Chapter 94

It was past two in the morning, and all of the accomplices were already dead. Who would call the gang leader at this hour?

He walked to the car, gently took the phone from the other's pocket, and pressed the call button.

The number displayed as "Unknown Caller."

From start to finish, Qingchen used his other hand to cover the phone's camera, preventing anyone from taking a picture of his face, even though he was still masked.

On the other end of the line, the caller did not speak, seemingly waiting for the gang leader to speak first.

However, Qingchen remained silent as well.

The person on the other end realized this and chuckled, "They're already dead, right?"

Qingchen did not respond.

The voice on the phone continued to laugh, "Since they're already dead, why don't we chat a bit?"

Qingchen did not linger. He used the gang leader's windbreaker to wipe off the fingerprints on the phone, then imprinted the gang leader's fingerprints on it and placed it back in the windbreaker before slowly walking into the night.

He thought to himself, these were just seven gang members who couldn't even afford synthetic skin, yet they had almost cost him half his life.

It was only at this moment that Qingchen suddenly realized that his extraordinary life had just begun.

...

The fire on Laojun Mountain was brought under control by dawn, leaving the entire street of guesthouses charred and desolate.

Some tourists were crying in the street, while others were squatting by the roadside, looking dazed.

Seven black SUVs sped up the mountain. They briefly stopped at the scene of the car accident on the mountain road, then left a group of people to conduct a detailed search while the others continued up the mountain.

Lu Yuan arrived at the entrance of the Cloud Inn, looking at the charred building, lost in thought.

In front of him were the bodies of two Kunlun members, and nearby were the bodies of the gang leader and his men.

Lu Yuan resisted the urge to look at his fallen comrades and instead squatted down to perform a preliminary autopsy on the gang members.

"There were a total of eight gang members. The one on the mountain road was the mastermind. He was hit in the spleen during his escape. We found the footprints of the others on the mountain, but it's a bit puzzling that the killer didn't seem to be wearing shoes."

"We found bloody footprints on the ground, and the blood samples have been taken for DNA analysis."

"Near the inn, there were seven gang members. One in the parking lot had his knees crushed but was still alive. The killer clearly had the ability to kill him but didn't, as if he was intentionally left for us to interrogate."

"The other six gang members, two of their bodies were badly burned by the fire, one was shot, and the remaining three were all stabbed in the spleen with extreme precision, likely by a professional killer."

"Captain Lu, some students said that Ban Shou and Shan Zha helped open the door before they died. Otherwise, over forty students wouldn't have been able to escape... They didn't disgrace Kunlun."

Lu Yuan listened silently to his subordinate's report. A mountain breeze blew, and his nose suddenly felt a sting.

The wind howled, carrying away the ashes from the burned buildings.

Lu Yuan wiped his nose; now was not the time for sentimentality.

He squatted down to examine the wounds on the gang members and the locations where the bodies were found, as marked by his subordinates.

The first body was found next to the Cloud Inn, but that was not the crime scene.

Kunlun members found bloodstains and drag marks on the road outside the inn.

Lu Yuan said calmly, "It seems someone killed him on the road under the cover of darkness and then dragged him to the neighboring yard. The fire burned the building but didn't spread to the yard."

As Lu Yuan examined the wounds on the gang members, he became increasingly astonished.

His subordinate's analysis was spot on; all the gang members were killed with a single, fatal blow.

Whether the knife was inserted from the back or the front, the tip always accurately pierced the spleen.

"Strange, why only the spleen?" Lu Yuan was puzzled. "Is there some special preference or habit?"

Following the locations marked by his subordinate, he walked to the back of the yard.

This was likely the second crime scene, where the killer disposed of the second gang member before entering the yard.

Lu Yuan asked, "How are the students?"

His subordinate replied, "Three are seriously injured. Two, Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen, were hit in the abdomen by the gang members. Fortunately, they only hit their intestines, and they are being taken down the mountain for surgery; they will survive."

His subordinate continued, "Another student named Wang Yun was injured in a peculiar way. She said a masked gang member shot her in both legs. She was dragged out of the inn by a student named Nan Gengchen, or she would have burned to death inside."

Lu Yuan frowned, "Masked?"

"Yes," his subordinate nodded, "I suspect this wasn't a gang member but the person who killed them."

"Without a doubt, it's him. And pay attention to this Wang Yun; she's suspicious. The person who helped us kill the gang members wouldn't have shot her for no reason," Lu Yuan said. "By the way, why was Nan Gengchen inside the inn?"

"Apparently, he was dragged into the inn by the gang members to commit the crime," his subordinate explained, "but he looked neat and tidy, as if nothing had happened."

"In that case, he must have seen the killer. Perhaps the killer saved him as a side note," Lu Yuan analyzed. "Did you get any information from him?"

His subordinate replied, "He said the killer was about 176 cm tall, barefoot, with slight crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, and looked to be in his thirties."

Lu Yuan nodded, "For now, let's search within this range. Nan Gengchen is the first eyewitness, and his testimony is the most reliable."

Everyone returned to the front entrance where the bodies were laid out.

Lu Yuan looked at the desolate street, deep in thought. Seven out of eight gang members were dead, one was shot, one was kneeling in the parking lot, and one was killed by a Kunlun teammate.

The remaining four died from ruptured spleens, meaning the killer struck four times and succeeded each time.

This person was extremely dangerous, but Lu Yuan suddenly didn't want to pursue the investigation further because this person had avenged his teammates.

On the way to track down the killer, the Kunlun team found countless bloody footprints. It was hard to imagine the willpower and determination the killer must have had to kill the gang members one by one.

Lu Yuan glanced at the other bodies and noticed a detail: "Only the gang member at the entrance was missing a walkie-talkie. He must have been the first to die... No other walkie-talkies were found at the scene, so the missing walkie-talkie is likely still with the killer."

In the next moment, Lu Yuan picked up another gang member's walkie-talkie, took a deep breath, and pressed the call button: "Hello, I'm Lu Yuan from Kunlun."

However, no one answered him in the mountain wind.

...

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