Chapter 53: Wu Xian, the Hunter of Evildoers

Wu Xian rubbed his hands together.

He had entered this blessed land through Judge Cui's invitation letter, and since Xu Ming's home was the crime scene, the presence of Judge Cui's statue was entirely natural.

"Heh, getting three chances to worship the deity right off the bat, Lord Judge is truly generous."

"However..."

"With all the statues being identical, doesn't that narrow down the choices?"

Muttering a few words of complaint, Wu Xian quickly took the reverence incense and inserted it into the censer.

Ever since entering this blessed land, he had remained in a passive state, feeling like a little lamb trapped in a forest surrounded by wolves. Only by quickly acquiring deity-worship items could he find a shred of peace of mind.

However, after all three sticks of reverence incense were inserted into the censer, Wu Xian was dumbfounded.

The nine items that appeared before him were strikingly identical—all nine items were the Talismanic Flying Blade Incantation!

Flying Blade Incantation: Gathers vital energy into a blade, formless upon release, capable of slicing flesh and severing bone, cutting through stone and piercing gold. Available uses: [3/3].

Choosing items suited to oneself from various deity-worship rewards to create interesting combo effects was one of Wu Xian's greatest pleasures in the blessed land, but these three statues of Judge Cui had stripped him of that joy.

This left him in a rather sour mood. He quickly retrieved the three Flying Blade Incantations, imprinting all of them onto his middle fingers.

With the talismans in his possession, his back no longer ached, his breathing was smooth, and he stood tall and straight. With nine Flying Blade Incantations empowering him, ordinary wandering specters could no longer threaten him!

...

Tomorrow's itinerary had already been set.

Now that it was late, Wu Xian decided to get some proper rest to face the challenges of the coming day.

True to his habits, Wu Xian always washed up before going to sleep.

He prepared a set of new clothes neatly folded by his wife, scrubbed his body clean, and finally stood in front of the bathroom sink, humming a tune while energetically brushing his teeth.

As he brushed, Wu Xian's humming came to a halt, his movements slowed, and toothpaste foam dripped down the corners of his mouth.

He was all alone in the bathroom.

Yet in the mirror, the shadows of five people were reflected.

Ye Shuxia, Xu Qingfeng, He Ya, and Xu Xiaoyan—all four of them stood behind Wu Xian with pale faces, frozen in the exact postures they had held at the moment of their deaths.

In sync with Wu Xian's humming and movements, their phantom reflections copied his actions, pressing invisible fingers to their own teeth. With every imaginary stroke, a burst of bloody froth seemed to spew out.

"Ah, well..."

"Would you like me to squeeze some toothpaste for you?"

Wu Xian was thoroughly startled by the sight, but fortunately, bolstered by the confidence of his Flying Blade Incantations, he was even able to crack a joke with the evil specters.

...

However, they showed no reaction whatsoever.

It seemed they only communicated with Wu Xian when necessity dictated.

The four ghosts in the mirror caused Wu Xian to cut his washing up short.

Yet he soon realized that he could only see these entities within the mirror; at the very least, they would not disturb his sleep.

As the saying goes, early to bed and early to rise is the mortal enemy of dark circles under the eyes.

Therefore, Wu Xian deeply resented having his sleep interrupted.

His favorite sleeping posture was lying on his side, arms and legs wrapped tightly around the blanket—a position that drastically improved his sleep quality.

Yet tonight, Wu Xian tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

He kept sensing a strange current of air right in front of his nose—warm, carrying a faint, subtle fragrance.

He opened his eyes, only to find himself locked in a stare with another pair of eyes.

He Ya, her face covered in blood and cheeks split open, was right in front of him, her gaze piercingly cold and chilling to the bone.

"Madam, I am no Cao Cao..."

Wu Xian muttered a rather unfunny joke to ease his tension, then rolled over onto his other side, only to find the doctor's daughter, Xu Xiaoyan...

Since neither side worked, he decided to lie flat on his back.

Though lying flat was uncomfortable, it was barely manageable for sleep.

Then he looked up at the ceiling, where two bloody old timers were hanging upside down, their pitch-black eyes staring straight down at him.

A single drop of fresh blood fell onto Wu Xian's forehead.

"What the... motherf—!"

...

The law enforcement department of this world.

Its full name was the Federal Bureau of Lookup, commonly referred to as the FBL, and its functions differed significantly from the police in the real world.

The Bureau's office building, much like every other structure in this world, was massive yet entirely nondescript. If not for the sign hanging outside, it would be hard to tell apart from any other building.

By now, it was the morning of the second day.

Yawning and sporting dark circles with deepened hues, Wu Xian arrived at the entrance of the Bureau.

He had slept terribly the night before.

Although Wu Xian possessed a resilient spirit and a rather wicked temperament, he was still human after all. Forget being watched by four ghosts—even being watched by four living people would make it hard for anyone to sleep.

Guided by the senior female agent, he located the veteran chief inspector he had met the previous night.

This man was the director of the Bureau.

Scarcely had Wu Xian taken a seat opposite his desk when the chief slid a document across to him.

"All the paperwork has been sorted out, and your resignation from the hospital has already been handled. You only need to sign, and you will officially be an inspector of the Bureau."

"So fast?"

Wu Xian lacked the energy to complain; just how terrified was this guy that he might turn the offer down?

He casually flipped through the pages.

The Bureau's structure was simple, consisting of two ranks: inspectors and agents. Only inspectors held the authority to independently lead teams to investigate cases, while agents were strictly bound to obey the inspector's orders.

With all other inspectors currently occupied with work, Wu Xian had no choice but to lead a team himself to investigate the massacre at his own home.

Once Wu Xian finished signing, the chief inspector—who previously resembled a benevolent, chubby old man—instantly altered his demeanor.

"Your uniform and equipment are in the bag by the door."

"Go change into them right now and get straight to work on the case. I'm giving you only three days to drag that little bastard back here. Move!"

Suppressing a surging urge to retort, Wu Xian picked up the package and headed to the locker room to change into his inspector's uniform.

Upon becoming an inspector, Wu Xian's steps felt significantly lighter.

Though the blessed land and reality were two different matters, back when he used to work as a detective, he had always longed to infiltrate the regular forces and shake things up. The blessed land granting him this opportunity felt like a rather decent turn of events.

Following the map, he located his office.

Inside the office, four agents were already waiting for him.

These four were Wu Xian's dedicated subordinates—all young men, physically robust, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted. When Wu Xian patted them on the shoulders, he could feel hard, knotted muscles beneath their clothes.

The names of the four agents were:
Xue Ye, Jin Mo, Gu Ge, and Ji Rou.

On the desk lay a case file, which Wu Xian had requested in advance from the chief inspector. It contained information regarding the prisoner who had gone for a psychological evaluation that day—a man named Wei Hao.

He had once been an outstanding FBL agent before eventually committing a horrifying mass murder...

However, the materials inside the case file offered little practical help in tracking him down.

Wu Xian committed the contents of the file to memory, then prepared to return to the crime scene to trace the killer's path of flight.

If one were to ask which skill Wu Xian had practiced to absolute perfection over his years as a detective, it would undoubtedly be finding people—and ensuring he himself remained unfound.

Thus, Wu Xian possessed immense confidence in capturing the culprit. With a grand wave of his hand, he strode forward proudly at the head of his four agents.

"Let's go. I'll take you all to win some merit."