I must admit, among peers, there is quite a disparity. The difference between one Spirit Realm detective and another could be tremendous; some would need a dose of medicine just at the sight of a demonic entity and would feel their ribs ache when they tally their profits later, while others are like those legendary investigators in stories, who kick open the doors of an Exotic Realm and proceed to thrash the entities inside...

However, Little Red Riding Hood quickly adjusted her attitude, deciding not to compete with this "Travel Inn Trio" before her. After all, according to the judgment provided by the Special Service Bureau (and her own assessment), the three members of this "Inn" combined could hardly amount to one complete "person," and one of them was likely a highly dangerous entity. What good person would compete with an entity on "adaptability to the Exotic Realm"?

Yu Sheng did not know what the young girl in red was pondering in her sudden silence. He just circled around the eerie and terrifying "Offerer" once more, trying to discover more clues, and curiously asked again, "So you say if a person did this, they'd have to be a real psycho—sneaking in to steal stuff I get, essentially we're here to do the same, but to do all this after stealing, what's the point?"

"Perverse religious rituals, the sacrifice must be the main purpose, taking away the 'Wailer Statue' might just be incidental," replied Little Red Riding Hood, shaking her head. "Such deeds are usually done by certain cultists or extremists, hoping to gain massive power, enlightenment, blessings, or the 'attention' of some cryptic beings through sacrifices to the Exotic Realm. And judging by the significant mental pollution already generated by this 'Offerer', the person who carried out this sacrifice… is an 'expert'."

"There are such people?!" Yu Sheng widened his eyes in surprise. "There are people 'following' such evil stuff from the Exotic Realm?"

"They don't follow the Exotic Realm, but power and some higher-dimensional things. The Exotic Realm is just the most convenient path they've found to transcendence—such people certainly exist, and not a few of them," Little Red Riding Hood sighed, revealing the underlying truths of this world to Yu Sheng, the beginner. "Venerate Saints Monastery, Black Dot Group, Angel Sect, and those who wander in the Exotic Realm who don't even know if they can still be considered human, the 'Converts Gathering', are all capable of doing such things."

She paused, her expression growing complex: "The Exotic Realm... Many people suffer greatly from it, this thing is in Boundary Land, and outside the Boundary Land as well. We can save many people, but even more people are beyond rescue and fall into the 'other side' of the world, never to return.

"Those who are not saved but didn't die either, go mad, are taken away by the groups I mentioned, or transform completely into non-human entities. The influences of the Exotic Realm on human psyche are immense, seduced by power, deceived by illusions, controlled by false memories—such occurrences are common.

"You should understand, considering the multitude of bizarre Exotic Realms and dangerous entities, with continued exposure not everyone can forever stay steadfast and adhere to humanity, there will always be people who stray off the path, but…"

"But?" Yu Sheng, who had been listening intently to these newfound insights, unwittingly asked when the other party suddenly halted.

"But such 'illegal invasions' are unusual in Boundary Land," stated Little Red Riding Hood with a rather grave tone, "the whole Boundary Land is monitored by the 'Node Network'. How did an 'invader' manage to sneak into the museum?"

"That's for the agents of the Special Service Bureau to worry about, 'nodes' are their setup. If this stuff really messes up, that's going to be a big mess."

Yu Sheng said, shaking his head, and then walked towards the sacrificial victim on the high podium.

Little Red Riding Hood immediately exclaimed in horror: "What are you doing?"

"Taking him down," Yu Sheng said naturally, "The man is dead, he shouldn't keep suffering, I've seen him, I can't just leave him be."

"Be careful of curses! This sort of thing is best left to the Special Service Bureau's deep diver..." Little Red Riding Hood subconsciously warned, but she stopped midsentence.

The fully-equipped deep divers of the Special Service Bureau might not have a 'resistance' as high as this man…

"Should we preserve the scene?" asked Yu Sheng, turning back and inquiring curiously at Little Red Riding Hood.

"…Yes," Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment, then nodded, "We'd better not touch it, let the professionals handle this."

"Oh," Yu Sheng figured this made sense, and could only sigh regretfully. By this time, he had already reached the podium, examined how the iron thorns were entwined, found the opening and was about to forcefully pull it down while holding the non-spiky part, but considering the necessity to "preserve the scene," he let go, hesitated for a moment, then nodded at the kneeling sacrifice. "Sorry, old chap, I'm not a professional here—once we're out, I'll inform the Special Service Bureau, let them send someone to take you out. Sorry to make you stay a little longer."

Little Red Riding Hood looked a bit peculiarly at Yu Sheng who quickly noticed her gaze and turned around, "What is it?"

Little Red Riding Hood almost blurted out "Didn't expect you to be quite humane," but changed her words at the last moment, "…Didn't expect you to be so empathetic. There are so many accidents in the Exotic Realm, many people are used to it, only mourning silently in their hearts when they see victims, then walk out and report to let the Special Service Bureau's corpse collectors handle it. It's rare to find someone as concerned as you…even talking to the deceased."

Having said this, Hu Li by her side subtly furrowed his brow: "Isn't that a bit cold-hearted?"

Little Red Riding Hood sighed, "After all, in the Exotic Realm, many times the 'corpse' itself can become a dangerous factor, with the victim's body becoming the next perpetrator is not uncommon."

Yu Sheng waved his hand upon seeing this, "Can't help it, after all, I'm a beginner, I don't understand this."

While talking, his fingertips inadvertently brushed over the edge of the platform.

He touched the blood that had almost dried up.

The surroundings suddenly quieted down.

Everything happened in an instant; Yu Sheng hadn't even reacted to what was happening— he saw Little Red Riding Hood, Erin, and Hu Li suddenly all freeze in place, then everything in the hall quickly lost color and became gloomy and oppressive. The world was enveloped in a monotonous black, white, and gray. In this abruptly silent and still world, he was stunned for two or three seconds, then suddenly heard a faint creaking noise behind him.

It sounded like the movement of stiff joints—against such a quiet background, this abrupt sound was even somewhat piercing.

Yu Sheng slowly turned his neck.

The corpse on the platform, entangled in iron thorns and bled to death, also slowly turned its neck.

One gradually terrifying, one full of bloodstains.

"WO—," Yu Sheng instinctively cried out, but he had only cried out halfway before he abruptly stopped, because he heard the corpse in front of him speak.

"The one who killed me..." The lips of the corpse moved, emitting a hoarse and difficult voice, "The one who killed me, was... was..."

Although Yu Sheng still couldn't figure out what was happening, upon hearing this he almost freaked out: "Focus on the main point! Don't worry about grammar!"

Then he saw the corpse suddenly inhale—

"The killers are Angel Sect believers, two males, one about 1.7 meters tall, overweight, short-haired, wearing glasses, in his thirties, with a mole on his forehead; the other about 1.8 meters tall, very thin, bald, with a high nose bridge, in his forties, wearing a silver watch on his left hand. They kept repeating phrases like 'You will aid His Descent' and 'Save the Saviour from suffering' as they were doing it. They had a heavy South City Wusong River accent, they didn't take the Wailer Statue but threw it across the hallway, they weren't interested in it, they were here to perform a sacrifice ritual, it killed me…"

The corpse rattled off a long string at an astonishing speed, even seeming to bite its tongue once or twice, then suddenly the entire body relaxed, slightly lifted its head, looking at the white hall's ceiling, and slowly, almost whispering as if in a dream said, "Ah... eternal peace is coming for me..."

He slowly lowered his head, returning to the "Wailer" position with hands covering his face, completely still again.

Yu Sheng: "…"

He stood dumbfounded beside the platform, the corpse's rapid speech was so fast that he hadn't even reacted, and when he saw the other party suddenly quiet down, he was completely stunned, and after two seconds he couldn't help but speak up, "Hey wait! Can you say that again!?"

The corpse did not respond to him, instead, the black, white, and gray in the hall suddenly receded, and Erin, Hu Li, and Little Red Riding Hood also instantly came back to life—as if nothing abnormal had happened.

Erin was the first to notice the slight change in Yu Sheng's expression and the "atmosphere" on him, she curiously looked at Yu Sheng, "Hey? What's wrong? Why so serious all of a sudden?"

Yu Sheng then suddenly snapped back to his senses, taking a sharp breath, he turned his head to look at Little Red Riding Hood—

"The murderers are from the Angel Sect, two guys, one about 1.7 meters tall, overweight, short black hair, glasses, in his thirties with a mole on his forehead, and another about 1.8 meters tall, thin, bald, high nose bridge, in his forties, wearing a watch on his left hand, and they kept repeating something about 'Aiding His Descent' and 'Saving the Saviour from suffering' or something, I didn't catch it clearly, something like that. A strong South City Five Rivers accent, the Wailer Statue was thrown into the hallway across… that was a close shave, I nearly forgot."

Little Red Riding Hood looked perplexed: "… Ah?"

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