A fantastical journey across the heavens, beginning with the Witcher.

"As long as you kill bandits and robbers, I have no problem with it."

Normally, when such words are spoken, the audience would either be terrified and try to avoid them, or pretend to agree but secretly be wary. But the red-haired beauty in front of her didn't care at all.

"Stop for a moment, we need to talk to you."

Sal stepped in at the right moment, interrupting the teaching process and ending the somewhat strange conversation.

"Oh well."

Elena hesitated for two seconds, then waved to the crowd, her tone unmistakably warning.

"Go back now and memorize the structure of the skeletal model! If you make the same basic mistake again, everyone will fail the evaluation—no pleading allowed!"

A group of apprentices, aged sixteen or seventeen, felt as if they had been granted a pardon. They shrank back like quails and bowed to Sal before leaving, afraid that being a step too late would provoke Elena's anger again.

Sal returned the greetings to each student until the last student disappeared through the door. Then he looked at his friend helplessly and said, "You were too harsh on them. They're all young people; it's inevitable that they'll make mistakes."

"ha!"

Elena chuckled and bent down to pick up the bones from the bed one by one, her movements swift yet gentle, as if afraid of damaging the specimens.

"Broken bones and amputations don't care about a doctor's age, nor will they give a patient a few more days of life just because the doctor is young. Rather than waiting for them to graduate and be beaten to death by angry patients' families, I'd rather let them vent their anger now."

After placing the last bone into the storage box, she turned around, raising an eyebrow at the two of them: "So, what do you want from me?"

"As you can see, I found a professional demon hunter to handle the monsters, but he has a lot of areas to investigate, so he needs a guide who is familiar with the terrain and of high enough status. Otherwise, he will be stopped and questioned by soldiers at every street corner."

"We also want to see the remains of the victims; I heard you bought two bodies."

Li De added in a timely manner.

"Being a guide is no problem, since only boarding students will be attending classes after martial law is declared."

Elena nodded in agreement, turned and walked to the display case by the wall, bent down and took out several transparent jars with brass rims, and gently placed them on the table.

"As for the body... these are all that's left. We didn't expect anyone to examine it again, so we only preserved the vital organs."

Li De fell silent. Through the brass-rimmed transparent canister, one could clearly see the heart, kidneys, and liver floating and sinking in the formaldehyde.

There were no wounds, no marks; even a god couldn't find any clues in them.

Elena explained, "The original plan was to preserve the body as a whole for the apprentices to practice in anatomy classes, but Instructor Gillen said the body was too damaged to be of much anatomical value, so we only preserved the vital organs."

"Let's go to the site and see for ourselves. Hopefully, there are still traces left."

……

On the other side, several apprentices had just stepped out of the dissection room when they couldn't help but huddle together and whisper to each other, their voices full of curiosity and trepidation.

"What exactly is that witcher Captain Thrall brought here for?"

"What else could they be doing? They must have hired them to deal with that monster."

"What's the use of finding Miss Elena? She's a medical student, not a demon hunter."

"Who knows..."

As the group was talking, they reached the corner of the stairs and bumped into a middle-aged man wearing a respectable long robe and small gold-rimmed glasses.

They quickly stopped talking and bowed, saying, "Professor Gillen."

Gillen wore a gentle smile and spoke in a friendly tone: "Hello, everyone, are you here again for Miss Elena's class?"

"Yes, Professor," an apprentice replied hastily. "The whole city is under martial law, and we can't even go to the library. We're so bored staying in our dorms that we wanted to come and learn more."

"He is indeed diligent."

Gillen smiled, then casually changed the subject, asking, "I overheard you talking about witchers earlier, you mean those mutants who specialize in killing monsters?"

The other apprentice nodded quickly, his tone tinged with fear and repulsion: "That's right, it's them. They're carrying two swords and have golden cat eyes. They look really scary."

"No, that witcher had his sword slung across his waist, not carried on his back."

"So what? They're still mutants!"

Amid the argument, no one noticed that Gillen stood at the corner of the stairs, half of her face shrouded in shadow, her smile gradually fading, and a barely perceptible cold glint flashing in her eyes.

His fingertips subtly clenched his sleeve, but after a moment his expression softened, and he waved his hand.

"Alright, stop arguing. Go back to your dorm early. Don't wander around during the curfew."

"Yes, Professor," the apprentices replied in unison and hurried back to their lodgings.

……

Meanwhile, Thrall bid farewell to the two and continued his patrol of the city, instructing the witcher to notify him immediately of any discoveries.

Li De followed Elena to investigate the various attack sites. Along the way, they encountered several patrolling soldiers, but upon seeing the red-haired beauty, they let them pass without even asking her a question.

Unfortunately, no useful clues were found, and the last hope rested on Bullburg Square...

Neat steps and railings are made of grayish-white stone, and the flowers in the flower beds are in full bloom.

This place, which should have been a pleasant place for people to relax and have fun, now has blackened bloodstains and messy footprints on the clashing stone floor.

Scattered colorful flags, broken stones, and collapsed wooden frames are everywhere, giving a glimpse into the chaos and devastation of a week ago.

"Is there anything else they can find?"

Elena hesitated, looking at the mess on the ground.

"It's hard to say, we'll have to see for ourselves to know."

As he spoke, Li De slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a faint light shone in his golden cat eyes, indicating that he had entered the demon-hunting sensory state.

The surrounding noise vanished instantly, and the world fell silent. Countless traces, like layers of tangled yarn, appeared clearly before his eyes: messy footprints, splattered blood, marks of objects colliding...

What he had to do was to unravel the mystery, eliminate irrelevant traces, and find the clue that belonged to the monster.

The direction of the investigation is actually quite simple: when people are attacked by monsters, they will inevitably flee frantically in the direction away from the monsters.

By following the footprints that radiate outwards in reverse, you can accurately pinpoint the first location where the monster appeared, and then recreate the monster's movements by following the tracks.

"Let me see... The crowd is in chaos, there's been a stampede, and the person lying on the ground is a woman..."

Li De muttered to himself as he slowly moved across the square, following the footprints in the background. His sharp gaze swept over every inch of the ground, and occasionally he would squat down and gently trace the marks on the stone slabs with his fingertips, as if he were having a conversation with the remnants of the past.

A moment later, he stopped in an area on the south side of the square, a look of understanding flashing in his eyes: "Found it, the monster first appeared here."

"The footprints were large, with four toes and claws. It usually walked on its two legs, but sometimes it would use all four limbs to push off; the claw prints were long, the fingers were three-segmented, and the nails were sharp enough to easily cut through the stone slabs... It first invaded from the south side of the square, tearing the first victim to pieces, and then ran wildly; it paused here for a moment, probably because you stopped it, Sal; after that, it became increasingly violent, killing people as it went, and even chasing after them for a distance..."

Elena, standing to the side, lacked the keen senses of a demon hunter. In her eyes, Li De was merely wandering around the messy square, occasionally squatting down to stroke the ground while muttering to himself, looking no different from those eccentric fellows from the Mystic Academy.

She actually wanted to participate in the Witcher's investigation, but as a mentor in medical research, Elena knew a profound truth—professional matters should be left to professionals, and outsiders interfering would only cause trouble.

So even though curiosity was nagging at me like a kitten, I resisted the urge to interfere.

Until Li De smiled and said, "Ah, maybe you run fast and are shyly wearing a mask, but you still left a flaw in the end."

The red-haired beauty could no longer contain her curiosity and moved closer to examine the Witcher's discovery: a jet-black, shiny hair as thick as a stalk of grass.

"Did this fall from a monster? Can you identify what kind of monster it is?"

"I'm not a god, how could I possibly recognize a monster based on a single hair? But I did make one other discovery: this hair seems to carry a faint...formalin scent?"

"Formaldehyde?!"

Upon hearing this, Elena's hair practically stood on end, her voice suddenly rising in shock and disbelief: "You mean, this monster is hiding right here in our academy!"

"Don't get excited. People come and go in the academy. If there were a monster, it would have been discovered long ago. It might have stuck to something, or your scent might have interfered with my sense of smell. After all, it's been a week, and the scent has mostly dissipated, so there's bound to be some inaccuracy."

"Phew...that's good."

With a huge weight lifted from her shoulders, Elena breathed a sigh of relief, but then, driven by curiosity, she pressed on, "How did you find this hair? This place is a complete mess, like a garbage dump."

"Intuition, plus a touch of keen sense of smell."

Li De gently pinched the mane with two fingers, his tone carrying a hint of feigned ease and smugness.

"You make it sound so true."

Elena covered her mouth and laughed, the wariness and aloofness in her eyes towards strangers largely dissipating, replaced by curiosity about the witcher.

I had heard that these mutated superhumans had extraordinary physiques, keen senses, and could even use some simple spells, but I had never seen them in person.

So she boldly raised an arm and leaned in front of Li De, saying provocatively, "Then tell me, what can you smell from me?"

Li De chuckled, brought the food close to his nose, and sniffed twice before rattling off a string of answers: "For breakfast, we had pea soup and bread, along with raspberry jam. Last night, I sprinkled rose petals in my shower..."

They're all correct!

Elena was increasingly shocked as she listened. She quickly pulled up her collar and smelled herself, but all she could smell was the pungent odor of formaldehyde.

"Besides, you're not married yet, are you?"

"How did you smell that? No, it must have been Sal who told you!"

The red-haired beauty placed her hands on her slender waist, with a confident "I don't believe it" expression.

"I really could smell it. There was a peculiar scent on your fingers. I guess you couldn't help yourself last night and used it to..."

"stop!"

Elena screamed, her face turning as red as her beautiful hair.

In a fit of shame and anger, she glared at Li De resentfully: "You rude bastard!"

"You were the one who told me to smell it!"

Li De shrugged, feeling quite innocent.

"I didn't let you smell...smell...Aaaaah! You bastard!"

Unable to bring herself to say it, Elena stamped her foot, turned and walked away, her long, wine-red hair swaying behind her like a burning flame.

The innocent witcher was left standing there, calling out, "Miss Elena, where are you going? You have to take me back to Captain Sal's house! What if I get arrested by the guards on the way?"

"Let them kill you!"

The red-haired beauty didn't look back, and walked even faster, disappearing around the corner in just a few steps.

Once he was sure the other person was completely out of sight, the frivolous smile on Li De's face vanished. He glanced at the mane in his hand, a sharp, cold glint flashing in his golden cat eyes.

He lied just now.

Perhaps it's difficult to identify the monster based on just one hair, but combining the footprints and handprints is enough to determine its true nature—the Blood Demon, a variant of the vampire, with a brutal nature, immense strength, and extreme danger.

Most importantly, these monsters like to live in groups; the appearance of one means that there must be a whole nest of them hiding nearby!

As for why he didn't just tell Elena directly, but instead deliberately flirted with her, it's related to another lie he told.

The fur of ordinary monsters may not be able to retain their scent for long, but the Blood Demon is different.

The monster's mane has a special cavity structure inside, which can secrete bodily fluids to mark its territory. Because of this, the scent can linger for a much longer time.

Therefore, although formaldehyde is highly volatile, it was still retained.

This means that the monster did indeed come from Cowburg Academy.

He hadn't forgotten Thrall's description of the monster—"wearing a mask shaped like an iron ball on its head."

As far as he knew, the Blood Demon possessed a certain level of intelligence and had a habit of dressing up, but this was limited to wearing jewelry and clothes; a mask was unlikely, as it would severely hinder hunting.

The only possibility is that this Blood Demon was deliberately "raised" or even modified by someone at Bullburg Academy.

Those seemingly frivolous words were actually Li De's way of testing him.

In his previous life, he had studied micro-expressions for a period of time, but his talent was mediocre, and he was wrong five out of ten times. His friends teased him for "guessing blindly".

After becoming a Witcher, the Trial of the Grasses endowed him with extremely keen observation skills, enabling him to capture the most subtle changes in facial expressions.

It can be said that, apart from those who are born with facial paralysis, 99% of the lies in this world are exposed to him.

Elena's reaction to the test was normal; she showed shock and concern for the safety of the academy and its students, but there was no sign of her lying, so she can be temporarily ruled out as a suspect.

The reason the truth wasn't revealed was because this girl seemed to be the type with a fiery temper and couldn't hide her thoughts. If she knew the truth, she would inevitably investigate and be easily tricked into revealing information by the person behind the scenes, which could even lead to her death.

But after he "teased" her, things changed. No matter who tried to get information out of her, it would only remind her of the embarrassing scene from before, filling her with shame and anger.

As for Elena's feelings... a barely perceptible smile flashed in Li De's eyes.

Well, great things always require sacrifices. Let her be shy for a while.

Besides, he didn't completely lie; it did have a slightly different scent, with a hint of rosewater, very fragrant.