Chapter 217: The Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell

The incident occurred while the entire Dunling, as usual, lay asleep embraced by the Tem River, with lantern-bearing patrols wandering listlessly through the empty streets.

The church laws, regulations, and traditions had not yet faded in the Old Quarter; with no venues offering nighttime services, very few were willing to go out. The damp cold swirled between the colonnades, soaking clothes and coating building surfaces and exposed skin with droplets of water.

Thus, when passing that Bai Shi building, the night watchman did not immediately realize what had happened, feeling only a bright red light overhead, radiating heat perceptible even from a great distance.

And only for a brief moment while the question flashed through his mind did that red-hot mass reach a degree that could not be ignored.

He looked up to see the dome, which should have blended into the night, illuminated by a distorted, shifting light; jagged, searing red tongues of flame spat out from the open windows, devouring the ash and paper pages rising and scattering in the thermal updraft. The roar of explosion, the crash of heavy objects overturning—it was as if the scorching throat of hell were swallowing and grinding with great gulps.

A corner of paper, still bearing sparks, was blown by the fire-wind to his feet; this poor man, merely on routine duty, finally understood what had happened and tried to call someone to control the blaze.

But few remained in the Academy at night; even though it was near the riverside, the fire was not brought under control until near dawn. It was hard to say whether the few buckets of water had been effective, or if it simply extinguished itself after burning through all combustible material.

By the time Green received the news the next day and hurriedly arrived, the situation had developed entirely differently from the initial assumption. Every one of the suspected parties had perished in the inferno without exception; even their bodies were difficult to distinguish, with identities guessed solely from personal ornaments and location.

When he tried to contact his informant to learn about internal matters, Brother Wading regretfully informed him that this informant, so hard-won, would never be able to provide clues again.

Within a mere half-day, standing before the fire scene, Green experienced a rich array of inner changes: from shock and confusion, to anger, and back to confusion.

And the conditions inside the fire scene further solidified his judgment. Besides the haze that had not yet fully settled, requiring masks and filters, a strange odor floated in the air, similar to the smell encountered when re-oiling a burnt-out lantern.

Everything presented a uniform state of charring, like a large furnace used for many years, layered with burned carbon; were it not for the lists of students and teachers who had entered earlier, used to outline rough boundaries with lime around the bones that were difficult to gather, it would have been impossible to count the dead for some time.

Without claiming absolute certainty, there was at least a ninety percent confidence that this was a premeditated action.

He had not failed to consider that Professor Mo Lisen might have detected it, but as the recognized leader of the Medical School and a Royal Advisor, even in the worst-case scenario where his involvement with a heretical sect was discovered, there would be ways to mitigate the punishment; at most, his reputation would be ruined, and he would be dismissed to retire at his estate outside the city, while the Church would reasonably gain the right to deepen its control over the Medical School.

Under the condition of early discovery, there were countless methods to sweep everything clean before the Inquisition closed its net, leaving not a single piece of evidence.

Instead, as it stood now, a single fire had held a funeral for the identity of Professor Mo Lisen, simultaneously eliminating the spy painstakingly inserted into the Academy, and utterly offending the Inquisition.

In short, excluding the possibility of an accident, which could be basically ignored, the madness of this act was no different than amputating a hand for an elbow pain, a leg for a knee pain, or the head for a cervical spine disease; apart from completely evading pursuit, it had no redeeming value whatsoever.

Such completely incomprehensible behavior brought heavy clouds of suspicion, and a shuddering that shook the soul under divine protection, like a long shadow with a terrifying spine suddenly surfacing beneath the water, whose full form remained unknown, only to be discovered after the ship entered a tributary that it was not a shallow sandbar, but the very target once sought for fishing.

The most terrifying aspect of the after-fear was that the long shadow never appeared again, yet it forever swam in the depths of the disturbed soul, occasionally rippling to wake one from dreams.

Green was convinced he must find it, for it was not merely an indelible stain on his career, but something that made one feel an indescribable strangeness and insecurity while walking through a city one thought one knew completely.

Behind Mo Lisen and that potion, of which only the effects were known, there must be a truth too vast to imagine.

This was also why, after roughly learning the basic information of this visiting scholar, he decisively decided to handle it personally and followed him here.

"I thought you would know more," the professor said, showing only a slight surprise upon hearing of that unique rubbing, displaying a hint of contemplation, while remaining noncommittal about the rest, appearing as if he were listening to old news he had long known.

The large man in full plate armor, namely Brother Wading, retorted, "Then what do you know?"

I know a great deal, Kraft wanted to say, but considering the different situations of both parties, most of what he knew could not be explained normally, so he had to be selective.

"Regardless, thank you very much for sharing. Let us not speak of our views on that peculiar fire; I suppose only the members of the Medical School would consider it an accident." He sorted his thoughts, feeling that establishing some consensus would be beneficial for communication between both sides. "Professor Mo Lisen must have been involved in crimes far more serious than corpse theft and heresy."

"So, let us assume this deduction holds; we must figure it out and deal with it as soon as possible before it turns into a trouble no one can handle."

"If there were clues, the Inquisition would have done so half a year ago. Of course, if you are willing to use your position to provide some news from within the Academy, that would be even better." Regarding the loss of the informant, Brother Wading was clearly still resentful; it seemed the Inquisition had not yet quickly developed a second person capable of entering the Medical School and willing to serve the Church.

Green was less direct, merely proposing: "Professor Kraft, I swear by my faith in the Heavenly Father that what I say is true; for fairness, should you not be more candid in explaining exactly what you are doing and why you have come?"

This question actually stumped Kraft; before being asked, he had never seriously considered the answer, or rather, he felt the reasons were sufficient and obvious, just as water flows from high places to low places.

To say it was for justice, it was not entirely so; to say it was for himself, it seemed that as long as one did not get involved from the start, there would be no stake in the outcome.

He had neither the grand vow to save the world with his own strength, nor any particular grief or indignation to champion justice for anyone, acting only according to basic logic. This logic seemed insufficient as a support spanning more than half the kingdom and tracing back to this very spot.

Green observed Kraft's silence; that thin-shell sensation briefly perceived in the tomb reappeared on the other man, as if this extremely vigorous body was actually a smooth white shell of a crisp bird's egg.

"It is curiosity, I suppose; I want to know how it happened. Why not show me that copy of the rubbing? Perhaps it will offer some inspiration."

"After you prove your medical skills do not involve any violations, there will be no problem."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let us depart now; I hope this can become the first step in building trust, after all, our goals are aligned."

End of this chapter.