Pillnar heard the man's words but didn't reply. Instead, he walked straight to the bedroom.

  Another watchman in the bedroom was collecting evidence. Seeing Pillnar enter, he stood at attention and called out, "Boss."

  Pillnar nodded to the man. Then, he walked to the bed and started searching through the torn sheets and blankets.

  "Boss, I've checked. The murderer used a long blade." The person who had been in the room immediately came over.

  Pillnar said nothing, but gathered the shredded sheets and blankets together. Soon, he had pieced them together into a rough shape.

  "A few pieces are missing. Did you find any blankets outside?" Pillnar asked.

  "Not yet." The man glanced at the blankets, embarrassed to say.

  "It looks like they took it from here. Interesting." Pillnar then walked over to the collapsed cabinet and looked inside again.

  "Boss, there's nothing here, but we found a small hole under the floor." The man said, then squatted down, pulled out a brick, and pointed at the hole below.

  " It doesn't look like the hole existed when the bricks were laid. Half of the soil in the hole must have been filled in later," the watchman added.

  Pillnar kneeled by the hole, felt the dirt, and said, "It looks like the murderer found something here and took it away in a blanket."

  "Oh, really? Boss! Is it a hot potato?" The watchman next to him asked in confusion.

  "Who knows." Pillnar shrugged, then returned to the center of the living room and looked up at the hole above.

  "Boss, a tambourine thrown from inside shattered it. The tambourine has also been found and identified as Romeo's." Another watchman noticed his action and immediately handed him a broken tambourine. Pillnar glanced at it, took it, and then touched the notch on its top. He then looked over at the charred corpse.

  "The strength of a mid-stage Garbha realm. The skull still lingers with the Pathos' malice. It seems he's the one behind the Pathos incident in Three Rivers District these past few days."

  "We searched for quite some time, but couldn't find the statue. It seems the statue must have been taken. And the malice-breaking orb was the deadly weapon. It makes little sense. The blasting orb was not so powerful."

  Pillnar pondered this, then went back outside, leaped onto the roof, and stood at the edge of the hole to observe.

  "The person on the roof had heavy footsteps, no signs of swift footwork. Weird! How could someone with low skills slay a worshipper?" Pillnar surveyed the rooftop, his doubts growing deeper.

  Finally, Pillnar leaped back into the courtyard and waved his hand: "Retreat!"

  Everyone grabbed their things, packed up the burned body, and then followed Pillnar out of the house. Seeing this, the crowd outside made way for him. The night watchmen, their faces solemn, took only their belongings and left.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Alas, there are no more stories to hear."

  "You're still thinking about hearing stories! Come on, didn't you hear them say that — bah, this bard Romeo — is from the Pathos!"

  "So what? He's a very wonderful storyteller!"

  "You're a real big fan of stories!"

  Amidst the chatter, Stirling quietly left the area and headed toward the dojo. In Stirling's opinion, Pillnar seemed to have found some clues at the scene, but they were very limited. Night watch was impossible to pin him down by the clues. Over the next few days, Romeo's case didn't seem to stir a single ripple in the outer city. All news of him seemed to have been wiped out.

  Even Romeo's house was cleaned and fixed. It seems a new resident will move in soon.

  Stirling visited Sean's Lounge and found a new bard. This hunched old man told stories that seemed much worse than Romeo's. The crowd listening to him had shrunk to about half.

  Though Romeo's case seemed to have passed, Stirling had a feeling that a major storm was brewing.

  To prepare more, one day later, Stirling visited a herbalist's shop in the outer city.

  This shop didn't belong to the Joe Mosley family.

  After all, Stirling was buying something altogether for himself. In buying from Joe Mosley, who offered a discount, he didn't want his affairs to be known.

  "Hello, sir, what can I help?"

  The owner of the herbal medicine shop was a middle-aged man with a beaming face. Seeing Stirling walk in, he immediately rubbed his hands and came forward to greet him.

  "Do you have any elixirs to boost blood flow and strengthen bones and marrow?" Stirling glanced around the shop and then asked with offhandedness.

  "Sir, we do not have those. They are available only at a pharmacy in the inner city. Even if we had them in the outer city, we could not sell them out!" The owner's smile turned bitter upon hearing this.

  "Oh? I see," Stirling nodded with disappointment, but made no move to leave.

  After skin resurfacing, the next step is bone forging. This stage happens when blood flow into the marrow. They sink into the pulp and refine the essence.

  The bone-forging stage differs from skin resurfacing. It requires years of hard work.

  Stirling practiced Aether skill and generated Aether, the mysterious internal energy. Regarding blood is the carrier of everything, including Aether. So, of course, during this process, certain elixirs, which boost blood, will help to grow Aether and then speed up progress. Hence the saying that one practice method boosts three-tenths tendon, and one elixir boosts five-tenths bone. Now that Stirling owns King Kong Boxing and Aether, he only needs to get blood elixirs.

  Stirling chose not to show his rhino-skin realm, even if the Kim dojo had those elixirs. After all, his progress was too rapid and might easily arouse suspicion.

  "But, sir, we have a special blood- nourishing soup made with ginger, comfrey, rosemary, and pangolin bone powder. While it's not as good as the hematopoietic pills from the inner city, it's still quite effective. Would you like to try it?" The owner, seeing Stirling had remained silent, blurted out.

  "Oh? How much is it per dose?" Stirling's mind moved, but he frowned, feigning unsatisfied.

  "Twenty-six copper coins per dose, one silver coin for five doses!" The owner held up five fingers. Stirling fell silent when he heard the price. The owner then said, "Don't complain, sir. These are good-quality herbs. Cannot be cheaper."

  "Alright, give me five doses first." Stirling then pulled a silver coin from his pocket and handed it to the owner.

  "Okay! Wait a minute, sir." The owner walked to the back room with the silver coin. He came out a moment later, holding a string of medicine bags.

  "Sir, the Yearning Malice depletes your vitality. Avoid intrusion of it for seven days after taking this soup. Doing otherwise may harm your viscera." The owner handed the medicine bags to Stirling and warned him.

  "Got it." Stirling took the medicine bags, nodded at the owner, and left.

  When Stirling returned home, he began his experiments. He took out a packet of blood-nourishing herbs. The back read, and He then placed it in front of him. Two breaths later, a line of text appeared in Stirling's field of vision.

  [The current lifespan enhancement required is 17 days. Do you want to enhance it?]

  Stirling's eyes narrowed, and then he shouted in his heart.