Chapter 28

In a very safe situation, having obtained information that had nothing to do with him, the satisfied Xia De intended to turn and leave, planning to tell Doctor Schneider about what he had seen and heard today.

But at this moment, the woman's elegant, whispering voice rang in his ears again:

【You have touched 'Enlightenment'.】

He stopped his steps and frowned. The 【Enlightenment】 element was related to civilization, but rich traces of sorcery and curses could also lead to its appearance, but here...

Standing in the narrow open space between the pipes and the wall, because this was a dead end, there was actually not much trash, though there was more animal excrement.

Xia De carefully examined the wall in front of him. The wall was almost covered with all kinds of dirty words and shapes representing private organs written in chalk and paint; besides that, there were many strange traces he did not want to imagine.

His only two spirit runes did not have the effect of enhancing vision for the time being, but what truly made him different from ordinary people was his ability to decipher almost all written languages.

Below the sentences insulting the gods, at a position higher than Xia De's waist, some strange patterns were captured by the young detective's eyes. He regarded them as text, and then he indeed obtained the meaning and pronunciation of those words:

"Manifest."

The ancient language used a full six syllables to express such a simple meaning.

In the thin mist, a white light flickered in front of Xia De. He took a step back but still kept himself in the gap between the pipes and the wall.

The curious cat was awakened by the white light, and the person holding it saw a dilapidated stone statue slowly rising from the ground.

Its base was square, and the statue was only half the height of Xia De; it was the image of a noble man with bat wings and a cloak.

Xia De closed his eyes, letting blood and tears overflow from under his eyelids. He covered the cat's eyes and turned around quickly, hearing the whispering sound coming to his ears—it was a joyful whisper, reciting a story that had never been told:

【You have touched the remnants of the Old God "Blood Duke Lao Ai".】

【An Old God born from the first filthy blood, thirsting for blood and driven mad by it. In the twilight of the old days, he developed kin through blood curses, his mind blinded by blood curses, roaring in the depths of a dark night castle.】

【You have listened to the story of the Old God "Blood Duke Lao Ai", and you have learned one of the miracles of the Old God "Blood Duke Lao Ai".】

"Can I engrave a spirit rune?"

A moment later, confirming that there was only this information, Xia De, who had emerged from his surprise, asked in a voice full of expectation, as the headache caused by being in close contact with the Old God statue had lessened because of this.

Subsequently, Xia De heard the woman's voice in his heart chuckle:

【You have obtained the curse, Blood Echo. You have not yet obtained enough stories belonging to this god, outsider; miracles are not so easily obtained.】

The whispering voice in his heart fell silent, and the Old God statue transmitted new power to Xia De. The fate ring hidden behind his soul rotated, absorbing tiny golden elements, staining the brass ring with particles of gold, and condensing the spirit that belonged uniquely to his soul.

Xia De's right eye suddenly turned blood-red; he had gained the power to see inconspicuous residual bloodstains.

After fully understanding what had just happened, Xia De did not check the power he had gained first, but instead checked the cat he was holding in his arms first.

Although this cat had seen the whole process of the Old God statue appearing along with Xia De, fortunately, the cat's line of sight was attracted by the scattered white light at the time, so it did not observe the full appearance of the Old God statue like Xia De did at the first moment. Therefore, apart from being a bit listless, Little Mia did not suffer a mental shock like Xia De.

And the power Xia De gained, simply put, was that his right eye could now see inconspicuous bloodstains remaining in the air and on the surfaces of objects when the curse was actively triggered.

This ability could also be achieved through certain technological means in Xia De's world. But when he used the curse, he did not need instruments, only to open his eyes, and as long as there were remnants of blood, no matter how faint, he could see them.

Although this was not a powerful ability, it unexpectedly matched Xia De's detective profession very well.

Xia De had never heard of the Old God "Blood Duke Lao Ai"; in fact, he had never heard of any Old God's name except for that "Father of the Infinite Tree".

The story of this Old God made Him sound like a god who was not kind. This judgment was completely correct, so after obtaining the curse and the story, the voice in his brain also reminded Xia De that he was coming into contact with the silver element 【Blasphemy】, which was an element that only evil gods possessed.

But whether it was because his own perception of 【Blasphemy】 regarding this Old God was not deep, or because the power of this stone statue with a base leaned more toward 【Miracle】, Xia De did not gain anything from 【Blasphemy】.

But the gain from the curse was also quite good. Sorcery required corresponding spirit runes to be used, while curses did not need to pass through spirit runes and were common occult abilities for Ringed Shushi. Because they were "common", the effects of curses were often not as good as sorcery, but in reality, some curses also had usage restrictions.

And judging from the doctor's notes, curses obtained through contact with Old God remnants usually could not be learned through other means.

Therefore, Xia De could be considered to have obtained a rare curse for nothing, although the effect was not very obvious.

Since he had already obtained the benefits, the next step was naturally to leave immediately.

Xia De could not take away this Old God statue; he did not even dare to touch it directly with his skin. The existence of the stone statue was clearly related to Mrs. Lasoya, and an Old God statue could not naturally exist in the city; this must have been brought into this alley by the other party to hide.

The act of bringing an evil god statue into the city like this belonged to a serious illegal act, so Xia De finally judged that Mrs. Lasoya did not belong to the good people.

So he recited the six syllables of the ancient text meaning "Manifest" in reverse order, causing the evil god's statue to slowly enter the ground again.

Only then did he cautiously slip away from the alley entrance, not even caring about saving money, and directly boarded a carriage at the next intersection, heading toward Doctor Schneider's psychological clinic located in the East District of Tobesk City with the cat, without any hesitation.

But very unfortunately, Doctor Bill Schneider was not in the clinic.

The people in the clinic still recognized Xia De, who had been invited by the doctor to be a guest yesterday, so Doctor Clay, who was responsible for receiving him, informed him of Doctor Schneider's whereabouts.

The wife and daughter of a count in this city, who was inconvenient to disclose his name, had recently developed bulimia. The count's private doctor believed this was a psychological problem, so he specially invited Doctor Schneider to go for diagnosis and treatment. Doctor Schneider would spend the night at the count's manor outside the city and would not be back at least today.

As for the address of the manor and the count's surname, in order to protect the patients' privacy, they could not tell Xia De.

"But Mr. Hamilton, you can leave a note for Bill; he will see it when he returns."

Doctor Clay said very kindly, but firmly refused to disclose the location of the count's manor.