The Blade of Earth 6 (Patreon)

“Well, that was fun,” I said as I removed my helmet once the bike came to a stop in front of a motel. The speed itself wasn’t particularly impressive after some of the flying sword chases I had to go through during my missions, but being this close to the ground had been fun. 

Her annoyed expression as she removed her helmet, showing her annoyance at my lack of fear, made it even more entertaining. 

“It was just a ride,” she said, acting like she hadn’t deliberately taken several sharp turns just to scare me. It was a petty trick, but I liked it. “Now, the work. This is our next destination.” 

She gestured toward the motel. I looked at it, trying to see something through the auras, but noticed nothing in particular. The place was reeked with despair, but it wasn’t an intense feeling, more of a leftover from the thousands that visited the place, each leaving a scrap of their emotion. 

“What exactly is this?” I said. 

“A test,” she said. I raised an eyebrow. “You can’t think that I’m going to trust you can help me just because you can heal from a bruise,” she said. 

Oh, I was being underestimated, how fun. 

“I’m assuming that the test is not to throw me to their den and see how well I can handle them.” 

She scoffed. “I wouldn’t send an unarmed civilian to challenge a serial killer.” 

“Hey, I’m not unarmed,” I said pointing out my pocket, where I had a blade. 

“Yes, I noticed it,” she said with disdain. “I meant a real weapon,” she said, no doubt talking about her guns. Amusing.

“Well, let’s agree to disagree,” I said as I chuckled, taking no insult from her words. After all, I couldn’t shock and awe her without a little underestimation on her part, could I? “So, this is my test?” I said. 

“Yes, we just—” she started, but I raised my hand to silence her. 

“Stop. If it’s a test, it will be more impressive if you don’t tell me what I’m looking for,” I said. 

She looked unhappy at my interruption. “Go ahead,” she said, her challenge clear. 

I turned my attention to the motel once more, this time focusing on each room one by one, taking note of their aura. Then, I came to one without an aura. 

Not even a hint. 

Suspicious, especially with the state of the other rooms. Either that room hadn’t been used since the day it had started the service, or there was another reason for the absence of aura. 

I touched my essence, enhancing my gaze slightly to allow me to see another way. What I saw didn’t surprise me in the slightest. A little cage made of glowing lines of Essence. A containment formation. 

A rudimentary, poorly made one, but a formation nonetheless. Whoever did it, they weren’t good, so I didn’t even need to break the formation to see whatever was inside, but since it was not linked to any kind of alarm, I just waved my hand and dispersed it from a distance. 

With my vision still enhanced, I took a glimpse of what was inside. Remains of a body, drained of its energy. 

“A murder scene. A surprising first test,” I said, surprised. It wasn’t particularly shocking for me. I had seen far worse than that, but I had expected a more pointless test from her. 

Then, I noticed her expression of shock. “What are you talking about?” she said, her tone doubtful, but she already reached to her waist, ready to pull her gun. 

“There’s a body in room fifteen, on the second floor,” I said, realizing that she wasn’t aware of that fact. 

“If this is a joke—” she started, but I shook my head, telling her that it wasn’t the case. She charged forward, leaving me behind. I let her. I could sense no presence other than the body. I rather not test the strength of her stomach from a close distance. 

She broke the door with a kick, and a gasp of shock reached my ear. She immediately reached for her phone. “Cut the nonsense, George. I have just found another body. Inform the captain,” she said. 

“You’re suspended—” a voice from the other side said. 

“I don’t care. This is more important,” she replied, which devolved into a fight, with several mentions of EIM going back and forth. 

While she was dealing with it, I walked through the door and took the first glimpse of the room. “That’s a crime scene, don’t walk in,” she warned. 

I stayed at the door, not wanting to annoy my only guide any more than necessary. After all, I didn’t need to walk inside, and I didn’t need to walk inside to see what was going on. I wasn’t a spiritualist, and there was little I could do. 

I could confirm the victim’s cause of death as easily. His life force had been drained, probably a week ago. He looked stiff and decomposed, the smell hitting us strongly. Though, I noted the way he was sitting. Before he was killed, he had been panicking, but there was no sign of fighting back. 

The attacker gave him enough time to panic, but he knew his death was inevitable. Interesting. 

“What’s going on here?” she asked. “How can a body remain undiscovered for so long?” 

“It’s about the reason you asked for my help. Supernatural shenanigans,” I answered. 

“Magic?” she asked. 

“Not exactly, but similar,” I said, not really in a mood to give a detailed explanation about the difference between the mages and the cultivators, particularly to someone who didn’t even know what a cultivator was. 

She made a move to step in, but I held her shoulder. “Are you sure you want to enter the room considering you’re suspended,” I said. I didn’t know much about how they worked, but the intense fight she had on the phone suggested the consequences would have been even worse. 

“This is more important. I can’t trust them with the case. I need to go over the details before the EIM takes over.” 

I let her enter. I might not have known much about what was going on, but I could see that it would likely cost her the job she loved. She was an adult, and she could make her decision herself. Especially with her expression telling me that she had no illusions about her decision.

“A question,” I said. “What’s EIM?” 

“Exceptional Incident Management,” she said even as she pulled a pair of plastic gloves from her pocket. “They are a federal bureau, but not as active as the others, and much less known. They are the ones that take over cases like this,” she said. 

“Supernatural ones?” I asked.

“It looks that way,” she answered. 

Once she entered, she pulled out her phone — I had eavesdropped enough to realize they were calling it a phone despite the fact its camera and computer functions being used far more frequently — and took several photos of the body and the room, including going through the wallet and taking the picture of the driving license. 

I quickly memorized the address on the driver’s license, just in case she had been detained. The idea of being locked in a room with her was tempting, but not at the cost of leaving a bunch of demonic cultivators behind. 

I could always visit her later. 

While she went through the details of the scene and recorded it with pictures, I paid more attention to the body itself. The life had been drained from him, and a jagged wound from his side showed it was made of a rough implement. 

A spike with rough edges, but knowing demonic cultivators, the roughness of the weapon was intentional. The wound expanded outward, but there was next to no blood around. Which didn’t surprise me the slightest, as blood was a valuable commodity for a demonic cultivator, especially a weak one. 

Another life snuffed to fuel the deranged sense of the progress of the monsters. 

A pity. 

I looked around the room, but I didn’t know about the daily life of the people to have a reasonable guess about what was out of order. It seemed a trip to the address was in order. 

Then, a soft siren reached my ear. “I think it’s time to go,” I said. 

“I can’t go and leave a crime scene alone,” she said. “But you should leave.” 

“Sure,” I said with a shrug. As much as I was tempted to stay with her, the threat was too big to ignore. 

“Do you have a vehicle to go around—” she started before she froze. “Sirens, it’s EIM,” she said. “Go, quickly, before they see you here too,” she said. “I don’t know what they do to people like you, and I don’t want to test it.” Then, she paused before she threw me her keys. “Take my bike once you leave, and wait for me at my apartment,” she said, then rattled her address. 

“Thanks,” I said, grabbing her keys before I walked away. I decided to wait until they left. Using her bike to go around was tempting. I was faster on foot, but a vehicle was less noticeable than a man running faster than a car. 

I still walked away quite a bit, not wanting to tangle with EIM. I wasn’t afraid of them. Since they were tasked with handling the supernatural, they were inevitably connected with the sect, probably reporting to the outer-sect disciple responsible for the whole land, making them several ranks lower than me. 

However, interacting with them would reveal my presence. 

Initially, I just wanted to stay away so as not to ruin my holiday … but the presence of demonic cultivators, even weak ones, showed a different picture. It meant that they were being lazy. 

However, my decision not to tangle with them was challenged when I saw Sophie being arrested, particularly when saw the aura of the one that arrested her. Bloody, and eager for more. Alarming…

Especially since the car started to drive from the town, and toward a nearby forest.