Chapter 156: Warning

When Chen Chuan heard the Blood Scars Gang’s name, he cast a glance at the living room before asking, “Why are they there?”

“It’s about the Head-Splitting Monster. They sent a request to us, but we rejected it saying that you’re not around. Now that they’ve heard that you’re back, they sent a person over. This time, though, they’re not making the request on behalf of the gang, but on behalf of Migrating Bird.”

Migrating Bird Co. was one of the Blood Scars Gang’s many companies, but it was just a front. Still, having that front made things appear more legitimate.

After some thinking, he said, “I’m not free now, and the information they gave us last time was really vague. Tell them to send me the specifics. I’ll decide after reading them.”

“Alright. I’ll give them a reply,” Ren Shu said.

Once Chen Chuan hung up, he went back to continue catching up with his family. After lunch, Ren Shu called again. “Mr. Chen, the Blood Scars Gang has brought a detailed report and wishes to speak to you face-to-face...”

So soon?

Chen Chuan quickly adjusted his thinking. It seemed like the Blood Scars Gang was in a hurry to get this problem solved. Still, Chen Chuan didn’t want to travel around for this during his break. So, he said, “Tell them that I’m currently preoccupied. We can set a time to meet at night.”

“Alright. I’ll send Xiao Wei to pick you up,” Ren Shu replied.

Chen Chuan spent the afternoon at home. After dinner, he called to get confirmation about the time to meet the Blood Scars Gang, washed up, changed, and left.

This time, aside from bringing the Frost King Saber, he also brought a bag with him. It had the Tayana Combat Spider’s box. Since the combat spider wasn’t big but highly dangerous, he didn’t leave it on campus. Instead, he brought it everywhere he went.

After he left the alley, he found Xiao Wei already waiting at the entrance. Chen Chuan got into the car, and Xiao Wei drove him to the company.

Ren Shu had been waiting for him. When he saw Chen Chuan, he went over to welcome him. After exchanging greetings, he said, “He’s been waiting since the afternoon, Mr. Chen.”

“That’s very patient of him,” Chen Chuan remarked.

“Well, we’re a proper company. Even the Blood Scars Gang has to respect the rules, since they came here to talk to us under Migrating Bird’s name,” Ren Shu said confidently. It was different from the tentative way he always adopted when he spoke to Chen Chuan. After all, this was undoubtedly his strength.

He then turned to Chen Chuan and asked, “Do you want to meet him now?”

“Yes, please,” Chen Chuan said.

“Alright.” Ren Shu motioned for an employee to ask for the representative while he brought Chen Chuan to the lounge on the third floor.

“We’re installing an elevator right now. You won’t need to climb the stairs all the time anymore,” he mentioned.

Chen Chuan nodded and understood the reason behind Ren Shu’s actions. He had been trying to improve the company’s perks, which was also why Chen Chuan had been doing his best to repay the company. “The environment here has become really good.”

Soon after they settled down in the lounge, they heard a voice saying, “This way, please, Mr. Li.”

After a while, a tall, lean man came in. He didn’t look like he was part of a gang. The clothes he wore matched what company executives would wear.

Once he came in, he introduced himself as Li Hui, a senior manager of Migrating Bird Co. Then, he greeted them warmly and politely.

Both sides sat down once they exchanged pleasantries, and Li Hui asked tentatively, “Do you have a minute to hear about the situation, Mr. Chen?”

“That’s why I agreed to meet you, Mr. Li,” Chen Chuan answered.

“That’s great.” Mr. Li placed his briefcase on the table and took out a stack of documents before handing them to Ren Shu and Chen Chuan. “These are the documents the company sent based on your request, Mr. Chen.”

Chen Chuan took the documents. While he was reading through them, Li Hui said, “Allow me to give you a brief description. Three respectable leaders of the Blood Scars Gang have died, and it’s a deeply regrettable thing for us.”

Chen Chuan said nothing about that and just continued reading the documents. Before this, he had only had a description of the leaders’ deaths. Now, he had photos of the events.

The leaders’ heads were split into two unusually wide halves, allowing Chen Chuan to see that everything inside the skull was gone. It made him recall the two halves of the watermelon he had eaten clean with a spoon in the afternoon.

From the photos, he could tell that the Head-Splitting Monster had carefully peeled back their skin and flesh before splitting the head apart. Not only did the Head-Splitting Monster eat the brains, but it also licked the skull clean. Nothing was left, not even blood.

Ren Shu felt sick when he saw the photo. Unable to stomach it, he covered his mouth with a handkerchief.

Meanwhile, Li Hui said, “We’ve been conducting repeated investigations and even hired people to look into this, but we couldn’t find any clues. They were sleeping in their own beds when their heads were split open. That’s why we’re pretty certain that this is really the Head-Splitting Monster’s doing.”

Chen Chuan checked the investigation records. All of the leaders had died suddenly. One of them had even been talking to his wife in bed when he suddenly fell silent.

His wife had been miffed and turned around, only to find that the leader’s head had split open, and only an empty skull was left. She fainted from shock and fright. When she woke up, she saw it again, and she was no longer quite sane after that.

Another one of the leaders wasn’t surrounded by attentive friends and family, because after his lover woke up and dolled herself up, she just left with a goodbye, never noticing that the leader’s brains were already eaten. She only noticed that something was wrong when she came back at night and saw him still lying in bed. By then, he had been dead for an entire day.

The last was discovered in his office. There were no signs of an intruder.

“The Head-Splitting Monster has been around for a long time and has never been taken out. I need to do some research before deciding whether I want to take up this mission,” Chen Chuan said.

“Alright.” Li Hui was great at reading the room. Chen Chuan was the gang’s only hope, so it was already good that he said that he was willing to take a look. Li Hui didn’t dare to put on an attitude around Chen Chuan.

Standing up, he said, “I won’t bother you anymore, Mr. Chen. If you discover anything, please tell us.”

He took out a business card and placed it on the table. Not wanting to overstay his welcome, he said goodbye and left.

Chen Chuan waited for Ren Shu to send Li Hui off and come back. “Mr. Ren, has anyone else approached you for similar cases?”

Ren Shu thought about it and said, “We recently received a bunch of documents from the Department of Administrative Affairs, but there were no similar reports. This could be because the other people related to the victims are refusing to report their deaths, though. Still, I’ve had all the reports relating to the Head-Splitting Monster compiled already. Would you like to read them?”

“Sure. Please bring them to me,” Chen Chuan agreed.

When an employee brought the files over, he set aside the ones clearly done by other people as a red herring and the ones that were dated too long ago. He only kept the ones that were valuable to his research.

After reading through everything, it was obvious the states of the victims were identical to those in the photos, but Chen Chuan couldn’t be certain that it was the real Head-Splitting Monster without inspecting the corpses himself. However, the bodies had already been buried, so he shouldn’t disturb their rest. He could only wait until the Head-Splitting Monster showed up again and see whether he had a chance to meet it.

Since he no longer had anything else to do, he didn’t linger in the company and asked Xiao Wei to send him back to the university. On his way back, he wondered why the Head-Splitting Monster would target only the Blood Scars Gang. Was it because they did something, or was it due to something else?

While he was deep in thought, he suddenly noticed movement and reached out to grab a crossbow bolt that flew through a car window.

Judging by the direction, the crossbow bolt was not supposed to hit him. If he wasn’t mistaken, it should have hit the car door beside him and gotten stuck there.

He turned around and saw a person vanishing behind the roof of the building across the road.

Chen Chuan turned back to the crossbow bolt and saw a note tied to it.

The crossbowman was skilled. After all, if anything extra was attached to an arrow or a crossbow bolt, it would interfere with the trajectory of the projectile. Being able to shoot through a moving sedan from more than thirty meters away while making sure that he didn’t hurt anyone showed great technique.

Chen Chuan removed the note from the crossbow bolt and opened it. There was a message written in blood-red ink inside it:

This has nothing to do with you. Stay away.

Chen Chuan thought,

“This” should refer to the Blood Scars Gang’s case. Looks like this is a warning.

Who is it from? The Chain Links Gang?

The one who was most likely to do this was the Chain Links Gang, but Chen Chuan had come into contact with the gang before and felt that this method didn’t suit their style.

“Mr. Wei, stop in front, please,” he said.

“Sure, Mr. Chen,” Xiao Wei replied.

After he parked the car, Chen Chuan got out, smoothed his clothes, and went to a secluded area. He took out a box from his briefcase and tapped it. “I need you to lead the way.”

***

After the crossbowman jumped off the roof, he went down a quiet alley. Half an hour later, he went into a secluded building.

There were a few young adults inside. “How was it, Su Xin?” they asked.

The crossbowman removed his hood to reveal a young face. He sucked in a few sharp breaths before saying, “I warned that expert, but I don’t know whether he’ll continue helping the Blood Scars Gang.”

When he said the gang’s name, hatred burned in his eyes.

One of the young adults who had not approached Su Xin when he came back, but remained standing at the corner piped up. “The urban legend of the Head-Splitting Monster has been around for years. No one has ever been able to take it out. There was no need for you to warn him.”

“I’ve told you already. This expert is really strong. He was the one who took out the Flying Head Cult, so he might also be able to deal with the Head-Splitting Monster.”

The young man still didn’t approve of Su Xin warning Chen Chuan. “And I don’t think that someone that powerful will be scared off by a crossbow bolt.”

“I still had to try.”

The young man shook his head. “What we need isn’t scaring him off, but better weapons. If we had them, we could just take out that expert without having to bother with warnings.”

“We’ll get them. I’ve already contacted some weapon sellers. Once we get the weapons, we won’t need to be scared of anyone anymore.”