Chapter 12 The Shocking Change at the Xue Family

Before taking action, Lin Rui specifically found a piece of synthetic silk at home to cover his face. He also changed into a form-fitting diving suit and wore optical glasses for diving, wrapping himself up tightly.

The synthetic silk of this era is very smooth, capable of reflecting light, and can withstand some basic optical scans.

The diving suit, left by Lin Rui's father, could wrap his entire body tightly, preventing him from leaving fingerprints or any body waste that could lead to his DNA being detected.

Moreover, this suit itself possesses various high-tech features resistant to water pressure, allowing one to dive up to two hundred meters deep. Therefore, the suit did not hinder his movements and also provided a certain level of defense.

Although what Lin Rui was about to do was not illegal, being discovered would still lead to significant trouble and could even attract the attention of the assassin who killed Colonel Xue's family. Thus, he had to be extremely cautious and leave no traces as much as possible.

However, these were just backup measures; Lin Rui himself didn't know if these methods would be effective. They were just for peace of mind. What he really relied on was his Grandmaster-level Red Thunder Palm.

Just as Lin Rui stepped out of his yard, a spherical thunderbolt suddenly appeared in his palm. At the same time, all nearby surveillance devices failed to capture his image. In the footage recorded by these cameras, everything around was normal, except for the area where Lin Rui stood—there was merely a blank space.

This was one of the Grandmaster-level application techniques of the "Red Thunder Palm" that Lin Rui had copied from Xue Bogao.

In the hands of ordinary martial artists, this basic martial art was just a technique for fighting and foundation building in martial arts. However, characters like Xue Bogao could bring out the full potential of "Red Thunder Palm."

From this, Lin Rui deduced that Xue Bogao was likely from some special forces unit within the federation's military.

Though these techniques seemed simple for him to use, only requiring the powerful control of electromagnetic fields to distort light for optical invisibility, the principles involved optics simulation and electronic signals, making the mechanism very complex. It would undoubtedly be very difficult for a beginner and require a lot of time and effort.

Such technologies would likely be banned by the government, and apart from some special forces, ordinary soldiers would not spend a lot of time learning them.

Lin Rui then carefully snuck into the backyard of Xue Bogao's villa.

He placed his hand on the electronic lock of the back door and, with a crackling flash of electricity, the door opened from the inside.

This too was a complex technique involving computer programming and hacking. Aside from powerful thunder capabilities and control, it also required a high IQ to master.

Astonished, Lin Rui also felt a chill internally.

What seemed like secure electronic locks were practically useless in front of someone like Xue Bogao.

Lin Rui then gathered a ball of lightning near his eyes and glanced in every direction.

When practiced to the Great Achievement Realm, Red Thunder Palm and Red Thunder Saber could stimulate the nerves in the eyes with minor electrical currents, granting powerful night vision abilities and even a certain degree of infrared vision.

Although the villa was dark and devoid of light at this moment, Lin Rui could still see everything inside clearly.

He first looked at the kitchen on the first floor, which was one of the murder scenes. Not only was there a small amount of blood left, but the police had also drawn the outlines of the corpses with white chalk.

However, Lin Rui had been just a student before transmigrating and had limited knowledge of criminal investigation. After looking around for a long time, he couldn't find any useful clues.

Lin Rui really wanted to ask Xue Bogao's war spirit whether it had found anything and if it was satisfied. Unfortunately, he couldn't communicate with the war spirit.

He then used his smart device to take several photos, meticulously capturing all details.

Now lacking knowledge in criminal investigation and not deeply understanding martial arts, he couldn't figure much out, but that might not be the case in the future.

Lin Rui had already decided that he must allocate time in the future to learn about this area.

Next was the bathroom on the first floor, the staircase, and the hallways on the second floor; all had body outlines left by the police.

Lin Rui's expression grew increasingly somber as he noticed that the amount of blood at the murder scenes was very small, suggesting that the murderer had killed almost silently. This allowed him to kill several people without alerting Xue Bogao and proceed to the second floor.

Finally, was Xue Bogao's study on the second floor, where Lin Rui noticed several holes in the wooden door.

These holes were likely caused by gunfire, and they were round in shape.

When Lin Rui pushed the door open and entered, he saw a complete mess inside.

All the furniture and bookshelves were destroyed, with lots of broken wood and torn book pages scattered across the floor. A large pool of blood was in the center of the study, and the walls were splattered with a large amount of blood and remnants of brain tissue, indicating the intensity of the battle.

After scanning the room, Lin Rui's gaze fell on the opposite wall, where he saw numerous penetrating bullet marks.

"The bullets must have been taken by the police, but judging from the bullet marks, the gun's caliber was very large, and it was powerful too. It pierced through two layers of the wall, and the gunfire was rapid-fire, firing dozens of rounds in an instant, the bullet holes being very dense. Either the gun model is very high-end, with little recoil and easy to control, or the murderer's strength is very great," he thought.

"The murderer's martial arts skill could likely be at the rank of a colonel, only a bit stronger than Xue Bogao himself; otherwise, there was no need to use a gun. But his stealth abilities were strong, and he had a way to deceive Xue Bogao's perception. The murderer likely snuck in here first, then used powerful firearms through the study door, catching Xue Bogao off-guard and severely injuring him, thus quickly overcoming Xue in a very short time."

Lin Rui didn't know if his guess was correct.

Next, he continued to take photos, especially of those bullet marks, capturing each one.

He believed this was a useful clue. Once back, he could try to determine the trajectory and caliber of the bullets, thus inferring what firearms the murderer had used.

The ninth city is highly stringently regulated, and weaponry of the type that could incapacitate a veteran colonel in an instant, inflicting heavy damage swiftly, is extremely rare on the market.

While Lin Rui was intently taking photos, his infrared vision caught a tiny speck of infrared refraction in a pile of debris in the corner of the wall.

This made him exclaim, "Is this a closed-circuit pinhole-style holographic surveillance camera? The lens doesn't reflect light at all and can block electromagnetic waves, it must be some kind of high-end model. If I hadn't used my Red Thunder Palm to obtain infrared vision, I would have almost missed it."

Lin Rui's eyes flickered, and then he walked over without much hope.

Xue Bogao could master the skill to obscure all surveillance cameras, so why wouldn't the killer possess a similar capability?

Moreover, there were the police. They shouldn't have overlooked such an obvious clue.

The killing of Xue Bogao's family of five was a rare major case in the ninth city recently, and the victim was a retired colonel, which made the situation particularly grievous.

If the police department had identified the culprit, they would have already held a press conference and issued a warrant. It wouldn't still be silent up to now.

Why would the senior police officials miss this opportunity to showcase their capability and achievements?

When Lin Rui touched the monitor and found that it was still on, he generated a bit of electricity using his Red Thunder Palm and sent it down the wire, his expression suddenly changed.

"The monitor's still on, and this wire actually extends all the way to the underground. Does the Xue family have a basement? It should be located under the garage on the eastern side of the villa."

Stunned, Lin Rui immediately strode into the garage and began searching around.

He had already figured out the approximate location of the basement, but it still took him a while to find the entrance to the hidden chamber behind a workbench in the rear of the garage.

To Lin Rui's delight, the entrance switch was an electronic lock. After unlocking it, he entered and walked down eighty steps before finally seeing the full view of the chamber.

The first thing he saw was the wall opposite, covered with various monitors, as many as twenty-four, most of which were still on and connected to numerous holographic surveillance cameras.

The chamber was approximately forty square meters, with a desk in the middle littered with files, a pen holder, cigarettes, an ashtray, empty liquor bottles, and miscellaneous items creating a disordered appearance.

To Lin Rui's left was a bed, messily made, suggesting that Xue Bogao likely lived here and had poor private habits, which was rare among the strictly disciplined federal soldiers.

To his right were three bookshelves filled with thick volumes, a complete set of the military-standard "Xuanwu" model exoskeleton armors, and a small database for storing data.

"Strange, there are no signs of police entry. Didn't they discover it? That's impossible, even a rookie like me found that pinhole camera!"

Lin Rui glanced around uncertainly and then focused on the monitors.

He needed to identify which of the monitors was connected to the camera in Xue Bogao's study.

Weirdly, was Xue Bogao a voyeur? Why would he install so many cameras?

One of these monitors simultaneously displayed images from eight cameras, twenty-four times eight, a total of 192 cameras!

From these images, these cameras were distributed throughout the entire compound, and their locations were very concealed.

Although Xue Bogao was responsible for the security of the neighborhood, this seemed rather excessive, considering that the neighborhood's security department itself had a very comprehensive monitoring system.

Lin Rui's expression suddenly changed dramatically, his eyes turning sharp as if he were a fierce wolf, staring at the holographic monitors in the middle.

Because the surveillance cameras in the images were pointed directly at Lin Rui's siblings' home!

A total of forty-five holographic cameras covered their terraced villa from all angles without any blind spots, plus an additional twenty cameras covered the front and back streets and the entrances and exits of their house.

This meant that everything that happened at their home was under Xue Bogao's supervision.

What was terrifying was that he and his sister had yet to notice these monitors.

Lin Rui's mind was tumultuously overturning, struggling to calm down.

Was the main purpose of Xue Bogao's surveillance to monitor their house? Who exactly was he? And what purpose did he have in watching their home?

As Lin Rui's thoughts roiled, he heard a series of footsteps outside the staircase,

"Someone's coming! The footsteps are light and there's more than one person; they're probably martial artists in exoskeletons,"

Lin Rui's pupils contracted slightly, and he quickly ducked behind a bookshelf on the right side of the secret room, using the Xuanwu armor to tightly hide his figure.

He was now extremely grateful that he had cautiously locked the secret room's door after entering, which prevented the newcomers from finding him and the secret room immediately.

But what should he do next? If the newcomers find the secret room and enter, what consequences will unfold?

Just as this thought flashed through Lin Rui's mind, he heard the secret room door slowly open with a 'clicking' sound, causing his eyebrows to furrow deeply, and his heart raced.