Chapter 8: Clues
The steam car stopped by the roadside. The old councilman’s residence was not extravagant—just a two-story building with a courtyard. Given his status, he was fully entitled to live in a manor and command a guard force of several thousand men.
None of that existed. His home was merely a two-story house, with over a dozen Ma’e dogs in the yard. This breed, native to the Lehman Kingdom, was commonly used for guarding homes. They were docile toward humans but fiercely aggressive toward other animals.
Puri extinguished the steam car’s pressurizer, then took a small glass bottle from the storage compartment inside. The bottle held a transparent liquid, and the cork had tiny holes in it.
Puri tapped the bottle lightly against the tiger’s mouth area on the back of his hand. The colorless liquid seeped through the cork, coating his skin.
“Rub some of this on yourself. Getting bitten by the dogs in the yard would be troublesome.”
Puri tossed the small glass bottle to Su Xiao, then pushed open the door and got out.
Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Amu all applied some of the colorless liquid to their clothes. Asaz did not; the dogs in the yard were his.
As soon as the group stepped into the courtyard, over a dozen Ma’e dogs ran over, wagging their tails and circling Asaz. A few even lay down, exposing their bellies to him—a sign of absolute trust.
The visible guards were these dozen or so Ma’e dogs. No one knew how many Hyena Clan members had tried to sneak in here, only to end up as meals for these dogs.
Following the gravel path through the courtyard, Su Xiao walked toward the two-story building. A faint sense of danger came from all directions—someone was lying in ambush in the shadows.
Just as Puri, walking at the front, was about to knock on the door, it swung open. A pair of brownish-yellow eyes stood out sharply in the dim hallway.
“Ris, don’t be so frightening in broad daylight. My heart can’t take it.”
“Yes, Young Master Puri.”
A expressionless maid stepped out of the darkness. Her eyes held almost no spark of life. Su Xiao sensed that her aura was very similar to a spider’s.
Once inside the two-story building, Su Xiao noticed that all the windows were tightly covered, the electric lights were off, and only a few candles were lit.
“How is my father?”
“The master is even weaker.”
“You’ve worked hard, Ris.”
“Without the master, I would not exist. If the master dies, I have no reason to live.”
“Don’t say that. Back then…”
“Puri!”
Asaz suddenly interrupted Puri’s words. Puri’s lips parted, but in the end, he shook his head with a faint smile.
“Kukulin, this way.”
Puri picked up a candlestick from the table and headed upstairs.
Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha stayed on the first floor. Only Su Xiao went up to the second floor.
The surroundings were dim. Su Xiao walked up the wooden stairs. The carved railings beside him were aged, showing their years. The furnishings in this building were simple, all somewhat old but meticulously cleaned.
The second floor had four rooms in total. The old councilman’s wife had died in an accident a few years ago, so only the old councilman, the maid Ris, and Asaz lived here.
Reaching the innermost room, Puri knocked twice symbolically on the door, then pushed it open and entered.
Su Xiao stopped at the doorway. A musty smell drifted into his nostrils. Though the scent of herbs was more prominent, that faint, decaying odor caught his attention. It wasn’t the smell of material decay—it was the decay of energy.
Su Xiao had been to many worlds, but energy decay—counting this time—he had only seen twice. In most cases, energy would dissipate or be devoured, but it rarely decayed.
“Kukulin? What’s wrong? Did you find something?”
“Nothing.”
Su Xiao walked into the old councilman’s bedroom. Aside from the bed bathed in candlelight, everything else in the room lay in shadow.
The old councilman lay on the bed, his face gaunt, cheeks slightly sunken, skin and bones, his entire body a waxy yellow.
He was unconscious, covered by a slightly yellowed cotton quilt that felt a bit damp.
Puri pressed one hand on the quilt, frowning as he asked, “Ris, when was the last change?”
“An hour ago.”
“An hour? Yesterday, it took three hours to soak through.”
Puri looked at his slightly blackened palm from touching the quilt. He could feel a numbness in his palm, gradually turning into a stinging pain.
“Kukulin, a few weeks ago, my father could still scold me. He weighed at least 130 pounds back then. Now he’s at most 60 pounds. This is not an illness.”
Puri picked up a wet towel from the bedside table and wiped the light black “stain” from his hand.
“Get some silverware.”
“Wait, let me look.”
Puri rummaged through a storage cabinet in the room for a while and found a silver coin.
“This is almost pure silver.”
Puri tossed the coin. With this world’s craftsmanship, refining silver items with over 90% purity was already difficult. This coin had a purity of over 96%.
Su Xiao took the coin, stepped to the bedside, and placed it on the old councilman’s forehead.
The originally bright silver coin began to fade, then gradually turned yellow, and finally became a dark brown, its surface pitted and scarred as if corroded by strong acid.
A crystalline layer formed on Su Xiao’s right hand. He picked up the coin from the old councilman’s forehead and closed his eyes to sense it.
Not energy, not a curse, not poison—more like… some kind of tiny, supernatural organism.
Su Xiao took a portable microscope from his chest pocket. Of course, he wouldn’t carry this around normally; the motion of reaching into his pocket was to disguise retrieving an item from his storage space.
Through the portable microscope, Su Xiao began observing the coin in his hand. Sure enough, magnified 400 times, he saw round organisms shaped like water droplets, slowly moving, while some dissolved away.
After a moment of thought, Su Xiao took out an injection gun filled with a light green solution. He pressed the injection gun into the old councilman’s neck and injected very slowly.
The old councilman’s waxy face gradually regained color, and his dry, split hair also regained a bit of luster.
Seeing this, Puri stood up with a whoosh, a look of joy on his face. The maid Ris’s eyes also regained some life.
“How is it? Is my father okay?”
“No. Your father is going to die.”
As soon as Su Xiao spoke, the old councilman’s face quickly returned to its waxy yellow, his breath faint, worse than before.
“Kukulin, even if you can’t cure him, please don’t kill my father. I beg you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Uh…”
Puri didn’t know what to say for a moment and could only let out a long sigh.
After the initial test, Su Xiao basically confirmed the old councilman’s condition. He wasn’t sick—he had been harmed by someone. A type of microscopic supernatural organism had invaded his body and was growing by absorbing his life force.
This kind of microscopic supernatural organism was troublesome. It merged into water, and since the human body is about 60% to 70% water, that meant removing it was extremely difficult.
As for replenishing the old councilman’s life force, that was completely unfeasible. If he did, the organisms inside him would absorb that life force first and multiply even faster.
The separation method was also unworkable. These organisms had nearly 100% compatibility with water. Unless he stripped all the water from the old councilman’s body, but then curing him would be pointless—the cells would die instantly, causing immediate death.
Treating the old councilman was very difficult, but Su Xiao had gained an important clue. The old councilman’s current state must have been caused by the person behind the scenes. This meant finding that person was no longer like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Su Xiao already had some leads. If his speculation was correct, then the task with an 8-day time limit could be completed in just a few hours.