Crown of Silence

Chapter 160 Tomorrow is a good day

At the intersection of the long street, an old man wearing black gloves lit his pipe, took a deep breath, and exhaled light blue smoke.

Wait quietly.

After a long time, his shoulders shook, and he turned around slowly, seeing a figure appearing behind him from unknown time.

"Mr. Holmes."

He nodded and said, "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"Mr. Ghost Hands, long time no see."

Ye Qingxuan smiled slightly and took off the deerstalker hat on his head: "I remember the first time we met outside the White Horse Hotel.

You once showed me the way, but now I didn't expect that it would turn upside down again. "

Guishou took a deep look at the young man's eyes and couldn't help but sigh in a low voice, full of emotions.

A few months ago, when he and the boy met for the first time, they passed each other on the long street.

At that time, he was still a famous legend in the entire Avalon, the debt collector Ghost Hand. Ye Qingxuan is just an Eastern brat who has just arrived here.

At that time, this kid was still the fish on the chopping board, cooking it only according to his heart.

But within a few short months, he had gained a reputation in Nuo University, and gained the fear and awe of countless people with his actions.

It is already the 'vengeful evil spirit' famous in Avalon.

Even the shaman had the idea of ​​taking him as his right-hand man, and he vaguely had great expectations for this young man.

The ups and downs of fate are really unpredictable, and sometimes people are caught off guard.

"I'll leave it to you to find the professor's traces."

He turned around and led the way.

Ye Qingxuan walked into the alley, stepped on the water and broken bricks, and walked into the shack.

In the empty shack, it was covered in faint blood, and on the floor in the center, a corpse was already rigor mortis.

The cold night climate kept the corpses intact and did not cause them to rot, but the skin became paler and paler, which made people feel sick.

"Whose body is here?"

"A smuggler, nicknamed 'Litchi'. Lychee is a rare oriental water..."

"I know."

Ye Qingxuan nodded: "A Westerner is called such a nickname? It's really rare."

"Because one of the things he is most famous for is smuggling dozens of tons of 'lychees' from the East, passing them through Avalon's customs, and dumping them into the entire Anglo market."

"Fruit seller?"

"Although it looks fresh and cute, don't be deceived by the appearance. After cutting the lychee, there is a refined 'mandala' hidden inside."

Guishou said calmly: "They are all high-quality goods. The Tianzhu people call them 'Krishna'. With that shipment of goods, the Tianzhu people seized 90% of the market share and laid the foundation for illegal rule." Fundamentals of Drug Markets.

Litchi has always been regarded as an important right-hand man by Sheila Yidu, and is regarded as a thorn in the side of many people. But he was cautious and acted very carefully. Sometimes she would travel disguised as a pregnant woman, so no one ever caught her. "

"Pregnant woman?"

Ye Qingxuan knelt down and looked at the swollen corpse. Seeing the beard on his face and the dense chest hair, he couldn't help but frown:

"He really invested his money..."

He asked, "When was the body discovered?"

"Tonight, three hours ago."

Guishou smoked his pipe and said calmly: "According to the shaman's rules, those who sell banned drugs must have their hands and feet cut off, but by the time our people arrived, he was already dead.

The professor was one step ahead of us and found him in advance. Is this retaliation for the betrayal of Sherabida? "

"more than."

Ye Qingxuan shook his head: "If it was for revenge, the professor would directly hang Shravitta's younger brother 'Bashina' in front of his bed.

When Sheila Jita woke up from his nightmare, he saw his brother's death with distorted facial features, and lived in fear forever..."

Guishou was stunned: "How did you know?"

Ye Qingxuan glanced at him indifferently and looked away: "Because if I were a professor, I would do that."

Ghost Hands was silent.

Ye Qingxuan's palms groped on the corpse, exploring the remaining traces on the corpse. With Bolero, it became much easier. He directly pressed his palm on the corpse's chest, manipulated the liquid in the corpse to form a thought thread, and explored the condition of the internal organs.

Soon, he released his palm.

"Cardiac arrest, internal bleeding, brain tissue showing symptoms of poisoning..."

Ye Qingxuan's eyes turned cold:

"——'Litchi', he wasn't killed, he was scared to death by himself."

Soon, Guishou suddenly realized where the anger in the young man's eyes came from: "Is this your usual method... is the professor provoking you?"

According to his understanding of Holmes, this black musician, known as the evil spirit of vengeance, has always hated killing people in the presence of blood. He always makes his enemies kill themselves, and he never takes the lives of his enemies no matter how cruel he is.

He is so kind and cherishes life, he doesn't look like a black musician at all.

But the most cruel place is here, his enemies often want to die but can't!

For example, those lunatics who were sent to Avalon Mental Hospital, such as the disgraced Rat King, and the Tianzhu musician Pusu Po who became an idiot...

If Ye Qingxuan wanted to deal with the dead, he would undoubtedly choose a similar method, but the professor's behavior would be even more cruel.

No matter how the process was, the scene would be so tragic that it would give people nightmares.

In silence, Ye Qingxuan stared coldly at the dim eyes of the corpse, and slowly stood up after a long time:

"Maybe he was challenging me? After seeing this scene, most people thought it was me who did it."

Ye Qingxuan would not be indifferent to the death of a lychee, but this was just a warning. If he could not be found when the professor made his move next time, the identity of the dead person would have to change.

Ye Qingxuan could think of several suitable targets to frame himself without using his brain.

For example, an important member of the Avalon Metropolitan Police Department, the offspring of a noble official... At that time, he would not be able to move in Avalon.

Professor Yue Ling was taking revenge on himself for exposing his identity. He wanted to make himself understand: if he exposed his identity, he would also have the same way to make him lose his foothold in the lower city.

But the professor, at a time when the whole city was in turmoil, did not think about long-term strategies, did not want to retaliate against the parliament, and came to kill a person just to warn himself. Isn't it a bit too idle?

Or is this still his plan to kill two birds with one stone, and warning himself was just a convenience?

Ye Qingxuan stared at the corpse and suddenly asked:

"Mr. Ghost Hand, the legend says that you can capture the souls of your enemies and make them serve you. Is it true? If it is true, you might as well use it on Litchi."

Ghost Hand smiled and shook his head slowly:

"Sorry, Mr. Holmes. When has the soul ever existed in human beings? It's just a rumor spread by philosophers, right?"

He said, "I only know how to kill people, and this is the only thing I am good at. After people are killed, I can't do anything to them. After all, dead things can't be killed again.

I'm afraid I'll make you laugh."

Ye Qingxuan himself didn't have high expectations for the various strange stories of Ghost Hand. Wait, hearing what he said, just nodded, and responded lightly:

"Don't laugh at me, sometimes it's not a bad thing to have a universal solution."

"Oh?"

Ghost Hand's eyes raised: "Sir, don't you think it's shameful to be a murderer like me?"

"No, I just think it's funny."

Ye Qingxuan looked back at him, not afraid of angering the old man: "Everyone knows that killing can't solve all problems, but there are still many people who think that all problems can be solved by killing.

It's strange, isn't it? Some things can't be changed no matter how many people you kill."

Ghost Hand was silent and stopped talking.

Ye Qingxuan squatted down and checked the body again, not leaving any corner.

It can be seen that this person suffered a long torture before he died.

In the hallucination of terror, the first thing to be hurt is the brain, the reason is tortured by all kinds of unprecedented horror, and blood rushes to the brain.

When the subconscious judges that something terrible is coming, fear will be born. When the fear reaches a certain limit, the subconscious will seek the relief of death on its own. The heartbeat quickened, the breathing became heavy, the glands in the body secreted excessive hormones, the disordered hormones stimulated the internal organs, causing internal bleeding, and the hormones in the blood rushed to the brain, causing the brain to be poisoned.

The person was frightened to death.

Soon, he discovered a new abnormality.

"What is this?"

Ye Qingxuan carefully pinched the corpse's stiff wrist, turned it over, and stared at the rice-sized herpes in the palm: "Hand ringworm?"

"It should be caused by some fungi parasitic on the human body, right?" Ghost Hand said: "Sailors who go to sea often have such skin diseases."

Ye Qingxuan shook his head, "It's different from the sailor's. The common skin diseases of sailors are actually skin allergies caused by sunburn and irritation caused by some substances in sea water.

But this one seems to be infected by working in a rotten and humid place frequently, and it has not been infected for a long time. It should be that he has been to a very dirty place recently..."

Soon, he thought of something, threw down his palm, and directly flicked his fingers to make a syllable, which attracted a group of blisters and sprinkled on the feet of the corpse.

Soon, with his control, the liquid condensed again and gathered into a dirty ball. Then, he pronounced the syllables again, summoned the flames, and the bubbles quickly boiled, evaporated, and disappeared without a trace.

Only a small handful of dark red soil remained in the air, emitting a foul odor. There were also dots of white crystalline substances left in it.

"What is this?" Ghost Hand frowned.

"Dried mud."

Ye Qingxuan rubbed the mud powder in his hand and watched the dark red dust fall from his fingertips: "In the whole Avalon, there is only one place with this kind of soil.

The sewer, only the mud in the sewer is this dark red."

"You mean 'mud digger'?"

Ghost Hand thought of a profession, "Indeed, these days, Litchi and his men have hired a lot of mud diggers who were originally used to dredge the sewer area. They are casting nets all over the sewer, as if looking for something... I'm afraid they really found something, otherwise the professor wouldn't come to find such a smuggler."

"Litchi is an ally of the Indians, which means he is working for the parliament. The professor is still tracking clues from the parliament."

Ye Qingxuan nodded: "Which section of the sewer are they mainly active in?"

"The range is too large."

Ghost Hand shook his head: "Avalon's sewer system is complicated, and few people have been able to explore the ins and outs. If they want to take action, they can only cast nets everywhere."

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a moment, then controlled the dust on the ground to form a large map of Avalon: "Show me the range of activities."

The ghost hand pondered for a moment, stretched out his hand and drew a circle on the dust map, almost covering half of the lower city, including part of the middle city.

"No, the scope is too big, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Guishou shook his head: "In such a big place, there are more than a thousand shops, not to mention the sewer system below.

Part of it even leads to Queen's Road, where it's even harder to tell. "

Ye Qingxuan's eyes swept across the map, and a long list of place names flashed through his mind: King's Cross, Queen Bay Park, Amersham, Silaslip and...

Ye Qingxuan's eyes lit up and he pointed to a point on the map: "It's right here."

The ghost hand looked along his fingers:

"—Arkham Asylum?"

"That's right."

Ye Qingxuan showed the dirt he extracted to Guishou and let him see the dots of small white crystals inside: "This should be mainly salt and alkali, and some of it is other chemical raw materials.

There happens to be a factory near Arkham Asylum that produces these things exclusively for the research and use of the Royal Academy. Except for the sewage discharged there, sewers elsewhere will not have such strong chemical residues.

Litchi and the others must have been frequently active in the sewers under the chemical plant, so their bodies were contaminated with so much residue.

If you want to find a professor, this is the right place to go. "

Guishou listened to Ye Qingxuan's analysis in silence, his cloudy eyes brightened for a moment, then dimmed again.

The young man who was close at hand seemed to be aware of the murderous intention and fear in his heart that he had not expressed just now. He just raised his head and glanced at him with a smile in his eyes.

The corners of Guishou's mouth twitched, and the slightly raised fingers were lowered - at that moment, after listening to Ye Qingxuan's analysis, Guishou suddenly had an instinctive urge to kill.

If Ye Qingxuan is not eradicated now, he may become even more difficult to deal with than the professor over time... Now he is vaguely able to compete with the professor and is regarded as a strong rival. If he wants to oppose the shaman's rule in the future, he will definitely be in serious trouble.

But soon, his reason suppressed this impulse, his expression returned to calm, and he just sighed:

"As expected of Mr. Holmes, he is more like a detective than a musician, which is really scary. No wonder Mr. Shaman values ​​you so much."

"Detective? That was one of my childhood dreams."

Ye Qingxuan stood up and dusted himself off: "Being able to scare Mr. Ghost Hand also gives me a sense of accomplishment.

It's just such a misunderstanding, I hope it won't happen again. "

His words were clear and his voice was calm, but the underlying meaning was conveyed without any trace: if there was a second time, once the signs were revealed, he would definitely fight back violently.

What's even more troublesome is that for a person like Holmes who can get the truth from any tiny clues, once he realizes that the ghost hand regards him as an enemy, it will definitely not be a mindless and reckless duel. What awaits him will be It's a series of interlocking traps. Even if he couldn't be killed, he would probably have to shed his skin.

If you want to kill him, you must be thoroughly prepared and determined to fight him to the death.

This is the most difficult enemy to deal with. No matter what, Guishou does not want him to stand on his opposite side.

Sensing the young man's displeasure, Guishou sighed: "I was rude just now. Please forgive me, Mr. Holmes."

"It's okay, I would also feel honored to be qualified to be regarded as an enemy by Ghost Hand."

Ye Qingxuan waved his hands, no longer dwelling on the little test between each other just now, and turned the conversation back to the normal track: "It will be dawn now. If we take action immediately, not only will it not be conducive to covering up our tracks, but I am afraid we will fall into the professor's plan.

I plan to visit the chemical factory tomorrow night. Does Mr. Shaman have any manpower that can cooperate with me? "

After listening to his words, Guishou fell into deep thought.

He waved his hand, signaling all the men next to him to get out.

In the silence, he said seriously: "Tomorrow is not a good day. If possible, I hope you can wait a few more days. I think the shaman will think so too."

"Huh?" Ye Qingxuan frowned slightly: "Is there any inconvenience?"

"In terms of manpower, Mr. Shaman originally assigned me to cooperate with you, but if it were tomorrow, I would have to personally protect Mr. Shaman and would not have time to cooperate with your actions."

Ghost Hand took a drag on his pipe and whispered: "The storm is coming, Mr. Holmes, please think again."

Ye Qingxuan pondered and asked, "Do you have any big plans tomorrow?"

“The war between us and the Parliament has reached a fever pitch in the past two days, with hundreds of corpses thrown into the sewer every day.

We received news that there will be a big move in the Parliament tomorrow. A large amount of ordnance has been delivered to the hands of the thugs, including two Archangel armors that have had their serial numbers and records removed.

And we will also launch a formal counterattack tomorrow. "

The message in Guishou's words made Ye Qingxuan horrified: "Will Avalon let you start a war in the lower city?"

"If Avalon wants this war, it will happen. Haven't they allowed the lower city to fall into chaos for so long?"

Ghost Hand said calmly: "Tomorrow the whole downtown area will be in chaos. Mr. Holmes, you'd better not get stuck in this quagmire. We will hardly have the energy to take care of your actions then.

How about changing to a better day?"

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a moment, and couldn't help sighing:

"Forget it, each of us will do our own thing. You will work on the parliament, and I will work on the professor. Everyone will take revenge and complain. It's nothing more than murder and arson.

For such a thing, how can there be any auspicious day?"

Ghost Hand saw the determination in his eyes, and after thinking for a moment, he took out a business card from his pocket: "If you insist, don't refuse this person's help."

"Who?"

Ye Qingxuan took the business card. There was no handwriting on it. There was only a horse-faced pattern on the white paper that seemed to be stained with blood. In an instant, he suddenly realized:

"——Butcher?"

——

As you can see, this chapter is about 5,000 words, a big chapter. However, my stockpile of manuscripts has been completely exhausted. From tomorrow on, I will enter a miserable life of writing and posting one chapter at a time. I guess the updates will become less stable.

Please forgive me. I am really sorry.