Versatile Mage

“Are you saying that my sister’s death is not an accident?” Liu Ru’s eyes had a rather complicated flicker.

Mo Fan nodded before adding, “That old man is a strong Magician, so I’m sure that he’s saying the truth. Besides, did you really think your sister was suffering from a heart disease?”

Liu Ru was immersed in her thoughts for a while before saying, “It’s true that her health wasn’t great, but I only knew about her heart disease after she passed away. I found it unbelievable, too.

“I was actually quite bothered by it. I want to know the truth, so if you happened to recall anything strange about your sister, or someone weird around her, please tell me as soon as possible, especially if the person was a man,” said Mo Fan.

Based on the information provided by Huo Tuo, it turned out that only male vampires would harm a woman. They would always tail their prey for some time, or even make direct contact with them. Mo Fan assumed that any stranger that initiated contact with her prior to her death would be the most suspicious.

“If they were anyone, I believe you fulfill the criteria you’ve mentioned,” said Liu Ru.

Mo Fan felt awkward. It seemed like the person he was disguised as was interested in chasing her sister.

However, they did serve as an important clue. He should investigate that person later, as he might obtain some useful information.

“Is there anyone else, apart from myself?” asked Mo Fan.

Liu Ru shook her head. She glanced at her watch and said, “It’s getting late. I should be heading to school. If there’s anything else, you can find me at Qingyuan Girls College.”

Mo Fan knew he should not ask further, and proceeded to see her off.

Not long after Liu Ru left, Mo Fan’s figure transformed into a black shadow and swept past the vines. He quietly snuck into Liu Xian and Liu Ru’s rooms

The rooms were filled with feminine things, pink, blue, and powder blue.

The rooms had lots of dolls on the beds, the desks, and hanging on the walls. Mo Fan tried to search for clues with his discerning eye, but unfortunately, apart from a variety of lingerie, he did not find anything interesting.

“Looks like I’ll have to see if Lingling managed to find something useful,” he murmured.

——

Mo Fan soon met up with Lingling.

“The corpse was cremated a long time ago. If it were preserved, it would be fairly easy to tell if she were attacked by a vampire. Who would have thought that these concealed creatures were coming to our country? Aren’t the churches responsible for keeping an eye out for them?!” said Lingling.

“Well, did you learn anything useful?” asked Mo Fan.

Lingling flipped through the pages on her laptop and said after organizing her thoughts, “Every document is stating that she died of a heart disease. There was nothing strange about her death. There was nothing fishy about the death certification, either. To be honest, if Huo Tuo didn’t insist that he had witnessed her death, I’m sure that the incident wouldn’t even be considered the doing of a demon beast. No wonder no one was willing to take the quest.”

“It sounds fairly tricky, as we don’t really have any clues. Besides, if the vampire was only picking on a random girl, it would be impossible to locate him with all the people in the city. This is such a headache,” agreed Mo Fan.

“I’ve already gotten the recordings of the surveillance cameras at the subway. I didn’t have time to look at them yet. Hopefully, we would find some clue from them,” said Lingling.

“If we really couldn’t find anything, I guess we’ll have to talk to her sister Liu Ru again,” said Mo Fan.

“I guess that’s the only choice we have.”

Mo Fan and Lingling played the recording of the surveillance cameras at the station where Liu Xian died all of a sudden.

To prevent themselves from missing any details, Mo Fan and Lingling even decided to visit the same station at night, to repeat the incident by tracing her path at the same time.

———-

The station was not too crowded at night.

At the entrance of the station, the stairs leading to the underground was completely empty. It felt quite sinister under the gloomy light, yet they could hear some weird metal clanking in the distance.

“Mo Fan, did you realize? Most of the lines are no longer running at this time. The last train departed five minutes ago, which means everyone would have boarded the train five minutes ago. Liu Xian should know the timetable, too, why would she bother going into the station?” asked Lingling, while carrying her laptop.

The laptop was currently showing the combination of different scenes captured from every camera. They could see Liu Xian slowly walking into the station in her heels on the dark black and white recording. There was no sign of anyone else in her surroundings.

Lingling was mimicking Liu Xian’s footsteps by following her trail from the recordings. Wherever Liu Xian walked to in the recordings, Lingling would follow her path, and even mimic her actions. It was a commonly used tactic by the police for investigation. Most hunter agencies in cities had also mastered this basic technique.

“Indeed, the last train has already departed, yet she’s still going into the station. It doesn’t even feel like she’s trying to catch a train,” said Mo Fan as he pointed at Liu Ru’s sister Liu Xian, who looked exactly the same as her.

“Then she must have been lured into the station,” interpreted Lingling.

“It’s very likely. We’ll look for the surveillance cams that captured the moments before she entered the station. There are shops and traffic lights nearby. Maybe we can find whoever made contact with her before she entered the station,” said Mo Fan.

“It suddenly feels slightly creepy. If a vampire is capable of seducing his prey, commoners would have a hard time protecting themselves,” said Lingling.

Mo Fan recalled the Bewitching Magic Spider at Jinlin Desolated City. The creature also had the ability to manipulate the mind of its prey. The vampire was able to hide in the city and feed on humans, thus it would not be a surprise that he had similar methods of manipulating his prey, too.

“This vampire is a lot smarter than the demon beasts we’ve encountered before. If Liu Xian was actually attacked by a vampire, it also proved that the creature knows how to fake his victim’s cause of death. As long as the victim is diagnosed to have died of a heart attack, the case would never reach the hands of hunters. In other words, the vampire would have no worries. There are millions of people in this city, so it’s nothing strange that a few have died in accidents…

“Mo Fan, look… she suddenly stopped in that spot, as if she had just bumped into someone!” yelled Lingling.