Mystery: I Married the Queen of Mystery

After entering the vineyard, Audis got out of the carriage and squatted down to grab a handful of soil to examine.

The soil in the vineyard was very dry, almost like sand, impossible to hold in your hand, it would just slip through your fingers.

Squatting on the ground, Audis said, "Bring a bucket of water."

Without Earl Brandon needing to instruct, his personal valet immediately ordered the vineyard's steward to send someone for water.

Soon, two farmers carried over a large bucket of water.

Audis scooped out a ladleful and poured it onto the ground, the water quickly seeping in and disappearing without a trace.

When Audis squatted down again to grab the soil, it had already become very dry again, like sand, slipping through his fingers.

According to Earl Brandon's description, not only this ladle of water, but even after the 'Punisher' had caused it to rain for a whole day, the land here hadn't retained even a single drop of water.

Audis clapped his hands, stood up, took the staff from Lord Rick, and said to Earl Brandon, "The curse here started about half a month ago, right?"

Earl Brandon nodded, "Yes."

Audis hummed and then said, "Then, more than half a month ago, something magical and strange must have grown in this vineyard."

"Earl, please send someone to look for it. If we can find that thing, I'll be confident in solving the problem with the soil here."

Earl Brandon asked, "What does that thing look like specifically?"

"I don't know either," Audis said, "It doesn't have a fixed shape, but it must be emitting a soft, pure white light."

Earl Brandon nodded and immediately ordered the steward to search for it.

But half an hour later, the steward returned and reported that nothing the wizard was looking for had been found in the vineyard. He had asked the farmers here, and they had never seen anything like that either.

Brandon was a nobleman who understood human nature very well. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Whoever can find that item will be rewarded with 200 pounds!"

For the farmers working in the vineyard, 200 pounds was a huge sum of money, so someone quickly brought the thing Audis was looking for.

It was a lush green grape leaf, and since it was already winter, all the grape leaves had already fallen. In this era without greenhouses, the color of this grape leaf was very abnormal.

At the same time, this grape leaf also emitted a pure white light, making it look very sacred.

Earl Brandon breathed a sigh of relief, as finding this thing proved that the wizard's judgment was correct.

Audis took the leaf and asked, "Who found this?"

The vineyard's steward pushed forward a man in his forties, dressed as a fruit farmer.

The fruit farmer nervously smoothed the corners of his clothes, "It was me, sir."

Audis then said, "Tell me about how you found it."

"That night, I came out to pee and saw it," the fruit farmer said, "It was very conspicuous in the vineyard. I didn't know what it was, but I thought it was a good thing, so I picked it from the grape vine and took it home."

"Yes, before dark, there wasn't a single leaf left on the grape vines."

Audis smiled, "It is indeed a good thing, earning you a 200-pound reward."

Earl Brandon on the side said, "I'll give you 300 pounds, but at the same time, I'm firing you, because when I first ordered the search for this leaf, you didn't immediately bring it out."

The fruit farmer didn't know whether to be happy or depressed.

Although 300 pounds was a huge sum of money, in recent years, that amount of money was far less reassuring than a stable job.

Audis thought, this Earl does have some tricks up his sleeve.

Immediately, Brandon waved his hand, signaling everyone to step back a little, "Wizard, has the problem been found?"

"It has been found," Audis said, "Please have someone find a basket of wood ash and dozens of perilla leaves first."

"There shouldn't be any fresh perilla now. You can go to the nearest herbal medicine shop and buy some dried perilla."

Earl Brandon immediately had his personal valet and the vineyard's steward prepare these things. Then, the Earl looked at the wizard Gandalf.

Lord Brad Rick also looked at the wizard with a curious expression.

Audis smiled and explained, "There are many types of curses. Among them, the demon's curse is the most vicious and insidious. Of course, demon's curses are also relatively rare."

"As far as I know, those curses include, but are not limited to, turning the food and grain in front of the cursed area or person into stone, or turning clear water into sand, so that the cursed person can never eat a bite of food or drink a mouthful of water."

"There is also making the land barren."

He paused and said, "These curses are very rare. I have only seen them in books, and even fewer people know how to solve them."

Earl Brandon frowned and said, "Why would a demon target me?"

"It's not targeting you," Audis raised the grape leaf in his hand, "But it's related to it."

Lord Rick on the side asked, "Wizard, what is this thing?"

"This is what demons hate the most," Audis explained, "In this world, where there is evil, there is purity. Where there are demons, there are things that restrain demons."

"This leaf is such a thing. I don't know the mechanism of its growth, I only know that there is a very small probability that such a pure thing will grow naturally."

"Every demon hates it, but is unwilling to get close to it."

"So, demons usually cast a curse on the land where such a thing grows, making the land barren and unable to grow anything for several years."

Demons represent the most evil part of this world, and the "Abyss" is even a real entity of evil and depravity.

The leaf in Audis's hand is another extreme. When this world is dark and turbid, it is easy for such a thing to grow.

Earl Brandon sighed, "The extraordinary world is always so magical."

Lord Rick smiled and said, "Fortunately, we found the learned wizard Gandalf, otherwise we would still be looking for a way to solve the problem."

Earl Brandon said, "I should thank you more for your recommendation."

Lord Rick quickly said, "It's my honor to be able to help you."

Audis ignored the pleasantries of the two nobles and carefully looked at the surrounding grape vines. Just as Earl Brandon said, they were still alive in such dry land!

It seemed that the people of the Earth Mother Church had indeed put in a lot of effort, but they had failed to solve the problem fundamentally.

While no one was paying attention, he put a handful of dry soil into his pocket, and also picked up a small twig and put it into his pocket.

At this time, the wood ash and perilla arrived one after another. Audis poured one-third of a basket of wood ash into the large bucket of water, and then crushed a dozen dried perilla leaves and sprinkled them into the water.

He stirred it evenly with a ladle, waited for a minute or two, and then Audis used the ladle to scoop up water and sprinkle it evenly on the ground in front of him.

A magical scene happened, the ladle of water did not leak away like before, but stayed on the ground and slowly seeped into it.

That small piece of land became moist and turned into normal soil.

Audis ladled out water one ladle after another, and soon a large piece of land returned to normal.

Earl Brandon was very happy to see this scene, the problem was finally solved!

After Audis poured out all the water in the bucket, he said to Earl Brandon, "This method is effective. The fruit farmers can sprinkle the water with wood ash and perilla leaves evenly on the ground."

"I just demonstrated the approximate ratio. There can be slightly more wood ash and perilla leaves, but not less. You can sprinkle more, or sprinkle repeatedly, but don't miss any spots."

"Good, good, good," Earl Brandon said with a smile, "Wizard, how should I thank you?"

"Give me this leaf. It's useless for you to keep it. I might be able to use it to deal with demons in the future," Audis raised the grape leaf in his hand again and said, "Also, I need Earl Brandon to help me with a favor."

"What favor?" Earl Brandon really didn't need that leaf, and to avoid being targeted by demons again, he was happy to hand the leaf over to the wizard Gandalf.

Audis then smiled, "Around the New Year, I will write a letter to Earl."

No error, one first, one hair, one inside, one content, one see, one see!

"If I don't write to you, it means I don't need your help, and you don't need to pay any other rewards."

"No problem," Earl Brandon readily agreed, "As long as it doesn't exceed my ability."

Audis smiled, put away the grape leaf emitting a soft light, and offered his farewells.

Earl Brandon immediately sent a carriage to take Audis back.

Back at 66 Rose Street, Audis first put the leaf into the "Wilderness of Knowledge", and then wrote a letter, explaining the matter of the demon's curse clearly, found a rental carriage, and sent the letter to the Backlund Mechanical Research Society to report to the "Heart of Machinery".

If they could get clues from this and find the demon, that would be the best.

After finishing all this, Audis made himself a cup of coffee, but when he was drinking it, his lips felt like they were touching a hard solid.

He was a little strange, took the cup in front of his eyes and shook it, it was liquid, it could be shaken.

Audis went to drink again, but still couldn't drink a drop.

He seemed to understand something, unscrewed the tap and looked at the "哗啦哗啦" flowing water.

Audis reached out to touch the tap water, and the flowing water suddenly solidified. His hand didn't even get a drop of water on it.

This didn't surprise Audis too much, because he had broken the demon's curse and obtained the leaf that demons hated, so the curse was transferred to him, and he could no longer touch the water.

Even if one jumped into the river, or even the sea, it would be difficult to escape the fate of dying of thirst.

Audis wasn't flustered. When he agreed to help Earl Brendenburg, he knew he might be cursed by a demon.

For him, dispelling the curse wasn't difficult. Audis had previously studied demonic curses, and on Tuesdays, the 'Hidden Sage' had also 'imparted' some knowledge about demonic curses to him.

Of course, this was only easy for Audis. For others, a demon's curse was very troublesome, and sometimes the only way to break it was to kill the demon.

But Audis possessed more than one way to break a demon's curse. He went to the shelf holding the herbs and mixed several herbal powders together in a certain proportion.

Then, Audis locked the door from the inside, took off all his clothes, went to the center of the living room, and threw the powder out.

Whoosh~

The powder ignited into black flames, which, as if alive, surrounded Audis.

Audis grimaced from the heat, and at the same time, he saw a wisp of black mist seemingly being baked out of his skin.

The flames burned for four or five seconds, and the black mist baked out of Audis's body formed a symbol in mid-air with goat horn elements, representing a demon.

Immediately afterward, the symbol quickly dissipated, and the black flames around Audis also disappeared.

Audis didn't have time to put on his clothes. He went to the kitchen first, picked up a coffee cup, and 'glug glug' drank half a cup of coffee.

He put down the cup and smiled, "Knowledge is power."

Then he went to the bathroom to wipe off his blackened body and put on his clothes.

Back in the living room, Audis pondered while drinking coffee: If the 'demon' who cursed the vineyard is still alive, similar curses might still find me. I can't just sit and wait for death.

Originally, Audis's idea was to report this matter to the 'Heart of Machinery', attract their attention, and let them solve the problem.

But the 'Heart of Machinery' might not be able to find the demon's trail in a short time, so Audis decided to give the 'Heart of Machinery' a hand and help them find someone.

Because Audis was now quite familiar with Sherlock, the detective who was 'good at finding people', he could ask him for help.

The key was that using the 'Source Castle' for divination would not alert the demon.

As for how the 'Heart of Machinery' would avoid the demon's 'malicious perception' and kill the other party, that was the 'Heart of Machinery's' business.

So Audis wrote another letter to the Backlund Mechanical Research Society, stating that he had been cursed by a 'demon' and that he must find and resolve that demon as soon as possible.

At the same time, he told the 'Heart of Machinery' that he knew a very powerful 'diviner' and would ask that 'diviner' to find the demon.

The implication was, please be prepared, as soon as you can get the trace of that 'demon', please strike immediately.

After sending the letter, Audis used the 'teleportation array' in the basement to return to 77 Hailing Avenue, transformed back into the owner of the herbal medicine shop, then went to Garre's herbal medicine shop, changed into Mr. Garre's clothes, and used the 'teleportation array' to go to the 'Nanmu Ballroom'.

Audis asked Mandy to prepare a carriage, and by the time he took the carriage to Minsk Street, it was already dark.

… …

"Land Abandoned by God", Silver City.

The exploration team returned to Silver City. Today's exploration yielded a sealed artifact at the demigod level, as well as many extraordinary characteristics and several sealed artifacts matching Sequence 8 to Sequence 6, which made each team member's face glow with a bit of a smile.

Back in the Round Tower, Chief Colin announced the rewards for this exploration and then dismissed the exploration team.

"Derrick."

Colin suddenly called out to Derrick: "Come here for a moment."

After speaking, he took Derrick to the upper level of the Round Tower, seemingly having something to discuss with Derrick alone.

Arriving at the top floor of the Round Tower, Colin took out a Sequence 6 level sealed artifact that had been seized today and solemnly said: "This is another reward for you, you must keep it safe!"

Derrick was stunned. Wasn't he already rewarded for his merits? And the Chief's tone seemed a little strange.