Chapter Thirty: Traces on the Wall

When Mu Rongxun awoke, the sunlight outside was gentle and bright. Yet, this time, he sensed an uncanny chill beneath its warmth. He supposed it was simply the aftermath of returning from the shadow world and thought little more of it.

With the second main storyline suddenly sealed away, only his original task remained—just to hunt a few aberrations when time permitted. For him, this was hardly a challenge.

Rest had swiftly dispelled all the fatigue from battle. As he stepped into the courtyard, he found Chen Lian quietly reading under the grapevine. Standing in the sunlight, Mu Rongxun frowned. It was a perfectly ordinary scene, yet something about it struck him as deeply discordant, though he could not say why.

Sensing his presence, Chen Lian closed her book and rose. “You’re awake. How are you feeling now?”

“Mm.” Mu Rongxun nodded, saying little more. Between them, conversation was rare unless Chen Lian brought up matters of the task.

“Last night, you went to investigate the bus route. Three bodies appeared in the wilderness, stripped of their clothes, their deaths bizarre. The case has been handed over to the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs.” As she spoke, Chen Lian drew three files from a folder resting on the stone table beneath the vines. “These are their records. I thought they might be useful to you, so I brought them.”

Mu Rongxun glanced at the files and handed them back to her. “Not interested.”

“Why?” Chen Lian was puzzled. Wasn’t this youth most passionate about hunting aberrations?

“They’re too weak,” Mu Rongxun replied, then began to practice the motion of drawing and sheathing his sword.

“That can’t be. That aberration managed to kill three grown men—it must have been formidable,” Chen Lian murmured, perplexed. How could such a creature be weak?

“They were ruled by their baser instincts,” Mu Rongxun said, his tone detached.

Seeing the photos and the manner of death, he immediately recognized the three corpses as the passengers who had left the ghost bus midway with a woman. He’d seen them, but paid them no heed at the time. As for Xu Ying and the others who followed, had it not been for the task, he would have ignored them as well. On the bus, besides the vehicle itself, only the Painted Skin Ghost counted as a first-level aberration; none of the others even merited a classification.

Therefore, the aberration had no real power to kill three grown men. It was simply that lust clouded their judgment, and with a touch of illusion, they could easily be driven to slaughter one another. For an aberration, such manipulation was effortless.

“You mean…?” Chen Lian, prompted, considered the possibility. She hadn’t been idle these days—though she hadn’t undertaken tasks herself, she was well-versed in most of the Bureau’s records.

“Mm.” Mu Rongxun nodded, confirming her guess.

“This is really…” Chen Lian was at a loss, almost amused. She had thought any aberration capable of killing three grown men must be ferocious, warranting utmost caution. Yet, it turned out to be a farce.

“If you’re not interested, I’ll report it and have the task level corrected. Your reward will accumulate, and I’ll bring you a new assignment next time.”

“Has someone been here?” Mu Rongxun suddenly frowned.

“No, I haven’t heard anyone at the door or noticed any disturbance.” Chen Lian had been living here, and would have heard if anyone had visited.

Mu Rongxun ignored her, walking toward the courtyard wall. There, he noticed a faint footprint and a patch of moss depressed at the top of the wall. His expression unchanged, he checked the other directions and found traces only in that spot.

“So a cat burglar did pay a visit!” Chen Lian’s face darkened; she hadn’t noticed a thing. If the intruder had ill intentions, with Mu Rongxun absent, she—a daylight awakener with little combat ability—would have been no different from an ordinary woman. The consequences would have been dire.

“Not a thief,” Mu Rongxun stated with certainty.

“They were after me,” he added. He already knew who it was.

The intruder had scaled the wall from outside with care, leaving minimal trace. But exiting from within had required a push against the wall to leap atop it, hence the footprint, and the depressed moss was simply the result of someone stepping on it.

“After you?” Chen Lian was baffled. In her mind, Mu Rongxun kept to himself, rarely venturing out except to hunt aberrations. He was cold, perhaps, but shouldn’t have enemies.

Mu Rongxun offered no explanation; the intruder must have been one of those players, allies of Li Jing, whom he had killed. Thinking of Li Jing, he recalled the tall, headless female corpse that had fought alongside Han Qianliu—it resembled Li Jing more and more.

Yet, while Li Jing was undeniably strong among ordinary people, she hadn’t been so exaggerated. Besides, it had only been a few days; how could she already have become an aberration?

He suspected his intuition was wrong, but recalling the young man who had sought him out earlier, and now someone deliberately coming to investigate, he couldn’t dismiss the possibility that the monster was indeed Li Jing, and that her allies had never found her body.

But this was a matter between players—best left for them to resolve.

Frankly, killing Li Jing had been a matter of luck; otherwise, even with the golden bow, he would have been hard-pressed to defend himself. It was only because his strength had surged unexpectedly that he managed to decapitate her.

Now, it was clear suspicion was directed at him. Had they targeted him from the outset, he might have been helpless. But now, things were different.

He had unlocked his attribute expansion, activating his energy property. Though he couldn’t wield it directly, being able to use the golden bow was enough.

He was no longer a lamb awaiting slaughter.

Besides, from Li Jing’s spoils, he’d gained not only the golden bow and some talisman papers, but another item as well. He hadn’t intended to use it so soon, but if circumstances demanded, he would.

Although this was his first venture into the Tower of Magic, after repeated enhancements, his abilities were far beyond what they had been when he first entered.