The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

It was like a bullet hitting a watermelon, blood splattering everywhere.

102 Accident

Li Shanze's pistol was still emitting smoke, and fragments of the witch doctor's skull were dripping into the waterlogged depression.

The witch doctor was wearing a vulture feather cloak and half her head was exploded.

But her dry fingers still spasmed and scratched in the mud, her indigo-painted nails digging deep into the humus layer.

Crack.

With the crisp sound of Li Shanze breaking the cervical vertebrae with one foot, the broken body finally stopped twitching.

A buzzing sound suddenly arose, as if thousands of beetles were flapping their wings.

Along with this strange buzzing sound, asphalt-like black smoke gushed out of her broken throat.

The thick smoke was filled with vicious curses and deadly toxins, and it rushed towards Li Shanze unwillingly, as if wanting to drag Li Shanze to death together.

The thick smoke came from countless twisting runes burning in the void, and in each flame seemed to emerge the distorted crying face of a sacrificed baby.

Li Shanze hurriedly pressed his throat. His Adam's apple rolled violently, veins on his neck bulged, and he let out a rough, dry cough.

When Li Shanze released his hand covering his throat, the sound waves seemed to condense into a translucent gluttonous beast head in the night, tearing and swallowing the cursed black smoke.

The cries of the babies in the mud suddenly turned into shrill laughter, then dissipated with the black smoke, and finally turned into smelly toad eggs all over the ground.

When the sound waves died down, only bones remained beneath the witch doctor's cloak, her ribs embedded in the mud like a row of arrows.

Li Shanze's leather boots crushed a rib that fell at his feet. Just as he was about to pick it up and take a closer look, he suddenly heard the whistling of gunfire.

A few hundred meters away, under a street lamp post, a bald wizard who called himself West Loken was frozen like a sculpture, with the gesture of drawing a gun in his hand.

Blood flowers bloomed between his eyebrows.

The bullet Li Shanze fired a few minutes ago hit him right between the eyebrows.

The space-time gel has failed.

Li Shanze didn't know whether the mechanism was effective for such a long time or whether his coughing had accelerated the process.

The bald wizard fell backwards and turned into another corpse.

The wizard's suit shattered into pieces during the fall, revealing his linen wizard robe, and the fragments of the clothes turned into dense golden spells.

These spells condensed into a parchment scroll and covered West Loken's body in wizard robes - after his death, he finally looked like a wizard.

Li Shanze gave up examining the remains of the witch doctor - even if there had been any tricks, these supernatural things had disappeared under his dry cough that could see through the original lies.

Li Shanze's military boots rolled over the witch doctor's bones and smelly toad eggs, causing them to moan softly in the moonlight.

He leaned over and lifted the twisted roof of the collapsed chariot. The brass needle on the dashboard was still trembling slightly, like the nervous twitching of some dying mechanical creature.

Li Shanze frowned. This thing looked like it had escaped from some Central or South American museum.

Li Shanze pushed away the body of the dead senator's staff, and after a careful search, he pulled out Charlie's refrigerated blood sample box from under the human leather seat in the cockpit.

The titanium alloy shell glows a cold blue light in the moonlight, and the LCD screen shows a storage temperature of -196℃.

Li Shanze opened the box and was sure that this was Xia Li's blood sample.

A high-tech box was found in a chariot at an ancient sacrificial site, and inside the high-tech refrigerated box was a blood sample of a witch - Li Shanze always felt that this style of painting was very inconsistent.

He closed the blood sample box again, then walked carefully back to West Loken's body and picked up the parchment scroll.

Li Shanze unfolded the ancient scroll that smelled of pine resin, and the spiral characters seemed to move like living things in the moonlight.

This was obviously not any language that Li Shanze recognized. Li Shanze just glanced at it and rolled up the parchment again.

Perhaps this was some kind of internal text of the wizards. Li Shanze put the parchment away and decided to give it to Charlie to decipher.

The Yongsheng Technology Building is no longer hidden, and now it shows its full appearance to Li Shanze.

Now that the filter has collapsed and failed, Li Shanze is not sure whether this is another illusion.

In the distance, the glass curtain wall of the Eternal Life Technology Building refracted the moonlight into an eerie emerald green. The postmodern spire stood like a crystal syringe inserted into the Philadelphia skyline.

Li Shanze stood under the cold moon, looking up at the high-tech building of "Eternal Life Technology Co., Ltd." in the distance, wondering whether to go and take a look.

Li Shanze felt that when he was looking at the building, someone upstairs was also observing him.

He was looking at the mysterious existence still in the dark from afar.

At this moment, the bronze chariot suddenly exploded, and flames shot up into the sky - Li Shanze didn't expect that this thing could actually explode. What powered it?

However, the tank's explosion did serve as a wake-up call to Li Shanze.

It seems that the breakdown of the car was not accidental. It must be that someone from the "Immortal Life Technology" exerted some influence in secret, allowing him to catch up with the treacherous staff and the disguised family doctor.

Is this a last resort to sacrifice the rook to save the king? Or is it a disguised gesture of goodwill?

Li Shanze is unknown.

Considering that he was carrying a heavy refrigerated box of blood samples, Li Shanze didn't want to cause any trouble for the time being.

Immediately afterwards, shrill sirens whistled from far away.

"Ha, it seems that today is not a good time to find out." Li Shanze chuckled and shook his head. He turned around and no longer looked at the Yongsheng Technology Building.

Li Shanze felt that he probably understood why those blinding illusions suddenly disappeared, and this place once again became an ordinary-looking high-tech company building.

As he picked up the phone, Li Shanze also noticed that the gaze that was looking at him had disappeared.

At that moment, two bright flashlight beams dispelled the dim moonlight, and police tactical boots crushed dead leaves. Amidst the chaotic sound of footsteps, two patrolmen approached in a standard fan-shaped formation.

The PPD (Philadelphia Police Department) badge on the officer on the left reflected a cold light in the moonlight, and his Glock 17 drew an uneasy arc under the trembling spotlight. "Philadelphia Police! Put down everything! Put your hands on your head and lean against the wall!"

Li Shanze still had his cell phone pressed to his ear, and he didn't pay any attention to the two policemen.

When the police officer on the right pulled the safety bolt of his pistol, a crisp metallic collision sound was heard.

Li Shanze finally turned around, his black windbreaker swaying elegantly in the night breeze, just like the upturned corners of his mouth.

"Relax, guys. How about calling your director and confirming the FBI's joint operation code?"

"Last warning!" The sound of the young police officer's Adam's apple rolling was clearly audible, and beads of sweat were sliding down the inside of his bulletproof vest.

They certainly noticed the eerie chariot wreckage still smoking in the courtyard.

Of course, they also noticed the charred corpse next to the tank and the bald corpse in a black suit thirty yards away - this was obviously beyond the scope of the daily patrol manual.

The electronic synthesized voice suddenly came from the intercom on their waist, causing the two police officers to step back half a step. "This is the FBI Special Affairs Division, Officer PC-77654, badge number. Please check the encrypted fax in your patrol car."

Then, when the chief's hoarse roar really came through the intercom, the older police officer's face froze.

As the director continued to roar, his facial muscles began to twitch unnaturally.

…………

Two hours later, Philadelphia Police Department.

"Agent Li, we have found an acquaintance of West Locke. The person claims to be the deceased's fiancée." The older police officer with a sour face found Li Shanze who was playing with his mobile phone.

Obviously, he was very upset about being forced to cooperate with the FBI to assist in the investigation - not only was it impossible for him to be responsible for this case, but he was also forced to sign a lot of confidentiality agreements.

"Oh, thank you, officer." Li Shanze ignored the displeasure written on the older officer's face, put away his phone with a smile, and pointed at the young officer who was patting the coffee machine. "Oh, by the way, it's time to replace the coffee machine in your Philadelphia Police Department."

"If you don't mind sponsoring me, Agent Lee," the older officer said sarcastically.

Li Shanze laughed heartily: "Let's go and meet this poor fiancée."

You were the one who shot that bald guy, weren't you? You were the one who caused the tragedy that befell my fiancée, weren't you?

The older officer complained inwardly, leading the way with a depressed look on his face, leading Li Shanze from the patrol department to the forensic department: "She's waiting in Area D."

After the two left the patrol unit, the young officer angrily slammed his hand on the wooden table, knocking over the empty donut box. "By God, when this damn confidentiality period is over, I'm absolutely going to apply to be transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division!"

In District D, a young woman in her early twenties looked anxious and dazed. Upon seeing the older police officer and Li Shanze, she approached them anxiously, "I'm Olivia Crestow. West Loken is my fiancé. You're taking me to identify his body, right?"

Wow, this middle-aged bald wizard actually has a fiancée who is in her twenties. It really shows that you can’t judge a person by his appearance.

Li Shanze thought without any guilt.

The older police officer glanced at the indifferent Li Shanze and said helplessly: "Yes, Ms. Klesto, please come this way."

"Lorcan worked diligently as the head of security, was kind to everyone, and loved me very much... We just got engaged, why did he have to encounter such a thing? What bad guy came out and killed him? Officer, have you caught the murderer?"

Perhaps because the older police officer seemed to be the one in charge, Locke's fiancée questioned the older police officer very quickly, which made the police officer walk even faster.

When they arrived at the medical examiner's morgue, they found another woman crying over Locke's body.

At this moment, Locke's young and beautiful fiancée Clesto screamed, closed her eyes in pain, covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears.

It was obvious that she had recognized that the body lying there was her fiancé.

The woman lying on the body of her fiancé looked to be in her late forties.

"Uh, ma'am, who are you?" the officer asked, frowning. "This is the morgue—"

"I am his wife!" said the woman crying over Locke's body without turning her head.

The words shocked everyone.

The beautiful fiancée, Miss Olivia Crestow, even forgot to cry.

Author's words: Thank you Mr. Wu Liao for your monthly ticket

Thanks to book friends 30600563, 7749, and Zhongwei for their recommendation votes

There is only one update today, please forgive me

103 Enquiry

"What nonsense are you talking about? West is obviously my fiancé!" Olivia Crestol asked angrily.

The middle-aged woman raised her head and looked at Crestos strangely, with lingering sadness in her eyes.

She composed herself and said with some effort, "I think you may have the wrong person, ma'am. He is my husband, Robert Stroman, not some West."

In the cold white light of the forensic department, the shadows of two women overlapped in front of the morgue, forming a twisted cross.

Olivia Cleistow's Christian Louboutin high heels tapped impatiently on the ground, beating out a rapid beat.

Her nails, studded with teardrop diamonds, dug into the stainless steel countertop, as if she wanted to poke it through.

She raised her finger in anger: "This is ridiculous! This is my engagement ring with West!"

Then he raised his iPhone and said, "Want to see the video of West and my engagement party in the Hamptons last year?"

Mrs. Stroman lurched.

But it looked more like the light spots from the disinfection lamps in the forensic department were shaking on her faded canvas shoes.

Mrs. Stroman was wearing a khaki knitted cardigan she found at a second-hand store. The pilling at the collar resembled the sorrow tangled between her brows.

As Olivia's diamond-studded nails tapped on the stainless steel countertop, Mrs. Stroman wiped the tears from her eyes with her frayed sleeves.

"Ladies, let's stay calm." The older police officer twirled his pen as he tried to smooth things over.

The police officer's brow was filled with confusion. It was obvious that he was also trying to figure out what was going on. "Miss Crestow claimed to have been engaged to West Locke for three months, and Mrs. Stroman..."

He suddenly paused and noticed the latter took out a yellowed photo from a plastic bag - a photo that slipped out of a supermarket coupon folder. In the photo, "Robert Stroman" in a suit and tie was hugging the well-dressed Mrs. Stroman, with the famous Statue of Liberty in New York holding a torch behind them.

"This was taken on our tenth wedding anniversary." Mrs. Stroman's cracked fingertips stroked the edge of the photo, her red eyes filled with memories. A convenience store receipt fell to the ground, with a record of the purchase of blood pressure drugs and children's clothing on it.

It seems that Mrs. Stroman has been living a very hard life recently.

At this time, Li Shanze was basically certain that she had recognized the wrong person, so he said: "Maybe you recognized the wrong person, Mrs. Stroman——"

Before Li Shanze could finish his words, Mrs. Stroman interrupted him angrily.

"I hope I'm mistaken! Do you think a woman would mistake her husband for one she's been married to for twenty years? Detective, you're rubbing salt in the wounds of a wife who just lost her husband. Is that how you Philadelphia police handle cases?"

The older officer was tempted to say that this Asian man was not actually a Philadelphia police officer.

Li Shanze pointed at the corpse and said, "No, Mrs. Stroman, this gentleman once admitted to me in person that his name was West Locke."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Agent!" Mrs. Stroman turned a deaf ear to Li Shanze's words.

She suddenly ripped open the white cloth covering the corpse's left chest and pointed to the centipede-shaped suture scar below the anchor tattoo. "This is from Robert's heart surgery three years ago. The attending physician was Dr. Miller from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania."

Li Shanze was surprised. He looked at Olivia Crestow and found that the beautiful lady was also stunned.

Under Li Shanze's urging gaze, she murmured, "West, no, Locke, Locke also told me the same thing."