Resurrection

Even though the Dodge was speeding along, it still took Qin Jin nearly two hours to arrive at the scene.

The cabin was surrounded by layers of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks. The strong smell of blood remained intense even after several hours of mountain winds. The scene before them far exceeded everyone's expectations.

The atmosphere at the scene was extremely somber.

The officers in the cordoned-off area had eyes filled with fear and grief. Although the body had been recovered, the large bloodstains left on the ground still told the story of the tragedy. The forensic doctors and investigators inside the cordon were busy, each time they bent over as if they were carrying a heavy burden.

A group of senior police officers were gathered next to the temporary command vehicle.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Edward Harris's face was ashen, his lips pressed tightly together; the deputy chief of the Canyon Precinct, Thomas Ehhar, had a contorted face, his eyes weary and angry; and Deputy Chief Logan, who was in charge of the Detective Department, was whispering something to the detectives beside him.

Standing in the center of the crowd was Frank, the head of the homicide and major crimes unit. His tall frame appeared somewhat hunched, and his face was filled with regret, self-blame, and unconcealable grief.

The officers from Groups One and Four stood further away, each with a solemn expression and red eyes.

At this moment, facing Supervisor Frank were three men in black suits. The leader was a man in his fifties with a stern face, speaking in a deliberately low voice that everyone could clearly hear:

"...This is a disaster! A seasoned major crimes detective team of nine! Except for two who weren't present, seven of them have all perished here! Where is your professionalism? Where is the risk assessment? Where is the emergency response plan?"

His words were like a merciless whip, relentlessly lashing at Frank's nerves:

"...The trouble it causes our X Investigation Team is a minor issue; the biggest problem is that this thing was created and escaped, you know that...?"

Frank lowered his head, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. He couldn't refute it because what the other person said... was a cruel truth.

Director Edward, Deputy Director Thomas, and Deputy Director Logan's faces grew even more somber, not only because of the deaths of their subordinates, but also because of the humiliation of being mercilessly ridiculed and mocked by the FBI. But now, they could find no way to retaliate!

Qin Jin had just arrived at the outer perimeter when he saw Deputy Director Logan's angry gaze. He immediately understood his current position and Frank's deliberate purpose in summoning him here—

The LAPD needs someone to stand up and refute, or even give a strong response!

He strode forward, followed closely by Constantine, his voice not loud, but equally clear:

"Excuse me, sir."

The man, interrupted, turned his head with great displeasure, his eyes dark and sharp:

"Who are you? What do you want to say?" The tone was full of arrogance and displeasure at being offended.

Qin Jin met his gaze without flinching, his voice clear and calm:

"I am an officer from the Homicide and Major Crimes Unit 2. What I want to say is that your accusation just now seems to have overlooked a crucial point."

He pointed at Frank, then at Logan and Harris, whose faces were ashen:

"Our Supervisor Frank arrived at the scene immediately after the case was closed, preparing to take the body away for freezing and then process the area. All of this stemmed from our Canyon Precinct's understanding of the case and our awareness of the risks..."

Qin Jin looked at the other person without fear, his voice rising three octaves:

"However! As far as I know, the reason this plan was rejected, and we were even ordered to remain in place and keep watch, was precisely because of orders from certain professional departments. They required us to preserve the site and wait for them to take over—I find it strange that if these are professional departments, why didn't they realize the risks involved and forcibly required us, the non-professionals in our second group, to carry out risk management?"

Dante Constantine, standing behind Qin Jin, added a lukewarm comment:

"Letting non-professionals handle professional matters is like letting ordinary people deal with terrorists. After a tragedy occurs, they shirk responsibility. Tsk tsk tsk..."

"This is just shifting the blame!" Qin Jin spoke faster, completely ignoring the angry expression on the man's face.

"My partner is right! If you don't want to shift the blame, I hope the person who gave the order to preserve the scene will come forward and explain why they knew about these risks but didn't say anything—was it intentional?"

"Newbie!"

The man's face flushed instantly, and his eyes practically spit fire.

"You are responsible for every word you say! We are the Federal Special Investigations Unit X, reporting directly to FBI headquarters. You have no idea what we do, the rules and requirements involved!"

"Don't we understand?" Qin Jin scoffed, his voice filled with undisguised sarcasm.

"Then tell me, what is this thing that's appeared here? And why is this place causing all this? How should we deal with it? What will be the consequences if we don't deal with it... Hey! Of course, sir, you can use the need for confidentiality to cover up your ignorance; we don't mind!"

Qin Jin's series of questions struck the man like a heavy hammer, leaving him speechless.

His lips moved a few times, his face turned from red to white, and fine beads of sweat even appeared on his forehead.

He genuinely didn't understand the terminology and principles of these Eastern metaphysical concepts. Qin Jin accurately pointed out the blind spots in his department's knowledge system and went straight to the core of the command error.

The surrounding Los Angeles Police Department executives and officers, watching the X-Division chief rendered speechless, couldn't help but show a hint of relief and approval on their faces.

Frank looked at Qin Jin with even more gratitude.

"Enough, officer..." Chief Edward spoke up promptly, interrupting the FBI officer's continued questioning that was making him lose face. He glanced at Qin Jin, and Deputy Chief Logan immediately added:

"Qin Jin, this is my old partner's son."

"Oh, okay, Qin!" Director Edward continued:

"Since you know these things and know what they are, then explain to me what exactly these things are?"

Qin Jin pointed to the area where the wooden house was located in the distance and drew a circle: "In the feng shui of the East, this place is called a corpse-nurturing ground, which means a place where corpses can not decompose and may even become living corpses..."

He replaced the concept of "zombie" with the Western term "living corpse," and then continued:

"Under normal circumstances, if a black cat jumps over a corpse, a wandering spirit from the mountains enters the corpse, or the corpse itself harbors resentment, it will cause the corpse to rise from the dead and become a living corpse. This situation is normally a low-probability event, but because it is located in a corpse-raising area, the probability of this happening has increased significantly!"

"To put it bluntly, if any of the above situations occur, the corpse will come back to life and become a living corpse. As for the evidence—"

He pointed to the body bags containing the two groups of corpses and stated confidently:

"Each of them should have a pair of teeth marks on their neck, and at least 80% of their blood is gone. This is evidence that they were sucked blood by the zombies, and those things that turned into zombies..."

Qin Jin looked around, calculated the time, and pointed east: "The undead follow the moon, especially those that have drunk blood. Therefore, I can conclude that it fled in the direction of the moon at that time, which is east. We can search this forest for traces of it!"

Everyone saw that Qin Jin had just arrived at the scene and hadn't looked at anything yet, but he had deduced the bite marks on the corpse's neck and the direction it had fled, making his assessment more credible than that of the X-team agents.

Even Qin Jin didn't know that at the beginning, the X Special Team judged from the tooth marks that a vampire should have appeared here, and concluded that it had already escaped.

Qin Jin's perspective is completely different from theirs!

Seeing the X Team's frustrated expressions, Director Edward immediately gave the order: "Frank, take your men and search eastward. Find this thing!"

"Use heavy firepower! Shotguns, or axes!" Qin Jin said. "Ordinary bullets don't do much damage. If possible, chop this guy to pieces!"

The agents immediately sprang into action, completely ignoring Special Operations Group X, and Constance Dante followed suit.

Qin Jin naturally stayed where he was; he had more important things to do.

That means setting fire to the wooden house, exposing it completely to the sunlight, and then sprinkling it with incense ash, cinnabar, lime, and other things to disrupt the yin energy of the corpse-raising ground, ensuring that there will be no problems for at least several decades or even hundreds of years.

Of course, glutinous rice is also indispensable.