Chapter 416: Check what you can find out by yourself
The sun is scorching in the sky, and the Starry Night Kingdom is ushering in a hot summer.
Dim, the manager of Starry Night Castle, was walking in the castle tower under the scorching sun. The enchanted leather armor on his body was constant temperature and clean, but it could not calm the anxiety in his heart.
He took out one cold carrot after another and stuffed it into his mouth. The sweet and refreshing juice failed to extinguish the sparks of worry swaying in his heart.
Last night, 12 disappearance cases of egregious nature and strange scenes occurred in the Starry Night Kingdom.
Twelve shopkeepers who were engaged in the business of ores, magic herbs, and alchemical preparations in different cities in the kingdom were abducted by a mysterious murderer at the same time.
These shopkeepers are not ordinary people. They are all alchemists registered in Xingye Academy and have official mage status. They are all from the Eastern Continent.
Their collective disappearance alarmed the mage in the city.
The news was sent to Starry Night Academy in written form, and Dim personally placed it on the desk of Beatrice, the head of the academy, this morning.
A secret message was sent from Beatrice's secret message ring, and Xia Zuo, the culprit of the missing case, walked into the study of the head of the hospital.
"Good day, teacher." Xia Zuo opened the door and entered, greeting with a smile as usual.
He looked at the bearded Dim who was standing by the desk with a slightly solemn expression, "Good morning, Dim. Your recovery doesn't look good. What happened?"
"Xia Zuo, I have a very urgent task to give you." Beatrice took out a few blank documents from the drawer and said while writing with her silver sand palm:
"Last night, 12 researchers from the Eastern Continent disappeared. There were no traces of fighting or spellcasting at the scene. The murderer did not seem to use elemental spells or alchemy tools. The resident mage did not detect any energy fluctuations. Regarding the specific situation, Dim will Talk to you on the way.
"This matter is very difficult, Xia Zuo. I will give you a temporary spellcasting permission, allowing you to use any spell, [any] spell, including blood magic and time and space spells.
"I have only one request for you, and that is to find as many clues as possible before the Mystic Mage's investigators arrive."
Xia Zuo took the fresh spell casting permission order, glanced at the text on it, and asked thoughtfully:
"Teacher, do you think it was a strange demon that did it?"
There are no energy fluctuations and no signs of elemental spells. Doesn't that point the finger at the mixed-blood mage...
"Yes." Beatrice nodded, her two slender eyebrows knitting together:
"It is very likely that there are alien spies mixed into the kingdom. Let me tell you the truth, these 12 missing alchemists are apparently researchers from the Eastern Continent, but in fact..."
Beatrice stretched out her white fingers and rubbed her eyebrows:
"But in fact, they are intelligence personnel of the Demon Hunting School, the Mystic Mage Guild, and other important departments of the temple. Each of them has some confidential information above the top secret level.
"Perhaps the Temple Army has been making a lot of noise in the east of the Eastern Continent recently, forcing the Strange Demon Church to increase its infiltration power behind enemy lines, so our Starry Night Kingdom will be affected."
Xia Zuo nodded slowly and solemnly, "Okay, teacher, I will do my best. When will the investigator of the Mystic Mage arrive?"
"They'll be here within three hours at most."
"Okay, let's set off quickly." Xia Zuo looked at Dim.
The bearded man bowed slightly to the head of the courtyard, and then walked out of the study with Xia Zuo.
About five months ago, when Xia Zuo was still performing the task of infiltrating the forbidden magic field in the secret room, Dim was successfully promoted from high-level mage to archmage.
His tower is quite different. It is an airship that is permanently suspended in the air and remains invisible.
This was specially designed by Dim to make the tower more suitable for his current work.
It was precisely with this fast-moving airship tower that he was able to inspect the scene of missing cases in various places and compile a complete investigation report within two hours in the morning.
Xia Zuo looked at the report written by Dim and felt very calm.
Under his precise layout, everything is developing according to his plan.
"Dim, where should we go first?" Xia Zuo asked knowingly.
"Spencer City, that's the closest place to us."
Dim reached out to touch the air and opened an invisible hatch:
"The missing mage in Spencer City is a member of the Mystic Mage Guild. We have to give the highest priority to dealing with the Mystic Mage Investigator, what do you think?"
"No problem, just do as you say." Xia Zuo followed the other party onto the invisible airship and sat down in the co-pilot's seat.
Dim input energy into the control panel, and the silent airship flew to the sky quietly without alerting anyone.
Ten minutes later, the first stop of the investigation arrived.
Xia Zuo and Dim jumped from the airship suspended in the sky and landed steadily in the backyard of a shop.
Just like the rest of the Eastern Continent researchers, the front hall of this shop is a shop that can be seen by ordinary people, while the back yard is the alchemy room and cultivation room.
As an intelligence officer of the Mystic Mage Guild, the owner of the shop also has an intelligence room equipped with a powerful protective magic circle. There are magic-locked shelves, image treasure boxes, safes, etc. in the room.
Now, these containers, which at first glance would involve confidential information, have all been violently damaged from the outside. The contents of the containers were either roughly smashed to pieces, or disappeared with their owners.
Xia Zuo used the blood magic to detect blood patterns and carefully detected the areas that had been violated several times. He was very satisfied with the special operations team led by the flesh and blood clone~
He withdrew his gaze from the scattered debris on the ground and shook his head helplessly at the bearded man standing outside the door:
"Dim, there is no sign of blood magic. I'm going to use the space-time container to see what happened last night."
Xia Zuo summoned a space-time container that was as tall as a human, inputting non-attribute power to reenact last night's historical scene.
The special operations team of flesh and blood clones used the Sands of Time from a different place to interfere with the time and space information in this area. The places where the missing persons stayed at the time of the crime were taken care of by the special operations team.
When Xia Zuo's space-time vessel swept through certain corners of the room, a very strange sight appeared:
The huge rocks protruding from the cliff, the waves washing over the rocks on the shore, the wild animals hiding in the woods waiting for their prey to take the bait, and the forest sea moving with the wind...
The natural scene that should not appear here appears in the historical scene repeated by the time and space container.
Xia Zuo and Dim had expressions of surprise and confusion on their faces.
"What's going on?" Dim stared at the picture in the space-time container, somewhat confused about the situation in front of him, "Xia Zuo, have you ever encountered this kind of thing before?"
Xia Zuo looked like he was in deep thought after being shocked, "No, no. This is the first time I have seen this kind of situation similar to spatial confusion."
He stretched out his hand and made a circle in front of him:
"The Sands of Time in this area are very strange. The time and space information they record seems to have been artificially modified, and the spatial coordinates point to places far, far away from this room.
"So, when my time and space container reads the time and space information, the reappearance of the historical scene turns into a distant scenery, which is very troublesome. What spell can cause this effect?"
Xia Zuo scratched his hair and walked towards the door, "It seems that our opponent is not simple. He may have mastered powerful time and space spells. I have never heard anyone mention this kind of spell that can tamper with time and space information." .”
Dim scratched his furry chin and glanced inside the room, "Let's go to another crime scene. I don't believe that the time and space information of every crime scene has been modified."
Hey, don’t believe it, it has actually been modified.
Xia Zuo is very sure of this.
The chaos of time and space was just the first step in Xia Zuo's attempt to cut off clues. He also deployed many back-up tactics to hinder and interfere with the investigation, and each of them left no traces, making it impossible for anyone to guess that he did it.
Throughout the morning, Dim and Xia Zuo were only doing two things.
Get on the airship, go to the next stop, get off the airship, and unfortunately return to the ship.
The murderer has not been traced, and we do not know what the crime process was. The only gain is:
The sands of time whose spatial coordinates have been tampered with point to an off-site spatial coordinate located in a coastal forest in the southwest corner of the Western Continent.
If you can find the corresponding location in the coastal forest with the coordinates of a different location, it will be possible to read the local time and space information, replay the historical scene, and find out who tampered with the time and space information at the crime scene.
The premise of all this is that the murderer has arrived at the coastal forest, read the spatial information of this forest, and then copied them to the Sands of Time at the crime scene.
If the murderer had never been to the coastal forest and just made up a piece of spatial information that happened to point to this forest, then this clue would be completely broken.
Not even if the Mystic Investigator comes.
But this is not the result Xia Zuo wants.
He is very aware of the investigative style of mystics and demon-hunting schools, which is a kind of persistence and perseverance that must find the target at all costs.
Only after providing them with a prey that is enough to dispel their doubts will the investigators return with satisfaction.
Xia Zuo has prepared a way to deal with it.
Later that day, around ten o'clock in the evening.
Dim's airship carried Xia Zuo and the Mystic Mage Investigator over the mountains and ridges to the southwest corner of the Western Continent.
The endless sea reflects the bright moonlight, and the sound of tide follows the sea breeze and wanders in the coastal forest.
The silent mystic investigator wore a hood and mask, tore the seal of the magic parchment, and released a space-time container that enveloped a small forest, re-enacting the historical scene in the area.
"This is..." Dim scratched his beard, his eyes widened, staring at the black shadow emitting shadow energy on the historical scene.
Xia Zuo frowned and thought on the side, his lips trembled slightly, and he muttered some words full of doubts.
The Mystic Investigator controls the space-time vessel and moves with the shadow.
The group of people walked towards the end of the forest, led by the shadow, and watched each other disappear on the sea not far away.
"What's on the other side of the sea?" Dim pointed forward, "Why is that black shadow flying there?"