A hazy aura shot through the spectator's ether, sending waves of hot air through the office, making the atmosphere stuffy and slightly sweaty.
Detective Org let go of the ether, but it didn't fall. Instead, it began to float within his spiritual field, shining with a harmful and dazzling brilliance.
It slowly rose until it rested in front of his face. As Org pressed his spiritual energy into the ether, it vibrated violently and emitted a dark red flash.
A crimson aura spread around him, and everyone felt a rising heat that gradually increased.
"It's a Level 2 ether... I don't know its full power yet, but from the heat it emits, it must be powerful."
Geshi wondered to himself as he watched the scene before him.
His forehead was fully recognized and had become greasy.
He ran his hand over it and wiped away the collected sweat, then sighed deeply, trying to catch some cool air to refresh himself.
Spiritual energy surged forth and merged with the piece's spiritual foundation, creating spiritual chaos within the Intoxicating Stone.
Org moved quickly, but stopped abruptly before he could finish what he intended to do, then turned to Gysi.
May I take some of your brother's blood? I need it for the investigation.
Gysi stared at him for a moment, then realized that this procedure was necessary for the investigation and to uncover the killer.
He tightened his features slightly, then nodded in agreement.
"In the end, I failed to protect my brother, and now I must at least avenge him..."
he thought to himself, his misery reflected in his eyes.
He didn't know if Overd would have agreed to have some of his blood taken if he were alive.
The body was no longer his to decide for him, yet he consented, even though the decision was not his to make.
Mayor DuVell watched the technique Org was performing, fully aware of what was happening before him.
He had conducted many previous investigations with him and knew his methods well.
The problem with the Spectator's Aether is that it only sees what happened within eight decades... and now we are at the tenth decan. If the murderer killed Overd before the third decan, the decan alone will not be able to detect him.
The procedure was somewhat complicated.
Org pressed his index and middle fingers against one of the incisions in Overd's chest and took a small amount of clotted blood.
Lifting his hand, he made the blood float within his spirit field, then merged it directly with the Spectator's Aether.
A gray mist emanated from the decan and rose in
The air before Org's body.
After a few moments, the crimson sparks around the shard intensified, mingling with the gray mist.
Inside the shard, complex interactions began between O'Verd's blood and the dual spiritual energy
of the spectator's shard, and Org's own spiritual energy.
O'Verd's blood was immediately accepted by the dual energy, then entered its center and its mass gradually increased until the power of the stenma began to manifest.
The power of the stenma blood was drawn from the coagulated blood, and when Org reached this stage, he expelled the blood from inside the shard through minute pores in the structure of the intoxicating stone.
His stenma is too weak... This is to be expected; a person who has not mastered spiritual energy and does not possess hereditary abilities."
Org thought to himself.
After a relatively short struggle between the stenma energy... the foundation
Blood... and the dual spiritual energy. The will of the Stenma was nullified and merged, allowing the recall of the stored memory of the Blood.
Blood, body, and soul... an inseparable, interconnected triad.
When the body dies, the soul departs, but the Blood continues to wither and coagulate slowly.
Within ten days, the Blood loses its memory entirely.
For the Blood carries a memory of its own because of the connection between the Blood's foundation and the spiritual foundation.
Throughout those ten days, the Blood remembers everything about the Body
how it died, and what the atmosphere was like after death.
In other words, the Body would have died, but the Blood would not.
This was a chance, albeit theoretical, to revive Overd and summon his soul before it finally left the physical world.
But to accomplish this required rare spiritual tools and certain
High-level ethereal.
So this remained just a distant hypothesis.
Currently, Org's focus was on seeing the eight decades since Overd's death.
And perhaps, if he was lucky...
Overd's death might have happened before that time,
and he would then see the form of the killer.
And that is exactly what the Spectator's Ether does
Reawaken the blood memory of what happened during the eight decades prior to its use.
In a gray mist, the last thread of a crimson spark clung on, and suddenly a bloody tableau formed, like a screen suspended within the mist.
And it began to show what had happened eight decades ago...
Jishi had not expected to see anything like this
It hadn't occurred to him that an ethereal piece could possess such power, even though ethereal pieces were known for their diverse powers, classifications, and functions.
He said in a low voice,
"Does...does it show the past?"
But unfortunately, the first scene that appeared was O'Verd's body, writhing in its final moments, while the killer had already left the scene.
O'Verd died with a muffled scream.
Org cursed through clenched teeth:
"Son of a bitch...he got away. If the piece had shown the scene one minute earlier, we would have known the killer's identity."
The mayor realized the situation and slowly closed his eyes before saying,
"Is there a way to increase the length of time the piece shows the past?"
Org answered
Yes, there are spirit tools capable of enhancing the view.
But I don't have any of them, and you won't find them anywhere nearby. The last spirit tool I found that enhanced the view was in Homeben County, specifically in the Market That Never Sleeps... and it cost the equivalent of my entire fortune, so I couldn't afford it."
The scene paused, focusing on the moment the assassin left the room.
Although his face wasn't shown, his body was partially visible.
Spirit tools and ethereal pieces were not the same thing.
Spirit tools often possessed their own spirit and independent will, just like spirit weapons.
For example, there is a spirit tool that has the ability to analyze the inner thoughts of surrounding enemies with high precision.
And, like spirit weapons, they are subject to specific ranks and classifications.
Jishi felt a pang of regret when he understood:
"So... there's no way of knowing the killer?"
Mayor DuVill replied firmly,
"Not exactly. Even if we don't know now, we'll investigate until we find him."
A glimmer of hope flickered in his heart.
Org kept staring at the killer's body within the gray mist, until he came to an important conclusion.
His body was thin and short
and he didn't appear to possess any physical strength.
He whispered to himself:
Just as I suspected... the killer is physically weak.
This was a major advance in the investigation,
for anyone large or physically strong could be temporarily ruled out of suspicion.
At the borders of Morgh Village
Special Superintendent Auggie stood with a group of guards, all mounted on their horses.
They were only about fifteen meters from the village buildings, about to begin encircling the village to prevent any murder suspect from escaping.
One of the guards whispered optimistically:
"Superintendent Auggie, shall we begin the encirclement now? The four squads are ready, and can form a tight cordon for days if necessary."
At Auggie's command, the guards split into four squads,
each squad taking up positions at one of the gates of Morgh Village
North, South, East, and West.
Then they began to spread out in a circular motion inwards, until each squad connected with the others.
Auggie said without hesitation:
"Yes, begin immediately. There is no time to delay."
"Yes, Supervisor."
Three guards set off to inform the rest of the teams that the operation had begun.
But...
At that moment, from the far north of Morgh Village
Everyone stopped abruptly.
Tremors of a single tempo were coming from there.
Thick clouds of dust rose into the distance.
Auggie's eyes widened as he stared at the scene.
A whole army... advancing towards the village.
He muttered in astonishment:
"What's going on?"
One of the guards shouted:
It's an attack by an army of unknown origin.
Another said, bewildered,
How dare they invade the lands of the Shar Men clan?!
Augie clenched his fist and shouted:
Prepare at once! Emergency!
Everyone was stunned.
This was never expected, especially since the village of Morgh was deep in the Metnald district.
How could a strange army get here?
...Then
Augie saw something that made his heart sink.
Soldiers carrying red banners
with a golden dragon emblem in the center.