Chapter 74: Part 2

“Redwin has finally launched the war!” Lin Sheng squinted, taking a quick glance at the news.

An infiltration battle has broken out on the beach outside of Lucerne, the seaport in the north of Pearl Ocean on 14th, 4.00 pm.

Our troop, led by Major-General Fermat, successfully drove out the invading special forces of Redwin. According to casualty figures, a hundred and thirty-five invading special soldiers are dead, and our side has lost thirteen soldiers.

Beneath the text was a color photo of the beach-battle aftermath. There were no bodies but only sporadic bullet holes and explosion craters.

Further down was various analyses and statistics. The news reported that Redwin was weak and dogged by domestic unrest and foreign aggression. Unaware of its dwindling support from the people, Redwin was no match for Great Xilin, and the fragile Redwin would lose a protracted war.

But considering that this was only a state-owned publication, it was expected to be partial and distorted in its reporting. So, Lin Sheng continued to browse through other news.

What surprised him was that many neighboring countries held an opposing stance against Xilin.

While some countries were urging for restraint from both sides, they actually did not allow any Xilinian vessels from entering their waters. Also, some countries were accusing Xilin of seizing the mineral resources of other nations.

The Xilinian government was heavily distorting and altering the news to make themselves look the most innocent and strongest. However, they could not cover up everything, especially the details.

“It’s getting all the more chaotic.” Lin Sheng rolled up the newspaper, paid for the food, and left the restaurant.

Quickly, he headed back to the newsstand and bought a local newspaper, Huaisha Daily. The headline blazing across the front page was about his ‘masterpiece’ last night.

Terror in Dongwu Tower! Bandit murdering twelve and fleeing under the cover of night has been gunned down by police at a roadblock.

“Gunned down?” Lin Sheng’s eyelid twitched. He finally understood why Huaisha was such a dangerous place. The goddamn police department had issued a press statement saying that they had cracked the case all in the name of maintaining public order.

“This is simply…” Lin Sheng could not find a word to describe his disgust. No wonder the gangsters could spit in the face of the law with so many murder cases. After discarding the two newspapers into the garbage bin, he entered Huilian Neighborhood and walked toward his house with his hands in his jacket pockets.

“Next, I will have to wait for Sarroux to determine the list of people he can get.” In fact, Lin Sheng did not mind how many people there were, all he cared about was the actual influence he could amass. His former club might look good on the outside, but there was no internal cohesion, and everyone was looking after his or her own interest. When pressure arrived, the club would crumble in the blink of an eye. Initially, he had wanted to wait until he could build up his reputation before setting up a mutual-aid society. But time was not on his side.

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The official narrative of the previous explosion incident was that it was the explosion of tons of firecrackers, but he had later heard of another version. It was said that the blast was, in fact, the work of spy detonating the ammunition depot at the Fort Whitehawk. In the following days, clashes had arisen between Xilin and Redwin on the near sea with battleships from both sides firing at each other. Not a single media in the country had reported the incident or its outcome, but it was the non-reporting itself that was the most troubling.

With the times getting more turbulent, he felt an urgent need to increase his self-defense capability.

Sneaking back into his home, Lin Sheng went to check on his parents’ bedroom. It was locked. Apparently, they were still asleep. He changed into his slippers, went back to his room, took off this jacket before going into the washroom to wash his hands and face. He left his sword and its carrying case, which were stained with blood, buried in the money pit in the wilderness. Despite killing twelve people in one night, there was not a single bloodstain on his clothes and body except for the inconspicuous one on his chin. A simple face wash would clean that up thoroughly.

After cleaning up everything, Lin Sheng climbed into bed and slowly fell asleep.

With the ongoing uncertainty and the crow doing the recon earlier, he was not worried about being traced. Neither there would be a police dog following his trail. He had been traversing in the wilderness where usually there was strong wind at night, and odor would not last for long.

Shad, the head of Huaisha Police Department, stood in his office talking on the phone with sweat trickling down his wrinkled fat chin. His face was pale, and he was in a panic.

“Yes, Sir. Understood. The killer has been gunned down! Absolutely, I swear!” Shad said assuredly. “There won’t be next time! We have sent the best IOs.”

“Please be assured, Sir! I will get things in order! Absolutely!”

As the call ended, Shad dropped back down in his black leather chair, which creaked loudly in protest under Shad’s over one hundred kilograms of weight. Grabbing the tissue papers on his desk, Shad wiped his face, soaking up all the sweat on his skin before discarding them all into the bin.

All twelve-murder victims in Dongwu Tower last night were the thugs of White Tarots. Everyone in the gangster group was furious. Making use of his political connection, Chen Hang demanded the police to find and catch the murderer as soon as possible. That was why Shad had received the telephone call from his superior. He ran his carrot-like fingers through his hair, his fat face twisting together. He would already have solved the case if he could. But the scene of last night’s murder was so horrific that it even shocked the police officers at the scene, including him. Two senior police officers, who were quite authoritative, opined that the killer took no more than ten minutes from entering the tower until killing Chen Tan. It meant that within those ten minutes, the twelve thugs were defenseless like sitting ducks. At least eight of the victims were professional firearm training instructors. The wounds of all the victims were different; some were tearing, some deep cut, some stab wound, and some wound caused by hard objects. Experts even suspected that ancient weapons like the flying hammer had been used, and there could be multiple killers.

“Solve the case? How?” Shad slammed his hand on the expensive blackwood desk. He was in fear. Not just him, but all police officers who had been at the scene that night were in fear. Killing twelve men in ten minutes with over half of the victims were trained gunmen, the killer just walked away unscathed and left no trace behind. There was no sign of struggle and no fingerprints—not even shoe print. Dispirited, Shad wiped his face again. Messing with such vicious ruffians were the last thing he wanted. He just wished he could stay a few more years in the job to amass a little more money.

His men were all slick shirkers. Asides from nabbing some small-time offenders like thieves and rapists, he could not count on them in capturing the psycho killer who slew his victims like cutting winter melon. Dispatching them to catch the killer would mean sending them to certain death. Shad was at his wits’ end; there was no one whom he could count on.

“Forget it. After all, Chen Hang wouldn’t just sit by and do nothing. I will leave it to him!” Shad had made up his mind not to interfere in the case as he knew those at the top would not give a shit.

The war broke out. The ammunition depot of the Whitehawk Fleet, one of the three marine fleets of the Xilinian military, was attacked earlier and suffering huge losses. Following that, a sea battle ensued.

After learning the news from his former comrade in the military, Shad was struck dumb. So, who would bother to look at the murder case?

“Wait it out! As long as the killer does not continue his killing spree, things will be forgotten quickly, and Chen Hang will take care of the rest.” Shad thought for a moment and determined as such. Since the killer could kill Chen Tan despite his watertight security measures, he could likewise kill him in the police station. After all, fear was part of human nature.