"I dare not disturb you, senior. Please do not blame me."
"Hahaha, Alena, what are you talking about? We are not strangers!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a tall man flung open the door and walked straight into the hall. He held a blood-red statue in one hand, a smile on his lips, his eyes narrowed a shade. After a brief glance around the hall, he fixed his gaze on Alena, who was sitting upright in a chair.
"How dare you!" Lilith, upon seeing this, roared in anger, lashing out at the man.
"Khan! How dare you come in without permission?!"
The man turned his gaze to Lilith and said: "A mere maid dare disrespect a superior! Junior, look at her poor discipline! Let me teach her what the rule is!"
With that, the man pointed a finger at Lilith, and a violent wind erupted throughout the hall. The sudden burst of baleful energy from the man blew the tables and chairs back and forth. The plants in the corners withered right then. Their dry branches crackled as they ignited.
"Don't worry about my people, Senior Brother." Faced with the raging onslaught, Alena also extended a finger. Then, the temperature in the hall plummeted. The raging, scorching air gradually vanished, as if it had never existed. Khan's expression flickered with surprise at this, but he immediately regained a smile.
"Impressive improvement after all these years. Well, I was going to offer a blood-colored statue as a gift today, but it seems unnecessary." Khan laughed with gusto, then turned and left without lingering.
After Khan had gone far away, Lilith looked at Alena in panic, asking with concern: "Your Highness, are you okay? This rude man is a bastard!!"
Alena said nothing, but her eyebrows jumped as she looked at her fingers. She saw a crack on her white fingertips, like shattered ceramic.
"After all, Khan, who has reached the Perfection of the Nascent Stage and is just one step away from entering the Incarnation..." Alena muttered, then turned to Lilith and said with conviction: "Lilith, eyes are much more important than tongue, this is my first lesson for you."
Lilith lowered her head and spoke in a low, mosquito-like voice, "I know I'm wrong, Your Highness!"
...
Elsewhere, by the time Stirling returned home, it was already evening.
At noon today, Stirling drank some aniseed liqueur from Sean's Lounge. It tasted like water, but the aftereffect was incredibly strong. Stirling felt dizzy all afternoon. Luckily, he stayed conscious and kept silent. Just in case, Stirling asked for half a day off from the dojo before leaving, planning to get a good night's sleep.
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Entering the house, Stirling checked the hair tied behind the door bolt. Finding it intact, he felt relieved. He rested for a moment, drank a few sips of water, and then went to the bedroom.
"Huh!" Stirling let out a long sigh as he lay down on the bed, feeling like life was getting better and there was hope for the future.
His lifespan was now about 75 years. This gave him the confidence to explore fresh paths of cultivation he hadn't dared before.
Stirling memorized the scene he had seen in the lounge this afternoon. A little maid, killing someone in the street with the snap of a finger, so unscrupulous... As he thought about it, his breathing slowed down, and he quietly fell asleep.
After an unknown amount of time, a sudden loud noise awakened Stirling.
Stirling opened his eyes only to see a glaring sunshine reaching three inches above the bed. He promptly sat up in bed, grabbing the Tang Dao he had been keeping nearby. He distinguished the source of the sound, put on his clothes, and hurried out of bed.
Stirling only noticed the sound from outside the gate after he reached the courtyard.
With a sudden idea hitting him, he realized what was happening. He put the blade back in his room and, feigning curiosity, pushed the door open and walked out. As soon as Stirling left, he noticed a group by Romeo's courtyard. They were sighing now and then.
Stirling followed the group in silence, tiptoed in, and saw Romeo's gate wide open. Several Night Watches in Flying Cloud uniforms stood inside.
"Hey, It was strange when Romeo didn't come yesterday. I told you! Something must have happened!"
"You jinx!"
"But the Night Watch doesn't look well. Is it that pathos malice again?"
"It's hard to say. This outer city is becoming more and more unsettled."
"Didn't the envoy from Yearning Palace come yesterday? Could this be related?"
"Shh, are you trying to kill yourself?!"
Amidst the chatter, Stirling gathered a general idea.
The crowd at Sean's Lounge noticed Romeo hadn't arrived again this morning. They couldn't wait any longer and went to his house to find out what was going on.
This group of audiences spent nearly six months with Romeo's stories, so they got to know him well. Knowing his address, they immediately descended upon him with mighty force.
The result was obvious. Upon arriving at Romeo's courtyard, they noticed the large hole in the roof. They immediately realized that something had happened.
Right now, a few Night Watch members are in Romeo's house, searching for clues. One stood in the center, arms folded, brow furrowed, as if lost in thought. If Stirling stepped closer, he would surely know this person as Pillnar, who gave the Malice-Breaking orb to the Kim dojo!
"Boss, this man's wounds are, in fact, from a Malice-Breaking orb!" a younger watchman approached Pillnar and whispered.
"Malice-breaking orb? What kind of blasting orb could cause such a wound?!" Pillnar glanced at the charred, stinking corpse and asked without warmth.
"I don't know either, but James looked at the wound. He found Yearning's malice, so it must have come from a blasting orb in the Yearning Palace." The man continued.
"Go on." Pillnar asked no more questions but spoke.
"Also, Romeo's true fatal injury was perhaps the hidden weapon wound to his head."
"But we do not know what the hidden weapon was, and the murderer took it away. There is nothing left at the scene. This murderer is clearly a recidivist." The watchman beside him continued at a fast pace.
"You mean you looked for a long time and found nothing valuable?" Pillnar snorted with a frosty air.
The watchman's face turned bitter right off, having unspeakable bitter suffering.
In all his years on the job, this was the first time he had encountered a scene like this.
The murderer left no clues besides the body. He even mopped the floor with a damp cloth before leaving!
Although they didn't understand why he did this.
The room was completely turned upside down. At first, they believed this was a home invasion, robbery, and murder case. Then, they discovered that the identity of the deceased was unusual, maybe a worshipper. This led them to think the case was about silencing the victim.
In short, the clues were intricate, or there was no clue at all.