Chapter 529: Substitution

Falingang under the sunlight was like being stained with a touch of gold, and the air even seemed to carry a hint of the sweetness of sugarcane.

Lumian stood at the window, pondering where the current "Devil Warlock" might be:

When he was rescued last night, Burman was in a deep coma and certainly couldn't tell the undead creatures driven by him where to go, so those undead creatures should have followed instinct and habit, dragging Burman to some place he frequented and was safe enough.

Normally, Fidel's house would be the first choice, but when Lumian searched there, he didn't find any traces of Burman having returned.

His preliminary speculation was that when Burman killed Fidel's family and the servants, he had driven those undead creatures to help, and they had already remembered that 16 Coreas Street was a battlefield and an unsafe place, so they chose another hiding place.

Where would that be?

Lumian took out the Burman data provided by Franca and the other intelligence he had gathered from Philip, Bartner, and others from the "Traveler's Bag" again, reading it over, trying to substitute himself into the "Devil Warlock," simulating his mental state, thoughts, and action choices:

Burman was born in the Fog Province in the north of Intis, also called the Winter Province, which bordered the Feynapotter Kingdom, where the folk customs were relatively rough and they loved strong liquor.

His wife Helen was a local of Falingang, but she did not have Archipelago ancestry—her grandfather was a sugarcane merchant who traveled between Falingang and Le-Sear Port, later encountered pirates, lost most of his business, and could only rely on a plantation he had saved money to buy to support the whole family.

Helen was born and raised on that plantation, and watched it be sold after her grandfather's death due to conflicts among her father's generation. Her family received a sum of money and moved into Falingang. Later, her father's passing and her mother's serious illness led her to embark on the path of an adventurer, where she met Burman.

Both of them had encounters in their adventurer careers, obtained Beyonder powers, and even purchased property in Falingang, planning for life after they were older and didn't want to adventure anymore.

A few years ago, they hired a ship with a group of adventurers they were familiar with to go to sea to hunt for treasure, but they encountered a sea monster, and only Burman and two other adventurers survived.

After that, Burman began his attempts to resurrect his wife, becoming increasingly crazy.

"Going to sea to hunt for treasure? Are there really so many treasures at sea?" Lumian muttered, thinking that the possibility of Burman still being in Falingang was very high.

Here were his best memories, traces of the few years he and his wife Helen lived together. When he prepared a secret hiding place, he would subconsciously choose this area.

Lumian continued to read the latter part of the data with this guess.

As he thought, Burman's previous dangerous attempts all occurred in the area around the Fog Sea Archipelago, including other islands and villages on the coast of the Northern Continent. If they were connected into irregular concentric circles, it would be found that the "center" was Falingang on Saint-Tick Island.

Burman used Falingang as a base to make resurrection attempts everywhere... He hadn't caused trouble in Falingang before, so why was this time an exception? If I were Burman, in a half-mad state, I would definitely treat Falingang as a home in my heart, a collection of all beautiful memories. Normally, I wouldn't destroy the order here, and might even secretly maintain it, secretly dealing with some bold pirates and adventurers... Lumian analyzed thoughtfully.

He was replacing Falingang with Cordu Village, thinking that if his sister's death had nothing to do with Cordu Village and it remained peaceful, whoever dared to affect the daily life of Cordu Village, whoever dared to change the state of that place, was his enemy!

He frowned slightly, feeling that there might be some very important details about the explosion the night before last that hadn't been figured out. The subsequent fact that Burman killed Fidel and his whole family just because of a wrong sentence might also have factors in this regard—Fidel and Burman had cooperated for many years, so he shouldn't be unaware of his unstable mental state and that he could go mad at any time. How could such a shrewd big merchant not consider the impact his words might have on the "Devil Warlock"?

Moreover, Burman wanted to kill the adventurer Louis Berry in hopes of covering up his cooperation with Fidel. He had already killed Fidel, so what was the need to silence Lumian?

Perhaps according to Fidel's experience, he could have persuaded Burman to wait a few days before acting. Who knew that Burman at that time was already in a crazy state and subsequently acted entirely on instinct.

After pondering for a moment, Lumian decided to enter Falingang again to see Burman and Helen's "former residence."

Although it had long been sold by Burman in exchange for funds for resurrection experiments and was heavily watched by official Beyonders, there was still a possibility of leaving behind important clues:

What if the crazy Burman insisted on returning to the "former residence" to take a look?

After instructing Lugano to take good care of Ludwig, Lumian went down to the deck and met Philip.

This safety supervisor of the "Flying Bird" looked at Lumian with a complicated expression, not mentioning the room that looked like it had been hit by artillery fire, and said to himself:

"I distributed the remaining repair fees to the workers and servants who participated."

His implication was that I have already paid for the people who should be silenced for you.

"You can take a share yourself." Lumian responded with a smile.

Philip shook his head and sighed:

"If there are no similar things on the way from Falingang to Sear Port, that is the best reward for me."

"I'll try my best." Lumian said sincerely.

He didn't make a promise; after all, some things were not under his control.

He also wanted to arrive at Sear Port safely and steadily, and start tracking the core members of "April Fool's," the "Bard" and "Saitama."

Philip stared at Lumian for a few seconds, as if thinking about whether to report this guy in advance.

He sighed again:

"The port blockade will be lifted tonight. Tomorrow morning, the 'Flying Bird' will set sail again. Don't miss it."

Lumian nodded and asked curiously:

"Was the 'Devil Warlock' caught?"

"No, but it's basically determined that it has nothing to do with the ships in the port, and he didn't hide here either." Philip said casually, "Burman also killed the big merchant Fidel's family last night. They seemed to have a cooperative relationship before. Perhaps Fidel wanted to betray him..."

Speaking of this, Philip keenly glanced at Lumian:

"Last night, a battle occurred in your room. Could it be related to this matter?"

"What relationship do you think there would be?" Lumian asked back amusingly.

Philip thought carefully and really couldn't connect the two things.

Seeing this, Lumian waved his hand, put on his golden straw hat, walked down the gangway to the pier, and left the port area.

Just as he arrived at the Sun Plaza, which was covered with numerous wanted posters, he saw an Archipelago man with brown-black skin, deep eye sockets, and dark pupils coming up to meet him, handing out a folded booklet printed with a lot of text and crude patterns.

"Travelers coming and going, this is the Falingang Travel Guide, with the most beautiful scenery, the most characteristic food, and the most stylish shops." The Archipelago man introduced enthusiastically, "It can help you spend a wonderful few days here."

Lumian asked very cooperatively:

"How much?"

"It doesn't cost money, free for you!" The Archipelago man answered in a high-pitched voice, "This is printed by the government, specially provided for travelers, hoping that you can leave a good impression of Falingang."

"That's great." Lumian took the travel guide with a "surprised" face and unfolded it on the spot.

This part was an introduction to beautiful scenery, and part was recommendations for various shops, including sugarcane shops, stylish bars, famous food shops, etc., etc.

With a swish, Lumian pulled out his revolver and pressed it against the center of the Archipelago man's forehead.

The Archipelago man was stunned, and it took several seconds before he stammered:

"N-no, it doesn't cost money, no need to pay, not cheating you!"

Is such a small thing worth pulling a gun?

I'm going to call the police!

Lumian asked with a smile:

"What is the relationship between these recommended shops and you?"

"No..." The Archipelago man felt the coldness of the muzzle and gradually changed his wording, "They, they pay us to recommend, and, and a part is opened by our partners."

"How many are normal shops?" Lumian pursued without being affected at all.

"Ninety percent." As soon as the Archipelago man finished speaking, he saw the adventurer opposite pull back the hammer of the revolver.

He hurriedly added:

"Ninety percent are related to us."

"What about those sceneries?" Lumian chuckled.

"Percent, fifty percent, only plantations and primitive tribes are related to us." The Archipelago man was trembling with fear.

Lumian shook the unfolded travel guide and looked at the Archipelago man with a smile:

"Point out the real ones."

The Archipelago man pointed out different contents quickly, very worried that the other party's gun would suddenly go off.

Only then did Lumian put away the revolver, took the travel guide, and walked toward the open-air market on the other side of the Sun Plaza.

He said so much to that Archipelago man just now, on one hand, to scare the scammer, and on the other hand, because he suddenly had inspiration:

For Burman, who had lived in Falingang for many years, did some of the food and scenery here also belong to part of his beautiful memories?

When he suffered setbacks, killed his best partner, and encountered failure in battle, would the crazy and paranoid him go to places with beautiful memories to draw strength and fill his heart?

Lumian asked himself, if it were him, in that state, he should also perform similar behaviors.

Reason might tell him that this could be tracked and discovered, but half-mad people often don't listen to reason.

Therefore, whether it was the lighthouse moonlight, volcano sunset, and other scenery, or Leptos shredded pork, Gasparro seafood rice, Saint-Tick chocolate ice cream, and other food, they all might welcome the secret visit of the "Devil Warlock."

And in that state, he would likely not handle traces very carefully.

Lumian pressed the golden straw hat on his head, crossed the open-air market, and walked toward the cliff mountain located outside Falingang.

The lighthouse of Falingang was there.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 530 =====