“That’s truly unfortunate news… So, would you be able to help deliver this money to Mr. Lemeir’s family? I think they must be in great need of money.”
Even though Xia De knew Mrs. Lemeier’s request was fine, he didn’t forget to continue the act. And just as he expected, Mr. Delar waved his hand at him:
“I know Lemeir has a distant relative in Tobesk who can inherit his estate, but only the lawyer knows the specific address. Since he has unfortunately passed away, I don’t think this money needs to be returned.”
Mr. Delar and Mr. Lemeir had been old friends for many years, and he sounded a bit sentimental as he spoke.
After Xia De pretended to offer a few words of comfort, Mr. Delar found some wine glasses and red wine, and drank a glass with Xia De. As they clinked glasses, they both wished for the soul of Mr. Lemeir, who had drowned at sea, to rest in peace.
Xia De had achieved his goal and had no need to linger. After drinking the wine, he planned to leave immediately, but the liquid in the glass reminded him of another kind of red liquid. So, purely out of curiosity, he blinked and used the Blood Echo spell to observe the room.
The result was far beyond his expectations. The floor and walls were normal, but the entire ceiling was permeated with an eerie, bloody glow. This wasn't because the ceiling was stained with blood, but because blood was seeping downwards from the second floor, above his head.
Judging by the amount, Xia De found it hard to imagine what was happening upstairs.
“Are you sure Mr. Delar is an ordinary person?”
He had already confirmed it when he entered, but at this moment, he couldn't help but ask again.
【Absolutely certain.】
“Alright.”
It seemed that there were still some things about Lemeir’s inheritance commission that needed to be investigated. And since the other party was just an ordinary person, Xia De felt he didn’t need to pretend not to see it.
He nodded, put down his wine glass, and took out his pocket watch to check the time:
“It’s getting late, Mr. Delar, we shall meet again.”
As he spoke, he stood up, and Mr. Delar, quite normally, saw Xia De to the door.
Opening his umbrella at the door, the young Outsider nodded to Mr. Delar again before stepping into the rain.
An hour later, Xia De returned here from the inn. He changed into the clothes that had been soaked from diving, put on a hooded cloak over them, and didn’t forget to wear a mask on his face. He stood without an umbrella in the alley behind Mr. Delar’s house.
Mermaid Alley was a very good alley nearby, with bluestone paving the ground, so even in such rainy weather, one wouldn't step into mud. But the alley behind that row of two-story buildings, like many alleys common in this era, had completely turned into a muddy pit under the soaking rain. Not many people were willing to come to such a place, which made it convenient for Xia De’s actions.
After observing the metal pipe on the back wall and finding it sturdy enough after a test shake, he climbed up along the pipe. This type of pipe, fixed to the wall, was secured with clips and steel nails at regular intervals, which also facilitated Xia De’s movement.
Reaching the second floor, seeing that the distance was sufficient, he reached into his pocket with one hand, chanted a spell, threw down a frog leg, and then, with a powerful leap, a normal person would absolutely not possess such jumping ability, he sprang onto the windowsill of the second-floor window.
There were originally some flowerpots on the windowsill, and some fell down when Xia De bumped them. But the sound of the rain was loud, and the flowerpots made almost no sound as they landed in the mud.
Based on the location of the living room, this window should lead into the bloody room. But the curtains were tightly drawn, so he couldn't see inside. Xia De then asked:
“Can you sense any elements?”
【Not at the moment.】
He tried to push the window, and sure enough, it was latched shut from the inside with a brass clasp.
But this didn’t deter Xia De. With a swing of his palm, an arc of Moonlight precisely cut through the metal window frame, then destroyed the lock inside. Similarly, the faint sound of glass shattering and metal breaking was also masked by the rain.
He didn’t immediately push the window open, but instead held his breath and listened for a while to the sounds inside. After confirming he hadn’t been discovered, he gently pushed, opening a crack in the window.
The smell of blood almost immediately wafted out from the window crack, quickly dissipating in the dampness of the heavy rain.
Xia De couldn’t help but frown. He didn’t immediately push the window further open, but instead squatted on the windowsill, carefully using his fingers to part the curtain in front of him.
There was light inside the room. Through the window crack, he could see six long red candles, stuck into the floor covered with fresh blood. A huge hexagram was drawn on the ground with dark, black blood, and the six candles were placed at each of its vertices.
At the same time, in the gaps between the hexagram pattern, some strange ancient characters were written, and some glass vessels containing lumps of flesh were placed.
Inside the room behind the curtain, all the furniture had been cleared out. Except for the wall where the invisible window was located, the other three walls were entirely covered with prayers written in common script, the paint, of course, being blood.
Looking up at the ceiling, several human skulls were nailed to the top with steel nails, and ropes tied to the steel nails hung down from the ceiling. Because the window was open, allowing the outside wind to rush in, these skulls swayed slightly, appearing particularly eerie in the dim candlelight.
“Still no traces of the four elements or spirits?”
【None.】
“Then I understand.”
The terrifying scene in the room made the expression behind the mask a bit more serious:
“This is ordinary people’s cult worship.”
It wasn't only Ring術士 who worshipped evil gods for power; among ordinary people, evil god worship was the most numerous type of Cultists.
Perhaps it was due to personal contact and joining a cult, perhaps just seeing things in books and developing worship, perhaps contact with certain special items, perhaps family reasons, perhaps a mental issue... But no matter which one, according to the experienced Priest Ratt Augustus—
Any Cultists should be immediately executed; those guys have no need to be saved.
Mr. Delar was probably one of those ordinary Cultists, and the items in the room were part of some ritual he was performing. The room's setup looked somewhat like a so-called evil ritual, but in reality, from Xia De’s limited knowledge, this ridiculous ritual didn't even conform to basic ritualistics; it was more like something concocted by an ordinary person's imagination.
The ritual itself would naturally have no effect, but such behavior was also quite dangerous. In a world where extraordinary powers truly existed, even an incorrect ritual might attract some terrifying, distorted force.
The Orthodox Church strictly forbade such behavior. The contemporary Five Gods Church was considered more lenient by the public, but if it wasn't Xia De who discovered this scene today, but the Church, then Mr. Delar would probably be executed immediately.
“Things seem to be getting a bit complicated. Speaking of which, that inheritance… How exactly did the sailor Lemeir die? Was Mrs. Lemeier inadvertently caught up in some conspiracy? Or are these two matters actually unrelated?”
Xia De thought for a moment, pushed the window open wide enough for him to slip through, and then jumped from the windowsill into the room. The feeling of his boots stepping on the blood was very unpleasant.
He gently closed the window behind him and glanced at the wall with the window, immediately spotting a tripod placed against the wall at its base, with a large, open book on it.
Hearing no footsteps outside, Xia De walked over and briefly flipped through the book. Its black leather cover, faded dark blue ink, and yellowed, worm-eaten pages certainly resembled a so-called ancient mysticism book.
But Xia De knew after a quick look that everything inside was concocted from imagination, lacking any system, with ridiculous content, and completely incorrect terminology. It might fool ordinary people, but any Ring術士 could see through the book’s true nature at a glance.
The only thing that surprised him was that the page open in this large book, titled “Conch Text,” was a ritual for praying to an evil god to lift a curse.
The pentagram ritual pattern on the ground was exactly identical to the hand-drawn pattern on this page, indicating that the owner of this place, Jason Delar, was not worshipping an evil god because he was insane, but rather wanted to pray for the other party to lift a curse.
Things seemed to be getting stranger and stranger.
He placed his hand on the book, letting the woman’s voice in his mind confirm that the book itself was just an ordinary item, then took out his revolver from his waist. He checked to make sure he hadn’t taken the wrong one, then quietly walked to the doorway, and then deliberately stomped heavily on the floor.
The silence downstairs continued for one more second, then Xia De heard the sound of a porcelain teacup falling to the ground. Footsteps clattered up the stairs, but the footsteps didn't enter this room; instead, they went into the adjacent room.
A chair was pushed back, a lock was turned, a drawer was pulled open, and then came the sound of bullets being loaded.
The panicking Mr. Delar’s fingers trembled as he pulled back the safety on the cold firearm in his hand, then cautiously stepped out the door.
But just as he stepped out, a gun barrel was pressed against his forehead from outside.
Xia De, dressed in a black robe with water still dripping from it, stood in the hallway. For some reason, when Mr. Delar saw that his opponent was a person and the weapon used was a gun, he actually felt a sense of relief.
He probably thought his ritual had truly summoned something terrible.
“Put down the weapon.”
Xia De’s muffled voice came from behind the mask; the middle-aged man didn’t recognize the young man who had visited him shortly before. He hesitated, and Xia De let out a soft snort.
“Oh!”
Under the effect of the spell, flames suddenly shot up from the sleeve of Mr. Delar’s gun-holding hand. He immediately dropped the pistol in a panic and slapped his sleeve against the wall to extinguish the fire.
The flames were quickly put out. He trembled, wanting to turn and run, but Xia De kicked him in the back of the knee.
Terrified, he sat on the ground with his back against the wall, Xia De’s gun still pointed at his forehead. From the inexplicable fire on his sleeve just now, the middle-aged man already understood what the stranger was:
“A Ring術士.”
“Yes.”
“Save me, I’ll give you anything you want.”
He raised his hands, even wanting to grab Xia De’s arm, but the gun barrel moved slightly, and he immediately dared not move.
“Save you?”
Xia De raised the gun in his hand, pointing towards the room covered in blood:
“Now, come into this room with me and tell me what you’ve been through.”
“I’ll tell you everything, I can give you money, just save me!”