Chapter 136: Chapter 135: Night, Ghost Fire, Eye Contact
As the clamor of the day ended, the stillness of the night descended. Although in some corners, there were rustling undertakings in the dark, the street where the Golden Wine Glass Inn was located was as quiet as a graveyard.
A wizard apprentice from the continent had died, which was certainly no small matter, and no one dared to ignore it, but neither did they know how to respond.
Should they try to capture the killer who had slain the wizard apprentice?
Wake up. Even a powerful wizard apprentice could be killed, turned into a stone statue. If one were to really try capturing the culprit, did they think there were too few lifelike stone statues in this world?
For various reasons, the officials of Cuijin City adopted a cautious and conservative approach, blockading the entire street of the Golden Wine Glass Inn, waiting for the arrival of someone from White Stone Tower to handle the situation personally.
Thus, the normally bustling Golden Wine Glass Inn, together with the entire street, became eerily quiet.
Within this quietness, barely discernible footsteps sounded.
Richard appeared at the door of the Golden Wine Glass Inn, gently pushed it open, and walked in, ready to investigate the situation.
Richard knew that if he asked Gro, Gro would definitely find a way to open up the entire Golden Wine Glass Inn for his investigation, but he did not want to do that.
Because doing so would expose himself too much.
Investigation was better conducted in secret, to avoid attracting the attention of White Stone Tower or any other potential watchers. Better to take advantage of the night and investigate alone, quietly, and without disturbance.
Richard stepped up to the second floor of the inn, walked down the corridor to the end, and pushed open the door to the room where Hua’er had died.
In the room, the stone statue of Hua’er stood on the floor, immobile, like a huge source of fear, making the entire inn, and even the entire street, a place no ordinary person dared to approach.
But Richard wasn’t afraid.
People often fear the dead more than the living, but guided by reason, Richard was not affected by such sentiment.
If it were the living Hua’er, Richard might have been somewhat cautious, but Hua’er, now dead and turned into a statue, had only research value to him.
With a “puff,” Richard flicked his finger, and “Ghost Hand Fire” was released, a hen’s-egg-sized, olive-green flame sparked at his fingertip, illuminating the surrounding area.
Holding the light, Richard stepped closer to the statue to begin his observation, and he could clearly see every detail on the statue. Upon examination, Richard observed that the entire statue could truly be described as lifelike, nearly perfectly recreating all of Hua’er’s features, whether it was hair, nose, or eyes. The only difference being that these parts were now made of stone.
“Has he really turned entirely to stone?” Richard’s eyes flickered as he muttered to himself, “So what is the principle behind this? Elemental transformation? Or the injection of some special energy that reacts with biological cells, causing the flesh to rapidly harden and take on a stone-like state?
If it’s the latter, could the reaction be reversible? Can the stone-like flesh be turned back into normal flesh? If that’s possible, then you could adjust to complex environments in combat by flexibly transforming.”
“However…” Richard raised an eyebrow, “to truly decipher the principle of this spell would clearly take a fair amount of time. Better to study it later. Right now, it would be more useful to figure out what happened in this room.”
As he spoke, the size of the oily green flame on Richard’s finger rapidly expanded to the size of a human head, illuminating a larger area of the room and revealing its many furnishings and scenes:
Wrung carpets, cracked ground, spattered bloodstains…
Richard looked intently, finally resting his gaze on the most marked-up of the wrinkled carpets, his mind quickly working to reconstruct the past scene.
“Judging from the state of the carpet, Mr. Hua’er, the Third-level Apprentice of White Stone Tower, must have spent some time indulging in certain activities here before he got up. Then, he suddenly turned around so violently that he ripped out quite a bit of the carpet’s hair. Afterwards, he must have stood still for a moment, either talking or standing in a spell-casting stance.”
“In that case, the enemy he was facing should be in this direction.” Richard, imagining Hua’er’s situation at that time, looked towards a direction in the room and walked over, his eyes focusing on a barely visible layer of black powdery substance on the floor.
“Hmm? Was he really standing here…” Richard narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, “But what is this powder? Casting materials? Or perhaps a residue from releasing a certain spell?”
Richard pursed his lips, thought for a moment, then took out a glass bottle from the Iron Ring and carefully collected the powder inside. He then labeled it with the inscription “Cuijin City – Golden Wine Glass Inn – Incident S – Item No. 1.”
After collecting the powder, Richard stood up and looked towards the imagined position of Hua’er, then shifted his gaze to the wooden window in the room.
“If Hua’er realized after probing that the enemy was too strong to confront, it’s very likely he would have attempted to escape, and the closest exit would be the wooden window.” Richard quickly walked to the window and checked it but didn’t find any signs of damage.
“This means Hua’er didn’t try to escape. Or perhaps his attempt at escape failed. Before he could smash through the wooden window, he was stopped. After being intercepted, he fell here, the force was so great that it cracked part of the ground.” Richard stepped back several paces from the window and looked at a cracked patch of ground near the statue.
“Then Hua’er tried to stand up, but due to his injuries, or for some reason, he knelt forward.” Richard glanced at the bloodstains on the ground and then his gaze fell back to the statue, “At this time, his enemy should have either remained at the original spot casting spells, or walked over… ah, probably walked over.”
Richard noticed the black powder on the ground near the statue, the same substance he had seen before, and speculated, “So, he walked over, then released the spell. After turning Hua’er into a statue, he left in the same way he appeared.”
Bending down, Richard collected the black powder from the ground into another glass bottle and labeled it “Cuijin City – Golden Wine Glass Inn – Incident S – Item No. 2.”
Standing up, Richard looked around the entire inn and said out loud, “If nothing unexpected happened, the battle lasted only a very short time, or perhaps didn’t happen at all, which is why there is no obvious damage to the room’s decor. That being said, Hua’er’s enemy must have been quite powerful, with an overwhelming advantage, at least of Official Wizard Level.
Combining this with the information previously gathered from Gro, this being of at least Official Wizard Level was intentionally targeting White Stone Tower for retaliation. As a member of the White Stone Tower, Hua’er naturally fell victim. However, what was the reason for the retaliation? How had White Stone Tower offended the other party?”
Richard mused to himself, walking over to the room’s wooden window, gently pushing it open to get some air and relax his mind, letting his thoughts wander.
But just as he opened the window and his gaze swept over the scene outside, Richard’s muscles tensed all over.
He saw a man in a black robe standing quietly on the other side of the street, atop a double-story shop, his eyes burning with oily green flames, quietly watching.
In an instant, as their eyes met, the air seemed to freeze, and the tense atmosphere reached its peak without any need for brewing.