At this point, Lin Qiye hesitated again.
"But I've seen the tavern owner in the video. He's a short, bald, greasy middle-aged man, and his build is so different from the person in the video."
"For someone with super-fast regeneration, changing body shape in a short time is not difficult." An Qingyu's voice came again, with a faint echo.
Upon hearing the voice, Lin Qiye asked in surprise, "You're not in the tavern? Where are you?"
An Qingyu did not answer. He walked down a narrow, dark stone staircase step by step, the faint glow from his phone screen illuminating his calm face.
Before long, the stone steps beneath his feet came to an end, and a rusty iron gate appeared before him.
He pushed up his glasses, placed his right hand on the surface of the iron gate, and the next moment, extremely cold frost began to spread from his palm. After the entire iron gate was frozen, he gently tapped it with his fingers, and the iron gate shattered with a sound.
As soon as he opened the door, an indescribable stench hit him—the smell of rotting old wood mixed with a strong stench of blood, causing him to furrow his brow.
After An Qingyu entered the room, she carefully looked around. It seemed to be a long-abandoned storage room, filled with cobwebs. On the opposite wall, there were two scarlet bloodstains.
An Qingyu gently wiped his finger on the bloodstain, rubbed his fingertip together, and found the blood was fresh.
Moreover, there were four brand-new nail marks on the wall.
An Qingyu picked up his phone and calmly said, "I'm at the scene."
"You found it?" Lin Qiye was shocked by An Qingyu's efficiency.
An Qingyu glanced at the stone steps he had come from. "I analyzed the overall layout of this tavern and found that it is somewhat different from the other commercial properties on this street. It occupies a few square meters less space."
"Later I discovered that a small area that originally belonged to the tavern had been taken over by the hot pot restaurant next door. It must have been that the owners of the two restaurants reached some agreement, and the tavern took the initiative to sell the land and put up a wall between them."
"The land is currently being used by the hot pot restaurant to store miscellaneous items, so based on the layout, this land belongs to the neighboring hot pot restaurant, not the pub. The police were misled by this during their search of the scene."
Lin Qiye narrowed his eyes slightly. "In that case, we can be certain that the owner of this tavern is the mastermind behind all of this. But... why did he use such bizarre methods of killing as nailing to the wall and severing fingers? Why did he perform such a ritual? He is human, and the ascension ritual of a vengeful ghost has no effect on him."
"Could it be... that he performed the ritual not for himself?"
Lin Qiye had reason to believe that this vengeful ghost ascension ceremony was really taking place; otherwise, an ability user would have no reason to use such complicated methods to randomly kill a few innocent passersby.
If there is a reasonable explanation for all of this, there is only one: the owner is indeed trying to complete the promotion ritual, but not for himself, but for another Mysteries being of the Vengeful Ghost type...
Could he be controlled by a Mysteries being?
"If everything is based on the "completion of the ritual," then the tavern owner will definitely come to this area to complete the final ritual."
If everything is based on the premise of "completing the ritual," then the Pub Owner will definitely come to this area to complete the final ritual.
Lin Qiye looked down at the pitch-black neighborhood below, his thoughts in turmoil. He felt like he had overlooked something...
Ritual, area, killing, sacrifice...
Just as Lin Qiye was deep in thought, an airplane streaked across the sky. The red lights on its wings caught his attention. He looked up at the sky and suddenly froze.
A bold idea suddenly popped into his head!
Could it be that he...?
Lin Qiye suddenly stood up, glanced at the time, and saw it was 3:11 a.m.
"Qi Mo! What time did the tavern owner buy the plane ticket?!" Lin Qiye's voice suddenly rang out in the previously quiet channel, startling the others.
However, Wen Qimo's voice did not appear.
Lin Qiye called several more times, but Wen Qimo's channel remained completely silent.
At this moment, Chen Muye frowned slightly. "Wen Qimo, can you hear us?"
Eleven minutes have passed since the last report. Eleven minutes ago, Wen Qimo was speaking normally, but now no matter how they call out to him, he does not respond.
"Lin Qiye, what did you discover?" Wu Xiangnan asked, knowing something was wrong when Wen Qimo didn't respond.
"Vice Captain, could you ask Xiao Hei what time the tavern owner's flight is?"
"Okay."
A few dozen seconds later, his voice came through again, "Takeoff at 3:20, what's wrong?"
Lin Qiye's heart skipped a beat. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and leaped into the darkness, shouting loudly at the same time:
"Stop that plane! Don't let it take off! There's no such thing as some unknown mystery; it's all the work of that tavern owner! I'll tell you the details later."
He wanted to complete the ritual, and he would indeed come here, but not on the ground, but...
In the sky!
Lin Qiye looked up at the dark night sky, and the others were taken aback.
"The ceremony can be carried out within the designated area. The tavern owner knows that we are all lying in ambush in this area, so he did not choose to complete the ceremony on the ground. He is not taking the plane to leave Cangnan, but to complete the ceremony on the plane when it flies over this area!"
"The plane had over 200 passengers, which might not be enough to meet the requirements for a soul sacrifice. So he used Xiao Hei to trick Wen Qimo into going there, intending to use his soul to fill the remaining vacancies."
Hearing Lin Qiye's words, the rest of the 136th squad felt a chill in their hearts. Chen Muye didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately gave the order:
"Contact the airport immediately. Do everything you can to stop that plane from taking off. Shonan, Hongying, Qiye, Xiaonan, go to the airport now and capture him."
"Leng Xuan, Xi Chen you guys and I will continue to guard this place to prevent any diversionary tactics."
He believed Lin Qiye's reasoning, but as the captain, he had to take overall control. Since the ritual could be completed both in the sky and on the ground, it was possible that the tavern owner was making a feint and holding the ritual on the ground while everyone else was heading to the airport.
It concerns the lives of thousands of people; he must be careful.
Wu Xiangnan, Hongying, and Si Xiaonan quickly jumped into the car. By this time, Lin Qiye had already disappeared. In the deserted city at night, he could freely leap over buildings, and his speed was no slower than that of a car.
With the roar of the engine, the black van quickly disappeared into the darkness.