Chapter 74 - 73: The Grisly Scene

Linlan City, Zhang Family Town, at the foot of a mountain.

10:30 PM.

It was a dark and windy night. At the pitch-black foot of the mountain, Wang Chao squatted by the roots of a tree, grieving silently.

Xu Huo stood at the mouth of a well, the hem of his clothes flapping wildly in the wind.

He seemed to have been swallowed by the night, but the faint glow of a phone by his ear illuminated his face, pulling him back from the darkness.

"Hello?"

"Advisor Xu, what’s going on so late at night?"

"There’s been an incident."

"What kind of incident?"

Xu Huo paused. After a long moment, he uttered two words.

"Human life."

"Human life?!"

On the other end of the line, Qian Hua, who had been half-asleep, was suddenly jolted awake. His voice shot up, sharp and high-pitched with disbelief.

’Linlan City just got out from under the scrutiny of our superiors. If another murder case pops up now...’

’But the odds are low. A case big enough to attract that kind of attention from above might not even happen once in ten years. It’s just that the recent bombing case has left me a little on edge.’

Qian Hua calmed himself. Once he was steady, he asked again.

"What’s the address?!"

"What about the victims? How many are there?"

Hearing this, Xu Huo paused. He looked down at the bodies in the well before him.

The mouth of the well was like a giant eye. As Xu Huo met its gaze, he saw a portrait of Hell.

"The number..."

"I don’t know."

"You don’t know?"

Qian Hua was stunned. He frowned, but before he could ask for details, Xu Huo’s voice came through again.

"A well."

"What about a well? Aren’t we talking about bodies?"

"The bodies have filled a deep well, turning it into a shallow one."

’A shallow one?’ Qian Hua repeated blankly. The full meaning hit him a second later. His pupils constricted, and he shot up as if startled, a cold sweat breaking out on his back.

And at that exact moment, Xu Huo’s emotionless voice floated through the receiver.

"What I mean is..." Xu Huo said quietly.

"The number of bodies..."

"...has filled an entire well."

[DING~]

[Congratulations, Host, you have triggered a mission: Script the Well... ]

[(Incomplete)]

[Rewards are divided into four tiers: 25% Immersion, 50% Immersion, 75% Immersion, and 100% Immersion.]

[Scripting time: Seven days.]

[Failure penalty: Forfeit this mission’s rewards.]

[The name of this mission is... ]

[’Case 0009: Ghost Well’]

...

...

The Linlan City police received a report that night.

The caller, a criminal investigation advisor for both Linlan City in Hanhai Province and Jiangsan City, claimed to have found a body disposal site for a murder case.

Initially, based on the call itself and the man’s calm demeanor, the police didn’t treat it as a major case.

Until... the police followed his directions and arrived at the scene.

The moment all the detectives gathered around the mouth of the well and peered down, their minds went blank.

Inside the well...

...were bodies, piled on top of each other!

"How... how many so far...?"

「October 22nd. The crime scene at the foot of the mountain in Zhang Family Town’s dead village.」

The desolate area was now swarming with police. Two police dogs, brought in overnight, circled the mountain, sniffing the ground as they paced back and forth.

Bright yellow police tape was stretched across the road, cordoning off the crime scene.

Several old-fashioned police cars were parked on the roadside.

Qian Hua squatted at the entrance of a lifeless old house in the distance, watching the police officers carry away the bodies. A flicker of confusion crossed his eyes, and the fingers holding his cigarette trembled.

"Captain, we’re at thirteen now..."

A Police Officer turned to Qian Hua, his eyes filled with horror, his face a mask of shock and disbelief.

That was the number they had pulled from the well so far, and it was only what they had managed to recover in one night.

That wasn’t all of them!

The well still seemed bottomless. No one knew how many more bodies were hidden below, stacked like Tetris blocks...

"Thirteen..."

Qian Hua’s scalp tingled with dread.

"Are they just bodies, or... are there signs of murder?" he asked in a low voice.

’The Corpse Repository case in Jiangsan City has been making the rounds internally. Thankfully, that only involved bodies already in storage, not living people. Otherwise, every single administrator in Jiangsan City would have been fired. But Linlan City...’

"Captain, it was murder..."

The Police Officer’s lips trembled as he delivered the news no one wanted to hear.

"There are clear signs of homicide on the bodies!"

Qian Hua fell silent. His mind went blank, a ringing in his ears.

’Murder...’

’Thirteen people!’

’And that isn’t even all of them...’

’In terms of severity, even the recent bombing case can’t compare to this!’

"Control the media, don’t let this leak. Request forensic pathologists from the province—and I mean multiple pathologists. It has to be fast!"

Suddenly, a voice cut in.

Qian Hua looked up and saw Xu Huo. He paused, then quickly stubbed out his cigarette and got up to meet him.

"Call off the dogs."

Xu Huo glanced at the police dogs running all over the mountain and issued another command.

’Before the discovery, there were no signs of any living person at the scene besides Wang Chao and me. Furthermore, the topmost body in the well has been dead for approximately sixteen months. This means that even the most recent victim died over a year ago. The killer had more than enough time to leave, either by fleeing the province or taking a plane. Combined with the lack of any recent presence at the crime scene, I’m guessing the perpetrator hasn’t been back in a long time. Therefore, having the dogs continue to search is pointless, unless we want them to get hurt.’

"Call them back, call them back..."

Qian Hua was deflated. He sighed and spoke wearily.

Averting his gaze, Xu Huo turned his attention back to the crime scene.

"What’s the status of the bodies?"

"We’ve only cleared out the ones on the surface. After getting them out, the bodies underneath are incredibly difficult to retrieve. It’s a huge challenge," Qian Hua sighed.

"Beneath the top layer, the other bodies have almost completely liquefied and mixed with the sludge. The flesh has turned into a viscous slime that clings to the bones. The entire inside of the well is basically a jelly made of liquid flesh, making it impossible to remove anything in one piece."

"In other words... they’ve fused. Dozens of people all merged together!"

"As for the bodies... for now, they’re being temporarily stored under the nearby tent. If there are any more delays, we’ll have to prioritize sending them to the funeral home for preservation."

Forensic pathologists were rare these days.

A moderately developed prefecture-level city might have one or two.

But for county-level cities, especially underdeveloped ones, having a forensic pathologist was just a dream!

It couldn’t be helped; the training for this profession was too demanding.

First, it required a vast amount of medical knowledge. Second, it demanded a stronger stomach than the average person during the internship. And finally, one had to endure the strange looks from others.

The first two requirements alone meant an average forensic pathologist needed at least eight years to come into their own. The vast majority were weeded out because they couldn’t handle the psychological pressure, or they simply switched to careers in industries like insurance.

As for the psychological fortitude... it was said that the stench of death was a unique kind of pheromone. Forensic pathologists and crematorium workers who were in constant contact with corpses would become saturated with the smell of death.

It was a stench that couldn’t be washed away. It would follow you forever!

Add to that the poor benefits and lack of opportunities for advancement, and the number of people in the forensic pathology field dwindled even further.

’Even in my past life, a county-level police force wasn’t guaranteed to have its own forensic pathologist!’

So in this day and age, a shortage of forensic pathologists was the norm.

"Given the severity of this case, even an idiot in the higher-ups would scramble to transfer every available pathologist over," Xu Huo said with confidence.

The case hadn’t even developed; it started right off the bat with a deep well filled to the brim with bodies.

For Hanhai Province, which had just nervously seen off its superiors, this was enough to make them piss their pants in fear!

"Let’s examine the external marks on the bodies first," Xu Huo said, then stood up and walked toward the blue tent that had been erected.

By then, the preliminary report on the bodies had already been compiled.

"The most recent time of death is sixteen months ago. The victim is male. The body has already begun to liquefy, but thankfully it wasn’t in the central liquefied area, so some external marks are still visible."

"The deceased was stabbed from the front, with no signs of being beaten. There are three stab wounds in the abdomen. Additionally, chunks of flesh are missing from various parts of the body."

As he spoke, Qian Hua’s expression grew increasingly grim.

He squatted down, looking at the corpse, which was rotted beyond recognition.

All the recovered bodies were laid out under the tent.

The bodies were long decayed, the flesh gradually liquefying—literally turning into liquid, like jelly. It looked like thick phlegm, with bone and flesh fragments mixed together, sticking to everything.

Fortunately, the liquefaction on the surface was less severe, which allowed the police to find other information.

There were signs of flesh being carved from the thighs, abdomen, and buttocks, as well as the internal organs!

"We initially thought it was an isolated case, but after examining the other bodies, we realized it’s not!" Qian Hua spoke again.

"It’s highly likely that this applies to all the bodies—both those we’ve recovered and those we haven’t!"

Hearing this, Xu Huo frowned and squatted down.

His eyes focused on the corpse’s rear buttocks.

Within a few years of death, a human body will decompose, leaving only bones.

But the state of these buttocks was not the result of natural decomposition. The cuts were clean, and chunks of flesh had been carved from the inner thigh with a knife, exposing the bone.

The stomach had been cut open. The internal organs had long since rotted away, but the wounds from an external force were still visible.

"The perpetrator pried open the corpse’s stomach and took some organs from the abdomen."

"Then, they carelessly tossed all the bodies into the well..."

Xu Huo’s brow furrowed.

It was an act so contrary to normal logic that it was difficult to comprehend.

Judging from the wounds, the killer was torturing the victim, and the methods were hellish. Yet, it lacked the element of torment; the cuts were fast, precise, and ruthless.

’So what was the killer doing?’

’In the bombing case, Song Si and the others were engaged in sadistic murder. You could clearly see their emotional state from the evidence.’

’This case has no emotion. The killer didn’t kill for sadistic pleasure, and there’s no sign of hatred. But if there’s no grudge...’

At this thought, Xu Huo couldn’t help but look back at the places where the corpse’s flesh was missing.

’...why kill at all?’

’And in such a way!’

The killer’s motive was bizarre. Xu Huo found it completely incomprehensible.

The three common motives—greed, rage, lust—didn’t seem to fit. The methods were torturous, but they lacked the emotion of torture.

From start to finish, the only thing that seemed to matter to the killer was carving flesh from the dead.

But the purpose of carving the flesh, the reason for it...

’What is it?’

A contemplative look gradually appeared in Xu Huo’s eyes.

’Is his goal to obtain this flesh?’

’What’s the use of this flesh?!’