The quaint, distant, and heavy translucent door opened. Qi Ji took a step forward and walked directly through the dreamy rippling waves into this ordinary-looking building.
"Wow...don't they clean up?"
It was pitch black inside. Even the moonlight and lights from outside could not shine in because the curtains were all drawn. It was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of you.
However, with her night vision, she could easily see the scene inside the first floor.
What comes into view is a rather spacious hall with a very high ceiling and no floor, just the ground.
A large amount of discarded biological tissues such as offal, organs, scales, etc. from marine fish were piled up on the edge of the wall. The strong smell of blood and fish attracted many flies and insects, which were buzzing around.
The dirt ground was soaked with blood and sea water. It felt sticky and muddy when you stepped on it, and it was also supersaturated with salt stains, which was really disgusting.
The moment she stepped into this place, a stench so strong that it almost turned the air into gel hit her in the face, like a bunch of vicious little bugs frantically drilling into her nostrils, making her dizzy.
Fishy, rancid, bloody...
Even with Qi Ji's strong willpower, he couldn't help but frown slightly at the pungent smell.
In fact, with her physique, even if she doesn't breathe, it won't affect her actions and thinking at all.
Suffocation and the like did not exist for her.
The reason why I have to breathe in and out like ordinary people... is to smell the smell in the air.
Before entering the building, she used her inspiration to scan it inside and out, but found no spiritual fluctuations or divine power.
In other words, the Society of Saint Hydra’s public headquarters...either does not contain any clues or anomalies, or its "clues and anomalies" are not of a spiritual or divine nature.
To confirm the situation, she chose to use her normal five senses to carefully explore the interior of the building, trying to find some clues.
For example, notes with key information...
Passing through the dirty and bloody slaughter hall, she came to the stairs deep in the first floor.
There is basically no other structure on the first floor except this hall. The staircase in the corner leads to the second floor. There is no underground structure or secret passage.
"Tuk, Tuk, Tuk..."
Qi Ji stepped onto the creaking wooden stairs without deliberately suppressing the noise, because she knew that no one was in the house and she didn't need to worry about being noticed.
In other words... even if there were people, she wouldn't hide. If she could lure some people out and lure them out... that would be the best.
When we got to the second floor, the air was a lot drier and the smell wasn't as bad, but it was still a bit uncomfortable.
The second floor should be a place similar to the office of clerical staff, with a long wooden table filled with documents and pens, and a filing cabinet against the corner of the wall.
Influenced by the smell on the first floor, everything here is permeated with an almost ineradicable stench of fish and blood. It is hard to imagine how the civilian members here can endure working in such an environment for a long time.
Faced with the documents and papers that were either messily placed or neatly stacked on the long desk and in the filing cabinet, Qi Ji remained calm, expanded his perception field, and with a wave of his mind, scanned all the contents.
Just like what she did in the core library of the Imperial University, she immediately memorized all the information on the documents. Compared with the "Sikuquanshu" worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, these documents were not worth mentioning at all.
In just a moment, she fully understood what they recorded.
"They are all useless things..."
Qi Ji found that the information recorded were all very routine, such as quotation sheets for various products, purchase and sales documents for materials, reimbursement records for purchased items, customer contact information, etc. There was nothing unusual.
But she did not get discouraged, but took a step forward and went up to the third floor.
The third floor, like the second floor, is also an office for civilian staff, but its grade and level are higher.
Not only are the environment and smell relatively more comfortable, but the decoration and interior layout are also more exquisite and no longer so casual and rough.
The area of this floor is not much different from that of the lower floor, but the number of desks is much smaller, and the extra space is used to place green plants, cultural relics, and ornaments. Obviously, this is the office of more senior managers.
Qi Ji used the same trick again and scanned all the documents on this floor.
Different from the front and middle details of various business aspects on the second floor, the information here is more inclined towards human resource management such as employee information and a summary of connections and channels. It can be seen that this is indeed the office location of the business group’s senior executives.
"That should be the storage room upstairs. I hope I can find something useful there... huh?"
As she was muttering to herself as she stepped onto the stairs leading to the fourth floor, an inconspicuous message suddenly caught her attention.
Chapter 399 Mr. Tucson
In the corner of one of the desks, a leather-bound notebook was casually placed.
There was nothing special about the notebook itself. Not all the paperwork on this floor was official information related to the Chamber of Commerce’s affairs. There were also many small notebooks used by office staff for drafting and taking notes.
This notebook belongs to one of the managers, and it contains a lot of formulas, memos, etc. written in a disorganized manner.
On one page of the notebook, there are a few lines of text written in a sloppy handwriting. Most of the content is bland and the sentence structure is casual and informal.
For example, "The tuna purchased on the 20th must be delivered to Mr. Rockinman's residence within three days", "Ask Lelis to deliver the previous office supplies to the warehouse before the 1st", "Find a legitimate reason to fire the troublemaker Pascal as soon as possible", etc.
Each sentence was written line by line, and some of them had a red check mark at the end, as if to indicate that the task had been completed.
Obviously, this is a memo to remind the owner of the note to do something.
What caught Qi Ji's attention was one of the items in the memorandum:
"Send the materials purchased by Mr. Shattuck to Mr. Tucson's studio."
At the end of the sentence, there was a check mark in red ink, indicating that the matter had been properly handled.
At first glance, this sentence seemed nothing strange, just one of countless trivial matters. But Qi Ji realized that this matter was fundamentally different from the other matters on the memo.
In Chinese, the word "material" has a very broad meaning: any unprocessed material can be called "material".
However, in the common language of mankind, there are many words with similar meanings to "material". Although their core meaning is "unprocessed materials", there are subtle differences between them.
For example, "materials" used to make medicine and "materials" used to make food are two different words in the common language of mankind.
In the same way, the “materials” used to make spiritual items, tools, and weapons also have different words.
Moreover, by simply adjusting the affixes of the words, you can freely construct "materials" with multiple meanings.
In the documents on the second and third floors, the word "material" appears quite frequently, but it basically refers to "materials" related to food and tools. This is also consistent with the official identity of the Saint Xudela Society as a "merchant group mainly engaged in marine business."
And the "materials" in the sentence "send the materials purchased by Mr. Shattuck to Mr. Tucson's studio"...
What it refers to is the materials used to make "medicine" and "spiritual items"...
This is very strange. Medicine is not a big deal, maybe it's just some common cold medicine, but spiritual materials... it's very inappropriate.
Why would a merchant group that sells fish sell materials used to make spiritual items?
It's not impossible to be roundabout. For example, they hunted a few aquatic species and then sold the spiritual tissue in their bodies...
But no matter what, this sentence seems so abrupt among all the text materials on the second and third floors.
Qi Ji's purpose of coming this time was to investigate what secrets the Saint Xudela organization had, not to prove their innocence.
What she had to do was not to miss any deliberate clues and investigate thoroughly, without taking the initiative to clarify for them!
"By the way, if it was really the Saint Hydra Society that helped Baron Lionsmith sell the stolen antidote in Stio... then, where did that batch of medicine go?"
The function of the antidote for fever is to treat and prevent fever, but the periodic disease "fever" is only prevalent in the East Oshu County where Stio is located.
In other areas, there is either no fever epidemic or the local medical conditions are sufficiently improved that there is no need for specific drugs for this disease.
In other words, if Saint Hydra would purchase the antidote from Baron Lionsmith for the sole purpose of selling it for cash, then they would have to do it in East Oshu County.
There is simply no market anywhere else!
After going through all the accounting books at the Hydra headquarters, she did find an entry for a caravan that had passed through East Washoe County more than a month earlier.
However, this accounting entry...the books are not balanced!
Its "expenditure" was a full three thousand aires more than its "income"!
This means that in one of the trades of Saint Xudra in East Washoe County... there is only "purchase" and no "sale"!
There is no evidence that the missing transaction is about the antidote to the fever, but Qi Ji cannot let go of any suspicion.
"Let's assume that the three thousand aires were spent on the antidote for the fever from Baron Lionsmith... This means that they did not sell the antidote in East Oshu County."
There was a market for the antidotes only in East Oshu, and since St. Hydra didn't sell them in East Oshu, they couldn't be sold anywhere else.
"...They transported the antidote directly back to Lookout City?"
Combined with the sentence in the previous draft note memo, Qi Ji naturally thought of a possibility:
"The person in charge of purchasing the antidote for the fever in Stio is the guy called 'Old Mr. Shatak'. And Saint Xudra's purpose of purchasing the antidote is not to sell it for cash, but to use it for something else?"
What could it be?
"The only clue at the moment is Mr. Tucson who received the antidote."
According to the description in the memo, the antidote was most likely sent to this guy's "workshop". So now she just needs to go check it out, maybe she can find out some more information...
Of course, this conjecture is based on Qi Ji's purely personal, unfounded intuition and imagination, and may not necessarily produce any results. But since I have a conjecture, I might as well check it out. After all, there is no loss if I am wrong.
Next, Qi Ji went up to the fourth floor. The fourth floor was a utility room and storage room. There was nothing worth noting here, so she only stayed for a moment and then left.
"brush--"
On the street in front of the headquarters of the Saint Xudela Society, a starlight appeared out of nowhere and condensed into the figure of Qi Ji.
"Okay, now it's time to go talk to Mr. Tucson..."
However, the biggest problem now is...how to find someone in such a huge Lookout City with just a nondescript name?
The name "Tusen" was not on the client list of the Saint Hydra Society headquarters. In other words, this person was either deliberately hidden by the Saint Hydra Society, or "Tusen" was a pseudonym.
Similarly, "Mr. Shatak" is not on the list of employees and managers, and it is not known whether this guy is a member of the Order of St. Hydra or a member of some other organization.
She knew absolutely nothing about this "Mr. Tucson." Not only his identity, contact information, and place of residence, but even his gender and age were unknown...
"Oh, I'm not stupid enough to look for a person among millions of people based on a name I don't know whether it's real or not."
Qi Ji suddenly laughed, then reached out with one hand in front of him and took out a glass bottle from the storage subspace.
It was half the size of a fist and half full of clear liquid that emitted a faint golden fluorescence.
This is the antidote for the fever!
However, it was not the original one, but a copy she made herself after she found out the ingredients of the antidote for the fever.
Although it is a replica, its composition and effects are no different from the original.
Qi Ji held the glass bottle containing the antidote for the fever in her right hand. With a thought, the holy emblem of the "Enterprise Chamber of Commerce" - "The Ship of Progress" - lit up on the palm of her right hand.
In the past, she might not have had any good solution and could only rely on her own perception and the mini reconnaissance puppets to conduct a carpet search in the city.
But after mastering the two abilities of "divination" and "spiritual communication" belonging to the "Fourth Authority: Distant Star"... she has a more convenient and efficient choice.
In theory, anything with spiritual power can be used for "spiritual communication" and "divination". And there is no doubt that the antidote for the fever, as a special medicine officially prepared by the Grace Holy Church, naturally has spiritual power.
Since it is very likely that "Mr. Tucson" has the antidote to the fever, then as long as she uses the antidote to the fever as a "medium" for divination, wouldn't she be able to get information about this guy?
Divination is a special form of spiritual communication. As long as you have a "medium" that has a certain connection with the target, you can obtain relevant information about the target by "divination" the medium.
"Although the divination medium is basically invalidated due to the influence of divine power in the antidote, I don't need to get too detailed information. I just need to know the approximate location of its 'similar'... It shouldn't be a big problem."
Qi Ji muttered as he walked to a more secluded place. The brightness of the "Ark of Progress" in his hand suddenly increased, and he directly started the "divination" on the antidote to the fever in his hand!
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It's a new week again, please like it!
Chapter 400 "Wizard"
Lookout City, Seaside District.
The so-called "seaside area" is not actually an official district of the Overlook City. In the city map officially drawn and issued by the Overlook City Cathedral, there is no "seaside area".
This name is just a conventional but vague reference by the locals to the coastal area of Lookout City. Over time, it has become the default name used by everyone.
The reason why it is still just a "nominal name" and has not been officially recognized by the Grace Holy Church is that the layout of the buildings and streets in this area can be said to be a representative of the "let nature take its course" urban planning...
No, there is no design in this area that could be called "urban planning".
With several important core ports as the center, a large number of buildings, streets, and buildings "grow naturally" in a disorderly manner. The houses are wrapped in one layer and penetrate each other, like a half-rotten onion.
There are houses of all kinds of uses, shapes, types and materials, from various workshops, shops, houses, to warehouses, pubs, cafes, from wood, adobe, to bricks, stones...
It was as if all the hundreds of years and history of the human world in the Sixth Age had been deposited in this chaotic area.
In Qi Ji's words, this place is simply a flat version of "Kowloon Walled City".
And under the shining silver moonlight in the early morning, in this otherworldly Kowloon Walled City...
