Chapter 411: A Gruesome Display of Twisted Art

Chapter 411: Thanks to Your Ancestors (Updated 5)

Knock on the door. No one answered.

Xiao Yu’s expression turned icy. “Break down the door!”

They had to force the door open—there was no time to wait for a locksmith.

His command made Guo Qiang’s face harden, while Wang Cheng looked utterly bewildered.

What major incident had just occurred?

Boom!

The three of them joined forces and blasted the door open.

Normally, even three ordinary people wouldn’t be able to break a security door.

But that’s the advantage of having connections with Xiao Yu!

Now, Wang Cheng stared in shocked disbelief at the doorstep, which lay shattered on the ground.

Did we really do this?

Xiao Yu and Guo Qiang paid no mind to the confused rookie as they briskly stepped into the residence.

At that moment, the air was filled not only with the scent of blood but also a repulsive stench of decay.

Following the foul smell, they made their way to the bathroom.

Xiao Yu’s face instantly turned steely, and Guo Qiang’s expression went pale.

“Wow!” Wang Cheng blurted out…

Chunks of bodies marked “397” were arranged inside the bathroom.

Skulls, hands, feet, thighs, organs…

Xiao Yu quickly glanced over at the fifty-seven pieces piled together.

It looked just like half a pig chopped up on a market cutting board.

Xiao Yu’s expression stiffened.

He had seen countless corpses, but never had one been cut into pieces and meticulously ordered.

Moreover, the parts were arranged with disturbing precision.

Large chunks and torso parts occupied the center.

Smaller pieces and organs were displayed around the edges.

Two legs and an arm even supported a large chunk, resembling gruesome corpse blocks.

From these pieces, a bizarre structure emerged.

Yes, it was a house built entirely of corpses.

More accurately, it was a castle of human remains.

The skull positioned in the center seemed to be gazing into the distance.

Its facial muscles contracted, the tongue thrust desperately from its throat, and its eyes—wide, swollen, and lifeless—stared blankly beyond them…

In an instant, a suffocating stench pervaded the air.

Confronted with this macabre and bizarre scene,

Xiao Yu strangely found a dark amusement in it.

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

Was the murderer constructing this corpse house just to flaunt it before the police?

As if saying, “Look at this house—doesn’t it look amazing?”

The overt provocation made Xiao Yu’s face even more cold, his eyes gleaming with an icy intensity…

……

The identity of the victim had been confirmed.

Gan Xinlei, 42, a native of Bincheng and owner of a boutique!

“If you think the police are amazing, then try stopping me. Come on, catch me if you can!”

Xiao Yu listened calmly to a phone recording while watching the forensic team complete the on-site autopsy and bag the corpse, preparing to transport it to the Forensic Department for a final, thorough examination.

The recording was from a summons call made by the police to the boutique owner’s wife.

The provocative tone of the female voice was unmistakable.

Police always record when summoning suspects.

The call came from the victim’s lover, who was also the boutique owner’s wife.

Whose voice it exactly was remained unclear and required further investigation.

The Criminal Investigation Team had taken over the case and was tracking the whereabouts of the boutique owner’s wife…

“The body was dismembered into fifty-seven pieces in total.”

Forensic expert He Li directed her team as she approached Xiao Yu, explaining, “The cause of death was severe blood loss from severed arteries, leading to hemorrhagic shock. Had it been chronic bleeding, the body might have compensated, causing anemia rather than death. But the massive blood loss led to pallor, fainting, low blood pressure, rapid breathing, and cold extremities… eventually resulting in dismemberment!”

“Mm.”

Xiao Yu nodded and looked at the pale-faced Wang Cheng. “Are you alright?”

Honestly, the kid was really unlucky.

On his very first day at the team, he was thrown into this case.

But it was nothing—after dealing with cases like these repeatedly, one eventually becomes numb.

Xiao Yu himself had started out in much the same way…

“Master, I’m fine,” Wang Cheng replied, shaking his head.

He couldn’t understand what had come over him; after all, he had attended dissection classes before.

Why, then, did he falter on his first case with his mentor?

The explanation was simple.

Humans fear not just corpses, but the state in which they are presented.

Think of horror movies—every film has corpses.

Why are some terrifying while others aren’t?

It all boils down to the same principle!

“Good, because if something happened, I’d have no excuse.”

This was a child from Wang Dong’s relatives. Although the kid was only a year younger, Xiao Yu turned to He Li and said, “Not fifty-seven pieces—sixty-seven portions!”

Sixty-seven portions?

Not only was He Li stunned, but Wang Cheng was also left flabbergasted…

Xiao Yu, can’t you count?

And why call them portions instead of pieces?

“I’m sure I counted correctly,” he insisted.

He Li, clearly irritated by her junior’s implication, retorted without hesitation.

“It is indeed sixty-seven portions!”

Xiao Yu watched as the others bagged the remains, his eyes conveying unspoken thoughts.

“How could that be?”

He Li lost her composure.

She knew Xiao Yu wouldn’t joke about such details.

“Toenails.”

Xiao Yu explained, “The victim’s feet had no toenails!”

“Uh!”

He Li was taken aback and hurried over to the other forensic group. Soon, she found the victim’s feet in one of the body bags.

Seeing that the victim’s toes indeed lacked toenails, she offered a bitter smile.

With her expertise, she deduced that the victim’s toenails had been forcibly removed after death.

The exposed nail beds were ashen, devoid of any fresh blood.

This could only occur if the victim’s blood had been massively drained, leaving no pressure in the circulatory system…

“A mistake.”

He Li returned to Xiao Yu with a complex look and said, “If you become a forensic pathologist, I won’t be much help to you!”

“Most people simply wouldn’t notice anyway.”

Xiao Yu shook his head, “Who would have thought that a murderer would not only kill but also remove the toenails?”

Indeed, it was utterly absurd. Both He Li and Wang Cheng frowned in disbelief.

“Master, why?” Wang Cheng asked, puzzled.

“Who knows?”

Xiao Yu smirked, “Maybe he thought they looked good enough to keep, or perhaps he wanted them as a memento. Whatever his fetish, to dismember a body like that reveals serious psychological issues.”

“Ew!”

Wang Cheng shivered, goosebumps erupting all over him. “Can it really be that twisted?”

“There are far more perverse cases than this.”

As the senior forensic expert, He Li remarked, “Your mentor has handled cases ten times more disturbing than this.”

Wang Cheng stared, dumbfounded, at Xiao Yu.

Ignoring his disciple’s admiring gaze, Xiao Yu felt a rising irritation.

“Damn it, all I wanted tonight was to go home to my warm bed with my wife and kids.”

Murderer, were you doing this on purpose?

Thank you, damn you, thank your whole family, and your eighty-eight ancestors!