Chapter 299 170: An Important Clue for Associative Thinking! 'Catch!

"He seems… a little injured?"

Wang Chao spoke doubtfully. After a moment's thought, he shook his head. "It's just too far. I can't even see the person clearly, let alone details like that…"

"Besides the monkey trainer, was there anyone else?"

"Yes, there were a few blurry shadows, but they were hidden to the side of the group. I couldn't see them, only their human shapes."

Wang Chao shook his head.

'Can't see them, huh…'

'Human experimentation?'

Xu Huo pondered for a moment as images of such things flashed through his mind.

"Were there any children?"

"No."

"Tsk, this is bad…"

Xu Huo took a deep breath, his brow furrowed.

'Is it better that there were children, or that there weren't?'

'Naturally, it's better if there were.'

'If there were, at least we'd know they were still alive!'

'But if there weren't…'

'It either means they couldn't escape, or there's no longer any need for them to escape.'

'The former is one thing—they might still be alive. But the latter… most likely means they're dead.'

"He can command animals?"

Xu Huo felt a headache coming on. He hated dealing with people who seemed to have special abilities.

It was completely different from a conventional investigation. The cases always presented themselves in unexpected ways.

Take, for example,

an "accident creator."

The kind you see in movies, who can calculate the probability of an accident with their brain and then engineer one just for you.

Like brake failure, or an electrical fire at home.

Once it happens, how are the police supposed to investigate?

They can't. The vast majority would just be ruled as normal accidents, and the cases would be hastily closed.

"What about the anesthetic? Did the hospital find anything?"

After a long moment of fruitless thought, Xu Huo looked around the hospital.

They had been waiting for the lab report since around noon, but unfortunately, it still hadn't arrived.

"They didn't find anything."

Wang Chao shook his head. "The doctor said the suspect probably used their own concoction. It's low-potency and metabolizes quickly. By the time they ran the tests at the hospital, its components were already undetectable."

After metabolizing all night, he would have woken up by now even if it had been a normal anesthetic.

Let alone a custom-made one.

It probably finished metabolizing in the latter half of the night; Wang Chao was simply asleep by then.

"Tsk."

Xu Huo shook his head, then looked at Wang Chao.

"You get some rest for now. If you feel anything unusual later, be sure to contact a doctor right away."

"Will do."

Wang Chao nodded.

With that, Xu Huo turned and left, but he didn't go far.

He pushed open the door to the hospital room, took a couple of steps, and then sat down on a public bench.

Details of the case tumbled over and over in his mind, like countless little people arguing in his head, creating a cacophony of noise.

Xu Huo rubbed the spot between his eyebrows, feeling a wave of frustration.

CREAK—

Li Jianye plopped down beside him, and the metal chair let out a groan.

"The monkey trainer…"

"Based on the time of Zhao Shan's and the others' disappearances, this group has probably only been in Jiangsan City for about a month."

"Director Chu is trying to investigate through the Lower Nine Professions channels, but he most likely won't find anything."

"They're still checking the archives, but… prepare yourself."

Li Jianye reached for a cigarette, but seeing the doctors and patients around, he paused and stuffed it back into the pack.

He smacked his lips and added,

"There are too many files. It's impossible to check them all in a short amount of time."

"Unless we're given a huge amount of time, but by then, I can't guarantee where the killer will have run off to."

The police had far, far too many abduction case files.

Especially from that period twenty years ago; the sheer number of cases unearthed at once was enough to make your skin crawl.

On top of that, those cases were about making arrests, not conducting thorough investigations. They couldn't confirm the identities of the abducted individuals, and such vague information made it impossible to find anything useful.

"No, that's not what I'm worried about. Sima Kong's identity has indirectly proven my earlier theory."

"And in my theory… these people are bound to be the epitome of caution. It's completely normal that the archives would turn up nothing."

Xu Huo shook his head, unconcerned about that.

What he cared about was…

"Exactly how the killer was tortured."

"That's the only thing I care about!"

Li Jianye froze, then was left speechless.

Because if they could figure that out, they wouldn't be far from cracking the case.

Why?

Why would seeing the killer's injuries be the key to solving the case?

Putting everything else aside…

Just knowing the physical scars and mutilations on the suspect would be enough for the police to issue a wanted poster and then launch a dragnet-style search to capture them!

Secondly…

"Furthermore, we can use it as a foundation to build our theories…"

Xu Huo closed his eyes, his mind racing.

He valued this piece of information highly because it could genuinely lead to something!

"We can find at least two lines of inquiry from this!"

This line of inquiry could be broken down into two main points.

One: The purpose of the organization behind the deceased for torturing the murderer.

For example, drug testing. If they were testing drugs, the body would inevitably show adverse reactions to a certain substance. The police could then use this clue to work backward and deduce that the perpetrators are involved with pharmaceuticals.

Then, by investigating Sima Kong, using clues from his life, and combining that with the information about the drugs, they could trace the perpetrators in reverse.

Two: The murderer's current condition and their present living environment!

What does this mean?

First, you have to understand one thing.

Is your personal life changed by your environment, or do you change your environment?

There are examples of individuals changing their environment, but such people are all at the pinnacle of Blue Star.

As for those at the grassroots level, it's not that they lack the ability to change their environment, but rather that those who *do* have the ability will climb step by step to the very top, leaving the grassroots behind.

"Combine those two clues, and you can conclude that the murderer's body was used to fulfill the personal needs of the people behind the victim."