Seeing this, Chen Ling immediately stepped out of the courtyard, and the two swiftly headed toward the distant street.
Wen Shilin knew he lived here. If Wen Shilin came over later and saw him mingling with the same thugs who had beaten him up, his carefully crafted persona would likely collapse.
"What did you find?" Chen Ling asked only after they had walked two blocks away.
"You told us to investigate organ trafficking. After careful consideration, we thought it must be connected to hospitals, so we had our guys stake out every hospital in the city..."
Hearing this, Chen Ling's expression turned odd. Clearly, not everyone was as sharp as Wen Shilin. These thugs had made the same mistake he had—fixating on hospitals as the primary target.
"And then?"
"We staked out the hospitals for two days, scouring every corner, but found nothing... However, something strange happened tonight." The thug leader glanced around cautiously before continuing in a hushed tone,
"One of our guys was watching the inpatient department. Late at night, he saw several doctors wheeling out a stretcher, looking very tense."
"Something felt off to him, so he tailed them secretly. He saw a car parked at the hospital's back door, with a few men in black standing nearby. They were acting suspiciously, opening the trunk to load the person on the stretcher inside... Just then, a gust of wind blew the white sheet off the stretcher."
The thug leader lowered his voice further. "There was a corpse on that stretcher, and it was covered in incisions, completely hollowed out like mush..."
Chen Ling's pupils constricted sharply.
"Are you sure he didn’t missee?" Chen Ling pressed.
"No mistake. Our guy swore on his life." The thug leader went on, "According to him, the doctors turned pale the moment they saw the body. The men in black hastily wrapped it up again, shoved it into the trunk, and drove off."
"Any distinguishing features on the body?"
"Hard to say for sure—it was pretty dark. But he said it looked like a teenager, around sixteen or seventeen."
A teenager... Chen Yan's face flashed through Chen Ling's mind.
He knew the body couldn’t possibly be Chen Yan, but the description was eerily similar—both victims shared nearly identical circumstances. Without a doubt, this was the work of the same group.
But he didn’t understand. Logically, these people shouldn’t be operating so brazenly in hospitals. And judging by the doctors' reactions, they didn’t seem like seasoned accomplices... Had the destruction of the seven districts cut off their usual organ supply, forcing them to take risks within the city itself?
The more Chen Ling thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. He immediately asked, "Where did the car go?"
"Our guys are still tracking it. I came to find you as soon as I could."
"Let’s go. Follow them."
Without hesitation, Chen Ling set off, the two figures darting swiftly through the night.
Fortunately, vehicles in this era weren’t powered by internal combustion engines but by steam, making them slow and cumbersome. Combined with narrow roads and Aurora City’s labyrinthine layout, they weren’t much faster than running. The thugs had managed to keep up, albeit barely.
Chen Ling and the thug leader followed the trail left by their men, sprinting through the streets. But they had started too late—there was no way to catch up to the car. After racing through several blocks, the thug leader was drenched in sweat, his pace flagging.
In contrast, Chen Ling remained composed, showing no signs of exhaustion. The thug leader was inwardly shocked—this boss of his was clearly no ordinary man.
"Never mind. Take your time." Seeing his struggle, Chen Ling cut him loose. "I’ll go ahead."
Before the thug leader could protest, Chen Ling surged forward like a gust of wind, vanishing down the road.
The thug leader gaped. He hadn’t expected his all-out effort to be Chen Ling’s casual warm-up...
Following the markers left by the thugs, Chen Ling moved so fast his figure blurred. He soon overtook the exhausted thugs who had given up midway, continuing alone until he reached the city’s outskirts. The last pursuer sat panting by the roadside, having abandoned the chase.
Even a steam-powered car was still a car. No matter how slow, outrunning it on foot was impossible. Here, the trail went cold.
Chen Ling frowned at the dim wilderness ahead. "What’s up there?"
"That’s... the outer ring of the Northern District," the thug wheezed. "Desolate... hardly anyone lives there... Why would the car head that way?"
Chen Ling’s gaze fixed on the faint lights flickering in the distance. He pointed. "What’s that?"
The thug thought for a moment. "Probably... the crematorium?"
Crematorium.
The word sent a jolt through Chen Ling. Realization dawned, and his expression darkened. He bolted toward the lights at full speed!
Were these bastards planning to destroy the evidence?
If Chen Ling’s suspicions were correct, this organ theft at the hospital had undoubtedly put the shadowy operators at risk. Aurora City wasn’t the seven districts—you couldn’t just dump bodies in unmarked graves. If that teenager’s corpse wasn’t disposed of properly, someone might uncover the truth.
Chen Ling couldn’t let the only lead on organ trafficking go up in flames. He tore through the darkness like a gale, unnoticed by anyone in the desolate outskirts.
As the crematorium loomed closer, Chen Ling spotted the parked car in the open yard but it was empty.
At this hour, the crematorium was closed. Only a few rooms were still lit, the rest deserted. Chen Ling vaulted over the iron gate, landing silently inside, then ghosted toward the illuminated windows.
At the same moment, on the opposite side of the crematorium’s wall, a drop of blood silently arced through the air.
The droplet hurtled toward a shadowed corner, morphing mid-flight into a black-clad figure with bandages wrapped around his face.
"Crematorium..." Jian Changsheng’s eyes narrowed under his hood.
"What are they doing here at this hour?"