Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

"By the way, where’s Zhao Konghe?" Cohen asked as he walked ahead of Malin in the corridor, looking back at his friends.

"Konghe’s father was killed by some unknown assailant, there’s no way he could come today," Engma Roben said, and he lowered his voice mysteriously, "I checked it out, the guy who examined the body said it was indeed his father, burned to a crisp with oil."

"That’s terrible, and no one knows who the murderer could be. There was also a killing at the train station yesterday, but considering the victim was burned to ash by the holy flame, the Church took over the case immediately. Engma, seems like your sources at the police station don’t know everything after all," Jane said, shaking her head.

"Of course I knew. It’s just that the person was burned to ash by the holy flame, so he definitely wasn’t anything good. Dead is dead," Engma replied with a raised eyebrow, dismissing Jane’s provocative comment with disdain.

"True. But how could Konghe’s father have been killed? Even if the old Duke didn’t hold him in high regard, that doesn’t mean he could just be killed like that, right?" The group began to descend, with Malin putting on his mask and following behind, listening to them recount everything that had happened the previous night.

First, there was the absence of Zhao Konghe from their five-person party, because his father had been killed. The murderer was said to be extremely brutal, having shot the poor old father with a heavy crossbow.

In this era, with the advent of firearms, crossbows had gradually been phased out of military use, and standard light crossbows were no longer on the controlled list. Only weapons like the heavy crossbow, which posed a serious threat to mortals and even lower-tier Transcendents, were considered controlled items. And indeed, the heavy crossbow that killed Zhao’s father was said to be a heavy-duty military one, a giant model—judging from the wound left in the corpse’s chest.

Therefore, the police station was in a state of chaos, as the victim was not a Transcendent, the police department was in charge of the case. If they confirmed a Transcendent was involved, it would then be transferred to departments like the Investigation Bureau and other Transcendent branches.

The person who died in the restroom at the train station, since they were burned to ash by the holy flame, it was clear they had been set aflame by a passing Cleric, unlucky. Whether it was the police or the investigation department, they all directly handed the case over to the Church to deal with.

It was said that the investigative team responsible for criminal cases from the Church glanced at the scene, and without a second word, closed the case on the grounds that the Chaotic Believer was roaming and had been killed on the spot by a Cleric who happened upon the crime.