Xia De knew he had found the right place.
The chains outside the broom closet hung loose, indicating someone had already opened it, but the door was tightly shut. Xia De tried to pull it, and the thin wooden door immediately opened a crack.
He subconsciously reached for the revolver at his waist, but after a moment of hesitation, he instead felt for the rhode cards in his pocket. This was a school after all, and Xia De didn't want to make too much noise by firing a gun. Moreover, bullets wouldn't turn corners, but his rhode cards could even draw a pentagram in the air.
He looked left and right, and taking advantage of no one paying attention, Xia De slipped into the broom closet. Perhaps because mops were often put away without being dried, the not-so-small interior space had a damp smell. The overall area was roughly similar to Xia De's cloakroom at home...
To prevent Henry Val's secret room from being directly behind the wall, Xia De held his breath and tried to slow his footsteps.
He didn't reach for the gas lamp switch on the wall. Xia De squinted, seeing in the darkness, and then watched the bloody halo disappear directly in front of the deepest wall of the broom closet.
Shelves were placed against the walls on both the left and right sides, while longer brooms and mops were placed against the wall where the red halo disappeared. The section of wall where the halo vanished was the only one without anything placed against it.
"Is there a secret passage? But where's the mechanism?"
But if there really was a mechanism, it would surely make a loud noise, so Xia De used a simple method:
"Felianna's Witch Light!"
His right palm lit up with a golden glow, and then, as if a scorching hot tong were inserted into a block of ice, Xia De's right hand plunged into the stone wall in front of him. Just as the front of his arm entered the wall, he faintly heard voices from behind.
"Very good."
He pulled his arm back, then pressed against the wall, putting his ear to the hole that almost penetrated the stone wall, listening to the sounds below:
"Praise death."
It was a prayer. Because the sound was distorted by the stone wall, he couldn't distinguish who it was. But Xia De at least distinguished that the sound came from far behind, and not just a wall away.
So, he extended a finger into the hole, melting through the last bit of the wall with his finger. Peeking through the hole, he confirmed that behind it was a narrow passage. Only then did he fully melt a gap wide enough for him to pass through sideways, and then used Breath of Years to restore the wall to its original state.
"Are there any traces of elements?"
"No."
Both sides of the passage behind the wall were gray brick walls. Five or six steps ahead was an iron door, and the red halo led there, as did the sound of prayer. At the same time, Xia De also smelled a foul odor, the smell of decaying corpse material:
"I hope the scene I see later won't affect my appetite for dinner."
He thought of Mia, the image of the cat resting her front paws on the windowsill, sunbathing and napping, to dilute the disgusting images in his mind. Xia De controlled his footsteps, paying attention to the continuity of the prayer, and then approached the iron door.
He placed his hand on the door. Door Key had no effect, indicating the door was not locked. After confirming there were still no traces of elements, he closed his eyes, imagining the source of the prayer in the space behind the door. He held a playing card in his left hand and took out the revolver in his right, though he didn't intend to use it. Opening his eyes, he stepped back two paces and suddenly slammed the door open:
"Nobody move!"
He burst open the door, pointing the gun at the young man kneeling on the ground, seemingly praying to a bronze pot in front of him.
He was wearing a black robe. The bronze pot was suspended in the air by several iron chains, and below it was a small coal-burning stove used for heating in the countryside. The foul smell came from the bronze pot. It seemed there was a vent here, otherwise he would have been poisoned by gas long ago.
The candles standing on the ground were the light source in the secret room. Henry Val stopped praying, silently stood up, and then turned to look at the Detective with the gun behind him. The space here was larger than the broom closet outside, but besides Captain Lades lying by the wall, and a bookshelf and desk by the wall, there wasn't much else.
"You found me?"
He asked, staring at the gun muzzle.
Xia De glanced at the bronze pot:
"What are you boiling?"
The young man smiled:
"What do you think?"
"The serial murders in the city, were they your doing?"
"Yes."
He actually admitted it.
"Why? Don't tell me you have a sick or deceased fiancée from the countryside, and you want to use this method to extend her life."
Xia De looked into the other party's eyes. Henry Val was indeed an ordinary person, and the scene resembling a ritual in front of him had no power whatsoever. But the disregard for life and the un 慌 attitude this person was now displaying made Xia De realize that this guy was probably a lunatic.
Speaking of which, the evil deeds committed by the Ring術士 he had seen in this world seemed to be fewer than those committed by ordinary people. This was probably because the Outsider still had too little experience.
"No, no, I wouldn't take such a risk for someone else's life."
Henry Val looked back at the pot that was boiling something:
"I'm going to die. A brain disease. But I can't die."
"Why?"
"Isn't it obvious? How can someone like me, destined to do great things, die so young?"
Xia De had thought the other party was a lunatic, but he hadn't expected him to be so shameless.
"So you think your life is more important than others' lives? Is extending your life with others' lives a valuable thing?"
Xia De asked. The young man in the black robe looked at him with surprise:
"Oh, you actually understand that point?
Yes, a month ago, I was introduced to a very remarkable Boy. He could accurately predict a person's death method and death time. The Boy told me that I would die from a brain disease during the first snow of this winter. So, I spent a fortune to buy ancient documents, and after translating them, I obtained the recipe for this life-extending potion. I have always believed that I can control my own destiny."
"Hmm, you actually don't need to be so detailed."
"No, no, I've been holding these words in for a long time. In the past, I could only express them in my diary, then to the corpses that contributed their lives to me. Now, I can finally say them to a living person."
Xia De confirmed that the other party was a lunatic:
"Captain's gun is in your hand, right? I guess it's in the sleeve of your robe. Now, extend both hands and raise them above your head. I'll count to—"
Henry Val raised his gun at Xia De, but Xia De, who was already prepared, immediately flew out the playing card in his left hand the moment the other party made a move to raise the gun.
He didn't hold back; the playing card in his hand directly severed the finger that was trying to pull the trigger. Because the speed was too fast, Henry Val only realized his finger was gone after repeatedly pulling the trigger but failing to fire a bullet.
"Ah~"
The scream had just escaped his lips when Xia De, who had taken a big stride forward, punched him in the face:
"Mind Blast!"
The power of Mind Blast depends on the opponent's mental strength, and the closer the hand is to the opponent's head, the greater the power.
With one blow, Henry Val's head didn't explode like a watermelon. He was thrown backward as if hit by a high-kinetic-energy cannonball, his head hitting the bronze pot with a "thud." His body then slumped to the ground, completely unconscious.
Xia De shook his hand with some disgust, and in the candlelight, he saw that the other party's eyes, nose, ears, and mouth were all bleeding. Although he was still breathing, it was unlikely that he would ever wake up again.
"So, Mind Blast has such a strong effect when used on ordinary people."
"This time, you really showed no mercy."
"She" chuckled softly in his ear.
"Anyway, he said he had a diary, so I don't need to ask for more details. And what would I keep a person like him for?"
Xia De asked, pulling Captain Lades's pistol from the other party's hand and putting the severed finger into the furnace under the bronze pot. After burning it for a while, he pulled the hand out.
This was partly to confirm that the other party was truly unconscious, and partly to conceal the injury of the finger being instantly cut off by a sharp object. He still wanted to exchange the criminal's body for the reward.
Finally, he looked at the evil spirit "crouching" behind the young man. She had become even more transparent, and the pale green spiritual body was gradually dimming:
"You can leave."
He said, staring at the soul, drawing a vertical line in the air with his right hand. The black mark left by his fingertip then expanded into a deep black crack. Through this opening, extreme cold and the light of the Nether Moon penetrated, and beyond was the land of death.
Most souls in Middlesburg would be absorbed by Between Life and death, so Xia De opened the door to true death, allowing this poor person to leave directly.
Perhaps affected by the black wind blowing from the land of death, the pale green light on the already weak evil spirit gradually faded.
She slowly returned to the appearance of a normal human woman, her slightly youthful face lowered. She looked at her hands blankly, then at Henry Val on the ground, and then at the young Detective in front of her:
"Thank you."
She bowed slightly to Xia De, then transformed into a white light and entered death.
The opening disappeared, and Xia De breathed a sigh of relief:
"Another good deed done. Tonight, I can reward myself by taking Mia out for some good food."
He thought to himself, just about to check on the bound Captain, but then he suddenly stopped:
"Wait a moment, Henry Val was severely struck by my Mind Blast, and his back of the head just hit a heavy object. He definitely won't wake up. From the looks of this injury, he will likely die completely this winter due to brain death."
"So?"
"She" chuckled.
"Although the potion recipe Henry Val bought was problematic, that so-called 'Boy who predicts death' was right. He will indeed die in winter due to a brain condition. But not because his brain was originally sick, but because he killed indiscriminately believing his brain was sick, and thus was killed by me..."
Xia De narrowed his eyes slightly. Accurately predicting the time and manner of one's demise was something even the Miracles Priest Augustus provided couldn't do.
"Middlesburg, there's actually a Prophet who can foresee death? It seems I need to pay attention to this matter."
"I have a very interesting idea."
"What?"
"She" chuckled, as if her lips were opening right next to Xia De's ear:
"The other party predicted Henry Val would die in the first snow of this winter."
"That's right."
Xia De looked at the young man slumped by the stove.
"Then, why don't you try—killing him now?"
PS: This chapter was not updated late; it was blocked by the website. The author made some modifications before it was released.
