Chapter 2014.7.27 2:47 PM, Fubei Avenue

Holding three strings of French hot dogs (1020 calories) in his hand, Su Zhou walked along, eating as he went. He was disguised as a gluttonous student, slowly approaching the crime scene closest to his home.

Because the crime scene was near Hongzhou Museum and Hongcheng Library, even with a heinous crime, there were still many people around. Su Zhou blended in. His age and demeanor made him seem completely innocent. No one would suspect he was leisurely strolling around, snacking as a disguise.

"I sense the aura of a fiend."

Yala, poking her head out from Su Zhou's ear, stated directly, letting Su Zhou know that the case was indeed not the work of a perverted murderer. It was truly the handiwork of a fiend.

He nodded slightly. "Okay, I understand—can you tell me what type of fiend it is specifically?"

"The scent is too faint. I can only be certain it's one of our old acquaintances." The snake spirit narrowed her eyes, seemingly sensing carefully, but ultimately couldn't determine anything, gaining nothing.

But she didn't care, instead prompting Su Zhou: "Experience it. This is the aura of a fiend. In the future, you might need to judge for yourself."

"Mm."

Taking a bite of his hot dog, the sweet and sour tomato sauce was delicious. While chewing, Su Zhou closed his eyes and sensed the 'fiend' aura Yala spoke of… When he opened his eyes again, he had already activated his spiritual vision.

He could see several police cars around the crime scene, cordoned off by yellow tape. The body had already been taken away, but the police were still on scene, surveying and analyzing.

In addition, a very thin, brown aura trail was visible at the scene, quite conspicuous.

"I see it. I can feel something, a faint fishy smell… like insects? But there's also a strange, plant-like tranquility."

Su Zhou wasn't joking. He really sensed a trace of 'sweet fishiness' mixed in with the 'human scent,' and this smell also carried a strange sense of grandeur and remoteness. When he smelled it, he felt as if he were meditating, rooted in the cosmic starry sky… or even in a vaster space-time.

"That's the taste of soul and divinity."

The snake spirit guided Su Zhou to continue sensing. She taught earnestly, her tone gentle. "Everyone's soul has a different taste, as does every race. Compared to ordinary people, the taste of transcendents is much stronger."

"And the taste of divinity can cause ordinary people to experience synesthesia—seeing allows them to smell, smelling feels like touching, touching even allows them to taste something, and it even makes people feel like they're in the realm of the gods."

This immediately gave Su Zhou food for thought. "Come to think of it, the spiritual energy fragments of wraiths have a pungent taste. I guess that's the taste of a soul full of resentment."

He wondered what the taste of a fiend core with divinity would be like, as Yala said.

Recalling the taste of wraiths and imagining the taste of divinity, Su Zhou's mouth watered. He took another bite of his hot dog, then simply turned back. "It seems this fiend is at least dozens of times stronger than a wraith. Yeah, I've remembered this taste. I'll come back later to take a closer look."

"Did you remember the taste of the hot dog or the taste of the fiend?"

"It's the same, more or less."

July 28, 2014, 12:17 AM

Shao Qiming's custom-made night-suit and mask were ready. A special delivery person had delivered them to his door in the afternoon, ostensibly delivering a box of books and magazines, along with various film and television merchandise, to Su Zhou. The equipment was hidden inside.

It had to be said that Shao Qiming thought things through much more comprehensively than Su Zhou. This set of equipment not only included a navy-blue night-suit, masks, and hoods, but also night-vision goggles, an armed belt with many hooks, thin anti-slip, anti-fingerprint gloves… plus soft, noiseless stealth shoes, a compressed hardened plastic bag for storing things, a universal set of lock-picking tools, climbing hooks, and other equipment. Su Zhou even had the illusion that he could become a phantom thief!

"Wait, I'm here to uphold justice, slay demons, and eliminate fiends. Why does it feel like I'm going to be a special agent?"

"This set of equipment is too strange!"

Although he complained, Su Zhou quickly put on the entire set.

"Fantastic!"

Perhaps because Aunt Wen had bought him clothes before and had his measurements, Su Zhou felt that this night-suit really fit him perfectly. And equipping the entire set was indeed very professional, which could save him a lot of trouble.

Familiar with avoiding the surveillance blind spots, he jumped out of the building and left. With the gun slung across his back, Su Zhou continued to run swiftly along the path in the woods—he had found a sufficiently concealed route while wandering around during the day, which could lead directly to the crime scene.

Su Zhou couldn't guarantee that his whereabouts were completely hidden, but he could guarantee that, at most, any surveillance cameras could only see a blurry shadow flashing by like a hallucination.

Along the way, Su Zhou's movements were like a swift wind. He moved through the shade of trees, using the tree trunks as leverage to jump, climbed on the sides of buildings, and jumped and ran on the rooftops of low buildings.

Su Zhou even climbed to the top of a tall building, then leaped towards other, shorter buildings not far away, using the power of 'Wind Assistance' to draw a long arc in the air, landing lightly on the top of the building.

Parkour? No, parkour couldn't compare at all.

This feeling of unobstructed running, of moving forward as he pleased, was probably the closest thing to flying for humans.

"This is the kind of life I long for…"

The simple sigh flashed by. Soon, Su Zhou had already sneaked into the vicinity of Fubei Avenue.

Following the sound of the wind, hiding in the shade of the trees, he could see the warning tape was still there, but there were not many people on the scene anymore. The information to be surveyed had been surveyed, leaving only two patrol officers, probably on watch, monitoring from a car nearby.

But this was just a superficial facade.

Su Zhou narrowed his eyes slightly. Without spiritual vision, he could 'smell' the scent of at least three other hidden patrol officers nearby.

"It seems the authorities also know something is wrong. The monitoring is very tight."

Of course, Su Zhou didn't come to oppose the patrol officers—he closed his eyes, then opened them again, activating his spiritual vision.

And the brown aura trail appeared in his eyes just like that.

The trail, which he couldn't see clearly during the day because there were too many people, had become even thinner at this time. It seemed that it would disappear in a few days, but it was enough for Su Zhou to distinguish its source now. He could see that the trail spiraled all the way, finally disappearing directly into the river next to it, and then spiraling and extending in the river.

"Sure enough, it's a water demon—or at least, it can swim."

Su Zhou looked closely and could vaguely see traces of spiritual energy in the water. If it weren't for the water blocking the light, plus the fact that the brown aura was really inconspicuous, he felt that he should be able to see clearly where the aura trail led directly.

But it didn't matter now. After roughly judging the direction, Su Zhou flashed away, preparing to go around from the side with fewer people to track the fiend's trail.

While in action, he thought of a question and couldn't help but ask with some concern: "Yala, since I can see other people's aura trails, can other people see mine?"

As he said this, he looked back behind him—but there was nothing.

"Is the Perfect Body a joke? Unless you're seriously injured, and it has to be a serious injury with missing limbs like a broken arm or leg, your spiritual energy fluctuations are basically locked in your body."

Yala's tone towards Su Zhou's question was simply one sigh after another. "If it weren't for this, I would have reminded you long ago—you should have thought of this long ago. I originally thought you had noticed it before, but I didn't expect you hadn't."

"It seems you really need to eat a wisdom fruit to improve your intelligence."

"Oh." Su Zhou didn't care much. Anyway, he knew that he was still young and lacked life experience, so it was normal for his thinking to have errors.

If it were anything else, he could argue, but there was no need to in this regard. Anyway, as Yala said, there would be a wisdom fruit in the future.

And just as the teenager had already begun to directly track the aura trail, seeking the fiend's lair…

At other crime scenes, another group of people were carefully analyzing.