Chapter 1627

Gold and silver dual-color means one side of the cover is gold, and one side of the cover is silver.

Megan pinched the pendant gently and then shook it slightly, and the small pendant turned into a huge book held in her hands:

"When we were on the island last time, I told you that I have an angel-level relic weapon; look, this is it."

This book was different from the "Smowell Code" of Miss Pawo, the vice president of the Truth Society; it could not fly away from its owner, but this did not prevent Xia De from feeling the power unique to an angel-level relic.

"Can you tell me, besides enhancing spellcasting, what other characteristics does it have?"

Xia De asked, and Megan signaled Xia De to follow her footsteps and stroll with her on the deserted street in the rain. The sound of pouring rain continued endlessly all around, and the rain became heavier than in the morning.

The cold spread outdoors, but fortunately, it was spring, not autumn, and every rain represented greater vitality soon.

"Angel-level relic 【Codex of Craving】; write the miracles, curses, or magic, cough cough, related knowledge that you have completely mastered on it, including the learning methods of power, spellcasting effects, etc., and then use the recorded miracles and curses on this relic, and you can store supernatural abilities in it, making it possible to achieve spellcasting with very little mental power consumption later. If you spend some extra cost, you can even store other people's power."

Xia De raised his eyebrows; although Megan claimed that this relic could not compare to the 【Night Watcher】 of the God-Caller, this characteristic alone was useful enough:

"I think the limiting conditions of this book should be the storage quantity, the consumption of maintaining the storage state... since it is the Codex of Craving, it should also affect yourself."

"Yes, it makes me crave knowledge more and more, more and more knowledge. If I can't control it, the Chosen of Knowledge and Wisdom who went crazy will be my end. Fortunately, I still have many troubles, and I have been mentally deranged for decades, unable to focus on scholarship, which actually makes the influence of this book on me not great."

As she walked forward, she lowered her head and stroked the large metal-covered book she was holding, not avoiding discussing these things with Xia De. On the gold side of the book, there was a complete ancient symbol representing "wisdom," and on the silver side, there was a circle composed of five stones similar to "Sage's Glow Stones."

"Besides storage and release, at close range, it can also analyze the effects of other people's spellcasting. I was okay using this relic when I was at the eleventh ring; when I was close to a state of losing control some time ago, I couldn't touch it. So the first two times I landed on the island, I almost went on an adventure empty-handed."

"Now you can use the power of this book?"

"Part of the power. How strong I was at my peak, a six-ring Ringed Shushi like you can't imagine. I admit you are very powerful, but your level ultimately limits you."

Megan showed a smile at the corner of her mouth, one hand holding the book from below, and one hand placed gently on it, her palm covering the symbol representing "knowledge":

"Then, let's leave the rest to me."

Invisible wind spread outward from the witch's body, making the rain curtain like a curtain, as if pushed aside by a transparent giant hand.

The metal-covered book emitted a soft light, and the whisper elements were converted into the four-element fluctuations unique to Megan and Audrey, which indeed reached the level of a high-tier Ringed Shushi/high-tier witch.

At this time, the two had arrived in front of the door leading to Rotten Eye Bali's lair; if this door were pushed open, inside would be the gang territory in the "Hui"-shaped slum. Xia De asked the lady beside him with his eyes if it was necessary to open the door now, but she shook her head slightly:

"This is enough."

The light on the book became brighter and brighter, and the light was also deforming, until the whole book turned into a gold and silver dual-color metal large bow. Sky-blue crushed gems were studded all over the bow; even though there was no sunlight now, the metal and gems were shining.

She aimed at the sky and pulled the bowstring, and at the same time, an arrow like white mist appeared at her fingertips.

Whoosh!

The arrow like white mist flew towards the rainy sky, and then burst silently in the air. Subsequently, the effect of the arrow began to affect the entire street block, and even Xia De felt a little drowsy.

The surroundings seemed to have become a bit different; it was clearly still a rainy street with no one, but the sound of rain became slight, the scenery faded a bit, and Xia De subconsciously felt in his heart that it would be better for him not to stay here.

"What kind of miracle is this? I felt the effects of large-scale coma, idle person expulsion, and silent door."

He asked curiously, and the long bow in Megan's hand had turned back into a book. Seeing her expression freeze, Xia De knew that this was not the power of a Ringed Shushi, but the power of a witch, and the lady with brown shoulder-length hair also explained:

"This is the miracle - 【No Man's Land】; the effect is to make all life in the area fall into a deep sleep, and within a certain period of time, expel all people who enter this area. It's normal that you haven't heard of it; this miracle is very difficult to learn, so it doesn't have much reputation, yes, that's it... oh, this book has two modes, book and bow, but it can only turn into a bow when releasing the power stored in it, so this is not a weapon."

Xia De could hear what Megan wanted to cover up, but he didn't ask much, and instead took the initiative to push open the door in front of him.

This door was not only locked from the inside, but there were also two door bars behind it. Xia De's 【Key of the Door】 was only effective against locks, but fortunately, pure strength was effective against everything.

Pushing the door to enter, one could see the curved narrow alley divided into two sides by the low and dilapidated building in the center; black rags were draped over the alleys on the left and right sides, not knowing whether it was to prevent peeping from high places or other meanings.

There were only a few people with umbrellas outdoors on a rainy day, and at this time these people had already fainted. Xia De walked over kindly to check their identities and threw them into the houses with doors open on the side. These two-story houses were also very dilapidated, and some rude-looking people gathered inside, either drinking or playing cards, but they had also fainted.

The best-looking building near the entrance was the one on the left hand side after entering the door. Although it was a building along the street, there was no door facing the Gorojie Street outside, but instead, a glass door was opened facing the inside.

The wall where the glass door was installed was also made of glass, but it was frosted glass. Therefore, from the outside, one could only vaguely see the scene inside the room. Xia De even pushed the door curiously to take a look and found that it was a shop inside.

Various high-end gold and silver wares were displayed in the cabinets, and he even saw special rule Luo De cards displayed on the shelves against the wall. However, he did not take the card away. Although the outsider liked Luo De cards, he only liked those he won or bought himself; he would not use cards he snatched, as he felt it would tarnish his deck.

"This is the highest-end black market under Rotten Eye Bali, specifically used for pawning high-value items."

Megan followed Xia De into the shop, walked familiarly to the deepest part of the shop, and then signaled Xia De to help her open the safe hidden behind the floor-to-ceiling mirror.

Gold bars, banknotes, land deeds, and contracts filled the whole box, but Megan just took out a cloth bag with a drawstring from the top layer. After opening the bag, she poured the black pearls inside into her palm.

The size of this pearl was far from the one Xia De gave to Queen Diana last year, but the rarity of the black pearl itself determined that its value was definitely not low. Xia De was not an expert in jewelry appreciation, but he had heard Miss Miss Jia Lin Na and Tifa talk about similar topics; the price of a black pearl is related to its size, roundness, smoothness, and whether the color is deep.

And this one in Megan's hand, besides not being very large—actually, it was a quarter of the size of Xia De's fist—other indicators were perfect.

Even having seen the jewelry boxes of Miss Miss Jia Lin Na and Princess Lei Qianya, he had to admit that this pearl was quite good.

"The second key requires a flawless, round black pearl. I could buy black pearls myself, but I wasn't very satisfied. I heard some time ago that Rotten Eye Bali had one here, and I originally planned to buy it through the identity of Paradise Island Pharmaceuticals. Since you said he is a cultist, it also saved me a sum of money."

Megan said with a smile, put the pearl back into the bag, and then put it into her pocket:

"I only take this pearl; the rest are yours."

She said to Xia De again, but Xia De didn't move. Unless necessary, he rarely took other people's money when breaking into an empty house; he wasn't like he was at the beginning, almost unable to afford food:

"This money is too dirty; I don't want it. If there is time later, let's take it and donate it to the church; I hope the poor people in Green Lake City can eat a full meal because of this."

Leaving the shop, the two walked along the road on the left towards the depths; a few hundred meters away, where the roads on the left and right sides converged again, was Rotten Eye Bali's "office building."

The term "office building" was very strange, but Xia De couldn't think of a better way to describe it.

This was a three-story building, and it was also the only three-story building here. The first floor was like an open tavern, with long tables filling the room, and various firearms, daggers, and long swords hanging on the walls.

The second floor was the office area; the gang leader also needed to check accounts, personnel lists, and handle relationships with other gangs. Xia De and Megan flipped through it briefly and didn't find anything related to Ringed Shushi.

Although there was a third floor, no stairs leading to the third floor were found on the second floor. However, Xia De didn't need to turn into a butterfly to fly to the third floor; Megan, who had already investigated the situation here in advance, rotated the candlestick on the east wall, and the bookshelf rumbled to reveal a door, behind which was a narrow staircase.

"What an old-fashioned mechanism... I'm also considering installing one at home."

Xia De examined the secret door.

"Why, do you have something to hide? Compared to mechanical devices, isn't it more convenient to use rituals to hide?"

The witch asked curiously, and Xia De shook his head:

"I have nothing to hide, just feel that this looks quite good."

Megan smiled and signaled Xia De to go upstairs with her:

"Only Rotten Eye Bali himself can go up to the third floor; there must be valuable clues here."

Saying that, she entered the secret door.

Of course, as a Ringed Shushi, protecting one's property and secrets would not rely solely on mechanical secret doors. Rotten Eye Bali also set up some security measures on the stairs on the third floor.

Those were three human eyes embedded in the wall on the side of the stairs. The eyes looked alive and could even rotate in the wall.

"This is not a miracle, it's an alchemical item. On one hand, it can make people with weak mental power faint directly when looking at each other, and on the other hand, it can record the information seen, and when the eyes are destroyed, it can also let the maker receive a reminder. The only drawback is that making this kind of alchemical item requires taking eyeballs directly from living people."

Megan introduced; the great witch of wisdom and knowledge was well-informed and knew how to deal with this.

She waved at those eyeballs:

"Sleep."

The three eyes turned their eyeballs towards the inside of the wall, and Megan signaled Xia De to continue walking up with her.

Arriving at the third floor, it was discovered that this room with only one window was actually a laboratory. The room was unusually clean, and professional metal experimental tables were placed with reagent bottles and other common alchemical equipment.

And what was uncommon was the operating table on the west wall, as well as various human organ and fish corpse specimens placed in the cupboard.

Xia De frowned, looking at the human fingers sewn onto fish in the antiseptic liquid:

"Among the Ringed Shushi I know, very few are good at undead-type abilities. Do these kinds of Ringed Shushi all like to do such disgusting experiments?"

"Only a small part will; it looks like he is doing experiments on artificially manufacturing specific water ghosts."

Megan flipped through the experimental records on the table and checked the books with dense markings on the side. Ringed Shushi themselves were like scholars, so even cultists must have undergone various training:

"So it was the idea of grafting organs and limbs; the 【Truth Society】 gave up this kind of experimental thinking more than thirty years ago. However, the Truth Society wanted to graft organs of alien creatures onto the human body through experiments, thereby trying to make humans possess the innate racial talents of alien creatures, while Bali wanted to make the revived corpses more powerful... he still had some of his own ideas, unfortunately not many. But considering he is only a low-tier, this talent is also worthy of praise."

Although she didn't like this kind of experiment just like Xia De, she still flipped through other records on the desk:

"The ones behind are... oh? So that's it, human alchemy..."

"What?"

Xia De turned his head sharply:

"Is it the meaning I understand? Creating life? He is just a low-tier Ringed Shushi, how could he possibly do it?"

Although the greatest masterpiece of alchemy is the "Sage's Stone," creating life through alchemy is actually the supreme goal pursued by alchemy. There is even a saying that the Sage's Stone itself is the most basic form of life, because the elixir of immortality configured by the true Sage's Stone can repair the defects of the soul and body at the same time.

Some manuscripts of ancient alchemists even show that the Sage's Stone can be directly fused with the human body in a specific way, becoming a part of the human body in a very harmonious way—this is somewhat similar to Xia De's miracle "Active Mud." It's just that this characteristic was not recognized in the Sixth Era because no one could reproduce the phenomena recorded in those materials.

"Bali is not completely creating life; it's very low-level, using living organisms to infect the corpses of the dead, thereby forming living undead. This is a strictly forbidden experiment, indeed not something a low-tier Ringed Shushi could do... hmm? What is this?"

In the sound of the rain outside the window, she destroyed the padlock of the desk drawer and took out a document bag from it. After taking out the documents inside, the speed of flipping became faster and faster:

"Come here quickly, look at this. Human alchemy!"

"You have already said this sentence once."

Xia De walked over, but the witch shook her head, this time her expression was very serious:

"It's not the primary technique of stitching corpses; this copy in my hand is true human alchemy attempting to create life. This material is very shallow; I can see that it was sent to Rotten Eye Bali by someone else to help him complete the undead experiment. In other words, behind Rotten Eye Bali, there is an extremely brilliant alchemist. Although I don't believe the other party can really create life, they have definitely reached the forefront."

Xia De frowned slightly:

"Does the Drowning Cult have such a powerful figure?"

When he was in contact with the three major ocean cults in Coldwater Port, he hadn't heard that the Drowning Cult was so powerful. Their level should be about the same as the Scarlet Cult, which had already fallen into a slump; the two had fought for many years with equal strength.

"No, it shouldn't be the Drowning Cult that gave him this information."

The witch said with an ugly expression, twisted the paper, and then looked at the text in the manuscript:

"This kind of special manuscript paper is commonly used by our family; many of the letters left by my father about the past of the family are on this kind of manuscript paper, and besides that, I haven't seen similar paper. I have also seen this kind of handwriting on the books left by my father; someone wrote reading notes in this handwriting. This human alchemy material comes from the Edwards family. These materials perfectly fit Bali's research and couldn't have been picked up by him on the island."

"This..."

This was information that had never been thought of; Xia De looked at the lady in front of him in surprise:

"In other words, we can already determine that the cultists appearing locally are really related to your family. Wait, one of your ancestors might be a homunculus?"

"Oh, of course impossible; truly creating life from scratch is the authority of the gods, and even the most brilliant alchemist can only add, delete, or modify to a certain extent based on humans. I suspect that one of my ancestors underwent human alchemy, which is why the prophecy that everyone will return is circulating in our bloodline."

The witch gave the most likely conjecture, and Xia De frowned and thought for a moment:

"Wait a minute, isn't your father, Alphonse Edwards, an adopted son?"

"Suspected to be an adopted son; no one can be sure of this point. And, is it normal for the mysterious Edwards family to suddenly adopt a child?"

The witch asked rhetorically, and she thought of more things:

"When my father was alive, he rarely talked about family matters; I originally thought he was an illegitimate child adopted under the name of an adopted son, and actually still had the Edwards bloodline. Now that I think about it..."

Her lips were pursed, and her expression was a bit ugly:

"Could my father also be a so-called test subject?"

"Lady, we don't have any evidence now, so don't guess randomly."

Xia De comforted, and then put forward a suggestion:

"If you trust me, when we separate tonight, give me some of your blood, and I will verify your ancestry."

There is a relic in Mibao that verifies ancestry, and that relic has verified the bloodline for both Xia De and Mia. But blood is also the best medium for curses, especially voluntarily donated blood, so the act of giving one's blood to others must be very cautious.

This is a more dangerous act than giving one's own keys to others.

Audrey nodded gently:

"Let's talk about it in the evening; let's look for what else is here."

She took away the human alchemy material, which also belonged to one of the Edwards' relics. Subsequently, she continued to check the desk and the bookshelf with dense markings of various documents and materials on the side, while Xia De checked other parts of the laboratory.

The items placed on the surface were ordinary goods, and a few magic potion materials might be valuable, but they had nothing to do with their goal this time.

Xia De tried to find more connections between Rotten Eye Bali and the Edwards family, and the cult he belonged to, but he could only occasionally see prayers carved with sharp blades on the walls and experimental tables.

But Xia De's excellent perception still played a role; in the process of leaning against the wall and touching every inch of the wall surface with his hand, "she" in his ear suddenly reminded:

【Under your feet.】

The position Xia De was in at this time was the southeast corner of the room, so he bent down and knocked on the solid stone floor, and said to the witch who was rummaging through documents:

"There are defensive measures here; I can't unlock them."

Violence could of course unlock them, but Xia De was worried that it would trigger Rotten Eye Bali's alertness.

"Look, there are things you can't do either."

The witch walked over, knocked on the floor a few times just like Xia De, and after confirming the element traces, took out a bottle of black magic potion from her carry-on bag, poured it into her left palm, then dipped some with the index finger of her right hand, and applied the ink-like magic potion to the floor.

Soon, the black ritual array was outlined:

"Use 'Mud to Stone' on the ground on the side, and then dig a hole from the side. Be careful, don't destroy this floor area where I drew the ritual."

Xia De did as he was told and soon took out a small safe from under the floor.

There were also traces of ritual processing on the safe, so the witch again used her knowledge and experience to crack it. However, in just over ten minutes, the safe was opened.

In the safe, a pale heart was contained in a glass jar. The solution in the container was light yellow, and small bubbles constantly emerged around the pale heart. It was alive, constantly absorbing liquid into the ventricle, and then spraying it out from the other end. The liquid formed a cycle like blood, and this scene looked incomparably weird.

And next to this glass jar, there were also some letters and documents.

PS: This is the last day of double monthly tickets this month! 6K big chapter, asking for tickets.