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

"That suits me perfectly. Now, let me tell you what happened."

"It all started a week ago," Sal's tone turned somber. "That day was Newburgh University's anniversary celebration. The whole city was filled with a joyful atmosphere. Oil lamps hung in the streets, bonfires lit in the center of the square, and everyone was celebrating happily. Then, out of nowhere, a monster suddenly appeared..."

At this point, he closed his eyes in pain, clenched his teeth, and continued almost word by word: "I didn't have a sword with me at the time, so I could only use a torch as a weapon. I was knocked away by that monster as soon as I rushed up. Before I lost consciousness, I only heard the screams of the crowd."

"When we woke up the next day, the doctors had already tallied the casualties: thirteen dead, sixteen wounded, and a squad of guards torn to pieces..."

Sal's tone was full of self-reproach, and his iron-clad gloves creaked as he gripped the hilt of his sword.

"If I hadn't been invited to give the opening speech that day, I wouldn't have been without a weapon. If I had known, I would have at least brought a knife. It could have held that monster off for a little while and saved some lives."

"What does the monster look like? How big is it? Does it have any distinctive features?"

"It's more than two heads taller than me, and it's also hunched over. If it straightened its back, it would be even taller. Its forelimbs are very long and can hang directly on the ground. As for its distinctive feature... it has an iron ball-shaped mask covering its face, so you can't see its face clearly."

"An iron ball mask?"

The first half of the introduction was acceptable to Li De; a monster capable of tearing a squad of plate-armored guards to shreds must be tall.

But this iron ball mask is puzzling.

Either this monster is a "meticulous person" who feels that his face is ugly and wears a mask to cover it up; or it was specially raised and modified by someone.

But he remembered that there was no mage tower in Cowburg! Besides those alchemists and mages, who else would conduct such strange experiments?

The information is still too vague. Li De shook his head: "I don't have any clues for now. Has the scene been cleaned up? If not, I'd like to go and take a look. It would be even better if I could see the victim's body."

"No one touched the site. Everyone was too scared to clean the square. Most of the bodies had been buried due to the passage of time. However, two relatively intact bodies were bought by scholars and preserved in jars."

"Preservation in formaldehyde" refers to cutting a corpse into pieces and preserving it in formaldehyde for medical research.

Li De thought to himself, "This is just a lucky break."

The weather isn't cold now, and a body from a week ago should have decomposed beyond recognition by now. Even if there were any traces left by a monster, they would most likely have been destroyed by maggots. On the other hand, a body preserved in formalin can retain many clues.

"Interesting. I'll take the job. How much is the reward?"

"The mayor has offered a reward of 500 crowns. If you can really solve the monster, I'll add another 200 crowns privately. But you have to hurry. The monster has become increasingly rampant these past few days, even daring to come out and harm people in broad daylight. Otherwise, we wouldn't be restricting residents from going out."

"Okay, I'll find a place to stay first. Can you give me a pass, or find an assistant? Otherwise, I'll be chased by guards and questioned wherever I go."

Sal breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that he had accepted the commission.

The reputation of witchers may not be the best, but their ability to deal with monsters is undeniable; otherwise, they wouldn't be called monster killers.

"No need for that. You can just stay at my place, it's very close to the city hall. As for an assistant... I'll just find one for you at the academy, and you can also check on the body in the jar while you're at it."

……

Sal's house is on the south side of the city. It is a spacious three-story house with a lovely little garden in front.

"I didn't realize you were such a wealthy man."

Sal's tone carried a hint of reminiscence: "This was left to me by my father."

Who is your father?

"The previous mayor of Beefburg has been dead for several years."

"Wow, what an illustrious family background! My apologies for not recognizing you sooner."

Li De said he was being disrespectful, but there was little respect in his tone.

Sal shrugged nonchalantly; he'd much rather live in the city guard's barracks than in this house.

Before the two even entered, an elderly man dressed as a butler came out to greet them and bowed respectfully to Sal: "Young Master, you're back."

"Hmm." Sal nodded and instructed, "This is my distinguished guest. He will be staying at my house for the next few days. Prepare a guest room for him and have the groom take good care of his horse in the backyard."

After giving instructions to the butler, he turned to the Witcher: "Let's go, I'll take you to the academy."

……

The town of Cowburg and the college are built on two islands, one large and one small, with the town in the north and the college in the south, connected by a bridge.

Sal led Li De through a quiet campus path, finally stopping in front of a stone building covered in ivy. The building's walls were dark gray, exuding a touch of early Renaissance charm, yet the oppressive atmosphere around it added a touch of gloom.

A worn wooden sign hangs at the entrance of the building, engraved with the words "Physician's Study Room," and you can faintly smell the mixed scent of formaldehyde and herbs wafting from inside.

"This is it. Elena is the university's most outstanding medical scholar and the youngest anatomist. The bodies of those victims in the jars are with her."

The two gently pushed open the door to avoid disturbing the people inside.

As soon as the door was pushed open a crack, a crisp yet fiery female voice rang out, its penetrating power instantly shattering the surrounding silence.

"A bunch of idiots! You've been following the instructional skeleton for so long, and now you can't even recognize it when it's just a different skeleton? Did ghouls eat your brains?"

Li De and Sal exchanged a glance and went inside.

The room that comes into view is a spacious dissection room with a smooth stone floor and several rows of glass jars in the corner containing organs soaked in formalin solution.

In the center of the room, there was a large wooden bed, on which lay a disproportionate human skeleton, clearly manipulated by the students but unable to be pieced together correctly.

A young woman stood by the bed, her long, wine-red hair shining like a dancing flame, her sleeves rolled up to reveal her slender wrists.

Like her hair color, she also had a fiery temper—passionate, direct, and somewhat irritable.

Several young students stood in front of her, dressed in uniform gray apprenticeship uniforms, standing there helplessly, not daring to even breathe.

"Miss Elena, the proportions of this skeleton... are indeed a bit different..."

One student offered a defense, but his voice was barely audible.

"Excuses! What are you going to do when you're setting bones for the wounded? Are you expecting everyone's skeleton to look exactly like the models in the academy?"

It would have been better if he hadn't tried to explain; instead, his attempt only fueled the red-haired girl's anger, and she retorted sarcastically.

"Someone breaks their leg, clutches their wound, and comes to you, pleading, 'Doctor, please set my bone, I need to support my family,' and you just tell them, 'I'm sorry, your bone is misaligned, the proportions are wrong. Come back to me when your bone has grown to the shape I recognize.'"

These words made the students even more ashamed, and they all hung their heads, wishing they could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Sal stood to the side, helplessly rubbing his forehead, not daring to speak rashly, clearly already used to the other party's fiery temper.

Li De walked forward with great interest, his gaze sweeping over the scattered human bones on the bed. He didn't say anything, but based on his understanding of human anatomy, he gently rearranged the positions of a few bones.

In just a few seconds, the originally disproportionate and strangely shaped skeleton became much more pleasing to the eye.

Elena wanted to continue scolding, but when she caught a glimpse of the skeleton on the bed out of the corner of her eye, her eyes lit up instantly, and the anger in her tone vanished completely, replaced by a hint of praise.

"Not all of them are idiots! At least someone got it right!"

She turned her head, about to offer praise, when she realized that the person who came was not a student of the academy.

Elena's smile vanished instantly, her tone now tinged with wariness and doubt: "Who are you?"

"Li De, the Witcher."

"The Witcher?"

Elena looked him up and down, her gaze lingering on the twin swords and the golden cat's eye for a moment. "I didn't realize that a demon hunter who makes a living by killing monsters would have such a good understanding of human anatomy. His techniques are much more skillful than those of my clumsy students. He has the potential to be a doctor."

"That might disappoint you. My reasons for understanding human anatomy are the exact opposite of yours. You understand it to save lives, while I understand it to kill."