After ten o’clock at night, River Shoal became the liveliest place in Dadu.

Young men and women gathered here in crowds. Fueled by heavy metal music and alcohol, hormones ran rampant. Here, people could shed all the pressure and burdens during the day, listen to the most primal instincts in their souls, and rediscover the wildness and desire in their blood.

Continuing to stroll along the riverbank in River Shoal, the noise that seemed capable of shattering the night would gradually dissipate. All that lingered in the ears were the whispers of the night wind and the echoes of the river’s waves lapping against the shore. The entire world would fade from the extreme clamor to a quiet and dark canvas.

The Dadu District and the Ying Sea District faced each other across this river.

On the other side of the river, all was silent.

This side of the river was a city that never slept.

“How much farther is it?”

Qu Shui led the way and walked along the riverbank for a long time.

Gu Shen looked back. The shining lights had already faded into the night, making them indiscernible. In front and behind him stretched a dark night.

“We’re almost there.” Qu Shui had her hands behind her back and was in a good mood. She skipped while leading the way. Suddenly, she made a big leap and stood still. “Hmm… I think it’s here.”

Several large bridges had been built along the riverbank, and protective measures had been taken on both sides. The pedestrian passages under the bridges had holes drilled at certain intervals and had painted white marks… 1, 2, 3…

“Number 97.” Qu Shui looked solemnly at the cave under the bridge. “I… met him here.”

Gu Shen frowned.

Although it was in River Shoal, this place was actually quite remote, with no signs of human presence. Moreover, ordinary people would never take a second look at this kind of cave. Only homeless people and stray cats and dogs would spend the night here.

However, judging from the style of the believers of the Eternal Foundation, it wasn’t entirely implausible for that man to live here.

He had avoided the detection of Deep Sea for so long, so he must have had a special hiding place.

“Wait here for me,” Gu Shen instructed and then entered the cave alone.

The cave was very damp. As soon as he took a step in, an intense stench assaulted his face. He couldn’t see the environment clearly in the darkness, but there seemed to be a lot of garbage piled here and the smell of feces… Someone or something had indeed lived here.

There was no sound outside the cave.

It seemed that Qu Shui was waiting obediently outside.

Gu Shen silently ignited the Blazing Fire between his eyebrows and looked around the cave. Profile, activate!

The moment the Blazing Fire ignited, the world in Gu Shen’s eyes was no longer dark. A bright lamp lit in his heart, allowing him to survey the environment in the darkness. This No. 97 cave in a remote area of River Shoal was very narrow, with a round vaulted ceiling. The ground was littered with loose soil and dirt. It was clear that a vagrant had lived here. The food scraps casually thrown on the ground were already emitting a foul smell and half-rotted into the ground.

But as Gu Shen looked up…

A bone-chilling sensation immediately exploded from the back of his spine.

The fresh stench of decay mixed with damp, pungent air rushed into his nostrils.

This stench continuously emanated from the stone wall of the cave three meters away. On the narrow stone wall, there were several large iron nails suspending a dried skeleton. The flesh had already rotted away, but the bones were still intact.

The Profile world was silent.

The Blazing Fire banished the darkness, illuminating the filthy environment of the cave as bright as day. Guided by his mental power, time slowly flowed backward. The flesh of the skeleton on the wall gradually turned from dry to plump, and its head no longer dropped. Gu Shen saw a glimpse of a reflection.

At that time, ‘he’ had not died yet. He screamed in despair and vented his anguish.

Time continued to reverse.

… Until a familiar, petite figure appeared in sight.

In the Profile world, she was reduced to merely a black shadow, devoid of any facial features and sound.

She slowly turned around and looked at Gu Shen across the reversed space and time.

At this moment, Gu Shen’s mind was almost blank.

Rationally drove his thoughts, and fiery sparks burst out in an instant.

His thoughts flashed back.

In the frozen moment, Gu Shen felt the Profile of the cave fading, and his consciousness seemed to have entered a grand palace where memories were stored. Above the hall hung a sword ablaze with bright light and fire pointing down. Under the tip of the sword, the memories of the past were sorted and categorized, just like precious scrolls in a collection. As long as he opened them, the memories would replay like a movie.

The first scroll was Hu Danian’s solemn whisper when they met at the bar.

[“This week, in remote corners of Lipu Street and River Shoal, several dead people appeared. They were all adult males, and they all died from a clean slash to their throats with sharp objects.”]

[“The wounds… showed traces of transcendental aura.”]

The second scroll was the scene of the confrontation with the believer of the Eternal Foundation.

[“To hell with the new era!”] 】

[“Long live the Eternal Foundation!”]

In the final moments of this scene, accompanied by a furious roar, the Foundation believer, who carried the Solemn Stone Sculpture, was blown into pieces.

In order to ensure the assassination, this believer had used high-yield explosives and a mental-type sealed object, but he had not used a transcendental ability from beginning to end… because he was not a transcendent at all.

Due to the fact that the River Shoal murder cases coincided with the insomnia incidents, Hu Danian had been misled. He had placed the focus of his investigation on tracking down the out-of-control individual with a transcendental aura. The truth was that the assassin carrying the Solemn Stone Sculpture was just an ordinary person.

It had been a coincidence.

No wonder when I connected the River Shoal serial killing incident to the Solemn Stone Sculpture insomnia incident, I kept feeling something was off.

The figures of these two perpetrators overlapped but didn’t quite match.

The final flashback scene in the memory palace played.

It was when he first pushed open the door of the clinic’s enclosed room and handed over hot water.

The Blazing Fire had sensed an unsettling transcendental aura… And he had happened to see the pocket watch on Zhou Yexin.

Now that he thought about it, he understood that the true reason for the uneasiness… was not because of the pocket watch.

Based on Zhou Yexin’s dream, he could infer that the pocket watch was a good and orderly sealed object. The faint residual aura was only upholding the belief that it would ‘burn everything to protect its owner’.

The Blazing Fire’s true uneasiness came from… the second person in the room.

Qu Shui.

The Profile world, which was as bright as day, reversed back to the beginning, and the flow rate finally returned to normal.

The rewind button was cut off and switched to normal playback.

A petite girl dragged a tall man into the cave. The man struggled weakly, but he could only slump against the stone wall.

The two of them ‘cuddled’ together and talked a lot.

Gu Shen’s current mental power was limited. In the Profile world, apart from seeing the rough silhouettes that symbolized the outline of their bodies, he couldn’t obtain any more information. But judging from the stiff movements of the silhouettes, it wasn’t difficult to infer that the girl was doing all the talking, while the man was forced to listen.

Finally…

Like a couple deeply in love, the girl leaned in close and uttered her last words of love.

Then she took out a pair of scissors from her pocket.

She aimed it at his throat precisely.

One swift cut.

The Profile ended, and the cave world returned to darkness.

Gu Shen looked at the hanging skeleton in silence. The wound perfectly matched with those of the victims of the River Shoal murder case. It was a sharp weapon wound, cutting off the neck cleanly and neatly.

Because of the remote location, it had not been discovered yet.

Suddenly, a voice sounded in his ear.

“Dr. Gu…”

Gu Shen’s hair stood on end when he realized there was another person in the cave.

The voice was only twenty centimeters away from him, and the petite figure was standing close to his back.

The voice was gentle and plaintive, like that of an abandoned kitten. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you since last time… I like you… From the moment I first saw you, I’ve liked you…”

The voice murmured dreamily, “Will you… be my boyfriend?”