The Rebirth of the Cultivation Leader Qin Zhao as a Celebrity
Chapter 133 - 130 The Fourth Victim; Provocation of the Rainy Night Butcher

Chapter 133: Chapter 130 The Fourth Victim; Provocation of the Rainy Night Butcher

The next day, Qin Zhao holed up at home forging the Pill Furnace.

Although the Wu Rui Stone was not as good as the Artifact Refining Material used in the Cultivation World, it contained Spiritual Energy. The Pill Furnace forged from it could withstand Qin Zhao’s Spiritual Power, which meant it wouldn’t explode next time.

Her previous attempts had failed, nearly exhausting all her medicinal ingredients, so she needed to buy them anew.

She couldn’t just ask the Zou Family for free materials again, so when she contacted them for the ingredients, she transferred them the money.

Back to square one, Alchemy really was too expensive!!

Qin Zhao then made a call to Huo Xun, "For catching the Rainy Night Butcher, how much is the reward?"

The case had caused a huge sensation, and several women had died. The higher-ups were very concerned, so they also announced a bounty on the same day they issued the public notice.

If someone could provide a useful clue, the police reward was 200,000.

Just a clue was worth 200,000, let alone helping catch the killer?

Huo Xun’s reply didn’t disappoint Qin Zhao, "The reward is one million. Are you interested?"

"I’m out of money, looking for some work."

Huo Xun was surprised, "Didn’t you just collect a considerable reward last time? Did you spend all of it so quickly? Eight hundred thousand is a lot for an average person, isn’t it?"

"Can a Heavenly Master be the same as an ordinary person?"

Qin Zhao packed up her things, "I’ll probably come to the police station in the afternoon."

"Okay, I’ll wait for you to come over."

This time, the Bone Marrow Cleansing Pill was finally a success, and Qin Zhao took one for herself first.

Her cultivation was nearing the Golden Core Stage, so the effect of the Bone Marrow Cleansing Pill wasn’t significant on her; it just expelled impurities from her body.

However, it was good that the refinement was a success.

Qin Zhao planned to go to the police station first in the afternoon to learn about the Rainy Night Butcher case and then visit Qin Wan at the hospital tomorrow to have her take the Bone Marrow Cleansing Pill.

As soon as she arrived at the station, something happened.

"Captain Huo, there’s another victim!"

An officer rushed in, "This time, the victim was a celebrity named Xiao Yuan! After killing her, the killer dismembered her and posted the photos of the dismemberment on Xiao Yuan’s Weibo. In addition, he posted a string of text that needs to be decrypted!"

"Damn, this is just an open provocation!"

"He’s way too arrogant. Does he really think we can’t catch him?"

The other police officers, after hearing this, were completely infuriated.

This matter quickly took over the Mu Family incident as the top trending search.

Because of the excessively gory content, Weibo quickly removed the related photos and the trending topic, but many had already seen it, given that Xiao Yuan had nearly ten million followers.

After Xiao Yuan’s trend was removed, the Mu Family incident became a hot search once again.

The netizens were incredibly busy, finishing up one topic before flocking to the next.

Huo Xun first sent someone to Xiao Yuan’s home, then asked for the photos from Weibo.

The killer’s post on Weibo had no text content, just three photos.

The first photo featured Xiao Yuan in a light blue long dress, holding an umbrella as she stood in the rain at night. The dim yellow light fell upon her, her slender back facing the camera.

A very artistic and atmospheric photo, the perpetrator’s photography skills were impressive.

But Xiao Yuan’s stance looked a bit unnatural, mysteriously giving the photo an eerie touch.

The forensic expert took a close look at this photo and concluded that she was already dead at the time it was taken!

"If she was coerced into taking this photo, her muscles would be tense due to fear, and her stance would show a defensive posture.

But none of that is present, and her body’s curves are a bit rigid.

We’ve all seen dead bodies, and a short time after death, the body becomes stiff."

Hearing the forensic expert’s explanation, Huo Xun nodded, "The killer must have used some special method to stand her up after her death. But why take such a photo?

Additionally, Xiao Yuan and the other victims had one key difference: she had bought her dress herself. She wore that dress on the day she disappeared, whereas the other victims were all dressed in pale blue long dresses by the killer after they died.

Apart from that, among the four victims, only Xiao Yuan was dismembered."

The second photo was of Xiao Yuan’s dismembered body, with fragments of her remains scattered across the ground.

As for the third photo, it was a series of bizarre characters left by the killer, which was now going viral online with everyone trying to guess the content of the strange text.

The police had contacted a number of decryption experts to try to crack the message.

Qin Zhao and Huo Xun hurried to Xiao Yuan’s residence, but found no clues. They also visited Lizhu Garden, and it seemed that Xiao Yuan disappeared after leaving Lizhu Garden.

"I met her here that day; she was wearing that pale blue long dress."

"The police had come here to investigate, and the narcotics team recorded the information of everyone present that day, but Xiao Yuan was not among them. This means she left before the narcotics team arrived.

Whether she left on her own or was taken by the killer, we don’t know."

There’s a rather troublesome matter: this place shelters drug traffickers, so there are no surveillance cameras installed inside or out.

It was impossible for the police to know when Xiao Yuan left or how she departed.

Checking the surveillance footage of the nearby streets also revealed nothing unusual.

Qin Zhao had foreseen a bloody disaster for Xiao Yuan that day, but he had not expected her to die at the hands of the Rainy Night Butcher, let alone that the killer would use it to openly provoke them.

"Find the place where Xiao Yuan died as soon as possible; we might encounter her soul."

If they could encounter Xiao Yuan’s soul, things would be much easier.

Huo Xun nodded, and they returned to the police station to start analyzing the photos.

The place where Xiao Yuan died was very likely the location shown in the first photo.

"It hasn’t rained in the past few days, but there’s rain in the photo. Could it be artificial rain?"

"Deliberately making artificial rain to fulfill their own murder legend? That seems too time-consuming and laborious."

"His actions simply cannot be inferred with common sense."

Who would dress the dead in specific clothes?

And take special photos of the victims?

"The Rainy Night Butcher is a peculiar psychopath unlike normal people. To take photos he is satisfied with, he might indeed do such a thing."

Everyone agreed and began to investigate where in Imperial City there had been artificial rain.

By the buildings presented in the photos, they started to search for the location of Xiao Yuan’s death as well as where her body was located.

These investigations were undoubtedly time-consuming and laborious.

Everyone in the police station stayed up all night for the investigation, only reaching a conclusion in the early hours of the morning.

"The location in the photos doesn’t seem to be in Imperial City."

Someone brought two photos to Huo Xun, "This is an alley in Liancheng, far from Imperial City.

Miss Qin met Xiao Yuan yesterday, and it would take at least ten hours to drive from Lizhu Garden to here. Add the time for the crime and photography, the killer wouldn’t have enough time.

If he took Xiao Yuan by high-speed rail or plane, it would be faster, but they would surely be discovered."

Qin Zhao remained at the police station and after hearing this, couldn’t help but stare at the photos for a long time.

She suddenly asked, "Has this photo been processed by a computer?"

"No, there are no traces of it having been processed."

"If he wanted to keep the body upright, he would have had to tie something like thin lines to the body, otherwise it would have just fell to the ground. For such a photograph, post-production would surely be necessary to remove the support tools to ensure the photo’s aesthetics.

But you’re telling me the photo has no traces of being manipulated.

So, how did he do it?"

Qin Zhao had a bold guess. She thought this killer might not be an ordinary person.

If he was from the Mystical Sect and knew some special methods, not only could he quickly travel from Imperial City to Liancheng, but he could also make a body stand upright out of thin air.

Qin Zhao’s words sent chills down everyone’s spines.