Abandoned by his own organization, Flamel spent almost all his savings over the years to solve the problem. Although he could not even find out the names of those relics, the mermaid statues, he was introduced by a friend to a fortune teller who was said to be very powerful and gave him advice.
"pirate?"
Xia De sat in the chair and looked at the words on the notebook in surprise.
The fortune teller seeks guidance from fate through divination, and what he sees are pirates. The mermaid statues will be associated with pirates, and the way to break the curse may be related to pirates.
Unfortunately, Flamel had no chance to verify whether the fortune teller who took 300 pounds in cash from him really saw destiny.
Flamel had accumulated a large sum of savings over the years through illegal smuggling activities. Unfortunately, in order to break the curse, he spent a large amount of gold on divination, and used the remaining money to buy relics that could break the curse. Therefore, Shade only found a small amount of cash here.
The relic was carried by Flamel, and it is believed that it has been buried in the sea. Therefore, apart from cash, Shade's only gains this time were the old book Windy Abyss and the second-ring warlock's notebook.
Because he suspected there was a secret compartment here, he used Blood Echo to observe the room. Although he found all the hidden spell materials behind the bookshelf, most of them were of little value and inconvenient to carry, so Xia De didn't want to take them away.
In summary, the gains from this trip were not much. Including the notes and books, he could earn about 200 pounds by selling them all. After all, it was free, so Shade would not think it was not enough. With this money, plus his current savings, he could spend it on renovating the third floor of St. Teresa's Square with peace of mind.
"But this incident once again reminds me that this world is so dangerous that even a second-level warlock can die suddenly due to bad luck."
As I was about to leave, I thought to myself that I felt quite sad about Flamel's fate.
What are you going to do with that statue? Leave it here
"Of course not. Tell the church. But before I go and report, I have one more thing to do."
Putting the money and books into the wide pocket of his coat, Xia De opened the door and walked out of the attic.
It was Monday afternoon, and there was no one else in the rental apartment except the landlord. When I saw the old man again, he was hiding in his basement workshop.
Heat was rising from the basement, and dense steam pipes extended from underground and upstairs to supply production in the small workshop.
There were gas lamps on the walls, and several gas-fired distiller's were placed against the wall, and further inward were box-type drying devices and a small-power steam engine.
The largest space in the basement is a copper-colored high-temperature calcination furnace. When Xia De walked down, the furnace was still working. The metal on the surface radiated extremely high heat, and the pointer on the rusty dial indicated the internal working environment in an orderly manner.
"What else do you want to do?"
Hearing the sound of Shade opening the basement door, the old man asked vigilantly, standing at the innermost part of the basement with a gun in his hand.
"I wanted to tell you that I have taken everything upstairs away."
Shad said.
"Then leave. I won't tell anyone you were here."
"One more thing. I want to see what you produce here."
As he spoke, he looked around, and the old man suddenly raised his gun:
"Leave here immediately! I'll only say this once, leave here immediately! Don't think I won't shoot just because you're from MI6. Young man, get out now and I'll pretend nothing happened."
"It seems that the things you produce are really problematic. Shoot if you have the guts. Have you ever killed anyone before?"
"Of course I have killed someone. Do you think I am trying to scare you?"
Neither of them could see each other clearly through the steam, but the sound of Shade's footsteps was very clear, and seeing that he was still approaching, the old man fired a shot at Shade's feet.
The young detective stopped and looked at the bullet holes under his feet:
"Okay, I'll stop."
Although he said this, he still walked to the side. When he was about to get close to the huge distiller, he suddenly rushed forward. It seemed that Shade was hiding behind the distiller, but the old man widened his eyes because his legs could not be seen under the distiller.
"Where did you go?"
Holding the gun, he looked vigilantly at the room which had returned to silence, but soon he felt a hand reaching out from behind.
Taking advantage of Raglan's jump, Shad got behind the landlord, wrapped his left arm around the old man's neck, and at the same time tried to grab the pistol that was pointing forward with his right hand.
The old man also reacted quickly, and had no intention of trying to wrestle control of the gun from Xia De. Instead, he lay down, forcing Xia De to bend over and wrestle with him.
But the old man took advantage of this opportunity to reach out to Shade's waist with his left hand and pulled out the revolver.
He very skillfully pressed down the hammer with his thumb, and raised his left arm with his left arm bent back, pointing back toward Shad's face:
"I haven't forgotten that you still have a gun on your waist, young man, you think it's too simple."
Bang!
The gun of kindness killed the shooter, the bullet penetrated his forehead, leaving him no chance to leave any last words.
"Yeah, too young."
After the gunshot, the echo reverberated in the basement. Shade sighed, put the body down, and then took the Gun of Kindness back from the old hand. He ignored this place and walked out while wiping the gun with a handkerchief.
The old man had seen his face, and after telling the church where the mermaid statue was hidden, if the church came to inquire, something would inevitably go wrong. And if he shot him to death with his own gun, even if he took the body away, there was a small chance that the church would link the dispatcher's death to this incident. Therefore, letting the old man "commit suicide" with the gun of kindness was the best solution that Shade could think of.
In this way, no matter what method the church uses, it will never know who arrived here ahead of time today.
After that, things were simple. Xia De skillfully locked the door downstairs of the apartment building, and after confirming that he had left no footprints, he left through the back window. When he returned to the street, he looked back at the apartment building with the door tightly closed. He became more understanding of why Dr. Schneider always took out shoe covers and gloves.
The church closest to New Denton Street is the Church of Creation and Destruction of the Goddess of Creation, but Shad did not report there immediately. Instead, he returned to his rented hotel to change his clothes.
Of course, he couldn't run to the church alone to report the dangerous relic, so Shad's plan was to find a child on the street near the church, pay the child some change and ask him to help deliver the letter.
He wrote with his left hand and briefly explained the location of the apartment and the mermaid statue, and then planned to take a carriage from the hotel. However, when Shade found an empty carriage at the door of the hotel and was about to get on, a team of police officers ran over in the distance, blowing whistles:
"All carriages stop!"
The police blowing the whistle usually meant something had happened, so except for the coachmen who stopped where they were, passers-by dodged. Xia De didn't want to get into trouble, so he could only shake his head apologetically at the coachman in front of him.
The team of policemen who came over gathered all the rickshaw drivers on the street, but they didn't say what was going on. They just forbade the rickshaw drivers to pick up passengers.
Shad was worried that something unexpected might happen to the mermaid statue, so he hurried to the church. Instead of waiting there, he planned to walk to the next street to find a carriage.
Coldwater Port City is a typical west coast seaport city. Compared with Tobesk, which is located inland, the air here is more humid. Moreover, because it is adjacent to the dock, you can even feel the moisture of the sea just by taking a breath.
Unlike the capital of Draerion, which has a well-developed steam industry, Coldwater Port City relies on maritime trade as its main economic means. This also caused the construction of steam pipelines and gas pipeline facilities in this city to lag far behind that of Tobesk City.
In Tobesk, the two types of pipes are arranged in a relatively orderly manner on the outer walls of buildings along the street, which well maintains the appearance of the city. However, in Lengshuigang, the metal pipes on the outer walls are installed purely for convenience.
Xia De thinks that although the arrangement of the pipes looks a bit messy, it has an inexplicable sense of rugged beauty. Combined with the old buildings in the dock area, the streetscape here seems to be a mixture of medieval ancient buildings and the steam age. Outsiders really appreciate this scenery.
Just don't let him live in a place like this.
Hoglundz Boulevard is connected to many alleys on both sides. Compared with the relatively clean streets, most of the alleys can be directly equated with garbage dumps. Even in the daytime, when pedestrians encounter the alley entrance, they will subconsciously detour instead of passing through it directly.
The same thing happened to Shad, but as he was looking at the animal clinic across the street and thinking about giving Mia a bath, he heard hurried footsteps in the alley beside him.
It was as if that person had been hiding at the entrance of the alley. Xia De didn't even have time to react before a young girl in a black and white gauze skirt rushed out of the alley and stuffed the paper bag in her hand into Xia De's arms without saying anything:
"Help me get it!"
After saying that, without caring about Xia De's reaction, she quickly crossed the street with the hem of her skirt lifted up and ran into the alley next to the pet clinic.
"What?"
Then, another group of police officers ran out from the alley where the young girl ran out. It was not the first time that Xia De had seen police officers in this world, but the people who appeared at this time were definitely the most military-looking police officers he had ever seen, not just ordinary street patrol officers.
"The police department of Coldwater City is indeed more powerful than that of Tobesk City."
I couldn't help but admire in my heart.
The police ignored Xia De who was standing at the alley entrance, and ran straight into the alley across the street in the direction the young girl had just left. Xia De was left standing there, holding the paper bag, completely unaware of what had just happened.