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Chapter 285: Clues Confirmed

Lin Qing thought to herself, "This is not good. ’You’re lying.’

’No, I really have power now!’ Zhang Zhiqui was beyond thrilled, ’This must be the feeling of awakening—this is power!’

He grabbed the iron bars and immediately bent them open with his hands.

Lin Qing instinctively stepped back, putting some distance between herself and him.

Zhang Zhiqui stepped through the bars, suddenly realizing that the person before him seemed a bit smaller.

’No... you’re not that person! Who are you really?’

’Did you come here willingly?’ Lin Qing knew the act couldn’t go on anymore and asked urgently, ’Or were you lured here by someone?’

’I... Shut up! I’m going to kill you!’

Chen Xuan at this point also sensed that the light representing the suspect suddenly brightened significantly, as if flickering from candlelight to a glaring bulb light in an instant.

Coupled with the ear-piercing noise of twisted bars and the loud curses from the other side, he realized the situation was out of control.

As he dashed out from his hiding place, Chen Xuan saw Zhang Zhiqui extend his fists towards Lin Qing, striking her as she flew hit the wall heavily with enough force to smash out a hole through the wall, letting in more light from outside!

The entire space began to tremble violently.

’You are all liars!’ Zhang Zhiqui shouted in a fit of rage, turning his head to see Chen Xuan appear.

But his voice cut off abruptly in the next second.

A Thousand Thoughts Sword pierced through the top of his skull, straight into the floor.

The container prison, Zhang Zhiqui’s body, and the light that cast into the darkness all crumbled apart.

The dream collapsed.

Lin Qing let out a long breath, flipping up from the bed and looked at Chen Xuan with disbelief, "Isn’t it? Was the person in the dream really the criminal locked downstairs? I feel like his punch almost shattered my alloy skeleton!"

’He awakened a new power,’ Chen Xuan opened his eyes and said.

’What?’

’Zhang Zhiqui’s illusion gained a completely different ability from his previous Curse in this dream...’ Seeing Zhang Zhiqui blast Lin Qing away, Chen Xuan immediately guessed the reason: The criminal was at a stage where his power was about to sprout, similar to Su Xingwan’s case. Maybe it was emotional disturbance, or maybe a coincidence, but he suddenly awakened upon facing Lin Qing. Even the life light sensed by Celestial Mist Skill brightened unexpectedly.

In reality, the power Zhang Zhiqui awakened was the Murky Curse.

But in the dream, his new ability took the route of brute strength.

You could say the nature of the two powers are completely opposite.

’You’re saying... after injecting this kind of drug, the abilities they gain are completely random?’ Lin Qing asked with surprise, ’I always thought that what abilities one could awaken, besides external stimuli, was largely connected to personality and preferences.’

’It’s a pity the dream is just a dream... If he could take things from the dream out, he could be much more useful.’ Chen Xuan remarked with some regret.

Just imagine... a person about to awaken due can potentially acquire a variety of powers, and he could lie in wait, using a scan gun or simply plunder the powers one by one—that would just be too convenient.

’Wait... isn’t it possible that the memory of this dream will give Zhang Zhiqui an extra ability in reality?’ Lin Qing asked with some concern.

’Did something happen?’ At the same time, a voice from You Chi came through the earpiece, ’Zhang Zhiqui suddenly woke up, looking frightened, seemingly having had a nightmare. If you need him to go back to sleep, I can increase the dose of anesthetic spray.’

Even shadows can influence people in reality.

Chen Xuan took out the scan gun and pressed the scan button towards the monitor screen showing Zhang Zhiqui, ’It’s nothing, just leave him awake for now, the first round of interrogation is over.’

’Okay. So... have you found any new clues?’

’Don’t rush, I need to analyze it thoroughly before drawing a conclusion.’

After ending the call, Chen Xuan relayed his observations to Lin Qing, ’He didn’t acquire any new abilities, this dream, at most, will only frighten him a bit.’

’That’s good.’ Lin Qing nodded, ’Turns out the suspect didn’t disclose the complete truth.’

According to Zhang Zhiqui’s testimony, he was forced into imprisonment and his power was coerced, but now it looks like he had expectations for this situation, and was instead desperate for the other party to grant him the drug.

’But why didn’t the police draw this out?’ Chen Xuan was puzzled.

Zhang Zhiqui clearly isn’t the type with firm belief for destruction, his courage came with power, devoid of ability to back himself, he definitely could be considered as cowardly. If revealing his superiors means less suffering, he would honestly confess.

’Either Zhang Zhiqui truly doesn’t know the circumstances of the mastermind, or he was subjected to some form of gagging command.’ Lin Qing speculated.

’A gagging command on the memory layer...’ Chen Xuan pondered, thinking this wasn’t entirely impossible.

Given the involvement of power, continuing to prioritize this may have little significance.

’Did you notice anything unusual just now?’ he asked.

’Lv is conducting a comprehensive check.’ Lin Qing affirmed. Her eyes glowing blue, denoting intensive data computing within her mind, ’Currently discovered feature points—321 in total, filtering requires 150 seconds.’

Chen Xuan doesn’t consider himself a detective’s type, but Lin Qing is naturally made for detection—she is equipped with sensors all over her body as a warrior sent to future battlefields, tiny sounds, temperature changes, air vibrations... are all recorded. Although these data don’t aid combat, they can be retrieved for Lv to analyze, identifying micro-details often overlooked during criminal investigation and interrogation.

Minutes later, Lin Qing tapped her finger, ’Results sent to your phone.’

Chen Xuan opened it, post-filter clues reduced to four.

’The light coming through the ventilation is not natural, frequency is 50Hz; occurred five frequency fluctuations between 5 minutes 19 seconds and 6 minutes 30 seconds, inferred main grid load fluctuation.’

’Environment humidity 85%, temperature 21 degrees, high carbon dioxide concentration, in line with characteristics of enclosed subterranean building.’

’Syringe left on the ground is closed package type, it’s a rarely seen custom product, has traceability value.’

’Circulating air inside the environment contains alcohol and special aroma components, proportion close to aroma.’

’What do you think?’ Chen Xuan throws the question back to her.

’Power grid fluctuation is very sensitive data, in a century, it could allow retrospective investigation into district load changes, but this era likely can’t accomplish such detailed retrospective.’ Lin Qing evaluated each one.

’These iron prison rooms set underground aren’t peculiar, only tells that the mastermind has access to sufficient area, or simply that the incident location is in the suburbs.’

’Syringes definitely are transported through special channels, if required to trace it’s not impossible, but it’s evident we and Beitian Academy can’t manage this, nationwide multiple department coordination is needed.’

Finally, Lin Qing’s finger stopped at the fourth one.

’We can only try to investigate this one.’

’Aroma?’

’According to the ingredients, it’s everyday product additive, could be used in bath gel, shampoo... or even perfume.’ Lin Qing explained, ’If it’s a scent brought in by a person or clothes, it wouldn’t last more than an hour or two. Its persistent existence indicates these elements waft in from the vent, and nearby there’s a fixed diffusion source replenishing evaporated quantity.’

Chen Xuan’s eyes gleamed, ’Chemical Plant?’

’Not an ordinary chemical plant, but a daily chemical factory. Whether producing day chemicals raw materials or doing packaging, both may stock large amounts of aroma.’

’This can be checked!’ Chen Xuan said eagerly, ’There can’t be many factories in this industry in Jiang City, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce has their records; retrieve them and give them to the police for door-to-door.’

’Afraid not.’ Lin Qing worried, ’Official deployment will surely alert the mastermind, if we don’t find the location immediately, clearing evidence would be easy for them. Most critically, they most likely have Ability Users, if they go all out, Jiang City will possibly yet again face hundreds of innocent casualties.’