The Divine Doctor and Stay-at-home Dad

“I feel so ashamed.” The old Taoist shook his head. “I can’t read his fortune by observing his appearance. That’s the first time I’ve failed ever since I started to cultivate the Five Elements Calculation.”

Qin Haodong was shocked again. He took over someone else’s body to reincarnate, and that was against the rule of the world. Nobody could tell his fortune. The floppy old Taoist was powerful enough to have been aware of that. That made him different from the previous fake Taoist.

While Nalan Wuxia had no idea of what was going on at all. She became confused when the old Taoist said that Qin Haodong’s fate was unpredictable, so she asked, “Are you sure you can tell our fortunes?”

The old man turned back to his lunatic state. He answered, “Of course, I’m the Divine Fortune Teller. I can tell anyone’s fortune, except his.”

Nalan Wuxia was still trying to figure out if the old Taoist was telling her the truth. To test the result, she asked, “I’ll tell you the birth time and see if you can tell his fortune.”

The man nodded. “Of course, but I’ll have to charge you for the extra. 200 yuan per person.”

“I’ll pay you double if you can tell me the right answer.” Nalan Wuxia told the man the birthday of a victim. “I have a friend who was born on 23:00 of December 5, 34 after the country was established.”

The man closed his eyes slowly. His fingers flipped and then he opened his eyes. He looked at Nalan Wuxia and said, “Ma’am, the man’s already dead.”

Nalan Wuxia felt her heart had lost a beat upon hearing that, because the old man had known the victim’s death within such a short time. Either he was really a Divine Fortune Teller, or he had something to do with the murder case.

After thinking about it for a while, she found the first one to be more likely. If the man had anything to do with the murder, he wouldn’t expose himself so easily. It looked like he might be the real Divine Fortune Teller.

Upon thinking about that, she took out four hundred yuan and gave them to the floppy old man. The man smiled, took the money and kept it in his pocket joyfully.

“Now that you’ve received the money, you should tell me the full result of your calculation.” He continued, “Based on the Five Elements Theory, the man’s life was a fiery one. His biggest tribulation came at the fiery hour on a fiery day. He should have been at home avoiding disasters upon him, and to get away from any fiery place.

“If only if he had met me earlier. I would then be able to teach him how to avoid the disaster. Now it seems that we’re destined not to meet. Santa wanted to meet him at dawn, so nobody dared to keep him alive after sunrise.”

His fingers flipped again and said, “There were many tribulations in his life. He even lost his limbs after death. His life was quite a fiery one, and he died on a special day. The cause must be a heart damage. The heart represents fire in the Five Elements Theory.”

Nalan Wuxia was totally stunned by his calculation. The man was really powerful. He knew every detail of the dead person’s life.

Qin Haodong was also shocked. It looked like the old Taoist was really a hidden powerhouse.

The man was calculating so accurately. Nalan Wuxia asked in excitement, “Can you please help us figure out who the murderer is? I can pay you ten times… no, twenty times more if you can!”

The man looked at her and said, “Although I call myself the Divine Fortune Teller, I’m not the almighty God. I can help you figure it out as long as you can tell me the murderer’s birth information.”

Nalan Wuxia looked so disappointed. They would’ve arrested the murderer if they had known the information.

Just by then she realized why she brought Qin Haodong in the interrogation room. She looked at him.

Qin Haodong shook his head and said, “Set him free!”

On one hand, he found it highly unlikely that the old Taoist was the murderer. Even if he was, there was no way that Qin Haodong could apply Mind-manipulating on the old Taoist, given the gap between their cultivations.

Nalan Wuxia wondered why Qin Haodong wanted to release the man without asking any questions, but she did it as he said. “Sorry for having troubled you, sir. You can go now.”

Knowing he was going to be released, the man thanked Qin Haodong joyfully, “You’re a nice young man. Let me remind you that, what you’re looking for is close at hand. You’re ignoring it.”

The old Taoist then laughed and left the interrogation room.

“What you’re looking for is close at hand, but you’re ignoring it.” Qin Haodong recalled what the man said. He had the feeling that he was very close to the key point.

The man used the word “remind”. He must have found something. Qin Haodong wondered what it was.

He closed his eyes and reviewed how the old Taoist entered the door. Nalan Wuxia knew he was thinking about something. So she left him alone and stopped other policemen from bringing other Taoists in.

The old Taoist told Nalan Wuxia her fortune as soon as he entered the room, which had nothing to do with the case, but later he told her the fortune of the dead, and that was the key point.

He reconsidered what the old Taoist said carefully. The fiery hour on a fiery day. That was when the victim died. The victim had a fiery life. He had lost his heart, which represented fire in the Five Element.

Thinking of that, Qin Haodong patted his own thigh and realized the victim died in the Temple of Kitchen God. That could not be a coincidence. Somebody had planned for the murder.

Qin Haodong knew a lot about the Five Elements Calculation, too; however, he didn’t piece all the elements together. That might be the reason why the old Taoist said “it’s close at hand, but you’re ignoring it.”

He picked the profiles of the other three victims hastily and calculated their lives with the Five Elements Theory.

The second victim has an Aqueous Life, dying in a boat on a lake, on the aqueous hour of the aqueous day, losing his kidney which was the representative of water in the Five Elements.

The third victim has a Xyloid Life, dying in a boat on a lake, on the xyloid hour of the xyloid day, losing his liver which was the representative of wood in the Five Elements.

The fourth victim has an Aqueous Life, dying in a boat on a lake, on the aqueous hour of the aqueous day, losing his kidney which was the representative of water in the Five Elements.

After summarizing, Qin Haodong soon understood that the murderer was apparently killing according to the attributes of the five elements. That was not a coincidence. That was completely intentional.

The murderer took five different organs and their souls. What did he want?

That reminded him of an evil method in the Cultivation World. They refined the deceased and their souls into elixirs called Five Elements of Soul-nourishing Pill. The pill could heal wounds immediately and help people pass cultivation bottlenecks. There was no doubt that the murderer was going after that.

Seeing his expression, Nalan Wuxia asked, “Haodong, any ideas?”

“The old Taoist is right; the answer is close at hand. I had not noticed it before.”

Qin Haodong explained his speculations, “The murderer was killing the victims according to the attribute of the Five Elements. His purpose was to refine the Five Elements of Soul-nourishing Pill.

“He doesn’t kill the victims randomly. He made his plan according to the order of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, which was to say, the next victim would be killed on the earthy hour of the earthy day.”

Nalan Wuxia asked, “When is that?”

Qin Haodong bent his fingers and calculated. His face changed drastically and said, “That’s in two hours from now.”

“What? So the murderer will kill another man in two hours?” Nalan Wuxia screamed, “Haodong, we have to stop him. If he kills five people and stops showing up, the case will be more than hard to solve.”

“Don’t worry, let’s figure it out now.” Qin Haodong said, “We’re quite clear about the murderer’s motivation now. He wants to refine elixirs.

“I’m sure the murderer will act again two hours later, which is between 21:00 to 23:00 tonight.

“He will be doing it in a place where the earth element is thick, but there would be too many possibilities then.

“We can start by finding the potential victim first. The murderer has already killed and harvested golden, wooden, aqueous, and xyloid souls. He needs a man with an Earthy life. Anyone who has an earthy life can be the victim.”

Nalan Wuxia said, “There are so many people in this country, many of which have an Earthy Life. Where can we find the exact one?”

Qin Haodong said, “It’s true that there are many earthy people, but judging by the previous cases, the murderer seems to be picky. He only needs those born on the earthy hour of an earthy day in an earthy year. That information can help us narrow down our targets. What’s more, we only need to find those who have visited Guangren Hospital.”

Nalan Wuxia’s eyes lightened up a bit. They would soon be able to solve the case as long as they could find the murderer’s target.

She said to Qin Haodong, “Tell me the exact date and hour. I’ll tell the technical department to screen the information immediately.”

Qin Haodong took the pen and paper. He wrote the exact information on it and gave it to her.

Nalan Wuxia took out her phone and immediately called the technical department. “Help me find all those who were born on the date I sent you. Narrow down the search scale to the database of the registered patients of Guangren Hospital.”

Guangren Hospital had already optimized the arrangement of their patient files after the murders happened. They finished the query fast. A few minutes later, the results were sent to Nalan Wuxia’s phone.

Nalan Wuxia checked the phone and frowned.

Qin Haodong asked, “What’s going on? They didn’t find any targets in the results?”

“There are two people in it. One died the year before last year in a car accident; the other one has immigrated to M Country, and it has been long since the last time he was back in the Celestial Land.”

Qin Haodong frowned, too. If they lost the target, the hope to solve the case would be frail.

Nalan Wuxia asked, “Haodong, now that there’s no proper target, would the murderer stop killing tonight?”

Qin Haodong shook his head and said, “I don’t think so, the murderer has already harvested four organs. It must be hard to keep them fresh. He has to find the spleen he wants, or he would lose all he already has.

“Maybe we should check other people who had nothing to do with Guangren Hospital. The murderer has a careful plan, and maybe he has already chosen a target. The target may be his friend or someone he knows.”

Nalan Wuxia asked hastily, “Then what do we do now? We’re so lost.”

Just by then, Qin Haodong’s phone rang. He glanced at it and found it was his aunt Li Shulan.

“What’s up? Aunt?”

“Haodong, it is your sister’s birthday today. She’s in Jiangnan City now. Can you buy her a gift for me?”

“Of course!” Suddenly Qin Haodong asked, “What time was it when she was born?”

“Well… nine o’clock in the evening…”

Qin Haodong’s facial expression changed drastically. Wang Rubin was born on an earthy day and an earthy year… according to the time… it made her a perfect target for the murderer!”