Chapter 240 157: Surprise! Silencing! Breakthrough

"The skull was taken."

"The bones from the hands and elbows are gone."

"Group Leader Zhang, you should know what those can be used for, right?"

Xu Huo glanced over before turning to Zhang Liang.

"A Gabala and ritual implements..."

Zhang Liang let out a deep sigh, his voice devoid of strength.

"Implements?" Li Jianye froze.

"That's right. A wine bowl," Zhang Liang nodded.

If you take the top off a human skull, you get a hemisphere.

A bowl is also a hemisphere, so of course it can be used as one.

"Look into the human traffickers."

Xu Huo stopped deliberating and turned to Zhang Liang.

This inaction was making his skin crawl, as if ants were crawling all over him.

"Human traffickers?" Zhang Liang paused.

"Yes. Human traffickers."

Xu Huo nodded. "I don't know the total body count, but I'm sure it's more than what we see here!"

"These victims weren't already dead. They weren't just forgotten corpses lying in coffins."

"They were living people!"

"And you've all checked the police filings more than once, I'm sure. How many were actually filed as missing?"

Normally,

when a homicide occurs and the victim can't be quickly identified, the police immediately search the missing persons database.

Most bodies that turn up unexpectedly are identified through those reports.

But these six victims were different.

Other than Lin Miao—whose family was a mess, and she herself had gone mad—

why hadn't the families of the other five filed a report?

It made no sense. As long as a single family member was alive, they would inevitably call the police to file a report.

And yet, the archives currently showed no such reports.

Unless...

"Unless the reports were filed in different jurisdictions."

"It's like if you lose something in the Arctic and have people searching for it there, but the item has actually been moved to Antarctica."

"You could tear the entire Arctic apart and you'd still never find it."

These days, the databases are all siloed.

Unless it's a homicide, jurisdictions pretty much handle their own cases. They have limited authority in other territories and no visibility into their case files.

"Investigate the human traffickers."

"And the license plates of vehicles at the slaughterhouse."

"And if you have the manpower, simultaneously investigate anyone with official slaughtering contracts with the facility."

Xu Huo laid out the key points.

There was a sizable number of human traffickers in the Capital City. Finding one was like uncovering a rat's nest; you grab one, and a whole bunch come with it.

Eventually, they were bound to find people connected to the killers—the Chen Family.

'As for the license plates...'

Xu Huo didn't believe the traffickers would be stupid enough to swagger into the slaughterhouse carrying tied-up people in plain sight.

They must have been stealthy.

'But does being stealthy automatically make it safe?'

'No. And then there's the fact that they contacted their associate to use veterinary drugs under the guise of a normal procedure...'

The perpetrators would most likely have hidden the act of bringing people here within some other activity.

What kind of legitimate business goes on at a slaughterhouse?

It's nothing more than hauling pigs in and hauling meat out. That's it. Anything else would stick out like a sore thumb!

And a truck that can haul pigs can certainly haul people!!!

'The only question is, after taking care of five people, why did they go after Lin Miao...?'

'Did they not have enough people?'

'It's a possibility.'

"Got it."

Zhao Gang nodded quickly, his expression turning grave.

"When are the armed police taking action?" Xu Huo asked.

"They're already on it. A city-wide alert has been issued, and all major transportation points are under strict surveillance."

"At this point, not even a fly can get out of the Capital City!"

Zhang Liang stated.

"That's good."

Xu Huo breathed a sigh of relief.

'I was afraid they'd run...'

Investigating this case so far had filled him with a profound sense of terror.

It wasn't the deaths that scared him, but the *method* of death!

'Who knows if these Dharma Artifacts actually work, but at the end of the day, they're just 'concoctions'!'

'In other words, if a rumor existed about some other kind of Dharma Artifact from hundreds or thousands of years ago...'

'...like, a lotus of flesh... no, I can't go there.'

'The killer would actually *create* it!'

'It might be real, or it might just be a legend, but none of that matters.'

'What matters is that to someone who believes in it, it *is* real!'

At that thought, Xu Huo's heart sank. He looked up at Zhang Liang.

"When are the higher-ups going to make a move?"

Zhang Liang knew who he was asking about.

After a moment's thought, he said,

"Considering the time..."

"They should be... by now..."

"I get it."

...

...

'We're screwed, we're so screwed...'

'Wasn't this supposed to be just a murder case? How in the hell did it get tangled up with this kind of crap...?'

'Goddammit! Of all the goddamn times for a case like this to drop, it had to be just a few days before the New Year...'

The 26th.

Afternoon. The sky was gloomy.

The normally dim and somber Special Fifth Bureau was now a hive of frantic activity.

The corridors and the main hall were filled with the sound of hurried footsteps, the sight of anxious figures, and the sound of heavy breathing.

The entire Special Fifth Bureau had sprung into action!

People streamed in and out of the main entrance, pulling one case file after another.

"VROOM—!"

With a roar of its engine, a car shot out of the Special Fifth Bureau, speeding down the road toward an unknown destination.

A short while later, the vehicle came to a smooth stop.

"CLICK!"

The car door opened with a sharp sound.

Wang Tao's anxious face appeared. He paid no mind to the driver chasing after him with an open umbrella.

He broke into a jog, leaving a trail of dark footprints as he headed into the building before him.

The building was magnificent, opulently decorated, and possessed an inexplicable air of authority. Simply standing before it was enough to make one's heart race with anxiety.

"Where are Director Zhang and Director Zhao right now?"

Though he was cursing internally, Wang Tao wore an anxious expression as he stopped someone in the grand hall to ask.

"Director Wang, they're waiting for you in the office," the person he stopped quickly replied.

"Take me to the office!"

Without any delay, the person quickly led him there.