My Cultivation Techniques Upgrade Automatically

Chapter 247: Chapter 246: Vanished Into Thin Air

"I’ll go ask."

She was looking at a rich young lady with a rosy complexion and a carefree expression, strolling about with her maid.

Since it would be improper for Wu Chen, a man, to make inquiries, Sun Yuting prepared to go ask if the young lady had experienced anything strange the previous night.

But she had barely taken two steps before Wu Chen stopped her.

She looked at him in confusion. "What is it?"

"Don’t bother. It’s useless. You won’t get anything out of her."

Wu Chen shook his head. Gazing at the girl who was still enjoying herself in town with her maid, completely unaware of what had happened, he said flatly,

"That girl’s mark is probably just an ordinary pattern. Even if you ask, she won’t have anything to tell you."

"If I’m not mistaken, of the twenty people who received these marks, half of them probably have ordinary patterns with no other function."

"Remember, the only reason we know the marks are the problem is because of your unusual reaction last night."

"Otherwise, we wouldn’t have immediately suspected a connection between the culprit and the people with these marks."

"So in our case, being involved is what gives us clarity."

Hearing this, Sun Yuting’s eyes lit up as she immediately understood. "I get it!"

"You’re saying the marks are a mix of real and fake. The culprit’s intention is that even if ten households in town disappear, no one will suspect the marks are the problem."

"That way, if the vendor selling these marks reappears in three or five days, more people will fall for it!"

Wu Chen nodded. That was what he thought as well.

After all, with people who got the marks and were still perfectly fine, it would only lead everyone to look for other reasons for the disappearances, giving the true culprit a chance to strike again.

"But there’s still a huge flaw in this!"

Sun Yuting’s brow furrowed as she noticed something was off.

"People capable of creating such profound marks must be powerful. In that case, wouldn’t it be easier to just pick a few families and abduct them directly? Why bother with marks and make things so complicated?"

’I’m a Martial Artist at the Perfection level of the Blood Coagulation Realm, and last night, that mark nearly forced me out the door against my will. How could someone capable of such a feat be weak?’

Wouldn’t it be much more convenient to just abduct people by force?

Besides, the town is full of ordinary people. The strongest among them are just Hunters who have perfected the four stages of ’skin, flesh, sinew, and bone’. For a powerful individual, subduing them would still be effortless.

Why go through all this trouble?

’To show off how capable they are?’

"Perhaps these people don’t see the common folk as human."

Wu Chen glanced around the town, which was much quieter than the day before, and said slowly,

"They treat the people like prey, just as a Hunter goes into the mountains to shoot game. The only difference is that Hunters do it to survive, while these people do it for sport?"

As he spoke, he shook his head again. "But that explanation doesn’t fully add up either."

Seeing him lost in thought, Sun Yuting added, "With their power, they could effortlessly wipe out not just nearly forty people, but probably entire small villages."

"But based on what we know, they haven’t done that. What are they afraid of? Are they worried that going too far will attract a large number of Demon Suppression Captains from Cangwu City?"

Wu Chen shook his head, rejecting Sun Yuting’s answer.

As he thought, an idea gradually formed in his mind.

’No, what they’re afraid of... might not be the Cangwu City Demon Suppression Bureau.’

"They’re probably afraid that if they go too far, the people of Cold Rain City will live in constant fear and would rather become refugees and flee this place."

"By then, it won’t be so easy to abduct people who have banded together for safety."

At his simple explanation, Sun Yuting’s expression shifted between confusion and dawning realization, as if she was just on the verge of understanding.

Wu Chen had no choice but to explain further. "Water Town has six hundred households. In one night, ten of them met with disaster."

"In other words, that’s only one out of every sixty households. With odds like that, none of the survivors will think such a terrifying thing could happen to them."

"The survivors will cling to that false sense of security and continue living here. In the end, all that awaits them is the mastermind’s blade when they strike again!"

’They aren’t treating the common folk as human at all!’

This time, Sun Yuting understood and nodded silently.

’To put it bluntly, they’re still treating people like prey, like livestock. Whatever methods they use are just to avoid draining the pond to catch the fish—to keep their prey from panicking.’

"All right, I don’t think we’ll find anything else in town. Let’s go check outside the town..."

Wu Chen said, leading Sun Yuting as they started to walk out of town.

But just then, a loud shout came from the south side of town:

"There’s something about three miles south of town! Let’s hurry over!"

"What’s going on?"

"They found a pile of clothes! They probably belong to the people who disappeared from town!"

"..."

As the voice faded, five or six Hunters with their hounds sprinted toward the south of town.

"Let’s go take a look, too."

Hearing the shouts from a distance, Wu Chen hadn’t expected a lead to turn up so quickly. ’Finally, some good news,’ he thought.

’Whether this lead is genuine or not, at least it’s a discovery.’

He called to Sun Yuting, and the two of them sped toward the location three miles south of town.

For the two of them, a distance of three miles wasn’t far, and they arrived in moments.

Here, there was a conspicuous old locust tree. A number of Hunters had already gathered beneath it, fanning out with their hounds to search the surrounding area for any clues.

Not far from the base of the tree lay a scattered pile of clothing.

Wu Chen and Sun Yuting walked over to examine the scattered clothes.

Since the two of them had been seen at the entrance of Master Liu’s residence earlier, everyone recognized them. No one came to question what they were doing, simply assuming they were clients hired by Master Liu.

Wu Chen stared at the large pile of clothes soaking in the muddy water, his eyes filled with doubt.

The clothes were undamaged, with no signs of being cut by a sharp blade. They were just scattered all around.

It was as if the people lured here by the marks had disrobed on their own, completed some strange ritual, and then vanished.

Sun Yuting also noticed something was wrong. "Why are all these clothes intact?"

She walked forward, bent down to sniff the air, and then looked at Wu Chen with a grave expression.

"There’s the smell of corpses... These people definitely died right here!"

Wu Chen nodded, but he was more puzzled by the culprit’s method of killing.

’Did they melt into blood...?’

He recalled how Sun Yuting’s body had been as hot as a furnace the previous night, as if her flesh could have disintegrated into ash at any moment.

And she was a cultivator in the Blood Coagulation Realm, yet she had almost fallen victim.

Looking at the clothes strewn across the ground, melting into a pool of blood was the only explanation for such a strange scene.

Then he looked at the more than forty sets of assorted clothing, a number that clearly exceeded the number of people marked, and began to ponder.

’I’m afraid this mark doesn’t just affect the host. It seems people nearby can also have their minds entranced.’

’And then they obey the summons and come to this place.’

Wu Chen was thoughtful. Logically, family members who weren’t marked should have noticed something was wrong and called for help from others in town.

But there was nothing.

No one in town had reported hearing any cries for help.

The heavy rain might have muffled the sound of footsteps and hidden their tracks, but shouts for help would surely have been heard.

Yet, a whole group of people had arrived here silently, only to melt into pools of blood and be devoured by something unknown.

’I wonder if the other Hunters have found any more clues...’

Wu Chen tore his gaze away from the clothes, preparing to take out some silver taels to ask the nearby Hunters if they had any new leads.

Just then, Master Liu arrived, fashionably late.

As soon as he arrived, a Hunter approached him and reported his findings.

"Master Liu, something’s not right. The hounds just keep circling this spot. There are no other tracks!"

"That’s right."

Another person chimed in, "It’s as if the killer is still here. There’s no scent to track anywhere in the vicinity."

"There’s another possibility."

Another Hunter came over and said, "The killer just vanished from this spot right after the murders."

"Damn it all, that’s a terrifying thought!"

The more Master Liu listened, the bigger his headache grew, and the more fear filled his heart.

Wu Chen also grew more puzzled listening to the Hunters’ words.

’No other tracks?’

’The killer is still here?’

’Vanished into thin air?’

"It’s impossible to vanish into thin air!"

"There’s only one possibility!"

Understanding dawned on Wu Chen, and a light flashed in his eyes.

’Pulse Intercept!’

He didn’t look anywhere else. Instead, he stared straight at the air above the scattered clothes on the ground.

He had thought it was just a wild guess and that he would find nothing, but his expression suddenly froze, his pupils contracting sharply.

There, in his line of sight, a faint, grayish-yellow wisp of energy drifted into the air. The wisp was as thin as a thread, and it looked as if a gust of wind could blow away its final traces at any moment.

But as Wu Chen stared at this trace, his gaze following it up toward the clear sky, his scalp tingled and his mind buzzed.

’They really did vanish into thin air!’