Detective Conan: The System Takes Me to Zero's World

Chapter 351: The Mysterious Case of Shengle Temple: The Truth Behind the Red Lotus Skull

Maori Kogoro suddenly became alert. He looked around with doubt in his eyes: "Hmm? What's that sound? What is it?"

He looked in the direction of the sound and found a small iron ball on the stairs. He bent down to pick it up and examine it.

In the dim light, he looked at the small iron ball, muttering, "Small iron ball? Did it fall from this staircase? Going up this staircase should lead to the confinement room. There is a big lock on the door."

Maori Kogoro felt a little curious. He slowly walked up the stairs and shouted in the direction of the confinement room: "Hey, is anyone there?"

After waiting for a while, no one responded. He walked closer and found that the door was half open. After hesitating for a moment, he stepped in.

It was pitch black inside. He reached out and fumbled along the wall, but couldn't find the light switch. He couldn't help but complain, "It really is a confinement room. There's not even a light?"

Just when he got used to the darkness and could barely see some things, he suddenly discovered the fallen body lying quietly on the ground in the faint light.

Kogoro Mouri gasped in fear and his heart started beating violently. He quickly covered his mouth, afraid of disturbing something.

His eyes were fixed on the corpse, his mind was in a mess, and he was thinking: "What on earth is going on? Is there any connection between the legend we were just talking about and this scene in front of me?"

Kogoro Mori looked around vigilantly, trying to find some clues from this seemingly ordinary yet slightly weird surroundings.

However, before he could notice anything, the prisoner hiding in the solitary confinement cell sneaked up behind him with a stun gun in his hand and knocked him out when he was not prepared.

When Kogoro Mori woke up, he found that the confinement room was empty, with only the corpse still lying there quietly, emitting bursts of coldness.

He suppressed his inner fear and uneasiness, slowly stood up, and tiptoed to the side of the heavy wooden door that was wide open.

Kogoro Mouri leaned his back against the door, trying to calm himself down. Fine beads of sweat kept appearing on his forehead and sliding down his cheeks.

He kept thinking about what had just happened, trying to sort out some clues from his chaotic thoughts. He knew that he had to find out who had knocked him out, so he decided to wait silently for the criminal to fall into his trap.

Time passed minute by minute, but there was still no sign of Kogoro Mori returning.

Ran Mao Li in the temple gradually became unable to sit still. She frowned slightly, her eyes full of worry, so she stood up and walked quickly to the corridor.

The dim light in the corridor stretched her figure out. She put her hand to her mouth and shouted outside: "Dad, where are you? Dad!"

The voice echoed in the silent temple, filled with anxiety and uneasiness.

There were four people sitting in the room, each holding a steaming cup of tea in their hands. They were chatting comfortably, but when they heard Mao Lilan's call, all four of them looked towards the corridor.

Yuanshan Heye looked puzzled: "What's wrong, Xiaolan?"

Mao Lilan frowned and hurriedly explained: "My dad went to the bathroom, but it's been a long time and he hasn't come back yet."

Hattori Heiji raised his lips in a playful arc, and a hint of mischief flashed in his eyes: "Could it be that he found a corner and fell asleep unconscious? With his temper, he really could do it."

Conan smiled and pushed his glasses up, a light flashed through the lenses: "Of course, the name 'Sleeping Kogoro' is well known, maybe he is dreaming."

However, just as they finished speaking, an abrupt and unpleasant voice suddenly rang out. The voice carried a strange magic that instantly made the originally relaxed atmosphere in the room disappear without a trace.

The five people in the room became alert instantly, put down their teacups, and stood up to check the situation.

Yuanshan Heye looked panicked, his eyes darting around uneasily, his voice trembling slightly: "What on earth was that sound just now?"

Kudo Yuki frowned, catching the remaining sounds in the air, and said in a serious tone: "It sounds like something is burning. This is very strange."

Hattori Heiji's face darkened, and he stood up decisively, strode towards the living room, and said in a deep voice: "This sound makes people feel upset, let's go and find out what's going on."

Mao Lilan was no longer afraid. She walked quickly to a door, stretched out her hand and opened it, and looked outside: "It should come from this direction."

Hearing this, everyone looked in the direction of her finger towards the living room. They saw Mao Lilan's finger pointing at the flame-like thing in the air, and her expression was indescribably strange.

Mao Lilan's hands began to tremble uncontrollably, her face turned pale, and her voice changed: "Ah... um, um... the souls are queuing up to go upstairs!"

Yuanshan Heye was so frightened that she ran behind Mao Lilan and hugged her tightly. She didn't dare to look at the weird scene anymore and cried, "It's the Red Lotus Skeleton! This is too scary!"

Hattori Heiji was not frightened by this appearance. After he exchanged a glance with Kudo Yuki and her brother, he immediately ran towards the confinement room, shouting to Mao Lilan and Toyama Kazuha as he ran: "Silly, this must be someone's doing, don't be afraid."

Kudo Yuki followed behind, and she explained loudly: "Don't make such a fuss, you can also do this kind of childish tricks. Don't be blinded by the criminals' tricks, and see the essence through the phenomenon."

When the three of them hurriedly walked into the confinement room, a chill hit them in the face. On the floor of the slightly dim confinement room, there was a person lying. It was the monk Kanzhe. His eyes were wide open, and there was still a look of fear on his face, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying before he died.

Although Toyama Kazuha and Mao Li Ran listened to Kudo Yuki's explanation, they were still very scared. They hesitated for a long time before they quietly held each other's hands and slowly walked towards the confinement room.

They leaned against the door and carefully poked their heads out. When they saw the body, they couldn't help but screamed, "Wow!"

Ran Mouri covered her eyes in fear and her body trembled slightly. Toyama Kazuha also held Ran Mouri's arm tightly and dared not breathe.

Kudo Yuki looked solemn as she looked at the tragic scene before her. She slowly squatted down and carefully examined the body of the monk Kanzhe. She whispered to herself, "Judging from the state of the body, the time of death was very recent. Looking at the terrified expression, he must have encountered something extremely terrifying before his death. There are no obvious external injuries on the body. It seems that the cause of death needs to be further investigated."

Hattori Heiji was also not idle. He was groping on the walls around him, his hands moving inch by inch on the wall, feeling every texture of the wall, trying to find some secret doors or mechanisms that might be hidden.

He was still muttering, "This place is weird. There might be some secret passages. The criminals might have used them to do those scary tricks just now."

Toyama Kazuha and Mao Li Ran were so scared that their eyes met and they retreated back to the corridor tremblingly.

Conan looked calm, with a magnet-like object in his pocket, and walked towards the location that Hattori Heiji mentioned.

When he approached that place, a magical thing happened. With a "creak", the door that had been closed for a long time slowly opened.

Moreover, the door seemed to be sucked by some powerful suction force and was actually stuck to Conan's pocket, which surprised Conan a little. However, he quickly steadied himself, frowned slightly, and pondered the reasons behind this strange phenomenon.

When the three heard the noise, they quickly looked over, their eyes full of surprise and confusion.

Conan turned on the flashlight on his watch, and the dim light spilled into the space behind the door, revealing a secret room filled with wine bottles, wine glasses, and other items. The wine bottles were covered in dust and looked quite old.

There were some ropes wrapped around a pillar on one side. The ropes were a bit rough, as if they had been used for some purpose.

Kudo Yuki narrowed her eyes slightly and walked towards the secret room. She scanned the wine bottles and glasses carefully, thinking to herself: "These things are placed here. Could it be that this is where the monks who were imprisoned here before stole wine?"

She stretched out her hand and gently wiped it across a wine bottle. Some dust came onto her fingertips. She twisted it, feeling the fineness and coarseness of the dust, and felt more and more that this secret room was hiding many secrets.

Kudo Yuki continued to walk in, her eyes only focused on observing the surroundings, not paying attention to the front. Suddenly, there was a "bang" sound, and her forehead hit a hard object. She subconsciously said "ouch", frowned slightly, and covered her forehead with one hand: "What is this object in front of me? It hurts."

Conan and Hattori Heiji heard the noise and hurried over, looks of concern on their faces.

Conan asked anxiously: "Sister, are you okay? Is the collision serious?"

Hattori Heiji also echoed: "Sister Xue, you have to be careful, there is no telling what dangers there are in this secret room."

Kudo Yuki rubbed her forehead and waved her hand: "I'm fine, it just hurts a little. Let's see what's in front of us."

Conan quickly raised the flashlight on his watch and shone it forward. The light slowly moved and illuminated the object in front of him. It turned out to be a 2-meter-tall Buddha statue. The statue was solemn and majestic. There were many such Buddha statues, and they were arranged there, forming a Buddha statue array.

Seeing this, Hattori Heiji quickly took out his cell phone from his pocket, turned on the camera and said, "It's unusual to have so many Buddha statues in this secret room. I have to take some photos quickly. Maybe they can serve as important evidence."

As he spoke, he took several photos of the Buddha statue from various angles. The flash light would occasionally light up in this secret room, reflecting the Buddha statue's face, which might be kind or majestic.

Conan walked around the Buddha statues, muttering, "These Buddha statues must have some special meaning here. Maybe they are closely related to the case we are investigating."

Kudo Yuki also recovered and approached the Buddha statue to check it out. She found that the statue seemed to be a little strange: "Hattori, can you check online to see if these Buddha statues are real?"

Hattori Heiji heard this and immediately responded, "Okay, Sister Xue, I'll check it out right away."

After he finished speaking, his fingers slid quickly across the screen of his mobile phone, opened the search engine, entered the relevant feature description of the Buddha statue and began searching.

After a while, Hattori Heiji said in surprise: "Sister Xue, Kudo, look, these Buddha statues shown on the Internet look like mass-produced imitations, and there are quite a lot of them for sale online, and the styles are quite similar."

He turned the screen of his phone towards the siblings so that everyone could see it more clearly.

Conan leaned over to look at the phone screen, stroking his chin and thinking: "Mass-produced imitations? It's even more strange that they appear in this secret room. They must not be used simply for decoration. There must be something behind it."

Kudo Yuki also looked puzzled: "Well, it is indeed strange. It seems that we have to look for clues more carefully to see what these Buddha statues are used for."

Hattori Heiji turned on the flashlight on his mobile phone and prepared to continue checking the situation around the Buddha statue.

Hattori Heiji turned on the flashlight on his phone and illuminated the surroundings. He was ready to continue checking the situation around the Buddha statue, thinking: "Maybe there are some key clues hidden around the Buddha statue."

At this moment, the flashlight swept across the ground under the door, and he accidentally found a familiar object on the ground. He hurriedly squatted down to check and found that it was his amulet. The rope that was originally connected to the amulet was now stretched into a straight line, blocking the gap in the door.

He reached out and took the amulet in his hand, turning it over and over, frowning: "What on earth is going on? How did it appear here?"

He couldn't understand why his amulet appeared in this place, and the state of the rope was indescribably strange, as if it was hinting at something unusual.

Conan looked at the rope tied to the pillar, his eyes lit up, as if he saw through the truth hidden behind the rope. He pointed at the rope and guessed: "This should be where Master Kanzhe was tied."

As soon as these words were spoken, the three of them instantly understood the whole story of the case. The previously messy clues were gradually connected together in their minds.

Conan quickly put his hands into his pockets and took some effort to pull the small object with the magnet away from the door of the secret room. With a slight "pop" sound, the door finally got rid of the suction and returned to normal.

Afterwards, Kudo Yuki and Hattori Heiji returned to the corridor. As they walked, they whispered to each other about their ideas, trying to perfect the details of the case.

Conan continued to search for clues on the stairs of the confinement room alone, his figure moving back and forth in the dim confinement room.

Soon after, three monks from Shengle Temple came here in a hurry. They had panic and confusion on their faces. The head monk, Zhejin, clasped his hands together and said, "Dear guests, what happened? We were in the meditation room and suddenly heard some noise over here, so we hurried over here."

To be continued...