Chapter 310: Conflict on the Street

Abandoned by his own organization, Lemaire almost exhausted his savings over the years to solve the problem. Although he couldn't even find out the name of the mermaid statue relic, he met a fortune teller who was said to be very powerful through a friend's introduction, and the fortune teller gave him advice.

"Pirates?"

Xia De sat on the chair and looked at the text on the notebook in surprise.

The fortune teller sought the guidance of destiny through divination, and what he saw was pirates. Those mermaid statues would be related to pirates, and the way to break the curse might be related to pirates.

It was a pity that Lemaire didn't have the opportunity to verify whether the fortune teller who took his 300 pounds in cash really saw destiny.

Lemaire relied on illegal smuggling activities to accumulate a large amount of savings over the years. Unfortunately, in order to break the curse, he spent a large amount of gold on divination, and the remaining money was used to buy relics with curse-breaking functions, which was why Xia De only found very little cash here.

That relic was carried by Lemaire, and it was likely buried in the seabed. Therefore, Xia De's harvest this time, besides cash, was only the old book 【Abyssal Wind】 and that second-ring Ringed Shushi's notebook.

Because he suspected that there were secret compartments here, he used 【Echo of Blood】 to observe the room. Although he did find some hidden spellcasting materials behind the bookshelf, most of them had no value and were not convenient to carry, so Xia De didn't want to take them away.

In summary, the harvest this time was not much. Counting those notebooks and books, selling them all would probably earn about 100 pounds. After all, it was free, so Xia De wouldn't think it wasn't enough. And with this money, plus his current savings, he could fully afford to spend money to renovate the third floor of Saint Delan Square.

"But this matter tells me again that this world is so dangerous that even a second-ring Ringed Shushi could die suddenly because of bad luck."

Thinking in his heart when preparing to leave, he felt quite emotional about Lemaire's fate.

【How do you plan to deal with that statue? Leave it here?】

"Of course not, tell the church. But before reporting, I still have one thing to do."

Putting the money and books into the wide pocket of his coat, Xia De pushed open the door and walked out of the attic.

Now it was Monday daytime, and there was no one else in this rented apartment except the landlord. And when he saw the old man again, he was hiding in his basement workshop.

The basement was steaming, and dense steam pipes extended from the basement and upstairs to supply production for the small workshop.

Gas lamps were lit on the walls, several gas-ignited distillers were placed against the wall, and further inside were box-type drying devices and a small-power steam engine.

The thing that took up the most space in the basement was a crimson-copper high-temperature calcination furnace. When Xia De walked down, the furnace was still working, and the metal on the surface emitted extremely high heat, with the needles on the rusty dial indicating the internal working environment in an orderly manner.

"What else do you want to do?"

Hearing the sound of Xia De opening the basement door, the old man asked vigilantly, standing in the innermost part of the basement with a gun in his hand.

"Just wanted to tell you that I have taken all the things upstairs."

Xia De said.

"Then leave, I won't tell anyone you came."

"There is one more thing, I want to see what you are producing here."

While saying this, he looked at the place, and the old man suddenly raised his gun:

"Leave here immediately! I'll only say it once, leave here immediately! Don't think that just because you are from Military Intelligence Section 6, I don't dare to shoot. Young man, go out now, and I will pretend nothing happened."

"It seems that the things you produce are really a big problem. If you have the guts, shoot. Have you killed anyone before?"

"Of course I have killed people, do you think I am scaring you?"

Separated by steam, the two could not see each other clearly. But Xia De's footsteps were very obvious, and seeing him still approaching, the old man fired a shot at Xia De's feet.

The young detective stopped and looked at the bullet hole at his feet:

"Alright, I'll stop."

Although he said so, he still walked to one side. When he was about to approach that huge distiller, he rushed forward fiercely. It looked like Xia De was hiding behind the distiller, but the old man widened his eyes because he couldn't see his legs under the distiller at all.

"Where did he go?"

Holding the gun and looking vigilantly at the room that had returned to silence, he soon felt a hand stretching out from behind him.

Xia De, who used 【Lagley's Jump】 to come behind the old landlord, suddenly wrapped his left arm around the old man's neck, and at the same time, his right hand went to snatch the pistol that was pointing forward.

The old man's reaction was also quick; he didn't intend to compete with Xia De for control of the gun in his hand at all. On the contrary, his body lay down, forcing Xia De to also bend down to wrestle with him.

But the old man's left hand took advantage of this opportunity to reach Xia De's waist and pulled out the revolver.

Very skillfully using his thumb to press the hammer, his left arm bent upward and pointed backward at Xia De's face:

"I haven't forgotten that you still have a gun at your waist, young man. You still thought too simply."

Bang~

【Gun of Kindness】 killed the person who fired. The bullet drilled in from his forehead, not even giving him a chance to leave a last word.

"Yeah, too young."

After the gunshot, the echo reverberated in the basement. Xia De sighed, put down the corpse, and then took back 【Gun of Kindness】 from the aged and withered hand. Without paying attention to this place anymore, he walked out while wiping the gun with a handkerchief.

The old man had seen his face. If he told the church the hiding place of the mermaid statue, it would be difficult if the church came to inquire. And if he killed him with his own gun, even if he took the corpse away, there was a small probability that the church would link the dispatcher's death to this matter. So, letting the old man "commit suicide" with 【Gun of Kindness】 was the best way Xia De could think of.

In this way, no matter what method the church used, they would never know who it was that came here a step ahead today.

The things afterward were simple. Xia De skillfully locked the apartment door downstairs and confirmed that he hadn't left any footprints before leaving from the back window. When he returned to the street, he looked back at the apartment building with its door tightly closed. He became more understanding of why Doctor Shi Nai De could always take out shoe covers and gloves.

The nearest church to New Denton Street was the 【Creation and Destruction Church】 of the Zhengshen 【Creation Lady】, but Xia De didn't report it immediately, but first returned to the hotel he rented to change his clothes.

Reporting a dangerous relic, of course, couldn't be done by him running to the church, so Xia De's plan was to find a child on the street near the church and pay some pocket money to ask the child to help deliver the letter.

He simply explained the location of the apartment and the matter of the mermaid statue in writing with his left hand, and then planned to set off from the hotel by carriage. But just when Xia De found an empty carriage at the hotel entrance and was about to get on, a team of police ran over blowing whistles:

"All carriages stop!"

Police blowing whistles generally meant something had happened, so besides the carriage drivers stopping in place, passersby avoided them one after another. Xia De didn't want to get into trouble, so he could only shake his head apologetically at the carriage driver in front of him.

The team of police who ran over gathered all the carriage drivers on the whole street, but didn't say what was happening, just forbidding the carriage drivers from carrying passengers now.

Xia De was worried that the mermaid statue would have other accidents, so he was anxious to rush to the church, so he didn't wait in place, but thought about walking to the next street to find a carriage.

Coldwater Port was a standard West Coast port city. Compared with Tobesk, which was located inland, the air here was more humid. And because it was adjacent to the wharf, even just taking a breath, one could feel the dampness of the sea.

Unlike the capital of Delarion, where steam industry was developed, Coldwater Port used ocean trade as its main economic means. And this also caused the steam pipe and gas pipe infrastructure construction of this city to lag far behind Tobesk.

The outer walls of the buildings along the street in Tobesk could arrange the two types of pipes in a relatively orderly manner, maintaining the city's appearance well. But the metal pipes on the outer walls of Coldwater Port were purely set up in whatever way was convenient.

Xia De thought that such pipe arrangement, although it looked a bit messy, inexplicably had a kind of rugged beauty. Combined with these aged buildings in the wharf area, the street scene here seemed to be a mixture of ancient medieval buildings and the steam era. The outlander appreciated such scenery.

As long as he wasn't asked to live in such a place.

Hoglents Avenue was connected to many alleys on both sides. Compared with relatively clean streets, most alleys could be directly equated with garbage dumps. Even though it was daytime, passersby would subconsciously detour when encountering the alley entrance, rather than passing directly from the alley entrance.

Xia De was the same, but when he was looking at the animal clinic across the street and thinking about bathing Little Mia, rapid footsteps came from the alley beside him.

As if that person had been hiding at the alley entrance all along, Xia De didn't even have time to react before a young girl in a black-and-white gauze dress rushed out of the alley and, without saying a word, stuffed the paper bag she was holding into Xia De's arms:

"Help me hold this!"

After saying this, regardless of Xia De's reaction, she lifted the hem of her skirt and quickly crossed the street, running into a small alley next to the pet clinic.

"What?"

Immediately afterward, another team of police ran out of the alley where the young girl had just rushed out. It wasn't the first time Xia De had seen police in this world, but the people who appeared at this time were definitely the police with the most military temperament he had ever seen, not ordinary street patrol officers.

"The Police Chief of Coldwater Port is indeed more powerful than Tobesk."

He couldn't help but praise in his heart.

The police didn't pay any attention to Xia De standing at the alley entrance, but ran straight along the direction the young girl had just left, and also ran into the alley across the street. Only Xia De was left standing in place, holding the paper bag, completely unaware of what had just happened. ===== CHAPTER 311 =====