# 221
Chapter 221 – Finding the Ghost
Under the night sky, a familiar ringtone sounded.
“Vice-Captain.”
“Qiye, we found the car,” Wu Xiangnan’s voice came through the phone. “Five minutes ago it turned out of Huashan Road, cut across Zhufang Road, and the last camera caught it at the mouth of Erdao Alley.”
“Erdao Alley?” Lin Qiye’s brows knitted tight.
The lane was so narrow—could a van even squeeze through?
Maybe, but why go there? Apart from long-abandoned old factory buildings, the place had nothing.
“I also pulled the registration. The owner isn’t a local, and the plate belongs to a red Toyota—definitely swapped.”
“Got it.”
Lin Qiye hung up and, without hesitation, sprinted toward Erdao Alley.
Luckily he was born and raised in Cangnan; otherwise he wouldn’t even know the alley existed. Forgotten for decades, it had perfectly faded from everyone’s sight. Most locals had no idea such an old lane still existed in this modern city.
Which meant… the body-snatcher was also a Cangnan native?
But why steal those three corpses? He only took “mystery” bodies, didn’t he? Yet those three were ordinary people… Unless he was investigating the mystery himself, trying to reach it before the Night Watch?
Right now, that seemed the only logical explanation.
With a destination in mind, Lin Qiye began leaping across rooftops. He shot straight to the edge of the old district, relying on memory to race toward Erdao Alley.
Soon he stood at the mouth of the lane.
A dilapidated alley, dark and unlit, flanked by factory shells abandoned for over a decade—no sign of life anywhere.
Eyes narrowing, Lin Qiye stepped into the gloom.
His mental perception stretched to maximum, monitoring every rustle within a hundred meters; no detail could escape him.
After ten minutes he stopped, expression darkening.
In an old factory on his right sat a familiar black van; its plates were gone, but Lin Qiye had no doubt—it was the same vehicle. The trunk still bore impressions from the sealed body-bags.
He crouched, fingers brushing the dirt. Confusion flickered in his eyes.
These old workshops had no cement floors—just packed earth. Dragging sealed bags across it would leave tracks. Even a handcart or dolly would mark the soil; if the man had carried the bodies, deep footprints should remain.
Yet the ground showed nothing—no prints, no drag marks, no compression at all.
Did the thief possess an agility-type Forbidden Ruins like his own?
He searched the surrounding factories—no trace of habitation. The van sat there like a ghost, utterly out of place.
Both the orderly and the body-bags seemed to have evaporated.
He recalled Hongying’s description of the “Corpse Thief”: “He’s like the city’s ghost—we feel him, but we can never get close.”
Ghost…
Lin Qiye’s eyes narrowed. He looked up at the moon; in the distance bats darted closer while insects crawled from the soil, circling him.
More and more nocturnal creatures gathered, then, as if commanded, scattered in perfect unison.
“Even if you are a ghost, as long as you’re in Cangnan City, I’ll drag you out,” Lin Qiye said quietly.
…
Cangnan City.
Underground.
A surging tide of rats swarmed through the sewers, moving in ordered files, inspecting every corner.
In one subterranean hollow stood four glass tanks filled with formaldehyde, each preserving grotesque fragments: a hideous serpent head, half a lizard, a black finger, a tangle of vine-like growth…
Behind the tanks sat several clean, if aged, operating tables. Stainless-steel trays held spotless surgical instruments.
On three tables lay pale corpses.
A white-clad youth wearing black-framed glasses stood over them, scalpel in hand, lost in thought, confusion written across his face.
“No… this is different…”
A worm dropped beside his foot; he glanced at it, crushed it under his heel.
Moments later a millipede fell on the far side of the hollow, wandered aimlessly, and was torn apart by the rat swarm.
He frowned. “More bugs than usual tonight…”
Scenes like this were repeating throughout the entire sewer network.
…
In the darkness, Lin Qiye’s eyes snapped open; he looked down at the ground.
“In the sewers?” His brows lifted.
He couldn’t share vision with the creatures in real time, but their rapid deaths underground told its own story. The batch that entered the sewers had died fastest—something was down there.
A bat flapped up from the nearest manhole and circled him.
“Rat tide?” Lin Qiye blinked, recalling the mouse he’d seen in the bar, and his eyes narrowed.
Looks like I’ve finally found the right place.
He walked to a sewer cover, hesitated, then pressed his palm against the air. A brilliant magic circle unfolded.
When the light faded, a small white mummy scampered up to him, excitedly looking around… then shrugged in disappointment.
“Mumu, still no snacks this time,” Lin Qiye apologized, rubbing its head.
Knowing he couldn’t supply weapons for a while, he still felt guilty at the tiny let-down expression.
“For now, I need you to come underground with me.”