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‘I actually don’t enjoy violence, but it is a necessity sometimes.’

This was what Machinist Grandpa had told Xia Fan many years ago. Initially, Xia Fan had not understood the meaning behind those words, but right now, after Xia Fan had been thrown into the far more complex society of the universe, he finally began to gradually understand what the old cyborg meant.

Fists were the only truth to a certain kind of people. After the vicious fights, not only did Xia Fan win the respect of his peers, Jaden and his flunkies avoided him wherever he went, no longer causing any trouble for him.

Not all misunderstandings could be resolved, and had Xia Fan chosen to turn the other cheek, would Jaden have let him off?

Not at all. In fact, they would have been emboldened to torment Xia Fan even more. Everyone understood the saying ‘plucking a persimmon while it’s soft’, and often, a crucial aspect of school bullying cases that were reported in the news was not in how bad the bullies were, but that the victims had no idea how to fight back. In such a way, weakness could be seen as the original sin.

!!

“People are different,” Xia Fan told Soul Flying Bird. The reason Jaden disliked Xia Fan was because of something from a very long time ago, a group of speed warriors who had once bullied the Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon to a tragic degree. So now, it just so happened that he shared the same surname as them, and was also a speedster, which had resulted in Jaden and the others extending the hate they had inherited of them to Xia Fan as well.

After Flying Bird heard what Xia Fan said, he even specifically made a call back home and asked his father about it. After setting the phone down, Flying Bird verified that something like that did indeed happen in the past. His own clan had a bunch of distinguished ancestors who had been killed by those Skywings, yet he did not view Xia Fan with animosity like Jaden and the others, because that was just foolish. That was something that had happened over forty thousand years ago, so what did that have to do with Xia Fan?

Not only was the relationship between the two unaffected, it actually improved as a result. The two began training together, sharing meals together, feeding fish by the pond together, to the point where they could be considered inseparable. Aside from his colleagues back on Brenia, Xia Fan considered Soul Flying Bird the first friend of his own age he had made since leaving the Holy Tomb, and they were very close to each other.

——

Three weeks after they first joined Blue Boiling Point Training Camp, the huge differences began to take hold between the cadets. Every week, several dozen of them would be expelled, while cadets who had proven themselves to be outstanding like Xia Fan and Flying Bird were given even more opportunities to showcase themselves.

After the technical class ended the day before, Teacher Wang had informed Xia Fan and Flying Bird to participate in the profiling test of the Technical Division, competing against intermediate cadets. Today, the two of them had taken a hovercar to the Criminal Profiling Center, along with several other outstanding cadets.

Xia Fan, Flying Bird, and Heizi were in a car together. Heizi was Hei Bolong, the skinny and dark-skinned lad with a lecherous face. His focus was in reconnaissance, while Flying Bird’s focus was combat. Meanwhile, Xia Fan had yet to be assigned a focus, and was studying all four courses.

There were far fewer intermediate cadets in Blue Boiling Point than novice cadets. With forty-eight of them to a class, they only totaled fifty-six if Xia Fan and the seven other outstanding novice cadets were included.

Under Teacher Wang’s lead, they entered a simulated murder scene, where they saw the victim was a women in her thirties, wearing silk pajamas.

The first scene of the crime was the bathroom, where the killer had attacked her right after she had finished her bath and changed into her sleepwear. He had chased her all the way to the bathroom before finally slamming the head of the victim against the head of the bed and stabbing her twenty-seven times. Her blood had flowed everywhere, turning the crime scene into a bloody mess.

Teacher Wang Jing was a short middle-aged man who wore a pair of spectacles. He looked exactly like a forensic analyst in his white coat, with a set of tools that included a fingerprint extraction pen, a magnifying glass, and a pair of tweezers and gloves in his breast pocket.

“You’re all given ten minutes to examine the crime scene. Please take care not to touch anything found here, or you’ll be deducted points. You may now begin!” He pressed the start button of the stopwatch in his hand the moment he was done giving them instructions.

The fifty-six cadets took turns inspecting the crime scene. Jaden was there as well. He seemed to be very familiar with two cadets wearing intermediate uniforms, exchanging low whispers with them. Not once did he spare even a glimpse for Xia Fan throughout the process. Ever since he was struck out of the ring the last time, the relationship between the two of them had become very distant, both pretending not to see the other.

Starting from the bathroom, Xia Fan carefully inspected the place once. There was a white bath towel stained with blood on the floor, which Xia Fan picked up with his tweezers and retrieved two strands of hair from.

The ten minutes passed quickly. Wang Jing called them back, and the cadets departed from the crime scene in an orderly fashion. As for the woman acting as the deceased corpse lying on the bed, she still needed to remain immobile, which was quite the effort.

“Right now, all of you write down your conclusions. We’ll announce the results shortly after,” Wang Jing reminded them.

Heizi was scratching his head anxiously. He wanted to see what sort of conclusion Flying Bird and Xia Fan reached, but neither showed their work to him.

“Are we even friends? Just what conclusion did you come to? Was this a manslaughter or a murder of passion?” Heizi asked on his tiptoes, trying his best to peek at their papers.

Xia Fan chuckled, “You’re not focusing on technical skills, so there’s no need for you to be so afraid, even if you get it wrong. Just make a bold inference.”

Heizi was helpless, and could only give some nonsense account of his own deduction on the profile record.

—

Some time later, Wang Jing had his assistants collect the profile records from everyone before smiling, “Before I look at everyone’s conclusions, why don’t we have a little competition, to see whose reasoning will be the most tenable.”

“All of you, look. Xia Fan Soul Flying Bird, Jaden, and the others here are outstanding cadets among those inducted this semester. So why don’t we let these eight newcomers come and challenge you seniors?”

The intermediate cadets dressed in deep blue uniforms all chuckled. Blue Boiling Point had a strict elimination system, so anyone who was promoted to Intermediate Cadet had only done so after beating countless others. Xia Fan and the others were just newbies who had barely been in the camp for a month. In these seniors’ eyes, they were no more than just a bunch of boys who had barely grown any hair, and they showed scornful attitudes to them.

Flying Bird pushed Xia Fan from behind, forcing him to the forefront. In terms of their performances, Xia Fan was the one with the most comprehensive capabilities out of the cadets of their semester, and if they needed to compete, he would naturally be the most suitable choice!

Among the new cadets, Du Xue was the one whose main focus was technical prowess, and she would see Xia Fan often. But they were not particularly well-acquainted with each other, given that she was a particularly shy and quiet girl. When she first heard that they would be competing against the intermediate cadets, she immediately became timid and retreated to the back. With such a lack of confidence in herself, she might not be able to engage in an intense debate with the seniors in the future.

‘Well, if that is the case, then let’s just do it!,’ Xia Fan thought to himself. He did not hesitate any longer, standing out in front of the rest with a big smile on his face.

All of a sudden, Wang Jing added, “Given that Flying Bird and the others have only been admitted into the Camp not too long ago and their numbers are much less than yours, I decided to find them some external assistance.”

Wang Jing clapped his hands, and a bespectacled young man, dressed in a black uniform and with a grim expression on his face, came walking in from outside. He was very skinny, with a very sharp chin. The moment he entered the room, he quickly scanned the crime scene with sharp eyes.

‘An advanced cadet?,’ Xia Fan wondered to himself.

Given the harsh conditions at Blue Boiling Point, it was not an easy feat to rise and become an advanced cadet. The Advanced Cadets had maintained a 100% graduation rate to this day; after all, the cruel and grueling elimination was done after the novice and intermediate level, so those who could don the black uniform were all the cream of the crop.

“That’s Senior Lengyun!” Du Xue muttered in a small voice, startled and sounding captivated.

Heizi asked curiously, “You know him?”

Du Xue nodded her head repeatedly, “But of course! He’s the genius of the Technical Division, Senior Lengyun! Whether it is profiling, surveying, or testing, Senior Lengyun’s technical skills are all textbook standard!”

“Oh, so he’s such an amazing person!” Heizi scratched his head. “Then we have hope; we might not lose to those Intermediate cadets.”

“Indeed, with Senior Lengyun on our side, we’ll surely win!” Du Xue cheered.

Lengyun reflected his name, being a cold and distant person. Originally, Xia Fan had been pushed to the front by everyone, and was ready to face the challenge, but Lengyun had unceremoniously waved his hand and stepped forward the moment he arrived, indicating that Xia Fan should step back. Xia Fan had no choice but to return to Flying Bird’s side, and curiously watch this distinguished senior from behind.

The forty-eight Intermediate cadets were initially panicking, but soon pushed a young man with a sluggish expression on his face forward.

This person looked as if he had not managed to get any sleep the night before. The top two buttons on his uniform had been left undone, and while others wore a white shirt, he was actually wearing a T-shirt with a cartoon motif underneath his uniform. He looked completely listless.

“Who’s going to step up first?” Wang Jing asked.

That listless boy yawned and shrugged nonchalantly.

Lengyun’s eyes were like lightning, saying in a deep voice, “Since Brother Traveling Buddha doesn’t seem to be interested, let me throw bricks to attract the jade.”

That was how Xia Fan learned that the listless teenager’s name was Traveling Buddha, a very weird name.

“Whatever,” replied Traveling Buddha as he scratched his scalp nonchalantly.

Lengyun made a display of walking around the crime scene once before standing in the center and saying, “This is a premeditated murder case. The killer crept into the room while taking advantage of the victim taking a bath, and when the victim opened the bathroom door, he dashed over and stabbed the victim fiercely in the stomach.

“But the floor of the bathroom was wet, and the killer slipped, stumbling. His body leaned to the right, which is why we can see the very obvious skid mark on the right side of the bathroom’s floor, which supports my inference.

“At the same time, the victim demonstrated an amazing explosiveness in the face of danger. She exploited the murderer’s slip-up and desperately made a run for the bedroom, in hopes of picking up the telephone by her bedside. Unfortunately, the loss of blood and panic made it so that the victim failed to pick up the phone in time, and the killer managed to come pouncing on her. With his left hand squeezing the victim’s neck, he pressed her onto the bed and then used his knife to stab her repeatedly until she finally died.

“After the killer was done with the deed, he did not have enough time to clean up the crime scene and escaped in a hurry, leaving the mess behind.

“As such, it is my inference that the killer should be between twenty-seven to thirty-five years old, someone staying by himself or with his parents. According to how he panicked and left after killing the victim, it is my hypothesis that he might have been to the victim’s house before, and the investigation should focus on the neighbors living near the victim. Plumbers, satellite tv installers, and other such suspects that have had the opportunity of gaining entry into the victim’s home should also be included. Another highly likely possibility could very well be this is the killer’s first attempt at such a deed, so he might have fled already.”

Teacher Wang Jing nodded, “Logical reasoning. Given how the scene of the crime is in such a messy state, those are the typical characteristics of a suspect who lacked the necessary psychological temperament for the act, and is in line with how a novice would go about committing the crime.”

He turned his gaze on Traveling Buddha and said, “What are your thoughts on this, slacker?”

Traveling Buddha chuckled in embarrassment when he heard the teacher call him a slacker, “Senior Lengyun did well with his inference, but it’s a pity that his observational skills aren’t detailed enough.”

“Oh?” Wang Jing answered with a cough. “Does that mean you disagree with Lengyun’s inference?”

Traveling Buddha scratched his thigh very uncouthly and said, “If he had taken note of the traces of blood found on the walls, floor of the bath room, and the blood stains on the bedroom walls, he would have discovered that all traces of blood are coming from the same direction, as if someone had thrown them.

“Plus, the traces of blood on the ground were far too clear. If the victim had just finished taking her bath, the floor should have traces of water stains and body wash on the ground, yet we can see these very obvious footprints, especially the traces left by the skidding. Since it is so obvious, then it is highly unusual. If this had been someone slipping due to the result of stepping on the residual bathwater, then the blood ought to be partially diluted.

“Another point is the stab wounds on the victim. A total of twenty-seven stabs were made, and nineteen of them were concentrated in the narrow stomach region. Why did none of those stabs overlap?

Traveling Buddha slowly gestured as he spoke, before asking a rhetorical question, “All of you, don’t you think it looked like it had been created after the killer had taken careful aim with each blow?”

Hearing what Traveling Buddha said, Xia Fan’s eyes sparkled as he inwardly gasped, ‘This person looks like he has barely woken up, but he’s actually an expert!’

Wang Jing nodded his head repeatedly, “So, what are your thoughts?”

Traveling Buddha stroked his chin, “I reckon the killer faked the crime scene. The purpose for doing so ought to be to divert the attention of the investigators, painting it as just a civilian homicide.

“The slip marks and the fingerprint left in a panic, those were all planted. As such, the police would be misled into thinking that the killer was quite foolish, must not be a special ability user, and would see no need to report this to the Special Bureau. As long as the investigators of the Special Bureau did not join in, the killer would of course be much safer in getting away with it.

“Yes, that should be the case. After all, if I was a killer, I would definitely have no desire to have the Special Bureau investigating my case; the stupid local police would be much easier to deal with than the investigators from the Special Bureau.

“In any case, the killer is definitely no novice, but he could not be some amazing veteran, either. The fact that I managed to uncover the method he used means that his standard is just so-so.”

Lengyun was slightly embarrassed. He did another careful examination of the crime scene and his face went white in his barely-controlled anger. He said in a slightly suppressed voice, “The crime scene does indeed look somewhat contrived, so we cannot rule out the possibility that the killer has intentionally made his IQ seem lower, exposing some flaws so as to prevent the Special Bureau from joining the investigation.”

“Ura!” The moment Lengyun said that, the intermediate cadets all let out a noisy cheer.

“Old Buddha sure showed him!”

“Even the famous Lengyun has lost to you!”

Traveling Buddha very lackadaisically leaned back against a wall, looking like he wished he could just head back and go to sleep as soon as possible. He did not seem to show an ounce of care that he had beaten Lengyun.

Wang Jing nodded his head and swept his gaze across the people present. Suddenly, his eyes stopped at Xia Fan.

“Xia Fan, do you have anything else you wish to add?” Wang Jing asked slowly.