Whispering Verse

The statue is extremely realistic. Although it may be a real stone statue, since it appears here, it is most likely a living person who has been petrified. When Shade bent down and tried to pull it up, he discovered that the back of the stone statue was almost integrated with the earth. Obviously if they had not appeared at this time, the earth would have completely swallowed the statue soon.

The stone statue is dressed like a nearby hunter, and you can even see a scabbard on its waist. Only the muzzle of the old-fashioned musket on its back is still on the ground.

But unfortunately, the soul is no longer there, it is permanently petrified. The difficulty of turning the stone statue in front of you into a living person is the same as the difficulty of finding a random statue and turning it into a normal living person.

"He didn't die of petrification, because of this."

Miss Benanis also came over, and the experienced witch pointed to the hunter's chest, where there was unnoticeable puncture damage. Although witches don’t like to be close to men, it doesn’t matter if they have male statues:

"A weapon like a needle penetrated the heart directly. Look, there is no obvious peeling sensation on the stone next to the wound, indicating that the wound existed before it was petrified."

"Was he attacked before he was petrified? Then he was not killed here, but someone killed him somewhere else and dumped his body here. It seems that the other party is well aware of the problems of this land."

Shade judged that there was just no blood, so he couldn't trace it at all.

"It should be a ring warlock. It's really interesting. Who would go to such a remote place?"

Miss Benenice looked around, but because it had been snowing, there were no footprints on the snow.

"Wait a moment, I will use the power of time to listen."

Shade stood up from the stone statue:

"Echoes from the past."

Squinting his eyes slightly, the sound immediately entered his ears. This time I was quite lucky. The man's voice that appeared in my ear was obviously not his own:

"Just leave it here. Be careful and don't step over it, otherwise I won't be able to save you."

"knew."

This was another man's voice, seemingly younger. Then there was the sound of heavy objects falling into the snow, probably the body being thrown in here.

Shade made a gesture of silence to Miss Bernice, and even the unicorn understood Shade's gesture and stopped moving.

The voice continues:

"The target is nearby, right? If we kill the guide and still can't find it, our three days of activities in the forest will be in vain."

It was still the young man's voice.

"It's nearby. This is the result given by [Puppet Operator's Notes]. Since you paid the price, how can there be a problem?"

The voices of the two gradually became quieter, which meant that they were moving away.

Because there would be no more human voices in the wild, Shade was not worried about not being able to find this voice next, so he temporarily stopped his thaumaturgic effect:

"The people of [Blood Spirit School] used the angelic relic [Puppet Operator's Notes] to find things nearby. This hunter was the guide they paid to hire. Because they were close to their destination, they killed him. It fits those guys’ style.”

The witch who was observing the surroundings frowned slightly:

"Blood Spirit School? Didn't they come here last year to find something?"

"Is it possible that it is also the tomb of 'Saint Perry'?"

Shade made a guess.

"It's possible, but no matter what, let's catch up and have a look. No, you need to rest now and don't cast any more spells. I'll ask Dadi. I also know tracking magic."

The witch said, and Shade did not object:

"I can only confirm that they appeared here within three days. I can't determine the specific time. I'm afraid that chasing them now will probably be fruitless."

"It doesn't matter. After all, we are just here to try our luck. Let's disguise ourselves. We may encounter enemies later. Oh, it's the witch's eyeshadow. This is what Carina gave you too? But isn't it only witches can use? "

His red-gold eyes glanced at Shade suspiciously, but he didn't ask any more questions. The two then led their respective horses. They were originally worried that the unicorn would run away, but unexpectedly it followed behind Shade happily, as if it was safer to be with Shade.

Shade wasn't sure what the witch's ability to "listen to the earth" was, but she didn't show any hesitation or pause. After setting off on horseback, she headed straight to the northwest through the sparse creek forest.

The destination was very close to the land handled by Shade, but within ten minutes the witch stopped and signaled to Shade to dismount.

At this time, they came to a rock wall that was not steep in the mountains. On the slightly rough map that Shade had purchased in advance, this place was not even specially marked.

There were still no footprints, but the traces of the ring warlock's battle were clearly visible. There is an obvious mark of cutting with a sharp weapon on the rock wall. Although the stubble of the broken trees around it has frozen, it can still be judged that it was broken not long ago.

Parting through the snow, you can see traces of the explosion. If you look closely, you will see a collapsed black tent half buried in the snow.

Shade pulled the tent out of the snow and could see that there were some living supplies inside. There was even a bitten apple and a pirated copy of "Hamilton's Detective Stories" in Carson's language thrown in the corner. Volume One.

Miss Benanis opened the snow layer near the tent and saw the remains of the extinguished bonfire:

"My Listening to the Earth can only trace them to the nearby area, and the Earth is unwilling to tell me any more about their whereabouts. It seems that they set up a bonfire nearby for the night last night. The size of the bonfire is obviously not just for cooking."

"Then there was an attack at night. Then I listened."

Shade used [Echoes of the Past] again. After frowning slightly, he could only hear extremely chaotic fighting sounds, as if he was trying to listen to the people in the opposite house across a noisy street. This was obvious. Characteristics:

"The power of time is interfered with, and I can't hear the sound anymore."

"Even if the people of the [Blood Spirit School] can defend against one tracking method, there is no reason they can defend against two at the same time. What's more, your time power itself is not easy to defend. Moreover, they are in a hurry here with There’s a fight between unknown enemies, so there’s no reason to think about preventing being tracked.”

Miss Benenice frowned slightly:

"Look around, there may be bodies."

The two horses were still tied to the tree, and the unicorn followed Shade happily around. When Shade would bend down from time to time to push aside the snow to look under it, the little beast would also use his hooves to open it up. Xue Mian pretended to be very serious and lowered his head to check. After being touched casually by Shade, it will scream happily again. It really likes Shade.

Soon, Shade's [Echo of Blood] found a faint trace of blood under the snow. He searched for it along the trace, only to find that the trace of blood continued to move away. He continued to chase forward until he came to a nearby mountain stream. The blood traces went straight into the ice and then disappeared completely.

Shade walked onto the ice and found a hole in the ice that had not yet been frozen solid. After the blood was diluted by the subglacial river water, Shade could no longer see the bright red traces.

"The other party jumped into the river and escaped. This should have happened last night or this morning."

Shade said after returning, while Miss Benenice was inspecting the slash marks on the rock wall:

"I sensed the power of the sun. It is most likely the traces caused by the Sun Church's high-circle thaumaturgy 'Sunshine Sword'."

Shade's [Moonlight Great Sword] comes from the thaumaturgy of Tobesk's thirteen-ring warlock "Sunshine Great Sword" Mr. Hog Rendell. He is very familiar with this thaumaturgy:

"I heard from friends of the Church of the Sun that there are not many high-level magicians who master this thaumaturgy in the contemporary era, so it is impossible to appear here. Is St. Perry's cemetery nearby?"

Miss Benenice was not wearing a hood at this time, and her curly blond hair hung down from her cheeks. Her cheeks were a little red from the cold, but this did not affect her appearance, but made her look even more pitiful:

"There is a possibility that they probably triggered some kind of defense mechanism in the cemetery. My Listening to the Earth and your time power cannot be traced. It may also be because of the saint's cemetery."

Shade pinched the small silver cube in his pocket and confirmed that the silver cube had no reaction:

"It's half past two in the afternoon."

He sensed the time:

"Although I don't know how they did it, it seems to be at night. Most of the local rumors and stories about the 'St. Perry Cemetery' also happen at night. Why don't you go back to the city to deal with your own affairs now, and then get the Battle relics and alchemical weapons. We will come back in the evening, and we will set up a tent here for the night."

If the two of them stayed out all night, others would be worried too.

"No problem, but I'm worried that the [Blood Spirit School] will send others back. If the other party escaped last night, as long as they don't die on the road, they will probably have reunited with their companions."

The witch said that she had arranged a simple warning ceremony nearby. If anyone else comes to this area, she will be able to detect it when they return:

"You have to be cautious about this kind of thing. You know, my fighting ability in the parliament is not strong, and I may not even be able to defeat Granny Cassandra. Safety first, in addition to us in the evening, I will bring my followers .Although there are more high-level warlocks in the [Blood Spirit School] than in the Golden Dawn, after all, this is not their territory.”

After saying that, he snorted again, looking quite confident.

Having made up their minds, the two set off back to the city. The unicorn took the initiative to follow them without being induced by Miss Bernice. It was smart enough and knew that it was difficult to survive alone in the winter forest.

This time there was no need to take a detour, and it took just over an hour of riding to return to the grassy farm on the outskirts of the Randall River Valley. Of course, the unicorn cannot be brought into the city, so it is temporarily placed on the farm. Instead of putting it in the stable, Miss Benenice specially arranged a room for it to rest. The snow-white little beast saw that Shade was about to leave, biting the hem of his clothes with some reluctance. After Shade informed him that he would come back in the evening, he said goodbye to him sadly.