The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

McGee's fading figure was reflected in his pupils, and this figure seemed to have cast a gray filter over the world.

Only then did his throat barely make the first vibration.

There was a snap.

The vibration in Li Shanze's throat shattered the solidified gel of time, and as he coughed violently, everything in the room returned to normal.

The delayed time began to flow again, the gray filter faded away, and the room regained its vibrant colors.

The hands of the antique clock began to pace in a conservative manner, each step was just right and precise, like Kant taking a walk in Königsberg.

It was as if those space-time slimes had never existed.

The frozen image of McGee that remained opposite Li Shanze and Xia Li finally shattered silently like a soap bubble.

There was no trace of the great wizard of time ever visiting Senator Hamilton's home.

Li Shanze was gasping for breath. The weirdness of this time-based spell made him very uncomfortable.

Li Shanze cursed angrily, "Damn it, he still got away."

…………

"Damn it, I almost didn't get away!" McGee cursed as if he had survived a disaster.

He took out a handkerchief from his bosom and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The blood bloomed in the white handkerchief like a weird and bloody flower.

The old wizard knocked his ebony cane on the Persian carpet, and a miniature black hole suddenly appeared, swallowing the metallic blood he had vomited earlier.

He looked much older in an instant.

More fine wrinkles appeared on his cheeks, as if his whole body was about to crack along these wrinkles.

The snake-shaped carving on the pocket watch has been shattered, and three of his white hairs from different timelines are stuck between the gears of the pocket watch.

As the gears of the pocket watch rolled out of the wound, they silently hit the rotten oak floor, splashing countless dust.

The dust particles suddenly materialized as floating liquid spacetime—some swathed in Cold War radioactive fallout, others containing live footage of a presidential impeachment trial that hadn’t yet taken place.

"Fuck you!" The great wizard dressed as an old gentleman cursed without any manners, "Li Shanze, that evil kid, fuck you!"

"Time and space turbulence! What's going on with that kid?"

"Even if his guttural voice could dispel my spell, why would I be caught in the turbulence of time and space when I escape into the future?"

"Why can't my time spell completely delay him? Why is there a distortion in time?"

McGee was reviewing the spell he had just cast in distress.

"The strangest thing is that the node of time distortion is not in his brain or his heart, but is spread throughout his body, as if his entire time is distorted... Why?"

The great wizard of the Time Skeleton Brotherhood raised strong questions to the time traveler.

"Is he a hidden time traveler? Can such a witchcraft miracle really be achieved?"

Squinting his eyes, he pondered for what might have been a moment or a long time, and finally he let out a long sigh.

"No doubt about it. It's because his entire time is distorted that it has caused a strong interference with the time spell, and that's why I was caught in the time turbulence."

When McGee thought that it was Li Shanze's interference that trapped him in the dangerous turbulence of time and space, he couldn't help but want to curse.

"Damn it! Li Shanze, that evil kid! Damn it!"

"No, I must never mess with this evil boy again! I haven't lived enough in my old bones yet!"

"The question of 'now' is, how do I get back to 'now' from the turbulence of time and space?"

McGee made puns to try to make himself happy.

"No, that's not right. Since this guy wants to investigate immortality technology, let him do it. Let me hide in the turbulent space-time flow... As long as the school's holy land, the Paradox Clock Tower, remains undiscovered, he can do whatever he wants."

"As for Barnum's student, her name is Charlie Butner. I wonder when those crazy people looking for moonshine bottles will find her."

"If these crazy plant people who have gone astray run into that weird kid, I'm afraid there will be a good show to watch, cough cough cough cough!"

McGee coughed up blood again, and the blood splattered on the cracks of the pocket watch, making a corrosive sound.

"Oh, you don't have the time to watch the Root Man Esoteric Cult's show anymore, Dillon McGee." McGee laughed wryly, mocking himself in the second person. "Their sacred artifact, the Moonlight Vial, is just 'missing,' but the Time Corpse Brotherhood's sacred artifact was destroyed in your hands."

"No, it wasn't me who broke it, it was that kid named Li Shanze who broke it!"

"But even if it was damaged in his hands, would I still dare to ask him for the debt?"

"Damn it! Li Shanze, that evil kid! Damn it!" McGee couldn't help but curse for the third time.

After venting, he looked at the turbulence of time and space helplessly.

The hem of Mackey's camel-hair coat began to grow the patina of bronze, and the gold thread on his cuffs was filled with the smoke of Napoleon's artillery.

A photo was shattered into pieces in the turbulence, and each fragment solidified the sunset of a different era.

The twilight of the fragments on the left is seeping with the smoke of the Arab Spring, and the fragments on the upper right are filled with the blood and flesh of the Verdun meat grinder.

"Anchor!" McGee roared and inserted the civilized cane into the crack of the floor tiles. Byzantine-style bronze gears suddenly grew on the tip of the cane.

And amidst the meshing sound of gears, silver coins from the Merovingian dynasty gushed out.

As the ancient metal with body temperature brushed against his skin, McKee's wrinkles deepened and receded alternately in a seven-year cycle, his jaw sometimes showing the bony texture of a concentration camp prisoner, and sometimes regaining the plumpness of a Gilded Age banker.

The skin on his left hand was as smooth as a baby's, while his right hand was old and shriveled like a corpse.

He carefully cast out the anchor, opened the shield, controlled the waves of time, and barely maintained the unity of the chaotic time in his body.

Then, the environment around him suddenly changed.

He seemed to be in a universe that had become a ruin strewn with clock parts.

He seemed to see every member of the Time Corpse Brotherhood in the turbulence, who were babies, corpses and immortals at the same time in every second.

There is no past, no future, only the infinitely looping present moment, chewing on nothingness in eternal autophagy.

The great wizard suddenly felt a great fear.

"Isn't this the end of the school's prophecy of the end of the world? Why did I see the embodiment of the end of the world? Is this also because of Li Shanze?"

"No more hesitation! I must repair the Causal Pocket Watch immediately!"

"Looks like I'll have to borrow a time loan from the future too!"

McGee suddenly opened his arms in the waves of time.

A flock of mechanical crows cried and screamed, and flew over, each holding a broken mechanical watch part in its beak.

The moment McGee swung his staff to crush the leading crow, all the mechanical crows turned into gears.

A sea of ​​gears poured into the pocket watch, barely repairing the holy relic that had just been severely damaged.

"go!"

McGee pressed the pocket watch viciously. When the last tick of the pocket watch disappeared into the void, the time door that led him back to reality finally appeared in front of him. He couldn't wait to step in.

The price was that he lost his left hand permanently.

As the inscription on the dial of the Karma pocket watch states: The more you try to fix the past, the more you accelerate the extraction of the future.

"Fuck! Li Shanze, that evil kid! Damn it!" In the turbulence of time and space, only McGee's cursing was still echoing.

McGee, who had finally paid a heavy price to return to the "present", just wanted to find a place to hide as soon as possible, as far away from Philadelphia and that weird kid Li Shanze as possible.

"Hehe, don't you want my wizard tower, my position as the great wizard, and my research materials? Take them all away!" McGee rolled his eyes and had an idea.

He sneered, "I hope you can still laugh after you run into that weird kid. And that Barnum student, when she finds out the real cause of her teacher's death, I think the direction of things will surprise you bastards."

The old wizard coughed up a mouthful of blood and took out his cell phone with his only remaining right hand.

Author's words: Thanks to book friends 30600563 and 7749 for their recommendation votes

137 Kate's Melancholy

Something is wrong. Ten or even nine points wrong.

Kate returned to the Philadelphia Police Department's temporary office with a frown after resting for two full days. Although the undercover puppet had been caught, a series of cases related to immortality technology had not yet been closed, so she continued to be stationed at the Philadelphia Police Headquarters.

Of course, this is just the superficial reason.

In fact, Kate didn't want to take Li Shanze to the FBI building, as that would make her feel that she had no place to breathe in the city of Philadelphia.

Just like Li Shanze was reluctant to go to the FBI building - what if Xia Li found out that he was not taken away for internal interrogation?

So the two of them hit it off right away.

Sitting in the temporary office at the Philadelphia Police Headquarters, Kate didn't understand why the foul smell of pollution on Li Shanze disappeared overnight, and was replaced by a scent that made her feel confused and intoxicated.

Kate couldn't help but grit her teeth when she thought of Li Shanze, the master who took her virginity.

But only when Li Shanze was not around would she think of this name and grit her teeth in hatred.

As soon as Li Shanze approached her, she was immediately completely attracted by his aura. At that moment, it was difficult for her to calm down and think about the problem.

Even if other agents reported that there seemed to be something wrong with Olivia Crestor, she had no time to think about it.

Kate felt uncomfortable when she thought that Li Shanze and Xia Li would come here soon to analyze the bronze fragment of the Liberty Bell together.

She felt psychologically guilty towards Xia Li because she slept with Xia Li's man Li Shanze.

She was also psychologically angry at Xia Li - because of Xia Li's slave contract, she fell into Li Shanze's clutches.

She psychologically feared and hated Li Shanze - he was an evil ogre who had used all sorts of cunning means to possess her, toyed with her, and turned her into an unclean knight.

She also had an indescribable desire for Li Shanze in her heart - as soon as she heard that Li Shanze was coming, she began to feel a little overwhelmed. That night of great joy for her left a deep mark of slavery in the depths of her soul.

All kinds of conflicting emotions drove her to leave here. She couldn't help but want to go to the church to seek peace of mind and purify her body with holy water.

Even though she knew in her heart that it was futile.

Along the way, Kate attracted countless people's attention.

Kate knew that it was because she looked radiant after being well-nourished that she attracted so much attention.

Although Kate was wrapped in thick clothes, facing the gazes of so many people, she still felt the traces left by Li Shanze on her body were faintly warm, burning her whole body and making her legs weak.

If you want to get rid of Li Shanze, you must first overcome this predicament.

Kate thought through gritted teeth.

In the seventh confessional at St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia, Kate used a tactical dagger to pry open the brass lock of the confessional window, and then locked the confessional tightly from the inside.

The sunlight filtering through the stained glass became a riot of color, dyeing her uniform a Passion purple.

She wanted to kneel down and pray, but the mark left by Li Shanze on the root of her thigh flushed with passion under the gaze of the holy statue.

"In the service of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..." Her prayer was interrupted as the phone rang. On the phone, the hateful name Li Shanze seemed to be mocking her futility.

She suppressed all the emotions in her heart, from anger to shame to anticipation, and answered the phone in a calm tone.

"Kate, where have you been? Didn't we agree to study the bronze debris together today?" Li Shanze's hateful voice floated out through the phone.

The word "Li Shanze" on the mobile phone screen began to turn into illusions of other words amid the roar of the church's low organ.

Even divided into three: the ogre, the master and the man.

Kate twisted her thighs hard, tilted her head to clamp the phone, and then turned on the holy water.

"I'm..." Her delicate neck seemed to be roughly strangled by Li Shanze's hand. She lied reluctantly, "Yesterday, after rescuing Anjie and Gray, McGee disappeared completely. I'm tracking down his clues."

She poured holy water on her fevered body, and the moment the water droplets touched the traces of love left by Li Shanze, they evaporated into mist.

"Is that the sound of water over there?" Li Shanze chuckled, his laughter full of teasing. "Could it be that my knight is performing a purification ritual?"

It was said right.

Kate panicked. The battle-hardened knight had never felt so guilty before, and she accidentally knocked over the holy water bottle.

The holy water flowed into the distance along the cracks in the floor tiles. The water flow path was thick and long, and it looked like her master's weapon that she loved and hated.

When she tried to recite the exorcism spell in Latin, her tongue automatically transformed into the soft hum of begging for mercy that night: "Master, I, I was wrong, please, please forgive me."

"Oh, you seem to be enjoying it, but not today." The laughter coming from the other end of the phone made Kate feel ashamed.

"Xallie and Echo have discovered something through this bronze wreckage that can help us understand how McGee provided electricity and the internet during the witching storm. Perhaps we can follow this clue and find the handle of immortality technology."

When it came to the investigation of immortality technology, Kate finally suppressed all the thoughts in her mind and became serious. She whispered, "I'll be back right away, Master."

"Well, okay, there are some inscriptions here that neither Xia Li nor Ai Ko can understand. Xia Li thinks this is related to the way the church and the gods directly use the power of will." Li Shanze continued.