Chapter 229: Brushing Past

The phantom of the soul only had an upper body, and the lower body seemed to have been cut off. The phantom was incomparably transparent, swaying in the cold wind in the room. Xia De was very unaccustomed to this scene:

"How many statues do you have left? Where are those mermaid statues now?"

Xia De asked in a low voice.

He wanted to confirm what those statues were. He didn't intend to hold them and wouldn't touch them, so this wasn't dangerous. As for asking after killing, that was to prevent the other party from using those dangerous statues to play any tricks on him, and the soul phantom summoned by 【Soul Echo】 wouldn't lie.

"Those statues are useless even if thrown away. In order to find a way to lift the curse, I kept three. They are in the basement."

The tone without any ups and downs said, the voice seeming to come from a very distant place, hollow and powerless.

"How to enter the basement? Is it dangerous? What else is in the basement?"

He asked again.

"The basement can be entered from the door next to the broom closet on the stairs. The first floor tile after entering the basement cannot be stepped on, otherwise the door will be locked. There are those statues in the basement, amulets I bought to drive away the curse, exorcism materials I heard were needed for exorcism means, and some things I thought were useful for protecting myself."

The phantom answered again.

"Then where is your money kept?"

He didn't take the money of the dead Ponton family last time. That was because he promised Miss Beiyasi not to take extra things, and strictly speaking, it wasn't a very good behavior to loot money from such a massacre case.

But this time was different. The other party was purely looking for death. Xia De had no psychological barrier to taking the money of such people. Of course, if the amount was huge, he would donate a part of this ill-gotten wealth to the Dawn Church.

"There is only some pocket money at home. Most of it is deposited in a private bank in Coldwater Port, and a small part is with my wife who returned to her hometown to visit relatives."

It seemed that the Dawn Church wouldn't be able to get this money. Private banks recognized people and not documents, and Xia De didn't have the time or idea to make things difficult for a woman who didn't know where she was.

"Alright then, you go."

He asked some details about the story just now, confirmed that the other party didn't lie, and then waved his hand, and the soul phantom dissipated automatically. Then he searched on the corpse again, and then realized that it was very silly to search for a wallet on a person who lived at home.

So he went to the basement first. Jason Delar's basement was smaller than Xia De's. Standing on the stone steps going down, he found the gas lamp knob on the wall on one side. Under the dim light, Xia De saw at a glance the three statues covered with red cloth placed on the box facing the stairs. The outline under the red cloth was indeed similar to a mermaid.

He was very cautious and didn't approach, then quickly moved his line of sight away:

"Did you feel anything?"

【Whispering elements, those are relics. The curse is very strong, but not as strong as the activated Blood Coin.】

"Sure enough, they are relics."

Out of caution, Xia De just stood on the steps and didn't intend to enter the basement. Scanning the surroundings, the things piled up in the basement were messy and diverse. Behind the statue covered with red cloth, the holy emblems of the five orthodox gods were hung at the same time.

Stacks of religious classics were piled in the corner of the wall, and various amulets made of metal, wood, and even crystal that looked like tourist souvenirs were hung on the wall on the left. Pure white refined salt was sprinkled on the floor of the basement, and things that were difficult to understand such as stones, metals, and herbs were placed on the shelf in front of the wall on the right.

Under the box where the three mermaid statues were placed, five or six oil paintings were standing, facing those statues covered with red cloth. Because of the angle, Xia De spent some effort to see the content of the oil paintings, and they actually all painted cats.

"Using oil paintings of cats to aim at mermaids... He even had this kind of idea, but still didn't want to go to the Orthodox Church for help, really... Wait."

Xia De's eyes looked at the shelf in front of the right wall again, staring at a bundle of blue grass tied together on the second layer on the left. His brows frowned slightly:

"Why does this look so familiar..."

After a moment of recollection, he got the answer, and his eyes widened suddenly:

"Wind Vane Blue Grass!"

The reward of the Lake View Manor incident superimposed on the Angel-level 【Time Key】 reward allowed Xia De to obtain two 【Space-Time】 miracles. But 【Lagrange's Jump】, which could achieve space movement of 10 feet (about 3.04 meters), had to wait until next month to master because of the lack of main materials.

After that, Xia De flipped through the description and simple sketches of this plant from the first-year textbook of Ringed Shushi, so he could recognize the things on the shelf at a glance.

"Is the significance of coming to Coldwater Port City just for this?"

Subconsciously wanting to take it, he stopped his steps immediately, and after carefully avoiding the trap on the floor, he came to the storage cabinet and took the bundle of plants tied with cloth strips into his hand.

After a slight check, he confirmed that this was indeed the main learning material needed for the miracle 【Lagrange's Jump】.

Wind Vane Blue Grass was extremely rare even in the New Continent. These here were probably taken back by Jason Delar when he investigated illegal smuggling.

Besides this, there were many other ores and herbs on the shelf, but unfortunately, Xia De didn't know many of them. But since he had come, there was no need to leave empty-handed. He took some ores and put them in his pockets, but the herbs were too troublesome to take, so he took a few bottles with labels.

Because of the existence of the statue covered with red cloth, Xia De didn't dare to continue searching for good things here. He scanned around, let the voice in his head confirm that there were no relics other than the statues, and then left the basement to prepare to leave.

Leaving naturally also meant climbing out of the window, but just as he approached the window, he found that there were people in the lane full of mud.

"What's going on?"

He became alert in his heart, leaned against the wall by the window and looked out. Within the range he could see, there were five people in the lane. These people were obviously not passing by, but waiting for something there.

"Terrible."

He came to the window on one side of the front door and looked out. Someone walked past the Mermaid Lane holding an umbrella, and the action of looking at the house secretly explained that the front door was also not safe.

"Who did Mr. Delar offend? Wait... it wouldn't be the Orthodox Church, would it?"

Thinking carefully, the middle-aged man killed by Xia De not long ago was buying illegal books, killing homeless people to obtain fresh blood, and even set up so many strange things in the basement. It was not impossible for him to be targeted by the Church.

"No matter who he offended, I can't explain it if I stay here."

Thinking about it, he quickly came to the second floor of the house, found the location of the trapdoor leading to the attic, and climbed up along the ladder.

The attic was piled with some sundries, and Xia De didn't care, but pushed open the only window in the attic a crack.

He looked out and saw that the rain was still very heavy. From the current angle to the house on the other side of the lane, it didn't seem very far.

"Should be able to jump over."

He reached into his pocket for the frog legs, then gave up the stones in his pocket that were too heavy with pain. Chanting the incantation, he threw the crushed frog legs into his pocket, found the right time to push open the window and jumped fiercely.

Xia De didn't know if the people monitoring this house below saw him, so he soared into the air, and after confirming that he could land on the roof opposite, he prepared to jump again.

The roof was sturdy enough, and Xia De didn't break a big hole in the roof because of the shock of landing. He crouched down, ran forward on someone else's roof for two steps, found the direction, and then jumped into the air fiercely again.

Under the sky in the rain, he was as inconspicuous as a small black dot. After landing this time, he didn't run again, but lay on the roof wearing a robe to observe the surroundings. He didn't see anyone chasing from the lane below.

So he jumped again, this time choosing a shorter house diagonally in front. This house was located at the intersection of the main street and the small lane. After Xia De lay down, he confirmed that there was no one around, so he jumped from the roof to the ground and took off his mask and robe.

He didn't throw them here, but rolled them up and tucked them inside his coat.

He reorganized his wet clothes, covered his head with his hands like someone avoiding the rain, and rushed out of the lane.

Regardless of the matter behind him, Xia De made up his mind that he had nothing to do with this matter. Sticking to the low wall by his feet, he bent over and ran forward. In the hazy afternoon of this seaport city in the rain, he disappeared into the distance of the street.

The distant Xia De didn't notice that there was a carriage parked on the opposite side of the street not far from where he ran out of the lane.

And a few seconds after he ran past, the carriage window that had opened a crack was pushed open, revealing an exquisite face and that long fiery red hair.

The girl wearing a silver head crown looked out the window suspiciously, but Xia De, who was focused on going home, had already run far away.

A team of police followed a middle-aged man with a hard face and ran from a distance toward the carriage. The coachman jumped off the carriage, checked the middle-aged man's documents, and then allowed him to approach:

"Your Highness."

The man put away his umbrella, ran in the rain to the carriage window, and bowed respectfully. He didn't dare to look at the face of the person in the window:

"We have surrounded the target's house. After the action begins in a while, we will bring out some sensitive things. The mermaid statues you want are definitely no problem."

"Don't be careless. The Church also knows the situation here. I don't want the Orthodox Church to know what I took away. You know my way of doing things."

The red-haired girl sitting in the carriage said, her tone not stern, but still making the man in the rain shudder. The middle-aged man stepped on the ground with his right foot and opened his shoulders:

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, there will absolutely be no problems."

After speaking, he bowed slightly to the carriage window and then turned to return to the action scene with his men.

But the young girl sitting in the carriage, at this time, the thing she cared about most was no longer whether the relic she heard about by chance could be in her hands.

The rain scene outside the window was reflected in her eyes. She closed the carriage window again. Although the space inside the carriage was not large, sofas, coffee tables, incense burners, and porcelain teacups were all available.

The red-haired girl wore a silver crown and a white dress. The waist part had a row of pure silver decorative buttons, and she wore a pair of small black leather shoes on her feet.

She elegantly picked up the teacup in front of her, and her brown eyes showed a thoughtful look. After waiting for a while, she whispered to herself:

"Did I see it wrong just now?"

As she spoke, she raised her right hand and touched the ruby earring shining on her right ear:

"How could Xia De be here?"

(Little Miya is running...)

On the other side, Xia De returned to the small hotel in the rain. After packing his things and looking out the window without finding any followers, he checked out quickly and left.

He turned around in the small lane nearby for a few laps, then took a big detour to the pier. He walked onto the pier, confirmed that no one was watching here, bent down and pretended to fish for something in the water, and then rushed directly into the sea.

He hadn't used an umbrella, and his whole body was soaked. At this time, entering under the water surface, he even felt that it was warmer underwater.

Under the effect of the spell 【Underwater Breathing】, he held the suitcase wrapped in canvas in one hand and paddled with the other, moving underwater. Under the guidance of a fairly good sense of direction, he quickly arrived under the cliff outside the pier through underwater movement.

First, he poked his head out slightly from underwater, confirmed that the black stone in front was the reef when landing, then returned underwater again, found the rope extending from the underwater crack, and swam inward along the crack under the cliff.

At this time, it was almost evening. The ebb tide exposed part of the crack to the water surface. Xia De was actually swimming and walking at the same time. This road had been walked once, so no accidents were encountered on the return journey.

When landing in the cave in the darkness, he was still holding a big fish that was seeking its own death. Xia De, soaked all over, almost tripped over the turtle on the ground when walking toward the hidden wall at the end.

He summoned the Ring of Fate to make the wall disappear, then walked toward the ancient god statue and touched it, chanted the incantation to enter the space labyrinth, touched the signpost representing home, and entered the circular space again.

Walking out of the basement quickly, Xia De, who was still dripping with water, wiped the water on his face and saw at a glance that it was still raining in Saint Deran Square outside the window.

He looked at the rain scene outside the window blankly for a long time before letting out a long breath, dropped the suitcase, and sat down slowly against the wall, not caring that the seawater on his body wet the wall and floor:

"Oh, although this long trip didn't encounter any danger, it was really tiring."

The serious expression on his face finally relaxed. Just looking at the rain scene outside the window and listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the glass, it took a long time for him to come back to his senses.

He stood up and looked at the dead fish in his hand. It was originally alive, but died after approaching the ancient god statue. It wasn't that the statue of the ancient god 【Primal Crack】 forbade carrying living things for space movement, but that living things couldn't withstand the mental shock of approaching the statue at close range. It seemed that unless confirming that the other party's mental resistance was strong enough, wanting to carry living things for space movement was temporarily impossible.

He took a serious bath at home and washed away the smell of seawater on his body. After soaking the clothes on his body in a water basin in the washroom, he went out with an umbrella and took a carriage to Feather Pen Avenue. ===== CHAPTER 230 =====