13 Interrogation

"He suffered from the Sealed Artifact's backlash, and his mobility was limited. It hasn't even been a day, so it's unlikely that he ran very far. And according to the scene I just saw, he didn't board the subway but left the station directly!"

"Being devoured by a Sealed Artifact of the Devil Sequence usually makes one yearn for a human soul with strong desires. By sacrificing it to the Devil, one can quell the backlash."

"Then, Ebner here comes the question. Where do you think the people around here have the strongest desires and are the easiest to kill?"

As Detective Isengard led the way, he explained his analysis to the two men beside him and asked with interest.

"The strongest desire… Could he be in a nearby brothel or a wealthy merchant's mansion?" Ebner thought for a moment and said.

Isengard was instantly rendered speechless. Is my student putting prostitutes and nobles on the same level? He could only give a hint. "Humans have more than one desire… Besides, this is Cherwood Borough. There are no brothels here… And there might be bodyguards in the residences of nobles and wealthy merchants. It's easy to fail if you kill someone without investigating."

Ebner fell into deep thought. After all, he was a transmigrator. His understanding of this world and this city was superficial, so it was normal for him to make a wrong guess when he lacked experience.

At this moment, Xio cut in. "It's a bar! Although there aren't any brothels in Cherwood Borough, many women who thirst for money will go to high-end bars to find their targets! And fishing men will naturally go there as well… In addition, there must be underground casinos and all sorts of entertainment in bars. That's where there are the most lustful people!"

"That's right. The young lady is right! And there are a total of four bars in Cherwood Borough. One is very far from here, so we can rule it out. The other two are especially high-end. Not only do we need to introduce people to enter, but it's also not too far from the Holy Wind Cathedral. It's very likely that we'll encounter members of the Mandated Punishers who are relaxing and having fun inside. This can also be ruled out. The last one is the Blue Spirit Bar three blocks away, and the traces I found point there!" Isengard nodded in approval.

…

In a corner of the Blue Spirit Bar, two groups of five or six drunkards were confronting each other with wine bottles in their hands. At first, they were cursing, but the more they cursed, the worse it became. Then, they pushed and shoved each other, and it looked like a fight was about to break out. In the shadows next to them that no one noticed, a figure quietly appeared. The figure had a cruel smile on his face as he raised the triangular blade in his hand. He was about to take advantage of the chaos to create a murder case and completely lose control of the situation.

He had succeeded. The sudden appearance of blood made both sides, who were already at each other's throats, turn completely red. They each picked up their weapons and attacked each other. The scene became even more chaotic!

That figure would occasionally appear near these people, and every time it appeared, it would take away a life.

After the dozen or so people were all lying in pools of blood, he carefully appeared in the shadows outside the bar. After wiping the blood on the triangular blade, the assassin suddenly felt that something was wrong. The huge conflict just now did not attract the security of the bar, and he only thought of such a big flaw now!

With this thought, he made a prompt decision to sneak into the shadows and escape far away.

Unfortunately, his stealth had failed! At the same time, he heard a command in ancient Hermes. Shadow Stealth was forbidden here.

Judge! Nightmare! These two words surfaced in his mind. He couldn't help but feel horrified. What did he do to deserve the cooperation of a Sequence 6 and a Sequence 7?

Before he could finish his thoughts, he smelled a pleasant fragrance of flowers. He thought that it was bad, but before he could react, he was completely unconscious.

At this moment, an illusory curtain seemed to have shattered. The people who had fought and died raised their wine glasses to drink again. There was a fiery scene everywhere as if the fight was just a dream.

"It was indeed a dream! The combination of Nightmare, Judge, and Apothecary powers actually managed to silently take down a Beyonder at least Sequence 8. And this is under the circumstances that these powers are much weaker than the original…"

As Ebner and Xio secretly transferred the captives to a remote alley nearby, they were extremely alarmed by the great detective Isengard's methods.

As for Isengard, he took off the ring on his finger and introduced it to the two with a chuckle. "This is a Beyonder item of mine. Its former code name is 2-081, and it comes from a Sequence 6 Beyonder of the Reader pathway. It allows me to identify, see, remember, and simulate all the Beyonder powers I've seen. The stronger the Beyonder powers I face, the higher the chance of failure. Of course, even if it succeeds, it will definitely be very different from the original version."

Ebner had long known of this item, so he thought nothing of it. He only thought to himself that since this ring was formed from a Beyonder's Beyonder characteristic, he might really be able to analyze the potion formula from it with the White Eye. It looked like he would have to observe it more when he went to his teacher's house to study.

Xio asked in puzzlement, "2-081?" She wasn't an official Beyonder, so she naturally didn't know the meaning of the code name.

"Many mystical items have rather obvious hidden dangers that will cause certain harm. Therefore, the seven orthodox Churches are searching and sealing them, calling them Sealed Artifacts and using numbers as code names."

"After a long period of disputes and communication, the seven Churches have formed a unified naming method. They use 0, 1, 2, and 3 to mark different danger levels. Among them, Grade 0 is the most dangerous. It's said to be a terrifying item that can destroy countries or even worlds."

"The seven orthodox Churches will inform each other on Grade 0 and Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts and tell each other what they have. Therefore, the code names of Grade 0 and Grade 1 won't be repeated. Grade 2 and Grade 3 will be arranged separately. Different Churches might have the same code name."

Isengard explained briefly. During this process, the three of them dragged the attacker to a corner of a deep alley. The great detective squatted down and lifted the cover of a well on the ground, revealing a pitch-black pit.

"This is one of the safe houses I dug up. Don't worry, there's no danger."

Xio and Ebner looked at each other and took a deep breath before jumping down. As for Isengard, he held onto the ladder on the side of the pit and climbed down while pulling the manhole cover back to its original position.

After lighting the candle, Ebner realized that they were not really in a well. Instead, they were in a cave about 20 square meters in size and four meters deep. There was another door on the east side of the cave that led somewhere.

"It leads to the real sewer nearby! If it's blocked, that's the emergency exit." Isengard noticed Ebner's gaze and explained. Then, he clapped his hands and said, "Alright, let's interrogate this attacker before the effects of the Psychedelic Potion wear off. I learned the ability of a Telepathist previously, so I should be able to make him spit out the truth."

Ebner and Xio had no objections. They also wanted to know if there was a mastermind behind this person.

"My name is Turner, and I'm a Sequence 8 Instigator. I belong to an organization called the Knowledge Society. On it is a Witch named Lena. I've always been in contact with her, but I've never seen any other members of the organization."

"More than half a year ago, the organization gave me a mission to sell human slaves to a few human traffickers without alerting the Church… Therefore, I used a fake identity named Hickok to join a loan shark gang. I planned on digesting the potion while completing the mission. Therefore, I instigated the gang leader, Lawson, to create a loan contract with a trap. I also used my Beyonder powers to convince the lenders to accept the contract blindly, causing many people to lose their families and then abduct their families to complete the mission."

"A month ago, due to my good performance, Lena suddenly appeared and rewarded me with a Beyonder weapon, the triangular blade. I asked her when she could give me the Sequence 7 potion formula, but she said meaningfully that my awareness wasn't enough. She then left."

"As for that badge, I discovered it when I copied the debtor's payment. It's a powerful item that can curse Beyonders through emotions! Unfortunately, it was damaged during the backlash of the curse. I wonder if it can be restored."

"In addition, I didn't copy another strange badge later on. It looks very ordinary and doesn't have any functions, but the text on it makes me feel that it should be a token of some organization…"

Listening to his listless eyes, Isengard frowned and searched his pocket. Indeed, he found another badge.

"Is this it?"

"Yes!"

Hence, the three of them focused their attention on the badge. The badge was only the size of an eyeball. On the front was engraved the symbol of fate and concealment, and on the back was a tight circle of tiny ancient Hermes words:

"With this item, you can join."

Ebner still didn't recognize ancient Hermes, but Xio had already read out the meaning behind it.

Perhaps this is a clue to some treasure! Isengard suddenly became interested. As a detective, he enjoyed solving puzzles.

But Ebner shook his head. There was an introduction to this badge in the original novel. He didn't recognize it at first, but after hearing the meaning of the inscription, he immediately recalled it and said to Xio and Isengard,

"This is the proof of the Hermit of Fate gathering, as well as the communication device and positioning device."

"Hermit of Fate… What's that?" Isengard looked at his student in puzzlement as Xio looked over.

"It's a secret organization formed by a few Marauder families in the later stages of the Fourth Epoch. Most of them are people related to the Marauder Sequence." Ebner didn't plan on saying anything else and only explained slightly.

"Ebner, you know the secrets of the Fourth Epoch very well!" Isengard sighed slightly and didn't ask further.

I'm actually very good at the Third Epoch, but I'm afraid I'll be doomed if I say it out loud. Ebner mocked himself inwardly before continuing to ask Turner,

"How often do you and Lena contact each other? Does she know you're cursing Xio?"