Despite their diligence, Lin Mu and his panions could find nothing connected directly to the Ephemera Sect surfaced.
It was frustrating, but Lin Mu was patient. He knew that even small clues could matter. As they continued their work, they began to learn the rhythms of the city itself, its alleys, its secret places, and its power structure.
The guards, who at first viewed them with suspicion, eventually began to treat them as allies. After all, Lin Mu’s group had resolved cases that would have taken the city watch weeks or multiple months to untangle.
Still, not every investigation was clean or safe.
There were bodies, there was blood, and there were moments that left heavy silence in their wake. Some kidnappers had tried to fight when cornered, and in those moments, Lin Mu’s strength spoke louder than words.
Cattaleya’s fists and Elyon’s silent strikes ended resistance before it could spread. Even so, Lin Mu made sure to avoid unnecessary deaths. He preferred bringing criminals to justice alive when possible. After all, they were still in foreign land under another powers rules.
Over reaching their authority was still something they needed to limit.
Forensic work in Pale Dusk City was almost impossible without spiritual senses.
Thankfully, their group was uniquely equipped for it. Little Shrubby’s ability to detect scents went beyond the physical. He could smell Qi, the metallic tang of blood, and the faint traces of fear pheromones or killing intent left behind.
The twin snakes’ experience with the Death Qi from the death plane allowed them to sense places where death had touched, letting them retrace the echoes of murder. Elyon’s exceptional darkness affinity proved invaluable as well as he could draw out lingering fragments of memory from the shadows themselves, glimpses of what had happened in the past.
One night, they solved a triple murder in the city’s southern district by following such traces.
Little Shrubby caught the smell of burned iron and blood in an abandoned house. Xiao Yin confirmed the lingering Death Qi there, and Elyon, kneeling by the wall, pressed his hand into the darkness. When he stood again, his expression was grim.
"They were killed by a man with a crescent chain around his wrist," he said. "He dumped them in the river two nights ago."
The next morning, the guards pulled bloated bodies from the river, just as Elyon had described. Cases like that cemented their reputation, and soon, the group’s name spread across the city.
Ordinary citizens began to whisper of the "Wandering Righteous Blades" who solved cases the guards could not.
Lin Mu, however, felt conflicted about the fame. Though it brought information to them more easily, it also distracted from their purpose. The true enemy still hid in the shadows, and they had not drawn even a trace of the Ephemera Sect’s involvement.
Soon enough, requests for help began to pour in, especially from the rich and powerful.
Nobles sent their servants with gifts and gold, asking Lin Mu’s group to track down stolen heirlooms or settle disputes. Merchants tried to bribe them into intimidating petitors. Lin Mu refused most of these requests, returning the offered gold or instructing the petitioners to go through the city guard.
And when they got a bit forceful, Lin Mu was also forced to act the same. A burst of his aura was enough to scare most of them away, while blood needed to be drawn by those that tried to e back with more manpower.
He had no time to waste on such trivial greed.
However, when the poor came seeking help, Lin Mu could not turn them away.
More than once, he found himself listening to desperate pleas outside their temporary residence, a small courtyard inn near the river. A woman once came with a child clinging to her skirt, begging for help to find her husband, who had gone missing after taking a job in the mines.
Lin Mu and Little Shrubby followed the trail for days until they found the man imprisoned by the foreman, forced to work off debts fabricated by the mine’s owner. The reunion that followed had been tearful and heartfelt, and for Lin Mu, it was enough reason to have taken the case.
Moments like that reminded him why he continued to help people, even if their problems had nothing to do with the Ephemera Sect. Monk Hushu couldn’t help but smile, seeing their results, muttering about Lin Mu doing the work of a true Buddhist.
To Monk Hushu, what Lin Mu was doing was something every righteous cultivator should be doing. And yet, most never did it on the scale that Lin Mu did. Meng Bai was also rather proud of his master’s work, and stood with him, helping him as much as he could.
Beneath the mysteries and threats, there was still humanity worth protecting.
By the end of the month, their group had solved over fifty cases.
The city guard mander, an old cultivator named Su Wenzhi, even invited them to the barracks to share their insights on investigation. Lin Mu declined politely, preferring to keep a low profile, but the gesture showed how much trust they had earned.
Despite the calm surface, Lin Mu could not shake off a growing unease.
Too many disappearances remained unexplained, particularly those that involved no ransom or motive. There were a handful of cases where people had vanished without trace, their homes showing no sign of struggle, their belongings untouched. Those were the ones that made Lin Mu’s instincts stir.
They were different.
Each night, when the group returned from their investigations, Lin Mu would sit on the roof of their inn, looking toward the northern horizon where, far away from his sight, the mist from the marshes hung faintly.
The Marshes of Silent Skies were very far from Pale Dusk City, yet he could not forget them. He had the feeling that whatever lay hidden in those depths was still watching, still waiting.
The Ephemera Sect had gone silent for a while now, and the silence itself had bee the most dangerous sound of all.
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