Night’s Nomenclature

At two o'clock in the morning, with all of his accomplices already dead, who would call the thug leader at this time?

He walked to the car, fished out the phone from the thug’s pocket, and pressed the answer button.

The number was displayed as ‘Unknown Caller’.

Even with the scarf covering his face, Qing Chen had been using his finger to block the camera the instant he took out the phone to prevent anyone from capturing his face through it.

The person on the other side of the call did not talk, as if waiting for the thug leader to open his mouth.

But Qing Chen maintained his silence.

The caller at least reacted with a light chuckle, “They’re already dead, right?”

Qing Chen didn't speak.

The voice on the phone continued to laugh, “Since they’re all dead, how about we talk?”

Without hesitation, Qing Chen used the thug leader's coat to wipe off his fingerprints from the phone and replaced them with the thug’s own. After stuffing the phone back into the corpse’s trench coat, he slowly walked off into the night.

He was musing – these were just seven thugs who couldn’t even afford biomimetic skin, but they had almost done him in.

At this moment, Qing Chen realized that his wonderful life seemed to have just begun.

…

The fire on Laojun Mountain was finally brought under control in the early morning. The entire street of lodgings had turned into a stretch of scorched ruins.

Some tourists were crying in the middle of the road; others were vacantly squatting on the side, looking thoroughly at a loss.

Seven black off-road cars galloped up the mountain. They made a brief stop at the site of the car crash and left a group of people to conduct detailed search on the mountain road while the rest continued to go up.

Lu Yuan arrived at the gate of Yunshang Inn. Nobody knew what went on in his mind as he looked at the blackened building.

In front of him were the corpses of two Kun Lun members, as well as several of the thugs.

Lu Yuan refrained himself from looking at his comrades and squatted down to give the thugs a preliminary autopsy.

“There were eight thugs in total. The one on the mountain road should be the ringleader, and his spleen was stabbed in the midst of his escape. Another set of footprints was discovered, but what’s odd is that the murderer didn't seem to be wearing shoes.”

“We’ve extracted the blood from the footprints to be used for DNA comparison."

“Seven of the thugs were nearby the inn. One had his knees crushed by someone in the parking lot, but he’s still alive. The attacker clearly had the ability to kill him but didn’t do it, as if to especially leave him behind for us to interrogate.”

“Of the other six thugs, two of the bodies were burned to a crisp in the fire, one was shot to death, and the remaining three all died from pierced spleen. The technique was extremely precise, so there’s a high probability that it was done by a professional killer.”

“Team leader Lu, the students said if it wasn’t for Wrench and Hawthorn sacrificing their lives to open the gate, all forty plus of them wouldn’t have been able to escape… they truly didn't disgrace Kun Lun.”

Lu Yuan silently listened to his subordinate’s report, his nose turning sore as the mountain wind blew.

The gale whimpered and wailed, swiping up the traces of burnt ashes.

Lu Yuan wiped his nose — now was not the time to be sentimental.

He crouched to inspect the wounds on the thugs, and then checked out the places where his subordinates found the corpses.

The first body was discovered next to Yunshang Inn, but the murder definitely took place at a different location.

On the road outside the door, Kun Lun members had found bloodstains as well as drag marks.

“Taking advantage of the darkness at night, someone should have killed him on the road and then moved his body to the yard next door. The fire burned the building, but it didn’t spread to the yard,” said Lu Yuan.

He was now looking at the wounds and feeling increasingly more astonished as he continued observing.

The analysis given by his subordinate was correct; these few thugs were killed in one blow.

Moreover, regardless of whether the attack was made from the back or the front, the tip of the knife accurately pierced all of their spleens.

“How strange, why is it only the spleen?” Lu Yuan was a little puzzled. “Is it some kind of special fixation or habit?”

He followed the marked spot and walked all the way to the back of the yard.

This should be the next crime scene, where the killer murdered the second thug and then entered the yard.

Lu Yuan asked, “How are those students?”

“There are seriously injured. Two of them, named Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen, were shot in the abdomen by the thugs. Fortunately, their vital spots were not hit. They’ve been sent down the mountain to receive surgery, and their lives will definitely be saved.”

“The third one is called Wang Yun, but this girl's injuries are very strange. According to her, a masked thug shot both of her legs, and a student named Nan Gengchen ultimately dragged her out of the inn. If not for that, she would’ve been burned to death.”

Lu Yuan frowned, “Masked?”

“Yes,” nodded his subordinate, “I suspect this person is not one of the thugs, but instead the killer who took them down.”

“There’s no need to suspect, it must be him. You pay attention to this Wang Yun, there’s something wrong with her. The person who helped us kill the thugs wouldn’t shoot her twice for no reason,” said Lu Yuan. “That’s right, why was that Nan Gengchen inside of the inn?”

“It’s said that the thugs took him inside to assault him,” his subordinate explained, “But from what I can see, his clothing is still neat. It doesn’t look like anything bad has happened.”

“Then he should have seen the killer. Maybe the killer saved him along the way," Lu Yuan deduced. “Did you get anything from him?”

“He said the killer should be around 176cm tall, barefoot, and had slight crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, like a man in his thirties.”

Lu Yuan nodded. “Then let’s do a search according to this description for the time being. Nan Gengchen is our first witness, his testimony is the most reliable.”

Everyone returned to the front door, where the bodies were placed.

Lu Yuan looked at the dilapidated street and sank into thought. Seven of the eight thugs died, with the only survivor was kneeling in the parking lot. One was shot, another one was killed by the Kun Lun members, and the remaining four died of a ruptured spleen. That is to say, the assailant carried out four attacks and succeeded each time.

This kind of person was very dangerous, but Lu Yuan no longer wished to track him down, because he was the one who avenged his teammates.

On their chase, the Kun Lun members found countless bloody footprints. It was difficult for him to imagine what kind of willpower the killer had, to take down the criminals one by one with his staunchness.

As he glanced at the corpses, Lu Yuan suddenly discovered a new detail. “The thug at the entrance was the only one lacking a walkie-talkie, he should’ve been the first to die… No other device was found at the scene, so that lost walkie-talkie should still be with the killer.”

The next moment, Lu Yuan quickly picked up the walkie-talkie from the body of another thug, took a deep breath, and pressed the connect button. “Hello, I'm Lu Yuan from Kun Lun.”

However, there was no one to answer him in the midst of the mountain wind.