The greatest flaw is having no flaw; it's just that the killer's methods far exceed ordinary imagination and thought, which is why it remains unseen.

Yet, even without finding a flaw, this case cannot simply be relegated to the mysterious file. If the public were to learn of it, the resulting pressure might be more than the Anyang municipal government could bear.

Xiao Cuo circled the house once, entering every room, then returned to the starting point and said to Zhang Jiewei, "It seems like there is a little."

Zhang Jiewei’s face was carved from stone; a little or a lot meant precisely the same to him. He would never betray any expression over such a thing.

“If there is, there is. What does ‘seems like’ mean?” His words always struck the core, leaving no room for evasion, even on this matter. This showed he was the opposite extreme; not even specters could disrupt his thought process.

“‘Seems like’ means it’s possible.” Xiao Cuo’s answer was tantamount to saying nothing, yet it did address the question.

“Is there or isn’t there?” Zhang Jiewei repeated the question.

I suddenly found him ridiculous. This was a question the world's finest scientists couldn't answer, yet he expected a mere police officer from Anyang City to resolve it. Wasn't this intentionally making things difficult? If it were the old me, I would have told Xiao Cuo only one thing: Find it and let me see it.

I stood coldly to the side; the pervasive smell of blood in the room didn't stir the slightest agitation within me. I was like a passerby, watching a life vanish, a vibrant body turning into a pool of crimson fluid in the room. I was no longer the passionate officer, just an invisible man wearing a uniform. The real me was hidden in a place no one knew, a place where the scent of blood was far stronger than at any crime scene.

Then, Xiao Cuo answered in a low voice, "Possibly."

Xiao Cuo’s reply confirmed my suspicion. Only I understood that when he used the word ‘possible’ in such matters, it was equivalent to affirmation, but he was unwilling to abandon his ingrained principles and confront the overwhelming secular authority, so he could only use such ambiguous language to mask the terror and unease churning inside him.

Zhang Jiewei’s facial muscles twitched slightly; perhaps this was the first case of its kind he had ever handled. I stole a glance at Xiao Cuo, wondering if it was his first time too.

The pointless questioning ceased. Zhang Jiewei announced, “The bureau has temporarily classified this matter as top secret. I imagine you both understand what that implies. All investigation results must be reported to the bureau first. No leak whatsoever must reach the outside, or you will face the severest penalties!”

The word 'penalties' carried significant weight when spoken by Zhang Jiewei, pressing down like a mountain. However, I was now neither human nor demon; human concerns held no sway over me.

Although I had no intention of contributing to this investigation, I couldn't help but ask, "This looks like a dismemberment case. Why label it mysterious?"

This question was directed at both Zhang Jiewei and Xiao Cuo. Xiao Cuo opened his mouth to speak, but a single glance at Zhang Jiewei’s stone face made him wisely close it. Zhang Jiewei then spoke, "Because the victim’s relatives saw something unusual, and two people saw it simultaneously."

Hearing this, I finally understood. A bizarre homicide with no traces and no body, compounded by the strange sightings reported by two witnesses—that was enough to change the nature of the case entirely.

I did not press for details about what unusual things the relatives had seen. I merely stood there silently until Xiao Cuo urged me to leave, at which point I numbly departed that chamber soaked in scarlet.

Once in the police car, Zhang Jiewei asked while driving, "What did you discover?"

Xiao Cuo sat next to me, his mouth close to my ear, so I heard him clearly even though I tried not to listen: "It’s a kind of supernatural force. Abroad, they call these entities 'Ethereal Objects.' They don't belong to any recognized biological classification, yet they exist factually and can accomplish what humans and other organisms cannot—things like passing through walls, killing invisibly, flickering in and out of sight, distorting space and time. These are common manifestations of Ethereal Objects."

I was already familiar with some of what Xiao Cuo mentioned. One such incident had occurred in Anyang City during the early years after the founding of the PRC, an event widely circulated in police circles and among the populace, lending credence to its reality. Productivity was relatively low back then, so theft was met with severe crackdowns. Once, over ten cattle were stolen from a village on the eastern outskirts of Anyang City—a major crime at the time. Anyang City immediately dispatched its most capable detectives to solve the case. However, after half a month of questioning every village nearby and employing every investigative technique available, they couldn't find the cattle thieves.

Leaders at every level attached great importance to the case, and the pressure on the investigating officers mounted daily. Finally, out of options, one detective suggested employing the local 'Sand God' ritual to solve the crime. The 'Sand God' was a folk superstition involving a bowl of sand covered by a red cloth. One would ask the Sand God internally for guidance on what they wished to know, and upon lifting the cloth, figures or writing would appear on the sand.

The detective’s suggestion was initially opposed by his colleagues; some even accused him of being a remnant of feudal superstition, leading to the detective being suspended for reflection. But as days passed and pressure from superiors grew unbearable, a few officers, unable to endure it any longer, secretly sought out the initially suspended detective and asked him to try the 'Sand God' procedure.

That detective couldn't perform the ritual himself, but he knew someone in a nearby village who could. So, he quietly brought his colleagues to this person. When the person saw they were police officers, he first assumed they were coming to arrest him and stubbornly insisted he couldn't do it. Only when the officers threatened to charge him as an accomplice if he refused did he finally agree. However, he demanded that regardless of the outcome, the officers must never reveal this incident to anyone afterward before he began the summoning.

He produced an ancient-looking bronze bowl filled with fine sand, poured it into a flat-bottomed container, covered it with a red cloth, and then closed his eyes, chanting an incantation. The entire process seemed unremarkable, making the detectives feel anxious, wondering if the ritual would actually work.

After finishing the chant, the man opened his eyes slightly and asked, "What is your question? Tell me so I can ask the Sand God for an answer."

"Who stole the cattle from East Village?" the detective asked.

The man closed his eyes again, mumbling incomprehensible words. After a while, he opened his eyes and said, "You may lift the cloth yourselves."

Curious, the detectives lifted the red cloth. The perfectly flat sand had indeed taken on markings, but upon close inspection, they couldn't decipher them. It wasn't a name, nor anything recognizable—just a winding line, like a crawling earthworm, utterly unrelated to the case.

The detectives suspected the man had secretly dropped an earthworm inside and were about to sift through the sand to find it when one officer shouted, "Don't move, I think I understand."

Everyone paused, looking at him curiously. The officer pointed at the curving line and said, "Look, doesn't this line resemble the river next to East Village?"

Once he pointed it out, they all agreed it looked remarkably similar. They immediately fetched a map, and upon comparison, it was indeed that very river. Furthermore, one end of the earthworm-like curve was exactly at East Village, while the other end pointed toward the location of Niwa Village.

Niwa Village was downstream from East Village. Although they shared the same river, the two villages were quite far apart. This village was outside the jurisdiction of Anyang City, so their previous investigations had never reached that location.

The detectives hesitated, unsure how to report this bizarre discovery to their superiors. They eventually decided to keep silent for now and secretly dispatched two men to scout the area. Disguised, the two officers arrived in Niwa Village and immediately discovered that the missing cattle were indeed there. Moreover, the village possessed numerous cattle of dubious origin, all controlled by cadres from the Village Administration Office.

After uncovering this major intelligence, the two officers dared not act rashly. They returned immediately to Anyang City and reported the situation to the municipal bureau, which in turn reported it to the municipal government and the Provincial Public Security Department. Under coordination from provincial authorities, the officers launched a surprise raid on the village, apprehending the culprits and recovering the stolen goods.

It turned out that the entire leadership committee of Niwa Village was composed of lazy, good-for-nothing individuals. Eventually, someone started it, and it slowly became a trend, culminating in the Village Administration cadres leading the villagers in systematically stealing livestock and property. Because ninety percent of the villagers shared the surname Chen, belonging to one large extended family, and they typically traveled hundreds of miles up or down the river to steal, they had never been exposed, and suspicion never fell upon them.

Had it not been for that detective employing the 'Sand God' ritual, this 'Thief Village' might have continued its existence. However, after the case was solved, no one dared admit to having consulted the 'Sand God' because it was feudal superstition, absolutely forbidden from public knowledge. As time went on and speech became freer, the officers involved in the ritual privately recounted the story to friends, and it spread wider and wider until nearly every common person in Anyang City knew about it. Some busybodies even went searching for the folk medium who performed the ritual near East Village, but they never found a trace of him.

The aforementioned 'Sand God' ritual was, in essence, a form of mysterious power—an Ethereal Force. The difference was that some Ethereal Forces were used to harm, while others were used to help.

If Xiao Cuo was correct, and this case was indeed the work of an Ethereal Force, then solving it would require the aid of another Ethereal Force. Attempting to solve it by purely human means would be pure fantasy.

At this point, Zhang Jiewei asked again, "Did the witnesses see them?"

He pronounced the word 'them' strangely, perhaps because he himself found the matter somewhat unbelievable, similar to how one speaks of something very subtle.

Xiao Cuo continued whispering into my ear, "Eight or nine times out of ten. It’s because when these things have just consumed fresh human blood, they are more easily visible to the naked eye due to the presence of the new blood. The witnesses likely stumbled upon that precise moment."

Zhang Jiewei grunted an acknowledgement, his hands gripping the steering wheel steadily. He had an innate need for control; as long as he was in the car, no matter how tired he was, he would be the one driving—no one else dared take the wheel. When he held the steering wheel, it gave the impression he was tightly grasping fate, but in reality, no one can grasp fate; even God has moments of lapse.

After hearing all this, I couldn't resist asking Xiao Cuo in a low voice, "What exactly did they see?"

My voice was so soft it seemed I feared being overheard. This made me uneasy, increasing my fear mixed with the desire to know Xiao Cuo's answer.

"A black shadow," Xiao Cuo whispered back in an equally eerie tone, as if afraid of not frightening me enough.

Immediately, a floating black silhouette flashed through my mind—half-substantial, half-illusory, with bared fangs. It suddenly emerged from a corner where the ceiling met the wall, swooped down, bit the victim’s neck, chewed the flesh to shreds with its fangs, and then violently spat it out, splattering the entire room.

"Are you alright?" Xiao Cuo asked, noticing my pale face.

"Fine, fine. Have you seen this thing before?"

"This is the first time."

"Then how are you certain it was that?"

"Because... because I saw it in old archives."

Xiao Cuo had worked in the archives, which contained all sorts of stored records, including materials dating back before the founding of the PRC. His exposure was indeed beyond that of the average person, but that didn't prove he should know about these bizarre entities.

"So, something like this happened in Anyang City before?"

Xiao Cuo shook his head. "Not in Anyang City, but in a town down south. It remains an unsolved cold case."

I thought to myself, isn't that obvious? If a non-living entity commits murder, even if you catch it, who would dare admit it? Should they summon a Daoist master to manifest the thing and present it to the public?

"Be careful. Don't get too involved," I murmured, afraid Zhang Jiewei would overhear and resent me for undermining morale.

Xiao Cuo looked at me with genuine simplicity. I managed a wry smile. "Hurry up and find a wife and get married. Men grow because of women."

The moment the words left my mouth, I was startled. That phrase sounded so familiar; how could I have said it without thinking? My memory instantly snapped back to 'Lan Guiren,' back to that hazy, confusing time, back to that mysterious, indistinct woman’s face...

The police car sped on, but I had already retreated into my own world. In this world, I had not given up; I was meticulously considering every detail, driven by a deep hatred for the killer. I was determined to bring everything about him into the light.

According to Xiao Cuo, after You Qiaolin was arrested, he resisted fiercely, refusing to confess to the crime or reveal his methods, sneering instead, "Everything I have done was arranged by Heaven; you have no right to question it, and you never will understand."

What a maniac—claiming to be an emissary of heaven! Did he mean all those horrific murders were dictated by divine will? If so, I thought, that Heaven was merely one existing inside his own mind; he was deceiving himself and then believing that deception, which fueled his series of insane massacres.

Ultimately, faced with irrefutable evidence, You Qiaolin confessed to being the murderer in the Ou Jinglan serial killings. Moreover, he admitted that the murders of Xiao Xuan, Gu Hengming, and Kang Youjia were also all his doing.

Yet, I remained deeply suspicious that he was lying. Since he could wear his mirror-bright glasses to deceive us repeatedly every day, why wouldn't he lie one last time? Liars are born liars; their lives are woven from falsehoods and deceit. You Qiaolin surely wouldn't leave any regrets at the end of his life. On the contrary, he would execute his final act more cleverly than ever, drawing a perfect period to his own story while leaving the world with an eternally unanswered question mark.

However, my own intelligence caused me pain because it was both weak and fragile, unable to penetrate You Qiaolin’s fortress-like web of lies. I pondered every day in my own mind, but You Qiaolin’s flawless deceptions rendered my contemplation futile, turning it into something laughable.

You Qiaolin claimed that every time he killed a girl, he would first treat her to the finest food, dress her in the most beautiful clothes, let her do what she loved most, and only then would he use his knife skills—which he boasted were comparable to those of the master butcher Ding—to cut her into pieces, slice by slice. And during the dissection, he would make the girl watch as her beautiful, vibrant body was reduced to bloody chunks, no different from the cheapest pork in the market.

But we know that under such agony, the immense pain would elicit the most tragic screams, sounds that would resonate through space and into the ears of everyone present.

Therefore, that was his first lie. In the Ou Jinglan case, the third girl died in her dormitory, and another female student was present at the time. If the victim had screamed horribly, the other girl could not possibly have missed hearing it, as the sound would have been loud enough for half of Jia Da University to hear.

This fact proves the victim did not scream; they did not watch their own flesh being carved into meat. Thus, You Qiaolin was lying!

But how could this lie be exposed?