CHAPTER 31: CHAPTER 26: SPECIAL INCIDENT

"I want to go too," Daisy’s voice rang out.

Upon hearing this, William immediately showed a troubled expression and softly said, "Miss Daisy, this is very dangerous."

Daisy, pouting, glared at him and repeated, "I want to go too!"

William’s expression grew increasingly distressed, and he cautiously replied, "This time, it really is dangerous. The enemy may have high-tier relics. If anything unexpected happens to you, it could easily cause a diplomatic dispute between Dorne and Dele."

Daisy said nothing, just stared at him angrily.

William, finding himself at a loss under her glaring, looked completely different from his ruthless manner during the altercation in the Old Town District. After hesitating for a moment, he finally said quietly, "I went to apply to headquarters."

Only after William left did Daisy, like a little kitten, stick out her tongue and say to Shawn, who appeared pensive, "I’m also a Night Watcher."

After speaking, she also presented her credentials, a double-headed eagle badge.

Daisy’s identity seemed quite unusual.

A few minutes later, William returned. He glanced at Daisy and nodded, "Headquarters approved."

"But you cannot act on your own."

With those words, William led the two of them into a black carriage. While in the carriage, he took out a dossier and handed it to Shawn, who was in front of him, saying, "The captain led a raid on the enemy’s lair, and most of the extraordinary relics have been recovered by us."

"But there is one high-tier relic with no leads whatsoever, and we only know its code name."

"’Gourmet of Candlefort.’

William also produced a sealed black box, placing it in front of Shawn, saying, "Inside here is top-secret information about Candlefort."

"After you read it, don’t tell anyone."

"Not even us."

"This mission relies on you to find us a clue; otherwise, there might not be enough time."

Shawn’s intuition far exceeded that of ordinary people.

Or, to put it another way, most investigators couldn’t possibly have intuition as keen as Shawn’s.

He slowly opened the black box before him.

In an instant!

Shawn saw countless pieces of knowledge, living, mysterious knowledge, inscribed within the ancient scrolls inside the box. They appeared like strange, changing runes, constantly combining into different characters—these were the knowledge contained within the scrolls.

Extraordinary Wondrous Objects.

Shawn reached out to touch the ancient scroll before him—it was made of some kind of coarse leather, with no discernible material, covered with innumerable strange symbolic runes. To an ordinary person, it would just seem like an odd pattern, but in his eyes, it was continuous knowledge constantly changing.

This was a book.

Inside it recorded millions of words, as if compressed like a hard drive through some enigmatic means, with all the living knowledge packed into the scrolls.

Transcription Magic.

The handiwork of a high sequence mage.

Shawn felt the primitive magic power in his body thrumming, as the mysterious knowledge attracted it, making it come alive.

—Reading Magic.

Shawn spread out the ancient scroll before him, and in an instant, countless mysterious pieces of knowledge surfaced on the scroll’s surface. The changing obscure patterns seemed like an active table of contents, constantly replacing the recorded knowledge within.

Beside him, Daisy watched with curiosity but remained still, not even glancing at the scroll in Shawn’s hand.

William silently hung his head, pretending not to see what was happening before him.

Some mysterious knowledge was extremely dangerous for them, unlike the wizard path renowned for its erudition. They could hardly digest much mysterious knowledge, let alone wield it.

Looking at it too much would only invite madness.

[Knowledge] is truly the innate purpose of the wizard path—their brains can accommodate more mysterious knowledge.

In the table of contents, Shawn found everything about ’Candlefort,’ and with the forced memory of reading magic, he retained some of the obscure knowledge about Candlefort.

After a long time.

When Shawn slowly closed the ancient scroll before him, they had already arrived at the southern part of the market district.

"Any clues?" William asked eagerly.

Most investigators in Dorne City couldn’t handle incidents of this level of strangeness. If not for a slight mishap during today’s operation, Benjamin would not have let him bring the ancient secret scroll to seek Shawn’s assistance.

During the prior encounter with the ghost-faced assassin, Benjamin had already realized that Shawn had intuition far exceeding ordinary people.

"Yes." Shawn’s expression gradually turned serious.

The indefinable illusion.

Candlefort was a place that didn’t truly exist; it lay between reality and illusion, at the fringe of the Spirit Realm.

It was born from the Dark Era, created by an unknown soul from the Otherworld.

From its inception, Candlefort has been continually devouring knowledge, amassing countless knowledge from two entire ages, also housing many forbidden books and artworks. Among them, there were two that Shawn was very familiar with—’The Great Detective - Morty Laine’ and ’Blade Dancer.’

It was extremely, extremely dangerous!

Because the indefinable illusion had already entrenched itself in Candlefort, especially every creation born from illusion had already taken Candlefort as its stronghold.

Candlefort serves as one of the anchor points constructing the Spirit Realm.

It offers only knowledge and inspiration, achieved in some warped manner.

Anything that emerges from Candlefort is incredibly dangerous; even a sheet of paper, a fragment of a statue, or an unburned candle could be lethal to ordinary people.

If a high-tier relic from Candlefort has indeed appeared, then Shawn might understand why William and the others are so anxious.

Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t ask Shawn to help investigate clues.

The carriage stopped.

As Shawn stepped down from the carriage, several Night Watchers were already waiting outside.

The entire market district had been cordoned off by police. To outsiders, the explanation was that a dangerous criminal had appeared in the Old Town District, claiming two lives, prompting Dorne City to deploy substantial police forces to seal the perimeter while Night Watchers and investigators secretly combed the scene.

Yet, unlike other extraordinary relics, those from the ’indefinable illusion’ were difficult to discern with ordinary eyes.

It could be a painting, an unremarkable statue, or a strange stone.

To locate them, one must first pass an inspiration assessment.

Most extraordinary relics distinguishable by the naked eye had already been thoroughly dealt with by the Night Watchers.

"We found this." A tall, thin man in a black jacket approached.

He glanced at Shawn and gave a slight nod before opening a sealed box to William, revealing a lightly quivering black eye stem, with a nodular nerve bundle, its source unknown, still retaining the vitality of flesh and blood.

An extraordinary relic, but likely just a low sequence relic.

"Deformation of the flesh," Shawn’s eyes narrowed.

Among all extraordinary relics, the deformation of the flesh was the easiest to identify because many of them came from some organ of bizarre evil objects.

After warriors on the warrior path fused them and digested them, their physiological qualities would soar tremendously.

However, extraordinary relics from the Bizarre Realm were heavily tainted, easily causing transcendent beings to lose control outright, or even mutate into some unknown non-human entity.

"Has there been any loss of control?" William asked sternly.

The man shook his head, saying, "Not for now. These extraordinary relics have only just emerged."

William visibly relaxed with a sigh.

He looked at his companion with curiosity and asked, "Where’s the captain?"

The tall, thin man beside him softly answered, "The captain went to headquarters to request the deployment of a Holy Relic; he should be back soon."

As they spoke.

Benjamin’s tall figure appeared at the street corner. Holding a black umbrella, his expression was slightly weary, his injuries seemingly fully healed. From his shirt pocket, he pulled out a peculiar silver pocket watch, its hands stationary at the 12 o’clock mark. Yet he scrutinized it seriously before returning it to his pocket.

Benjamin walked over to Shawn, gave a slight bow, and said, "We’re counting on you this time."

Hearing this, Shawn silently removed his confusion.

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