Chapter 1021: Night Visit to the Concert Hall

Receiving the Doctor's letter was a matter of Sunday noon. The Doctor had locked onto the demon's whereabouts and decided to take action tonight. This time, the demon did not go to attend the banquet; he was hiding in the "Royal Festival Concert Hall" in the east of the city under the identity of Victor Victor Fanni.

The Doctor's plan was simple, divided into three steps: sneak into the concert hall, find the demon, and defeat it.

A simple plan also had other possibilities; the demon had already sensed that someone in the local area wanted to hunt it. It didn't know exactly what the Doctor was, but since it hadn't fled the city overnight, it must have other tricks, so the Doctor asked Xia De to be ready for battle; tonight, they might encounter other situations.

"Royal Festival Concert Hall?"

Hearing that Xia De was going to the concert hall to hunt the demon tonight, the writer Miss, whose complexion was rosy and whose mental state was quite good, frowned slightly:

"Princess Lei Lei Qianya and Princess Jia Lin Na are also listening to the concert there tonight."

"Is it such a coincidence?"

This was somewhat beyond Xia De's expectations, but these two things should not be related. The demon hiding in the concert hall was a helpless move under the Doctor's pressure, and the princesses' appointment to go to the concert hall was also an itinerary decided only yesterday.

Although the Doctor was the main force in hunting the demon, Xia De would not lower his guard because of this. He prepared sufficient spellcasting materials for himself and brought all the relics that might be useful.

After doing all this, after eating dinner and leaving the cat and Duo Luo Qian at home, he took 【Night Watcher】 and set off alone by carriage, finding Doctor Shi Nai De, who had arrived one step earlier, at the "Grass Tavern" in the east of Tuo Bei Si Ke.

The "Grass Tavern" was a regular tavern located on Luo Saier Street, only 500 meters away from the Royal Festival Concert Hall, famous for its grass-flavored specialty beer. Of course, after Doctor Shi Nai De ordered a glass, he felt that the taste of this wine was quite strange and thought that the reputation here was all blown out of proportion.

On a winter night, once night fell, there would be many people in the tavern, and no one noticed Xia De and the Doctor sitting by the wall.

On the table between the two were newspapers, notebooks, Luo De cards, and wine glasses, and the violin case containing 【Night Watcher】 was on a chair to the side; everything looked very normal.

The violin case was also left by the previous detective, and Xia De highly suspected that the other party didn't buy the case to hold a violin either.

"I can feel it, that guy is inside the concert hall."

Doctor Shi Nai De lowered his voice:

"I bought the architectural design drawing of the concert hall from the black market. We will go in from the sewer in a while. Now it is..."

"Seven thirteen minutes and twenty-one seconds."

Xia De helped the Doctor synchronize his pocket watch.

"Yes, the next concert starts at eight o'clock sharp. We leave the tavern at seven-thirty and sneak in while they are checking tickets for the opening. We enter the interior of the concert hall from the sewer at eight o'clock sharp. If the plan goes smoothly, we can come out within an hour."

The Doctor handed Xia De a small cloth bag containing various charms. In addition to the basic silent charms, there were also charms to assist with illusions, invisibility, eliminating odors, and suppressing light.

As a student of the Academy of Mechanics, the Doctor was the most proficient in alchemy among the five. In his view, the biggest problem tonight was not whether they could beat the demon, but whether they could hide well enough not to be discovered.

"I made several backup plans."

The Doctor showed his notebook to Xia De again:

"Even if the plan goes wrong, we have a remedy."

Xia De nodded:

"If so, I don't know if you have a plan for the current situation. Two high-tier Ringed Ringed Shushi have entered here."

His eyes looked at the Doctor, and the wine glass swayed toward the door.

Doctor Shi Nai De glanced toward the door, then his face changed, and he lowered his head to look at the newspaper on the table, as if he had developed an interest in the obituary on the left half:

"Old Ba Er Jin Duo died really strangely, even though he was already on the eve of stepping down."

The Doctor said pretentiously, confirming that the two gentlemen in black coats who entered the door did not walk toward this side, before carefully telling Xia De:

"I don't recognize the other one, but the taller one is a professor at the Saint-Bailun Academy of Mechanics; I once took his elective course, 'Precious Metal Refining.' However, what are the academy professors doing in Tuo Bei Si Ke? Are they also here for the 【Wisdom Stone】?"

Xia De had encountered such things as meeting academy professors in a small tavern in Leng Shui Gang, and then he broke into the Afu Luola mansion and encountered 【Desire】 in the secret room behind the damp small church.

"Professors coming here, they wouldn't be here just for a drink, right?"

Xia De said, and like the Doctor, neither of them looked at them; the senses of high-tier Ringed Ringed Shushi were very keen.

"That's hard to say, but in short, it has nothing to do with us."

The Doctor emphasized to Xia De:

"Our target tonight is only that demon; other things don't need to be managed."

After speaking, he stood up:

"However, to be on the safe side, let's go outside and walk around now; it's no longer safe here."

Although taking a walk on the street on a winter night was not a good idea, the Doctor was clearly afraid that staying in the tavern would cause other incidents.

In short, the Doctor took Xia De to avoid the academy professors and walked around on the winter streets for twenty minutes, which could also be considered familiarizing himself with the terrain.

Seeing that the time was almost up, he brought Xia De to an alley outside the Grass Tavern on Luo Saier Street. In the middle of the alley, he found an iron door that was almost integrated with the ground. The door was pressed under a pile of discarded steam pipes. The Doctor used telekinesis to move the pipes as a whole to the right, and only then did Xia De see the door pressed against the wall; judging from the degree of rust, it hadn't been opened for at least three years.

"Sewer maintenance entrance, but because of the city's underground pipeline renovation, in order to prevent biogas and coal gas pipelines from coming into direct contact, this section of the sewer was abandoned."

The Doctor explained while squatting down, taking out a small copper key and inserting it into the keyhole on the side of the door. He twisted it hard, and the key broke directly in the keyhole.

"It doesn't matter, it was expected."

The Doctor laughed dryly, looked left and right at the two ends of the dark alley, whispered an incantation, and then slammed his right hand on the ground. With a muffled 'Boom~' sound, the rusty iron door on the ground was popped open, revealing the dark passage below.

The Doctor climbed down the ladder first, followed by Xia De, who didn't forget to cover the popped-open iron door again.

Compared to the cold ground, the sewer with a nauseating smell actually felt damp and warm. Although the smell was tolerable, Xia De was still glad that he didn't eat much tonight.

"Go this way!"

Doctor Shi Nai De, who reached the bottom of the ladder first, took out two candle stubs from his pocket, lit them, and let them float beside him.

He checked the current position and checked whether the sewer had other "visitors." After confirming that there was no problem, he waved to Xia De, and the two walked together toward the depths of the darkness:

"Doctor, you should have prepared a way to deodorize, right?"

Xia De didn't forget to ask, with the smell they were currently stained with, once they appeared in the concert hall, people might be able to smell them from across two corridors.

The dim yellow light of the candle stubs illuminated the road ahead, and in the dirty and narrow sewer, rats and cockroaches moved forward with them. Although acting with the Doctor often encountered accidents, those "accidents" also hated the smell of the sewer, so they soon arrived smoothly under the concert hall.

This abandoned sewer was originally connected to the concert hall's warehouse, but the exit had been blocked years ago. After checking the concert hall's architectural map, the Doctor found another way, which was to drill a hole directly upward from the position closest to the ground:

"This is it."

The candle flew upward, indicating the position the Doctor had confirmed. And next, Xia De didn't need to do anything; as a six-tier Ringed Ringed Shushi, Doctor Shi Nai De still had the ability to melt stone walls.

He stretched his hand upward, and then a high-heat fireball like magma appeared in his hand. The fireball continued to rise, like a scorching knife cutting through a snow layer, quickly melting the rock wall above his head. Xia De recognized this as the flame of the Flame Demon; after the Doctor devoured the demon, he could obtain the demon's power in this way.

The hole was quickly opened, and the position above his head was the supply warehouse in the backstage of the first floor of the concert hall. This room would not be opened during the performance, so there was no light in the room.

So the two successfully entered the concert hall formally. The Doctor gave Xia De a brown leaf. After Xia De wiped the leaf on his clothes, the stench he had just stained actually disappeared completely.

"Not an alchemical item, it's a leaf of a special plant."

As if guessing what Xia De was thinking, the Doctor explained, and then gave Xia De a white mask; the mask only revealed the positions of the eyes and mouth:

"This is an alchemical item."

He put an identical mask on his face, and as the mask "melted," the Doctor's appearance changed into someone else. Xia De followed suit, and after the mask melted on his face, he felt as if his face was wrapped in a layer of water film.

"Even a demon cannot easily see through this disguise; this is very expensive, so we must make good use of this opportunity. According to the plan, follow me."

After preparing properly, the Doctor lay on the door to confirm that there was no one in the corridor for the time being, so he opened a crack in the door. When this middle-aged psychologist with blue eyes walked from the darkness to the light, wriggling black mucus wrapped around his coat, adding a brand-new piece of clothing for him.

Xia De, wearing the newly changed clothes, also followed, stepping on the red carpet on the ground, looking at the empty but brightly lit corridor illuminated by gas lamps.

This meant that the two officially entered the interior of the concert hall, and also meant that Xia De once again followed Doctor Shi Nai De and broke into someone else's house without permission. ===== CHAPTER 1022 =====