Start with push-ups to gain experience

Chapter 326 Fortunately, this murderer retained some humanity.

Even after the downpour, the sky remained overcast.

By noon, the sun was nowhere to be seen.

Occasionally, a gap would be torn in the thick clouds, letting in a few pale, weak rays of sunlight, which would then be quickly closed again.

An abandoned slaughterhouse on the outskirts of Guanlan District is currently being cordoned off with layers of red and white warning tape.

Outside the cordon, a large number of nearby villagers who had come to see what was happening had gathered.

They trudged through the muddy ground, whispering among themselves, occasionally peering curiously inside, trying to find out what was going on.

Several police cars with flashing lights were parked on the side of the road, firmly keeping the nosy crowd outside.

The air was filled with the damp, earthy smell, and a faint, almost imperceptible odor of blood.

Shila-

A black SUV rolled through the mud and water on the road and came to a steady stop in front of the warning tape.

The car door opened, and three figures filed out.

Leading the group was Gao Jin, followed by two young administrative officers, Zhou Liang and Ali.

The two of them, with heavy dark circles under their eyes, were yawning.

Looking at the muddy ground where there was almost nowhere to step, a hint of disgust unconsciously showed on his face.

Gao Jin, on the other hand, appeared energetic and had sharp eyes.

Ignoring the filth under his feet, he lifted the warning tape and strode forward.

Upon seeing this, a middle-aged police officer in charge of the scene immediately rushed over, his attitude extremely respectful.

"You must be Commander Gao?"

"I am Liu Yuan, the head of the Criminal Investigation Team of Guanlan Police Station."

Gao Jin nodded slightly, and after introducing themselves, he got straight to the point:

"What's the situation on the ground?"

Officer Liu was clearly prepared and immediately began to report to him:
"Preliminary assessment indicates that the incident occurred between midnight and 2 a.m. last night."

"The person who reported the incident was a villager living nearby. He claimed that he was awakened last night by continuous barking of dogs and several loud bangs that sounded like gunshots."

"Because the rain was too heavy at night, he didn't dare to go out to check. He could only vaguely see a figure wearing a raincoat moving around near the slaughterhouse through the window, but he couldn't see the face clearly."

"It wasn't until the rain stopped this morning that he went out to check the situation and discovered that something had happened here."

Gao Jin's gaze swept over the dilapidated exterior of the slaughterhouse, then he asked:
Has the deceased been identified?

"Confirmed."

Liu Yuan answered methodically:

"The deceased was named Chen Rui, male, 32 years old. He was a contractor for this slaughterhouse, from out of town, and usually lived here."

"According to the investigation, he is usually a kind person with no enemies, but he has a somewhat eccentric personality. He keeps dozens of large and fierce dogs and is said to be planning to open a dog farm after the New Year."

The two walked and talked until they reached the entrance of the slaughterhouse.

A young police officer immediately handed over several pairs of blue shoe covers.

Gao Jin and his two men skillfully slipped the shoes on to avoid bringing mud from outside into the scene.

Pushing open the rusty iron gate, a strong, pungent smell of blood hit you like a tangible force, instantly overpowering the stench of decay that had been lingering there.

Zhou Liang and Ali frowned almost simultaneously.

The scene before them made even these two seasoned officers, who had seen their fair share of things, feel intensely uncomfortable.

The slaughterhouse, which spans several hundred square meters, was in complete disarray.

The air was filled with the unique smell of blood and entrails.

The ground, walls, and ceiling were covered in splattered dark red blood.

Collapsed iron frames, twisted iron hooks, and scattered slaughtering tools, mixed with broken bones and rotten flesh, almost covered the entire space.

Several of the carcasses, which could barely be identified as large dogs, appeared to be mangled.

As if struck by some terrifying force, it exploded, its internal organs and bits of flesh scattered haphazardly everywhere.

Some of the fragments were even pasted directly onto the wall more than ten meters away.

In the center of the scene, a rusty iron hook hangs from the ceiling.

Hanging above is the body of the deceased, Chen Rui.

However, it could no longer be called a complete corpse.

Several police officers in investigation uniforms were busy at the scene, carefully collecting every possible piece of evidence, or taking photos, samples, and records.

Zhou Liang's face turned pale, and he covered his mouth, asking in a low voice:
"Officer Liu, are there any human remains among these... these fragments?"

"The forensic doctor has confirmed that they are all canine."

Liu Yuan answered in a deep voice, his expression unusually solemn:

"Although the deceased was brutally murdered, his body parts are still relatively intact."

Zhou Liang and Ali both breathed a sigh of relief.

The killer wasn't so depraved as to shred people into pieces; at least a shred of decency remained.

However, if dog lovers were present and saw the remains of dogs scattered all over the ground, they would probably break down on the spot.

Gao Jin's expression remained calm and composed throughout.

His pupils gleamed slightly, like the most sophisticated scanner, calmly sweeping across every corner of the scene.

In his mind, these chaotic traces were rapidly being reverse-engineered, combining into dynamic battle scenes.

He saw the heavy iron frame, its trajectory traced as it was overturned by an irresistible force.

Identify the direction and angle of the bloodstains splattered on the wall.

Then, his gaze fell on the heavy stainless steel slaughtering table.

On the table, there was a fist-shaped indentation that was two centimeters deep.

The metal surface at the edge was twisted and torn by the enormous impact, and it was almost completely pierced through.

In a daze, Gao Jin seemed to have witnessed that breathtaking scene firsthand—

A muscular, imposing figure leaped high into the air like a cannonball, unleashing a powerful punch with immense force!
His opponent, on the other hand, frantically dodged at the last second when life and death hung in the balance.

Let that fatal fist smash onto the hard slaughtering table, emitting a deafening metallic scream!

Gao Jin's eyes flickered slightly as he composed himself.

Then, my gaze settled on the wall not far away, which was simply built with firebricks.

In the center of the wall, a huge hole with a diameter of more than two meters was broken open.

Broken bricks were scattered outside the house, as if it had been blasted out head-on by a battering sledgehammer.

On the wall directly opposite the hole, someone had drawn a huge and horrifying smiling face with the blood of the dead.

That smile, twisted and manic, was both a boast and an undisguised provocation.

In fact, ordinary murder cases, no matter how cruel and gruesome, are not something the special investigation team should be involved in.

However, the extraordinary destructive power and the inhumane state of the victims clearly go beyond the scope of conventional crimes.

The police force immediately reported the incident to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which then relayed the information to the Special Investigation Unit, issuing an order to assist in the investigation.

Upon hearing that the crime scene was in Guanlan District, Gao Jin immediately thought of the arrest operation he had been in charge of the previous night, so he volunteered to take over the case.

He didn't even have time to rest; he rushed over with his trusted subordinates, hoping to find new clues.

"what?"

Zhou Liang suddenly pointed to an area in front of the hole and asked a question:
"Captain Gao, Officer Liu, look here, isn't something wrong?"

Upon hearing this, Gao Jin turned his gaze over.

It was a concrete area of ​​about ten square meters, which appeared unusually "clean" compared to the surrounding bloodstains and mess.

Although not spotless, it was clearly free of splattered blood and scattered bone fragments and rotten flesh, as if it had been deliberately cleaned.

In the corner directly opposite this area, even more tools, debris, and body parts were piled up. Seeing this, Liu Yuan assumed Zhou Liang was questioning his professionalism, so he quickly began to explain:
“Our people are very professional and would never make the basic mistake of disturbing the scene.”

"According to the forensic doctor, this area was probably damaged by strong winds that came in through the hole last night."

"wrong……"

Zhou Liang walked closer to that area, observed it carefully, and then shook his head in rebuttal:
"If it were the wind, from an aerodynamic point of view, the airflow should be diffused, and it wouldn't form such a clearly defined fan-shaped area."

"And look, the way those piles of debris that were blown away look more like they were repeatedly impacted by a continuous and strong directional airflow."

Gao Jin nodded approvingly, agreeing with Zhou Liang's assessment.

Ali scratched his head in confusion and joined in the analysis and reasoning:
"Could it be that the murderer cleared away clues? Otherwise, why would they have made the ground so clean?"

"But...why did he only clean this area?"

"This is not a cleanup operation."

Gao Jin spoke slowly, his voice low and deep:

"It's more like the aftershocks of a battle..."

As he spoke, his gaze deepened, returning once more to the deep fist-shaped mark on the slaughtering platform.

Just then, a sudden, urgent ringing sound rang out.

Liu Yuan immediately apologized and took his phone out of his pocket.

He walked to the side to answer the call, deliberately lowering his voice so as not to disturb the scene, but the surprise in his tone still came through.

The conversation I overheard sounded like they were discussing something with their subordinates.

"what?"

"The police car that went missing from our district last night has just been found on Yinhu Road in Wenchuan District..."

"Okay, drive it back first, do the inspection and handover record, and we'll talk more when I get back..."

Upon hearing the word "police car," Gao Jin's eyes flickered.

"A missing police car?"

"Yes."

A moment later, Liu Yuan strode back and, seeing Gao Jin asking a question, offered a few explanations:
"Didn't our district police station receive orders last night to cooperate with your department's operation and set up checkpoints and maintain vigilance in the surrounding area?"

“One of my colleagues was on duty when his patrol car was urgently requisitioned by someone who claimed to be the head of the special search team, who said it was to track down a serious criminal.”

"The officer also showed his identification at the time, and it seemed... it seemed he was also surnamed Zhou."

“My colleague reported it immediately after returning, but when we checked with our superiors, we couldn’t find any record of requisition.”

"However, it's good that the car has been found now. That officer must have been busy and forgot to register and return it."

As he spoke, he subconsciously glanced at Zhou Liang, who was standing behind Gao Jin.

Zhou Liang's expression changed slightly, and he instinctively shrank his neck.

Then, he exchanged a surprised and uncertain look with Ali beside him.

Fortunately, Commander Gao only glanced at him briefly and did not ask any further questions.

This made Zhou Liang breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Gao Jin's attention was entirely focused on the suspicious points of the case itself.

His gaze was sinister as he scrutinized the corpse hanging on the iron hook and the blood-stained painting on the wall, his mind racing.

The murderer and the victim were clearly not ordinary people.

Especially the murderer, whose pure physical destructive power Gao Jin knew that even if he wore bio-engineered armor, he could only barely achieve that with his fists.

This suggests that this person's strength is likely no less than one's own.

Is it a feud between people with special abilities, or is there something else going on?
Gao Jin inevitably linked this case to the mission he had carried out last night.

Those Noah members who were arrested were as stubborn as rocks in a latrine.

They appear to have received special training, or perhaps the Noah organization has some kind of leverage over them.

So much so that he would rather bite open the poison pill hidden in his mouth and end his own life than reveal a single word.

Only a few individuals, unable to withstand the pressure of the Special Investigations Team's interrogation methods, suffered mental breakdowns and revealed a small amount of information.

Their operation was codenamed "Operation Demon Hunter," and their target was a young man in the orphanage named "The Smiling Demon."

And this "smiling devil" is none other than a serial killer who has recently risen to notoriety.

Staring intently at the devilish smiling face on the wall, a bold guess began to take shape in Gao Jin's mind.

However, there is still one question...

Why did Xu Hao, the inside man, convey the intelligence that the Noah organization was targeting children in orphanages?
Was the kid deliberately hiding something, or was the situation so urgent that he genuinely couldn't explain it clearly?
After a moment's thought, Gao Jin gave Liu Yuan the following order:
"After you finish the on-site investigation and autopsy, compile all the relevant information about this case into a document and send it to me."

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yuan immediately stood at attention and agreed.

After giving his instructions, Gao Jin turned to leave.

Just as he reached the door, he seemed to remember something, turned back, and asked:
"You just mentioned that the police car that was requisitioned was driven out of the restricted area last night?"

"Yes, sir."

Gao Jin's eyes narrowed as a crucial thought came to mind.

"After you get back, hand over all the driving records retrieved from the location system, along with the case files."

The positioning system installed inside the police car can not only monitor the vehicle's location in real time, but also record in detail the vehicle's entire driving route, speed changes, and even stopping locations within a specific time period.

Although Liu Yuan had some doubts, he readily agreed, saluted, and watched the three leave.

Gao Jin walked out of the slaughterhouse, his feet sinking into the muddy ground, his gaze sweeping once more over the woods and roads surrounding the yard.

His eyes were deep and thoughtful.

He then took Zhou Liang and Ali, got into an off-road vehicle, and quickly drove away from the scene.

Among the crowd watching around the slaughterhouse, two pairs of eyes were quietly observing them.

They were two middle-aged men who looked ordinary.

After watching the SUV leave, the two exchanged a glance without leaving a trace.

In the instant their eyes met, it was as if they were communicating something silently.

From their position, they could clearly see the inner walls of the slaughterhouse through the huge hole in the wall.

That chilling, demonic smile painted with blood.

Meanwhile, on Feihong Road in Wenchuan District, on the other side of the city.

The "Midnight Forest" bar has just taken down its "Closed for the Day" sign.

After 1 p.m., the previously quiet bar gradually became more crowded with customers.

The music grew louder and more powerful, and men and women, holding their glasses, swayed slightly to the rhythm.

The atmosphere in the bar gradually became more lively.

It's as if we're waiting for another sleepless night that will get us hyped up.

The door to the VIP lounge on the second floor opened quietly.

Fang Cheng put on a clean gray tracksuit and casually slung the shoulder bag containing the blood-stained clothes over his shoulder.

Ignoring the noise downstairs, I left through the hidden back door and went straight to the street.

The weather was somewhat gloomy, and pedestrians and vehicles hurried along the streets.

Ooh-oh-oh-oh

A police car with flashing lights sped through the street, breaking the afternoon's dullness.

Fang Cheng narrowed his eyes, a slight smile playing on his lips.

His sunny and cheerful demeanor made him look like a college student who had just finished a weekend party and was about to go home.

(End of this chapter)