After Shen Qiang finished speaking, Ali and Ye Xiaolei immediately began to research all the dermatology cases in various hospitals within the Provincial City over the past few decades.

Because this is crucial.

Patients with the fingerprintless condition don't have many reasons to visit the hospital. Usually, the reasons for such patients to see a doctor can only be hair problems, skin cracking issues, and lack of sweat glands, so focusing on the dermatology department is undoubtedly the best choice.

Because historical cases from other departments will be more numerous.

It's even more like finding a needle in a haystack.

Furthermore, it seems that only dermatologists might notice a patient without fingerprints.

This is the simplest way to find the culprit of a longstanding unsolved case.

In other departments, nobody would pay attention to whether a patient has fingerprints.

So, for the entire morning, Shen Qiang, Ali, and Ye Xiaolei were diligently and quickly checking hospital records through the internet, looking for cases featuring the fingerprintless condition, because finding even one name would allow Shen Qiang to conduct a thorough investigation later.

To this end, Shen Qiang also enlisted Hao Deben, this computer genius.

He tasked him with searching nationwide for any records related to being fingerprintless.

Hao Deben wrote a small program that could automatically filter and select information about being fingerprintless, significantly speeding up the information screening process.

But because the old cases from hundreds of hospitals in the Provincial City were mostly scanned images, there were many old pathology reports that couldn't be screened by software at all.

In this way, the whole morning passed without any perpetrators from the cultivation sphere causing troubles, and they didn't find any useful clues.

Four hours passed, and everything remained at a standstill.

This left everyone feeling a bit disheartened.

By lunchtime.

The three women, plagued by anxiety, couldn't eat, especially when Ye Xiaolei couldn't control herself and opened the page for the Major General ranking competition on her phone.

Everyone's mood turned sour.

Because after the entire morning, Qian Shanxue's points hadn't increased at all, while Wenren Meiqiao had extended her lead over Qian Shanxue to 201 points. Not only that, but Qian Xiangming, who previously ranked third and is now in second place, widened his lead over Qian Shanxue to 53 points.

This means that even if some small cases appeared now and Qian Shanxue solved them smoothly, there still wouldn't be much chance of reclaiming second place.

So if this longstanding unsolved case can't be cracked, Qian Shanxue is sure to lose.

If it were just that, it wouldn't matter much; after all, everyone is an adult, and they're capable of accepting both winning and losing.

However, Wenren Meiqiao had already updated her personal signature again, which read: Shen Qiang, Qian Shanxue, it turns out I overestimated you. You don't even have the level to be second. You've already lost the qualification to compete with me, so what qualifies you to challenge me?

And that's not all.

In the message area, remarks made by Wenren Meiqiao's female subordinates were also liked to the top.

"Ha, before when it wasn't a public competition, you took first place every time; now that it's public, it's no longer possible. Don't even think about beating our Colonel Meiqiao; you don't even have the qualification to advance anymore. This proves that either Qian Shanxue showed their true colors, or Supervisor Shen Qiang is too formidable."

"Hehehe, everybody like my post, go feed Shen Qiang some shit. Does being the King of Demons make you great? Show me your skills by winning one."

"Oh ho, you used to say that anything is possible with great confidence. Why aren't you saying anything now? Come and challenge us. Isn't Shen Qiang just an unskilled guy who's just a bit lucky?"

Looking at their messages and Wenren Meiqiao's signature.

Ali was furious, her face turning livid.

"These petty people get carried away! If we could change areas, we could beat them to the ground."

Ye Xiaolei was also helpless: "There's nothing we can do, without a case we can't just create one. No matter how capable the Colonel is, there's not much we can do, we can only watch."

Qian Shanxue forced a casual smile: "Don't mind them. Don't we still have a chance? Let's all cheer up, doing our best is good enough."

Ye Xiaolei sighed.

The somewhat despondent Ali spoke bluntly, "What chance is there? With the Provincial City's five to six million permanent and floating population, finding one person without fingerprints in these old records is more than finding a needle in a haystack, it's self-deception!"

"Moreover, how many of these cases were even networked? Due to storage methods, many old cases are long gone, and back then, it was nothing like now with a follow-up system. That person might not even have gone to the hospital. Even if they did and were noticed, who would remember after thirty or forty years?"

Shen Qiang frowned: "Can't you say a bit less? Just listen to yourself go on and on. As long as there's a glimmer of possibility, we shouldn't give up, and this isn't just for Qian Shanxue's advancement."

Ali, feeling reprimanded, said with innocent eyes, "I didn't mean to dampen spirits, but this is the reality. Even though we're unwilling to give up, the chance of finding that person this way is less than one percent."

Shen Qiang frowned again.

At this moment, Qian Shanxue smiled and said, "Yes, it's indeed very hard to find the culprit this way, but we can't just stop because of that. Even if it weren't for the ranking competition, would we just abandon this case?"

Ali and Ye Xiaolei fell silent.

After a while, Ali said, "I'm sorry, time's tight, and the pressure is a bit much, so I didn't control my emotions well. Let's all do our best. No matter what, even after the ranking competition ends, as long as we haven't seen the criminal's corpse, I won't give up."

Ye Xiaolei's eyes also brightened, "Yes, let's do our best. There's no such thing as a person leaving no trace. As long as we use the right methods, we can definitely find this person."

However, upon hearing Ye Xiaolei's words.

Both Ali didn't become excited, and Qian Shanxue and Shen Qiang's mood also visibly lowered.

"The method we're using now is the dumbest," Shen Qiang said. "Because apart from speculating roughly about the culprit's age and knowing he has the fingerprintless condition, we know nothing about him. The cultivators we currently have in hand in the Provincial City also don't match him. So, even though we hate to admit it, we have no leads at all."

Hearing Shen Qiang's words, the three women sighed, and despair flashed in their eyes despite themselves.

Seeing the three disheartened, Shen Qiang consoled them: "Don't be discouraged. You continue to search the old files, and I'll go over the dossiers again to see if there are any other discoveries. Perhaps we can find a breakthrough."

Qian Shanxue arched her brows at his words and then looked at Shen Qiang with hope-filled eyes, smiling bitterly as she softly spoke, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. After all, we aren't gods."

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