Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 862: Chapter 820: Who Said The Clue Is Broken?! _1

Drawing a Snake With Horns and Turner arrived at the same place in different ways–

Xuanyang Square, Wannian County Government.

However, Drawing a Snake With Horns was taken there to be put in prison, and Turner was taken by his uncle for a visit to the county magistrate to find more clues about the case.

But things weren’t that simple.

As a giant city home to a million soldiers and civilians, Chang’an, even with numerous security agencies, could only do its best to reduce crime and could not eliminate it completely.

As the head of Wannian County’s law enforcement, it’s unrealistic to remember all these cases.

Turner, in particular, wanted to find not some heinous crime, but a missing case.

Can these things even show up in a magistrate’s day to day recollection? If it weren’t for the unique circumstances and the place of the disappearance, the magistrate wouldn’t bother asking about it.

So, the magistrate gave Turner another certificate, allowing him to view the case files himself.

Then Turner followed four martial lords to the case file library of Wannian County.

Seeing the mountain of files piled up on shelves, he instantly felt overwhelmed–

When will he find the right one?

Fortunately, the librarian of the case file library appeared in time, saving them from going through the case files themselves.

Every case occurred in Wannian County, whether it happened to princes and nobles or to street beggars, whether it was 10 years ago or yesterday, the librarian remembered all.

As soon as Turner mentioned the “missing cases without clues,” the seemingly ordinary librarian, without a second of hesitation, led them to a shelf, took out a stack of case files, and found the one they were looking for, handing it to Turner.

He then moved to another shelf, repeating the previous actions.

After acquiring the second case file, he stood still and confidently said, “The missing cases without results within this year are only these two.”

Turner quickly read through the case files.

Perhaps due to the victims of these two missing cases being ordinary citizens, they hadn’t been given much importance. The files only recorded the reporters, the families’ reporting times, and the rough timing of the disappearances. Apart from this, the possible places of disappearance: one in Daozheng Square, one in Tranquility Square.

For Turner, this information was essentially enough.

He also hadn’t hoped to garner any specific intelligence from the case files, as the major probability of that intelligence would require him to utilize [Spiritual Vision].

Following this, he quickly made his way to Daozheng Square, found the missing person’s home, activated Spiritual Vision for a quick look, then opened the map, looking along the route the missing person used to go to work outside the city.

And the progress of the matter exceeded his expectations– not far from there, he saw a barely visible black line in the air, which reminded him of the dark shadow he’d seen at the workshop.

Following it, he found a little alleyway less than a hundred steps away from the east wall of Daozheng Square.

This unassuming alleyway in the eyes of the martial lords was, to Turner, a scene of a horrific “hunt.”

The victim was immediately taken down by the dark shadow, but even though it bit down on the man’s neck, it didn’t kill him, instead cruelly cutting open his abdomen, extracting two kidneys, and carefully placing them under the eastern wall.

After finishing this, the dark shadow returned the way it came, feasting on the victim’s body.

Unable to bear the sight, Turner closed his spiritual vision, walked to the eastern wall of Daozheng Square, but there was nothing there. He didn’t see the kidneys that the shadow put down.

He took a brief rest, then activated spiritual vision again, indeed seeing those two non-existent kidneys again.

“Have you found any clues?” His uncle caught up and asked.

Turner nodded, “We’ll talk about it later, let’s go to the next place first.”

This time, it was the marketplace at the southeast corner of Chang’an: Tranquility Square, adjacent to Furong Garden and Qujang Pool.

The investigation at Tranquility Square was the same as at Daozheng Square: Following the barely visible black line in the air, Turner found the southeastern corner of Tranquility Square, once again witnessing a cruel “hunt.”

The dark shadow again first removed part of the victim’s internal organs before starting to devour them.

As for this part of the internal organs, Turner had to use a panel to jump onto an external link to search, before daring to confirm what it was– it was a liver.

Turner did not hold anything back, and explained his findings to his uncle and the other martial lords.

But after that, the matter reached an impasse.

Certainly, he has obtained critical clues: there were three highly consistent serial murderous cases in the past month, where the murderer each time would remove part of the victim’s internal organs.

But who is the murderer? Why would he do this? And how does he do it?

Turner couldn’t answer any of these questions.

So the task got stuck.

When his uncle asked him what he wanted to investigate next, his mind drew a blank.

But his uncle didn’t blame him, only took him to report the information to the magistrate, planning to take him home to rest.

After they went home, not only did they provide information about his sister Shirley, but also a jade pendant his sister had left behind.

In Uncle’s words, my sister was also a magical girl.

So magical that she roamed all over Chang’an City before she was even ten, jumping fences and barriers, yet she never encountered any mishaps.

At most, sometimes we wouldn’t know where she had gone, and when she returned, her face and body would be covered in dust, looking filthy.

But after a bath and a change of clothes, she was the cutest little darling people fell in love with at first sight.

We tried to teach her not to run aimlessly. She would always obediently agree with us verbally, but the moment we turned our heads, she would be out of sight.

You can’t punish her. After all, she’s not our child, and this little girl is simply too adorable; we just couldn’t bear to do it.

As a result, after she started learning brewing at the age of ten, she became entirely unmanageable. Initially, her family would often go to the place where she was apprenticing, fearing she might be bullied.

Later, they gradually got used to her running around outside and even began to come home less and less often.

— In the Tang Dynasty, a girl of 14 marrying and having children was quite ordinary, so her returning home less frequently and only occasionally sending letters was not strange at all.

“This jade pendant was left behind when she returned at the age of 14. Now I am giving it to you.” said Uncle, looking at Turner and admonished, “When you find Shirley, make sure she comes home for a visit. We all miss her very much.”

Turner nodded, intending to bypass the guest room cleared for him by his uncle and go directly to his next stop – [Huji Wine Shop].

But when Uncle saw him leaving, he held him back, handed him a book, and said, “The city is in turmoil due to the havoc wreaked by criminals. You must be very careful.”

“I originally wanted to teach you personally, but since you’re in a hurry to find Shirley, try learning it yourself.”

Turner looked at the book he was handed and discovered it was an introductory secret book to staff techniques – [Vajra Demon-Subduing Staff].

So, he thanked Uncle warmly and promptly accepted it.

Whether he would study it or not was a question for later. He wouldn’t refuse a carrot dangled in front of him. It was, at the very least, a bonus.

What really mattered was the jade pendant shaped like a Pixiu—

[Curse Pendant]: Worn as an amulet, it wards off evil and brings good luck.

Effect One: Slightly increases the player’s chance of seeing through illusions.

Effect Two: Provides minimal protection against evil forces.

Effect Three: Minor increase to player’s luck.

Effect Four: The pendant will emit a faint glow when the player comes within fifty steps of good fortune.

Effect Five: The pendant will vibrate on its own when the player is within twenty steps of danger.

(Note 1: The pendant can be upgraded; players may explore how to do this on their own.)

(Note 2: The effect can be surpassed by a higher-ranked effect.)

(Note 3: The effect does not apply to other players.)

(Note 4: Crafted with the power of the Pixiu, to create a ward against evil.)

Turner wasn’t sure about the efficacy of this pendant, but—

It came with five effects!

As everyone knows: the more the effects, the stronger the equipment!

Turner, thrilled, put on the pendant and set off for the Huji Wine Shop for his next step.

As for the case… Well, he was clueless and could only hope that the game developers were moral and provided further clues later on.

*

Unlike Turner, who was at a loss over the case, Great Xia players soon caught onto something.

“A lung from Guangzhai Square, a kidney from Daozheng Square, a liver from Tranquility Square…” Victoria sorted through the clues she had gathered and quickly came up with several ideas—

“I remember that the internal organs have a significant correlation with the Five Elements Theory in traditional Chinese medicine. Is there any connection to the case?”

“If there is a connection, then where are the [spleen] and [heart]?”

“The [heart] should be special. Will it be in a special place?”

“What is the murderer’s purpose? Curses? Alchemy? Practising dark arts?”

“Then the victims may not be random. Their Eight Characters of Birth may be very special!”

…

As a native of Great Xia, Victoria instantly developed a series of associations with the case.

In her view, the clues weren’t lost at all. There were so many things to investigate that it was overwhelming!