Don't disturb the sorcerer's scientific research

Chapter 230 Jia Xiu's Squad, Open the Door
Jia Xiu now thinks that Paula is incredibly cunning, and it's a loss for a devil that she wasn't reincarnated as one.

Hey, does the mythology of this world include the concept of reincarnation?

Never mind, I wish her hell in her next life.

Jia Xiu cursed the former art student in his heart.

Even through a crystal enchanted with communication magic, one could immediately guess that they had reached a conclusion.

More importantly, what does it mean to "the murderer needs to be a person"?

These words, coming from Paula's mouth, sent chills down Jia Xiu's spine, making him realize that his moral standards were still too high.

He could roughly guess what Paula's motives were, but he still asked.

"Why? What if it wasn't done by humans?"

“We will declare it as something done by humans.”

Paula answered without any hesitation.

"This is a choice that had to be made out of necessity given the current circumstances."

Jia Xiu listened without responding, but inwardly sneered.

As a last resort.

This statement is quite subtle.

People often use similar excuses when they're about to do something inhumane.

Describe your actions as forced, justified, and a difficult choice you had to make.

In fact, this plan had been in place for a long time.

Paula continued, “I respect your professional ethics as a journalist in pursuing the truth, but there are other things more important than the truth right now. You should have noticed the current chaos in Goward. The already fragile balance is being broken, and the coexistence of demons and other races is about to collapse. The tragedy of the children has become the spark that ignites the hatred of all races towards demons. We cannot allow this to become one of the demons' crimes and exacerbate the conflict. In the current irrational state, any change will only make the situation worse.”

Paula's statement was roughly in line with Jashy's expectations.

From the perspective of the Solidarity Society, this is about "putting the greater good first".

After all, the various races and the demons barely managed to live together in just a few towns.

Goward is one of the larger ones, and it looks like it's on the verge of collapse.

Jia Xiu found this argument somewhat laughable. So many conflicts and contradictions have occurred throughout history, and even the city itself has been far from peaceful. To attribute all this to just one incident as the cause of hatred seems like an overreaction.

He believed that there was only one way to achieve true peace: the devil must return to hell, the demon to the abyss, and never come back.

No, this method isn't necessarily effective either.

Because of their past history of invasion, the mainland will not trust that they will never invade again.

They will definitely still regard the demons as their greatest enemy, and it will probably only stop when both sides are completely eliminated.

"So it has to be done by humans?"

Jia Xiu countered with a question.

"Yes, we hope you can understand and cooperate. We will offer you terms that you won't refuse."

"Are you so sure I have conditions I won't refuse?"

"So the outcome of the prophecy is humanity."

Paula suddenly said this.

"Very good, this is the best result."

Jia Xiu frowned. How did she know that the target they were tracking was indeed human?

Mind reading over extremely long distances.

Impossible. Putting aside the fact that he didn't sense any related magic, if she had that ability, why would she be stuck in this small place? With that level of skill, she should have gone straight into magic. Why would she study magic art?

The professional hierarchy in this world is still quite solid.

Magic is indeed "superior to others," that's just how the objective conditions are.

Is it because he can remain calm and negotiate here that Paula concludes the prophecy was done by humans, and that she would be more agitated if it were done by demons?
After a brief review, Jia Xiu could only come up with this one deduction.

Those who can be in charge are definitely not good people.

"Okay, so it's a person, so what?"

“Our conditions remain unchanged. You will receive a generous reward as our gift. But now, we need a position to save the next child before they are killed.”

Jia Xiu didn't answer immediately. He glanced at the gang thugs who were staring intently at him, and then at the distance between his teammates.

"Prepare to teleport to the location Elizabeth has located."

He spoke quickly in the prayer group chat.

"Huh? Where? Where are we teleported to? What happened to you guys?"

Justina asked immediately.

"No, we're not running around, we're just teleporting to the location. The instructor can come. Can we teleport there all at once now?"

"can."

Margaret answered with great confidence.

Having majored in spellcasting, teleportation magic is a required course for him, and as Saint Delos's mentor, his skill level is quite high.

"If anyone follows us later, just send them away directly."

After Jia Xiu finished speaking in the prayer group chat, he said to the communication crystal: "Volcanic Stone Road, middle section, a building with a pointed roof."

He saw this building on the road.

No one knows exactly what it's for, but given that the building has no windows for natural light, it can only be inhabited by the drow, demons, and vampires.

These three are no pushovers either, so being robbed by gang thugs shouldn't be considered too serious a matter.

I wish them good luck.

After that, Paula's voice came through the communication crystal.

"I will send someone right away. You and your companions can rest in our safe area for the time being, or I will have someone take you back to your original residence."

Nominally it was a delivery, but in reality it was just to keep an eye on things; she also suspected that Jia Xiu hadn't given her the correct location.

Since that's the case, Jasmine turned and gave Margaret a look.

The mentor understood immediately, and the teleportation array lit up instantly. She could teleport multiple people to a fixed point within a city without casting a spell.

As the teleportation began, he didn't forget to flash a bright light at the surrounding gang thugs.

Just as their vision went completely white and they painfully covered their eyes, Jia Xiu and his group vanished in the light...

After a moment.

In front of an inconspicuous house on Sulfur Street.

Jia Xiu rubbed his eyes, feeling uncomfortable.

"It didn't mention a flash of bright light, did it? Next time, could you mention it in your prayer before adding a step?"

"I just had a sudden idea, thinking of causing them some more trouble."

Margaret answered somewhat awkwardly.

"That's brilliant!"

It took Jia Xiu half a minute to recover. By then, it was already quite bright, and Elizabeth had completely buried herself in her pocket.

She didn't have the bathhouse owner's penchant for self-torture by basking in the sun.

Jia Xiu opened his eyes and looked around at the house in front of him.

Too inconspicuous.

It was as unremarkable as the place he had just arrived in, a typical house in Riverwood, where an honest worker or businessman would live.

But that's assuming the house exists in an ordinary small town.

The fact that this house appeared in Goward is itself a very strange thing.

In this place where every building is somewhat peculiar, what was originally inconspicuous has become a kind of outlier.

The visitor is not good.

No, they are the ones who have arrived.

The people inside were not kind, Jia Xiu said in his own mind, giving a different interpretation.

Do not enter rashly.

So he asked, "Elizabeth, is your bat still tracking you? If so, where is it, inside the house?"

"It's still there. It went in through the chimney and it's still inside."

Where is that person inside now?

“He’s in the basement. We can’t go into the basement. He’s very cautious. He checks everything before he goes in. He probably entered the basement in the early morning and hasn’t come out yet.”

Jia Xiu understood.

That basement is his workshop.

The preparations for the Sleep Demon-related rituals, the various dark and bloody experiments, and perhaps even the children who were kidnapped as sacrifices, are mostly in the basement.

It conforms to stereotypes.

Hidden within the seemingly ordinary residence is a basement teeming with danger and murderous intent.

I've seen many psychopaths do this. Jia Xiu didn't waste any time and used the knocking technique to open the door.

There were no anti-magic measures on the door of this house; it could be opened with the most ordinary knocking spell.

Second-circle spell, opens all ordinary locks, an essential skill for adventure travel.

The downside is that it makes a loud knocking sound.

This is also the origin of its name.

Excellent lock-picking magic, but difficult to use for stealing.

However, Margaret's soundproofing and silencing spells made up for this very well.

A small, silent orb encased the lock, trapping the knocking sound inside and preventing it from escaping.

This is where the silence effect of the Silence spell is more versatile than the Mage's Armor Binding Silence spell.

As the door opened, a clean and tidy room appeared before Jia Xiu and his group.

It was so clean it looked like a showroom, completely devoid of any lived-in feel.

Not only was it spotless, but every piece of furniture and item was also arranged neatly and symmetrically.

The stereotype of psychopathic killers has been reinforced.

He also has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Jia Xiu is 98% certain that this is where the child was kidnapped and sacrificed.

With his fairly good sense of perception, he quickly noticed something unusual about a floorboard. Upon closer inspection, he found that the gap was larger than the gaps in the other floorboards, and it should be able to be moved.

This is probably the entrance to the basement.

They pretended to be quite discreet.

Jia Xiu and his teammates exchanged quick glances and briefly summarized the assault plan in the prayer group chat.

It's so simple, with only three steps.

1. Open the door;
2. Release Margaret;
3. If Margaret doesn't work, then use Elizabeth.

Why not me?

Bubu looked slightly aggrieved.

It felt that this was the time for it to charge in.

"Isn't your spellcasting a bit unstable? The basement space isn't big, and it would be terrible if the instability hurt the children."

"I'm not going to use magic, I'm going to use my sword!"

"Then you absolutely cannot go."

“No, why use ‘to put’ as the verb? It sounds awkward,” Margaret said.

"Is now the time to agonize over verbs? Let's take action..."

……

In the basement.

The neat rows of candles provided a dim, yellowish light.

A hunched figure knelt on the ground with a devout expression, a book placed in front of him containing content written in some kind of demonic language.

He was muttering incantations, also in the language of the demons.

He was wearing an old but clean robe, and his bare arms, exposed from the sleeves, revealed eerie tattoos and dense scars.

Some of the injuries appear to be due to some accident, while others show obvious patterns and are probably "works" he created himself.

After finishing the recitation, he wiped away the tears in his eyes, looking compassionate.

He turned his head to look at the iron cage behind him.

Inside the iron cage are the missing children.

There are now seven left, and two of them have already become sacrifices.

The look in his eyes when he looked at the children was not one of disgust or indifference, but rather one of pity.

Take out a medicine, pull out the stopper, and a pale purple fumes are released from it.

He pointed the bottle at the cage, waved it a few times, and muttered, "Sleep, sleep, the nightmare will eventually end..."

Soon, all the children collapsed limply, making the even breathing sounds that one makes when asleep.

After doing all that, he sat down in the chair.

This is his "bed".

He stopped sleeping in bed a long time ago.

I held the bottle to my nose, took a deep breath, and then fell into silence, like a statue.

The basement fell completely silent...

……

"Ah--"

Suddenly, a series of violent breathing sounds came from inside the iron cage, as if someone was suffocating. However, they only gasped for breath twice before suppressing their breathing.

Little Jack covered his mouth, nervously observing the bad guy on the chair not far away.

He didn't know the name of the person who had kidnapped them.

Don't know why.

All I know is that this bad person prays every day in a way I can't understand, and always seems to be in great pain.

It's as if the bad guy is the one suffering.

They were clearly his friends, but every now and then one of them would disappear.

Because he had been locked in the basement, Little Jack had no idea how many days had passed.

The biological clock is also out of order.

He stared intently at the man for a full minute.

If you confirm that the other person is not moving, they must be asleep.

It's time to act.

As the smartest kid in the Unity Society, Jack decides to take on the responsibility of saving his friends.

He had observed this several times; each time, the bad guy would first put them to sleep with drugs, and then inhale them himself.

As for how it was observed.

Because he had tried holding his breath the first time he tried to see if he could hold it.

The answer is yes.

What a stupid bad guy. There's no future in being a bad guy.

Little Jack cursed inwardly.

He tried nudging the other kids.

They were all asleep.

But it doesn't matter. As long as he gets out and finds Sister Paula, he will definitely rescue everyone.

Catching his breath, Little Jack began his operation.

The first step is to unlock it.

His most prized skill.

The Unity Society's manor has all sorts of jobs; as long as you're willing to learn, you can find someone to teach anything.

Unlocking is no exception.

In fact, there are quite a few people in the manor who know how to pick locks. In Goward, petty theft is nothing unusual; it's a basic skill.

With hard work and decent talent, he quickly developed good lock-picking skills.

"He's definitely cut out to be a thief."

This is how a man in the manor, who is missing four fingers and claims to be the former king of thieves, described it.

In just a few seconds, Little Jack had pried open the lock on the iron cage.

It's not a sophisticated lock.

Even bad guys probably didn't expect him to do that.

He glanced at the person in the chair again, but there was still no movement.

Little Jack tiptoed toward the basement exit.

There should be a lock, but that's not a problem.

The export is just around the corner, and hope is within reach.

"Where are you going?"

A hoarse voice sounded from behind...

(End of this chapter)