Chapter 4247: Spirit Possession (Part 35)

The others immediately understood what the agent meant. From the previous memories, it could be known that the circus had already begun to decline when old Burger was young. At that time, he was at most in his thirties, still in his prime.

And what was already known was that after the town's tourism industry declined, the municipal government began pollution transfer, directly connecting the factory's sewage system to the groundwater system of Big Creek Town.

Combining these two conditions, it actually explained that when old Burger was young, water system pollution had already begun, not waiting until after he died to begin.

The agent even suspected that when the town was still in its prime, it had already begun to discharge secretly, because industrial development was already very rapid at that time. Politicians wouldn't care about the life and death of townspeople and travelers. And being relatively restrained was just because there were too many travelers coming and going, fearing being discovered.

And the "because of decline, it started to discharge" in Binger's mouth was actually because it didn't pretend after decline—not so many people came, so I discharged it openly, and no one dared to say anything to me.

And, combining the era background of that year, the circus was the most opposed by the left-wing people of that year. Human rights and animal protection in that era were still quite substantial. This circus in Big Creek Town was so famous that it would definitely be their target for heavy punches.

And these people also had a significant share in the political arena. The politicians of Seaview City might have restrained themselves because they didn't want to be discovered by them. And after the circus was hammered down, these people didn't come, and the world's wind direction also turned, so they began to be unscrupulous.

And as the leader of the sect, old Burger might have sensed something wrong; after all, he could often come into contact with the mayor, and these sect high-ranking members' actions were not restricted, so they could go to the city and sense something wrong.

From some of his behaviors before, it could be seen that he valued the sect very much. He could have relied on his appearance to join big cities and live a life of luxury, but he still had to return to this small place, and even used his marriage as a bargaining chip to continue doing the dirty work before. He absolutely wouldn't want the sect he led to be destroyed.

From another aspect, this cult maintained the stability of the sect by controlling the lives of believers in all aspects. And there were stimulants in the water, which led to many times when believers were out of control, and old Burger couldn't accept such things happening.

So, he had every reason to resist this matter.

And still the same sentence, although old Burger was handsome and had been to many big cities with the circus and had some knowledge, it was still too difficult for one person to fight against the government system. If his resistance didn't succeed, he would definitely die very ugly.

The smaller the place, the more lawless it is. These politicians could destroy the entire town to cover up this matter; could they be missing him?

It's just that I don't know if old Burger died with hatred and turned into an evil spirit, entrenched in the town, living the sect life they dreamed of in the spirit world.

Then let's speculate, if this evil spirit is not old Burger, who would it be? Or is it really just a concept?

"There is one person who is very suspicious," Bruce said, "that is the pastor Derby who suspectedly successfully escaped from the town. It looks like he shouldn't have died, but whether he really escaped or not is not certain."

"Indeed, Familo was pushed into the magic circle as a sacrifice, but this magic circle is not necessarily used for escaping."

"We have to go find that air-raid shelter," the agent said.

Several people set off quickly. The train of thought was actually the same as Peter's: anyway, whether it was old Burger or someone else, there must be someone in this town studying black magic. This person who studied black magic would definitely find a safe exit for his base, basically the route from his own home to outside the town.

And the mountain on the waterfall side was the best choice, with complex terrain that could have enough escape time, and because it was close to the scenic spot, even if he was discovered appearing there, there were excuses that could be used.

"From this, it can also be inferred that the entrance and exit of the air-raid shelter might not be far from the lake," Binger thought about it and said, "There seemed to be a cavity below the cave I stayed in before, and I felt airflow in the rock crevices, but I was too small to be sure."

So they entered the crevice again. This cave was also piled with corpses moved by Peter. I don't know why, but the corpses after death in the spirit world were also very realistic, and there was also a specific process of corpse evolution. The air in the cave wasn't very good.

But precisely because of this, Bruce noticed sharply that blood was seeping down along the rock crevices.

"There really is something under this," Bruce said, "there must be another exit. Let's go over there and take a look."

They climbed over the mountain where the waterfall was located, and then found a small door under the messy weeds at the foot of the mountain. This was indeed an air-raid shelter, and judging from the traces and style of construction, it should be a product of World War II.

There was indeed a lock on the door, but it couldn't stop a few people. They smashed the lock directly and went in. After passing through the narrow and long tunnel, they finally arrived at the hall.

This hall was also in a translucent state, but they couldn't see the magic circle. Bruce looked up and saw traces of blood seeping from the ceiling. This proved that this place was indeed located below the waterfall cave.

"It seems that the magic circle is in the real world; it might be because of the influence of occultism that it can't be displayed here. We still have to return to the real world to figure out what's going on."

Just at this time, movement suddenly came from outside the cave. They looked back and saw it was Peter.

"You are actually here," Peter sighed and said, "I guessed that you should have investigated here. I found old Burger's base and did some research on black magic, and I really found something."

"What is it?" Bruce asked.

"Old Burger is likely not the evil spirit. To be precise, he wanted to become an evil spirit, but failed."

Peter walked in and looked at the place and said: "He built a ritual magic circle here, but in the end, the person who used this magic circle wasn't him. He died before this."

"That is to say, old Burger was indeed the black magician, but he wasn't the evil spirit."

"That's right," Peter nodded and said, "After I did a little research on black magic, I found that the function of this magic circle is to turn people into a soul state, allowing him to reside in other bodies. Old Burger seemed to think that this could make him immortal. But unfortunately, he died before he had time to try."

"How do you know?"

"Because of black magic," Peter said, "this kind of magic seems to originate from the witchcraft of the primitive tribe period, and it is to transform a person's soul by borrowing various items and magic circles. I tried to make a small gadget to track old Burger's soul. The spell shows that he is already dead."

"Then where is his corpse? Can you find out where his corpse is?"

"His corpse is in the town."

Everyone suddenly realized. The agent looked at Bruce and said: "It seems that the mummified corpse wearing the clown suit is really old Burger. This is too strange."

The reason why others hadn't thought in this direction before was because they already knew old Burger was the leader of the sect, and he wasn't a circus actor anymore when he died, so it didn't make sense that he would wear a clown performance suit and be stuffed in a box. This looked too much like a smokescreen.

But I didn't expect that the world is like a play, and the truth is so absurd. This evil cult leader, who had blood on his hands and didn't know how many people he had harmed, became someone else's puppet after death. He had used a jack-in-the-box to perform on stage, but after death, he became the doll in the jack-in-the-box, but

"This is a humiliation," Kate said. "I told you, the perpetrator harbors great malice toward old Bolger. He deliberately dressed old Bolger's corpse in a clown suit and put it in a box to express a sense of superiority, as if to say, 'You are nothing but my toy.'"

"And he really likes using clown jack-in-the-boxes, as well as pulling all sorts of deceptive stunts," the agent said. "Perhaps it's because he believes he is above everyone else and enjoys the thrill of playing with people's hearts and lives."

"Can you find out who killed him?" Bruce asked, looking at Peter.

Peter shook his head and said, "Black magic isn't that miraculous; it can't reveal the process of events, only the results. However, I did manage to come up with something else. Take a look."

He emptied the contents of the bag he was carrying. It was a bag of small dolls. Peter shrugged and said, "My sewing skills are truly limited, and these things aren't easy to stitch, so you'll have to make do with them."

The group picked the dolls up from the floor and discovered that Peter had thoughtfully sewn them in their own likenesses. Bruce frowned and said, "But I have never killed anyone. Perhaps I..."

"It's not necessary to kill," Peter said. "The reason they use the method of sacrifice is because they got it wrong."

"What?"

"They misunderstood how to use this black magic," Peter said. "Just think about it; the conditions for a sacrifice couldn't possibly be this. Killing someone isn't that simple. The purpose of black magic is to launch a sneak attack when you can't kill someone using conventional methods. If you had to kill someone first just to use it, wouldn't that be a paradox?"

The agent nodded. Although he had always been unimpressed by such superstitious nonsense, he also knew that if a weapon required both a high cost in knowledge and a very steep price, and was also easily discovered, then it was completely useless—it would be better to just kick down the door and empty a magazine into the target.

Black magic requires time to learn, and the barrier to entry is not low; those who have inherited this magic through the generations have never really mastered it. At the same time, it requires a dedicated workshop to craft various magical artifacts, as well as a large space to set up rituals. So, if its sacrificial conditions were extremely difficult to meet, who would use this stuff?

"The condition for making these dolls is to infuse them with a certain amount of soul power; it doesn't necessarily require killing someone," Peter said. "I poured a bit into them, enough to activate them. You will also need to provide power continuously when you use them yourselves, so you can't use them for too long; you'll have to come back to recharge after a while."

"About how long can they remain active?"

"About twelve hours," Peter continued. "Additionally, this evil spirit now also uses black magic. I suspect that he discovered old Bolger's research while he was alive and inherited it. Considering that old Bolger couldn't have told anyone about this, the evil spirit is likely the murderer who killed old Bolger."