Chapter 977: Fire Breaks Out |
The next day.
Liu Xing and the others slept until late morning because they played Mahjong late last night... Of course, Mai Yuqiang still went to the dock early in the morning to get fish.
According to Mai Yuqiang, the reason he opened a fish shop was to enable the Morio Town Protection Association to reach the dock area because, as mentioned earlier, the dock area could be considered Swollen Woman's territory. Therefore, only as a fish shop owner could Mai Yuqiang stay longer in the dock area.
Moreover, Mai Yuqiang would take the opportunity to observe the dynamics of the dock area. Once, through his discoveries in the dock area, Mai Yuqiang identified a killer's identity.
After getting up, Liu Xing saw Dio leisurely drinking tea in the living room.
It seemed that Dio had been sitting in the living room for a while and was probably there to see him.
So, after washing up briefly, Liu Xing sat across from Dio.
"Is there something you need, Dio?" Liu Xing asked.
Dio picked up a letter from beside, without saying anything, and handed it directly to Liu Xing.
It seemed Crimson Ghoul was still wandering around South America, not finding what he wanted.
Liu Xing took a letter from the envelope, but it wasn't handwritten; it was printed because the letter had several color photos.
The first photo was taken at an outdoor café.
Because it was a franchise café, from the signboard, it was clear that this café was located in Rio de Janeiro.
Liu Xing was somewhat surprised, didn't expect Crimson Ghoul to have gone to Rio de Janeiro... So why did Crimson Ghoul take this photo?
Liu Xing didn't think Crimson Ghoul was the type to write "postcards" to "friends."
So Liu Xing looked closely at the photo.
This photo was probably taken by Crimson Ghoul sitting directly across from the café's entrance at this outdoor café. Through the glass doors and windows, one could clearly see the interior of the café. But after looking carefully, Liu Xing didn't see any abnormal situations or any familiar faces among the customers.
Having found nothing, Liu Xing could only ask Dio, "Dio, is there anything special about the photo of that café? I don't feel like there's anything special about it."
Dio smiled and said seriously, "You can't see that this photo is actually quite normal because you don't know enough about the situation in England. This chain café is actually a property under some secret cult. However, this secret cult isn't a true secret cult in the real sense because its members are actually a group of archaeology enthusiasts."
Archaeology enthusiasts?
Upon hearing this, Liu Xing suddenly recalled hearing Zhang Wenbing mention a "Discoverers" secret cult some time ago. This secret cult was initially formed by a group of archaeologists who, during archaeological operations, discovered relics of ancient civilizations. They were determined to investigate how many such relics existed in the world.
However, later on, some members accidentally obtained various powers from ancient civilizations during archaeological activities. So the members of the Discovery Society started wanting to gain these magical powers, and their actions became increasingly unscrupulous... Additionally, some members became arrogant after obtaining powers and caused chaos everywhere. Therefore, the Discovery Society was classified as a secret cult. But compared to other secret cults like the Deep Diving Society, the Discovery Society could still be considered a neutral organization. Thus, they could still operate openly, and countries' attitudes towards the Discovery Society were still acceptable.
"Dio, are you talking about the Discovery Society?" Liu Xing asked.
Dio nodded and continued, "Yes, the Discovery Society. I believe you have some basic understanding of the Discovery Society, so I'll get straight to the point. The essence of the Discovery Society isn't bad; what's bad is that some members can't control their ambitions. So the Discovery Society can still operate worldwide without restrictions. They opened a chain café as their bases around the world, responsible for collecting information. When members are in place, they provide accommodation and intelligence."
"The reason Crimson Ghoul took this photo is that he encountered members of the Discovery Society entering this café in Brazil. The purpose of these Discovery Society members coming here is most likely overlapping with Crimson Ghoul's, so it wants me to investigate which members of the Discovery Society have been sent to Brazil. Because the Discovery Society members have obtained powers from various ancient civilization relics, their abilities are bizarre and not systematic."
Liu Xing raised his eyebrows. If the Discovery Society also got involved, there are now two factions competing with Crimson Ghoul for business. It seems that the information about the ancient relics has already become public?
So, what's in that ancient relic that's attracting so many factions?
Liu Xing shook his head and continued to look at the next photo.
This photo's background had become a tropical rainforest, and in the center was a primitive tribe.
In today's Amazon rainforest, many primitive tribes still exist, and these tribes basically refuse to leave the Amazon to live a modern life... In this parallel world, the main reason these primitive tribes don't want to leave is that near their areas exist relics of ancient civilizations. These primitive tribes are actually the guardians of these Ancient Civilization Ruins.
Of course, these guardians are divided into voluntary or forced.
"It seems that the ancient relic Crimson Ghoul is looking for should be in some primitive tribe near Rio de Janeiro. And if I remember correctly, there aren't many primitive tribes left in Brazil, so we just need to check which primitive tribes are near Rio de Janeiro to determine Crimson Ghoul's current location," Liu Xing said, looking at Dio. "I think you've already figured out the name of the primitive tribe in the photo, haven't you?"
Dio nodded, "Yes, I just carefully investigated this primitive tribe. It didn't take much effort to find out the situation of this tribe. It was indeed quite simple because Brazil still has over three hundred primitive tribes, but over two hundred of them have actually made contact with the outside world, so that eliminates two-thirds of the options. Then, among the remaining hundred-plus isolated primitive tribes, I found that the Madi Tribe should be the one in the photo."
"The Madi Tribe is actually quite well-known because this tribe completely refuses to make contact with the outside world. Some missionaries have risked their lives to enter the Madi Tribe, but have been lost without a trace. Rescue personnel entering the Madi Tribe have also been violently attacked, essentially exchanging lives for lives. After suffering a major loss once, no rescue team dared to enter the Madi Tribe again. The authorities could only seal off the forest where the Madi Tribe is located, and thus the Madi Tribe was called the Man-Eater Tribe. In recent times, almost no one dares to approach the Madi Tribe's territory."
"Precisely because of this, Brazil's official population census of the Madi Tribe has remained on paper. In recent years, they have tried to use aerial photography to investigate the population of the Madi Tribe, but because the rainforest where the Madi Tribe is located is too dense, they didn't capture much meaningful footage. They can only roughly estimate from various information that the Madi Tribe's population might be around a thousand people, which is already a large primitive tribe, considering it's in the tropical rainforest. Although the species are diverse, it's also full of dangers, so most primitive tribes have populations around a hundred."
"According to descriptions from other surrounding primitive tribes, the reason the Madi Tribe could form such a large scale is because the Madi Tribe has been steadfast Quetzalcoatl worshipers from ancient times to the present, and at the center of the Madi Tribe is a pyramid dedicated to Quetzalcoatl. But this pyramid is very special because it's only three or four meters high above ground, but it's unknown how deep underground it is, as no one has ever come out alive after entering it. Precisely because the Madi Tribe has such faith in Quetzalcoatl, Quetzalcoatl also blesses the Madi Tribe with no sickness or disaster."
"So, in the Madi Tribe, there should be an Ancient Civilization Ruin related to Serpent God Yig, right?" Liu Xing stroked his chin, "South America is originally Serpent God Yig's territory, so it's normal to see some ancient civilizations there that worship Serpent God Yig."
Dio shook his head, smiling, "Keep looking at the next photo, and you'll see that the Madi Tribe doesn't actually worship Serpent God Yig."
Upon hearing this, Liu Xing looked at the next photo, which seemed to be taken by Crimson Ghoul inside that ancient civilization relic. Besides numerous bones, there was a huge Toad Statue in the photo.
Moreover, the craftsmanship of the Toad Statue looked very rough, so it was probably made by the Madi Tribe.
Obviously, the Madi Tribe was deceptive, publicly worshiping Quetzalcoatl (Serpent God Yig), but secretly being followers of Tsathoggua.
This move was quite impressive.
Besides the conspicuous Tsathoggua statue, Liu Xing could also see a downward passage, which should connect to the ancient civilization relic.
Then, the last photo: a tightly closed gray stone door, and in the middle of this gray stone door, there was a mural depicting a giant snake chasing a group of "people" on all fours.
These "people" should be the masters of this ancient relic.
As for that great deity, most likely, or even 100%, it's Serpent God Yig.
It seems that the reason this ancient civilization fell was because they offended Serpent God Yig, who personally intervened to end them. It appears that this ancient civilization was quite capable because the Great Old One wouldn't personally intervene so casually.
That's too high-class.
But from the photo, it could be seen that Crimson Ghoul couldn't enter the ancient civilization relic's interior and was likely blocked by this gray stone door.
That's interesting.
At this moment, Li Hanxing and Mai Yuqiang also came out of the room.
Liu Xing discreetly put the letter away and then began chatting with Dio in perfect sync about what to have for lunch today.
After a while, Liu Xing and the others reappeared in Wang Haiyang's Private Room.
Unfortunately, because Wang Haiyang was just visited by the teacher yesterday for a home visit, he didn't dare to skip classes again today to keep company.
After eating and drinking enough, Dio, holding a toothpick, said, "I checked the leopard's whereabouts and found that this guy went straight out of the city to the suburbs. Judging by the looks, he should still be in the forest north of Morio Town. But come to think of it, I don't think any of the killers or undercover agents sent by Swollen Woman have ventured into that forest yet."
Mai Yuqiang thought for a moment and said affirmatively, "Yes, that forest hasn't had any incidents for so many years, and I remember that the Morio Town Protection Association initially often went to that forest for inspections, but they never found anything unusual. So in recent years, they only go there to check once a year in December."
Liu Xing glanced at the Morio Town map hanging in the Private Room and found that the forest Dio and Mai Yuqiang were talking about was quite large, roughly the same area as Morio Town's urban area.
How come such a large area hasn't been utilized by Swollen Woman?
Liu Xing thought Swollen Woman should have placed her subordinates in that small forest, as there should be a base of operations for a villainous organization somewhere; otherwise, it would be a shame for such a large area.
"But I remember that Morio Town has always had an urban legend about that forest, that there's a strange creature living there—a human-faced rat... Yes, this refers to the human-faced rat," Mai Yuqiang said seriously. "It's precisely because of this urban legend that we think Swollen Woman has arranged a group of human-faced rats to guard that forest, and when necessary, she releases these human-faced rats to attack us."
Liu Xing frowned. From the description of the urban legend, it is indeed possible that human-faced rats exist in that forest. And that forest still belongs to Swollen Woman's territory, so these human-faced rats should still be related to Swollen Woman.
Moreover, considering Swollen Woman's strength, mass-producing human-faced rats wouldn't be difficult. Also, finding hiding human-faced rats wouldn't be easy, as they have human-level intelligence and mythical creature strength. They could consciously dig underground for hundreds of meters to make nests and then use magic to block external detection signals.
Of course, these human-faced rats could just be Swollen Woman's spokespersons or message carriers... But it's also possible they are destroyers of Morio Town.
Although human-faced rats aren't extremely strong, an army of them can kill elephants as ants do. If enough human-faced rats are present, they can leave Morio Town empty like a locust swarm. And Swollen Woman can indeed produce enough human-faced rats, so Liu Xing knows that Mai Yuqiang and Dio are worried that if Swollen Woman decides to stop playing the game that day, she might arrange a group of human-faced rats to "delete the game."
This isn't a good omen.
At this moment, Dio and Mai Yuqiang's mobile phones rang simultaneously.
Then, Dio and Mai Yuqiang's expressions changed, and they both stood up at the same time.
"That forest is on fire!" Dio frowned and said.
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Chapter 978: Watanabe Ryuusei in Action