Chapter 293 168: Product from Hell! Elixir of Immortality

A moment later, Chu Linhai sighed.

He'd spent his whole life fighting human traffickers.

Years ago, Chu Xi's father—his most capable subordinate—had been murdered by human traffickers. Chu Xi and her brother had been nearly sold off as well.

'What a shame. It's impossible to stamp them out completely.'

"Based on what we have so far, Su Shan and Chen Jin were also involved with human traffickers."

"Police Chief Zhao discovered that Chen Jin had ties to drifters in his early years. And based on what they managed to get out of those drifters, he was a Turtle Master back in the day."

"Su Shan is even more obvious. A couple of children go missing almost every year."

"In other words, the common thread among the three of them is disappearing children."

"But that brings up a problem. Judging by the timeline, all three were trafficking children around the same time. If this was just the simple business of selling heirs to carry on a family line, a single gang couldn't possibly handle that much volume."

"Logically, they should have been using different channels."

"But…"

Xu Huo paused for a moment before continuing:

"The fact that the killer murdered all three at once suggests they were all using the same channel."

"Yes, and not just these three. There are also the other two unidentified victims. If they had the same problem, that means…"

"There's a human trafficker out there capable of handling five suppliers at once!?"

Human traffickers are usually slow to move their product because children are difficult to transport. An ordinary gang would be easily exposed just by moving two or three kids.

Let alone absorbing the supply from five.

And it was a long-term arrangement, one that had never been discovered…

At this thought, Xu Huo's heart sank.

The unresolved questions from the crime scene surfaced in his mind.

'The monkey trainer, the sound of the flute…'

'A trafficker who can move people in large quantities, yet remain undetected by the authorities…'

'What kind of place needs so many children?'

'Honestly, there aren't many.'

'The Beggar Gang?'

'To be honest, when it comes to the Beggar Gang…'

Yes, most people have a romanticized fantasy about the name, imagining its members to be a dashing band of great heroes.

But remember: they belong to the Lower Nine Professions!

And you won't find many good people among them.

'Judging by the number of abductions, those beasts could certainly absorb that many people…'

But!

'But to do so without being discovered by the police… that would be very difficult.'

'It's no joke. There's a major crackdown on those beasts almost every year, and their money-making schemes require them to be out in the open.'

In Xu Huo's past life, the police had practically hunted the Beggar Gang to extinction!

'Selling them to other provinces is a possibility, but what kind of trafficking organization can operate across so many provinces?'

'Honestly, with that kind of power and those kinds of channels, they could just switch to another industry and make more money than they do trafficking people!'

"Could they be getting sold abroad?"

Li Jianye suddenly spoke up, his brow furrowed. "Like how antiques are smuggled out of the Capital City?"

'Not to other provinces, not for the domestic market… that only leaves overseas.'

'But overseas… why would anyone buy people from the Eastern Country?'

'From the killer's perspective, this is revenge.'

'Since this is about revenge, and factoring in the monkey trainer's abilities, we can likely rule out foreign secret organizations training spies.'

'Then who else could it be?'

"Overseas is a possibility, but the children are all too young. They could be sold if they were in their teens, but based on the information from the lists we've obtained…"

Xu Huo pondered for a moment, then frowned and shook his head.

Li Jianye fell silent.

Trafficking children internationally has nothing to do with adoption or carrying on a family line.

And since spies were ruled out, that only left forced labor camps and sex work.

But another problem arose. The clients for sex work are mostly ordinary people. People have many depraved thoughts, but very few actually act on them.

'Forced labor camps?'

'Honestly, it would be better for a forced labor camp to hire cheap labor than to use these kids.'

'Organ trafficking?'

'That's also a possibility, but the most basic requirement for organ trafficking is matching. Zhao Shan was obviously selling them randomly, without any matching, yet the buyer took them all without question…'

'So it's not for organs… wait. Organs?'

Suddenly, a look of shock appeared on Xu Huo's face.

He looked up at Li Jianye, a truly horrifying idea surfacing in his mind.

「In an instant.」

His fingers turned instantly ice-cold, the tips feeling like blocks of ice.

"The Elixir of Immortality!"

He blurted out the words subconsciously.

"The Elixir of Immortality? What are you talking about?"

Li Jianye froze, a look of confusion on his face.

The others around him looked equally bewildered.

"Exactly what it sounds like!"

Xu Huo's eyes suddenly darkened as a concept emerged in his mind—something that shattered every human boundary, every moral, and every tenet of basic decency.

'Something that required no selection, something you could get just by taking every child on offer.'

'That thing is…'

"The Elixir of Immortality!"

Have you ever heard of a drug like that?

A drug secreted only by human children. A drug whose effect can grant you…

Immortality.

"What in the…"

Li Jianye's brow furrowed.

"What?"