assumed that Zhu Fengchun wasn’t a good man. To avoid being noticed, I asked Chief Liu to stop the car before we entered the village. Then, I asked them to keep at a distance while I ran alone to Zhu Fengchun’s,climbingover his wall.

I wanted to check the situation inside the house from the fence wall.However,my hands felt stickyas soon as I touched the wall.

I turned on my phone’sflashlight;the fence wall was covered in blood. I was certain that it had just happenedas there wasn’t anything on the wall on our last visit.

I had a really bad premonition. I hurried anddirectlyjumped into the yard,kickingZhu Fengchun’s door openandswitchingon the lights.

Then, I saw Zhu Fengchun’s bed soaked with red blood. The wall next to the bed and the floor were covered with pieces of flesh, including human internal organs.

I immediately felt my stomachtwitch andcouldn’t help but retch.

Li Mazi and Chief Liu also entered the place.Their faces changed dramatically whentheysaw the interior of the room, and they almostmovedin unison to squat downand puke.

After a long time passed, Li Mazi wiped his mouth and said with apale face,“LittleBrother Zhang, this is so freaking scary! Should we…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but the point he was trying to makewas clear. This murderous otherworldly item wasn’t something we could handle.

Chief Liu wasalso scared senseless. “Should weclosethe case?Suspect Zhu Fengchun feared the punishment for his crime, and he killed himself in his house bysetting off the gas—”

“Enough!” I rudely interrupted Chief Liu.

With a red face, I pointed at his nose andscolded him. “Haven’t you realized it yet? When that shadow kills people, it doesn’t care about who the victim is. We came here to check and it later chased us all the way to the Police Bureau. Whatabout the others? More people will be killed in this little city if we don’t deal with this evil thing!”

After venting all of my anger, I sat downand continued with a weak voice,“You guys shouldn’t get involved. I’m going to solve this by myself! That thing’s really intimidating. You don’t need to take risks.”

“Nonsense! Since whenhave Iditched you?” Li Mazi stepped in andpattedmy shoulder.“No matter what, I’m your brother. Youhaven'tmarried YinXinyue yet, soI have tokeep you safe.”

I was surprised.I didn’t know what to tell him at themoment.

Li Mazi grinned. “If you want to deal with it, your brother will join you!”

“I’m sorry, the recent shock left me on edge. If you aren’t afraid of it,why shouldI, someonewith the national emblem on his chest,be afraid?”Chief Liu produced his pistol, cursing through his gritted teeth,“Let’s go!”

I looked at them while flashing a silly smile.

Chief Liu called the police andrequested his men to check thecrime scene and pick up thedismemberedcorpse.Then, weprepared to go back and sleep. We would go to the place where they had buried the three other victims afterwe woke up.

However,we noticed a person hiding in a cornerwhen we left Zhu Fengchun’shouse. He ran away when he sawus.

His footsteps wereclearly audible. Apparently, he was a living person!

Li Mazi and I had been able tosurvive untilnowthanks to our reaction speed. We immediately started to chase after the man,knockinghim down in a minute.

“Little Quail, why are you here in the middle of thenight?”

Chief Liuplaced the pistol back in his holster when he sawthe other man’sface. He explained to us that the man was one of thelocals. He was a little thief, which had earned him the nickname‘Little Quail.’Little Quailwasn’t really that badof a person.

Little Quailhesitated for a long time before stammering, “I…I went out to pee and saw brother Zhu ashe was leaving the house. I thought about going to his house to steal something sinceno one was home. You see,I lost a bet andowesome money.”

I was bewildered by this revelation.Zhu Fengchun had gone out!In that case,to whom did the minced flesh in his roombelong?

After answeringus,Little Quailtook the chance and ran awaysince nobody was holding him. It seemed he was scared of being taken to the station.

Chief Liu didn’t care about himashe was stillout of sorts.“What do you think? Whatreallyhappened?”

Li Mazi gulped his saliva, turning to take another glance at Zhu Fengchun’s house. Hecouldn’t utter a word as he also wasfrightened.

The blood on thefence wall and the bedroom was still fresh. The person whohad been turned intominced meat inside the house had just been killed. I thought for a moment and decided that we should arrest Zhu Fengchun first. I wanted to see how hewould explainhimself! Not minding being noticed anymore, I asked Chief Liu to drive the car andchaseafter the other party. Unexpectedly, the road in this villagewas halfway done, and it turned into a muddy path after crossing thesmallbridgeoutside the village.

Chief Liucarelesslydrove the car into a ditch. The car leaned to one side and almost flipped. When I got out of the car and was about to push it, Iheard a rattlingnoise in thecornfieldon one side of the path.

They had already harvested the corn ears, andall the corn plants hadwithered and dried upafter a rainy autumn. I could see through the cornfield easily, anda person with his back to us was moving throughit.

I subconsciously screamed,“Zhu Fengchun! Freeze!”

Except for him, who would play around at midnight in this place?

The running person halted for a moment. Then, he dashed even faster. Luckily for us, the place was somewhat empty, so we could catch up with him easily. That personturned out to beLittle Quail!

Chief Liu wasin his forties, and he was exhausted after running.He panted as hescolded,“Damn you,Little Quail, do you want to be jailed or what?”

“No, no, no, no! Chief Liu, what do you want, Sir?”

While he ranted, I noticed howLittle Quailinadvertently touched his butt.

My heart sank as Iscreamed,“Watch out!”

Li Mazi, who was about to pass by him, became vigilant as he heard me screaming. Chief Liu also pulled himself together.Little Quaillooked at mein puzzlement.

“Who are you?” Ishouted with a cold tone while I moved closer toLittle Quail. Oneof my hands was alreadygrabbing the spirit talismanI kept in my pocket.

I knew something was wrong at firstglance.We immediately drove to this place after we left Zhu Fengchun’shouse.Little Quailcouldn’t have possibly outrun us to hide in this cornfield. It was really strange.

Moreover, I had noticed that his clothes were different from whathe was wearingthe last moment we had seenhim.There was something fishy about him!

Chief Liu reactedimmediately. He movedcloserand placed the muzzle of his pistol onLittle Quail’s forehead. Heasked him,“Who the heck are you?”

Little Quailwas flustered because of the pistol placed against his head. Heknelt and poundedhis head onto the ground. “Chief Liu, I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill anybody…”

I then recognized that he had a walletin hisback pocket, which was apparentlyloaded withcash. I opened the wallet and saw Zhu Fengchun’s ID.It seemedLittle Quailhad stolen his wallet.

He kept pounding his head on the snowy ground as heaskedus to forgive him. The fear in his eyeswasreal. Moreover, he was shivering hard while imploring.

“LittleBrother Zhang, do youthink this kid’s pretending?” Li Mazipouted his lips, showing open disdain for Little Quail.

I refrained from responding, onlytakinga deep breath. Then, I turned tocheckLittle Quail. His three Yang flames seemed to be burning hard inside his body, meaning that he wasall right. I exhaled, then shot Li Mazi and Chief Liu a look to calm them down. IglaredatLittle Quailandasked. “You’d better tell the truth, or you’ll be charged withmurder! Understand?”

“Yes,Sir, I understand…”

Little Quailnodded, then stammered as he shared the story with us.