Chapter 62: Cognitive Upheaval! The Parking Garage!

"Huh?"
"A crystal bead?"
"An amethyst, specifically a barrel bead, sized 8x9. So this is none other than that elegant amethyst bead?"
"We only found two of them on Anyan Road. I never expected we'd find another one here at this construction site."
"Doesn't that mean Gao Ya and Yin Tingxue likely came here? Or perhaps, they are right here?"
Standing in the middle of the abandoned construction site, the police officers looked at the handful of snow in Xu Xinyi's palm.
Especially at the purple crystal bead nestled in the snow, each of them wore an expression of utter disbelief.
Then, many of them turned their heads and cast shocked gazes at Shen Ting, who was wearing a Daoist robe, frowning as he fiddled with a luopan compass, muttering words under his breath to himself.
Ever since Shen Ting suggested using metaphysical tools like the luopan and the Bagua mirror to track down the culprit, everyone had been deeply resistant to the idea.
This resistance didn't stem from logical reasoning, but rather from a sort of instinct, a gut feeling.
For police officers who had received modern criminal investigation training, solving cases relied on solid evidence and rigorous logical thinking.
In other words, a complete chain of evidence and logic!
Shen Ting's metaphysical methods were the exact opposite—they were too anti-intellectual, one might even say anti-science.
It was only because Shen Ting had worked a miracle on his previous case that everyone managed to tolerate his "foolishness."
If any other uninformed expert had heard his intention to solve a case through metaphysics, they would have burst out cursing on the spot.
The problem was!
Shen Ting had actually pulled it off!
The amethyst in Xu Xinyi's hand was the best proof.
What was even more crucial was this!
This abandoned construction site was different from that intersection.
At the intersection, the criminal had merely passed through.
As for this abandoned construction site, it was very likely the criminal's hideout.
The criminal might have been here to dispose of a body or conceal a person!
For the investigation of the case, this place was obviously a location of paramount importance.
Yet the officers knew that if they had been left to search, even a month of searching would likely have turned up empty.
And yet, relying purely on metaphysics, Shen Ting had managed to find it just like that?
"It's over, I feel like my worldview has been completely turned upside down."
"Me too! My eyes see the amethyst, and my brain analyzes what it means. But deep down, I feel like my soul is resisting this conclusion."
"What the hell, even seeing it with my own eyes, I still can't believe it!"
"Precisely because we saw it with our own eyes, it's even harder to accept how Shen Ting managed to find this place."
It wasn't just the ordinary officers; Zheng Yuanqiao and Qin Shan, two seasoned team captains, also felt that their entire knowledge system had been upended.
Having served as criminal investigators for so many years, the shocks they had experienced in the past were mostly limited to cruel murder methods or cases that defied human nature.
But this was truly the first time their foundational knowledge of criminal investigation, built over decades, had suffered such a massive blow.
The two men exchanged glances, each seeing the shock and incredulity mirrored in the other's eyes.
They wanted to say something, but seeing that Shen Ting had adjusted his luopan and started walking in a particular direction, they didn't dare to disturb him and closely followed behind.
The other officers also consciously divided into several groups.
There were quite a few routes here, and each team chose a different path to investigate.
Following the luopan, Shen Ting and his group soon arrived at the entrance of an underground garage.
"Could the criminal be inside here?"
Shen Ting looked at the needle pointing straight toward the entrance, then raised his head to gaze into the dark, massive opening, which seemed like the gaping maw of a monster waiting to devour him.
In his heart, a trace of resistance and even fear inexplicably arose.
He didn't want to enter this garage!
He was afraid of seeing Gao Ya's corpse!
And even more afraid of failing to find her, which would confirm she was the killer!
At the same time!
A spike of anxiety flared within Shen Ting.
The investigation was progressing far too slowly.
From yesterday noon until now, nearly thirty hours had passed.
Yet all they had found were minor clues—such as a gang-related syndicate, shredded paper strips, the amethyst bead, the killer's penchant for metaphysics, and so on.
There had still been no major breakthrough!
This made Shen Ting extremely impatient, constantly worried that Gao Ya was still alive and that they would be too late to save her.
"I'll take the lead."
Xiong Beibei switched on his flashlight and stepped into the underground garage first.
The downward-sloping concrete road ahead was instantly illuminated.
Walking closely beside him were two cautious crime scene investigators!
When entering a crime scene or a suspected crime scene, protocol mandated the presence of crime scene technicians.
This was due to past accidents.
There had been instances where criminals planted bombs at crime scenes.
Forensic doctors and officers had rushed in blindly without taking precautions.
The result had been heavy casualties and fatalities!
Crime scene technicians, however, could assess safety based on surface traces.
Usually, they entered the scene first!
"It's safe, but there are no unusual traces either!"
"There's a lot of dust on the ground. Theoretically, if anyone had entered the garage, they would have definitely left footprints, but there are none."
The entrance corridor was not long, and the group entered quickly.
This garage had not been fully completed.
Most of the area consisted of muddy ground.
Only the support pillars had undergone hardening.
The crucial point was that the place was vast and completely unobstructed under the sweep of the high-intensity flashlights.
Let alone the criminal and the deceased, there wasn't even a large living creature to be seen.
After a brief inspection, the two crime scene technicians both shook their heads:
"The criminal is not here."
"The dust layer on the ground is completely intact. Unless the criminal can scale walls and walk on ceilings, they definitely haven't been here."
Not here?
Shen Ting looked at the luopan. The needle was no longer vibrating violently; the amplitude of its tremor had become very, very small.
Tang Ren chimed in: "This means we are already extremely close to the place with the strongest yin energy~~ The crime scene must be right nearby! Following the needle and fine-tuning our position should lead us straight to it~~ Oh, right, didn't that big oaf buy some moxa sticks too~~ The group leader can try lighting a moxa stick; the moxa smoke can also point toward yin energy. Especially now that we're underground, the moxa smoke's directional pull works exceptionally well~~"
Shen Ting was actually aware of this.
He had scrolled through enough short videos!
Moxa smoke would drift toward water with a lower temperature, or even colder ice blocks.
Rather than saying it pointed toward yin energy, it was more accurate to say it pointed toward lower-temperature areas.
To put it bluntly, it was just the principles of thermal expansion, contraction, and airflow taught in middle school physics!
Shen Ting took out a moxa stick and handed it to the bewildered Captain Zheng to light.
Then he instructed everyone to stay put and try their best to hold their breath.
In an underground space, moxa smoke would drift toward locations with intense airflow.
Hidden spaces could be found based on this principle!
The ancient practice of using moxa smoke to locate water sources operated on a similar logic.
Though puzzled, everyone followed Shen Ting's instructions.
The moxa smoke soon began to curl upward!
Moreover, its speed was surprisingly fast, drifting directly toward a corner of the garage!
Once the smoke stabilized, the group immediately rushed to that corner.
On the side wall hung a blue sign—
Ventilation Shaft!
However, it was also unfinished, marked by a yellow warning sign and a blue safety barrier on the ground.
A pile of debris was stacked to the side!
The ventilation shaft ran through the entire building.
It utilized thermal pressure or wind pressure to make air flow from bottom to top, completing the ventilation of the building.
"The airflow in a ventilation shaft is turbulent, so it's normal for the moxa smoke to point here. But the luopan pointing here as well makes things interesting."
After the crime scene technicians confirmed it was safe, Shen Ting stepped over the barrier and approached the edge of the shaft.
His eyes immediately narrowed.
Logically speaking, a ventilation shaft operated on a principle similar to a chimney—with airflow moving upward, the moxa smoke should have drifted straight up as well.
Yet, after entering the shaft, the moxa smoke was "dragged" downward for a short distance, the smoke plume was whipped into chaos, and only then did it violently jerk upward and fly away at high speed.
"Something's not right!"
Shen Ting frowned slightly.
This was the ventilation shaft's opening in the underground garage, so air currents might indeed cause the flow to be non-vertical.
However, this ventilation shaft, much like the garage itself, was still under construction.
The sides were exposed mud and stone, without any hardened lining.
At the very bottom, it also appeared to be sealed, meaning air theoretically shouldn't flow toward any other directions.
It should only be drawn upward by suction!
Therefore, there was no reason for the moxa smoke to move downward, nor should it have been battered and scattered.
These phenomena indicated that the airflow below was extremely complex.
"A simple ventilation shaft is a relatively straightforward airflow system. It shouldn't be this complicated! Unless there is an opening at the bottom of the shaft that introduces a new airflow, causing the entire system to become disordered."
Shen Ting stated directly:
"I want to go down to the very bottom of the shaft and take a look."