Hell's Handbook

Chapter 120: Xu Ran’s Standing

It was very obvious that a violent fight had happened here. The inside of the house was so badly destroyed, that it was as if a bomb had went off inside here.

“Are all the units here only meant for people who are deaf?” said Su Jin sarcastically.

Lv Jincheng chuckled and said, “We thought it was weird too. Logically speaking, if a scuffle were violent enough to cause this much damage, it’s impossible for it to go completely unnoticed. But besides their neighbors who found it strange that the family hadn’t left the house in half a month and discovered this horrifying situation purely out of curiosity, not a single unit in the vicinity has noticed anything.”

There was clearly something fishy here. Su Jin tapped a finger on his nose and said casually, “That leaves us with two possibilities then. Either someone was able to make everyone in the vicinity deaf while the fight was happening, or they were able to keep the noise within these four walls.”

Su Jin walked further into the house and observed his surroundings carefully. The special police had preserved the crime scene very well and had labelled everything so that they could make sure that the scene stayed almost identical to how they found it.

A few moments later, Su Jin looked at the wall. His gaze flickered when he noticed that a large part of the plaster had fallen off the wall, so he reached out to touch it.

“Mr. Su, have you discovered something?” asked Lv Jincheng curiously when he saw Su Jin looking closely at the wall.

“I suppose you could say so. Take a look at this wall.” Su Jin used his fingers to knock the wall lightly.

Lv Jincheng was an expert investigator and realized the problem immediately. The wall had obviously been very severely damaged and Su Jin had made a hole by just knocking the wall with his fingers. That was definitely strange.

“The wall is so thin…That doesn’t make sense.” Lv Jincheng frowned as he couldn’t seem to figure out how this could have happened.

Han Mengyao came over as well. She was more of a fighter than an investigator, so she couldn’t understand what the problem was.

Lv Jincheng explained to her, “Based on how badly damaged the wall is, it’s obvious that the wall had been hit by a powerful force.”

“I can see that.” She nodded.

“But that’s the problem. Despite taking such a hard hit, the force did not make a hole through the wall. Also, take a look at this side.” Lv Jincheng moved his finger along the wall and continued, “All of the damage to the wall stopped at the same part in the wall, as if—”

“As if the outer wall had been protected by something, or something had stopped the force from moving further outwards.” Han Mengyao quickly realized what her senior was trying to say.

He nodded and poked the wall with his finger. Just like what happened when Su Jin knocked on the wall, his finger went right through because the remaining undamaged wall was barely half a centimeter thick, so it was very easy to make a hole in it.

“Mr. Su, what’s your opinion on this?” Lv Jincheng turned towards Su Jin.

Su Jin nodded slightly and said, “Just like what I said earlier, there’s no way such a big fight could have gone on without disturbing or shocking any of the neighbors. Therefore, either everyone had been deafened during this time, or there was something that could contain the noise within this area.”

“Are you saying that the thing that protected the outer wall from collapsing was also something that could soundproof this place?” asked Lv Jincheng.

Su Jin chuckled. “Of course, this doesn’t sound scientifically possible. But based on what we’ve observed, this might actually be what happened.”

“How could any of that be possible? Even if the two parties fighting were able to find a shield of sorts that was big enough to do that, installing the shield itself would be a huge engineering project. Besides, the wall was obviously protected from within the wall, so that’s even more impossible to install, right?” Han Mengyao scoffed at Su Jin’s conjecture because she didn’t think any of it made sense.

But Su Jin wasn’t bothered by her attitude. He turned to look at Lv Jincheng for his opinion, since it was clear that Lv Jincheng called the shots around here.

Lv Jincheng nodded and said, “It’s not entirely impossible. Or at least…there are a few people in this country who are capable of something like that. They call it a forcefield.”

“A forcefield? Wait, are you…are you referring to those Daoists?” asked Han Mengyao curiously when she heard the term that Lv Jincheng used.

Su Jin became curious too. He was pretty sure that this must have been done by an owner, but it was interesting to hear that Daoists were also capable of such supernatural acts.

“It’s possible. Do you remember that future Daoist Celestial Master that our mentor mentioned the last time? Xu Ran?” said Lv Jincheng.

Su Jin was surprised to hear this name. Xu Ran was a Daoist and could even become a Celestial Master in the future? Who on earth was this guy really?!

Han Mengyao nodded. “So, you mean Xu Ran can do something like this?”

“He’s supposed to become a Celestial Master and the next abbot, so I don’t think it’s too difficult for him?” Lv Jincheng wasn’t really sure either, but based on the information the special police had on Xu Ran, the man was certainly one of the most highly valued young men in the country, and was seen as someone who could very well be powerful enough to protect the nation in the future.

“Then let’s go arrest him right now!” Han Mengyao got very excited and looked like she couldn’t wait to hunt Xu Ran down.

Su Jin and Lv Jincheng exchanged awkward glances, then Su Jin said, “Uh…Bro, do you have a photo of the victims? I’d like to take a look.”

“Sorry, bro, I meant to show it to you but I forgot. Thanks for reminding me,” Lv Jincheng quickly replied.

.

Han Mengyao puffed her cheeks angrily and snapped unhappily, “You two barely know each other! Why are you suddenly calling each other bros?! Are you deliberately trying to ignore me?”

Lv Jincheng laughed bitterly and said, “Well…I really couldn’t respond to the last thing you said. Xu Ran is a future Celestial Master and abbot in the making. Did you think you could arrest him just because you wanted to?”

“So what? Nobody’s above the law! Since when did you become someone who’s afraid of those who are stronger or more powerful than you are? You were never like this before.” Han Mengyao was extremely displeased and looked like she was going to seek justice for the innocent by ridding the world of all these big bullies.

Lv Jincheng sighed inwardly and turned to look at Su Jin. “Bro, I’m really sorry about her.”

“It’s alright, even twins could turn out completely different from one another, what more a senior and junior?” Su Jin waved it off and gave Lv Jincheng a sympathetic look.

Their expressions nearly drove Han Mengyao up the wall. She glared fiercely at Lv Jincheng and he quickly tried to explain the situation to her again.

“Mengyao, we aren’t trying to be funny here. The truth is that Xu Ran is truly someone we cannot lay a finger on. You’re right to say that nobody is above the law, but that only applies to ordinary people. If Xu Ran were an ordinary person, I’d definitely arrest him right away. But he’s not.”

“Let me put it this way. Even if everyone in the special police dies, and even those from the Department of Supernatural Affairs are wiped out, we must not let Xu Ran die!” Lv Jincheng used this illustration to help Han Mengyao understand how important Xu Ran’s existence was.

Her jaw dropped. Both the special police and the Department of Supernatural Affairs were groups that were respected on a global scale and they could do what they liked without having to go through the usual procedure of getting approval for their operations. Yet, both units put together were still worth less than one Xu Ran.

“Don’t underestimate him. Did you know? Our country has been nearly wiped out several times since we gained independence? From what I’ve read, this has happened no less than ten times, and the one who got us out of these crises were not you and me, neither was it our mentor or the Department of Supernatural Affairs. It was these Daoists,” Lv Jincheng explained patiently.

This time, even Su Jin was astonished to hear such a thing. Before being selected to become an owner, he had been an ordinary man on the street and knew very little about such major events. He never knew that the country he lived in had gone through such perilous times before.

Lv Jincheng glanced at Su Jin and smiled faintly. “Well, you’re not an ordinary person either, so it’s fine for you to know, but I hope you will not tell anyone else about this.”

Su Jin nodded and said, “Of course. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Lv Jincheng then took his phone out to show Su Jin some photos. Su Jin looked through the photos one by one and paused for a moment when he saw the photo of the child. But he concealed his reaction very well and had only paused for an additional millisecond.

He had paused for that tiny bit longer because he realized that this child looked a lot like one of the kids he saw at that orphanage.

“Those children are connected to Ye Yun and now, one of them is part of this case. Exactly what sort of trouble is that girl in?” thought Su Jin to himself. He had a bad feeling about this, but his subconscious still failed to link Ye Yun to Hell’s Handbook because Lv Jincheng had said earlier that Daoists were able to do such seemingly supernatural acts. Were Daoists the only people in the world who were capable of such acts? Clearly, they weren’t. That would explain why there were other forces who could nearly wipe out a country.

The Daoists had an enemy, and a formidable one at that. It was possible that this was the doing of an enemy of the Daoists. Ye Yun might have been involved in this case by chance, or she might have saved those children purely out of the kindness of her heart.

Su Jin was usually an intelligent person, but somehow, when it came to anything related to Ye Yun, it was as if his brain refused to work properly, as if he wanted to continue believing that Ye Yun was just another ordinary girl who couldn’t possibly be in the same tragic situation as he was.

Lv Jincheng and Han Mengyao proceeded to bring Su Jin to take a look at the other crime scenes. After putting all the information together, Su Jin agreed that these homicide cases were very strange indeed, and he was pretty certain that at least one Handbook owner was involved in this whole thing.

“These are all the cases involving locals, it’s 17 victims across four households. We discovered a complete piece of skin in two households and they both belong to children. So… bro, what do you think?” Lv Jincheng and Su Jin were joking at first when they called each other “bro”, but now they were quite familiar with one another and didn’t go back to calling each other “mister” anymore.

“I’ve got a few ideas in mind, but I think it’s best that we take a look at the cases involving the foreigners first,” said Su Jin. He felt that once he got to see the foreigners who had been murdered, he would be able to say for sure if Handbook owners were involved in this matter or not.