In an abandoned clinic outside the walls of Xikang, an intermediary was leading an attractive married woman inside.
As the intermediary unlocked the door, he introduced:
"Don't be fooled by this remote location. There are a lot of residents around here. If it weren't for the murder case that happened here over two years ago, this place would have been sold off long ago.
Ms. Liu, let me tell you, buying this place is definitely worth it. No matter what business you run in the future, you will make an absolute killing. Now is the best time to buy. In a few years, the price will go up again..."
The door opened and the intermediary kept talking nonstop. But at that moment:
"Ah... Ah..."
A scream sounded, giving the intermediary a huge fright. Then, before he could react, Ms. Liu ran off like the wind, screaming as she went.
Seeing this, the confused intermediary looked towards the door and exclaimed:
"Damn... I... Damn..."
He was so scared he almost fell to the ground. Inside the room, on the table, was a human leg.
Without another word, the intermediary ran outside, but after running just a few meters, he came back.
Then, he took out his phone, opened TigerTok, turned on the recording function, and said to the leg:
"Damn, today I... A human leg, scared me to death."
After recording the video, the intermediary quickly called the police, then added mosaics to the short video before posting it on his own account, looking quite satisfied. His previous panic had completely disappeared.
At an abandoned delivery station, a crowd of onlookers surrounded the entrance. Someone passing by just now had smelled the stench of corpses inside and called the police.
Now the police were opening the door while the crowd outside, phones in hand, squeezed to get inside.
Just a few seconds after the door opened, the police shouted loudly:
"Step back, secure the scene!"
Hearing this, an aunt holding up her phone to record turned and shouted to those behind her:
"Step back, step back!" Then she shoved her body forcefully forward, trying to capture the scene inside.
The special investigation team was still a step too slow. By the time they deduced the corpse's location, two parts had already been discovered by the public.
In their horror, people began frantically posting the events and videos online. In an instant, the internet exploded with chatter that officials struggled to suppress.
Not only that, but a daring colleague of Su Mo's had previously noticed Su Mo's posted video and hadn't thought much of it. Now realizing its significance, he directly shared the video online.
This stirred up even more frenzy. Without waiting for police announcements, netizens had already pieced together what happened.
Everyone knew that someone calling himself the Midnight Judge had killed and dismembered Duan Lie. The reason being that Duan Lie was the culprit behind the Xikang Frankenstein Murder Case.
With this, the Midnight Judge became famous. Something like this had never happened before. It was practically a plot straight out of a novel, and many people were paying attention.
Some even replaced their online avatars with Su Mo's masked image, enjoying immense popularity for a time.
Yet regarding the online fervor, officials made no response, as they still hadn't determined whether Duan Lie really was the Frankenstein Murderer.
Facing his team, Special Investigator Wei Dongqing said:
"Duan Lie was indeed the Frankenstein Murderer."
"Why? We scoured Duan Lie's home but found nothing," Zhao Xiaobao said, puzzled.
"It's been over two years, the evidence is long gone. But based on Wu Xin's psychological profile of Duan Lie, and those gym membership cards in his room, it's conclusive," Wei Dongqing replied.
He continued, "What we need to do now is catch this Vigilante. He's more dangerous than Duan Lie, I can feel it."
Forensic Doctor Qin nodded: "I've thoroughly examined the scenes at each location. They were wiped very clean, leaving us no clues. Even Duan Lie's phone was burned beyond recovery.
From my many years of experience, this is definitely not the perpetrator's first crime. He must have at least a few cases under his belt, otherwise he couldn't achieve this level of meticulousness."
At this, Wu Xin chimed in: "But before now, I'd never heard of any 'Midnight Judge'."
The others' faces darkened at these words. Zhao Xiaobao looked utterly confused: "What does this mean?"
Li Yang rolled his eyes at Zhao Xiaobao: "It means the murderer did this on purpose. Leaving a moniker means he's confident we can't catch him. It signifies a formidable opponent."
At the archives, after watching the short video for a while, Su Mo whispered to himself with a smile: "I still photograph quite nicely, even with the mask on. Still so cool."
Putting down his phone, he looked at a case file on his desk. It was titled: Ceiling Hanging Case.
Three years ago in Fanghua Community of Xikang's 2nd Ring Road, a serial murder case occurred with 3 victims in total.
They had all been hanged from ceilings and strangled to death. The victims were all male, so the case was named the Ceiling Hanging Case.
The details were clear. The 3 victims were all males living in the same community, all married with children, and all had a history of domestic violence.
What's more, in the third case, there were 3 other people present in the victim's home. It was baffling.
At the time, the third victim had invited 3 friends over to drink. They all got drunk and when they woke up, discovered the victim hanging dead inside the house, which had been locked from the inside as an "impossible crime" scene.
Logically, the killer should have been one of the other 3 people present, but police investigation later found they were all innocent.
The cases shared another similarity - the victims were fully clothed and neatly dressed, clearly having been arranged that way by the killer.
The case seemed straightforward but was difficult to crack. Firstly, the 3 crime scenes were spotless with no clues left behind. Secondly, the 3 friends of the third victim all had alibis clearing them of suspicion for the first 2 cases, so they were ruled out.
Su Mo's next target was this serial killer. He guessed the murderer was one of those 3 people, since alibis are easy to manufacture but impossible crime scenes are not.
So he looked over the 3 mens' information and contemplated:
Liu Ming, male, 33 years old, civil servant, no domestic violence record, kind personality, affable, parents still living. Alibi provided by father.
Qian Shang, male, 34 years old, lawyer, history of domestic violence, steady personality, socially adept, divorced parents but both still living. Alibi provided by wife and child.
Wang Xiaohu, male, 35 years old, policeman, domestic violence record, easygoing personality, slick and sly, parents deceased. Alibi provided by female colleague.
Su Mo thought: "Just looking at their files probably won't reveal much. I'll have to meet these three men in person to glean anything useful.
But one thing is certain - the killer dressing up the victims so neatly must have some meaning, but I can't figure out what yet. No rush, once my alter ego's emotions turn red I'll know."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
