Although the evil spirit that was repelled did not suffer much damage, Xia De's actions made it even more furious.
The whisper element corroded the spirit body, and more and more black faces appeared from the depths of its soul.
Xia De could even hear the continuous whispers and curses in his ears.
He swept away the fallen leaves on the ground with his right foot, and before it enveloped in white mist attacked Xia De again, Xia De actively charged forward with both hands holding the sword:
“One!”
He lunged forward, and the Moonlight Greatsword was, as expected, blocked by a pale green shield.
“Two!”
Through Raglai's Leap, his figure appeared behind the evil spirit, and the light shield reappeared, blocking the sword in Xia De's hand.
“Three!”
The sword and the light shield contended behind the evil spirit, while the second sword summoned by the Blade of Disordered Time appeared from the front of the soul, striking the evil spirit's head directly.
The light shield was in the shape of half an eggshell; if it defended against attacks from behind, it could not defend against those from the front.
The two-handed greatsword, carrying Moonlight, pierced through the air, first impaling the blood-red hand extending from the spirit body's neck—the evil spirit's abilities were mostly related to resentment and the cause of death—and then the blade pierced through the spirit body's head.
The light shield behind him disappeared at this moment, but Xia De did not relax because of it:
“Mind Blast!”
With one punch, the black faces surrounding the soul dissipated in astonishment.
The whisper element was expelled along with the white mist, and with the appearance of the pure white spirit body and the cracks on its surface, Xia De knew he had won.
At the last moment of collapse, Professor Higgins turned to look at Xia De, his eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.
He was about to utter his last words before disappearing, a unique characteristic of the evil spirits in the Middelburg area:
“Why…”
Originally, he didn't want to get involved, but his sorrowful expression was indeed pitiful.
The soul was about to disappear, and Xia De was not worried about him informing on him.
Considering that he had taken his briefcase, Xia De sighed and couldn't help but offer comfort:
“Actually, I am Gray Headed Eagle, so your mission was not a failure; you succeeded, Professor.”
Professor Higgins's “last words” stopped abruptly, and the soul, which was collapsing from bottom to top, looked at him.
“Yes, I am the Gray Headed Eagle of Tobesk.
I obtained the intelligence from Virgil Cameron of the Setter Duchy.
In that pen, the accurate information is—on the last day of this month, your goods are in the warehouse with the red doorplate on Punjab Avenue in Middelburg.
The ink is blue-black, and the note is rolled up.”
The professor's pure white, transparent hand grabbed his arm; the soul, which was about to collapse, actually began to become whole again because of Xia De's words.
So, Xia De gently swiped his finger, and a black crack immediately opened, and the scattered light points of the soul drifted towards the death place:
“Depart, your mission is complete.”
He said softly, and Professor Higgins's soul stared intently at him:
“Tomorrow morning at nine-thirty, Middelburg train station platform.
Bring a bouquet of red roses, wear Gray Gloves reversed, and a golden pen in your chest pocket.
Remember to dress decently; someone will hand over the box.
The password is: not, all ages, interested.”
Xia De looked at him in surprise; there was no mention of this in his previous memories, and he could complete the mission this way.
But he immediately understood that after his companions, one shot and one committing suicide to end their missions, Professor Higgins could not possibly have failed to notify his superiors of the mission change within a week.
So, this was a new arrangement; Professor Higgins never intended to take this box himself.
The soul had already disintegrated to only the part above the neck.
Xia De nodded gently but did not give a promise.
He thought of the password for abandoning the mission obtained from the cipher in the newspaper (Chapter 561), so he softly said in carson rick:
“Your mission is complete—eternal loyalty.”
“Eternal loyalty.”
The spirit body completely disintegrated and drifted into the Death Door that Xia De had opened.
Xia De waved his palm, as if smoothing out the black crack with his hand.
Then he sighed slightly, raised his head over the treetops of the dense forest, and looked at the dim yellow sun in the sky.
A strange optical effect made the dim yellow sun hazy, reflecting the gradually thickening evening glow:
“This world is truly dangerous for ordinary people.”
He buried Professor Higgins's body in Sicar Mountain, under a tree overlooking Middelburg, and then carried the briefcase back to his home in Tobesk.
No one was home; in the light of the setting sun, only Mia happily jumped down the stairs from the second floor to welcome Xia De home.
So, no matter how bad things Xia De encountered outside, his mood always improved when he came home and saw his cat greeting him.
He changed out of the clothes he wore to Middelburg, washed up a bit, and then took the cat to Feather Pen Street in the University District to find Dorothy.
Unfortunately, the blonde Writer was not home; her landlady said she had gone home to eat with her family.
So Xia De pretended he was taking an evening stroll, carrying Mia to Silver Cross Avenue, and at the flower shop, he handed Angelina's maid a note saying he urgently needed to see Leia.
Then, in the lounge specially reserved for Angelina behind the flower shop, he enjoyed rose tea and exquisite rose pastries.
Angelina sometimes snuck out and liked to spend time alone in this flower shop, so the lounge reserved exclusively for her was indeed very nice.
After eating and drinking their fill with the cat, Leia sent a letter, telling Xia De to wait for her by the Terraril River on the west side of Yodel Palace.
Soon, she and Angelina would go out to see an opera, and their carriage would stop by the river after passing through Felisher Pastoral Avenue.
“The princesses' lives are truly leisurely.”
Muttering to himself, Xia De set off again, carrying the briefcase he still hadn't opened and holding the soft, sleepy-looking cat.
He circled the massive Yodel Palace complex from the side, passed through the street between Yodel Palace and the Kingdom Parliament, entered the intersection with Felisher Pastoral Avenue, and at that five-way intersection, chose the one leading to the riverbank.
The Terraril River was still in its high-water season in autumn; before winter freezing, cargo ships were rushing to transport the last batch of goods for the year.
By this time, the sun had almost completely set, and the Terraril River was bathed in golden light.
Steamships with thick chimneys patrolled the river, leaving trails of smoke behind them.
The autumn wind swept across the water, making it shimmer and reflect light that made people instinctively squint their eyes.
Wild geese flew in formation across the sky, and in the misty City sky, irregularly shaped, cotton-like clouds were almost imperceptible.
As the sun cast its last rays, traces of the three moons could already be seen in the sky.
The red moon, the yellow moon, and the silver moon, three moons hanging in the indistinct starry sky—this was twilight, probably the most pleasant time of day.
Because no matter who it was, at this moment, they would subconsciously slow their steps; night was about to fall.
Xia De did not wait long by the river before the princesses' convoy drove up.
But when the convoy drove away, a seemingly ordinary carriage stopped.
Not far away was the Cavendish Bridge spanning the Terraril River—this cable-stayed bridge was built with royal funds.
The coachman gestured for Xia De to go to the bridge.
So Xia De leisurely walked along the riverbank with the cat, while the carriage followed him at a very slow speed.
Soon they arrived at the bridge.
Xia De stepped onto the bridge deck, walked about twelve steps, then stopped and looked at the scenery outside the bridge.
Mia curiously looked at the water below the bridge in his arms, then pulled her head back as if startled.
The carriage slowly blocked Xia De's rear, and as the carriage door opened, Xia De suddenly turned around and, with extreme speed, darted inside with the cat, as if he were holding an orange steam bomb.
Because he was so fast, he almost bumped into Angelina, who was about to lean out and greet him.
“Xia De, good evening.”
“Good evening, Leia, oh, good evening, Princess Angelina.”
Perhaps because Xia De had actively sought her out this time, Leia, dressed in a red dress, was in very high spirits:
“You specifically wrote to me; is there something important?”
Because explaining MI6, Sparrow Detective, and Vampires would be very troublesome, Xia De asked directly:
“Have any valuable items or confidential documents that could fit into this box been lost from important departments of the Kingdom recently?”
Xia De placed the black briefcase on his lap, and the cat, placed beside the long seat, immediately jumped onto it and sat down.
“Angelina, help me hold her.”
Xia De then handed the bothersome cat to the little princess, who joyfully embraced Mia.
Mia, seeing that Xia De was really discussing serious matters, symbolically struggled a bit to show that she was not entirely willing.
“I picked this up in Middelburg; it belongs to the Gray Gloves.”
“Gray Gloves?”
Leia smiled, not realizing how important this was:
“Our great Detective, even in Middelburg, doesn't forget to contribute to the Kingdom.
Oh, I remember, you're also an MI6 agent.”
All five members of the group knew about the no-work-for-pay job that The Lady had arranged for Xia De, but no one knew what Xia De's exact treatment and status were at MI6 now.
“A Detective who is both a Knight and an agent?”
Angelina, holding the cat, whispered, but no one paid attention to her.
“Let me think… The Kingdom hasn't lost any important information recently.”
Leia twirled a strand of hair by her ear, giving her answer.
“Then is it possible that important documents or information were copied?”
“That's also unlikely.”
She raised an eyebrow:
“Aside from the four metal plates in your basement, I don't know of any recent leaks of important items.”
She was referring to the four one-shilling banknote printing plates.
Angelina looked very curious, but neither Xia De nor Leia wanted to explain.
“Then what could this be?”
Xia De looked at the briefcase on his lap with a solemn expression.
“Why don't you open it and see?”
Leia looked past Xia De out the carriage window.
It was not easy for her and Angelina to show themselves, so they could only gaze at the Terraril River from this small window.
From the time Xia De arrived at the riverbank until now, only about twenty minutes had passed, and the last ray of twilight had already disappeared.
On the calm Terraril River, the lights of steamboats adorned the scenery of the waterway, and on both sides of the river were the lights of thousands of homes.
This was the core urban area of Northern Pearl Tobesk, and the firelight of the steam age symbolized the greatest achievements of civilization in this era.
This scene made Leticia Cavendish even more firmly believe that all of this was worth her possession.
PS: Guess what's in the box.
If someone guesses correctly before the evening update, I'll add an extra chapter tomorrow.
