Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 455 Ghost Catcher 16

The sound of the door opening cut short the argument.

The temporary analysis room is brightly lit, with evidence bags neatly stacked on the stainless steel workbench.

A tall man with his police jacket draped over the back of a chair and his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows was turning around, his brows furrowed and his eyes as sharp as an eagle - it was Liu Huajun.

To his left stood a young detective with a look of dissatisfaction on his face.

A flash of extremely complex emotions flashed across Liu Huajun's eyes the moment he met Yun Chu - accident?

resist?

There was also a subtle sense of relief that he himself was not aware of.

The experience of Yun Chu using the principles of architectural acoustics and the distribution of mold spores to twist the "haunted" case of the old house in South City into a "scientific investigation" is still vivid in people's minds. The famous report "Behind the Scientific Exorcism" almost made him, the captain of the criminal investigation team, the target of ridicule by his colleagues.

"Yun Chu?" Liu Huajun's voice was a little dry. "Does the museum have enough staff?"

"Captain Liu," Yun Chu nodded slightly, her eyes passing directly over him and falling on the huge evidence bag in the center of the operating table behind him, "The matters in the museum have been handled. Do you need me to take a look at this for the new case?" Her tone was flat, and she didn't even ask what the case was, as if being called here to help identify the object was a matter of course.

In the evidence bag was a copper-based cloisonné enamel incense burner, about the size of an adult man's head. The exquisite and intricate lotus pattern on the burner exuded a heavy, ancient luster under the light.

There is a circular defect on the top of the furnace cover, revealing a bit of the dark interior.

What's strange is that the entire furnace is covered with an extremely dark blood-red rust, as if long-dried blood has completely seeped into the metal texture, exuding an indescribable gloomy feeling.

What's even stranger is that when you get a few steps away from it, goose bumps appear on your skin for no reason.

"Three days ago, in the Jinxiu Huating villa complex in the western suburbs," Liu Huajun took a deep breath and began to describe the case. He spoke quickly and with professional composure. "The owner's family of four were all found dead from self-inflicted mechanical injuries."

"The father split his chest open with an ornamental battle axe, the mother slit her throat, and the two children... one smashed his skull with a desk lamp, and the other jumped from a third-floor window, his limbs twisted like a broken doll."

Yun Chu's eyes never left the incense burner.

Liu Huajun continued, "The crime scene was extremely bloody and chaotic. All the windows were locked from the inside, and there were no signs of intrusion. The preliminary autopsy found no obvious signs of poison or a violent struggle."

"The only anomaly is this," he pointed at the incense burner. "It was placed on a low table in the center of the villa's living room. On-site inspection revealed a note underneath it. It read, 'The incense burner has returned to life.'"

Young detective Zhang Qiang couldn't wait to add, "The most bizarre thing is the floor at the scene! After cleaning up the body, the four pools of blood on the floor changed shape!"

"On the first day, it was just a pool of blood. On the second day, it looked like... fuzzy dark lines were growing around the edges? On the third day, a new, sticky liquid oozed directly from the location of the human-shaped bloodstain. Analysis revealed it was the deceased's blood! The hallway surveillance footage also captured a blurry shadow floating around the incense burner in the middle of the night! Captain Liu said it was dust or insects..."

"Zhang Qiang!" Liu Huajun interrupted in a deep voice, "Yun Gong is not here to listen to ghost stories."

Yun Chu finally stepped forward. She wore no gloves, nor did she use any instruments. She simply extended her left hand and hovered it about an inch above the incense burner, her fingertips slowly moving in the air.

As she moved, ice-blue light seemed to flow rapidly inside the silver bracelet on her wrist.

After a few seconds, she withdrew her hand, and a bit of frosty white mist visible to the naked eye condensed on her fingertips.

Suddenly, there was a loud "bang" in the autopsy room, as if a heavy metal tray was knocked over.

The young police officer shuddered with fear. Zhang Qiang swallowed his saliva.

Liu Huajun's face became even uglier: "They are cleaning the equipment next door." He emphasized.

Yun Chu seemed not to hear and took out a specially made sealed small spray bottle from the tool kit, which contained water that looked crystal clear.

She sprayed the rusty area around the edge of the gap in the incense burner lid.

Hiss... With a very slight sound, the dark red rust seemed to be corroded by strong acid, and quickly evaporated an indescribable light gray smoke with the smell of earth and rust.

The smoke lingered and lingered, strangely condensing into a tiny, twisted pattern in the air that looked neither human nor beast, and lasted for a full two seconds before dissipating unwillingly.

Even Liu Huajun's breathing stopped.

"This thing isn't the source." Yun Chu's voice remained calm, but it was like an ice needle piercing the tense air in the room. "It's a container, a... trap."

"What do you mean?" Liu Huajun asked, his eyes more serious than ever.

"Something used to be inside. It was very ferocious, and it had taken human lives. It was forcibly suppressed for a long time." Yun Chu pointed to the gap in the furnace lid. "There used to be some kind of jade or magic tool embedded here that could seal it, but it was recently pried off."

Yun Chu took out a piece of golden test paper as thin as a cicada's wing and touched the area where the solution had just been sprayed.

Spider-web-like black lines instantly spread across the test paper, and in the center of the lines condensed into a dot of dark gold that was so rich that it could not be dissolved.

"Even though the 'thing' has run away, the 'smell' of the people it has eaten and the blood it has stained still clings to this stove like a greasy stain."

Yun Chu paused, looking into Liu Huajun's eyes. "What it needs most right now is fresh, blood-filled food filled with 'qi'. Police officers, doctors, those with strong yang energy... especially those it has come into contact with and hunted before... are most suitable for it."

A chill ran up Liu Huajun's spine from his tailbone. He was the first person in charge of the scene, and had spent the longest time investigating.

Just then, a technician suddenly pushed the door open, his face pale. "Captain Liu! Blood sample report! Analytical instruments... just now... just now, all the screens went black and restarted!"

"The only data that wasn't uploaded to the cloud after the reboot was the blood sample active ingredient analysis report. It...it's all garbled! But the last page...printed like this!"

He held up a freshly printed piece of paper with trembling hands. On it was a single line of twisted, illegible characters, like the crawling of earthworms. The system recognized them and printed them as text:

The smell of blood in the incense burner is gone, and the police officer's flesh and bones are fragrant.

The paper with the distorted words printed on it was like a piece of ice-cold iron, instantly freezing the air in the makeshift analysis room. The subtle sound of the technician's teeth chattering was unusually clear at this moment.

Liu Huajun felt a bone-chilling chill penetrating his police uniform. It was not only because of the naked threat of "police officer's flesh and bones are fragrant", but also because of Yun Chu's previous warning and the fact that he was the first investigator. At this moment, a creepy closed loop was formed.

"What it needs most now is new blood food filled with 'qi'...especially from those it has come into contact with and hunted before..."

"Bang!" Another sudden metal collision sound came from the autopsy room next door, louder than before, more like the sound of something being thrown hard against the wall.