My citizenship is at risk

Chapter 192: Three-line mission, intertwined clues (7k)

"Don't mention it, this Feiyun Valley is worthy of being a 5A-level scenic spot. The scenery is really very good."

Climbing to the top of a mountain, overlooking the lush forest shrouded in clouds in the valley, and listening to the faint calls of unknown birds, Song Yan could not help but reveal a comfortable and relaxed smile.

"It's really beautiful." Chu Mu, who climbed to the top of the mountain closely behind him, responded casually while carefully picking a purple-red vine about the thickness of a little finger and about two meters long from a rock on the top of the mountain.

There is a scarlet flower blooming on the vine, which is the most wonderful embellishment on the top of the hill.

This is the target of Chu Mu and Song Yan’s trip, the red flower vine.

Only the red flower vine that has bloomed can be used.

Such a section of red flower vine weighs only a little over one pound. Chu Mu carefully rolled it into a circle and stuffed it into the backpack behind him. In his backpack, there were already several circles of vines like this.

This was all the harvest the two had after entering the valley, adding up to about six or seven kilograms, which was not a small amount. However, if they wanted to obtain the twenty kilograms of red flower vines required to complete the mission, they still had to run a lot.

Chu Mu looked around, red light flashing in his eyes.

With the enhanced vision of the first stage, the eyesight of the Soaring Realm can easily see a thousand meters away, and the unique penetrating effect of the transparent vision is like adding wings to a tiger in special terrain such as a valley.

Now standing on a high place and overlooking the mountains and forests, the scenery is even more unobstructed.

Soon, Chu Mu found two swaying red flowers in his field of vision. The iconic flowers unique to the red flower vine immediately brought a smile to his face.

Red flower vine, only one flower blooms on each vine!
The two flowers are very close to each other, which means there are two mature red flower vines at that location!
"Shi Tou, let's go over there!" Chu Mu pointed to the halfway up another mountain, where the two flowers were.

"Okay." Song Yan nodded.

He had a clear understanding of his own positioning. He was good at fighting, but he was not good at collecting resources. At this moment, he naturally followed Chu Mu's lead and tried not to cause trouble for Chu Mu.

The two men walked briskly, shuttling quickly through the primeval forest. Looking down from the air, only their vague shadows could be seen among the forest. After more than ten minutes, the two men arrived at their destination.

"There are indeed two of them." Looking at the two sections of red flower vines less than five meters apart, Chu Mu's smile became much brighter.

One section was similar to the ones he had found before, also about two meters long, but the other end was almost three meters long and was obviously thicker.

After picking and collecting the fruits skillfully, Chu Mu weighed his backpack and said, "That's enough for ten kilograms!"

About an hour and a half has passed since entering Feiyun Valley, and half of the collection task has been completed.

At this efficiency, they can finish work and leave soon.

"Great." Song Yan smiled naively and gave Chu Mu a thumbs up. "Where are we going next?"

"Let me take a look." The red light reappeared in Chu Mu's eyes. He quickly looked around, searching for the whereabouts of the red flower vine within his field of vision.

The expected crimson flowers did not appear, but Chu Mu looked at a certain location and suddenly raised his eyebrows.

There is a cave on the hillside of the next mountain.

When I looked down just now, I couldn't see it from that angle, but I can see it from where I am now.

This cave was covered by layers of lush vegetation. If it weren't for the penetrating effect of his transparent vision, Chu Mu would not have been able to find it at all.

What's in the cave?

Chu Mu felt a little curious.

"Wood?" Seeing Chu Mu standing there in a daze with his expression changing, Song Yan scratched his head and shouted again.

"Ah!" Chu Mu came back to his senses and told Song Yan about the cave he found. "I looked up information about Feiyun Valley before, but I never heard of a cave in Feiyun Valley. This cave should be relatively hidden and few people know about it."

"Do you want to go and take a look?" Song Yan understood what Chu Mu meant.

"I am indeed a little curious." Chu Mu nodded, "But we are now completing the task together, so I have to see your opinion."

Song Yan scratched his head and smiled innocently, "Then I'm curious too."

Chu Mu was speechless. The two of them disappeared on the spot and went straight towards the cave.

"It's really well hidden." Pulling aside the dense bushes, Song Yan couldn't help but sigh, "If I didn't know there was a cave here, I might not have found it even if I walked by it."

Chu Mu nodded and looked at the cave in front of him. It was about one and a half meters wide, two and a half meters high, and the shape of the cave entrance was a bit like a melon seed.

This cave seems to go downwards, and you can't see the bottom at a glance.

"If this cave was bigger, there might be bears there." Chu Mu smiled.

Along the way, the two saw a lot of wild animals, but they didn't pay much attention to them. The poisonous snakes and some carnivorous animals that ordinary people feared posed no threat at all to the Star Warriors.

"Even if I really encounter a bear, I can beat it down." Song Yan laughed.

"Let's go and take a look." Chu Mu was also smiling. He walked into the cave with a relaxed expression, but the smile soon disappeared.

He walked slowly toward a sharp rock protruding from the rock wall.

At the end of the stone, there is a little dark stain.

"It's blood." Song Yan lowered his voice suddenly, leaned forward to the stone and sniffed it, "You can still smell a faint smell of blood, within a week."

"It seems that there are really carnivores living here."

"No..." Chu Mu lowered his voice, and then suddenly switched to source power transmission, "This may be human blood."

Although human blood and the blood of many animals are both red and have roughly the same smell, they are not completely indistinguishable.

Chu Mu took out a bottle of reagent from his bag, carefully sprayed it on the dark stain, and then took out a test paper and dipped a little.

This place was not far from the cave entrance. With the light shining in from the cave entrance, Chu Mu watched two bars appear on the test paper.

"It really is human blood." Song Yan stopped talking directly and switched to transmitting sound through the source force, "But Mu Tou, why are you carrying a blood test strip?"

"Xu Yuncan brought it." Chu Mu explained, "It may be used in the tasks of the other two groups, so Xu Yuncan prepared it in advance. Since he prepared a lot, I just took a box and put it aside."

"I didn't expect that it could actually come in handy." As he said that, Chu Mu looked towards the depths of the cave with a serious look.

In this cave that few people know about, traces of human blood have recently appeared. I'm afraid things are not that simple.

Song Yan took a step forward and stood in front of Chu Mu. "I'll go ahead and explore the way."

"If a fight really comes, we should be able to gain the upper hand."

Song Yan's source skills are quite powerful in such a narrow space.

"Okay." Chu Mu did not refuse. He used his source skills to conceal his own breath, stepped on the Floating Cloud Step and floated like a wisp of smoke, following behind Song Yan slowly.
-
Feiyun City, Security Department.

"All the information about the missing case is here."

Chen Zhe, a uniformed member of the police investigation team, walked into the meeting room and placed a thick stack of information on the table. He looked at the two teenagers in front of him.

This is not the first case of missing children in Feiyun City. In the past year, one or two children have disappeared inexplicably every month in Feiyun City. This is obviously an organized crime.

But the gang that committed the crime was extremely cautious, and the dragnet of surveillance failed to find any clues about them.

Because the case had not been solved for a long time, the Feiyun City Police Department was under great pressure and had to seek external assistance.

Now the foreign aid that we have been longing for has finally arrived.

But...it was a little different from what he expected.

One of them was holding a rapier in his arms, his mind wandering. Even after he put the information on the table, he didn't even look at it. Although this young man gave him a very dangerous feeling and should be very strong, such behavior was obviously of no help to the case.

As for the other one, his attitude was very serious. He was reading the materials carefully with a thoughtful look on his face. He also took out paper and pen and kept writing and drawing.

But his strength is only at the Nayuan level.

It’s not that the Nayuan realm is weak. To be able to reach the other party’s level of cultivation at this age is already considered an outstanding martial arts student.

But according to the speculation of the Security Bureau, most of the members of this gang should be at the Tengkong Realm, and the Nayuan Realm is indeed in danger in such an undercurrent.

In short, these two foreign players made Chen Zhe a little disappointed.

Chen Zhe thought about it in his mind but did not show any sign of it. He sat calmly on the other side of the conference table, patiently waiting for Xu Yuncan to look through the documents.

After more than an hour, Xu Yuncan finally raised his head and smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I kept you waiting."

"It's okay." Chen Zhe's mouth curled up slightly, and he was polite but a little helpless. "Anyway, there's nothing I can do."

It’s not that they are giving up, it’s just that the investigation team had already analyzed all the points that could be analyzed before the two of them arrived.

This missing seven-year-old girl, like other missing children in the past, disappeared in an instant as if she had evaporated from the face of the earth.

Xu Yuncan's gaze stayed on Chen Zhe for a moment, and then he spoke softly, "Her parents haven't given up yet, and you shouldn't give up either."

"Sorry." Chen Zhe took a deep breath and rubbed his cheeks vigorously. "It's not that I give up, it's just... I really don't have any ideas."

"You've read the dossier. What do you think?"

"Some." Xu Yuncan nodded slightly.

Ok?
Chen Zhe's eyes narrowed.

He just asked casually and didn't actually expect Xu Yuncan to have any ideas. After all, this series of disappearances was too bizarre.

Unexpectedly, this young guy really has ideas?

Just in case, his expression quickly turned serious, and he took out a pen and paper, "Go ahead."

"Although I have no experience in criminal investigation, I still know a little bit about it. Since we have confirmed that this is a series of crimes committed by the same criminal gang, we need to find the common points of the cases." Xu Yuncan paused slightly, "All the missing people are children."

"These children are both boys and girls, no older than 10 years old. They all disappeared in the same way, when they were alone, without leaving any trace."

Xu Yuncan glanced at the information recorded on the paper before, "There is a problem here."

"Because of their young age, children under ten years old normally rarely have the opportunity to be left alone."

“A lot of times, they’re with their parents.”

“So, the vast majority of missing children disappear in the toilet.”

"Children of this age basically go to the toilet alone. It goes without saying that the bathroom at home has cubicles, and public toilets also have cubicles, forming a small space that is not noticed by the outside world."

"That's right." Chen Zhe nodded slightly.

What Xu Yuncan said was nothing new, but it was quite logical and gave him some hope.

He really hoped that Xu Yuncan could bring some turning point to the case.

"Analyze from the perspective of the criminal..." Xu Yuncan tapped the table with his hand, "If you want to seize the very short opportunity when the child is alone and meet the conditions for committing a crime, there are two possibilities."

"First, the criminal secretly followed the target child throughout the process and attacked him as soon as he was alone."

"Secondly, the criminals do not have fixed targets. Instead, they lurk in places where children are likely to be left alone, and when they come across a child who meets the criteria, they will immediately attack."

"What?!" Chen Zhe's pupils suddenly shrank, and it was as if a thunder exploded in his mind.

The second possibility mentioned by Xu Yuncan kept echoing in Chen Zhe's mind.

There is no fixed goal!
According to the logic of normal missing cases, if a child is missing, the criminal must be targeting the child.

Therefore, when analyzing this series of missing cases in the past, the Police Department considered the first situation proposed by Xu Yuncan, and then on this basis, tried to find the intersections between the missing children and identify the criminal.

This is also the reason why there has been no clue in this case so far.

There is no connection between the missing children.

In most cases, there is no overlap between their own social circles and those of their parents and relatives.

In addition, if a criminal wants to make a child disappear in this way, he needs to keep an eye on the child to seize the brief opportunity to be alone. In other words, the criminal needs to track the target for a long time!

However, they did not find any matching figures in the large number of videos of the missing children before they disappeared.

Chen Zhe's body trembled unconsciously.

Yes, why should we assume in advance that criminal gangs have a target first and then commit the crime?
If they only want children under ten, or who meet other specific criteria, then just sit tight and wait.

The only disadvantage of this approach is that it takes a lot of time.

But it is much more hidden and difficult to think of.

"Go on!" Chen Zhe took a deep breath, sat up straight, and looked at Xu Yuncan, who was almost the same age as his own child. There was no longer any contempt in his eyes, but instead a bit of respect.

"Hmm..." Xu Yuncan thought for a moment, and then said, "According to your judgment, there are powerful people in the Soaring Realm in this criminal gang."

"Because of the child's disappearance, there are extraordinary factors."

This is also the most prominent feature of this series of disappearances.

The criminals do not mind the existence of surveillance at all. They will not even deliberately destroy the surveillance when choosing the location of the attack. More than 60% of the disappearances are completed under surveillance.

Those children disappeared silently, as if they had suddenly become invisible.

“I have never seen a strong person from the Heaven and Earth Realm take action, but if we only consider the factor of strength, it is impossible for a person from the All Things Realm to make a child disappear without leaving any trace.” Xu Yuncan said softly.

"Even the Heaven and Earth Realm is not possible." Lepani, who was holding a Western sword on the other side, suddenly spoke.

Chen Zhe and Xu Yuncan couldn't help but look at Lepani, but he had already returned to his trance-like state.

Xu Yuncan: “…”

"Okay, even the Heaven and Earth Realm can't do that." He coughed lightly, "And I don't think a Heaven and Earth Realm expert needs to do this kind of thing."

"In that case, the other party's ability to do this has nothing to do with pure strength." Xu Yuncan paused slightly, "If nothing unexpected happens, it should be caused by the source skill."

Source skills can be said to be the most special abilities of star warriors.

Because they are completely random and come in all kinds of weird shapes and sizes.

Xu Yuncan had already seen many kinds of strange source skills during the re-screening, and he was not surprised at all that there were other special source skills in the alliance.

"Invisibility, stealth." Xu Yuncan's expression turned serious. "This is probably the only source skill I can think of that fits the bill."

"Have you started from this aspect and conducted investigations?"

"Yes." Chen Zhe nodded, "We have thought of this as well, and have conducted a certain degree of investigation on the Void Realm warriors in the city."

"But no qualified source skill owner was found."

"Is it possible that there are warriors in the Soaring Realm in Feiyun City that you don't know about, or that there are warriors in the Soaring Realm who have hidden their source skills?" Xu Yuncan asked.

"The former is impossible." Chen Zhe shook his head. "Because of the special nature of the series of disappearances, we have the authority to check the strength of all residents in the city. Although it is not very accurate, we will definitely not miss any local strong people in the Soaring Realm."

"As for the latter..." Chen Zhe looked somewhat helpless, "This is possible, but if a Void Realm expert is determined to hide his source skills, there is really no way to deal with it."

The currently known rule for source skills is that middle-third-grade source blood must have one source skill, and upper-third-grade source blood must have two source skills.

But the extra source skills can be easily hidden.

"Consider it from the perspective of alibi?" Xu Yuncan asked again.

"This can be done, and we have already tried it." Chen Zhe nodded, "In every missing case, there will be a powerful person in the Sky Realm who cannot provide an alibi, but..."

"These powerful masters in the Void Realm have complete alibis in other missing cases." Xu Yuncan said what Chen Zhe did not say, and his expression became serious.

This is a series of disappearances. If there is no suspect in one of the disappearances, it is actually equivalent to clearing the suspicion in other cases. In this way, eventually no suspect will be found.

The conference room fell into dead silence.

Chen Zhe smiled bitterly helplessly.

Although there is a new direction, it is still difficult to find something truly decisive.

Xu Yuncan silently found a map of Feiyun City and took out a pen to mark it.

Noticing Xu Yuncan's movements, Chen Zhe couldn't help but stand up and walk behind Xu Yuncan.

On the map of Feiyun City, Xu Yuncan first circled the locations of each disappearance case with a red pen, and then circled the home addresses of every Void Realm expert in Feiyun City with a black pen.

Soon, dozens of circles appeared on the map.

Chen Zhe looked at this scene with a confused look on his face.

He didn't know the purpose of Xu Yuncan's doing this, but seeing that Xu Yuncan was lost in thought at the moment, he didn't dare to ask easily, for fear of disturbing his thoughts.

Time passed by little by little. During this time, Xu Yuncan took out a pencil, connected the circles with lines, and then erased them.

Finally, he raised his head again.

"Feiyun Valley." Xu Yuncan spoke word by word.

"What?" Chen Zhe blinked.

"After the criminal gang kidnapped the children, they should have sent them to Feiyun Valley as their first stop." Xu Yuncan said calmly, "I can't tell where the children will go next based on the current clues."

"But... there is most likely a criminal gang's base in Feiyun Valley, which is used to temporarily detain missing children." After saying this very quickly, Xu Yuncan took out his communicator and dialed Chu Mu's number.

Chu Mu and Song Yan are in Feiyun Valley!

After a moment, Xu Yuncan frowned and put down the communicator.

Can't get through.

Neither of them could communicate with each other.
-
Zhuxia City, Security Department.

"Brother Song, have you found Zhao Hong's location?" Tu Shanming looked excitedly at the young man who was receiving the three people, "Then can we set out now?"

Behind Tu Shanming, Lin Changfeng, who was leaning against the door frame with his arms folded, and Yu Qianqian, who was sitting quietly in a chair waiting, stood up at the same time, their eyes flashing with eagerness to try.

"Don't worry." Song Changyuan, the receptionist known as "Brother Song", was speechless. "We actually located Zhao Hong a long time ago, but it's very troublesome to capture him."

"Our director is tied up in other matters and cannot take action for the time being. Apart from him, everyone in the Security Department is at the Soaring Realm level."

"Zhao Hong's strength is at the fourth level of the Soaring Realm, which is not weak." Song Changyuan's expression became more serious. "He has been hiding in the downtown area for a while. He said he was hiding, but in fact he was kidnapping the residents around him to make us afraid to act rashly."

"I understand. What you are afraid of is not not being able to catch him, but causing greater casualties." Tu Shan nodded in understanding.

"Yes." Song Changyuan smiled. "Fortunately, with the three of you joining us, we now have enough manpower and should be able to capture him in the first place."

"Without further delay, let's go!"

The three of them followed Song Changyuan and got into a special car of the police station.

On the way to Zhao Hong's hiding place, Tu Shanming couldn't help but ask curiously, "Brother Song, I heard that it took four days just to confirm the identity of this wanted criminal. If not, he should have been arrested in Feiyun City?"

"Yes." Song Changyuan smiled bitterly and shook his head, complaining, "What's the big deal? The criminals from Feiyun City came to our Zhuxia City, and now it's our fault that we can't catch them."

"With current criminal investigation methods, it took four days to identify the wanted criminal. That's a bit slow." Yu Qianqian said softly, "Is it because there are too many blind spots in Feiyun Valley's surveillance cameras, so they didn't capture the murder process?"

"This is one of the reasons, but not the main reason." At this point, Song Changyuan also became more talkative. "Although there are blind spots in the surveillance, we have already identified Zhao Hong as the only suspect through deduction of multiple surveillance images."

"The main reason for the delay in convicting him is that we cannot find Zhao Hong's motive for murder."

"There was absolutely no connection between him and the deceased."

"If he hadn't violated the rules and absconded, we wouldn't even be able to issue a warrant for his arrest."

"Ah?" Hearing this, the three people in the car were all stunned.

"There is no intersection... Is this Zhao Hong a madman who kills people at will?" Tu Shanming widened his eyes. Thinking that he and others were about to join forces to capture such a guy, he couldn't help but shrink his head.

"That's not the case." Song Changyuan shook his head. "Before the murder, Zhao Hong was a teacher at a private martial arts school. Both students and colleagues had a very good opinion of him."

"For a person like this, there must be a reason for killing people."

"We just haven't found it yet."

"However, after arresting him this time, we should be able to understand the real reason why he killed people through interrogation." Song Changyuan said, and suddenly sighed, "Speaking of which, the family of the deceased is also very pitiful."

"That woman just lost her only son last month, and now she has lost her husband. A family is broken up just like that."

"Ugh--"
-
Faint sobbing sounds were heard in the dark space.

A delicate girl of about seven or eight years old was huddled in the corner with her hands on her thighs. Her beautiful dress was now covered with dust and stains.

Because of crying for a long time, her eye sockets were badly swollen and her eyes were full of fear. In the pitch-black darkness, only a faint candlelight brought her comfort.

The girl didn't know how long she had stayed here. She remembered that she fainted several times. In this dark and humid place, it was impossible to tell when the sun rose and set, so her sense of time became vague.

But she knew that she had been caught for a long time.

My parents would be worried, right? Would they ask the police to look for me?

The girl pursed her lips and thought silently, tears welling up in her eyes which had become even redder, and her sobbing became louder.

"Why are you crying? I'm so tired."

A low shout came from the darkness not far away, causing the girl to tremble violently. A look of fear flashed in her eyes, and she hugged herself tighter. Even though she was afraid, she still tried to suppress her crying and tried not to look towards the darkness where the voice came from.

"boom--"

There was a muffled sound, and a bag was thrown not far from the girl. Her body trembled again. Then, with the help of the faint candlelight, she could see clearly that it was a loaf of bread and a bottle of water.

"Be quiet after eating. If you keep making noise, I will make you quiet down."

The voice sounded particularly fierce.

The girl knew how the other person would keep her quiet.

The past few comas were the opponent's tactics.

She wiped her tears vigorously, walked forward, carefully opened the bread and water, and ate in small bites, not daring to make any more noise.

Is the person who was talking gone?

The girl didn't know.

Because the other party never made any footsteps.

In the darkness, she didn't see a figure silently watching her for a moment and then turning away quietly.

Soon, the figure appeared in another dark cave, and the candlelight illuminated his thin and gloomy face.

Next to this figure, there is another figure, a man with a body as strong as an iron tower.

"What's the situation?" The man in the iron tower asked sullenly.

"Not dead, just crying." The gloomy man said in a low voice, "How long are we going to stay in this damn place?"

"In the past, we had to move within a day!"

"Didn't this happen by accident?" The man at the iron tower looked depressed.

"Zhao Hong is wanted, and no one is there to pick us up."

(End of this chapter)