"I’ve found the person you’re looking for, but only information from five years ago," Medala’s slightly alluring voice echoed through the tiny Bluetooth earpiece.

"Where did she go?" He Ao looked up and slightly tilted the umbrella over his head, watching the drizzling rain slide off as he glanced at the towering city gate ahead.

"To a city you might not even have heard of," Medala stretched lazily and spoke in a languid tone, "Limen City, a satellite city south of Ains, now under the Nolanka Group’s influence."

"Limen City." He Ao’s gaze dropped, deep in thought.

Hawke knew of Limen City, but only through hearsay, with little knowledge of it. After all, on the scale of the entire Federation, Limen City was indeed just an insignificant small city, not even as famous as Saint Joen City, which was known as the Federation’s famous eastern granary.

"That Qiming Hospital, which has recently been opening branches all over the Federation, giving Stars Pharma and Welme a hard time, you know it, right," Medala said calmly, "It originated from Limen City. This small city was originally within Stars Pharma’s sphere of influence until a scandal involving an Evil God sacrifice drove Stars Pharma out, and the Nolanka Group set up a medical college there."

She clicked her tongue slightly, "You can’t deny, Nolanka Group has really come up with some stuff. Qiming Hospital is now blooming all over the Federation and is very popular with the lower classes."

"What’s Morolin doing in Limen City?" He Ao lowered his head, slowly moving forward, and quickly asked.

"No idea," Medala said softly, "If I could find out all the causes and effects in such a short time, I wouldn’t be talking to you here; I’d have kicked Skewis out of the Gray Stone Palace and become President myself."

Medala’s tone paused momentarily on the other end of the call before she continued, "According to the intelligence I received, it seems she decided to wash her hands of the business, bid farewell to everyone, and disappeared sneakily in the black market. The last clue is from an old client of hers who saw her in Limen City. It’s said she has gone into seclusion there."

"Anyway, that’s all I know," Medala’s pitch rose, "As for whether she’s still there or not, I don’t know. I’ll keep an eye out for any intel and contact you."

"Alright, I got it." He Ao nodded slightly, stepping over the raindrops and into the puddles of mud.

"By the way," Medala suddenly remembered something and quickly said, "If you’re going to Limen City, be careful of those people from Qiming Medical College."

"What do you mean?" He Ao asked softly.

"There are reports that Qiming Medical College was established with the support of the Life Church," Medala lowered her voice slightly, speaking with a hint of smugness,

"Think about it, the Nolanka Group has no foundation in medical research, so how could it suddenly come up with a high-level medical college that even Stars Pharma and Welme find troublesome? There must be some ’help’ from others."

She paused slightly, "The forces in the Federation in control of advanced medical technology are just a few. While the Life Church doesn’t engage in sacrifices, these people conducting life research are as mad as other Evil God believers, maybe even crazier. Moreover, they haven’t caused any trouble for years, maintaining a superficial peace with the Federation. They’ve probably accumulated a lot of powerful Transcendents as well."

She paused again, "Anyway, be careful, old handsome guy, if you die, I will be very sad."

"Heartbroken for one billion two hundred million?" He Ao said casually.

"Damn, you really don’t know how much one billion two hundred million is, talking so casually. With that amount, I wouldn’t have to deal with those family idiots here. I could just find a small city and be a rich lady for life.

"By then I’d build a large swimming pool, have seventy or eighty muscular guys like you, half swimming to the left and half to the right, while I lie on a high platform sunbathing and drinking cola," Medala clicked her tongue, "Forget it, I can’t keep talking to you; otherwise, I’ll lose control over myself."

Beep—

With a soft sound, she hung up the phone.

He Ao lowered his gaze, looking at the display on his wristband.

As the call interface disappeared, what appeared before He Ao’s eyes was a photo.

A photograph taken by a tourist in a plaza, with a towering building in the distance.

Although it was taken during the day, it can basically be confirmed that this is the plaza for handling corpses that He Ao saw in Wild’s memory.

This picture was retrieved directly by Eve after he drew it out.

The location of the image is a small city, located in the southwestern part of Ains, the city of Konovi.

This is another small city similar to Limen City, even more ordinary. It is not an affiliated city of the Federation, but a commercial route node on the western side of the Federation.

During his youth, Paxiu had passed through this city but never explored it deeply, so he hadn’t seen the scenes in Wild’s memory.

However, in Wild’s memory, those bodies were eventually loaded onto trucks.

He Ao’s mind quickly flashed with images of those trucks.

They were small trucks with armored panels. Such trucks are generally not used for intra-city routes because of their high energy consumption and cost. Nor are they used for long-distance cargo routes due to limited capacity and inadequate armor, making them less fault-tolerant.

Their likely operational range would be within two to three hundred kilometers from the departure city, suitable for short-distance travel between neighboring cities.

Using Konovi as the center, the nearby cities include Ains, Skates, and Lunster.

In more extreme cases, they could still reach Limen City.

He Ao slightly lowered his gaze.

He didn’t know the purpose of the Church of the Grim Reaper, nor could he speculate where they wanted to transport the bodies.

Those children were attacked in Ains, died in Ains, and were then supposedly transported out, sent to Konovi, and handed over to the Church of the Grim Reaper by Wild.

Thus, where does the Church of the Grim Reaper want to send them?

The drizzling raindrops slid down the transparent umbrella, dripping onto the street with a pitter-patter.

The elderly figure under the rain slowly moved forward, crossing the rundown street and walking toward the open gate.

——

Ains

The night was dim, with stars reflected in the firmament outside the window, and bright lights illuminating the bustling tavern hall.

"In my opinion, Skewis doesn’t deserve to be President." A man with a bulbous nose, a flushed face, and holding a pint glass stood on the stage, speaking fervently,

"Did we elect him? No, we chose Kemingda! Although Kemingda is also an idiot—he’s much more normal than Skewis. What did Skewis do? He was just a tagalong with Kemingda and became Vice President."

He took a sip of his drink, his drunken face flushed with anger, "Such an unpopular guy became President, and look at what he’s doing! War! War! It’s always war! Although Christos in Dawn City is also an idiot, this moron Skewis is pulling the entire Federation into war. I’m telling you, he doesn’t deserve to be President! We ought to oust him and choose anew!"

"Yeah!""Yeah!""I agree!!!"

The space was instantly filled with cheers.

"I think he’s wrong!" Another drunken man staggered onto the podium, holding a glass of wine, and laughed, "Skewis still has his merits."

"How can there be an idiot supporting Skewis? Tell me, what are his merits?!" Someone mocked from below the stage.

"Hold on, hold on," the drunken man wasn’t annoyed. He raised his glass, gulped down his drink, and with a burp, laughed mischievously, "He’s a pretty boy!!! It’s good that his mother gave birth to him well too!"

"Hahahahaha!"

The room burst into laughter.

"This pretty boy has probably slept with countless elders to climb up to Kemingda’s side. I bet, to please Kemingda, he’s done who knows what!" Someone immediately joined in from the crowd.

"Hahahahaha!!!"

The crowd laughed even more uproariously, filling the tavern with a joyful atmosphere.

Except for one person.

That person stood at the tavern entrance, watching the noisy crowd inside, dressed casually with a baseball cap, with a few strands of golden hair peeking from under the brim.

He hung his head low, the brim shielding his cheeks, his entire face hidden in the shadows.

Behind him, several tall and muscular men stood straight, tensely watching the crowd in the tavern.

"Mr. President," at this moment, a gentle voice called from behind him. It was a delicate-looking waitress. She looked up at the man in the baseball cap and said softly, "I’m sorry, the director hasn’t returned yet. Would you like a glass of wine?"

"No." The man in the baseball cap shook his head directly and looked up at the laughing crowd inside the tavern. "When the old director returns, remember to tell him I’ve been here to visit."

"Of course." The young waitress nodded slightly.

The man in the baseball cap turned and walked out of the tavern directly, followed immediately by the burly men behind him, leaving the tavern.

A figure in the front row of the tavern, wearing a loose suit and sitting upright, seemed to hear something, glanced back, and then returned his gaze.

The man in the baseball cap had already left the tavern entirely, the slightly chilly night wind brushing across his slightly flushed cheeks, cooling his face a bit.

A young female secretary also followed out from the tavern, chasing after him.

"Can’t we just seal off this tavern directly?" The man in the baseball cap lifted his head slightly, the streetlamp illuminating his handsome profile.

"We can, but," the female secretary whispered, "that would offend the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation," the man in the baseball cap took a deep breath, "are they the president, or am I the president? As the president of the Federation, don’t I even have this power?"

Then he seemed to remember something, lowering his voice in angry tones, "Day after day, it’s been so long. Always saying he’s out, either looking after exotic beasts or investigating cults. I think that Old Geezer is just deliberately avoiding me and doesn’t want to see me."

The female secretary kept her head down, not speaking.

"Do you think I can just fire this Old Geezer and have someone of mine become the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation?" The man in the baseball cap turned his head to the female secretary.

The female secretary kept her head down, not daring to speak.

"Well, what do you think?!" The man in the baseball cap turned his head towards the side behind him.

A slightly lean man with gold-rimmed glasses stepped out from the group of muscular men, standing beside the man in the baseball cap, and said in a low voice, "Mr. President, this might be inappropriate. The old director has been running the Federal Bureau of Investigation for many years. The entire Bureau is filled with his cronies. A previous attempt by the consortium to cooperate with the Order Church to cultivate the former chief of staff to replace him resulted in an accident when that chief of staff was about to be promoted to Angel."

After saying this, he looked up at the man in the baseball cap, "We should wait a bit longer; the old director will eventually come back."

"Wait. How long do I have to wait?" The man in the baseball cap’s expression turned gloomy again.

After a brief pause, he turned his head to look at the man with the gold-rimmed glasses, "What about Wild? Why haven’t I heard any news about him? What has he gone off to do now?"

"Mr. Wild seems to have," the man with glasses lowered his head, paused, and said softly, "seems to have lost contact."

"What?" The man in the baseball cap raised his head, his surprised and handsome face fully revealed under the streetlamp.

——

Limen City

He Ao raised his head and gazed at the narrow street before him.

People were gradually coming and going between the streets, their voices tinged with a bit of hoarse laughter.

The glow of Dawn illuminated the patched roads, with the glittering emblem of Stars City shining all over the street.

Nearly four years had passed, and Limen City seemed both the same and different from how Pete remembered it.

The streets were filled with people busily getting ready for work, and buses bearing the emblem of the Nolanka Group’s Stars City raced down the old roads. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

On the street sides, there were a variety of stores: clothing shops, bedding stores, supermarkets, and bakeries. Most of these stores bore the emblem of the Nolanka Group.

And these corporate stores were typically the busiest places.

The crowded masses lined up to check out, with occasional sounds of quarrels and disputes that quickly subsided.

People heading to work in the morning always wore slightly tired expressions, but this fatigue quickly dissolved into playful banter with their companions.

Young figures riding bicycles with backpacks quickly zipped through the streets, leaving behind cheerful laughter in the morning breeze.

He Ao walked quietly on this morning street, sensing and listening to the surrounding noise.

This city hadn’t really changed much; it was still the same old, dilapidated little town, just with a few more patches here and there.

However, the people living in this city seemed to have undergone some kind of profound, invisible transformation.