The statue was extremely lifelike. Although it might be a real stone statue, since it appeared here, it was most likely a living person who had been petrified. When Shade bent down and tried to pull it up, he found that the back of the statue was almost integrated with the earth. Obviously, if they hadn't appeared at this time, the earth would soon swallow up the statue completely.
The stone statue is dressed like a nearby hunter, and even a scabbard can be seen around its waist. Only the muzzle of the old-fashioned musket behind it is left on the ground.
But unfortunately, the soul is gone, this is permanent petrification. The difficulty of restoring the stone statue in front of you to a living person is the same as the difficulty of finding a random statue to turn into a normal living person.
"He didn't die from petrification, he died from this."
Miss Benanis also came over, and the experienced witch pointed to the hunter's chest, where there was a subtle piercing injury. Although the witch didn't like to get close to men, it didn't matter if it was a statue of a man:
"It looks like a needle-like weapon pierced directly through the heart. Look, the stone next to the wound has no obvious peeling feeling, which means the wound existed before petrification."
"Was he attacked before he was petrified? Then he was not killed here. Someone killed him somewhere else and dumped his body here. It seems that the other party is very familiar with the problems of this land."
Xia De judged that there was no trace of blood, so he couldn't track it at all.
"It should be a ring warlock. How interesting. Who would go to such a remote place?"
Miss Benanis looked around, but because it had been snowing, there were no footprints on the snow.
"Wait a moment, I will use the power of time to listen."
Shade stood up from the statue:
“Echoes of the past.”
Squinting his eyes slightly, the voice immediately entered his ears. This time he was quite lucky, the man's voice that appeared in his ears was obviously not his own voice:
"Just drop it here. Be careful and don't step over it, or I won't be able to save you."
"knew."
This was another man's voice, seemingly younger. Then there was the sound of something heavy falling into the snow, probably a body being thrown here.
Shad made a gesture to Miss Benannis to keep quiet, and even the unicorn understood Shad's gesture and stopped moving.
The voice continues:
"The target is nearby, right? If we still can't find it after killing the guide, our three days of activities in the forest will be in vain."
This was still the voice of that young man.
"It's nearby. This is the result given by the Puppet Master's Notes. Since the price has been paid, how could there be a problem?"
The two people's voices gradually became quieter, which meant that they were moving away.
Since there wouldn't be more human voices in the wild, Shade didn't worry about not being able to find the sound next time, so he temporarily stopped his magic:
"People from the Blood Spirit School were using the Angel-level Relic Puppet Manipulator's Notes to search for something nearby. This hunter was a guide they hired for money, and since they were close to their destination, they killed him. This is very much in line with their style."
The witch who was observing the surroundings frowned slightly:
"Blood Spirit School? Didn't they come here to look for last year?"
"Is it possible that this is also the tomb of 'Saint Perry'?"
Shad made a guess.
"It's possible, but no matter what, let's catch up and see. No, you need to rest now, don't cast any more spells. I'll ask the earth, I also know tracking magic."
The witch said, and Shade did not object:
"I can only confirm that they appeared here within three days, but I can't be sure of the exact time. If we chase them now, I'm afraid there will be no results."
"It doesn't matter. After all, we are just here to try our luck. Let's disguise ourselves. We might run into enemies later. Oh, it's the witch's eye shadow. Is this also given to you by Karina? But isn't this only usable by witches?"
The red-gold eyes looked at Shade suspiciously, but he didn't ask any more questions. The two of them then led their horses. They were originally worried that the unicorn would run away, but unexpectedly it followed Shade happily, as if it was sure that it was safer with Shade.
Shade wasn't quite sure what the witch's ability to "listen to the earth" was, but she didn't show any hesitation or pause. She set off on horseback and headed straight northwest through the sparse creek woods.
The destination was very close to the land that had been processed by Shade. In less than ten minutes, the witch stopped and signaled Shade that he could dismount.
At this time, they came to a not-so-steep rock wall in the mountains. On the slightly rough map that Xia De had bought in advance, this place was not even specially marked.
There were still no footprints, but the traces of the ring warlock's battle were clearly visible. There was an obvious mark of a sharp weapon chopping on the rock wall, and although the stumps of broken trees around were frozen, it could still be judged that they were broken not long ago.
By pushing aside the snow, you can see traces of the explosion. Looking more closely, you can see a collapsed black tent half buried in the snow.
Shad pulled the tent out of the snow and saw some daily necessities inside. There was even a bitten apple and a pirated copy of the first volume of Hamilton's Detective Stories in Carsenrick language in the corner.
Miss Benanis turned over the snow near the tent and saw the remains of the extinguished campfire:
"My listening earth can only track them nearby. The earth is unwilling to continue to tell me their whereabouts. It seems that they built a bonfire nearby last night to spend the night. The size of this bonfire is obviously not just for cooking."
"And then there was an attack at night... and I listened."
Xia De used the echo of the past again. After frowning slightly, he could only hear extremely chaotic fighting sounds. It was as if he was trying to listen to the people talking in the house opposite across a noisy street. This was a very obvious feature:
"The power of time has been disrupted, and I can no longer hear any sound."
"Even if the Blood Spirit School can defend against one tracking method, there is no reason for them to defend against two at the same time. Moreover, your time power itself is difficult to defend against. Moreover, they have been fighting with unknown enemies in a hurry nearby, so there is no reason for them to think about preventing being tracked."
Miss Benanis frowned slightly:
"Look around, maybe there's a body."
The two horses were still tied to the tree, and the unicorn happily followed Shade around. When Shade bent down from time to time to push aside the snow to check underneath, the little animal would use its hooves to turn over the snow and pretend to be very serious about checking. When Shade touched it casually, it would bark happily again. It really liked Shade.
Soon, Xia De's Blood Echo found a faint bloodstain under the snow. He followed the trace, but found that the bloodstain was getting farther and farther away. He continued to chase forward until he came to a nearby mountain stream. The bloodstain went straight into the ice and then disappeared completely.
Xia De walked onto the ice and found a hole in the ice that had not yet frozen solid. After the blood was diluted by the river water under the ice, Xia De could no longer see the bright red marks.
"The other party jumped into the river and escaped. This should have happened last night or this morning."
When Shade returned, Miss Benanis was examining the cut marks on the rock wall:
"I sensed the power of the sun. It's most likely caused by the high-level magic of the Church of the Sun, 'Sunshine Great Sword'."
The Moonlight Greatsword of Shade comes from the magic of Mr. Hog Rundel, the thirteenth ring warlock of Tobesk. He is very familiar with this magic:
"I heard from my friends in the Church of the Sun that there are not many high-level sorcerers who can master this magic, so it is impossible for them to appear here... Could it be that Saint Perry's cemetery is nearby?"
Miss Benanis was not wearing a hood at this time. Her curly golden hair fell down from her cheeks. Her cheeks were a little red from the cold, but this did not affect her appearance. Instead, it made her look even more... ... pitiful:
"It's possible that they triggered some kind of defense mechanism of the cemetery. My Listening Earth and your time power cannot be tracked, and it may be because of the saint's cemetery."
Xia De squeezed the small silver cube in his pocket and confirmed that it did not react:
"It's half past two in the afternoon."
He sensed the time:
"Although I don't know how they did it, it seems to be at night. Most of the local rumors and stories about the 'Saint Perry Cemetery' also happened at night. Why don't we go back to the city to deal with our own affairs now, and then take the relics and alchemical weapons for the battle. We will come back in the evening, and we will also set up a tent here tonight."
If the two of them don't come back all night, others will also be worried.
"No problem, but I'm worried that the Blood Spirit School will send other people. If the other party escaped last night, as long as he didn't die on the way, he should have reunited with his companions."
The witch said as she set up a simple warning ritual nearby, so that if anyone else came to this area, she would be able to detect it when she returned:
"We must be cautious about this kind of thing. You know, my fighting ability in the council is not strong, and I may not even be able to defeat Grandma Cassandra. Safety first, in the evening, I will bring my followers with us. Although the Blood Spirit School has more high-ring warlocks than the Golden Dawn, after all, this is not their territory."
After saying that, he hummed again, looking quite confident.
Having made up their minds, the two set out to return to the city. The unicorn followed them without Miss Benanis's guidance. It was smart enough to know that it was difficult to survive alone in the mountains in winter.
This time, there was no need to take a detour. It took only more than an hour to ride back to the Green Grass Farm on the outskirts of the Randall River Valley. Of course, the unicorn could not be brought into the city, so it was temporarily placed in the farm. It was not placed in the stable, and Miss Benanis specially arranged a room for it to rest. The snow-white little animal saw that Shade was about to leave, and bit the hem of his clothes reluctantly. After Shade told him that he would come back in the evening, it said goodbye to him sadly.