Solving the case: Combining the police dog's olfactory genes at the beginning

One of them had trembling lips and his upper and lower teeth were chattering together, making a soft clicking sound.

The other man's legs were weak, his knees bent as if he would kneel down at any moment, and the knife in his hand was hanging down, the tip pointing to the ground, the reflection on the blade trembling incessantly.

Yamaya Masako loosened her grip on the doorframe. She stood at the entrance of the teahouse, her back no longer pressed against the doorframe, but instead taking a step back into the shadows within the doorway.

Her one exposed eye was wide open, the fear in her pupil so intense it seemed to drip. Her hand covering her mouth was trembling, all five fingers shaking, the fingernails digging into the skin of her cheek with force.

Maya's face also turned extremely pale. Her lips were tightly pressed together, her chin was taut, and a hard ridge bulged out from under her skin.

Her breathing became rapid and forceful, her chest heaving greatly, but she tried to keep her expression calm and not let herself show more fear in front of her subordinates.

However, her hands betrayed her—her right hand was gripping the hem of her black trench coat, her knuckles turning white, the fabric of the coat crumpled into a ball.

The live stream chat exploded again.

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!!!"

"Dark Moon killed his own bureau chief???"

"A clean cut, truly a clean cut."

"Takijiro Onishi's upper body just slid down, oh my god!"

"This guy is even more ruthless than Captain Luo, killing his own people."

"The Kamikaze Bureau is killing each other internally, hahaha, serves them right!"

"Dark Moon Asura is too terrifying; he doesn't care who he kills."

"Did you guys see that slash clearly just now? I didn't even see the flash of the blade."

"I didn't even see it clearly, I just felt him move his hand and Onishi Takijiro was broken in two."

"This speed is more than a level faster than Kojiro Saki's."

"He's the enemy of the Xuanji Group, isn't he? He just admitted it himself."

"Captain Luo, be careful, this guy is much stronger than the previous two."

Dark Moon Asura held the sword horizontally in his right hand, blade facing upwards, and flicked his wrist slightly. The blood droplets on the blade were sent flying, tracing dozens of red arcs in the air before landing on the bluestone slab with a faint pattering sound.

The blade regained its mirror-like shine, its dark silver surface reflecting the volcanic ash falling from the sky.

He glanced down at Onishi Takijiro's body, broken in two, his expression unchanged. His cold eyes held neither the pleasure of killing nor the remorse, nor even a trace of murder.

The way he looked at Takijiro Onishi was like looking at a piece of wood that had been cut open—clean, straightforward, and perfectly natural.

Then he raised his eyelids and looked at Luo Fei.

Luo Fei stood ten paces away, his hands still in his pockets. He looked at the corpse of Onishi Takijiro on the ground, then glanced at An Yue Shura, a faint, cold smile appearing on his face.

The smile wasn't a happy smile, nor was it a mocking smile; it was a smile of having anticipated it all along—as if he had known all along that this would happen.

Luo Fei lifted his right foot off the bluestone slab and took a step forward. The sound of his shoe sole hitting the stone was very soft, but it was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent square. He took another step, and then another, slowly walking towards the direction of Dark Moon Asura.

His pace was neither fast nor slow, as if he were taking a stroll rather than heading towards a life-or-death battle.

He stopped five steps away from Dark Moon Asura.

"The Xuanji Group," Luo Fei spoke, his voice not loud, but each word seemed to have been soaked in ice water before being uttered, carrying an extreme chill, "Did you kill them?"

Dark Moon Asura put down his double-edged sword, the blades pointing diagonally at the ground. He tilted his head and glanced at Luo Fei, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards—not a smile, but a cold, bone-chilling contempt.

"Yes."

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper grinding against metal, each word carrying a rough texture. "They were too weak. The superhumans of Great Xia are getting weaker with each generation. When I killed them, they didn't even have the ability to fight back."

He said this in such a flat tone that it was as if he were just saying the weather was nice today.

His eyes showed no emotion, no remorse, not even a hint of boasting—to him, killing five members of the Xuanji Group was like stepping on five ants; it was nothing to boast about or hide.

Luo Fei narrowed his eyes.

His eyelids tucked in less than two millimeters, but that tiny tuck instantly transformed his entire aura.

The previous lazy, nonchalant feeling had completely vanished, replaced by a chilling coldness that emanated from the very core of his being. This coldness was not anger, nor a roar, but a murderous intent that had been suppressed to the extreme and solidified into a tangible form.

He stood there, hands still in his pockets, shoulders still slightly slumped, but his eyes had changed. There was no longer a trace of laziness in them; a sharp, almost cutting light shone deep within his pupils.

The light pierced through the volcanic ash falling in the air and struck Dark Moon Asura's face, like an invisible knife held to his neck.

Viewers in the live stream could feel the chill even through their screens.

"I'm scared even through the screen by Captain Luo's gaze."

"He's really angry this time. His eyes weren't this cold when he killed those two."

"Five lives lost by the Mystery Team! The murderer is right in front of us!"

"Those who offend China, no matter how far away, will be punished. Captain Luo, quickly say this!"

"Captain Luo's eyes looked like he wanted to devour Dark Moon alive."

"Kill him to avenge the Xuanji Group."

Luo Fei spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying an extreme amount of suppressed anger.

That anger wasn't a volcanic eruption, but rather a torrent frozen beneath a layer of ice—frighteningly cold on the surface, but beneath lay a violent force capable of crushing everything.

“Those who offend China,” Luo Fei said, each word pausing for a half-beat in the air, as if he were biting each word with his teeth before spitting it out, “will be punished no matter how far away they are.”

The last four words fell into the air like a red-hot iron pressed onto ice.

Dark Moon Asura's eyes narrowed. The smile at the corner of his mouth vanished, replaced by a tight, straight line. His fingers tightened their grip on the hilt of his sword, his knuckles making a very slight cracking sound. "You want me dead?"

Dark Moon Asura raised his sword, the blade pointing at Luo Fei, the tip drawing a small circle in the air. "You're not qualified yet."

The moment the words left his mouth, Dark Moon Asura held the sword horizontally in front of him and gripped the hilt with both hands.

His sword-holding posture is different from that of Kojiro Saki—Kojiro Saki holds his sword with his hands close together, while Dark Moon Shura's hands are separated by a distance, with his right hand holding the upper part of the hilt near the guard and his left hand holding the end of the hilt, with the blade held horizontally in front of his body and the edge facing outwards.

This stance is both offensive and defensive, allowing for chopping, thrusting, and blocking, offering more than twice the versatility of the standard stance.

At the same time, his feet adjusted their positions. His left foot slid forward half a step, with his toes pointing outward at a 30-degree angle, while his right foot came across and pushed off the ground, bending his knee. His center of gravity dropped by nearly 10 centimeters.

His upper body muscles were taut under his clothes, his shoulder muscles bulged and stretched the fabric of the kimono, and the muscle lines of his arms were faintly visible from the cuffs.

A murderous aura emanated from him.

That murderous aura wasn't just an adjective; it was a real, palpable sense of oppression.

The two Kamikaze members standing at a distance were forced to take two steps back by the murderous aura. One of them slammed his back against the wooden fence at the edge of the square with a dull thud.

Maya's breathing became more rapid, and her fingers gripped the hem of her trench coat even tighter, the skin on her knuckles turning bluish-white from the excessive force.

Tianyu Shencang did not retreat. He remained standing, watching Dark Moon Shura and Luo Fei, the upturned smile returning to his lips, his eyes full of anticipation.

He even took the knife off his shoulder, planted the tip on the ground, and placed his hands on the end of the hilt, striking a pose as if watching a show.

Luo Fei stood still, his feet slightly apart, shoulder-width apart. He watched Dark Moon Asura assume a fighting stance, his expression unchanged, but his hands were pulled out of his pockets.

This action made all the viewers in the live stream hold their breath.

"Captain Luo has taken his hand out!!!"

"When he fought Sasaki Kojiro before, he kept his hands in his pockets the whole time, but this time he took them out."

"This shows that Dark Moon Asura's strength has made him take this seriously."

"Sato just said that Tojo wouldn't last three moves against Dark Moon."

"Even Tojo, the third-ranked esper in the Kamikaze Bureau, couldn't withstand three moves."

"He wiped out all five members of the Xuanji Group; this guy is definitely a monster."

"Captain Luo, you should grab a weapon. Fighting a blade bare-handed is too disadvantageous."

Just as the barrage of comments was exploding, Luo Fei and Dark Moon Shura moved almost simultaneously.

The two were like two explosives ignited by the same fuse, bursting forth with terrifying speed in the same instant. Dark Moon Asura stomped his feet on the ground, volcanic ash exploding beneath him, and his body transformed into a dark silver shadow as he charged towards Luo Fei.

Luo Fei's feet also pushed off the ground at the same time, causing the bluestone slabs to burst into a ring of grayish-white dust. His body transformed into a black shadow and rushed towards Dark Moon Asura.

Two shadows collided in the center of the square.

The impact produced a dull thud—not the sound of metal colliding, but the muffled thud of two bodies colliding at high speed.

The sound was like a giant rock crashing to the ground from a great height, making the surrounding air tremble.

The following footage was so fast that even the high frame rate shots in the live stream couldn't capture it.

Dark Moon Asura unleashed two strikes the instant of impact. The first slash descended from the upper right to the lower left, its blade aimed at Luo Fei's neck. The second slash followed the trajectory of the first, descending from the upper left to the lower right, its blade aimed at Luo Fei's chest.

How short was the time interval between the two strikes? So short that before the light of the first strike had even disappeared from the air, the light of the second strike had already appeared, and the two strikes formed a crossed silver-white cross in the air.

But both of their attacks missed their mark.

When Luo Fei slashed down with the first blade, his body turned to the left by less than fifteen degrees. The blade grazed past his right ear, and the edge of the blade was less than a millimeter away from his ear.

As the second slash came down, Luo Fei's body had already shifted to the left. The blade grazed less than two centimeters from his chest, and the wind from the blade blew the fabric of his coat tightly against his chest.

As Luo Fei dodged the two blows, he threw out his right fist.

His punch was aimed straight at Dark Moon Asura's face. How fast was the punch? So fast that the air in front of the fist was compressed and emitted a sharp whistling sound, as if something was tearing the air itself apart.

Dark Moon Asura's pupils contracted slightly, and he quickly withdrew his sword, holding it horizontally in front of his face, the blade facing Luo Fei's fist.

The fist slammed into the knife.

With a loud bang, the sound no longer resembled a fist hitting metal, but rather a large iron hammer smashing into a steel plate.

A terrifying impact came simultaneously from the tiger's mouth of Dark Moon Asura's hands gripping the sword. The force traveled along the blade to the hilt, then from the hilt to his palms, and from his palms to his wrists, arms, and shoulders.

His hand was instantly numb from the shock, and he lost sensation in the pads of all ten fingers at the same time, as if someone had hit him with an electric current.

He gasped inwardly.

This guy's punching power is off—it doesn't seem like something a human could throw. He already had a mental expectation of Luo Fei's strength when he saw Luo Fei smash Saki Kojiro's face with one punch.

But when he actually used his body to withstand that force, he realized that he had underestimated his opponent. Even though the blade had absorbed most of the force of the punch, the remaining portion still made his hands and feet go numb.

If that punch landed directly on his body, he had no doubt that his bones would be broken.

But Dark Moon Asura is Dark Moon Asura after all. In the instant his tiger's mouth went numb, he didn't hesitate at all. He flipped his wrist, and the blade drew an arc horizontally, slashing towards Luo Fei's waist.

The force and speed of this horizontal slash were astonishing. The blade made a sharp buzzing sound as it cut through the air, and the blade left a dark silver streak in the volcanic ash-filled air.

Luo Fei stomped his feet on the ground and took a half step back, just enough to let the blade glide past his abdomen less than two centimeters in front of him.

Then, taking advantage of the momentum, he lunged forward, throwing his left fist from a low angle upwards in an arc aimed at Dark Moon Asura's chin.

Dark Moon Asura held the sword upright, blade facing outwards, the blade close to the center line of his body. Luo Fei's fist slammed into the blade, producing another loud clang.

The impact was even stronger than before. Dark Moon Asura felt as if his hands had been hit by a speeding motorcycle. The blade visibly bent when the fist struck, then bounced back to its original shape. (End of Chapter)