The hover car switched to autopilot and flew to Hump Island along the northwest coast.
Xia Fan was tired of looking at the scenery outside the window, so he turned around and stared at Chu Yan.
Xia Fan had spent his entire childhood on the desolate Mausoleum Star, so he had never seen a young woman before.
The youngest woman on the Mausoleum Star was the Female Dancer, but in reality, the Female Dancer only looked pretty. Thanks to cultivation and advanced technology, the Female Dancer was actually more than 100 years old. No matter how well she took care of herself, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes could not be hidden. Chu Yan, on the other hand, was only in her early twenties. Her skin was clean and delicate, and she had the vitality of a young woman.
Her chestnut-colored hair fell over her shoulders. Chu Yan was holding a tablet computer and working hard.
Actually, with her beauty, she could have made a living with her face, but in the end, she ended up as an investigator of the highly dangerous Special Task Force. Other than her beauty, Xia Fan admired the valiance of a female warrior.
"The results are out." Chu Yan raised her head and looked Xia Fan in the eye. "None of the permanent residents of Hump Island participated in the summer auction four years ago."
Xia Fan nodded. "That means the suspect is probably not a native of Hump Island, but a temporary resident like a tourist."
Chu Yan frowned. "Why do you think the suspect is after the sapphire necklace? If he just wanted the necklace, he could have used thousands of methods to get it. Why would he kill so many innocent children and remove their organs? "
"You have to know that this kind of complicated killing will take up a lot of time. The longer he stays at the crime scene, the easier it will be for him to be discovered, right?"
Xia Fan was noncommittal. "I don't think so. Removing the organs and putting them back together will have a huge impact on the investigation. The police's attention will be attracted by the criminal's cruel method of killing people, and they will ignore the essence of the matter."
"Grandpa Hunter once told me a story. There's a type of monkey called the Snow Ape. It's very difficult to catch them because they're too smart. If you want to catch a Snow Ape, you'll have to catch one first. Then, you'll have to create the illusion that the Snow Ape was bitten to death by a ferocious beast and use it as bait near the Snow Ape's habitat."
"When the Snow Apes see their companions killed, they will become very angry. They will fight with the beasts that live around them to find the murderer of their companions. At this time, we can take advantage of the distraction of the Snow Apes to capture the real target, the Snow Ape Queen. Once the Queen is captured, no matter how smart the Snow Apes are, they will be forced to surrender. The whole tribe of Snow Apes can be captured without any effort."
"In any case, in the field of hunting, the most important thing is to study your opponent's habits and then deceive them. I believe the murderer was thinking the same way. Seeing such a cruel massacre, the police were completely enraged, thinking that the murderer was a psychopath. However, I feel that not only was the murderer not a psychopath, but he was also very calm and intelligent. The reason he was so cruel was to divert attention."
Chu Yan did not say anything. Xia Fan's way of thinking was always different from hers. She had already experienced this a long time ago. As for the grandfather and grandmother that he mentioned, Chu Yan was even more used to it. After all, Xia Fan had said that he grew up in a big family.
After a long journey, Camel Island appeared at the far end of the coastline.
It was a large island with an area of 1,400 square kilometers. It had a resident population of hundreds of thousands.
On the island, there was a mountain that looked like a camel's peak. That was how the island got its name.
The hover car stopped at the foot of the mountain. After Xia Fan alighted, he first looked around. Then, he curled his tongue up and emitted ultra-high-frequency sound waves to summon the beasts in the mountain. Before coming to Camel Island, he had bought two big bags of food, probably for the beasts.
Not long after, Xia Fan was surrounded by hundreds of beasts, big and small. Among them was a group of terrifying-looking mountain jackals. These jackals moved in groups, liked to eat rotten food, and had a ferocious nature. However, under Xia Fan's control, the jackals were as obedient as pugs.
What was even more surprising was that besides the jackals, there were also wild rabbits around Xia Fan. The jackals did not attack the wild rabbits even though the food was right in front of them. As for the mice, bobcats, short-tailed apes, and other small animals, they were very obedient to Xia Fan.
Xia Fan sat on a rock and distributed the food to the summoned beasts. The beasts were like a big family, living together in harmony and eating the food that Xia Fan brought.
Xia Fan smiled. Not only did he ask the animals questions, but he also joked with them. He asked about their living conditions in the mountain, whether they could hide from the hunters, and whether they would starve in the winter.
Sigh …
Chu Yan shook her head and sighed softly.
Xia Fan was truly an oddity to be able to communicate with a group of animals like this. A venomous coral snake even wrapped itself around Xia Fan's neck like a scarf, but Xia Fan was not afraid at all. He simply said that the snake tickled him.
After a while, Xia Fan asked the animals to disperse, leaving only a gray short-tailed ape. The ape jumped onto Xia Fan's shoulder, holding a handful of roasted peanuts in its hands.
"I've found out. Four years ago in the summer, there were three strange people living on the mountain, but the animals said that they went down into the bottomless bat cave and never came out again," Xia Fan said to Chu Yan with a smile.
Chu Yan nodded. "Why don't we inform the police and start a large-scale search?"
Xia Fan waved his hand. "No need. It was four years ago. I don't know where they are now. Let's go to the bat cave and see if we can find any clues."
"Okay." Chu Yan thought about it and nodded.
.....
The short-tailed ape led Xia Fan and Chu Yan to the mountainside of Camel Peak.
Here, the rock wall suddenly split open, forming a crack. The crack was very narrow, and it could only fit one person. It was dark inside, and no one knew where it led to.
The short-tailed ape showed a look of fear and refused to go in. Xia Fan had to let go of him and gave him the last of the food. Then, the ape dragged a non-woven shopping bag and returned to the jungle.
Xia Fan sniffed hard and shrugged. "The smell is too mixed. It's full of bat feces. I can't find any traces from four years ago. If you're not afraid, let's go in and take a look."
"But I need to make it clear that I can't control the bats here. At most, I can make them lie quietly and not attack us."
"I thought you could control all kinds of animals." Chu Yan seemed to have discovered a new continent. She was surprised that Xia Fan could not control bats.
Xia Fan said helplessly, "I only know some beast-taming skills. It's not like I have superpowers. There are many creatures in the world that I can't control. It's nothing strange."
The vehicles of the Special Task Force all carried survival kits and medical kits, and Chu Yan had brought these with her when she went up the mountain. She took out two head-mounted spotlights and attached them to her head, then the two of them walked into the crevice.
After walking for about a kilometer, the front suddenly opened up. The crack in the rock expanded here, forming a huge cave.
Looking up with the headlights, they saw countless black things hanging at the top of the cave. They were bats, and there were tens of thousands of them. Xia Fan was whistling to calm them down, so the bats did not get agitated.
The road under their feet was very soft because of the accumulation of an astonishing amount of bat droppings. There were many large and small insects that lived on the droppings. There were also many snakes that would hide in the crevices of the rock walls, looking for opportunities to attack the bats. Every time they caught a bat, the snakes would not starve for a month.
There was no doubt that the cave was a dark and disgusting ecosystem. It was no wonder that the monkeys refused to enter the cave. They were probably afraid of the bats and snakes.
Chu Yan's face was already pale, but she still followed Xia Fan's footsteps without saying a word. Xia Fan found a snake to lead the way. There were fewer feces and insects along the way, but the pungent smell still made Chu Yan feel pressured.
Finally, Xia Fan and Chu Yan walked past the bat habitat. The road ahead became narrow again, allowing two people to walk side by side. The height was so low that adults had to lower their heads.
There, Xia Fan and Chu Yan saw traces of people living here.
The people who lived here built a thin alloy net to prevent the insects and snakes from entering the bat habitat. The net separated the cave into two parts.
Bang!
Xia Fan kicked the alloy net away, lowered his head slightly, and crawled in.
"Look, there used to be a bonfire here." Xia Fan pointed at the ashes of the wood under his feet and said, "From the accumulation of ashes, I'm afraid they lived here for half a month. There are empty cans, portable gas stoves, vacuum food packaging, and empty mineral water bottles."
"Why would people live in a place like this?" Chu Yan asked with dissatisfaction.
"I'm not sure, but they must have something important to do. That's why they had the motivation to persevere in such a harsh place," Xia Fan answered.
There was a pile of empty cans in the corner. Xia Fan picked one up and shone the spotlight on it. "Sure enough, a small flying fish marinated in lemon juice. It smells really strong."
Xia Fan said as he handed the empty bottle to Chu Yan. She looked at it and threw it away.
Xia Fan turned around and looked at the alloy net that he had kicked and said, "Things are getting more and more interesting. The net is still there, which means the three didn't leave the way they came. They went deeper into the cave."
"The animals told me that no one knows how deep this cave is. It's been four years, so there must be another way out. After the three went deeper, they left from another exit. Let's go down and take a look."
Chu Yan frowned and nodded.
Then, the two of them continued down the cave. The cave was sometimes wide and sometimes narrow. At the narrowest part, they had to use both hands to hold the ground and crawl like animals. The deeper they went, the more humid, cold, and dark the cave became. The echoes in the silence made their hair stand on end.
Suddenly …
Xia Fan stopped and picked up something from the ground. He looked at it and handed it to Chu Yan.
"It's a button!" Chu Yan looked at the thing in her hand and said, "It's a pearl button. It's so small. It should be from a child's clothes."
Xia Fan nodded. "Maybe we're close to the truth now, but there's one thing I don't understand. Since we entered the cave, we've moved about 17.32 kilometers. According to the average slope of the cave, we should be at least three kilometers below sea level. How did the suspects who entered before us leave?"
Chu Yan also thought it was strange. "Could it be that this cave leads to the mainland or other islands?"
Xia Fan touched his chin. "The nearest land to Hump Island is 134 kilometers, and the nearest island is 229 kilometers. The possibility is low."
Chu Yan didn't say anything this time. Xia Fan had only looked at the map once, and he had memorized the surroundings of Hump Island. Considering that he had a photographic memory, it was normal.
The only question was, why did the three suspects go so deep into the cave? Did they go so deep before or after they attacked the children?
Either way, Xia Fan and Chu Yan found it unbelievable. The suspects' behavior was beyond their understanding. They killed a group of children in cold blood and then went into a place like this. What was their purpose?
"No matter what, let's keep going," Chu Yan said to Xia Fan, mustering up her courage.
Perhaps because he felt something was wrong, Xia Fan began to speed up. Chu Yan was also a well-trained superpower user. Although she didn't have a speed ability, she could still keep up with Xia Fan.
About an hour later, the path ahead gradually widened, and the ground became flatter.
Suddenly …
Xia Fan stopped again and used the spotlights to illuminate the wall. He asked Chu Yan, who was behind him, "If I remember correctly, Hump Island was formed by a volcanic eruption. It only has a history of about two thousand years."
"That's right," Chu Yan answered, glancing at the information on the tablet.
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