Chapter 1746

After the cigarette was lit, it released a pale blue smoke with a fragrance that made one drowsy. Xia De held his breath and waited for the reaction of the sleeping Count. It was only ten seconds, and as Xia De subconsciously yawned, he actually found that the Count in front of him had disappeared into thin air.

【Not disappeared, look carefully.】

"She" reminded him gently. Xia De concentrated his attention and finally saw the Count's figure again. He was not invisible; it was more like his sense of presence had been severely reduced. Xia De immediately thought of the coins in the 【Black Fog Camp】, but clearly, the two had nothing to do with each other.

Concentrating his attention to observe the Count, the Count opened his eyes, but his eyes were quite confused and sleepy, clearly not fully awake. He stood up from the sofa and walked toward the wall he had just pointed out as having a "crack leading to the paradise of bliss."

Xia De observed carefully and then watched in surprise as the Count really walked into the wall. When his skin came into contact with the wall, traces like water ripples appeared on his skin and the wall, and subsequently, the Count disappeared.

"What's the situation?"

Xia De had been following the Count all along and had already reacted when the Count interacted with the wall. Because he was worried about hurting Count Petrarch, Xia De did not pull him back but used his perception to probe this series of activities. It was only after the Count disappeared that Xia De went to touch that wall; the wall was completely solid, and even shining with the 【Time-Space】 spirit rune had no reaction.

He had lost the trail of Count Petrarch and actually hadn't seen anything, which greatly exceeded Xia De's original expectations. Although according to the Count's statement, this was not the first time he had used mushroom powder for "deep meditation," so he should be able to return soon, Xia De still believed it was best to investigate the truth himself.

When the Count disappeared just now, he had indeed felt an abnormal fluctuation of space, which indicated that the Count had undergone spatial transfer in a special state. The "crack" on the wall he mentioned was highly likely to really exist, just not observable in a normal state.

Since neither "strong spatial perception" nor Xia De's own inspiration could capture that crack, it was highly likely that this was the most hidden type of spatial gap in the stable space of the material world. Combined with the frequent spatial anomalies in the whole world recently, it could basically be determined that the role of those colorful mushroom powders was to enhance spatial perception ability in certain aspects.

"But the effect is definitely not limited to this."

Xia De hesitated and returned to the table, picking up the portion the Count had just shared with him:

"Count Petrarch is just an ordinary person; his drug tolerance is much lower than mine, and my own resistance is also very strong. For safety's sake, I only need to observe the crack for a very short time... still need to be cautious."

He took out a needle he carried with him and used the needle to pick out a very small portion of mushroom powder. With his eyes widened, he picked out the smallest particle and put it into his mouth—

【Strong hallucinogenic effect, no influence on you. It is recommended not to ingest it; just drip it into your eyes.】

"Okay."

After dissolving that tiny amount of powder with water, he dripped it into both eyes in turn. Subsequently, he only felt the world spinning; he subconsciously closed his eyes and held onto the back of the sofa so he wouldn't faint.

When he opened his eyes again, the world seemed to have become a bit different, but probably because Xia De's dosage was extremely small, he did not see terrifying hallucinations. It was just that in his eyes, the world had become much darker, and some faint black cracks were scattered in the air where there was originally nothing.

Most of these cracks were quite short and were not fixed, but were wriggling as they disappeared or appeared again. Among them, the largest and most stable gap was indeed on the wall where the Count had disappeared. Xia De didn't need to get close to confirm that this was a gap hidden in the stable material world space.

Xia De had seen introductions to these cracks in textbooks; they were generated and disappeared at all times and were one of the manifestations of spatial dynamic stability. Originally, they wouldn't be so dense; it must be because of being close to the central island of Green Schluch Lake and being affected by the instability of the "Twin Islands" that they appeared so frequently.

And this kind of gap would not have any influence on humans, and people could not see this kind of thing either. But once seen, it meant it could be touched; this was an extremely rare situation and also an extremely dangerous situation. After all, things that appeared along with spatial cracks were often not particularly friendly.

Too small a dosage meant the effect was fading rapidly. Xia De seized the time to put away the remaining mushroom powder and then walked toward the gray crack on the wall and stepped through it.

So far, he had experienced quite a few types of spatial transfer, but this experience was the worst. He felt as if he had spun in place a hundred times in one second. After the surrounding space stabilized, the food in his stomach protested, wanting to rush out of his mouth.

Holding the wall to resist the urge to retch, the smell of powder in the air further aggravated the discomfort in his stomach. Resisting the urge to vomit, he raised his head to look around. This was clearly indoors, and it was an interior with quite good decoration.

The floor tiles were clean enough to reflect light, and the height from the ceiling to the ground was a full five meters, allowing a huge crystal lamp to hang down. This was not the height that a normal floor should have. Outside the window was a gloomy sky and hazy light rain, while indoors, lively and brisk music was playing. The walls were painted gold, and the mahogany wall cabinets were filled with plates containing various fruits and exquisite candlesticks.

The stairs covered with red carpet behind him indicated that there was far more than one floor here, and looking around, the spacious hall and the laughing crowd also indicated that the area of this multi-story building was extremely large.

A middle-aged woman wearing a silk dress stood at the door, skillfully and enthusiastically welcoming every decently dressed guest who entered. The gaudily dressed girls surrounded regular customers in groups of two or three and headed upstairs or to those separate sofa sets on the first floor.

The smell of powder in the air became more and more intense, and the atmosphere created by the laughter was quite pleasant and comfortable.

"This is..."

The extremely shocked outsider gradually understood everything in front of him:

"High-end... no, whether it is Delarian or Karsenrik, brothels are ostensibly prohibited. Is this a high-end club?"

He understood everything now, why Count Petrarch said his deep meditation state could go to the "paradise of bliss" through the wall. The sober Count had indeed come to a "good place."

As long as the Count could instinctively pay while confused, this place was indeed the best paradise for that ascetic person who lived a plain life.

"However, which city is this?"

Most of the people around were speaking Karsenrik, and it was the accent of Mikaela Blast Furnace City, so Xia De had reason to suspect that he had just run to the south bank of Green Schluch Lake.

"No, no, this is not the time to consider such things. While the power of the mushroom powder has not yet weakened, I must quickly find Count Petrarch, bring him back, and then ask about the origin of these strange colorful mushrooms... I don't want to stay here for long at all. If Luvia and the others find out, they will laugh at me."

Just before Xia De could take action, the door not far from him was opened. A middle-aged man wearing a black leather jacket with his face covered by a hat walked in. After whispering a few words to the woman at the door, the latter pointed upstairs, and then led the middle-aged man and the man behind him who was carrying a black briefcase with a serious face toward the stairs.

They didn't notice Xia De at all, but Xia De recognized who the middle-aged man who entered the door was:

"Director Anluosi?"

Although he had heard when he joined the job that some field agents would use receipts from brothels and Luo De card casinos for reimbursement, Xia De really didn't expect that his loyal superior would also run to such a place to find leisure when the two countries were negotiating at such an important time.

"No, no, Director Anluosi is not that kind of person."

After the shock, Xia De figured out that his superior was probably here to carry out a mission or meet an important informant. But he didn't expect that the location where the agents carried out their mission could be such an... exciting place.

【Then where do you think it would be?】

"Of course it's on the roof, and then say something like 'Why is it you' or 'Give me a chance, I want to be a good person'."

"She" smiled gently, while Xia De continued to mutter in his heart:

"No wonder someone wants to reimburse receipts from here; it turns out it really is necessary."

Thus, Xia De faced two choices: one was to find Count Petrarch, who didn't know where he was having fun, and the other was to follow Director Anluosi to see what he was doing.

After only a slight thought, Xia De made a decision, turned around, and followed the stairs:

"Count Petrarch is having fun; I shouldn't disturb him. Director Anluosi's side is clearly more interesting."

The disappearance speed of the mushroom powder effect was faster than Xia De expected. While following the three, he cast an illusion to continue hiding his figure. After getting close, he also heard Director Anluosi call the middle-aged woman who welcomed the guests "Ms. Loris," and the other party seemed to be the boss of this business.

From the first floor to the second floor, it was still girls and men playing around, but the area of the hall had shrunk, and the remaining space was individual rooms with open doors.

The hall area on the third floor had shrunk again, but there were only three rooms, and the area of each room was very large.

Ms. Loris led the two men into one of the rooms. Before Xia De could appreciate the large wooden water basin and the big bed with thin gauze, Ms. Loris walked to the bookshelf and pressed some mechanism. Subsequently, the wall in the corner revealed a narrow passage, behind which was a staircase winding upward in the gap between the walls.

For this kind of relatively private service industry, it was not surprising to have such a secret room. Ms. Loris did not go up but waited here, and Director Anluosi led the person behind him and walked over together.

(End of chapter)