"Luvia, I gave you a towel, how did it turn out?"
“I still can’t see clearly.”
The hair on her forehead stuck to her skin wetly. Luvia shook her head.
"This is no longer an interference from the miracle element. I suspect it has the ability to counter divination."
"You take a rest first, I'll give it a try."
For souls that have not reached the end, spiritual communication is usually simple and effective, but it is limited to ordinary souls. This time, Shade's "soul echo" did not work for the first time. He didn't know whether he was unable to communicate with Mr. Thomas Granger at all, or the other party rejected Shade's "invitation".
"It doesn't matter. There is still a way."
Luvia thought carefully for a while:
"Use a Ouija board."
"But what's the use of a Ouija board if you can't communicate with spirits?"
"No, no, it's not a Ouija board for communicating with spirits. It's for communicating with corpses."
She dug out the not-so-big oak board from her suitcase. Twenty-nine Kasenrick letters were engraved on the board, and the engraving marks were painted red. The Ouija board was paired with a wooden pointer with a round glass ball in the center. The two could be used together to play a simple psychic game.
"I learned a new skill from the Prophet's Guild in the Randall Valley, and I think it's a good time to try it out. Shad, you can manipulate puppets, right? Now, make the skeleton sit up."
So Shade controlled the skeleton to sit up, stretched out its right arm, and pressed its index finger bone and Luvia's finger on the Ouija board. Shade lit Luvia's special spices on the side, and dark green smoke immediately filled the inside of the skeleton, as if filling it with muscle.
As the fortune teller recited the spell, the skeleton controlled by Shade actually began to tremble. Then the skeleton's skull was raised, and a gray mist faintly appeared in the eye sockets.
"Are you Thomas Granger?"
Luvia asked immediately, and the small pointer of the Ouija board, which was pressed by both the dead and the living, quickly pointed to three letters, which spelled out the meaning of "yes".
"Where has your soul gone?"
Luvia asked again, and the pointer quickly changed position again, spelling out the word "I don't know".
“As expected.”
Luvia murmured softly, and asked her real question:
"Where are the clues to the location of your soul?"
This time, the small pointer on the Ouija board did not move immediately. It took a full half minute before it slowly moved the fingers of the dead and the living to different letters.
Xia De put those letters together, and the meaning is:
I will protect this land. I will appear where the land goes mad.
"So, we still have to look for the local crazy land?"
Shad asked:
"Miss Benanis's estate, the petrified area in the creek woods outside the city, and the St. Perry Cemetery. I came across three crazy places in the Randall River Valley, but I didn't run into Mr. Granger in any of them."
The girl with purple eyes raised her eyebrows:
"This is easy to explain, because the problems in these three places are not serious. In the first place, Miss Lathers often goes to clean up the evil spirits caused by the land, so the pollution is constantly weakened. The petrified forest in the second place is the weakest. It seems that the problem has just occurred. Even the petrified corpse will take a long time to swallow. Although the third place is dangerous, it is still restricted and sealed by Saint Perry, so it is theoretically the safest."
"That makes sense. The last time I encountered it in the Emerald Dream, the problem was serious enough, so Mr. Granger showed up on his own initiative. Next, I still have to find the craziest piece of land that already exists locally?"
As Xia De was speaking, he suddenly felt the skeleton trembling even more forcefully, and he almost couldn't control it:
"Don't ask any more questions. If you keep asking, this skeleton will turn into an undead creature. Mr. Thomas Granger most likely died for a noble reason. We cannot desecrate his body."
Luvia nodded, and Shade controlled the corpse that was about to lose control and lay back in the coffin. He quickly closed the lid of the coffin and placed the round emblem on his chest on the lid. The round emblem was used to detect witches, and the white bone edge around it was a top-level alchemical magic item made by Augustus priests, which could effectively suppress the creation of undead creatures.
"Can you tell me the location of the Crazy Land within the Randall River Valley?"
"Oh, Shade, I've told you many times not to think that divination is omnipotent. Besides, the Crazy Earth is the result of the shift in the essence of the earth. Why do you think my divination can predict this... Divination with special coins should be possible, but we don't have any coins now."
"Then let's wait. At least the final target has been determined. We just need to wait for Mr. Granger to show up."
Xia De sighed slightly. The clue was interrupted, but not completely.
As he spoke, he glanced at the stone statue of a middle-aged man next to Xiaomia:
"Luvia, what do you think of this statue?"
Luvia turned around and looked at the seated stone statue:
"this?"
She placed her hand on the statue's shoulder, waited a moment and said to Shade:
"It's just an ordinary stone statue."
"Is it possible that this is also a corpse, and an innocent person who died because of the curse of the mad land?"
Xia De asked, making sure the coffin was no longer shaking before coming to the statue:
"When I first saw this seated stone statue, I felt that something was wrong with it. After all, the wrinkles on the face, the details of the hair, and the traces of clothing from sitting down were all too realistic, and the expression on the statue's face was too real. I couldn't even imagine this expression of regret, relief, and pilgrimage. When I first came to the Randall Valley, I didn't know about the Crazy Land, so I didn't guess that this was a stone statue made of a living person."
"I can't do divination on it. It's not a body at all. It's just a piece of stone."
Luvia frowned:
"If we divine the source of the stone directly, the only result we can get is the earth. Your guess may be correct, but I prefer to investigate it as a real statue."
"You mean, the Randall Valley Masons?"
Luvia nodded:
"We have no clues for the next step if we investigate it as a corpse. If you are interested in this, why not go to the local stonemason association to inquire about it. If such a realistic and perfect stone statue is the work of local stonemasons, there must be records of it."
Shade also agreed with this view, and he had plans to go to the Stonemason's Guild. Margaret was dealing with the decades-long debt dispute between the Stonemason's Guild and the Anjou family. There was also a strange legend circulating in the local area that the Stonemason's Guild could make "movable stone men". Since the clues about "Thomas Granger" were temporarily interrupted, it would be better to investigate the Stonemason's Guild. At least it would not be a complete waste of time.
The sitting statue was almost completely integrated with the stone chair under its body. Shade did not want to destroy either of them, nor did he want to move the statue, which might be a corpse, out of the church. So he suggested renting a camera, taking a picture of the statue, and then taking the picture to the Stonemasons Association to inquire.
The use of cameras in this era is much more complicated than the "point-and-shoot" cameras that foreigners used in their hometowns. Not only are the flash bulbs of magnesium lamps disposable, but when setting up the flash, you also have to consider replacing the bulbs. The most troublesome thing is actually focusing the lens.
There is no automatic focusing technology now. Cameramen need to adjust the focus themselves behind a black cloth, squinting their eyes and looking at the lens, which requires quite professional skills.
In order to ensure safety and concealment, Shad planned to rent a camera from Tobesk. He would take the photo himself, and he didn't need to have very good skills, as long as he could capture the general appearance of the statue.
So Shad took Mia back to Tobesk and agreed with Luvia to meet again at two o'clock in the afternoon.
After returning to Tobesk, he originally planned to go directly to the photo studio to inquire about the rental, but after leaving, he thought of another way, so he went to Quill Pen Street to find Dorothy.
"You're going to rent a camera from the Steambird Daily?"
The writer's "Hamilton Detective Stories" was serialized and distributed through the "Steambird Daily" channel, not to mention that her father, Professor Louisa, was also one of the shareholders of "Steambird Daily".
She had planned to finish writing the manuscript for next week's serial at home this morning. Since Shad came to her house for help, which was rare, Dorothy was happy to take Shad to the Steambird Daily newspaper office.
Now she is the most important contributor to the Steambird Daily newspaper. After arriving at the office, she took Xia De directly to find the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Mr. Newcastleman, a middle-aged man with half bald hair who looks to be only in his forties.
After explaining the purpose of the visit, Mr. Newcastleman behind the desk enthusiastically said that he could help:
"Detective Hamilton, instead of renting a camera, you might as well buy one. The newspaper has some old cameras that have been discarded. Although they are still usable, they are disliked by our reporters because they are too old. Since Mr. Hamilton is renting a camera for investigation, he may need it again in the future. Why not buy a used one from us? I can give you a very cheap price."
Although it might seem like he was just clearing out the newspaper's inventory, Shad thought this was a good idea. He and Dorothy went to the warehouse to check the old cameras. Although they were all old models, they worked fine.
Shade then made up his mind to buy it, but developing the film required a darkroom and chemicals. So after negotiating the price, Shade bought the York II camera produced in 1845 at the lowest price of 15 pounds, and got three extra rolls of film and a box of replacement flash bulbs.
In addition, he could go to the Steambird Daily newspaper office at any time to buy camera supplies, and today he could learn photography and film processing techniques here. The latter was the skill that photographers made a living, but for Dorothy's sake, Shad was allowed to learn these.