Chapter Twenty-Five: Are You Trying to Awaken in Midair?

Although Ye Chen was just a hunter from the wilderness, he understood human nature and the workings of the human heart.

Ye Shanshan had once asked him out of curiosity, “Is it because you don’t like dealing with people that you chose to hunt in the wild all this time?”

Ye Chen remembered his own answer then: “You need ingredients for your stall, right? This is what you call sourcing from the origin—no middleman to take a cut…”

But sometimes, he also wondered if dealing with beasts required far less effort. After all, beasts had only one thought: how to turn their target into their next meal. Humans, however, were far more complicated; they knew how to wear masks, and even better how to kill by proxy.

Take this very moment—Ye Chen’s intuition told him that the two recent incidents he faced were either acts of revenge or struggles over profit.

Both Cao Yang and Zhang Tufang had died in these attacks. So, who stood to gain the most?

The problem was—how on earth should he know?

A green crystal mine was as good as a gold mine; naturally, many would be coveting it. Anyone able to undertake a mining operation like this would surely have the backing and involvement of powerful figures from the inner city. This, too, was a deep and murky pool.

What’s more, they had never previously investigated any mine-related safety incidents, so the entangled interests were a complete mystery to them—making the investigation even more difficult.

If all they could do was guess, they might as well pull out their hair until their scalps shone, and it would still be useless…

Seeing Ye Chen’s worried, furrowed brow, Xu Fan assumed he was feeling just as lost as himself. He moved closer, offering comfort:

“We’ve walked all this way, and the inner city walls are perfectly intact. Crossing them would be harder than climbing to the heavens.

“So… let’s just give up and go back!”

Indeed, scaling the walls was no easy feat!

Wait—if they eliminated all the impossible options, then whatever remained must be close to the truth.

He spoke to the others slowly:

“Remember how I mentioned someone in the inner city offering a bounty for a live mutant beast?”

Chen Bingfeng immediately followed his train of thought: “You said you believed it was more likely a man-beast duo.

“Right… could it be that some big shot from the inner city hired such a killer pair to take out Cao Yang and Zhang Tufang, hoping to swallow this juicy prize for themselves?”

Ye Chen nodded slightly; it was sounding more and more plausible. He continued explaining,

“Because only this way can we explain many of the contradictions.

“For instance, the first and second doubts—the perpetrator entered through the back door, which explains the fingerprints left on the handle.

“After entering, they first subdued Cao Yang’s wife. At that moment, Cao Yang was probably in the bathroom, unaware of any disturbance in the kitchen. Then, the beast with the killer could have mauled him right there.

“A third point—if the beast neither came from outside the city nor scaled the inner wall, there’s only one route left.

“It was smuggled into the outer city.

“And especially if someone inside the inner city pulled strings and used a vehicle to sneak it out—entirely possible.

“After all, the inner city isn’t short of powerful people who could pull off such a thing.”

Finally, Ye Chen couldn’t help but sigh, “But finding that person will be extremely difficult. We need to prepare ourselves for that.”

As for how a mutant beast from the wilderness could cooperate with a human, Ye Chen didn’t bother to explain. To him, that was only a matter of time. Having dealt with mutant beasts for years, he was sure that, given enough time and food, he could tame a batch himself.

So still, it was true—beasts were purer than people.

Seeing the discussion yield results, Xu Fan brightened and cheerfully suggested, “Then I think we can head back now. My feet hurt, and I’m starving.”

Chen Bingfeng shot him a sidelong glance. “Fine.”

Xu Moyu was delighted… Was Chen such in a good mood today?

But Chen Bingfeng’s next words made Xu Fan’s teeth ache on the spot.

“We’re already in the workshop district. We’ve just walked half a circuit.”

Xu Fan wailed in despair, “So no matter which way I go, I can’t go home until I finish my rounds today…”

While the two squabbled, Ye Chen looked up ahead—there lay the north gate to the inner city.

There were four main gates into the inner city, built to the east, west, south, and north.

Usually, Ye Chen and his companions spent most of their time near the south gate, where the marketplace was located.

The workshop district, on the other hand, was patrolled by the third squad; they usually had no reason to come this way.

The main road from the outer city to the inner city’s north gate crossed a bridge, beneath which ran a small river.

The river cut through the city, but now it had run dry, its bed littered with trash and reeking foully.

The inner city had conveniently assigned responsibility for this dried-up river to the outer city.

But, of course, the outer city would never waste manpower to descend and clean it up.

Thus, heaps of garbage had accumulated.

And just beyond the north gate, the inner city’s prison loomed.

A black wall stretched along the river, rising even higher than the city walls themselves. From a distance it cast a heavy pall, intimidating every passerby, and the interior was completely out of sight.

Ye Chen muttered to himself… That Zhang Jingye was probably fated to die of old age behind those walls.

…

The three of them continued along the riverbed.

Suddenly, Ye Chen noticed that human bones had appeared beneath the prison wall.

White bones stood out sharply amid the dark heaps of refuse.

Seeing Ye Chen slow down, Chen Bingfeng beside him remarked with a sigh, “I heard from my colleagues in the third squad that if a prisoner in the jail is about to die, they usually dispose of them crudely—just toss them straight onto the riverbed.”

He shook his head with a sigh.

“If a prisoner played dead and was thrown onto the riverbed, wouldn’t that give them a chance to escape?” Xu Fan interjected.

Well now, what a unique way of thinking—clearly he’d considered this before.

Ye Chen silently poked fun at him, then patted Xu Fan’s shoulder and said, “It depends on how they land.

“Look at the height between the ground and the riverbed. If a normal person were flung down from there, a few broken bones would be the least of their problems.

“If they landed face-first, that would be the end of it.

“Unless the person was an awakened one with a strengthened body. But anything we can think of, the prison authorities surely have considered too.

“If it were an awakened one, they’d make sure he was truly dead before tossing him down.”

Xu Fan protested, “But what if he awakened in the process of being thrown down?”

Chen Bingfeng raised a leg as if ready to kick the contrarian straight down.

Xu Fan giggled and hid behind Ye Chen.

“Let’s walk a little further—there’s a little shop up ahead with great food. Lunch is on me,” Chen Bingfeng said to Ye Chen.

“What about me?” Xu Fan asked.

“You pay for yourself.”

“Oh heavens, why is this world so dark and unfair?!” Xu Fan howled at the dry riverbed.