Chapter 297 169: The So-called Elixir of Immortality! The Sacrificial Ritual! Clues Presented by the Body

He trafficked people by acting as a middleman. He exploited their desire to find work and support themselves, selling them to illegal sweatshops. It was a way of circumventing the law, which is why his sentence wasn't particularly severe.

There was once a great journalist.

He disguised himself as a mentally disabled person, picking up cigarette butts from the ground and eating slop, to go undercover in one of those sweatshops. He endured terrible hardships and saved many intellectually challenged people.

"Look for anything related to the children."

Xu Huo shook his head and slid the file back into place.

After a moment of thought, he closed the file in his hands and looked at Li Jianye.

"Any leads from Police Chief Zhao?"

"Zhao Shui?"

Li Jianye thought for a moment. "I'll go ask."

With that, he walked a short distance away and started making a call.

Zhao Shui was also in charge of visiting the children and parents from the Dashan Education Support Network.

He was also coordinating with teachers to investigate the killer's trail. Several hours had passed, so there was bound to be some news.

Sure enough, Li Jianye looked back at Xu Huo and nodded.

"He just got some information and has compiled it into a file. Let's go find him in the office."

"But this information isn't backed by hard evidence, so it's not one hundred percent credible."

"A lead is good enough."

Xu Huo wasn't picky. He and Li Jianye finished organizing the files and headed to the office.

In the justice system, you generally need testimonial and physical evidence. The weight of testimonial evidence can vary greatly.

This is because its authenticity has to be inferred by combining it with the police's chain of logic and physical clues.

Otherwise, if it can't be verified and the police still act on it... it could have an irreversible impact on the case!

If it's used in court, false testimony could even lead to someone being wrongfully convicted.

And what Zhao Shui brought back...

"We pinpointed the time of Zhao Shan's last transaction. Combined with Sun Yuhui's testimony, we found someone."

Zhao Shui was already waiting in the office. Seeing Xu Huo, he skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the information.

He also took out a sketch.

It was a portrait drawn by a Portrait Artist. It was a pencil sketch, but the face was very clear.

"He's a middle-aged man who would show up at the offline events for the education support network every so often."

"He's good-looking, with distinguished features, and wears a suit. His name is Sima Kong. From Zhao Shan's description, he's a wealthy businessman."

"We searched based on the information Sun Yuhui gave us but couldn't find this person in any records. Our initial guess is that he gave a fake identity."

"He also has a strong out-of-town accent, so he's clearly not a local. Plus, he showed up many times, and a few children would disappear after each of his visits. That's why we've focused our attention on him."

"If all goes well, and we can find this man, we can start making arrests in this case!"

"But the problem is..."

As he spoke, Zhao Shui paused, pointing at the sketch drawn by the Portrait Artist.

"Take a look. This face... who does it look like?"

This face...

Li Jianye's brow furrowed. The face in the sketch seemed very familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere before.

'Where... was it?'

"One of the five victims!"

Xu Huo's sudden declaration startled Li Jianye, whose pupils instantly contracted.

That's right. There were five victims in total. Three had been identified, while the other two were unknown.

And one of those two unidentified victims...

...looked exactly like the face in the sketch!

'This is bad...'

Li Jianye's heart sank.

"The killer is too bent on revenge. They've inadvertently cut off our main lead..."

Right now, the police had only managed to find this Sima Kong. He was the only person who could lead them to the larger group behind him.

And now the killer had gotten to him first...

This just made the investigation significantly harder.

However...

"In a way, this is also good news."

Xu Huo thought it over and decided to approach it from another angle. "Sima Kong's behavior, his demeanor, and his out-of-town accent all match some of the conditions we speculated for the people involved with the 'Elixir of Immortality'."

"In a sense, this makes our previous theory a bit more credible."

"It also confirms that the motive for the murders is indeed related to human trafficking!"

"The lead may be gone, but being able to verify our theory is a good thing."

No one could tell a real lead from a false one before, but now they understood.

Although the news was disheartening...

...at least they no longer had to work on guesswork. They now had a solid foundation to build their deductions on.

"What's the status of the investigation into Chen Jin?"

Xu Huo suddenly spoke again. "The source of his startup capital is unclear. It's hard for a trafficker to amass a million-dollar fortune just by selling people."

"I'm guessing he was in the same business as Sima Kong, but he laundered his money and went legitimate."

"Go investigate the employees who were with his company from the beginning. We might be able to get something out of them."

Zhao Shui nodded, but his eyes still showed his discouragement.

He'd worked so hard to find a lead, only to turn around and find the person was already dead...

It was just too demoralizing.

The most crucial part was...

"What's on your mind now?"

After Zhao Shui left, Li Jianye noticed Xu Huo had suddenly fallen into deep thought, a puzzled expression on his face.

"I'm thinking, assuming our previous theory is correct, that the abducted children were indeed used for something."

"And that 'something' definitely wasn't pleasant. It must have involved suffering."

"Suffering means torture..."

"But what form did that torture take?"

The form of torture...

Li Jianye paused.

It was true. There are many ways to make a person suffer.

You could be beaten or verbally abused.

But in the end, the police had no idea what methods the perpetrators used. Even the so-called Elixir of Immortality was just a guess.

If they could figure that out...

"Then we could work backward to get information on them, which would speed up the case!"

Xu Huo said.

Li Jianye understood.

It was like defining the nature of the case.

Once its nature was defined, the police could focus their limited resources and conduct a more organized search.

Unfortunately...

They didn't know what kind of torture the original criminals had inflicted on the person who was now the killer.

Beatings are torture. Verbal abuse is also torture.

But the culprits surely didn't just use such conventional methods. If not, then it must have been something that crossed the line of human decency.

And that line...

How could an ordinary person possibly imagine it!?

Honestly, an ordinary person would feel guilty for a while just for giving someone the wrong directions.

Let alone trying to fathom something like this.

Humans can never conceive of things outside their own realm of experience!

"Right, where's Chao Zi!?"

Suddenly, Xu Huo remembered Wang Chao.

"What's wrong? Wang Chao is still in the hospital under observation," Li Jianye asked instinctively, then quickly replied.

"Torture. Psychological torture is never direct enough."

"It often manifests physically. In other words, physical torture!"

"But physical torture inevitably leaves physical evidence. It's like if I curse at you, no one can tell. But if I punch you, everyone will see your black eye and know you've been hit!"

In a flash of insight, an extremely unconventional angle came from Xu Huo.

"We can work backward from the physical body to deduce the form of torture the killer suffered. And from that form, we can determine just who these people are!"

Li Jianye froze, his mind racing instinctively.

Normally, this angle would be pretty useless.

Because if you've already seen the killer, why not just arrest them?

Once they're arrested, there's no need to guess. You can just interrogate them.

But in this situation...

...it was extremely useful for this case.

No one on the police force had seen the killer.

But Wang Chao had!

Not only had he seen the killer, but he'd gotten a very clear look, and even had a close encounter with a monkey!

At this thought, it was as if a lightbulb went off in Li Jianye's head.

"Of course!"

"Quick, let's find Chao Zi!"

Xu Huo didn't hesitate. He immediately stood up and headed for the door.

As long as they could get Wang Chao to describe everything he saw in detail...

...they would finally have a solid lead in this case!

But...

'What exactly did the killer do?'

'The victims' entire families haven't shown up. The killer clearly won't let them go. This kind of hatred that seeks to wipe out whole families...'

'What exactly did the original criminals do to their victims?'

'If it affected their appearance, then the killer's appearance...'

Thinking of this, Xu Huo narrowed his eyes, recalling what Wang Chao had said he saw at the first crime scene.

A monkey trainer, a drugged monkey, an ape, a human centipede...

At that thought, Xu Huo couldn't stay calm any longer.

Speculating now was useless. A detailed discussion with Wang Chao along these lines would be far more productive than thinking on his own!

"Let's go."

"To the hospital!"

Perhaps...

...they would soon find out the truth behind this case!