Chapter 311: The Three Divine Detectives (10)

For many years past, the nights at Wei En Manor had always been silent, for there was only one male master and his old butler; after Cat Getan's night fell, the single lit lamp would soon go out, and the vast manor would be entirely swallowed by darkness until dawn returned.

But this night, the lights in Wei En Manor remained on; the sound of a ladder scraping against bookshelves shattered the room's silence, Dick wrinkled his face and coughed twice hard, waving his hand in front of his nose to dispel the dust.

He looked up at the rows upon rows of thick books on the shelves, his fingers tracing their spines, until suddenly he paused at a book titled *Ten Mysterious Legends You Never Knew*.

Dick reached out, pulled the book from among a tightly packed stack, then climbed down several rungs of the ladder and tossed the book downward; on the floor, Elsa leapt high to catch it, then swung her short legs to place the massive volume—too big for her to hold—beside another pile of books.

Dick scrambled up the ladder in three quick steps and resumed searching the shelves, muttering to himself as he went: "The life of the rich is richer than I imagined…"

He looked up at the reading room—this was the Wei En Manor library, located on the entire top floor of the westernmost tower, filled with hundreds of bookshelves arranged in concentric circles.

The entire reading room retained a strong British character: the reddish-brown bookshelves were carved with naturalistic decorations; at the center stood a circular sofa and several semicircular desks.

"In the past, if I could have lived in a place like this, I would have been overjoyed—but here, it's just used to store books."

Dick muttered softly, took another book from the shelf, climbed down the ladder himself, placed the book on top of Elsa's neatly stacked pile, then picked up the entire heap and walked toward the center of the reading room.

There, Bruce was bent over one of the books; Dick walked over, placed the thick stack on the table, and tapped the topmost book: "Mr. Wei En, these are all the books in Zone B containing keywords related to the occult. I've arranged them chronologically—the higher up, the older the date."

Bruce took a sip of water and nodded; Dick led Elsa to another section to continue searching for books for Bruce.

Even Batman had to admit, having such a small assistant saved him a great deal of trouble; Dick and he were perfectly in sync—Bruce was indeed reading these books in chronological order, and though he had never said so, Dick had intuitively organized them all.

To understand why he was reading here, one must go back to after his last parting with Constantine.

Batman learned from Constantine that Lady Sanchez might be using all of Cat Getan's children to cultivate; he could not ignore this, but Batman knew almost nothing about the occult, Constantine seemed utterly unreliable, and Batman did not wish to rely on others—so he decided to study this knowledge himself.

But for a complete outsider with no mentor to guide him, self-study was extremely difficult; Batman turned instead to the old priest of Cat Getan Cathedral.

Batman remembered that when the priest remained in the cathedral, he could draw upon the mysterious wine pool beneath it to gain special abilities; he wondered if this might aid his study of the occult.

He arrived at the cathedral at dusk; the priest was unsurprised by his appearance. After hearing his purpose, the old priest shook his head: "As a clergyman, I of course know such a circle exists—but I advise you not to deal with them, for most of them gain their powers through pacts with demons."

"Doing so will never end well. For a time, they may gain immense power—like those in fantasy novels, commanding wind and rain—but they will inevitably pay an unimaginable price: a suffering worse than death."

"You misunderstand. I do not seek to gain power this way—I wish to find a way to counter such power."

Batman stood in the cathedral's shadows and said to the priest: "Many people now face danger from this terrifying power, yet I know nothing of it."

The priest paused in wiping his cross and said: "If you merely wish to learn about this knowledge, you should not have come to me."

"Then whom should I seek?"

"You must know the golden age of the occult has passed. Today, most people no longer revere spirits or believe in gods—especially in Cat Getan. But in the last era, a wave of black magic swept across the entire East Coast. If you wish to understand this knowledge, you must look to history."

"Cat Getan has few ancient families, but there are always one or two. Ancient families are all the same—they love recording history, collecting artifacts. Perhaps you may find traces of that era among their possessions…"

Thus, Bruce began searching through the Wei En family's library for the hidden ripples beneath the surface of that era.

Anything related to the occult carried a subtle, eerie beauty; they excelled at using uncommon words and unusual syntax to describe events, their texts brimming with coded language, as if rejecting every ordinary person's inquiry.

But if viewed rationally, these stories were merely stories—their internal logic differed not at all from children's fairy tales, and many of the concepts mentioned were merely ordinary people's fantasies about the occult, with no verifiable basis.

The clouds outside flew faster; Bruce turned pages faster too; Dick came and went repeatedly; the number of books Bruce finished grew, the unread ones dwindled; finally, Dick had searched through every book containing occult keywords and sat down opposite Bruce, beginning to read himself.

His reading pace was far slower than Bruce's, for Bruce scanned these tales merely to extract information, while Dick was genuinely captivated by the mysterious stories; Elsa sat beside him, pretending to read—but every so often, a page would vanish, swallowed whole by Elsa.

Dick was deeply absorbed when the soft clink of Bruce setting down his cup startled him; he looked up and saw that the pile beside Bruce had been entirely read through. He closed his book and asked: "Any discoveries, Mr. Wei En?"

But Bruce's gaze fell on the book Dick was reading; Dick noticed his look, glanced down at his own book, and said: "Oh, this is the 'Ten Mysterious Legends' I just got—it's quite interesting…"

"What does it say?"

"Hmm…" Dick hesitated, unsure how to answer; Bruce took another sip of water and said: "This isn't an exam or a book report—I'm just trying a different perspective, to see if I can find new insight."

"Alright. It records ten stories. I've just finished the second one's end. The first legend is about werewolves; the second is about the Suicide Town. I think the second story is more interesting…"

"Do you think it might contain any usable clues?"

"Clues?" Dick asked, puzzled: "Isn't this just a ghost story? Where would there be any clues?"

Bruce turned his gaze away from Dick and looked at the book in his own hand—a volume detailing various magical arrays, boasting their powers as miraculous, yet most of them looked like childish scribbles, and all the examples cited bore no resemblance to reality.

Bruce said to Dick: "If you're tired, go to sleep. I'll keep reading for a while."

He rose and walked toward the shelves, searching for historical books; these fantasy tales offered no reliable, detailed clues—perhaps Cat Getan's own historical development might hold some traces.

After finding the books, Bruce sat back down, but Dick and Elsa did not leave; Dick looked up and asked: "Is the witch legend true? That children who ate candy had their souls sold to demons?"

Dick propped his chin on his hand and said: "I feel something's odd—if Lady Sanchez really is a witch, why did she come to Cat Getan?"

"When my parents came to Cat Getan, it was out of desperation; only the circus here would take them—nowhere else on the East Coast offered work. So we had no choice but to come."

"If we'd had any other option, we never would have come to this city—it has terrible weather, is dangerous, and people here have bad tempers, hard to get along with. If we hadn't been desperate, we'd never have come."

"But if Lady Sanchez is a witch, shouldn't she be far stronger than us? Why would she need to come to Cat Getan?"

"These children aren't any different from others, are they? If anything, they're more violent and harder to handle…"

Bruce's hand paused on the book pages; Dick saw this and said: "Oh, sorry—I'm disturbing you? I'm just still awake. Maybe I should sit at another desk?"

"No. Keep going."

"About what?"

"The part about Cat Getan."

"I've finished. It's actually simple: outsiders wouldn't come here unless they had no other choice, right?"

"Of course, I know many outsiders have come recently—but that's because Cat Getan suddenly became cool. But Lady Sanchez has been here a long time; when she came, Cat Getan was even more dangerous."

Little Book Pavilion

"Indeed." Bruce's voice remained consistently steady, his tone flat, almost lulling.

"Laurena Sanchez had no reason to choose Cat Getan as her base—but since she did, there must be some reason."

Bruce lowered his eyes to the book in his hand, its cover inscribed: *Solomon Wei En's Notes*.