74: The Day of Earthly Slaughter

“Alright, we’ll do as Comrade Ziwu suggested. Everyone will split into two teams: one to canvass the eastern part of town and look for suspicious individuals, the other to investigate the nouveau riche in our town, see if anything unusual has happened in their families, or if anyone’s life is in danger.”

With Hao Jianguo’s command, all the officers sprang into action.

After leaving the conference room, two officers approached me, asking if I could read their fortunes. Judging from their faces, I could tell they’d both been dealing with troubles lately. Officer Qi Long’s spouse palace—the area at the outer corners of his eyes—was crisscrossed with disorderly lines and a scratch, indicating his marriage was in crisis, teetering on the brink of divorce. The other, Officer Yan Lutian, had a dim wealth palace—the bridge of his nose—and a damaged life palace, showing he’d recently encountered a troublesome matter, lost a considerable amount of money, and his eyes were dull with exhaustion and confusion, uncertain of his next step.

A person’s fate can be told with birth charts, their current luck and misfortune read from their face. To divine accurately and in depth, both the birth chart and physiognomy must be considered together, which makes the process quite complex. Right now, I was preoccupied with the crisis of the Five Elements Life-Borrowing ritual and had much to consider, so I told them I’d properly read their fortunes once this affair was resolved.

Soon, only Cao Guangshan and I remained at the station. Cao Guangshan was supposed to be assigned out as well, but was kept nearby since I might need to contact him and some investigations required his help.

With the bustle fading, I began to carefully piece together the entire situation.

My grandmother once told me, when trouble arises, the worst mistake is to focus solely on the immediate matter—to become fixated on the clues right in front of you. In metaphysical matters, events are unpredictable, especially when secret arts are used to harm; there are always many layers of deception.

Focusing only on the obvious clues makes it easy to be led by the nose by the adversary, always a step too slow. The best solution isn’t just to block the danger, but also to anticipate and plan for recovery if prevention fails and harm occurs.

So, I had to plan: if I couldn’t stop the Five Elements Life-Borrowing, how could I save the innocent from being caught in the crossfire?

I asked Cao Guangshan if he’d found any information on Xu Buhuo, but he shook his head and then added, “Still, this case is an opportunity for you.”

I waited for him to continue.

“If you can resolve this, you’ll gain the respect of the others in the bureau. They’ve all been transferred from different places and have their own networks. If you ask them to reach out to friends and help investigate, the search for Xu Buhuo will widen considerably.”

Every officer has their own circle of contacts—friends scattered across the country. If I could tap into those networks, it would indeed be easier to find Xu Buhuo.

With a direction in mind, I felt a bit more at ease. In order to get information on Xu Buhuo as soon as possible, I silently reminded myself to handle this case well and win everyone’s trust. After all, this was my first time handling such a matter on my own; failure would not reflect well on me.

Time slipped by unnoticed, and night fell. After several hours of investigation, we still hadn’t found any useful leads. Because it was certain someone else would die the next day, the officers were anxious, working overtime to analyze whatever clues they had.

With nothing pressing for me to do, I retired early to the station’s guest room to rest.

The next day, even Cao Guangshan was sent out to investigate the eastern part of town.

At noon, as I was analyzing potential scenarios of the Five Elements Life-Borrowing and how to respond to any changes, Cao Guangshan burst into the office.

One look at his face and I knew something had been discovered.

“We found them,” Cao Guangshan said hoarsely, his expression grim. “But the person is already dead.”

What?

I immediately stood up and followed him straight to the crime scene.

Cao Guangshan explained that the body was found on the roof of a building that had already been searched; no one expected a corpse would turn up there. Had someone not gone up to air out bedding, it might never have been discovered.

The manner of death matched my previous deduction—the fatal blow was delivered by a sharp wooden stake. I asked for details, but Cao Guangshan shook his head; he had rushed to inform me before visiting the scene himself.

We hurried to the rooftop where the body lay. As soon as I stepped outside, a nauseating stench assaulted my senses, making my stomach churn.

Why the smell? I was puzzled. If the person had just died, the body couldn’t have decomposed so quickly.

But the putrid odor made me realize something was wrong. I hurried to the corpse. The deceased lay face down, head pointing east, impaled through the body by a broken wooden stick.

Maggots were already crawling on the flesh.

The forensic doctor, who had been examining the scene, stood up and said, “Judging by the degree of decomposition, the person has been dead for over three days—four days, given the current season.”

Dead for four days?

At those words, my heart sank. Staring at the rotting corpse, I knew I had made a mistake.

In the Five Elements Life-Borrowing, the deaths at the four directions follow no fixed order—the only certainty is that the final death occurs at the center.

Because the first corpse found was in the north, I had assumed the order went north, west, south, and then east. In truth, my deduction was completely wrong.

East was where the first death occurred. The body, hidden on the rooftop, had gone unnoticed, which led me to focus on the north and sent my calculations astray.

The four directional killings—metal, wood, water, fire—had actually ended yesterday with the fire death. Today was the day of the earth killing, and the victim would die at the center of town, smothered by soil.

My mistake had caused the entire force to search the east in vain, wasting precious time and energy.

The center of town was where the next tragedy would strike.

The blow was so severe I could barely stand.

At the meeting, I had felt a surge of pride at the praise from Hao Jianguo and the others, convinced that solving the Five Elements Life-Borrowing would be straightforward. Now, reality had slapped me hard, teaching me what it meant to be caught off guard.

Cao Guangshan noticed my distress and was about to speak when Hao Jianguo, face dark, approached and demanded to know why things had turned out this way. Wasn’t the east supposed to be today’s site of death?

There was no use hiding it. Though Hao Jianguo’s stare made me feel weak, I explained the error in my calculations.

I bore some responsibility, but not all of it—no one could have known the eastern corpse had lain undiscovered for days.

After hearing my explanation, Hao Jianguo’s face remained grim, but he didn’t say much. “So, today’s victim will die in the center of town?”

I nodded. “Yes, in the center, somewhere connected to soil. The last victim will die because of earth.”

“Are you sure?” Hao Jianguo’s eyes bore into me, clearly shaken by my earlier mistake.

Thoughts raced through my mind. I nodded firmly. “I’m sure. And we have to move quickly—the death could happen at any moment.”

“Let’s go,” Hao Jianguo ordered, leading everyone downstairs.

It was already noon, not morning; the earth killing wouldn’t wait until nightfall. It could happen at any time.

I hadn’t anticipated such a change.

I had no time to further inspect the wood killing site. Following Cao Guangshan and the others, I hurried toward town.

On the way, reflecting on my error, I finally understood why Grandma had so often warned me not to be rash, but to consider every angle—otherwise, troubles would multiply.

Yesterday, I’d thought only of today’s wood killing in the east, never considering that it might already have occurred or that I should have told Hao Jianguo to monitor the center of town.

Once we reached the town, Hao Jianguo immediately dispatched officers to search the area. Since the town wasn’t a perfect geometric shape, the center was hard to pinpoint; only an approximate area could be determined.

Just as the officers were about to set out, a man covered in mud came running over, shouting anxiously, “Officer, there’s been an accident at the construction site!”

The mention of the construction site reminded me that I’d seen one not far away, where a house was being built. Now, something had happened there—no doubt, earth killing had begun.

Hao Jianguo glanced at me. I dared not nod, but I broke into a run toward the site, with the other officers close behind. A crowd had already gathered around the site, and several workers were furiously digging at a mound of dirt.

I knew that once the earth killing began, anyone buried in soil—even for just a dozen seconds—would be dead by the time they were dug out. Still, I clung to hope that the person might have survived by some miracle.

Soon, a woman was unearthed from beneath the soil, her limbs limp, her mouth and nostrils packed with dirt—unmistakably dead. The workers said she was the owner of the house under construction. Normally, her husband oversaw the work, but today she’d come herself, and tragedy struck.

The earth excavated for the foundation had been piled to one side. She’d been standing below when the mound suddenly collapsed, burying her.

She was dead, and a heavy silence fell over the scene.

Staring at the gradually cooling corpse, I recognized the power of the secret art—its killings always disguised as accidents.

Who could have foreseen that the mistress of the house would visit the site just as the mound collapsed?

No matter how you looked at it, it seemed an accident. But Hao Jianguo and the others knew better.

Yesterday, after discovering the Five Elements Life-Borrowing, I’d hoped to prevent further deaths, but I’d still been a step too late. As I walked around the area, I found the earth killing formation on a stone not far away.

The formation was gray, with a folded yellow talisman pasted at its center. Opening it, I saw the same contents as before: a birth chart and a lock of hair.

The five killings of the Five Elements Life-Borrowing had concluded.

I went to Hao Jianguo and told him that our only hope now was to find the person meant to receive the stolen life force as soon as possible.

The sooner we intervene, the greater our chances of success.

Once the blood relatives start acting strangely or dying, stopping it becomes much more difficult.

The atmosphere grew tenser without anyone saying a word.