NOVPUB80: Chapter 78: Confession
80 -78: Confession
After 10 p.m., along the river bank, it was the liveliest spot in Da Du.
Young men and women clustered here…
Under the influence of heavy metal music and alcohol, hormones wildly proliferated; here, you could shed all the day’s burdens, heed the most primal commands of your soul, and rediscover the wildness and desire in your blood.
Continuing to stroll along the river bank, the noise that seemed capable of shattering the lengthy night gradually faded.
The only sounds swirling around one’s ears were the wind of the late night and the white noise of the waves slapping against the river, causing the entire world to fade from a state of extreme restlessness into a tranquil and dark scroll of a painting.
The Da Du District and Yinghai District were just across the river from each other.
The other side of the river was dead silent.
This side was the City of Eternal Night.
“How much longer do we need to walk?”
Qu Shui led the way, walking along the river bank for a very long time.
Gu Shen looked back; the flickering lights had already disappeared into the night, indistinguishable.
Darkness surrounded him both ahead and behind.
“We’re almost there.”
Qu Shui, with her hands behind her back, seemed in a good mood, hopping and skipping ahead.
She suddenly made a big jump and then stood still, “Hmm…
It seems this is the place.”
Several large bridges were constructed along the river bank, with protective measures added to both sides.
However, the pedestrian pathways under the bridges, slip-resistant embankments, were punctuated at intervals with drilled holes, marked with white paint…
“1,” “2,” “3”…
“Number 97.”
Qu Shui stared intently at a cave-like hole under the bridge, “This is where I…
met him.”
Gu Shen furrowed his brows.
While it was said to be on the river bank, this was essentially in a remote and uninhabited area.
Moreover, such cave-like holes hardly caught the attention of ordinary people; probably only homeless persons and stray cats and dogs would spend the night here.
However, given the style of the Changjiu Foundation’s followers…
living here was not impossible.
He had evaded Deep Sea’s investigation for so long, he must have had a special place for sacrificing himself.
“Wait here for me for a moment.”
Having instructed her, Gu Shen entered the cave-like hole alone.
The cave was very damp.
As soon as he stepped inside, he was hit by a wave of intense foul smell.
It was so dark inside that the surroundings were unclear, but there appeared to be piles of garbage and the smell of feces…
It seemed indeed that either people or animals had lived here.
There was no sound outside the cave.
It seemed Qu Shui obediently waited outside.
Gu Shen silently ignited the Blazing Fire Sense at his brow.
He looked around the cave, softly muttering in his heart, “Profile…
Activate!”
The moment the Blazing Fire was ignited, the world in Gu Shen’s eyes was no longer pitch-black.
A bright lamp lit up in his heart, and he scanned the area, clearly seeing the surroundings in the dark.
This number 97 cave constructed in a secluded part of the river bank was very narrow, with a circular arched ceiling, and the ground was littered with loose, crumbling dirt and filth.
Indeed, a homeless person had lived here; the food waste tossed randomly on the ground was already rotting, appearing partially buried.
But as Gu Shen looked up,
a spine-chilling feeling immediately exploded from his back.
Fresh decay mixed with the moist, stinging air surged into his nostrils.
This odor continually emanated from the cave walls about three meters away…
On the narrow mud and stone walls, several large iron nails pinned up a dried-up skeleton, the skin had rotted, but the bones remained intact.
In the world of profiling, there was silence.
The darkness was chased away by Blazing Fire, lighting up the filthy cave as clear as day.
Spiritual power pushed time to slowly reverse, the flesh on the skeleton on the wall gradually swelled from dried to plump, the skull no longer hung low, and Gu Shen saw an angled reflection.
Back then, “he” had not yet died, desperately screaming, venting.
Time thus reversed back—
until a familiar, petite figure appeared in the view.
In the world of profiling, she was just a dark shadow, devoid of features and voice.
She slowly turned her head, looking through the reversed time at Gu Shen’s position.
In that moment, Gu Shen’s mind was almost blank.
Reason spurred thought, sparking intense fireworks in an instant.
Thoughts flashed back.
In the paused time, Gu Shen felt the profiling of the cave fading, his consciousness as if arriving in a grand hall that stored memories.
Above the hall hung a sword blazing with intense light, inverted.
Below the tip of the sword, past memories were sorted and categorized like precious collected scrolls, ready to be opened by him, enabling scenes to replay like a movie.
The first volume’s scene is set in a bar meeting, where Hu Danian whispered with a grave expression:
[“This week, in the secluded corners around Lipu Street and the river bank, several dead bodies have been found, all adult males, each killed by a clean and neat blade to the throat.”]
[“At the wound site…
traces of Extraordinary Aura were detected.”]
The second volume features a face-to-face encounter with a Believer from the Changjiu Foundation:
[“To hell with the new era!”]
[“Long live the Changjiu Foundation!”]
At the end of this painting, accompanied by a furious shout, the Believer carrying a solemn stone sculpture was blown into fragments…
To ensure the assassination, this Believer used high explosives and a Spirit Seal, but never resorted to his own Extraordinary Ability…
because, he was not a Transcendent at all.
Because the timing of the murders on the river bank coincided exactly with the insomnia incidents, Hu Danian was misled…
He focused his investigation on the out-of-control individuals with Extraordinary Aura, but in truth, the assassin carrying the solemn stone sculpture was just an ordinary person.
This was a coincidence.
No wonder…
whenever I linked the river bank murders with the insomnia incident involving the solemn stone sculpture, something felt off.
The portraits of these two killers overlapped, not matching in nature.
The final flashback scene in the Hall of Memories.
It was when I first pushed open the partition door of the clinic and offered some hot tea.
Blazing Fire Sense detected an unsettling Extraordinary Aura…
I happened to see the pocket watch on Zhou Yexin’s body.
Thinking back, I now understand the real reason behind the unease…
it wasn’t because of the pocket watch.
Based on Zhou Yexin’s Dream, the pocket watch is a benevolent and orderly Seal, and that last faint trace of aura simply adhered to the belief of “burning everything to protect its master.”
Blazing Fire’s real unease came from…
the second person in the room at the time.
Qu Shui.
The world outlined as bright as day, time retracing back to the origin, the flow finally returned to normal.
The rewind button was disconnected, switching to normal playback.
A slender girl, dragging a tall man, entered the kiln cave…
The man struggled weakly but could only sit propped against the stone wall.
The two “snuggled” together, speaking at length.
Given Gu Shen’s limited spiritual power in the profiled world, besides seeing the rough silhouette representing bodily contours…
he could not glean more information, yet from the stiff movements of the silhouette, it was not hard to deduce that the girl was speaking continuously, with the man forced to listen.
In the end…
Just like a couple deep in honeyed love, the girl leaned in close, finished her last tender words.
She pulled out a pair of scissors from her bosom.
Cleanly aimed at the throat.
One cut.
Profile ended, the kiln cave world returned to darkness.
Gu Shen silently regarded the hanging skeleton, its wound perfectly matching the victims of the river bank murder case, a sharp weapon injury, a clean and neat cut to the neck.
Because it was too remote, it had yet to be discovered.
Suddenly, a voice sounded beside his ear.
“Dr.
Xiao Gu…”
Gu Shen’s back hairs bristled, not realizing when another person had appeared in the kiln cave.
The voice, only twenty centimeters away, almost touching his back as it stood, was both gentle and mournful, like a forsaken kitten, “There’s something…
I’ve wanted to tell you since last time…”
“I like you…
from the first moment I saw you…
I really liked you…”
The voice murmured as if in a dream.
“Would you…
be my boyfriend?”
