After the wildfire broke out, the government responded quite quickly. In fact, due to the recent Ghostly Ancient Tomb incident, there had been patrols and vigilance around Lanqiong Mountain. As soon as the fire was detected, a group of firefighters promptly put it out.
However, as soon as they entered the mountains with their firefighting equipment, they realized something was wrong.
The fire was much weaker than expected; only a small portion of the towering flames were real fire, while the rest were mere Phantom devoid of heat.
The fire department discovered an unfamiliar village in the brightest part of the fire. The inhabitants were all locals, and it was absolutely certain that there had never been a village here before!
Two-thirds of the buildings in this strange village had been destroyed, not by fire, but by something that had completely corroded them.
The village was deserted, seemingly an abandoned village, but upon closer inspection, one could see signs of recent human activity.
Where have all the villagers gone?
The unexpected situation at the scene had a strange and unpredictable feel to it, completely exceeding the expectations of the firefighters. However, they didn't think too much about it; putting out the wildfire was the more important thing. Since the fire was not large, it was brought under control overnight.
During their further search of the unfamiliar small mountain village, they discovered something even more horrifying and immediately notified the criminal investigation department.
The next day, before dawn, the police arrived at the scene.
"The wildfire was extinguished so quickly?" A detective surnamed Zhou asked with surprise. "I thought the fire was huge last night; it turned half the sky red."
"This is a good thing, why are you making such a fuss?" Female detective Lin honked her horn, and the vehicles on the road swerved to make way for them before they could drive up.
"It's the criminal investigation team! You've finally arrived!" The fire brigade captain hurriedly stepped forward to greet them.
"Sorry, we were stuck in traffic and are a little late," Detective Lin said apologetically.
"It's alright." The fire chief shook his head. No matter how late they arrived, it wasn't his responsibility, so of course he wasn't in a hurry.
"When we were searching this village for fire victims, we discovered something unusual. Please come with me." The fire chief led the detectives to the other side of the village.
As the detective walked, he observed the surroundings. The unfamiliar village was in a state of disarray, with most of the buildings corroded into ruins, but there were no signs of fire.
The group arrived at the ruins of an old house, where a police cordon had already been set up. Seeing the stiff expressions on the faces of the firefighters, the detective's heart skipped a beat.
The fire chief said in a low voice, "We've found many bodies, most of them badly mutilated, and we can't identify them yet."
Detective Lin was taken aback by this situation and quickly asked, "Was the deceased a local villager?"
"It's impossible to be sure, and the village itself is very strange," the fire chief said.
"I checked before, there's no record of this village at all, it's like it just appeared out of thin air," Detective Zhou added from the side.
That's strange.
"When the fire broke out, the forest rangers did not contact the fire department, and we still haven't found the rangers," the fire chief added.
Detective Lin asked, "Is there any way to identify the deceased?"
"Not yet. These bodies are too badly mutilated. We need to wait for the Technical Department staff to examine them." Detective Zhou slowly squatted down, looking at the corpses with a strange expression.
"Strange, they all have marks indicating they were bound and restrained, and their heads are all shattered..."
This made Detective Lin raise an eyebrow. "This is probably no ordinary case."
Detective Zhou gave a wry smile. "More than twenty gruesome corpses in a mountain village not on record... Could this case be related to the Supernatural?"
He lit a cigarette, puffing out smoke, and recalled a Supernatural murder case he had come across by chance before. It was a rather gruesome case, and also an unsolved case. It happened in a high school, where many students committed mass suicide by jumping off buildings. The police investigated and found that the first victim jumped off a building because of school bullying, and the subsequent jumpers were all people who participated in the bullying.
The case was eventually transferred to a special department, and the only explanation given was that the student was under too much academic pressure, but the specific details were left vague.
After a lengthy on-site investigation, the police took all the key items back to the police station. Detective Zhou took a sip of strong tea; he looked somewhat haggard, with dry skin and dark circles under his eyes.
"We've made a new discovery!" Detective Lin burst through the door.
Detective Zhou placed his teacup on the table, looking on with envy. Young people just have so much energy.
Detective Lin plopped down in a chair, holding a document in his hand, and handed it to Detective Zhou for review.
"The search of the crime scene is ongoing. After careful examination, police discovered some everyday items that the villagers no longer need."
"Huh?" Detective Zhou looked up.
"We found tents, solid alcohol, backpacks, and other camping supplies in one room. Clearly, locals wouldn't need these things," Detective Lin said calmly. "The deceased were most likely tourists. I plan to follow these leads to investigate missing persons cases in nearby tourist areas."
Upon hearing this, Detective Zhou's face immediately darkened. In the current situation, he subconsciously connected the village to a criminal den, where people grew opium, trafficked in people or organs, and the village was discovered by outsiders due to a wildfire, so they killed people to cover it up and moved their hideout.
His guesses are all unreliable and lack sufficient evidence. However, if his guesses can be confirmed, it will definitely be a sensational case!
Besides the unknown deaths in the mountain village, the wildfire itself was also very strange. Information about the wildfire has been blocked, and traffic near Lanqiong Mountain has been restricted. In addition, as required by the authorities, the media has kept completely silent.
The recent missing persons cases in the area surrounding Lanqiong Mountain are not difficult to investigate.
"First, there's a young woman named Ning Yun, who is suspected of mysteriously disappearing within Lanqiong Mountain," Detective Lin said slowly. "There's also a couple, the man named Song Ting'an and the woman named Xue Qiang. They were both reporters, and they never returned after entering the mountain."
"Secondly, there was an archaeological team investigating a tomb nearby, led by a professor surnamed Zhang. However, this team has been out of contact for several days. In addition, there were some tourists who went into the mountains and never returned."
Detective Lin grew increasingly angry as he spoke, slamming the files heavily on the table. "The sheer number of missing persons cases is staggering! What's most alarming is that the police are simply not taking this seriously enough!"
Detective Zhou sighed. Missing persons cases are more difficult to handle than murder cases, and with limited police resources, missing persons cases naturally don't receive much attention.
"This is really a headache." Unlike Detective Lin, Detective Zhou was not filled with righteous indignation; he was simply saddened that he had encountered such a major case during his tenure.
"So many people have gone missing one after another, and not a single word was leaked." Detective Lin couldn't let it go; this was a major dereliction of duty by the police.
"There's nothing we can do about it. You see, a significant number of missing persons cases involve people disappearing for several days and then returning on their own. The police can only open a case first, send people to investigate, and if there are still no leads and the person remains out of contact, then the police will choose to follow up with an investigation." Detective Zhou worked his way up from the bottom, and he was well aware of the shortage of manpower and the average professional skills among the grassroots police, which is why he said this.
"It's all about shirking responsibility! If the police don't stand up for the people, they might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes! This kind of behavior that disregards duty and ignores the safety of people's lives and property definitely deserves a major demerit!" Detective Lin was still indignant.
Detective Zhou gave a helpless, bitter smile. The police usually don't take missing persons cases seriously, or even bother to investigate them. Normally, there's no problem, but once it's linked to some major event, things can get messy. A major demerit is the least of your worries.
Looking at Detective Lin's expression, Old Zhou chuckled inwardly. Many young police officers are like that; they can't stand the slightest bit of nonsense.
"The most suspicious place right now is a guesthouse called 'Yizhuang,' where the archaeological team and the two journalists among the Yizhuang people stayed." Detective Lin's eyes flashed with a sharp light as he said in a deep voice, "Perhaps these two groups disappeared at the same time."
"Yizhuang must be investigated, and all those responsible must be detained." Detective Zhou looked very serious. The situation was very complicated. Now that all the clues in the missing person case were connected, it could create a rather sensational situation with far-reaching implications.
He had barely finished issuing the order over the phone when he received a reply in less than half a minute, "All employees of Yizhuang, including the boss himself, have vanished without a trace."
"Are you kidding me?" Old Zhou and Xiao Lin looked at each other, their expressions filled with surprise and uncertainty.
"I'm not kidding, they just suddenly disappeared. According to the investigation, when the wildfire broke out last night, the owner said he was afraid of being burned by the fire, so he evacuated all the guests. Today, the place is completely empty."
"Another point is that Yizhuang has only been open for a little over a month, and many of the procedures are not yet complete..."
Upon hearing this, Detective Zhou felt a chill run down his spine.
Thump--
There was a knock on the door, and a police officer announced, "Get to the meeting room immediately!"
In the conference room, the leader presiding over the meeting spoke with a grim face, "To make a long story short, colleagues from the fire department and special police were conducting post-fire cleanup and search and rescue operations on the nearby mountains when this accident just happened. Two people died in the line of duty, five are seriously injured and require emergency treatment, and ten others sustained minor injuries. We still cannot determine what attacked them..."
Old Zhou and Xiao Lin gasped, and the others realized that the situation was getting worse.
Could there be a group of armed bandits hiding in the mountains?
There were no ruthless bandits, but the situation was extremely dangerous. An indistinct black shadow attacked the crowd at incredible speed. It was impossible to see what the attacker was.
The leader briefly explained the situation, but halfway through his explanation, the meeting room door was violently pushed open, and someone barged in.
No one present could believe that someone would be so bold.
"Who are you?" The leader stood up, his face contorted with rage, like a raging lion, exuding both fury and authority. This was police territory; who dared to barge in without a word? As the leader, he was naturally furious.
The uninvited guests were not alone, but a group, led by a very young man who looked like a high school student. His face was calm and indifferent as he directly produced a document. "Hello, I am He Ming, from the National Supernatural Phenomena Control Bureau. This is my identification. From now on, all cases around Lanqiong Mountain are under our jurisdiction. All irrelevant personnel may leave."
His words were quite impolite, and the people in the conference room were initially furious, but they weren't fools. Anyone who dared to be so arrogant in this kind of setting must have an extraordinary background.
The atmosphere grew increasingly strange.
He Ming continued, "Although it may be somewhat rude, this is an order from above. Comrades present, I expect you to cooperate unconditionally. Those whose names I call later, please stay; everyone else, please leave."
Without waiting for anyone's reaction, he started talking to himself and did indeed read out a few names.
"That's all. Everyone else, please leave this meeting room immediately." He Ming said this for the third time, and those whose names weren't called looked at each other, hesitated for a moment, and finally got up and left one after another.
After the unrelated personnel left, He Ming was slightly satisfied and said, "I know you have many questions, but because this involves a Supernatural event, it must be kept confidential. Please cooperate with our operation from now on. No information about this operation can be disclosed to the outside world, otherwise you will be held responsible!"
No one objected.
"Now, immediately mobilize the local armed police forces to implement road control. Centered on Lanqiong Mountain, completely blockade the area within a radius of 100 kilometers, prohibiting anyone from entering..." He Ming issued his first order.
Locking down such a large area? Are you kidding me?
Clearly not a joke, He Ming calmly explained, "This is not a drill. The upcoming operation is a crucial battle concerning social order and public safety, and absolutely no mistakes can be tolerated!"
In the following period, He Ming would listen to or make a call to a hotline every five or six minutes on average to communicate with various organizations.
The conference room seemed to have turned into a temporary command post. It was a surreal scene, considering how young He Ming looked, yet he possessed the demeanor of a great general and acted with composure, a stark contrast to his appearance.
As the various departments worked together, everyone who had been seen near Lanqiong Mountain recently was investigated and identified, except for two people— Xiao Yu and Yin Wenxian.
Their traces were concealed by Supernatural forces. At this moment, the two who escaped from Lanqiong Mountain were sitting side by side in a food stall. Xiao Yu, who had been seriously injured, had now fully healed. A cold-faced stranger sat opposite them.
Xiao Yu and Yin Wenxian were visibly nervous, after all, the man in front of them was their boss, Queen of Spades!