Mortal Dawn and Dusk, My Eternal Life - Chapter 32

Su Mingyue had just performed a miraculous feat, pulling the young girl from the brink of death. The surrounding crowd was still immersed in the immense shock of this “resurrection,” with exclamations and discussions echoing incessantly. Director Liu of Peking Union Medical College Hospital followed closely behind Su Mingyue, calling her “Divine Doctor” repeatedly, his attitude respectful to the point of fawning, a stark contrast to his previous arrogant demeanor. He continuously asked Su Mingyue various medical questions, hoping to glean even a tiny secret of her miraculous medical skills from this excessively young “Divine Doctor.”

Su Mingyue merely responded indifferently. She was long accustomed to such sycophantic behavior. She was about to find an excuse to slip away from this troublesome place when suddenly—

“Someone’s dead! Another one’s dead!”

A shrill scream, like a bolt from the blue, came from another street not far away! The voice was filled with terror and despair, instantly washing away the previous clamor and joy!

“Someone’s dead again?”

“This is the second one this month, isn’t it?”

“Oh my God! What on earth is happening? Is it true, as the rumors say, that Tianjin isn’t peaceful, and there’s a demon at work?”

The surrounding crowd stirred again upon hearing this. Chinese people inherently loved a spectacle, especially such bizarre murder cases. It was like a magnet, drawing everyone’s attention. Not caring about the trouble, the crowd that had just been surrounding Su Mingyue and the rescued girl instantly rushed towards the direction of the scream.

Su Mingyue’s brow slightly furrowed. The second death this month? It sounded like it wasn’t an ordinary accident. Her heart stirred, and she slowly followed the flow of people towards the scene of the incident.

Soon, she arrived at the crime scene. It was a relatively secluded alley, which had already been cordoned off by the police who had rushed to the scene. Within the cordon, a male body lay on the ground in an extremely twisted posture. The deceased appeared to be around thirty or forty years old, dressed in a simple short shirt. His face was contorted in an expression of extreme terror, his eyes wide open, as if he had seen something utterly terrifying just before death.

But the most chilling aspect was his manner of death. His body was withered like a mummy that had been air-dried for decades. His skin clung tightly to his bones, as if all the essence and moisture from his entire body had been drained in an instant! This manner of death was definitely not something humanly possible!

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, he died a terrible death!”

“Just like the laborer who died at the dock last month, the manner of death is identical!”

“It must be a demon! How else could a person turn into this state?”

Discussions and gasps of cold air erupted from the surrounding crowd, everyone’s face filled with horror and unease. Su Mingyue stood among the crowd, calmly observing the shriveled corpse, an imperceptible seriousness flashing in her eyes.

Life force drained… This method was not unfamiliar to her. Some cultivators of evil arts, or certain special demons, would use this method to quickly enhance their cultivation. It seemed there were indeed some unclean things hidden in Tianjin.

Just then, a steady and powerful footsteps came from the alley entrance.

“Move aside! Everyone move aside! Police business!”

Several police officers, dressed in black uniforms with pistols at their waists, pushed through the crowd and walked in. Leading them was a tall, stern-faced young man. He wore a crisp dark suit, covered by a black trench coat, and a black fedora with its brim pulled low, obscuring his eyes. He exuded a cold aura that kept people at a distance, along with a… hardened, battle-forged air of iron and killing intent.

It was Gu Mingxuan. The moment he appeared, the surrounding clamor of discussions involuntarily died down. Everyone’s gaze was drawn to this young man with a powerful presence.

“General Gu is here!”

“General Gu is a capable officer of our Tianjin Police Bureau; maybe he can catch the killer!”

“Yes, with General Gu here, this case will surely be solved!”

A few low whispers spread through the crowd. Clearly, this “General Gu” had some reputation in Tianjin.

Gu Mingxuan ignored the surrounding chatter. He walked directly to the corpse, crouched down, and examined it carefully. His movements were steady and professional, completely unmoved by the gruesome state of the corpse.

A moment later, he stood up and commanded his police officers in a deep voice: “Cordon off the scene, conduct a thorough investigation, and don’t miss any clues! Also, get these onlookers away! They’re interfering with the investigation!” His voice, like his person, was cold and decisive, carrying an undeniable authority.

The police officers, upon hearing his command, immediately began to disperse the crowd. Su Mingyue also slowly retreated with the flow of people. However, just as she turned to leave, her gaze involuntarily fell upon Gu Mingxuan, who was directing his subordinates at the scene.

She didn’t know why, but this man gave her a… very strange feeling. A… inexplicable sense of familiarity. As if, long, long ago, she had seen him somewhere, or… had some ineffable connection with him.

Su Mingyue carefully studied Gu Mingxuan’s profile. His cheekbones were sharply defined, his nose bridge high, his lips tightly pursed, revealing a resolute and cold demeanor. This was clearly a completely unfamiliar face. Su Mingyue was certain that in her long, almost endless memory, such a person had never appeared.

But… why… why did she feel that faint sense of familiarity with him? And from him, she also seemed to sense a trace of… extremely faint, almost imperceptible… familiarity?

Su Mingyue’s heart was filled with confusion. She didn’t know that Gu Mingxuan at this moment was no longer the young officer who had died on the battlefield. Within his body resided the soul of A-Mu, the orphan whose fate had been so twisted by a drop of her unintentional blood a thousand years ago. And the reason she felt that sense of familiarity was precisely because A-Mu’s soul, before being sealed in the Soul-locking Coffin, had already thoroughly fused with the drop of her blood, which contained the essence of immortality, and the wolf demon’s heart.

Su Mingyue also didn’t know that when she destroyed the black coffin (Soul-locking Coffin) in the Huang Mansion’s underground with her peach wood sword, stained with her own blood, although she purified A-Mu’s towering resentment and savage demonic qi, the peach wood sword, having once passed through A-Mu’s body, its blood-stained blade caused a peculiar resonance and response between her drop of potent life-force blood energy and A-Mu’s fading remnant soul, which refused to depart due to a thousand-year obsession, at the moment the black coffin shattered. It was this resonance that, like a guiding light in the darkness, serendipitously re-collected A-Mu’s remnant soul and coincidentally attached it to the recently deceased Gu Mingxuan, allowing him to “resurrect.”

However, this “resurrection” came at a great cost. A-Mu’s memories were almost completely lost, leaving only a vague obsession with that “pitch-black female figure,” and… the terrifying cost of constantly needing to consume life force to sustain this body. And the demonic qi on him had been purified, thus the fusion of demonic qi and Gu Mingxuan’s own aura became extremely faint and subtle. If Su Mingyue weren’t an extremely sensitive person, she would not have noticed it at all.

Su Mingyue quietly watched Gu Mingxuan from within the crowd. She was certain that she had never seen this person before. Perhaps… it was just the faint, almost imperceptible aura of a soldier on him that reminded her of some long-lost old acquaintances. She gently shook her head, pushing down the inexplicable sense of familiarity in her heart. She was now just a wandering female physician, unwilling to get involved with any government officials.

However, just as Su Mingyue was about to turn and leave, Gu Mingxuan, who was directing his subordinates at the crime scene, suddenly seemed to sense something. He sharply raised his head, his keen gaze, like a hawk’s, swept towards the crowd! He had just… seemed to feel a gaze. A gaze that made him feel somewhat familiar, and also somewhat… unsettled. But when his gaze swept through the bustling crowd, he found nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the onlookers were ordinary citizens, their eyes filled with curiosity and fear. No one’s gaze gave him that peculiar feeling.

Could it be… a misconception?

Gu Mingxuan frowned slightly, suppressing the strange sensation in his heart, and continued to immerse himself in the case investigation. He didn’t notice that at the edge of the crowd, a young woman in a blue cloth gown was looking at him with a complex and scrutinizing gaze, then quietly turned and disappeared into the surging crowd.