Chapter 355: Inspiration Strikes at Last

Entering the deep mining area, the height of the mine shaft narrowed, unlike the shallow mining area where an adult could walk upright.

Wu Chang and the others no longer walked downward, but instead found a steam mine train to use for transport.

In Stilane, steam trains underground only started becoming popular in the last year or two; the more mainstream way to transport coal was still using ponies combined with manual labor.

Because the difficulty of driving a steam train deep in a mine is high, and the mine tunnels and tracks are much narrower and more prone to malfunctions, even large-scale coal mines like the Pine Coal Mine rarely used steam trains underground.

The difficulty of driving the underground train made Lei Wendun and Thomas not optimistic about Wu Chang's decision, but who would have thought that after Wu Chang sat on the steam train and took a few looks, he started the train skillfully.

Wu Chang used Occult Mastery to condense occult runes with energy, covering the area around the steam train and absorbing all the sound the train emitted.

He then shouted: "Lei Wendun, go add coal; Thomas, you come to the front to guide the way."

Lei Wendun swung his shovel, shoveling coal into the locomotive's boiler, while asking in disbelief:

"You actually know how to drive a steam train?"

He could not understand how Wu Chang, as a descendant of a fallen noble who didn't even know the living conditions of the lower classes, learned to drive an underground steam train.

Wu Chang said in a natural tone:

"Of course, it's thanks to talent. I heard that every descendant of the Arcane Knight Order possesses some talent to a greater or lesser degree. My talent is the automatic mastery of operating various vehicles. What, you don't have one?"

Lei Wendun showed a confused expression. Seeing Wu Chang speak so solemnly and convincingly, he began to ponder.

Could his talent be the ability to deduce the truth through details and reconstruct the course of events?

Or perhaps it was a focus on role-playing and strong learning ability.

It couldn't be that he didn't inherit the talent of the Arcane Knight Order.

Seeing Lei Wendun shoveling coal while lost in thought, Ailin turned her face toward the window, afraid that if she looked for another two seconds, she would burst out laughing.

The underground train traveled until it reached five hundred meters below ground, only stopping under Wu Chang's emergency braking.

The mine tunnel deeper ahead had collapsed due to the impact of the previous explosion.

Wu Chang stepped out of the driver's cab and shouted toward Lei Wendun:

"Great Detective, the road ahead is blocked. Do we need to turn back?"

Lei Wendun shook his head and said: "No need. If nothing unexpected happens, this road shouldn't be blocked."

He stuck his shovel into the coal pile, walked to the collapsed mine tunnel, took out his folding magnifying glass, and carefully observed the surroundings.

"Just as I thought, the explosion here is completely different from the one in the shallow mining area."

"The explosion in the shallow area was extremely powerful, shattering the reinforced mine walls and triggering the collapse of the tunnel."

"But it's different here. It looks thoroughly collapsed, but in reality, the lethality of the explosion was far less than in the shallow area; otherwise, the tracks wouldn't have extended all the way to the collapse before showing breaks and deformation."

Having said this, Lei Wendun changed his tone, speaking in an exceptionally formal, almost declarative manner:

"Therefore, I dare to assert that the collapse of the mine tunnel before us is not real."

Lei Wendun's voice echoed in the mine tunnel, and the voice, carrying extraordinary energy, touched the ruins blocking the road, immediately causing a crisp sound like breaking glass to ring out in the air.

Wu Chang could clearly see a transparent occult barrier shattering under Lei Wendun's declaration.

The occult barrier Lei Wendun broke was something he could see from the beginning, but he was certain that with Lei Wendun's level of occult attainment, he shouldn't have been able to see it.

Moreover, when breaking the occult barrier in front of him, Lei Wendun did not use occult methods; it was more like he had used some kind of magic.

He asked curiously: "How did you do that?"

Lei Wendun suppressed the smugness at the corner of his mouth and said in a flat tone: "Just a simple application of True Name Art combined with the First Law of Occultism."

Wu Chang asked: "What is True Name Art?"

Lei Wendun frowned. He had thought Wu Chang was deliberately picking a fight, but seeing the pure ignorance revealed on Wu Chang's face, he couldn't help but roll his eyes.

If it were another time, he would be very willing to explain these extraordinary common sense facts to Wu Chang to regain some face for his occultism.

But explaining now would make him feel like someone who told a brilliant joke and was waiting for the audience's response, only for the audience to blankly say: "Sorry, I didn't understand a few words in your last sentence."

Having to explain his own "punchline" was even more depressing than failing to make the audience laugh.

"True Name Art is a branch that combines magic and occultism. The person who created this magic believed that all things have their true names or essences, and as long as one masters that essence, one can obtain its power."

"The First Law of Occultism mentions that the more one believes in the existence of a certain power, the more powerful that force becomes."

"Through self-hypnosis, combined with the First Law of Occultism, if the True Name Art used can accurately state the truth, it can have the ability to partially lift the fog of truth."

"Just like how I firmly believe this mine tunnel has not truly collapsed and everything in front of us is a trick of the eye; if this guess is correct, it can help me see the existence blocking the truth and help me break it."

Wu Chang suddenly realized after hearing this and applauded:

"Impressive, worthy of being the greatest detective in Grimlan."

Although Lei Wendun received Wu Chang's praise, the previous explanation greatly reduced his sense of achievement.

With a dark face, he came to the collapsed ruins and took out a hand-held dust sprayer. He gently squeezed the rear airbag, and the front of the sprayer emitted fine, fluorescent dust.

The dust was evenly sprinkled into the ruins in front, forming a thin, foggy layer, except for an area the size of a head where the glowing dust adhered particularly densely.

He put the sprayer back into his bosom and said:

"Found it. Just as in the shallow area, someone used occultism to pull a trick."

"It's just that their method is very covert and hard to discover through residual aura; only by determining beforehand that something was done here can one deduce where the problem lies."

Having discovered the area where the occult ritual was located, Lei Wendun originally wanted to solve it himself, but halfway through taking out his tools, he thought of Wu Chang behind him and made a gesture of invitation, saying:

"With you here, I don't need to waste my time."

Wu Chang shook his head slightly, condensed occult runes in his hand, and cast them through the air onto the rubble blocking the mine tunnel.

The runes landed on the area marked by the fluorescent dust, and the broken stones blocking the road retracted to the sides of the mine pit with a rumbling sound, and the twisted and deformed tracks also recovered, allowing the steam train to continue moving forward.

Wu Chang started the train again. He looked at Lei Wendun, who had returned to add coal, and said:

"How were you so sure that this road leading to the underground of the mine would definitely not truly collapse?"

Lei Wendun shrugged and said:

"Thomas said that the place where coal essence is produced is the deep mining area, which is the core of the Pine Coal Mine."

"And your discovery in the shallow mining area indicates that the explosion case at the Pine Coal Mine was not a coincidence."

"From the explosion marks along the way, it can be seen that the explosion in the deep mining area was weaker than in the shallow area, and there was no obvious gas residue in the entire mine tunnel, indicating that the initial explosion was not to destroy evidence, but to cover up the secrets of the deep mining area."

"Since it was a temporary cover-up, once the incident calmed down, the secret would need to be retrieved or restarted, so naturally, they wouldn't blow up the steam mine train passage leading to the deep mining area."

Wu Chang took the opportunity to ask: "What do you think the secret regarding the coal essence is?"

Lei Wendun pondered for a moment and said: "It should be the refining technology."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow. Lei Wendun didn't have the King's Badge and couldn't see the hidden prompts on the coal essence; how did he discover it?

Watching Lei Wendun's "come and ask me" expression, Wu Chang paused for a while and said:

"Oh."

Lei Wendun: ?

What does that mean? In the next part of the plot, shouldn't you ask me how I knew, and let me show off my understanding? What is this "oh" situation?

Wu Chang curled his lips. So what if you know it's refining technology? He knows it too.

They are competitors now, so keep it in. Guessing it doesn't count as winning; only actually finding the extraordinary refining machine counts as winning.

The steam train drove all the way to six hundred meters underground, which was the coal loading station at the end of the tracks.

Upon reaching the coal loading station, the underground space became much wider, allowing people to stand upright again without having to hunch over.

Miners would mine coal from the small tunnels around and transport it here to load onto cars, which were then sent to the surface.

Near the coal loading station, one could see the temporary resting area that Thomas had mentioned.

There were no miners in the temporary resting area, and one could see quilts covered in coal dust half-open, as if miners were still resting here when the explosion occurred.

But after the explosion, all passages to the surface were sealed by occult rituals, and the workers who remained in the temporary resting area were nowhere to be found.

The workers were missing, but there were no footprints of them leaving on the ground, indicating that someone had returned to clean up the scene, and they had cleaned it very thoroughly.

Wu Chang gave Lei Wendun a look, signaling that it was his turn to perform.

Lei Wendun first started checking from the temporary resting area. He held up an oil lamp, his gaze shifting rapidly, reading every detail inside the resting area.

"There is no residual occult energy in the room, no signs of fighting in the resting area, and no drag marks on the ground, indicating that the miners inside were not forcibly taken away."

"There are two safety lamps with half their fuel left that weren't taken, and three used pickaxes, which means they didn't leave here trying to dig a passage, but had other purposes."

"One, two, three, four—there are four different footprints on the ground, but only three beds were opened. Someone came here after the explosion and took the people inside away."

"The person who appeared was very trusted by the miners; hearing the other party's request, they followed immediately, not even bringing lighting tools, digging tools, or the two pieces of black bread that are most important in an emergency."

Lei Wendun leaned down, carefully examining the four footprints, and scraped a bit of coal dust from one of them.

"The coal dust on the person who appeared later is lighter in color and has more moisture; it is shallow-layer coal. To be precise, it is the same type as the coal I just added to the steam train."

"If the other party had walked from the shallow mining area, there wouldn't be so much coal dust left on the soles of their shoes. There is only one possibility."

"The person who took those miners away also entered the deep area by steam train."

Lei Wendun walked out of the temporary resting area and paced around the surroundings. He took out the hand-held dust sprayer again and sprayed it all around, but this time, the fluorescent dust failed to reveal any new clues for him.

With a grave expression, he said: "I can almost be certain that the clue is nearby, but I cannot find where the clue actually is."

"If I'm not mistaken, the disappearance of these miners should also be related to the steam train."

Wu Chang asked: "Then why don't you try using True Name Art again?"

Lei Wendun shook his head and said: "True Name Art only takes effect when I have collected enough direct clues and can reconstruct the facts in my mind."

"If there aren't enough clues, forcing the use of True Name Art will not only have no effect, but I will also be backlashed by the spell itself."

After hearing this, Wu Chang's interest in True Name Art decreased. From Lei Wendun's description, True Name Art was just a "cherry on top" ability and couldn't provide help in a crisis.

He came to Lei Wendun's side and said:

"Sometimes, your thinking is too rational. Let go of the shackles of rationality and use your instinctive inspiration to perceive everything; perhaps you will see something different."

Lei Wendun closed his eyes and followed Wu Chang's advice to let go of his inspiration, but he soon opened his eyes again and said:

"It doesn't work. I can't see anything."

"If I were investigating the case, I would have returned to the city by this point and gone straight to find Zhu Li. But now, I want to see how an inspiration-based detective will proceed to the next step."

Wu Chang smiled, closed his eyes, and began to sense everything around him.

This time he did not look for resentment, nor did he consult the All-Knowing Crystal, because it was completely unnecessary.

The area where the coal loading station was located had an overly dense supernatural aura; using his inspiration to perceive it, he could detect various supernatural energies converging into a web within this space.

The very center of this web was the core of this area.

He followed what he saw through his inspiration, walking to the entrance of the temporary rest area, right at the boundary line between entering and leaving.

He opened his eyes, took a safety lamp left inside the room, lit it, and said:

"Open the miner's safety lamp and stand in place to wait."

"What are you doing..." Before Lei Wendun could finish his questioning words, he saw the Wu Chang before him disappear.

Lei Wendun looked as if he had seen a ghost; he rubbed his eyes and walked quickly to the spot where Wu Chang had vanished.

He quickly squeezed a dust sprayer, showering a large amount of fluorescent powder, but it revealed no abnormalities.

He imitated Wu Chang, lit the remaining safety lamp, stood in place, and began to count numbers silently in his heart.

When he reached ten, the scene before his eyes flipped, and after a brief sensation of weightlessness, he entered a strange space.

He saw Wu Chang standing outside the temporary rest area, saying to him:

"Welcome to the core of the Pine Tree Coal Mine."

Lei Wendun walked outside and discovered that it was a massive hemispherical mine cavern, with a height exceeding twenty meters.

Over seventy percent of the space in the cavern was filled by a gigantic machine.

The unknown machine vibrated continuously, emitting a low roar; accompanied by the roaring sound, one could see pieces of high-purity coal essence being discharged from the machine and falling into the mine carts parked below.

This was the supernatural refining machine hidden beneath the Pine Tree Coal Mine, capable of purifying ordinary deep-layer coal into coal essence.

Gazing at the behemoth before him, Lei Wendun widened his eyes and blankly said:

"How did you discover this hidden space?"

If Wu Chang had discovered the entrance to the coal essence refining space through his astonishing occult abilities or by praying to the Light of Eternal Purity, then Lei Wendun would not have found it unacceptable.

But the problem was that Wu Chang had found the clues through conventional methods; furthermore, the method Wu Chang found could also be used by him to enter this space, which only further indicated that the method Wu Chang used did not come from some special ability, but was an original setup within the Pine Tree Coal Mine.

Wu Chang said smugly: "Can't figure it out?"

Lei Wendun nodded and said: "I truly can't figure it out."

Wu Chang reached out his hand toward Lei Wendun, and Lei Wendun asked in confusion: "What does that mean?"

Wu Chang said as a matter of course: "You haven't forgotten the bet between us, have you? If you can't figure it out, that means I won, and you owe me thirty-three pounds."

Lei Wendun felt a tightness in his chest and said with dissatisfaction:

"As the leader of the Secret Magic Knights, you can get as much money as you want from the Queen; are you short of these thirty-three pounds from me?"

Wu Chang maintained his posture of reaching out for the debt and said:

"That's different; a bet is a bet."

Lei Wendun clicked his tongue, took out his wallet, removed seven pounds, and stuffed the rest of the money into Wu Chang's hand.

"Is this okay now?"

Wu Chang tucked the money into his pocket and said:

"I actually already taught you the method; this time I really did use inspiration."

"That is to say, what you call collecting enough clues, combining them with the actual situation on-site for basic deduction, and finally, the flash of insight that crosses one's mind."

Lei Wendun looked at Wu Chang suspiciously, seemingly not believing that everything was truly that simple.

"What was your deduction?"

Wu Chang said:

"First, I believe your deduction was correct; the method for the miners' disappearance was right near the temporary rest area. The supernatural being who set up the occult ritual must have used some method to hide a certain space."

"Thomas said that the production of coal essence is very stable, with at least eight carts every month, and the supernatural being who set all this up would never stay in the harsh environment of the Pine Tree Coal Mine just for the sake of coal essence."

"After all, even the coal mine owner himself stays here for no more than three days each month. Therefore, there must be a method that allows ordinary supernatural beings, or even ordinary people, to enter the area where coal essence is refined."

"Combined with Thomas's little story about the missing miner, it is not difficult to deduce that the method for entering the refining area has a lot to do with the temporary rest area."

"Following this line of thought, my inspiration guided me to find the way to enter here."

This time, Wu Chang really didn't cheat; he truly relied on inspiration to discover the way to enter here.

But Lei Wendun always felt that things were not that simple; before he could continue to press for answers, his gaze was drawn to the supernatural refining machine.

He discovered that the supernatural refining machine was no longer spitting out coal essence, but was instead converting all the produced coal essence into energy; furthermore, the machine's roar was becoming louder and louder.

Lei Wendun pointed at the supernatural refining machine, which was flickering with a faint light on its surface, and said with a trembling voice:

"Look, is it about to explode!"

(End of chapter)