Chapter 165: Carbon Paper

"The way you look at me now is very strange."

The girl with beautiful brown long hair said, then stood up:

"It's already very late, so I'll leave first. Detective, our cooperation continues. If there is anything, I will write to you directly."

"Miss Beiyasi, then where do you live? The Sun Church?"

"Of course not, otherwise wouldn't it be telling others directly that Black Stone Security Company is the church's stronghold?"

She said her address, of course, it was also an apartment rented like Miss Lu Yisha's:

"I will continue to track down the Silver-Eyed One, so goodbye, Detective Hamilton."

Xia De sent Miss Beiyasi downstairs. Watching her leave St. Derand Square, he suddenly realized that his relationship with Miss Beiyasi now was extremely similar to the "friend" relationship Miss Annette pursued.

"If the progress on Miss Annette's side is not smooth, perhaps I can rely on the progress on my side to let Miss Beiyasi know about the Chosen One and be willing to cooperate with us."

He closed the door and picked up Mia, wanting to go upstairs. He learned the current time in his heart; it was 11:00 PM on Sunday night. Although he was invited to play cards again this Sunday, no accident happened this time.

A woman's light laughter sounded in his ears.

"Alright, no major accidents happened. Last week I encountered an evil god, this week it was just a Ring Ringed Shushi and a 【Keeper-level】 relic. Relatively speaking, can this still be considered an accident?"

He asked the woman in his heart, but she didn't answer.

Xia De, in a happy mood, walked up the stairs holding the cat; it was time to rest.

Just like this, Xia De came to the Thunder Moon safely, which was the second week of July 1853, Sixth Era General Calendar. When he woke up on Monday morning, he was still summarizing the gains and losses of the previous week. But it seemed that after the Lake View Manor accident on the last day of June, life had truly gradually calmed down, and the things he encountered didn't have too much danger.

After breakfast, he took a taxi carriage to the psychological clinic on Rontgen Avenue in the East District of Tobesk. It was not yet 9:00 AM, but the clinic had already started business.

When Dr. Schneider heard Xia De was visiting, he ran downstairs from the consultation room on the second floor with messy footsteps:

"What happened? Xia De, are you okay?"

He looked terrified, probably thinking Xia De had encountered some dangerous thing that needed his help to deal with.

"I'm fine."

The two then moved to the reception room on the second floor to talk.

"I recently met a good friend... the identity is inconvenient to disclose. In short, I got information that Mr. Pangton of the steam engine screw factory in the east of the city and Mr. Roosevelt, the accountant of the Star Grass Public Tobesk Nursing Home, are closely related to 【Mercury Blood】, helping that group of guys who are hiding to keep some 【Relics】."

"Hmm? Is the news accurate?"

The doctor's spirit came up immediately.

"Guaranteed absolutely no problem. These two are likely ordinary people, of course, just likely. But this news will be revealed to the Zhengshen Sect on Tuesday, which is tomorrow, so..."

"Understood!"

The middle-aged doctor hit his palm with his left fist, and a smile appeared on his face:

"As long as there is a clue, it's easy to handle. Even if the things these two gentlemen are keeping are not the 【Fake Philosopher's Stone】, they must know more people who keep things for Mercury Blood."

The doctor looked ambitious, but he was also cautious:

"Xia De, I need to prepare a little, cancel the gluttony treatment for the Earl's wife and daughter that I was supposed to go to tonight, and then tonight I... no, call Lu Yisha to act together. Although they are just ordinary people, we can't be careless. Do you want to go together? Just treat it as gaining some experience."

"Of course."

Xia De was actually very interested in the relics kept by these ordinary people:

"I will go with you. The friend who gave me the clue said that if the 【Relic】 is not what we are looking for, don't take it, to prevent disturbing the church's investigation."

"No problem."

The doctor waved his hand indifferently. He was not a greedy person:

"I only want the 【Fake Philosopher's Stone】, and ask for nothing else."

The two agreed to meet at Xia De's house at 7:00 PM, because his house was closer to both targets. And for this information, the doctor thought the value was very great, and he couldn't let Xia De suffer a loss:

"Isn't there still 20 pounds owed this month? If the 【Fake Philosopher's Stone】 is found later, you don't have to pay it back; I'll pay it back for you. If it's not found, then you pay back 10 pounds."

Although the economic situation was much better than two weeks ago, Xia De was still very happy that the debt could be reduced.

He didn't delay too long at the doctor's place, so Xia De went to Old John's pawnshop afterward.

Because the distance was a bit far, he felt very painful when paying for the carriage. But now with a weekly legitimate income, Xia De was also persuading himself that money that should be spent absolutely shouldn't be saved.

He didn't think he was stingy, just afraid of being poor for a while.

There were no customers in the pawnshop. Before Xia De entered, the elderly shop owner was reading a letter. Seeing it was a regular customer, he put the letter away without changing his expression:

"Detective, you look good after half a week..."

This was just a routine greeting, but then he looked at Xia De's face suspiciously:

"How come your appearance seems to have changed... I'm overthinking it. What do you want? The 【Relic】 you wanted to find last time still has no clues."

"Do you have a time key?"

Xia De stood in front of the counter and tapped the table with his fingers.

"Yes."

"Hmm?"

He was just asking casually, but didn't expect there to really be one, so he got excited:

"How many?"

"One. Although this is a 【Relic】 that exists in multiples, do you think 【Time Key】 can be picked up at will?"

He left the counter, went out through the back door of the pawnshop, and came back with a slender box in his hand after two minutes.

He pushed the wooden box to Xia De. After opening it, the wooden time key was lying in the red lining.

"Is it packaged so well to raise the price?"

After getting permission, Xia De picked up the key to check.

"This is a business strategy, young man, you don't understand."

Old John waved his hand. Seeing that Xia De was very satisfied with this key, he began to quote the price:

"I won't guess what you are looking for 【Time Key】 for, although I can guess. Because 【Time Key】 exists in multiples, the price is relatively transparent. I quote according to the market average price. I have already checked the time point corresponding to this key; it is about the year 3002 of the Fifth Era, belonging to the mid-Fifth Era. Nothing big happened that year, so this key should be a very ordinary 【Poet-level】... 25 pounds."

High-level time keys were generally more expensive than other relics of the same level, and low-danger-level time keys were generally cheaper than other relics of the same level. Xia De had investigated this point, so he knew this price was relatively reasonable.

"20 pounds. For the sake of that cane."

But facing Old John, he still habitually bargained.

"How long are you going to bring this up? I didn't raise the price this time; this price is just right."

"Lower it a bit more, my economic situation is not very good."

Xia De put the key back into the box. The old man sized him up, seemingly thinking about the thickness of his wallet:

"23 pounds 15 shillings, can't go lower."

"Deal."

Xia De nodded, and the old man also breathed a sigh of relief. One hand pressed the box, and the other hand twisted his fingers:

"Pay first, then deliver."

"No problem, but I also want to sell a 【Relic】."

"【Relic】? Why didn't you say you were selling things first? Hurry up and take it out for me to see."

Seeing Xia De take out the slender thing wrapped in newspaper from his pocket, Old John became interested. Perhaps compared to making money, he was more interested in seeing fresh things.

"Say buy things first, if I have money, wouldn't it be hard to bargain?"

Xia De said with a smile, unfolding the newspaper to reveal the finger bone. This time Old John didn't complain about Xia De's bargaining strategy, but looked at the finger bone with a serious expression, only examining it for a moment before sighing:

"Oh? Actually this?"

"You recognize it?"

"Of course I recognize it, Keeper-level relic 【Dead Corpse Bone】, a relic that can make people obtain an immortal body. If I couldn't even recognize these special relics, what kind of pawnshop would I be opening?"

After getting Xia De's permission, the old man solemnly put on gloves to inspect the relic, and then put on a special gear metal device that looked like a monocular telescope, carefully observing the carved patterns on the surface of the finger bone:

"No problem, it is indeed the Keeper-level relic 【Dead Corpse Bone】. Look at these texts on it; this is a genuine text of the Fourth Era undead, completely lost. If it weren't for the side effects being too great, this thing could be called the most valuable Keeper-level relic."

He leaned close to the finger bone and sniffed:

"The smell of a corpse and the smell of a graveyard, oh, that's right, it is indeed this."

He put the finger bone back into Xia De's newspaper, and then took off his gloves:

"Good stuff, quote the price."

Xia De had investigated the general pricing of 【Relics】 in advance, and also talked about this problem with Miss Beiyasi last night. But just as he wanted to open his mouth to say the price, he was stopped by Old John raising his hand:

"Speaking of which, are you interested in bartering? I can't take out four-digit or five-digit cash for the time being."

Acting with Miss Beiyasi was dangerous, but the gains were very large. The money Xia De earned since coming to this world added up to not as much as this.

Xia De sized up the old man in front of him, suspecting that this was another bargaining strategy. But bartering was not impossible. After all, he earned money just to spend it on relics or knowledge:

"Tell me what it is first."

Old John first walked out of the counter, went to the door to look, and then locked the door from the inside before returning to the counter to whisper to Xia De:

"This is truly good stuff. It was just collected not long ago, and it is also Keeper-level, but quite special. The academy and the church named it 【Witch's Carbon Paper】. This is a relic used by the Witch Emperors of the Fifth Era. When it was first discovered, there were 108 sheets in total, and later they were scattered into the hands of different people. Each sheet has the same effect: aim the carbon paper at some strange art, curse, or ritual being released, and it can be branded on the paper. The Ring Ringed Shushi burns the carbon paper and drinks the ashes soaked in water, and can likely obtain strange arts, curses, divine arts, or even spirit runes similar to the branded supernatural ability..." ===== CHAPTER 166 =====