After the three of them gathered, Su Nuo’s hands moved mechanically as he carefully picked up the wallet, finding that the cash inside had been taken, but everything else remained.
And at the top of the wallet was a slender slip of paper.
The paper had two words written in strange script.
Lin Huan’s eyes narrowed slightly: "It seems the chaos here was intentional, someone wanted to remind us that a demon is at work here."
Hu Yanbing added, "This means the person knows our identity, but they might be trying to help us, or they might be setting a trap."
The appearance of this note made the three of them fall silent for a while, indicating that they had been targeted.
A moment later, Lin Huan produced a photo frame containing a picture of Xu Hongjiao and her daughter, along with a charred amulet, and handed it to the other two to see.
"I have another discovery here."
The entire room was full of pictures of Xu Cairou, and only in the bedroom was there a photo of Xu Hongjiao holding her, a photo of the two together.
"Isn’t this the lady you gave an amulet to?" Hu Yanbing asked, wide-eyed.
Lin Huan nodded heavily, his tone melancholic: "If I had insisted on following her, maybe we could have saved her, maybe we could have found the culprit..."
But Hu Yanbing’s focus was elsewhere, as he asked Lin Huan in surprise, "No way, are you really a semi-immortal? Quickly tell me when I’ll find a wife."
Lin Huan’s annoyance was somewhat dispelled, and he waved his hand helplessly: "What semi-immortal, it’s just that I’ve seen more, and have some sometimes-accurate intuitions."
Yet Hu Yanbing didn’t believe it, firmly convinced Lin Huan could indeed predict things.
While the two argued, Su Nuo was deep in thought. After they stopped, he struck his palm with his fist: "I think I’ve found a breakthrough in the investigation."
The two of them stopped, waiting for Su Nuo’s analysis. Among the three of them, Su Nuo was the best at reasoning and analysis.
"Now at least one thing is clear, someone wants us to investigate demons, whether it’s a trap or help, at least it indicates signs of demon activity here."
"Cases related to demons are not small matters, so we may need to seek assistance from above."
"Another point, I think I’ve found the pattern in the kidnappings."
Hu Yanbing’s eyes lit up, grabbing Su Nuo’s arm and asking, "What pattern, tell me quickly."
Su Nuo smiled and began to analyze: "To find the pattern in the kidnappings, you need to find the connection or common points among the abductees."
"But according to the information sent by the Hunter Association, these people have nothing in common; they haven’t been to the same place, nor used the services of the same company."
"So either the kidnappings are indiscriminate, or there’s a common trait among these people that attracts the kidnapper."
"It’s hard to find this common trait, but looking at the photo frame Lin Huan pulled out, I thought of a possibility... the room was full of her daughter’s photos, showing her mourning for her deceased daughter."
"Could the kidnapper be targeting those who have a strong yearning for the deceased, yet not to the extent that the soul becomes a ghost in reality?"
Su Nuo rummaged in his bag, pulling out a palm-sized device. After adjusting some parameters, he pressed it down, and after a moment, the device emitted a faint buzzing sound.
"Sure enough, there was a soul here last night, not a resentful evil ghost, but the soul of the deceased... If other abductees also have electromagnetic anomalies left by souls, it could prove my guess is the real answer."
This device, called the ghost detection device, is a collaborative creation by Geng Xingshu and another senior researcher.
The principle is that in places where ghosts or souls appear, electromagnetic anomalies occur, and this device can detect such anomalies.
However, generally speaking, this gadget is used to detect ghosts, not souls.
Because the electromagnetic anomalies left by souls are different from those of ghosts, and souls aren’t threatening.
Previously, during their investigation of abductees, they had only considered the ghost kind issue and hadn’t thought about souls...
With Su Nuo’s conjecture, the three of them temporarily had a direction for their investigation.
Using the Foundation’s resources, they eventually proved that all the missing people had experienced the death of a relative recently.
This wasn’t surprising, as no one can assure that their loved ones will all die after themselves.
But most of the missing people mourned their relatives’ deaths to an oddly similar degree, which was unusual.
This was deduced based on feedback from the missing people’s neighbors and friends.
Additionally, the recent missing people’s homes had electromagnetic anomalies left by souls, which could pretty much confirm Su Nuo’s suspicion.
The investigation into the demons was also progressing steadily.
However, Su Nuo and the others were not responsible for this. The Foundation had already dispatched a team experienced in dealing with demons to specifically target demon activities here, and their investigation showed signs of demon activity indeed.
Meanwhile, Lin Huan and his two companions primarily focused on missing persons cases.
Though they found a common trait, catching the kidnappers was still no easy task. So many people die every day; no one knows who the target will be.
Therefore, the three of them chose the dumbest method, staking out.
They used various resources to locate all the relatives of recent deaths in Sihu City, letting Lin Huan visit them one by one.
Whenever Lin Huan’s intuition was triggered, they would stake out there.
After tirelessly searching for three days, Lin Huan finally had a reaction toward a beautiful young woman...
This young woman’s name was Miao Xuan. Her boyfriend had recently died in an accident, causing her to weep daily, almost out of breath.
So to console her, Lin Huan decided to guard her personally...
The kind of guarding where he would hide himself and go wherever she went, even sleeping in the same room at night.
Before the action, Hu Yanbing clutched Lin Huan’s neck, shaking him violently and asking, "Be honest, did you have a reaction because she’s pretty?"
"You chose to guard her personally because you want to seize the chance?"
Lin Huan brushed off his hand disdainfully, saying, "What kind of person do you take me for? A friend to women, do I need to be a scapegoat? I chose personal protection for love and justice."
"I don’t have to be her bodyguard personally, you guys can do it too?"
"Can you guarantee she won’t discover you? If you go, will that thing still attack her?"
The two couldn’t argue with Lin Huan, so they watched him disappear cheerfully into the young lady’s room, while they could only stake out outside.
Actually, Lin Huan didn’t mention that his illusion technique could allow the other two to hide in the room too.
He just chose not to...