FVN Chapter 39: 38: Goodbye, Snake Hand
Chapter 39: 38: Goodbye, Snake Hand
Chapter 39: Chapter 38: Goodbye, Snake Hand
Zhao Yuanwai’s residence was extremely spacious, occupying half of the street with its five-section grand mansion.
Lin Rui and Wang Sen arrived there to find a large crowd gathered at the entrance of the Zhao family home.
They formed small groups, whispering among themselves while occasionally standing on tiptoes to peek inside the courtyard.
When Lin Rui and the other approached, the crowd parted to either side, as if fearful to obstruct their path.
“The constables are here, make way!”
“How strange, this is an arrest officer? Why haven’t we seen him before?”
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“So young, barely grown into his features, can he handle this?”
Lin Rui’s gaze had already pierced through the crowd and landed on Zhao Yuanwai.
This was a man in his forties, plump and wealthy-looking, dressed in a celestial variant of the Yuanwai attire, standing conspicuously at the gate.
At the moment, Zhao Yuanwai was clutching the doorframe, peeking inside with the escort of several Protectors and a group of county soldiers.
Next to him stood a butler, tall and thin, with a sallow complexion.
Noticing Lin Rui and Wang Sen approaching, the butler frowned deeply: “Where is Zhang Tianchang? Why did he only send the two of you here?”
The butler looked Lin Rui up and down with a skeptical expression: “You are an arrest officer? As far as I know, there’s no one like you in the county yamen.”
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Lin Rui did not answer. He took out his waist plaque and shook it in front of the butler, then stood firm in the center of the gate: “What exactly is the situation? It’s just a second-realm demon; can’t you handle it yourselves?”
The Zhao family was clearly wealthy; the eight Protectors around Zhao Yuanwai were all formidable, muscular, and well-equipped.
The leader of the Protectors even had cultivation in the third realm, ‘Blood Replacement’. Lin Rui could sense the powerful spiritual energy emanating from them from a distance.
Moreover, twenty county soldiers had arrived, all first-realm Martial Cultivators, with two being in the second realm.
Lin Rui couldn’t understand. Did they really need to be so frightened of a second-realm demon?
Listening to the conversations outside the courtyard gate, he knew that most of these people were Zhao Yuanwai’s household members and servants.
This entire family had retreated outside the courtyard.
“It’s not that we can’t handle it, but that we can’t find it!”
The head Protector bowed helplessly: “This demon is skilled in concealing itself, appearing and disappearing unpredictably. We’ve searched the entire courtyard and can’t find any trace of it, yet it managed to harm another person. Hong is ashamed. I can’t even determine its species. To prevent further incidents, I suggested that Yuanwai evacuate everyone from the residence.”
He glanced sideways at the group of county soldiers; “Just now, two officers led people inside to search, to no avail.”
Upon hearing this, Lin Rui nodded slightly, recognizing that this Protector head was not only diligent but also rational.
He then asked in a focused voice, “Since you’ve all never seen it, how can you be sure it’s a second-realm demon?”
“When it killed, I sensed its aura. Additionally, Arrest Officer Lord will understand once he sees the corpse of the deceased.”
This was because, after reaching the third level, demonic entities would drain nearly all of a victim’s vital blood, leaving the body dry like drained wood.
“Brother Twelve, did you notice anything?” Wang Sen quietly inquired, “The conjugation skill is extremely sophisticated, and claws are used, it feels somewhat like the Hidden Claw Demon, but it doesn’t quite explain why a level three Martial Cultivator couldn’t trace it.”
He knew that Lin Rui’s perceptive abilities were very strong, far surpassing his own.
The earlier evil spirit was discovered by Lin Rui, and even when the Blood Blade attacked, Lin Rui was able to react in advance, while Wang Sen had not sensed any aberrations.
“Not quite.”
Lin Rui shook his head, responding quietly, “It feels more like a beastly demon, possibly a cat demon. Its perception is very sharp and it’s extremely agile, be careful.”
At that moment, his gaze toward the butler ahead was unusual, as he gathered strength under the cover of the Concealing Breath Skill within his body.
Lin Rui had already realized that his sensory abilities were quite strong. The traces of the Blood Blade that others couldn’t detect, he could see.
His eyes could see things unnoticed by others, his spiritual power could even project outward up to three meters—these talents might originate from his unawakened unknown Sacred Body.
Just now, Lin Rui had noticed near the murder scene, there were tracks resembling cat paw prints.
The paw prints were very faint, imperceivable to ordinary people, but not to his eyes.
In Tianji Star, there weren’t cats, but there were creatures similar in shape and habit, which the federation’s biologists, out of laziness, directly named ‘Tianji Star Cats,’ classified under the cat family, subfamily of Tianji Star cats.
At this moment, they happened to be passing by a storage room, and Lin Rui’s expression shifted as he stood still.
“Is that barrels of oil over there? Butler, why is there so much oil here? Can’t it fit inside the storage room?”
On both sides of the storage room were piled more than a hundred large wooden barrels, their exteriors sleek and shiny.
The butler turned his head to look and responded indifferently, “That’s vegetable oil. Don’t you know? Our master is the biggest oil merchant in the county. Our household produces hundreds of thousands of liters of oil each year. This is freshly pressed from this year’s harvest and hasn’t been sent to the provincial city yet.”
Upon hearing about the oil, Wang Sen glared fiercely at Lin Rui.
With so much oil, let’s not burn it again.
At this moment, the butler had already walked up to the archway ahead, “This side is the back garden; you’d better keep up, it’s quite winding inside. Don’t blame me if you get lost.”
The butler led the way and Wang Sen followed closely behind.
He walked in front of Lin Rui, shield in hand, looking cautious, guarding against the level two demonic entity.
The moment Wang Sen stepped in, he tensed up, looked up, and saw a shadow swooping down from the top of the archway.
—It really was a cat demon!
In Tianji Star, any beast transformed by magic is a demon!
As Wang Sen instinctively threw the torch and raised his shield to defend against the cat demon, the butler walking ahead slightly raised the corners of his lips, a gleam of triumph in his eyes, thinking the end was near for the two men behind him.
But just as he turned around, confident and flashing his sleeve sword, ready to pierce through Wang Sen’s neck, his expression froze slightly as he saw a hand wrapped in thunder and flame abruptly appear in front of his eyes.
The butler was incredulous.
Was that the Red Thunder Snake Hand? Was it that Lin Twelve? But how was that possible?