The soul's phantom only had an upper body; its lower body looked as if it had been cut off.
The phantom was incredibly transparent, swaying in the chilling wind within the room, and Xia De was very unaccustomed to such a scene:
"How many statues do you still have? Where are those Mermaid statues now?"
Xia De asked in a low voice.
He wanted to confirm what the statue actually was; he didn't intend to keep it, nor would he touch it, so it wasn't dangerous.
As for asking after killing, that was to prevent the other party from using those dangerous statues to play tricks on him, and the soul phantom summoned by Soul Echo would not lie.
"It's useless to throw away those statues.
To find a way to lift the curse, I kept three.
They're in the basement."
The voice, completely devoid of inflection, said, sounding as if it came from a very distant place, hollow and weak.
"How do I get into the basement? Is there any danger? What else is in the basement?"
He asked again.
"The basement can be entered through the door next to the broom closet by the stairs.
The first floorboard after entering the basement cannot be stepped on, otherwise the door will lock.
In the basement are those statues, amulets I bought to dispel the curse, exorcism materials needed for exorcism methods I learned about, and some things I believe are useful for protecting myself."
The phantom replied again.
"So where is your money?"
He didn't take the money from the deceased Pang Dun family last time because he had promised Miss Bei Ya Si not to take extra things, and strictly speaking, scavenging money from such a tragic family annihilation was not a good deed.
But this time was different; the other party was purely seeking death, and Xia De had no psychological barrier whatsoever about taking such a person's money.
Of course, if the amount was huge, he would donate a portion of this ill-gotten gain to the Dawn Church.
"There's only some loose change at home; most of it is stored in a private bank in Coldwater Port, and a small portion is with my wife, who went back to her hometown to visit relatives."
It seemed the Dawn Church wouldn't get this money.
Private banks identify people, not documents, and Xia De had no time or inclination to trouble a woman whose whereabouts were unknown.
"Alright then, you can go."
After asking some more details about the story to confirm the other party wasn't lying, he waved his hand, and the soul phantom automatically dissipated.
Then he searched the corpse again, only to realize that searching a person's wallet at home was a foolish act.
So he first went to the basement.
Jason Delar's basement was smaller than Xia De's.
Standing on the descending stone steps, he found the gas lamp knob on a wall.
Under the dim light, Xia De immediately saw three statues covered with a red cloth on a box directly opposite the stairs.
The outlines beneath the red cloth indeed resembled Mermaids.
He very cautiously did not approach, then quickly averted his gaze:
"Do you feel anything?"
【blasphemy element, that is a relic.
It's highly cursed, but not as much as the activated blood money.】
"It is indeed a relic."
Out of caution, Xia De merely stood on the steps and did not intend to enter the basement.
Scanning his surroundings, the basement was cluttered with various items.
Behind the statue covered with the red cloth, there were surprisingly five Holy Emblems of the Orthodox Church hanging simultaneously.
Piles of religious texts were stacked in the corner, and various forms of metal, wooden, and even crystal amulets, like tourist souvenirs, hung on the left wall.
The basement floor was covered with snow-white fine salt, and on the shelf in front of the right wall were incomprehensible items like stones, metals, and herbs.
Beneath the box holding the three Mermaid statues, five or six oil paintings stood upright, facing the statues covered by the red cloth.
Due to the angle, Xia De took some effort to see the contents of the oil paintings; they all depicted cats.
"Using oil paintings of cats to face Mermaids... he had such ideas, yet he was still reluctant to seek help from the Orthodox Church, truly... Wait."
Xia De's eyes once again looked at the shelf in front of the right wall, focusing on a bundle of bluish-green grass tied up on the second shelf from the left.
His brows furrowed slightly:
"Why does this look so familiar..."
After a moment of recollection, he got the answer, and his eyes suddenly widened:
"weathervane bluegrass!"
The reward from the Lakeview Manor incident combined with the Angel-level time key reward allowed Xia De to obtain two 【Time-Space】 Miracles.
However, Laleg's Leap, which could achieve 10 feet (about 3.04 meters) of spatial movement, could not be mastered until next month due to the lack of its main material.
Xia De had since found a description and simple drawing of this plant in a first-year Ring術士 textbook, which was why he could recognize the item on the shelf at a glance.
"Could the purpose of coming to Coldwater Port City be this?"
He instinctively wanted to grab it, but immediately stopped, carefully avoiding the floor trap before coming to the storage cabinet and taking the bundle of plants tied with cloth strips into his hand.
After a brief inspection, he confirmed that this was indeed the main learning material required for the Miracle Laleg's Leap.
weathervane bluegrass is extremely rare even in the New World.
These here were probably brought back by Jason Delar by chance during the investigation of illegal smuggled goods.
Besides this, there were many other ores and herbs on the shelf, but unfortunately, Xia De didn't recognize many.
However, since he was here, there was no need to leave empty-handed.
He casually took some ores and put them in his pocket.
Herbs were too troublesome to pick up, so he took a few labeled bottles of liquid.
Due to the presence of the statue covered with the red cloth, Xia De didn't dare to continue searching for good things there.
He scanned the area, had the voice in his head confirm there were no other relics besides the statues, then left the basement, preparing to depart.
Leaving naturally also meant climbing out the window, but as he approached the window, he found there were people in the muddy alley.
"What's going on?"
His vigilance heightened.
He pressed against the wall by the window and glanced out.
There were five people in the alley within his line of sight alone.
These people were clearly not just passing by, but waiting for something there.
"Oh no."
He went to the window on the side of the main door and looked out.
People with umbrellas were walking by in Mermaid Alley outside, and their subtle glances towards the house indicated that the front door was also unsafe.
"Who did Mr. Delar offend? Wait... Could it be the Orthodox Church?"
Thinking carefully, the middle-aged man Xia De had just killed had bought illegal books, killed homeless people for blood, and even had so many strange things in his basement.
It was not impossible for him to be targeted by the Church.
"No matter who he offended, if I stay here, it'll be hard to explain."
He thought for a moment, then quickly went to the second floor of the house, found the location of the trapdoor leading to the attic, and climbed up the ladder.
The attic was piled with some miscellaneous items, but Xia De didn't pay attention.
Instead, he pushed open the attic's only window a crack.
He looked out and saw that the rain was still heavy, and from his current angle, the house on the other side of the alley didn't seem far away.
"I should be able to jump over."
He reached into his pocket for the frog leg, then reluctantly discarded some of the heavier stones in his pocket.
Chanting the incantation, he twisted the frog leg and threw it into his pocket, then chose the right moment to push open the window and leap out.
Xia De didn't know if the people monitoring the house below had seen him.
Therefore, he soared into the air, and after confirming he could land on the opposite rooftop, he prepared to jump again.
The rooftop was sturdy enough; Xia De didn't break a large hole in it due to the Vibration of landing.
He crouched low, ran two steps forward on someone else's rooftop, found his direction, then leaped into the air again.
Under the rainy sky, he was as inconspicuous as a small black dot, and this time, after landing, he didn't run again.
Instead, he naturally lay prone on the rooftop in his robe, observing his surroundings, and didn't see anyone chasing him from the alley below.
So he jumped again, this time choosing a lower house diagonally ahead.
This house was at the intersection of a main street and an alley.
After Xia De lay down and confirmed no one was around, he immediately jumped from the rooftop to the ground, then took off his mask and robe.
He didn't discard them there, but rolled them up and tucked them inside his outer coat.
After tidying his wet clothes, he covered his head with his hand like someone avoiding the rain, and rushed out of the alley.
Ignoring what was behind him, Xia De decided that he had nothing to do with this matter.
He ran forward, bent over, hugging the low wall by his feet, and disappeared into the distance of the street on this gloomy, rainy afternoon in the port City.
Xia De, far away, didn't notice that not far from where he ran out of the alley, a carriage was parked across the street.
And a few seconds after he ran past, the carriage window, which had been open a crack, was pushed open, revealing a delicate face and a head of fiery red long hair.
The girl with the silver coronet looked out the window in confusion, but Xia De, intent on returning home, had already run far away by then.
A team of police officers followed a middle-aged man with a stern face, dressed in a black coat, running from a distance towards the carriage.
The coachman jumped down from the carriage and allowed the middle-aged man to approach only after checking his identification:
"Your Highness."
The man folded his umbrella and jogged through the rain to the carriage window, bowing his head respectfully as he spoke, not daring to look at the face of the person inside the window:
"We have surrounded the target's house.
When the operation begins later, we will bring out some sensitive items.
The Mermaid statues you want will definitely be no problem."
"Don't be careless.
The Church also knows about the situation here, and I don't want the Orthodox Church to know what I took away.
You know how I operate."
The red-haired girl sitting in the carriage said, her tone not harsh, but it still made the man in the rain shiver involuntarily.
The middle-aged man planted his right foot and opened his shoulders:
"Please rest assured, Your Highness, there will absolutely be no problems."
After speaking, he bowed slightly into the carriage window, then turned and led his men back to the operation site.
But the young girl sitting in the carriage, at this moment, was no longer most concerned about whether the relic she had incidentally heard about would fall into her hands.
The rainy scene outside the window was reflected in her eyes as she closed the carriage window again.
Although the interior of the carriage was not large, it was fully equipped with a sofa, tea table, incense burner, and porcelain teacups.
The red-haired girl wore a silver coronet and a white long dress.
The waist part had a row of pure silver decorative buttons, and she wore a pair of small black leather shoes on her feet.
Her pinky finger curled up as she picked up the teacup in front of her, and her brown eyes showed a thoughtful expression.
After a moment, she softly murmured to herself:
"Was I seeing things just now?"
As she spoke, she raised her right hand and touched the gleaming ruby earring on her right ear:
"Why would Xia De be here?"
(Mia is running...)
On the other side, Xia De returned to the small inn in the rain.
After tidying his belongings, he looked out the window and found no followers, then quickly checked out and left.
He walked around the nearby alleys with his umbrella for a few turns, then took a long detour to the dock.
Carrying his suitcase, he walked onto the pier, confirmed no one was watching, then bent down as if to retrieve something from the water, and then plunged directly into the sea with a sudden rush.
He hadn't used an umbrella, so he was completely drenched.
Now that he was underwater, he even felt warmer.
Under the effect of the spell Underwater Breathing, he held the canvas-wrapped suitcase with one hand and paddled with the other, moving underwater.
Guided by his decent sense of direction, he quickly reached the cliff outside the dock by moving underwater.
First, he slightly poked his head out from underwater to confirm that the black stone in front of him was indeed the reef for landing, then returned underwater again, found the rope extending from a crack in the seabed, and then swam inward along the crack under the cliff.
By then, it was almost evening, and the receding tide exposed a part of the crack above the water, so Xia De was actually swimming and walking.
He had already traveled this path once, so he didn't encounter any unexpected situations on the return journey.
When he landed in the dark cave, he was still clutching a large fish that had sought its own death.
Xia De, completely drenched, almost tripped over a turtle on the ground as he walked towards the hidden wall at the end.
He summoned his Destiny Ring to make the wall disappear, then walked towards the ancient god statue and touched it, chanted the incantation to enter the Space Labyrinth, touched the signpost representing home, and entered the circular space again.
Xia De, still dripping water, quickly walked out of the basement, wiped the water from his face, and immediately saw that it was still raining in Saint Delan Square outside the window.
He stared blankly at the rainy scene outside the window for a long time before letting out a long sigh, dropping his suitcase, and slowly sitting down against the wall, not caring that the seawater on him was wetting the wall and floor:
"Oh, this long trip, although I didn't encounter any danger, was really tiring."
The serious expression on his face finally relaxed.
He just watched the rainy scene outside the window, listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the glass, and it took him a long time to recover.
He stood up and looked at the dead fish he was holding.
It had been alive, but it died after getting close to the ancient god statue.
It wasn't that the ancient god 【cracks of origin】 statue prohibited living creatures from spatial movement; rather, living creatures couldn't withstand the mental shock of close proximity to the statue.
It seemed that unless one could confirm the other party's mental resistance was strong enough, it would temporarily be impossible to move living creatures through space.
He took a thorough bath at home, washing away all the scent of seawater from his body.
After throwing his clothes into the washbasin in the bathroom to soak, he went out with an umbrella and took a carriage to Feather Pen Avenue.
