Corpse-Driving Sect

Not every part of the capital was prosperous. The eight outer cities in particular had glittering dens of vice like Everjoy Ward, lit through the night, but they also had countless low, cramped mud houses in wretched conditions, packed together like sprawling slums.

West Second City's charity mortuary near the city outskirts was located in just such a place. It was remote, and because corpses had been kept there year-round, making it somewhat inauspicious, it was even some distance from the slums.

People died in the capital every day. Whether from gang conflicts or all manner of other causes, those whose identities could not immediately be confirmed were sent to West Second City's charity mortuary and kept there for seven days.

If someone came with money within those seven days, they could claim the body. For a little more money, the mortuary would even arrange a burial.

If no one claimed it, the mortuary would simply throw the body into the mass grave outside the city, leaving it to be gnawed on by stray dogs and crows. There would not even be a burial shroud.

At first, Qin Suguan had assumed that the Black Serpent Gang's leader had gone to the mortuary to collect his subordinate's body.

But after Qin Suguan investigated the Black Serpent Gang leader's background, he immediately dismissed that possibility.

That man was also a heartless, bottomless scoundrel, even more utterly devoid of conscience than Xiong Tianliang of the Everjoy Gang.

When one of his own men died, he would even withhold that month's wages. How could he possibly go collect the body?

So his visit to the mortuary must have had some other purpose.

This time, when investigating the mortuary, Chen Yuan learned from their last trip to the Everjoy Gang and did not have all