Chapter Two

Origin

Qigong

The bloody scene was something Lucas Ethan was not used to, and he was extremely grateful for David Reed's care. Even though he was a rookie constable, he certainly understood what David Reed meant. This kind of case was beyond the abilities of the county constables; solving it was nearly impossible. Moreover, the victim was one of the wealthiest people in the county, with significant influence in the city, so it was impossible to just brush the case aside. After returning, they would definitely be supervised by the county magistrate. Even though these low-ranking constables knew it would be hard to solve, they still had to put on a show of diligence to avoid giving the magistrate an excuse to pick on them. So, in the coming days, they would be running themselves ragged. That was why David Reed told them to go home and get some rest. Once the magistrate questioned them about the case and flew into a rage, none of them would have an easy time.

Lucas Ethan had grown up among constables since childhood and had heard about such things many times, so he understood the details. After leaving the Lu residence, he went straight home.

The Tie family had a three-courtyard house in the residential area on the east side of the county. Logan had been a head constable in Dongling for over ten years and had a certain status. Although he wasn't very skilled in social dealings, after so many years, he had accumulated a decent fortune. In Dongling, they were considered an above-average family, and they even had a few maids and servants at home.

When Lucas Ethan returned home and passed through the second gate, he saw his father practicing with a saber, drenched in sweat. A maid of about seventeen or eighteen stood by with a basin of water, waiting on him. When Lucas Ethan came in, Logan looked a bit surprised. With a flash, he straightened up, put the saber aside, and asked, "Why are you home from the yamen so early today? Is there nothing going on at work?"

"Something big happened. Big David told me to come home and rest first, to recover my strength before anything else!"

"Oh!" When Logan heard this, he frowned. As a veteran constable, Lucas Ethan's words gave him a bad feeling, so he immediately asked, "What happened? Was there a murder?"

"It's even worse than that!" Lucas Ethan gave a bitter smile. He had nothing to hide from Logan, so he told him everything that had happened at the Lu residence.

The more Logan listened, the darker his expression became. By the end, he stood up and began pacing back and forth in the courtyard. "Did you get a good look at the dead woman? Were any of her internal organs missing?"

"Uh!!" Hearing this, the image of the dead woman flashed through Lucas Ethan's mind. He instinctively tried to recall whether anything was missing from her abdomen. The bloody scene once again shocked him, and he bent over, dry heaving in the courtyard.

"Useless!" Logan was a bit disappointed by Lucas Ethan's reaction, but he knew he couldn't blame him. After all, he was only sixteen, and although he'd grown up around constables, he'd never even seen a dead body before. Suddenly encountering such a gruesome scene, it was impossible to adapt so quickly.

"Go ahead and throw up. The more you do, the more you'll get used to it!" He shook his head. "After you're done, go rest. I'll call you in three hours!"

……

Just as everyone expected, after hearing about the Lu family massacre, Dongling County Magistrate Sarah Young flew into a rage and ordered Head Constable David Reed to solve the case within three days.

This was clearly unreasonable. In three days, David Reed led a group of constables all over Dongling, turning the place upside down, but found not a single clue. The worst part was, on the third day, another similar murder occurred in Dongling County: the wife of Old Fan, the tofu seller on West Street, was found dead in her own bed. Just like the Lu family's dead concubine, the killer had cut out the unborn baby from the woman's abdomen and then left.

The situation escalated. Two similar cases in three days were enough to alarm the prefecture, not to mention that at this rate, there would likely be a third and fourth case. Sarah Young could no longer sit still; if another case happened, he would lose his position as magistrate.

So, after the three-day deadline, he gave David Reed twenty hard strokes and ordered him to intensify the investigation. At the same time, urgent reports were sent one after another to the prefecture. Dongling County became tense and on edge; even in broad daylight, there were far fewer people on the streets. This was something Lucas Ethan couldn't understand.

Both victims had died in their own homes, so what did it matter whether people went out or not?

Soon, a rumor began to spread in Dongling, claiming that both murders were the work of a demonic martial artist cultivating an evil technique, which required eighty-one unborn babies to complete. Therefore, the killer was hunting pregnant women everywhere, cutting open their bellies to take the babies.

For a time, the entire Dongling County was shrouded in an atmosphere of fear.

……

Night fell at the Tie residence.

“Dad, are you saying you started that rumor?”

After a day of running around, the exhausted Lucas Ethan returned home and told Logan about the rumors in the county and the magistrate's fury. Unexpectedly, Logan's first words were, "I started the rumor," which gave him quite a shock.

"Kid, you're still young; there are many things you don't understand!" Logan took a sip of old wine, tapped his chopsticks on the edge of his bowl, and the warm aroma of the wine wafted out. "No one in this world does such things for no reason. Either the perpetrator is a madman, or they're connected to the demonic sects, and it's very likely they're a demonic cultivator!"