Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

----

Ordinary people aren't well-informed, but these people all have inside channels. They've all heard about the murder scenes in mental hospitals—the deaths were horribly gruesome… unlike the sinister gruesome deaths of the Oregon Shrike, these were gruesome deaths in broad daylight.

To date, the Australian shrike has only killed powerless commoners; it has never hung the corpses of those in power on deer antlers. Therefore, in their eyes, the shrike is merely a harmless story, akin to an urban legend.

Compared to the serial killer who only lurks in the shadows, the Red Center, who slaughtered the Nordlin family in broad daylight and killed Cheddar's second son, was more feared by them.

This is also why no one immediately responded when Chilton first proposed the plan.

It's too dangerous.

Who knows what might happen if we get involved with Red China?!

……

“You…no, you, you don’t look like Hongzhong at all,” the man said hurriedly.

"Doesn't seem like it?" Zhang Renfeng's tone suddenly rose, and his eyes turned fierce. In their eyes, he was like a capricious demon king, inspiring extreme fear. "If it doesn't seem like it, where is the feasibility of this plan? Do you think I'm an idiot?!"

"...It does look...somewhat like it..." The man turned pale with fright and immediately changed his words.

"That's exactly right. Put everything on Hongzhong. He did this, he did that, it's perfect."

Zhang Renfeng clapped his hands and laughed, "If two more people die, it will be even more like it."

"Boom--!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly bent his hands, forming a sword-like finger, and pierced the throat of one of the men! The man's face instantly turned red, then bluish-purple, and with a "clang," his head slammed onto the plate, making a coughing sound like he was choking on blood.

……

"Don't just stand there, eat!"

After saying this, one of the men seemed to lose his mind from fright. He actually did as he was told, trembling as he picked up the fork, put the food in his mouth, and chewed mechanically.

Zhang Renfeng gave him a hearty laugh, "You really want to eat it?"

Chapter 150: I Don't Eat Beef

"Is that all?" Zhang Renfeng asked considerately, standing beside him. "How about I help you remember some more?"

"..."

Chilton's hands and feet were trembling. Although there was a fire burning in the stove, it felt as if he were standing naked in the freezing cold.

Without exception, all the people who came to the banquet were killed by him. Apart from a few screams before they died, they didn't even make a sound. Their necks were snapped, and they fell cleanly and neatly onto the table, even in similar positions.

After the killing, he leisurely took out paper and pen and asked Chilton to write everything down truthfully.

"Don't mess with me," he emphasized. "Just write down whatever's on your mind."

With his life hanging in the balance, Chilton naturally dared not lie. He had no idea what the other party knew, so to be on the safe side, he had to tell the whole truth. At first, his pen trembled, tearing several sheets of paper. But the more he wrote, the smoother it became. He laid out his service over the years, including how the mental hospital was built, how his employees were recruited, and who he had interacted with. It was less a confession and more a long list. Zhang Renfeng didn't rush him; he simply moved a chair over, sat beside him, and silently watched him.

Although I couldn't understand every word, just looking at this long list was shocking.

The number of people who had frequented this mental hospital was far greater than he had imagined, and most of them were of considerable status, at least holding a certain social standing in this town. Chilton's mental hospital was not just a brothel; it was more like a place for the reintegration of resources and connections. Like a complex spider web, it tangled and shrouded the town, wrapping up ordinary people and turning them into food.

One can imagine that if one of the more influential people secretly took a fancy to a girl, Chilton's henchmen would use all sorts of means to bring her back to the hospital. Once she stepped through that door, whether she was mentally ill or not was no longer up to her to decide.

“It’s all…it’s all here…everything I know, I’ve written down.” Chilton swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he put pen to paper. At least while he was writing, he could still keep his life. He sincerely hoped this letter would never be finished.

However, the moment finally arrived when, despite racking their brains, they couldn't squeeze out even a single ink dot.

Zhang Renfeng took the three full pages of confession and repentance, read them carefully, and nodded.

"I... feel incredibly ashamed of my actions... profit blinded me, I swear! In the beginning, I genuinely hoped to cure mental illness, which is why I opened this hospital. No one could have predicted what would happen later... but it wasn't just me, you'll see when you see it, others! There were others, they all got involved!"

"If you agree, I will immediately... take this letter and turn myself in to the police station! I am willing to reflect on my actions in prison and await legal punishment..."

"The law?" Zhang Renfeng rolled her eyes at him, then glanced at the corpses slumped on the seats, a half-smile on her face. "Are you serious?"

“…” Chilton stared blankly for a long while, his tone growing increasingly panicked. He quickly tried to cover it up, “No, no, I… I have a secret, a secret! You’re involved with the Shrike in Chaau, right? I can give you a clue!”

A fawning smile appeared on his face. "If I tell you, can I save my life?"

"boom--!!"

Zhang Renfeng pressed down on the back of his head and slammed his face hard against the table, immediately breaking his forehead and smearing his face with blood.

"Ahhhhhh!!"

“Say it again and I’ll rip your tongue out.”

He calmly delivered the threat that he could easily carry out, and the trick worked. Chilton immediately covered his mouth, forcibly swallowing his scream.

He demonstrated through his actions that Chilton had no right to negotiate with him. After catching his breath, he said, "Deer... antlers... antlers that can support a person's weight are hard to find! He must be a hunter, and a highly skilled one at that! In White Torch Town, the list of all hunters... is with the Hunter Management Association; they have the list!"

Zhang Renfeng found it amusing, thinking he was going to say something, but Igor had already analyzed this level of intelligence.

They just hadn't had time to investigate because of the mess at the mental hospital.

Thinking of this, he lowered his head slightly and finally glanced at Chilton, shifting from his previous sideways gaze.

"Let me go this time. I can... I can be your eyes and ears. The network of relationships in this town is very complicated. If you want to establish yourself here, you need someone to manage it for you... Me! I can be that person. I can contribute to your business!"

Perhaps realizing something from that look, Chilton covered his bleeding forehead and pleaded with all his might, his tone incredibly sincere, "I truly realize my mistake, please give me another chance, I also want to change and be a good person!"

Zhang Renfeng's gaze was devoid of joy or sorrow, devoid of any warmth, as if he were looking at a living person.

He knew very well that Chilton didn't think he was wrong; someone who could do something like that couldn't possibly think he was wrong.

He simply had a premonition that his death was not far off.

……

“Ha…” Zhang Renfeng shook his head, then suddenly said in a casual tone, “Perfect timing, I came here without having dinner tonight, I’m a little hungry.”

"Well... well..." Chilton was unsure what he was up to, but he pushed the food on the plate in front of him and smiled ingratiatingly, "If you don't mind, this plate hasn't been touched yet, please enjoy it."

"What is this?" Zhang Renfeng didn't even look at the food on the plate, but just stared at him intently.

“Um…chicken bean and beef rib pancakes?” Chilton asked, sounding quite confused.

"That's too unfortunate." Zhang Renfeng looked regretful, then suddenly pulled out the Volcano Pistol and pressed it against his head. "I don't eat beef."

"boom----!!"

Blood splattered.

A shrewd person who spends his whole life navigating the complexities of human nature, interests, and calculations ultimately dies for an utterly absurd reason.

His eyes bulged out, and in his last moments before dying, he almost watched his brains and blood fly out with a "thud" as he fell onto his plate, his mouth wide open.

The knife and fork were neatly arranged on both sides, as if he were being forced to eat himself.

In a sense, that is indeed the case—he was completely consumed by his own greed.

"Tsk..."

Zhang Renfeng looked around and felt a tightness in his chest, a sudden, inexplicable aversion rising within him. He didn't want to stay in the room a second longer, not even bothering to search for hidden money. He simply touched Chilton's pocket and found a Reutlinger pocket watch. On the train, Zhang Renfeng had lied to the robbers, saying he was carrying many antique watches, and this was the one he was referring to.

Unexpectedly, not long after, by a series of coincidences, the watch actually arrived in his hands.

He sighed, took out the wooden plaque representing the Red Center, placed it on top of Chilton's handwritten confession, and got up to leave.

Dark red blood overflowed the plate, trickling down in a steady stream.

Just as some of the evils Chilton committed during his lifetime have been permanently lost in the gaps between the floorboards.

Chapter 151: 25 People, 24 Tongues

"Mr. Koby, are you on duty again tonight?" The new recruit asked curiously, seeing him unusually hunched over his desk with a furrowed brow and a pile of documents on it. "The case at the mental hospital, didn't the sheriff say to put it on hold for now? Anyway, there's no warrant, so just seal the file away."

"..."

Koby's expression was strange; he raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Let me see, what's going on?" The new recruit was the legendary workaholic, even though he was known throughout the police station as a taciturn person. He dared to approach with a grin, and without the other person's permission, he picked up the document on the table and began to read. "Hmm... autopsy reports... wait, you finished the autopsies of 25 bodies in one afternoon?!"

Koby looked at him with a speechless expression, as if to say, "Isn't this just common sense?"

"As expected of the most senior forensic pathologist in this police station, he's really reliable." The newcomer didn't actually understand the technical terms in the forensic reports, but that didn't stop him from showering his colleague with emotional support, praising, "I can't see any problems."

“The reports are fine.” Koby snatched the reports and, as if he had OCD, slammed them neatly on the table before saying in a muffled voice, “The problem is with the bodies. There were 25 dead people, but when they retrieved the tongues, there were only 24.”

"What?" The newcomer was utterly bewildered. "You mean, Bruce took the tongue out?"

“No… the tongue can also be considered part of the victim’s identity, I’ve checked it several times.” Although it sounded like a hellish joke, Koby still said, “At least in the mental hospital, 25 people, 25 tongues, could be matched. It was only after the body was moved out and arrived at the police station that one tongue was missing.”

"The tongue of Chief Justice Ambrose has vanished without a trace, and we do not know where it has gone."

The newcomer frowned. "Wait a minute, something's not right. Putting aside who took it, how do you know this tongue is his? Weren't the dead and the tongue transported separately? I carried each of the corpses onto the cart one by one before bringing it over."

"Did you ever play with jigsaw puzzles when you were a kid?" Veteran police officers who've been in this line of work for a long time often seem to have that deadpan look in their eyes, just like Mike. Koby looked up and gave him a cold, indifferent glance. "Most of the parts of the human body fit together perfectly, and everyone's is different. Fingerprints, palm prints, earlobes, pupils... and the tongue."

"As a forensic doctor, piecing together a corpse is a basic skill."

The newcomer was speechless with astonishment: he spoke of it so casually, but piecing a tongue back together from a body and connecting 24 tongues to 24 bodies, then using a process of elimination to find the missing one, were two completely different things. If it were him, he probably wouldn't be able to figure out who was missing even after the corpse and tongue had rotted away.

"But what exactly happened?" Returning to the original question, the newcomer was still confused. "If you're going to steal, you should steal personal belongings. What would you do with a tongue?"

“There are some, aren’t there? Thieves who like to steal organs from people…” Kobyin narrowed his eyes and said meaningfully, “People think he’s left, but he hasn’t. He’s been lurking in this town, choosing his targets and waiting for his chance to strike.”

Having said all that, the newcomer wasn't stupid; he understood immediately. His playful expression froze, turning into one of extreme seriousness.

“Mr. Koby, you mean… the Australian shrike also visited that mental hospital? And he's the one who took the judge's tongue?!”

It was already late, and the once bustling police station lobby was now empty except for the two of them.

The lamplight cast flickering shadows on the wall, and the glass creaked and groaned in the silent night.

"I didn't say anything, newbie, don't misunderstand."

Koby shook his head, as conservative as ever, "It's just an immature conjecture after a forensic doctor has worked for most of the day. I don't have any evidence to support this conjecture."

"No, no, no! This conjecture makes a lot of sense, because... those tongues were also transferred as evidence, it's impossible for one to just disappear out of nowhere! It was still there when it was in the mental hospital, but now that it's here, one is missing for no reason, there must be something wrong here!"

The newcomer became excited, a thrill running through him from head to toe. Just like a police dog smelling blood, he sensed the scent of a major case being solved.

"After the mental hospital was sealed off, only the sheriff and a few people responsible for the on-site investigation came in. Sheriff Gordon was with Mayor Wendigo the whole time and didn't have time to take action, so let's rule him out for now... No way, Mr. Kirby! The Australian Shrike, could he be someone in the higher-ups at the police department?!"

Koby said nothing, as if he had condensed all his words into silence.

“But something’s strange…” the newcomer muttered to himself. “The victim wasn’t killed by the Osaurus shrike, and he didn’t hang the dead body on the antlers like he used to. He actually took the dead body’s tongue, which doesn’t sound like him at all.”

“Heh…unlike him…” Koby chuckled and said in a deep voice, “No one is constant, not even the Australian shrike. You always treat him as a madman who spends 24 hours a day figuring out how to kill people, but in fact, he probably has a proper job during the day, just like us.”

“When someone is under a lot of pressure, he goes hunting in the forest; when he is under a lot of pressure, he hunts between towns. To him, killing a person is no different from killing a sheep or a cow.”

"He may have recently encountered some setbacks. At work, in life, and even his shameful little hobby... Perhaps he tried to create the next victim, but ultimately failed for various reasons. These setbacks have upset him, so he is no longer as meticulous as before, and his actions have become casual, revealing his flaws."

"Humans are not like gears on a clock, able to keep moving precisely at a certain pace forever. The true nature of anyone will be revealed when the timeline is stretched out."

"The same goes for the Australian shrike."

“Mr. Kobyin…” The newcomer was amazed by the analytical skills of this hidden master of the police station, who was witnessing them for the first time. “Your analysis is so good that anyone who didn’t know better would think you were the Butcher Bird himself.”

……

Seeing his silence, the newcomer became a little scared and jokingly took two steps back, "You're not him, are you?"

"Heh..." Kobyin chuckled, a rare occurrence for him. "If that's the case, why don't you run?"

----

The clock tower is right in front of us, looking old and dilapidated, as if no one has visited it in a long time.

No one knows for sure who funded the construction of this clock tower or when it was built. In the memories of most of the old residents of Baiju Town, it has been there for a long time. Long ago, twice a day, at six o'clock in the morning and six o'clock in the evening, the melodious sound of the bell would ring out, echoing throughout the entire town.

Interestingly, since the Stasdorf family mansion burned down, the staircase leading up and down the bell tower has been blocked by broken wood, and it has never made a sound again. People have gradually gotten used to it, just like the church with its wind-blown sand, it has become part of the "scenery".

The garden beneath the clock tower has long since fallen into disrepair and is now overgrown with weeds and neglected.

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Renfeng dug a hole with his bare hands, buried the Reutlinger pocket watch he had taken from Chilton in the hole, and then filled it with soil.

Judging from the looseness of the soil, this piece of soil is frequently dug up and filled in.

That matches what the bandit said.

Chapter 152: The Crimson God's Trail

"Mr. Chilton, you're at home, aren't you? At this point, there's no point in resisting anymore. You are now suspected of twelve charges, including unlawful detention, attempted murder, and organizing a large-scale illegal transaction. You have been arrested in the name of the White Torch Police Department!"