Chapter 508

"Clearly, they did not find Dac Nisi."

At eight o'clock on Thursday morning, in the dining room on the second floor of No. 6 St. Deran Square, Xia De said this to Lu Lu Weiya at the table.

Martial law was lifted at three o'clock this morning. The newspaper office and the milk company were affected, so the delivery times for newspapers, milk, and goat milk were delayed. When Lu Lu Weiya came to visit, Xia De had just started having breakfast with the cat, which was currently enjoying its own breakfast.

He had already told Lu Lu Weiya what happened last night. Fortunately, Xia De had not been too involved, and with the help of Bishop Ou Wen of the Church of Dawn, he was allowed to go home after just signing a non-disclosure agreement; the church did not make things difficult for him. As for the very unfortunate Little Miya, after being rescued and awakened, he was still being forced to stay in the church.

"Dac Nisi has already appeared in Tobesk. Last night, it is highly likely that he was guided by the 【Puppeteer Script】 to obtain materials for holding the Chosen One ritual."

Xia De stated his judgment, stirring the milk in his bowl with his right hand. Last night, his left hand had rashly entered the mouth of the demon that seemed capable of devouring everything, so it was severely injured. But fortunately, it was only a superficial wound without elemental attachment, and with 【Satiating Food】 and 【Cynthia's Silver Moon Blessing】, it was even healed before the church arrived.

"【Puppeteer Script】, although it can influence fate, this relic tends to make those who try to manipulate fate face greater misfortune, just like that 'Heart Collector'. So guiding Dac Nisi to Yodel Palace, and even letting him encounter the 'Steel Right Hand' and you, might just be the negative characteristics of the relic itself at work."

Lu Lu Weiya said; the Astrologer Society had done a lot of research on such relics.

"Yes."

Xia De nodded and said with a frown:

"Even through my connections at Yodel Palace, I couldn't find out what was stolen. The worst guess is that Dac Nisi has already gathered the ritual materials and entered the 【Darkness Domain】 directly after leaving Yodel Palace last night."

"That would be troublesome."

The purple-eyed girl also had a serious expression; they knew the final moment had arrived.

"So, I think we must take some risks. At the very least, we must determine where Dac Nisi is right now."

Xia De was wearing a shirt at home. He took a small glass bottle with a wooden stopper from his shirt pocket and placed it on the dining table. Hearing the sound, the cat, which was licking goat milk with its head down, immediately raised its head, but lost interest upon seeing the bottle.

It had already sniffed this thing last night and was very sure it was not food.

Inside the bottle was a thin layer of clear water, and a mass of black and red things could be vaguely seen in the water. The red was very faint, and the black mixed with the red was like some kind of viscous pus:

"This is Dac Nisi's blood. I don't know why his blood has this disgusting thing in it. But 【Blood Echo】 works best on fresh blood. If we drag it out any longer, this blood will be unusable."

"You want to drip this thing into your own eyes?"

Lu Lu Weiya was very surprised by Xia De's idea:

"The black liquid in his blood is clearly human pus. You want to drip human pus into your own eyes?"

"Of course not, I wouldn't do anything risky. Lu Lu Weiya, please close your eyes."

Xia De said, pointing his finger at the bottle:

"Silver Moon!"

When the female fortune-teller opened her eyes again, the black pus mixed with the blood in the bottle had completely disappeared.

"That will do."

Xia De said, then pushed the bottle to Lu Lu Weiya:

"Please control the droplets to enter my eyes; we must act as soon as possible. If we confirm that Dac Nisi is still in the city, report his news to the church immediately. If he has gone outside the city, we will pack up and set off for the 【Darkness Domain】 this evening."

"No problem, we have been waiting for this day for more than half a month."

Lu Lu Weiya pulled out the bottle stopper, her purple eyes examining the blood inside:

"It's a pity that Little Miya was arranged by the Church of the Sun for search work, otherwise, if we acted with her, our safety would be a bit higher."

"We can't gather everyone every time we need to act together; this is normal."

Xia De said, then supported the table with both hands, his head tilted slightly upward looking at the ceiling. Lu Lu Weiya walked in front of him, her finger pointing at the liquid in the bottle, and large droplets of liquid flew up in strings like a pearl necklace.

"I have estimated that an ordinary drop of blood can maintain the effect of 【Blood Echo】 for about an hour. Last night, I was worried about being discovered, so I didn't get much blood in my haste. Removing the human pus that was just eliminated, plus the fact that the blood has deteriorated slightly after a night, these liquids can only maintain the effect of 【Blood Echo】 for three hours at most."

Xia De explained as the liquids continuously dripped into his eyes.

Lu Lu Weiya used curses to precisely manipulate the liquid, but she could still spare the attention to talk to Xia De:

"Three hours is enough. If the other party is still in the city, we will follow his trail to find him, and we will definitely be able to find the other party's hiding place."

After all, the church launched a city-wide search shortly after the incident last night, so Dac Nisi could not be wandering around the city.

"Then where should we start from?"

Lu Lu Weiya asked, and after confirming that the bottle was completely empty, she put the stopper back on and placed it on the dining table. The cat, which was restless after eating, immediately jumped onto the table, pushing the bottle around; it had always had a fondness for round things.

Such as the 【Ring of Metamorphosis】.

"Let's start from near Yodel Palace and look for the figure of him leaving."

Xia De tilted his head back, constantly opening and closing his eyes, adapting to the astringent feeling caused by the large amount of liquid entering his eyes.

Because of the miracle, some of the liquid was repelled from his eyes and slid down from the corners. In fact, the liquid components useful for 【Blood Echo】 were very few, and the miracle actively absorbed them. The blood that flowed out was still blood, but it no longer had the ability to cause an "echo," so it was repelled by the miracle.

"Lu Lu Weiya, let's set off immediately."

He stood up from the chair, blinked his eyes, turned around, and looked through the kitchen window at the bustling Silver Cross Avenue and Yodel Palace not far away:

"We must determine Dac Nisi's whereabouts today."

From St. Deran Square to Silver Cross Avenue, Xia De easily captured a series of human movement trajectories composed of blood-red halos in the air. But the trajectory was moving toward Yodel Palace, which meant this was Dac Nisi's figure when he entered Yodel Palace.

Circling Yodel Palace, he finally saw Dac Nisi's figure jumping over the wall from the back garden on the street behind the palace complex, which was Feilische Garden Avenue.

"Feilische Garden" in Delarian means "fairyland in mythology," and walking further west on this street leads to the Terraril River, which runs through the entire city of Tobesk.

Dac Nisi was indeed moving toward the Terraril River. Xia De took Lu Lu Weiya all the way west and finally saw Dac Nisi's figure disappear on the riverbank slope on the east bank of the Terraril River.

Stairs extended downward from the riverside street, where residents living nearby washed clothes or dumped domestic sewage. The blood-red halo ended here, and there were no more traces.

"Did Dac Nisi jump into the water?"

As Xia De looked around, Lu Lu Weiya guessed.

"No, even if he jumped into the water, I would at least be able to see his figure when he entered the water."

Xia De stood on the steps, hands in his pockets, looking at the cargo ships on the river. The Terraril River had a considerable volume of water during the high water season in summer, and large steam cargo ships could also pass through the city's river channels.

It sounded its whistle, and as it sailed south from before their eyes, three large chimneys dragged black smoke behind them, and the black smoke gradually merged into the misty air, forming the ordinary riverside scenery of Tobesk, the Northern Pearl of the City of Steam.

Because they would soon dock to unload cargo, the sailors on the deck were busy. But there were also some idlers lying on the deck, looking out at both sides of the river.

The rude sailors whistled at the women washing clothes by the river and laughed loudly with their companions after being scolded by them. Naturally, some noticed Xia De and Lu Lu Weiya standing on the stairs leading down to the river. They whistled, and Xia De reached for the pistol at his waist and raised it toward the deck; those sounds disappeared immediately.

"Dac Nisi can move through darkness, but the distance is very short, not enough for him to cross the river directly to the west bank."

Xia De reasoned while putting the pistol back, and Lu Lu Weiya understood somewhat:

"So, in order to prevent being pursued by the church, he entered the water directly through a black vortex?"

"Yes, that's why I lost his figure."

Xia De nodded. Fortunately, unlike when he and Dorothy pursued the member of 【Mercury Blood】 carrying fish-man scales, flowing water could not hinder the effect of 【Blood Echo】 now.

The best method was to enter the water to find the blood-red halo and then track it underwater.

But once he went into the water, it would be inconvenient to act afterward. So Xia De asked Lu Lu Weiya to perform a divination, and then the two walked a distance upstream along the river and saw traces of the other party appearing near the water surface about 1200 feet (about 365m) upstream to the north of where Dac Nisi entered the water.

Dac Nisi should not have had a curse like "underwater breathing," but as a Sixth-Order Sorcerer, he should have had other means to stay underwater for a long time. Surfacing was to observe whether there were pursuers, and this action happened to provide convenience for Xia De and Lu Lu Weiya's search.

Dac Nisi's figure went upstream, so Xia De and Lu Lu Weiya also kept walking along the river toward the northwest of the city. The two of them walked all the way from the central area of Tobesk to the intersection of the West and North districts. When passing the Disk Bridge that spanned the river, Xia De even talked to Lu Lu Weiya about the time he helped a witch pick up goods for the first time; at that time, he had not realized that the witch was testing his gender.