American Zombie Detective

For three consecutive days, the Los Angeles Police Department was on high alert, conducting a thorough search every night, with all officers keeping their eyes wide open in search of the woman named Qingqiu.

However, the target was never found, the case came to a standstill, and the tense nerves could not be relieved. Instead, a deeper unease grew in the calm.

Qin Jin tried to contact Johnny, but to his surprise, the guy wasn't in Los Angeles. Instead, he had taken the money Qin Jin had given him and gone to Las Vegas to have a good time. Half a month later, the money was still as thick as before.

He truly lived up to his lucky charm qualities.

Late on the third night, two patrol officers from the 34th Precinct, the experienced Harvey and the young Miller, expanded their patrol area as requested.

When the police car arrived at the fork in the road at the foot of the suburban cemetery, it stopped, and the two had a brief conversation.

"Do we... have to go here too?" Miller hesitated, looking at the road leading to the cemetery.

"There's no one in the cemetery at night, so that monster can't just be guarding it, can it?"

"The higher-ups said we should check every place a car can drive up," Harvey said, rubbing his eyes and crunching on potato chips.

"No need to stop, just go around once and then get off."

Miller nodded, turned the steering wheel, and the cemetery on the hilltop appeared in outline under the headlights, silent and still.

They slowed down and carefully scanned the parking areas along the roadside and at the edge of the cemetery.

"No, thank God." Miller breathed a sigh of relief, his tense shoulders relaxing slightly.

Just then, several abrupt and mournful "Caw—Caw—Caw!" sounds came from deep within the cemetery—

The two turned around abruptly, their flashlight beams instinctively following the sound.

At the end of the beam of light, a dark figure slowly walked from the middle of the cemetery toward the roadside. Its figure was somewhat blurry in the night, and a strange circle of fire appeared behind it, burning abruptly in the darkness.

"Hey! Stop right there! Police!"

The two men immediately drew their guns, got out of the car, and shouted at the approaching people.

The shadowy figures continued to approach, and the air seemed to freeze, leaving only their own heavy breathing.

"Stop! Hands above your head! Now!" Harvey roared again, his voice echoing in the empty cemetery, trembling slightly.

The person remained unmoved.

Almost simultaneously, the two also saw what the newcomer looked like—

Its eyes were pitch black, without pupils; it had a mouthful of sharp teeth; and wisps of bluish-black smoke emanated from its collar and all over its body, bringing with them a sulfurous stench.

"Fire! Fire!" Harvey yelled and pulled the trigger!

Bang bang bang!

The bullets whistled as they struck the approaching man, but it was as if they had hit tough rubber, producing a dull thud. The man's speed suddenly increased!

As Harvey opened fire, Miller lunged at the communicator, screaming at the top of his lungs:

"Attacked! Attacked! We're at Oak Cemetery, Oak Cemetery, under attack! Not the target vehicle, repeat, not the target vehicle, it's a... man with pure black eyes, fangs, and his body is on fire..."

Before he finished speaking, the man had already rushed forward, and a giant claw covered with a bluish-black keratinous layer swept across with a shrill whistling sound that tore through the air!

"Bang! Bang!"

Two muffled thuds followed as two police officers were thrown uncontrollably into the air and crashed heavily onto the roadside, the sound of their bones shattering clearly audible.

The shadowy figure didn't even glance at the fallen police officer before sprinting down the mountain road outside the cemetery entrance!

The command center erupted into chaos!

The patrol cars closest to Oak Ridge immediately turned on their sirens and roared to life, speeding toward the scene like arrows.

The two police cars that arrived first spotted the running dark figure at the bend in the road!

The police car braked suddenly and came to a stop across the road. The doors were flung open, and four officers quickly used the doors as cover, raising their guns and aiming.

"Stop! Police! Hands up! Lie down on the ground immediately!"

The dark figure ran at the same speed without slowing down or even trying to change direction, heading straight for the police car that served as a roadblock!

"Fire! Fire!" the police chief in charge ordered immediately.

The roar of pistols and shotguns erupted instantly! A dense hail of bullets rained down on the shadowy figure.

The shadowy figure's arms suddenly swelled up!

His sleeves were instantly ripped open, revealing two terrifying forelimbs covered in bluish-black scales, as thick as an adult's thigh, which blocked his head as he continued to charge.

"Puff puff puff—"

The bullets had no effect on the forelimbs; all the scales covering them simply shattered.

Braving a hail of bullets, the dark figure, like a raging bull, slammed into the first police car blocking the road!

"Boom—Crack!!!"

The sickening metallic twisting and shattering of glass was deafening!

The heavy police car was rammed and slid sideways, with the doors dented and the windows shattered!

The two police officers hiding behind the car door screamed as they were thrown into the air by the enormous impact. One of them crashed into a tree trunk by the roadside and lost consciousness on the spot, while the other was bent at a 90-degree angle by the impact and died instantly.

Without pausing, the shadowy figure swung its massive claws, creating a terrifying gust of wind that sent the officer, along with his shotgun, flying from the side of another police car as he attempted to get close enough to fire!

The police officer's body was severed in two mid-air, and blood and organs sprayed down from the sky!

The dark figure leaped and easily jumped over the roadside guardrail, disappearing into the dense forest beside the highway in a few bounds, leaving behind only the pungent smell of sulfur and a messy scene.

When Qin Jin and his group arrived, the scene had already been cordoned off by a large number of police officers who had arrived later. Red and blue police lights were flashing wildly, illuminating the bloodshed and chaos as if it were a corner of hell.

The air was thick with the smells of gunpowder, gasoline, and a stench that seemed to be a mixture of burnt sulfur and rotting blood.

The two police cars looked like toys ravaged by a giant beast, a pitiful sight, and the surviving officers' faces showed extreme terror and disbelief.

"Fuck!" Constantine cursed under his breath. He caught the familiar scent as soon as he got out of the car, and his expression turned serious.

"This is pure hellish aura, Qin! Not one of those mixed-race bastards, but a purebred! And..."

He took another deep sniff, savoring the lingering scent:

"This thing is of a very high rank!"

"Let's go up and take a look."

Although the dark red circle of fire in the center of the cemetery had been extinguished, the charred circular marks left on the ground were still clearly visible, radiating residual warmth.

Scattered beside the traces were some unusual offerings: a skinned cat, a rotting human skull, a raven's wing, a tattered scroll, and...

A freshly decomposed corpse!

Constantine picked up the scroll, opened it, and quickly read the Latin text and intricate patterns on it.

"The Cult of the Burning Hearts!" Constantine quickly recognized its origin and explained:

"This was a very small, almost extinct demon cult. Their object of worship..." He pointed to the hand-drawn demon on the scroll:

"Marduk, the Infernal Ripper!"

He raised his head, looking at Qin Jin with a warning in his eyes:

"Qin, this thing isn't some minor trouble like the Hidden Weaver! Marduk is one of the most fearsome demon lords in Hell. Although he can't compare to top-tier beings like Satan and Lucifer, he's definitely below them! This summoning priest uses the soul of the summoner himself..."

Constantine rolled up the scroll, his face unusually grim.

"Judging from the smell of sulfur, its purity, and the power it displays... it's very likely that Marduk has been summoned! If that's true, then..."

"I believe this was Marduk's own idea!"

Why?

Qin Jin stared at the scroll, a hint of doubt flashing deep in his pupils:

"Why did it come to the human world? There's...something going on here!"

The sudden arrival of a purebred demon of such high rank, especially at this sensitive moment when they are searching for Qingqiu with all their might... this is no coincidence.