It's already 1 AM, and the entire apartment is eerily quiet, so much so that Sun Yan's footsteps on the stairs sound unusually crisp.
The corridor lights are sound-activated. The lights that were switched on by those two priests have long since gone out. As Sun Yan reaches the second floor and prepares to continue upward,
the ajar door of Room 201 suddenly catches his attention.
A series of wet footprints can be seen trailing from Room 201, extending up the stairs, as if someone had preceded Sun Yan upstairs.
"The resident of Room 201... seems to be that elderly Asian woman who burns paper money on the seventh floor."
Sun Yan recalls seeing her reading a newspaper at the apartment entrance earlier.
"It's so late, and she still isn't asleep. What's she going upstairs for?"
Realizing there is someone unidentified ahead of him, no matter how elderly, Sun Yan can't help but feel a shiver down his spine.
He abandons the idea of continuing upstairs and turns back, quietly tiptoeing towards Room 201.
As he pushes open the ajar door, a pungent smell of herbal medicine assaults his senses.
Sun Yan takes out his phone and turns on the flashlight, revealing the room is filled with various paper figures, all clad in colorful clothes, finely crafted but lacking eyes, adding a strange and uncanny vibe.
"What is this?!"
Sun Yan scans the room with his phone. When the light passes over a paper figure placed in the corner, his expression drastically changes, his mouth agape in disbelief.
It is a paper figure dressed in a police uniform, its face an exact replica of Officer Frank from the hospital.
"The secret of that door is indeed related to the resident of Room 201."
Sun Yan immediately pushes the door wider and enters. Besides the police, an ordinary person couldn't possibly know about Officer Frank's situation; the resident of Room 201 must be highly suspicious.
Searching around the room, Sun Yan quickly finds a notebook in the desk drawer.
Opening the first page, he sees it filled with names densely packed together.
Each name is accompanied by a birth date, age, occupation, and an unknown date that might denote something important.
Some names are crossed out in black ink, while others are circled in red ink.
Flipping through the pages, Sun Yan discovers the names of several victims from the crime scene on the fourth floor, all of which are circled in red, seemingly indicating a kind of 'qualification.'
"That elderly woman is calculating these people's birth date and time; those chosen are the most suitable materials for refining a Longevity Pill!"
Sun Yan flips through the pages faster, mentally noting the number of people circled in red. There are a total of 80, matching exactly with the number of heartless victims Henry discovered.
Except one red circled name was inexplicably crossed out in black, and replaced with two new names—'Frank Patch' and 'Ryan Lester.'
"As expected, those two officers are also targets; they've been secretly watched for a while."
Reaching the last page, a familiar name stands out—Michael Pitt.
The mysterious date beside the name reads 'Fourth of May - Second quarter of the Ox hour.'
"Is Pitt also a chosen one? May 4th in the lunar calendar translates to June 9th, and the second quarter of the Ox hour is 1:30 AM, which means..."
Sun Yan looks at his phone screen and suddenly realizes: "It's tonight; this is the time to kill these selected ones! The number 81 is the supreme number of the Dao, needing 81 suitable hearts to refine the Longevity Pill, and Pitt is the last one."
In an instant, clues Sun Yan once ignored flood his mind.
Pitt said the apartment owner rented the storage room on the seventh floor to him at a low cost, with the condition that he must not let other apartment residents discover his existence.
Living on the seventh floor, Pitt often smelled something wafting up through the pipes, claiming it seemed like someone in the apartment was secretly burning something.
At this moment, Sun Yan is convinced that the place where the Longevity Pill is refined is definitely hidden somewhere in this apartment.
And the apartment owner is probably closely connected with the Forest Organization, hence taking in Pitt, the last material, to monitor him, preventing any accidents.
"If the apartment owner is connected with the Forest Organization, then Henry saying the fourth-floor tenant was originally a homeless person who couldn't have afforded this apartment makes perfect sense; perhaps he never paid, the owner provided the room free, to keep this material here."
Sun Yan stuffs the notebook into his pocket and dials Henry's number. Soon, there's a response on the other end.
"Hey, Father Jackson, how did you know I just came across a shocking piece of news? Did you know the president of the Forest Organization, that businessman, is actually the owner of this apartment's property? It's an incredible conspiracy."
"Henry, there have been developments, come swiftly to the apartment. The murderer is here now, planning to kill the final target," Sun Yan says urgently.
"What? I'm on my way!" Henry's tone becomes instantly serious, quickly calling his colleagues at the precinct and rushing to the scene.
Exiting Room 201, Sun Yan pauses on the stairs, sinking into thought, unsure if Pitt is still alive.
If the resident of Room 201 went to the seventh floor to find Pitt, would they have run into the two priests?
Sun Yan doesn't want to get involved. Facing the Evil Spirit, he still has the General Sun Mask to fend off, and if nothing else, a chance to escape.
But encountering a murderer means risking his life, and Sun Yan isn't that noble; he won't sacrifice himself for others' safety.
"So the apartment owner is the president of the Forest Organization; this aligns with what I suspected. This person, terminally ill with cancer, unable to be cured, has reached the end of his life, his only hope is through mystical forces. The resident of 201 provided the method to refine the Longevity Pill, indicating her identity is quite significant, based on her regular visits to the seventh floor to burn paper money. Those strange occurrences the two officers encountered are probably her doing."
Thinking for a moment, Sun Yan resolves to leave the apartment for now, waiting for Henry's backup in safety by the street.
The number 81 is a crucial figure in the East; in ancient times, palace doors had nine rows and nine columns, totalling 81.
The Tao Te Ching has 81 chapters, and ancient alchemists favored the time frame of 81 days, as nine means the ultimate.
In Journey to the West, Tang Monk's journey was marked by 81 challenges, symbolizing transcendence and elevation.
The president of the Forest Organization sought 81 suitable hearts to refine the Longevity Pill; from the notebook Sun Yan found in Room 201, it appears he spent years finding these suitable candidates.
And tonight's plan to take Pitt's heart is the finale; if no one uncovers and stops his sinister plot, the Longevity Pill could truly debut tonight.
Sun Yan doesn't believe such an elixir for immortality exists. He suspects the apartment owner, desperate due to illness, was tricked by a scam, leading him to commit this horrible act.
"Mr. Phil, let me help you."
"No, I can do it. The hope for longevity is just ahead; I want to personally seize this fruit that belongs to me."
Just as Sun Yan is about to descend the stairs, a voice suddenly echoes from the first floor below.
Looking down the stairwell, Sun Yan's complexion changes; an elderly man with a cane, his back bent, is slowly making his way up the stairs.
Accompanied by numerous bodyguards, it's clear this person is someone of wealth and power. The presence of such a figure here instantly verifies his identity to Sun Yan.
The maniacal Fallen, the mastermind behind the murders, the owner of the apartment, has arrived.