Chapter 311 The Guide

The scene before me was so horrific that the people we had been keeping like animals earlier seemed almost fortunate in comparison. In this room were a few mutilated bodies, barely resembling whole humans. Some were missing hands, others had lost feet. Some were stripped of entire organs. One young, striking girl was completely bald. Where had her hair gone?

I’d learned of people with bizarre obsessions—those who desired particular body parts. “What happened to their… parts?” My voice shook with the effort to stay calm.

“They were sold,” Nelson answered in a cold tone. “This is a massive underground operation. It’s insane!” The disgust inside me boiled over.

“It’s worse than you think,” Nelson said, his voice low and heavy. Looking at the disfigured bodies made me feel physically ill, but there was also a deep sense of sorrow.

Nelson guided me into another room. The air felt thick and oppressive, a darkness that weighed heavily upon you. Inside, the walls were lined with strange models—skeletons, sculptures, and even some wooden carvings. In the glass cases, I could see jewelry, containers, and bracelets made from human bones.

“What kind of people are these? What have they done?” I whispered, horrified.

Nelson pointed to a delicate, small drum. “That’s a skin drum. It’s made from a woman’s skin.” He then motioned to a bracelet. “This is a kapala. It’s made from human bones.” Next, he pointed to an object on a pedestal. “That’s a sacred artifact made from a skull.” My hands balled into fists as I clutched my clothes tightly, trying to suppress the nausea building inside.

I wasn’t the only one. So many others had been subjected to the same fate. Their skin peeled away, bones broken down to create “art”—sold on a black market for huge profits. A regular person might earn a modest paycheck each month, but here, their eyes, hearts, kidneys—any organ—could be traded for vast sums. Even if they were left hollowed out, it didn’t matter. Their skin, their bones, their blood, their muscles—they were all commodities. Just the thought of it made me want to vomit.

No wonder they had built it here, in this mass grave, and hidden it using the Fight Trigrams. They wanted to keep it hidden from the public eye and keep the grudge of the dead controlled. So many innocents died for their ambition.

“Are they out of their minds? These people are insane!”

There are many who would do anything for fame and money. When it comes to profit, they’ll stop at nothing.

“But these are living people!” I trembled as I spoke, my voice filled with rage. “They treat them like animals, killing them without hesitation!” Beyond my hatred for the Sanders, I realized the enemy had built an entire operation around this twisted business.

The reason they turned my body into a statue and put it in that new room was to boast—to show off the outcome of their revenge. Even if someone uncovered the truth, they’d never be able to trace it back to them. If Esmee hadn’t told me about the repair shop, and if I hadn’t caught a glimpse of it as a spirit, we might still be in the dark.

“Captain Tucker, did you catch the mastermind?” I asked.

Nelson shook his head. “Even though Mr. Bolton warned us from the start, and we brought a lot of backup, we didn’t expect this. They were armed, and we ended up in a shootout. The mastermind wasn’t there, but the person in charge managed to escape in the chaos.”

“What about the others?”

“They’ve all been sent back to the station. This connects to multiple cases: missing persons, illegal organ trafficking, human trafficking, and unlawful imprisonment. I’ve reported it, and a SWAT team will be taking over soon.”

Nelson looked at Carter. “By the way, how did you know about the underground room? They’ve hidden it so well.”

Carter, not wanting to reveal the truth about my rebirth, shrugged. “I had people investigating the repair shop for days. My instincts told me something wasn’t right, but even I didn’t expect it to be this big.”

This case was about to unfold in ways we hadn’t imagined. It could lead us straight to the truth about my own murder. If we caught even a few of the small players, we’d get vital clues. The mastermind wouldn’t escape. It was only a matter of time. For us, it was a relief, but it was also surprising.

At first, we thought it was just a fully fed… [The following text is largely unintelligible and appears to be a fragment of a different chapter or a corrupted section. It cannot be reliably cleaned without significantly altering the narrative.]

Chapter 312 Sudden Departure

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