Chapter 940

The 【Fish Training Ring】 was not suitable for being put on the white mouse's paws or head. Xia De grabbed the mouse with one hand and tied the ring with the mouse's slender tail as a rope. And as the relic exerted its effect, the low-intelligence mouse gradually stopped struggling, because intelligent wisdom was occupying the high ground of the brain.

It raised its head to look at Xia De, and Xia De looked into the eyes of the tiny black mouse, clearly feeling the appearance of wisdom from the trembling of the fur on the mouse's head and the "expression" in its eyes.

A moment later, the white mouse spoke:

"Oh, you **, it's really damn, do you want to ** me, I curse you **, it's really **, *****."

Its voice was not loud; judging from the tone, this was a male mouse, and its age belonged to an adult mouse. It cursed Xia De who was grabbing it in Karsenrik language with a very heavy accent, and Xia De couldn't even fully translate the words it used:

"The owl I met in Mid-Hill Fort last time also seemed to be very good at cursing people in Karsenrik language."

He thought in his heart, slightly increasing the grip of his right hand. The mouse squeaked, but it didn't curse anymore. Compared to the owl Xia De met in Mid-Hill Fort, this mouse in the lower city was really impolite.

"Do you hate me so much?"

He asked with a smile, and the mouse grabbed in his hand answered quite angrily:

"The cat smell on you, I can smell it across a door, this is simply stinkier than Old John's athlete's foot!"

"John" was a very common name, so the "Old John" here was definitely not the stingy pawnshop owner in Tobesk.

"Cat smell?"

Xia De looked at himself, understanding that this mouse was talking about Mia:

"Are you very afraid of cats?"

"Don't you fear beasts that eat people?"

The white mouse asked back, its tail tied with the ring shaking constantly, and its tone showed that it was very angry:

"But I am a brave mouse, call that cat out quickly, I want to defeat it with my wisdom! Yes, I have wisdom now, wisdom is my wealth and power!"

Xia De endured his laughter; with Little Mia's wisdom, the cat could easily tease this white mouse that didn't know its own strength:

"Back to business, I ask you to answer. First, in the past week or two, have any strange strangers ever come."

"You..."

"Besides me."

"Strange people have been here fifteen sun-moon cycles ago."

"How many people in total?"

"Two!"

"What did they ask?"

"Very similar to the question you just asked, if you are willing to give me some cheese, I am willing..."

"Hmm?"

"I mean, they asked questions similar to yours, and then they knocked this unlucky guy unconscious."

The unlucky guy referred to this white mouse's owner.

"When those two humans left, they chatted about a place name, yes, that name is Matilda Street No. 39!"

The mouse said quickly, as if it really worried about being pinched to death by Xia De's palm. Actually, its worry was completely unnecessary; for any human and any creature with intelligence equal to humans, Xia De would cautiously consider whether to kill them.

This was respect for life.

"Matilda Street No. 39..."

Xia De knew this street, but he had only seen it on the map. Half a month ago, he hadn't even been to Huntington, and Xia De couldn't confirm what those two people knew before he had even started his Huntington operation.

His left hand found a grain of Little Mia's cat food from his pocket and threw it onto the table, and then, amidst the white mouse's pitiful begging, he put the mouse down.

The white mouse didn't run away, but sniffed that grain of cat food. It didn't eat it immediately, but said to Xia De again:

"My hearing is much better than humans', and after they walked outside, I also heard a few words. Voodoo Society, relic, sacrifice, delay time, once-in-a-century opportunity."

The white mouse described, and the pronunciation of several words was very inaccurate; clearly, it didn't remember clearly.

"Voodoo Society? People from the Pantanal Voodoo Society again?"

Xia De was very surprised:

"They were actually so careless to talk about this topic in the alley."

【Don't you also often talk about sensitive topics with friends on the street?】

"She" asked with a smile, and Xia De touched his nose, pretending not to hear, and said to the mouse that started to prepare to eat:

"Mr. Mouse, thank you very much for your help. I'm leaving, are you willing to go back to the cage, or do you want me to help you gain freedom?"

Xia De would definitely take off the 【Fish Training Ring】, but he could let the mouse go, and leave some banknotes for the boss here.

The white mouse stepped on the wood grain on the counter, raised its head in great panic, and said in an accent mixed with slang:

"Please don't put me outside, those wild cats and mice will eat me!"

"So, are you willing to go back to the cage?"

"Does that even need to be said? Oh, you humans who have never lived in a cage will not understand what a comfortable life it is to have a stable cage and food at a fixed time. Just like I cannot understand why you always like to walk around outside; for me, life in the cage is..."

Seeing that this mouse had a tendency to become a philosopher, Xia De took off the ring. While the white mouse squeaked, he put it back into the cage and threw that grain of Little Mia's high-end cat food over.

"These animals are really interesting."

Xia De thought in his heart.

Huntington City, the capital of red wine, is covered with water networks, and Matilda Street is the street that leads directly to the second largest river in the city, the "Thomson River." The eastern part of this street starts at a five-way intersection, and the western part leads directly to the riverbank; overall, it is not long.

Xia De believed that the white mouse didn't lie, but when he arrived at Matilda Street at three o'clock that afternoon, he unexpectedly discovered that there was no No. 39 on this street at all.

The house numbers on Matilda Street, odd numbers on the north side and even numbers on the south side, No. 1 and No. 2 were the flower shop and law firm adjacent to the five-way intersection respectively. And the last two house numbers at the end of the river channel were No. 37 and No. 38; this was the end of Matilda Street.

To prevent mistakes, Xia De even specifically asked in a tavern on this street, confirming that Matilda Street had never had a No. 39, although the street had been rebuilt many times in the past ten years, the number of house numbers had always remained unchanged.

There were not even rumors of "invisible shops" or "No. 39 appearing at night" here, which meant that whether from the perspective of ordinary people or the perspective of urban legends, the Matilda Street No. 39 mentioned by the white mouse did not exist at all.

Xia De didn't rush back to Rust Lane to find the white mouse that didn't want to walk out of the cage to continue talking about philosophy, but took advantage of the heavy fog emerging again in the afternoon, left Matilda Street, and came to the Thomson River bank street that intersected with it.

In the afternoon, there were only a few women wearing headscarves washing clothes under the riverbank, and the heavy fog on the river made people only see the outline of the buildings on the opposite bank.

"This is also convenient for action."

Xia De followed the dirt slope and carefully went down from the riverbank street to the riverside. The city hall would of course not waste manpower to renovate the riverbank; the bank was overgrown with weeds, and huge pipes continuously discharged sewage from unknown sources into the river channel. The bank was full of mud and garbage, and occasionally there would be things like iron cans and broken kerosene lamps that might scratch the soles of shoes.

Scavengers probably picked up garbage here regularly, so the footprints on the riverbank were very messy.

Xia De searched back and forth several times directly opposite Matilda Street, and under the guidance of "her," he indeed found traces.

That was an uneven stone wall on one side of the river channel, and its position happened to be on the odd-numbered side of Matilda Street. There were very slight traces of elements on the stone wall. After Xia De's judgment, there should be an entrance covered by rituals and strange arts.

Someone had definitely been here recently; the other party was very certain that they would not be discovered, so even the footprints were not cleaned up.

Xia De touched the stone wall with his hand, roughly confirming the covered entrance. Then he observed carefully on the stone wall and found a small piece of trace in the normal cracks and stains of the stone wall. If understood as text, the meaning was roughly:

【The great Pantanal will eventually take back the lost territory.】

"It really is the Voodoo Society."

Xia De thought in his heart, then used the strange art 【Echo of the Past】 to try to find the voices of the people who came here, to determine the way to open the covered entrance. But it was a pity that after trying many times, there were only city noises coming from above the river channel in his ears, and the only speaking voice was children chasing each other discussing fishing problems.

"In other words, this might be a stronghold in the local area of Haer De Wundiba, the owner of the 'arrow' decades ago. The Ringed Shushi who came to look for him visited Rust Lane fifteen days ago, didn't find clues, and then came here, but that was 48 hours ago, so I didn't hear the voice."

There were no traces of destruction here, indicating that the first comers probably knew how to open the entrance very early on; there was reason to believe that those two people were also members of the Voodoo Society.

【Then how are you going to open the entrance?】

"She" whispered in Xia De's ear.

Xia De turned and looked at the sun in the sky at five o'clock in the afternoon, looked left and right to confirm that there was no one nearby:

"This is not simple; the other party only covered the entrance, not hid the space itself. I don't believe the other party has this ability. Since there must be space behind the stone wall, then..."

His right hand pressed on the stone wall:

"Felianna's Witch Light!"

Golden-colored light radiated from his palm. As Xia De's hand pressed steadily and forcefully toward the stone wall, the golden light melted the stone wall like flames melting solid ice, letting Xia De's arm insert into the stone wall.

Clearly, the Ringed Shushi who used this place as a stronghold also thought that someone would destroy the stone wall by violent means, so when Xia De's wrist part completely entered the stone wall, he felt that he touched something extremely cold.

The cold air and curses followed the palm and rushed toward Xia De's heart. Xia De suddenly froze in place, and then shuddered violently:

"Oh, so cold."

He complained in his heart, confirming that the residual curse had been completely suppressed by divinity, and then continued to reach toward the stone wall. After encountering curses three times in a row, one-third of his upper arm had already submerged into the stone wall, and only then did he finally feel that his palm completely penetrated the stone and entered the space behind the stone.

He withdrew his arm, squatted down slightly, and looked at the dark space inside the hole:

"Actually so thick, is this treating this place as the vault of the Karsenrik Kingdom Bank?"