Bai Qianluo recovered for three or four days. Although she could not get out of bed yet, her life was no longer in danger. Xie Yun began to resume his investigation into the murder case.
To appease the populace, the City Lord promised a ten-day deadline. Four days had already passed, and the City Lord, anxious, could only find Xie Yun again and entrust him with this heavy responsibility.
In the past few days, Liu Jin had indeed uncovered many clues.
She was at the Tianwaitian Restaurant that day and had a more complete view than Xie Yun, who had left the restaurant later. Knowing that Xie Yun was investigating, she proactively approached him to share the clues she had.
She was on the third floor that day, with a wide field of vision. Naturally, she saw Bai Qianluo chasing a woman out. Standing at a high vantage point, she could see the woman's escape route and her appearance.
The strange thing was that the backstage was on the second floor. After being discovered by Bai Qianluo, the woman could have used the crowd to first go to the first floor and then exit through the main entrance. However, she took a detour, ran into a room on the second floor, and disappeared for a while.
At that time, if she had hidden in the room, she might have been able to evade immediate detection, as Bai Qianluo could no longer find her. But she came out of that room, deliberately circled back in front of Bai Qianluo, and then went out through the back door.
Liu Jin noticed that the woman's expression was clearly triumphant, not panicked.
After the woman left, she deliberately went to the door of that room, but there was no light inside and no sound. She tentatively opened the door and went in, but there was indeed no one inside. She then found a servant to inquire, who said that the room had been booked by a woman.
The woman registered her name as Yao Wan.
According to Bai Qianluo, the one who severely injured her was a nine-tailed fox with immense cultivation.
Liu Jin suspected that the name of this nine-tailed fox was Yao Wan. She must have conspired with the real murderer. They had anticipated Xie Yun's actions and arranged for Yao Wan to deliberately attract attention, while the true killer went to kill Bai Yuanzheng.
The true killer was likely hidden in that room!
However, she had meticulously searched the room for days and questioned the servants and maids of the restaurant, but still found no record of anyone entering or leaving the room.
Upon closer inspection, she discovered traces on the window of that room. Liu Jin suspected that the person likely exited through the window.
She then investigated the nearby vendors and street hawkers, and finally, someone remembered that during the fireworks display that day, a figure in black had flown up into the second floor of the restaurant. As the fireworks ended, the figure had flown down from the window and quickly disappeared into the night.
At that time, everyone was immersed in the fireworks, and few people noticed. Moreover, it was very dark, and those who saw it did not dare to believe their eyes. The incident happened very quickly, and they thought they were mistaken.
When Liu Jin came to inquire, someone finally remembered.
Thus, in the following days, Liu Jin, relying on her memory from that day, drew a likeness of the woman and began a thorough search of the city.
After Qin Jiujiu returned that day, she also took people to the stone cave.
The stone cave was a dumping ground for corpses, with countless skeletal remains accumulated within. After an autopsy, it was found that the victims had no additional injuries, only wounds on their faces. Due to the advanced age of most of the remains, it was difficult to determine the exact nature of the injuries.
However, with only facial injuries, the cause of death could only be excessive blood loss.
Suddenly, many accumulated missing person cases were unearthed. Some of the bodies were beyond identification, and their families could not be found.
The authorities naturally did not reveal the truth about the stone cave dumping ground, only stating that bodies had been found and calling for family members to claim them in order.
However, it was evident that this stone cave dumping ground was connected to the current series of cases.
Their wounds were on their faces, and the victims were all men! The killer was likely not human, but a demon, and possibly capable of disguise!
This was the most troublesome aspect!
Helpless, Xie Yun could only focus his attention on the opera troupes in the city. He believed that since the victims were all from opera troupes, the killer would have had the best opportunity to observe them and the most convenient place to hide would be within the troupes.
After investigating the opera troupes to which the deceased belonged, he discovered a suspicious pattern: shortly before each murder, a man would enter the troupe. After the murder, he would leave under various pretexts.
That man was highly suspicious.
However, according to the descriptions of the opera troupe members, the portraits drawn of the man were all vastly different!
The clues ran dry at this point.
To avoid alerting the suspect, Xie Yun could only dispatch people to keep a close watch on the remaining opera troupes in the city.
This killer would surely strike again!
Xie Yun judged that the next victim would likely be Wen Zhanxin.
It was heard that after Bai Yuanzheng's death, Wen Zhanxin had suspended all his activities, staying at home day and night, and had hired many experts for protection.
Unlike Bai Yuanzheng, Wen Zhanxin had always been a low-key person. In fact, his strength surpassed Bai Yuanzheng's, but because he rarely socialized, he had fewer opportunities to perform than Bai Yuanzheng.
Xie Yun had interacted with him before and understood him reasonably well. Wen Zhanxin was actually a very intelligent person.
When he went to see Wen Zhanxin, he was escorted in by several burly men. As he walked, he surveyed his surroundings and found that the Wen Manor had indeed undergone a drastic change. Not only were there more guards, but many doors in the manor were plastered with talismans.
It was said that Wen Zhanxin was cautious and had invited various Taoist priests from the martial world to reside at the Wen family home.
Xie Yun looked at these white paper talismans. After a single glance, he said nothing more and quietly followed.
In the main hall of the Wen family, Wen Zhanxin finally appeared.
As soon as he saw Xie Yun, before Xie Yun could speak, Wen Zhanxin preempted him, "Young hero Xie, you are finally here. I have been living in fear every day. You must trouble yourselves to protect me!"
"I have come to discuss this very matter with you. The killer's next target may be you. We will protect you from the shadows. You best not stray from our sight during this period!"
After Xie Yun finished speaking, he saw Wen Zhanxin readily agree. Thus, the agreement was happily reached. After Xie Yun informed him of the arrangements, he left the Wen family.
Here, Wei Ting's men were disguised as servants to lie in wait.
On the second to last day of the ten-day deadline, there was finally some movement from the Wen family.
Wei Ting's men sent news that Wen Zhanxin had been severely injured in his bedroom. The constables disguised as servants were guarding his bedroom. Around midnight, Wen Zhanxin suddenly screamed for help. As they rushed into the room, they saw a dark figure jumping out of his room's window, quickly disappearing without a trace.
Wen Zhanxin lay on the bed, a dagger plunged into him, three points to the left of his chest.