Chapter 150: The Core Trick

Chapter 150: The Core Trick

Holding the iron cigarette case, Sharron passed through the wall and left the warehouse where she had originally hidden. Strictly following Sherlock Moriarty’s arrangements, she flew in Wraith form toward the tallest lighthouse in Pritz Harbor.

Immediately afterward, she silently counted down in her heart:

“Three seconds… two seconds… one second…”

Before the corresponding thought even finished, violent sounds echoed beside Sharron’s ears. At the distant pier, a terrifying tornado seemed to have made landfall.

The fingernails of the left hand with which she held the iron cigarette case suddenly lengthened and sharpened. They pierced the wall of spirituality, and with a spiritually charged attack originating from a Wraith, they completely destroyed the invisible isolation.

A sudden gust of wind scattered in every direction. Sharron abruptly felt her spirit body receive an inexplicable enhancement, and this came from the item inside the iron cigarette case.

She was not affected by curiosity. Already accustomed to restraining such emotions, she continued approaching the lighthouse at high speed.

Throughout the entire process, she maintained a patternless movement trajectory. Sometimes she veered left-front, sometimes drifted upper-right, and sometimes used Mirror Blink to jump to another route before continuing to approach her objective.

This made her look as though she were dodging an invisible and terrifying enemy, but Sharron knew very clearly that nothing was pursuing her, and no distant attack had locked onto this side.

She felt she was performing a one-woman show that seemed to have an opponent.

However, she did not question it, nor did she waste time observing and waiting. She pretended that the surrounding air was the Silent One Mahmos, that it was a Loen military demigod, and did her utmost to twist and dodge between them.

After flying for a while in this manner, Sharron, whose blue eyes kept gazing toward the air, saw a streak of crimson light reflected in them.

It flew high into the sky and abruptly burst apart, turning into beautiful fireworks interwoven with red, orange, and yellow.

Sharron immediately withdrew her gaze. While using her Wraith nails to spray spirituality and reconstruct the isolating “wall,” she jumped toward Maric’s route.

Every stretch of that path had a shattered mirror. Sharron’s figure, wearing a small soft hat and black dress, kept flashing upon them. Soon, she appeared within Maric’s brown eyes.

She then stepped out lightly. The iron cigarette case in her hand was once again covered by a wall of spirituality.

Maric and Sharron exchanged neither words nor glances. It was as though they were being chased by transparent, invisible monsters and did not dare stop for even a moment.

Frankly speaking, they roughly understood what effect each of their own actions would have. After all, Sherlock Moriarty had once performed the act of using a copper whistle to lure living corpses and shadows, and the two of them were very familiar with Sharron’s Mirror Blink. However, they could not imagine how the overall situation would develop, nor how that great detective filled with secrets planned to steal Tutanthis II’s mummy under the gaze of several demigods. It was not as if the mummy could successfully escape simply because it wanted to run; those demigods would definitely stop and chase it.

Just then, they saw a figure instantly outline itself ahead.

He wore a black formal suit and a half top hat. His face was covered by an iron-gray mask. In his hands were a clump of dark-red soil and a dark-brown covered book.

It was Sherlock Moriarty.

Maric immediately slowed his steps. He watched as the other man smeared the soil over the book’s surface, stored it inside his clothing, then reached toward his shoulder. At the same time, he looked around the surroundings, but he did not see the mummy of Tutanthis II.

So it still failed in the end…

Already mentally prepared, Maric sighed and watched as he, Sharron, and Sherlock Moriarty simultaneously faded into transparency and vanished.

…

In the area where several demigods were fighting, when the man in the iron-gray mask Teleported away in the middle of his salute, the golden-eyed Loen military demigod inexplicably received an ominous spiritual premonition. He felt that matters had turned toward an unpredictable, bad ending.

Stop him! Although I do not know what he did, I must stop him!

Similar thoughts surged instantly. The golden-eyed demigod was about to activate the ring on his hand, using Travel against Travel, Teleportation to chase Teleportation.

However, within that brief opening, he discovered that he could not lock onto the mysterious intruder’s aura. In other words, the other party had either carried out demigod-level interference, or had Teleported extremely, extremely far away in an instant. Whichever possibility was true, the pursuit would likely end in failure.

More importantly, if he left, he would be abandoning the woman in the evening gown alone against the Silent One Mahmos and the other Rose School of Thought demigod. That would be an extremely dangerous situation. After all, the Mystery in the current area had not yet weakened to the point that real-world guns and cannons could completely suppress them.

Besides, no loss has appeared. The mummy is still there. That person merely took a bit of spirituality-rich soil…

The golden-eyed demigod’s gaze swept across the Tutanthis II mummy standing “blankly” in place, and he refocused his attention on Mahmos.

All of a sudden, within the spiritual intuition of all four demigods, the mummy wrapped in yellow-brown bandages and stained with dark-red liquid vanished.

It disappeared!

Such a tangible mummy had disappeared without the slightest warning!

For one second, the Silent One Mahmos and the other demigods felt as though they had watched a brilliant magic show—or a theatrical performance concealing a trick. Yet what was sad was that, despite being demigods, they had failed to discover what the sleight of hand or the trick of the drama actually was.

In the next instant, Mahmos and the other Rose School of Thought demigod, now having lost their objective, did not hesitate to fade their bodies and attempt to force their way into the spirit world to escape.

The golden-eyed demigod and the woman in the evening gown reflexively stopped them.

…

After performing two Teleportations in succession, Klein brought Miss Sharron and Maric back to the two-bedroom apartment they had rented in advance in Backlund’s East Borough.

“I will pay the reward as agreed,” Sharron said as soon as she stood firm, returning the iron cigarette case to Sherlock Moriarty.

They had agreed in advance that regardless of whether the objective was ultimately achieved, Sharron would provide information on Spirit World Plunderers. If they truly succeeded, she would additionally pay 3,500 Loen gold coins or 5,000 pounds.

Klein took the iron cigarette case, whose exterior showed slight signs of corrosion, and casually weighed it, sensing the faint throbbing of Azik’s copper whistle inside.

He then put the item away and smiled at Miss Sharron and Maric.

“Please wait in the room outside. Give me another five minutes.”

His tone was very certain, as if he were saying he had already succeeded.

What can five minutes do? He cannot possibly Teleport back and bring Tutanthis II’s mummy over. That would be even more dangerous and even more difficult than just now…

Maric’s heart was filled with doubt, and his steps moved extremely slowly. Sharron, however, had already half-floated and half-walked to the wooden door dividing the inner and outer rooms, passing through it.

Maric hurriedly restrained his thoughts and followed her out, opening the door as he left.

Klein kept smiling as he watched them. Then he used Travel to reach a cheap inn in another direction of the East Borough—one where he had rented a room in a disguised identity and appearance that afternoon.

Immediately afterward, he took out the dark-brown covered book hidden against his chest, its surface smeared with dark-red mud.

It was Groselle’s Travels.

As long as blood that had not yet dried, and that still held residual spirituality, was smeared over its cover, it could forcibly pull the corresponding target into the world inside the book.

And the liquid inside Tutanthis II’s golden coffin contained blood!

In other words, at this very moment, that mummy was already in Klein’s hands—inside Groselle’s Travels!

After listening to Maric describe how pharaoh mummies were made, Klein had actually already formed a rough plan. He would use Azik’s copper whistle’s attraction to dead bodies as “Spirit Body Threads” to control the mummy of Tutanthis II. With this “marionette,” he would guide the demigods present away from the vicinity of the coffin, creating an opportunity for himself to Teleport over and take away the liquid.

He had never thought he could directly carry away the mummy or let it successfully escape the pier. That was unrealistic. It would require facing demigod attacks head-on, and even if he, Sharron, and Maric tied themselves together, they would be unable to withstand that. Even if he paid a high price to summon Miss Messenger Reinette Tinekerr, it might not be enough.

Therefore, while Azik’s copper whistle and the corpse-like “resurrection” of the mummy appeared to be the objective and the plan, in truth they were only methods of control and guidance. They could make the other “actors” ignore what was happening near the golden coffin.

This was an open scheme that even demigods could not resist, because what they were protecting was the mummy, not the golden coffin. Their targets were high-Sequence powerhouses such as Mahmos of the Rose School of Thought, not two or three people wandering very far away without any known purpose.

Klein’s plan was not the kind of interlocking, exquisite design that would make people marvel, nor one that would fail to continue if even a slight accident occurred. The problems he needed to control were very, very few. As long as the tornado successfully overturned the coffin; as long as Miss Sharron followed his instructions and maintained an irregular movement trajectory; as long as the military forces were not so plentiful that they could easily deal with Mahmos and the other Rose School of Thought demigod—then he only needed to wait for one opportunity to appear.

When the demigods had left the golden coffin’s vicinity, and before the mummy had been possessed by the evil spirit, he would Teleport over, take something soaked in the liquid, and immediately flee far away.

There was no need for him to worry about the specific developments of the demigod battle. It did not matter which side gained the upper hand, which side would be injured, or how many meters Tutanthis II’s mummy had to run before the attempt counted as a success. As long as it could begin moving smoothly and was fairly difficult to catch, there would be no problem.

As for the final bow, on one hand, it was because he was bending to pick up the soil anyway; it was equivalent to taking a curtain call. On the other hand, it was so he could press against Groselle’s Travels at his chest. If anything unexpected happened, he could immediately pull it out and use it as a shield.

Precisely because of this, as soon as Klein Teleported away, he immediately smeared the clump of blood-soaked soil onto the book’s cover.

Everything went according to expectations. The directing can be considered a success…

Klein sighed inwardly, feeling that the potion inside him had begun digesting faster.

He did not waste time. He swiftly arranged a ritual and sacrificed Groselle’s Travels above the gray fog. Then, in spirit body form, carrying Creeping Hunger, Azik’s copper whistle, the Requiemer Beyonder characteristic, and the curse-resistant golden bead given by Sharron, he entered the world inside the book.