Chapter 4019: The Appearance of

"Mr. Munoz, do you have any other understanding of this person?"

Xia De thought for a while and asked again, the old gentleman thought for a while:

"The only direct contact I had with him was that relic containment incident. After the event, he gave me a bearer draft of 'Candle Keep Bank' when paying. Candle Keep Bank is a regional bank in the local area and also one of the first regional banks in the country.

Drafts like this are not common, and if that draft was his own, rather than given to him by others, then he must have a large account at Candle Keep Bank."

Mr. Finch nodded:

"Candle Keep Bank only does local business, and drafts were not as common as they are now twenty years ago. The person who could take out a draft back then was indeed very unusual. Since you know people from the Astley family, you can entrust them to check, maybe you can find clues from this aspect."

The suggestions of the two old gentlemen were very good, so Xia De talked to them about traitors and the "Construct Master" again, and returned to the Fragrant Mansion at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Vigo also happened to come back from outside at this time. When Xia De mentioned the topic of bank accounts, she nodded immediately:

"When the Great Witch of Destiny divined for me, she also helped me find some things in the basement of the family's old mansion that I hadn't noticed before. There are some drafts of Candle Keep Bank in it, but they shouldn't be father's. The family has a special bank account, and those drafts are transaction vouchers for private small accounts."

Xia De then put forward his own view:

"Then is it possible that your mother still has a bank account at Candle Keep Bank in the local area, and she rented a long-term safe at the bank to save things?"

Candle Keep Bank is the bank that the witch group encountered fighting ring sorcerers when they met by chance at Scholar Square when they came back from the cemetery on Friday night. The "Safe Aggregation" that Xia De dealt with after lunch escaped from it.

Of course, there are definitely no things left by Vigo's mother in those safes, otherwise Xia De would doubt again whether Vigo's mother was also manipulating everything in the dark like Laplace Howard.

When Vigo investigated her mother before Xia De appeared, she of course did not forget to investigate her mother's bank account, but she did not find that her mother had an account at the local Candle Keep Bank at that time:

"I will let Laura check this."

Xia De urged again:

"By the way, check the information of the large-amount draft cashed on the 9th day of the Month of Flowers in 1827. Although it is a bearer draft, maybe clues will be left."

So Miss Lorin immediately took people to investigate. Candle Keep Bank is very close, and she came back after four o'clock in the afternoon.

"Is it so fast?"

Vigo was surprised, and the housekeeper said hesitantly:

"The matter of the account is still under investigation, this takes time, but that draft..."

Xia De saw from her expression that she must have found bad information:

"It doesn't matter, you just say it directly."

He said and held Vigo's hand, and Miss Lorin then opened her mouth:

"The information of that draft was investigated by local police more than twenty years ago. According to the bank's records, when the police investigated the secret accounts of the Delinore restorationists, they found that the draft was issued by those people.

It's just that the draft is bearer, so the specific holder and exchanger could not be found. The investigation into that draft back then had no results. The police just cleared those suspicious accounts."

"Oh!"

Vigo raised her left hand to cover her forehead, but this time she accepted this fact very quickly:

"You said that the code name of mother in the past mentioned by people from the 【Truth Society】 was 'Marchioness,' and she has the bloodline of a distant relative of the Delinore royal family, right?"

This sentence was asking Xia De, and Xia De nodded:

"That's the case. But your mother probably doesn't belong to that group of people. She is a ring sorcerer and doesn't need to deal with such troublesome groups. I think she should just use that group of people to handle her own economic problems. She came from outside, and always has to have some economic support locally. She gave that group of people some help in exchange for large returns, which is very reasonable."

"But she later married father, who is said to be a direct descendant of the royal family."

Vigo pursed her mouth, coughed twice gently, and then sighed:

"Mother, what kind of person are you exactly?"

The investigation into the bank account could not be completed in a day or two. This era wants to check information only by doing it manually, and even if the Astley family has bank shares, wanting to investigate customer account information on a large scale must go through some procedures.

And Xia De originally thought that this Sunday would pass peacefully like this, the time had reached 4:30 in the afternoon, and it should not happen that other things would happen. But half an hour later at five o'clock, new news was sent to the Fragrant Mansion—

"Master, Mr. Watson. The investigation into the power of 'Wither' has results, that black crystal has a reaction."

"Is it so fast?"

This time it was Xia De's turn to say this sentence.

The followers of Vigo went to the local cemetery to investigate immediately after obtaining the crystal from Xia De's hand this afternoon. City public cemeteries, aristocratic family-style private cemeteries, and even nameless areas where poor corpses are buried were all their investigation targets.

The visit to the cemetery did not get any feedback. The crystal reacted in the morgue in the outer city. It is similar to the morgue where Mr. Albert is located in Moon Bay, and it is mostly used to park nameless corpses that cannot find their families for the time being.

Because a large number of refugees have emerged outside the city recently, most of the corpses in the morgue in the outer city during this period come from those outlanders. The followers of Vigo considered this point before going to investigate, and did not expect to find clues immediately.

"I'll go."

Although the time was a bit late, but for the sake of demons, Xia De did not dare to wait until the next day to check the situation.

Vigo also stood up with him:

"I'll go with you, I can always help a little."

The carriage took the two from the upper city all the way to the outer city at the foot of the mountain. When they got off the carriage, the sunset had already appeared on the horizon. Although the Sernier River does not flow through the outer city, that river with fierce water potential has small branches passing through the edge of the outer city.

The outer city morgue is located in a small courtyard facing the river. Although the building is only one floor, the area is not small. In the past when the outer city had not expanded to such an area, it was mainly used to park corpses fished out of the river, and later it undertook the city's functions.

The morgue has a small courtyard facing the river. Although the building is only one floor, the area is not small. In the past when the outer city had not expanded to such an area, it was mainly used to park corpses fished out of the river, and later it undertook the city's functions.

The morgue has a small courtyard facing the river. Although the building is only one floor, the area is not small. In the past when the outer city had not expanded to such an area, it was mainly used to park corpses fished out of the river, and later it undertook the city's functions.

The morgue has a small courtyard facing the river. Although the building is only one floor, the area is not small. In the past when the outer city had not expanded to such an area, it was mainly used to park corpses fished out of the river, and later it undertook the city's functions.

The morgue room is not big, and the cabinets on the wall are all unclaimed corpses. The target corpse has been moved to a simple iron frame bed in the corner of the room. While Vigo frowned slightly because of the preservative and corpse odor, Xia De sensed "Wither" immediately.

The power remaining in the corpse is far less powerful than the shadow of Wither in the 【Polluted Blood Factory】, and it is not so pure, but the nature is the same:

"Yes, although this is already a corpse, because it has not yet completely turned into a skeleton, there is still extremely tiny life force inside. This decaying life force is 'Wither.' It is not the Wither caused by death, but the influence brought by external power."

The black crystal given by the doctor is emitting a dim yellow light at this time, which proves Xia De's point.

The appearance of the corpse is an old man with gray hair and wrinkled skin, looking sixty or seventy years old.

She was found lying at the entrance of an alley nearby early yesterday morning, and when she was found, she had no breath. From the clothing, the other party is an ordinary resident of the outer city. Because there have been too many nameless corpses recently, this corpse was just temporarily stored here and had not been carefully checked.

"Master, we have tested with spells, her real age is around thirty-five."

The girl standing behind Vigo said softly, and Xia De nodded:

"Victims of life force extraction usually die directly while maintaining their original appearance. Victims affected by the power of 'Wither' will present this aging appearance. Then let's take a look—Miracle·Life Fire Seed."

The miracle successfully extracted the life force remaining in the corpse. The fire seed was still red, but this touch of red contained some dim yellow colors.

"Is this Wither?"

Vigo asked curiously:

"Seeing a normal fire seed will produce an impulse to take it as one's own, but seeing this fire seed, I can only instinctively feel sadness."

"Because this is a process that every life will experience: birth, brilliance, Wither. Wither is not a disaster of the world, it is a process that every life will inevitably experience."

Xia De said softly, took out the 【Witcher Seal】 and approached the fire seed, but unexpectedly found that neither side had any reaction:

"Is it not the power of a demon? Or is it just residual power, not enough to cause a reaction."

Vigo looked at the ring curiously, she recognized what this was:

"You have also encountered many demons before, right?"

"It seems that many people have asked this... Yes, but I am not a Witcher, just not getting along with demons."

Xia De said, temporarily storing this dim yellow fire seed in the brand on his palm, intending to take it home to let the girls at home see it too.

Afterward, he put on gloves and checked the corpse in more detail with Vigo's followers. They did not find fatal wounds on the body surface, only traces of struggling and scratching the ground and strange burn marks on the fingers.

PS: Spring Festival additional update 5/10.

Today's additional

? Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! No matter where you are at this moment, the new year is about to begin. Wishing you a happy and joyful New Year!