288 A Group of Missing People

"Captain Quan! You have to see this!" Xiang Wan shouted loudly.

In that post, there were a couple of pictures.

Blood, corpses, frightening scenes…

There was no Bai Muchuan or any police officer in the pictures.

But there was a close-up of a bloodstained police officer badge—Tang Yuanchu.

The police officer in the picture had a handsome face with a smile, youthful and spirited.

But there was a splatter of blood near the corner of his lips in the picture. Blood was also on his eyebrow as well as shoulder—which was a big contrast against that smile of his.

Hence, online celebrity Detective Tang once again, made the headlines that day in a shocking manner. That became a hot topic for netizens to discuss.

There were not many pictures, they were basically close-up pictures.

But that was enough to describe the bloody scene at the Vulture's mouth.

Blood stimulated the nerves.

Quan Shaoteng's forehead furrowed into an agonized frown.

"Quick!

"Get them to speed up!

"How much longer?"

"…"

There were a lot of shouts at the scene.

Boom!

Finally, with the last boulder rolling down the cliff, the road was finally cleared.

Quan Shaoteng started the car quickly and kept pressing the horn.

"Faster!"

…

Time is life.

To save time is to save people.

The police fleet received orders and set off again.

Quan Shaoteng focused on driving while Cheng Zheng seemed to be analyzing the post that Xiang Wan forwarded, but did not comment on it.

On the other hand, Cheng Xin dutifully sent the link of the post to the chat group of "Serious Crime Division One" to let the intelligence team follow up with the investigation.

This time, the speed of the fleet was very fast.

The atmosphere inside the car was heavier now.

The picture that told of a possibility of Tang Yuanchu being hurt was so shocking that no one could pretend that nothing had happened.

At the moment, they were unable to communicate with any one of them at Vulture's Mouth.

That meant that nobody knew what was the situation over there.

The situation seemed really bizarre. Captain Zhang and his team of seven who rode on motorbikes and went on ahead, were able to keep in touch with them previously before they entered Vulture's Mouth. Currently, they had lost contact with them as well.

Vulture's Mouth seemed to have become a forbidden area.

Vulture's Mouth seemed to represent horror.

…

Xiang Wan sat at the front passenger seat and looked at the mountains.

Her window was open.

The cold winds came in like knives.

Her face was actually stiff and her body was numb. Yet her senses were as though not functioning as she seemed to not feel anything.

"Hey, can you close the window?"

Cheng Xin's dissatisfied voice came from behind her.

"It's very cold!"

Nanmu in December could make one feel a little chilling at the bone.

Xiang Wan came out of her thoughts and gave her an apologetic look. "I forgot."

Ever since she saw that post, she felt ill at ease. How would she remember to close her window?

As she spoke, she reached to press the button, but her hand was so stiff and weak that she did not manage to roll down the window even after pressing it several times—

Quan Shaoteng was driving the car and did not pay attention to that. Cheng Zheng's line of sight quietly fell on her hand.

He took the scarf off his neck and handed it to her.

"Wrap this around your neck."

She was frozen stiff and needed some warmth.

But at this moment, Xiang Wan looked at Cheng Zheng's face. She did not want to accept his concern.

"I'm not cold, thank you!"

Cheng Zheng narrowed his eyes. "You need it."

"I… don't need it."

"Pale skin, blue and purple colored lips, decreased sensation—you already have superficial frostbites on your skin… If you don't keep warm, you will suffer from poor blood circulation. Your heart and breathing will accelerate, your blood pressure will go up… and, your skin will have varying degrees of tissue death. Don't you girls care for your beauty?"

He mentioned so many medical consequences yet it was not as lethal as his last sentence.

Before coming here, Xiang Wan had failed to consider the difference in temperature between the city and the mountainous regions. Her clothes were not thin but certainly not warm enough.

She took the scarf without saying another word and wrapped it around her neck, sitting on her seat quietly.

The scarf still carried Cheng Zheng's warmth, which she felt weird.

But Xiang Wan was not concerned about this now.

Her heart was already at Vulture's Mouth.

Her sixth sense told her that there was a big conspiracy at Vulture's Mouth.

The mastermind of the 121 case was definitely not Brother Steel.

Rather, Brother Steel was just like them, he was but a pawn in the hands of that manipulator.

That person—he had planned something very big, like the strategy board game—Go. If the police were the white pieces, Brother Steel would be one of the black pieces. As they pit themselves against each other, the one who was moving these pieces was most certainly smiling. He was waiting to see the results and get the pleasure he wanted from all these.

"You must believe in Little Bai!"

Quan Shaoteng had said this sentence more than once.

Xiang Wan was willing to believe in Bai Muchuan as well.

However, he was only a human, not a god.

As long as one was a human, one would be made of flesh and blood and would die one day.

Even the most meticulous plans would have a weakness.

In the face of life and death, there could only be two outcomes…

…

Before they arrived at Vulture's Mouth, they received a piece of news.

The police had found the person who made that post.

It was posted by a villager from a village near Vulture's Mouth. He expressed that he had heard the gunshots and secretly gone to take a look where he found that Vulture's mouth was in a huge mess after a shootout took place.

He also expressed that he did not see anyone alive. All he saw were corpses.

…

There was no one alive.

What about Bai Muchuan, Tang Yuanchu, and the others…?

Xiang Wan felt her heart was as if being squeezed tightly.

…

Another 10 minutes later, their car arrived at Vulture's Mouth, Brother Steel's villa.

Xiang Wan saw a lot of police officers there, as well as Meng Chi and his assistants who also followed the police there.

She also found out that the situation at Vulture's Mouth was exactly what the post had said…

Besides the thick smell of blood and the corpses of the Dark Clan members, they did not see anyone else.

It was a really brutal scene!

It was too horrifying!

But what was more puzzling was—where were the rest of the people?

Did they disappear into thin air? Or they got caught and was brought somewhere else?

…

Xiang Wan's heart was as if sank to the bottom of a valley.

Vulture's Mouth was now a quiet slaughterhouse in her eyes.

The one who sent her Yuanyuan's pictures to threaten her did not contact her as well.

The group of people almost turned the villa upside down but was still unable to get a clue.

These unexpected incidents came after one another!

Everyone felt uneasy and anxious as the missing persons could not be found.

Moreover, as these people had come from various units, they were disorganized like a heap of sand.

"We must quickly form the search and rescue teams immediately!"

"Where are the police dogs? Hurry up and search!"

They contacted and reported to their respective superiors and got approval very quickly.

The Nanmu police and Serious Crime Division One formed a temporary search and rescue command post to deal with the situation.

Brother Steel's villa at Vulture's Mouth became the police's temporary office.

The higher authorities appointed Operations Captain Quan Shaoteng of Serious Crime Division One as their overall in-charge and would be fully responsible for the search and rescue work. The Nanmu police station's Vice Commissioner, Hassan, would assist Captain Quan as the vice in-charge. He would be responsible for the coordination of manpower, logistics, and other support work.

After the tasks were assigned, the various teams were able to work more effectively.

They did a count of the dead bodies as well as verification of their identities.

Of course, their main task would be to search for those who had gone missing at Vulture's Mouth—

…

After the hierarchies were settled, the confusing situation was now alleviated.

In the vicinity of the Vulture's Mouth, almost all of the remaining members of the Dark Clan had left the area.

The police tried to locate the locals who stayed there in the vicinity to find out more about what happened.

However, little had been achieved.

The villager who took the pictures and posted onto the Internet was actually the closest to Vulture's Mouth—He traveled about a distance of more than 10 miles.

The area there was extremely quiet. The members of the Dark Clan were very active there. The Vulture's Mouth was almost a forbidden area to civilians as it had become a nightmare to the local people.

So at that time, nobody knew what happened.

After an on-site investigation done by Quan Shaoteng and several others, they were able to ascertain that a shootout and explosions had taken place.

But they searched the vicinity and could not find any traces that these people had left—

At the same time, there was only a main road.

When they came, the road was previously blocked.

The police had already set up roadblocks on the road to the mountains and the road out of the mountains in accordance to what Bai Muchuan had requested.

However, the jeep that Bai Muchuan mentioned did not appear, no cars had gone out as well.

That also meant that Bai Muchuan, Brother Steel and their men had vanished out of thin air in Vulture's Mouth?

…