Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 42 The Iron Hook Demon

The abandoned chemical factory is flanked by cracked brick walls, but looks uncluttered from the outside.Not too many creepers and weeds grew, just a layer of grayish-yellow ash and sludge.

Compared with a factory, this place is more like an abandoned villa or a warehouse.

The corridor is not wide, and it can only accommodate two or three people walking side by side.Because there is no lighting at all, even if it is noon outside after entering, it is still dark here.

As soon as Aiwass entered, he smelled a very strong smell of dust.There is also a pungent smell like durian, which is very choking.

Lulu hugged the child, coughed softly, and walked inside cautiously.

Even if she knew that there was no one here, she kept tiptoeing.

She felt her heart beating faster—even though she still hadn't left Glass Island, she felt an unprecedented sense of adventure.Everything here is so novel, which makes her extremely excited.

"We're here..."

Lulu whispered: "Is it to avoid the murderer? Since this is a chemical factory, should we go get some chemical reagents for self-defense? What if he follows?"

"He needs to be able to find the door first."

Aiwass did not shy away from the overly accurate information: "There is no main entrance to this chemical plant, because the back entrance here is actually a dead end. Only the back entrance of the warehouse can lead here. After it was abandoned, the original entrance to The main entrance here was blocked by the newly built stone warehouse, and with the expansion of the warehouse, it was finally completely blocked.

"This chemical factory is two stories high, and there are higher places that can be reached by ladders. Each floor has a large number of interconnected rooms, and there are three stairs going up and down. If there is only one intruder, we have Very ample space to play guerrilla..."

In the middle of his speech, he suddenly heard a death knell.

So Aiwass fell silent immediately, and turned his head to meet the eyes of the two.

"the fourth."

Sherlock said softly.

"The three of us, plus the 'bone carving', that's four people."

Aiwass squinted his eyes and asked, "Who else do you think can survive?"

"Coco. I suspect she's a double way."

Sherlock reminded softly: "Do you remember, Fox? Lady Erinie mentioned that 'this time there are three advanced practitioners with multiple paths'.

"You, the knight, and Lulu are obviously newcomers. Neither the king nor Cheese is very smart. Except for me and the bone carving, there should be one person...either Basil or Coco."

"I don't have much impression of Ms. Basil."

Lulu leaned over and whispered, "I can't even remember her features."

"This is one of the manifestations of adapting to the path, gaining an advantage by hiding yourself and blending into the environment. Don't underestimate her-if you think about it carefully, you will find that among the nine of us, only Basil did not disclose any information. We don't know anything about her."

The newsboy reminded: "If this is the New Moon Ceremony, I won't be most wary of the bone carving, but her. Every transcendent who adapts to the path is a professional hunter and assassin. I will never let her down if she is not dead." Come."

"What about cocoa?"

Aiwass asked rhetorically, "Why do you think Coco is a two-way street?"

"I'm not sure, it's just that I prefer the third person to be Coco. If you want to talk about the reason..."

Sherlock said: "That's what she said 'I'm not a demon scholar by profession'.

"She was captured last two, later than the 'King'. The King is in Astral, so Coco must not be in Avalon either.

"However, on Planet Antimony, although it is legal to transcend the path, ordinary people cannot obtain extraordinary occupations other than demon scholars."

"It's like in Avalon, can the extraordinary professions of the authoritarian path only be law mages, arbitrators, and air cavalry?"

Lulu asked.

Sherlock corrected: "To be precise, there are only lawyers and supervisors. Not all supervisors can advance to arbitrators. Even if they reach the level, they are not allowed to advance without passing the review of the round table hall. The arbitrator's The necessary advanced condition is to obtain the 'arbitration right' and be able to bypass the courts for one-person trials.

"Even if a supervisor enters the Procuratorate, they only have law enforcement power at most. They cannot meet the advanced requirements of an arbitrator.

"And the air cavalry advanced by Mr. 'Knight''s light cavalry profession is a special advancement of the army system... Every air cavalry is the elite of the elites in the Avalon army."

"Ah, I know that!"

Lulu's eyes lit up: "You have to turn the red griffin into a talking white griffin to change from light cavalry to air cavalry, right?"

"Yes. When their griffin partners become adults, all the dangerous brown-red body hair will fade away and turn into pure white, their physique will increase rapidly from 1.8 meters to more than [-] meters, their violent habits will become calm, and their intelligence will increase to the point where it can be said that it is simple. Only when they talk to other people... light cavalry can advance to air cavalry. And this requires them to use authoritative methods to continuously strengthen their partners. White griffins eat thirty pounds of fresh meat every day without training , double the time of training and combat.

"The griffins obtained by ordinary monitoring are different in species, and they can only grow up to 1.5 meters in a lifetime, and they can't learn human words. The food intake only needs about five pounds of fresh meat per day, and the life span is only 30 years. ...more like loyal pets capable of manned flight than companions. The white-feathered griffins used by the military can live for hundreds of years—when their human companions age and die, the griffins are still alive.

"In the Star Wars Kingdom, the extraordinary profession corresponding to the supervisor is the devil, and the corresponding law master is the demon scholar. An ordinary person who enters the Royal University of Law and becomes an extraordinary person cannot become a light cavalry when he graduates. Because the pure Griffin resources are scarce, and the loyalty of the light cavalry must be guaranteed, so the light cavalry will only be selected from the knight family—just like our Mr. 'Knight', he wears a helmet during the ceremony."

"Knight" may not realize that he is actually the first person to open the box by himself.A little faster than Lulu opening the box.

Because in Avalon, people other than the knight family are not allowed to hide armor.That would most likely be a death sentence.

This means that his father or mother must be a knight of the round table.That's why he can get the knight's helmet, and that's why he can become a light cavalryman.

"...A noble from the Star Kingdom?"

Lulu murmured: "I heard that there are 'nobles' passed down from generation to generation in Xingyin. They have titles, and their own land and manor. I have read about it in many dramas and poems."

Avalon regards the Star Wars as an enemy country, but does not dare to launch a war directly... Part of the reason is that they cannot be sure whether the royal curse was initiated by the Star Wars Kingdom.And Avalon's power is not so much concentrated on the queen, but rather in the round table hall... Such a vague excuse is not enough to make Avalon, whose national power is much weaker, take the initiative to declare war on the stars.

The Star Kingdom is now the most powerful country on this continent.

They were once the only empire on this continent.Still strong even after splitting into four nations.

The Star Kingdom, established by Valentine I, who wrote the sacred book "The Triumphant Chariot of Antimony", has now swallowed back the two fragments of the former empire and restored [-]% of the empire's territory.

Avalon can beat Iris, but he certainly can't beat Starbow.Alchemy research more than 50 years ahead of Avalon has made Star Antimony's technology extremely advanced.They had just launched a war a few years ago, annexing another neighboring country that had been split from the empire before... The huge golems that can continuously regenerate on the battlefield are terrifying.

Only when Avalon is united with Iris and Theocracy can it barely maintain a balance of power in the political landscape.But if someone is really attacked by Star Antimony, other allies may not participate in the defense unless they show strong resistance.

But another question arose in Princess Isabel's mind:
Nobles in such a powerful country... why did they become superhumans at this age?

Although she looks very young, as if she is only in her early twenties.But Isabel's keen perception as a way of beauty, and her cognition as a woman, convinced her that Miss Coco...or Mrs. Coco is at least 30 years old.

She should have used the alchemy medicine that can restore the beauty to maintain such a young and pure appearance like a girl.

Is it too late to become an extraordinary person in your 30s?

So she immediately reacted, and said with certainty: "Ke Ke should be the one who has two paths!"

"Why are you so sure?"

Sherlock asked back.

"Because Miss Coco is not as young as she appears, she should be over 30 years old. She has used alchemy drugs to maintain her youth."

"...I see. That makes sense...the fifth survivor should be Coco."

Sherlock nodded slowly, but his expression became serious instead: "That might not be so good."

Aiwass raised his eyebrows: "You mean, the enemy might be a demon scholar?"

"Listen, you two. I'm reminded of an incident."

Sherlock whispered: "Ten years ago in 1888, that is, four years after the current timeline, there was a serial murder incident in Lloyd District. Every eight days, a pregnant woman was killed and the baby in her womb He was brutally cut open and taken out, and the kidneys in his body were also taken away. This is an obvious trace of ritual murder.

"The Ombudsman called it the 'Jack the Ripper' incident. I was 16 years old and I was involved in the investigation."

The detective with the boy's face slowly opened his mouth: "The murderer of this case is a young demon scholar. He inherited an iron hook demon from his mentor. It was born from the image of 'surgical abortion' more than 100 years ago. Demons. So he tried to strengthen this image, through this ritual to strengthen the demons he got.

"He was finally arrested and executed by us. But before Jack was executed, he confessed to us that he had a master.

"—He confessed that his master stayed in the glass island for a long time, and seemed to continue to serve a certain figure. In the past few years, he killed many people for the mastermind. And recently he went abroad It is said that the destination is the Horus Empire or the ancient kingdom of Anxi. 'In order to pass through the desert, he needs to keep himself clean, so he transferred the demon to me', and his master is gone forever.

"According to the time calculation, the demon scholar should be in the glass island now. The iron hook demon itself is a low-ranking demon. It is not strong in frontal combat, but it is particularly good at sneak attacks..."

When Sherlock said this, he suddenly asked: "Did you have a curse on you when you appeared?"

Aiwass and Lulu looked at each other, and said, "We don't have it, but little Aiwass has it. It's a curse that's not very powerful, but it's used for positioning."

"That's right!"

Sherlock affirmed: "I also had it when I appeared, exactly the same type. I dispelled it with my own spells. This may be the reason why we have not been attacked until now... Curse positioning, restraint, and adapting to the hiding ability of the path. The one just now The person who died should be Basil. She persisted for a long time, but still did not escape.

"The Iron Hook Demon can locate the target by cursing, and jump directly across the space. The Mirror Demon that also meets this requirement needs a mirror as a medium, and the Shadow Demon cannot appear at noon. And these two demons are high-ranking demons..."

"Cocoa only has the first energy level?" Aiwass asked.

"Beyond Dao itself is proficient in demon knowledge. The anti-demon ritual she performed should be able to dispel the lower demons. It is also possible that she transferred the curse on herself to others."

"In other words, is our enemy the demon scholar who controls the hook demon?" Lulu understood.

"Well, to be precise, it is the Iron Hook Demon he controls remotely. The only problem is that although the Iron Hook Demon only has the strength of the second energy level, its speed is too fast and it is good at sneak attacks... For the second energy level It is almost impossible for an extraordinary person to defeat it. Unless there is a mage among us who can suppress it in an instant, it is possible to kill it."

Sherlock frowned, and rebuked in a low voice with some dissatisfaction: "I don't know how much the bone carving and Coco have raised the difficulty of this ceremony—they raised the difficulty, but they don't cooperate with us!
"The three of us will definitely not be able to defeat the Iron Hook Demon, and I'm afraid it won't work with the 'Knight'. He is not a supervisor or a law mage, but a light cavalry, and has no ability to suppress. According to the difficulty calculation of this ceremony, it is estimated that we must win it." At least one of Ke Ke or the bone carving is willing to cooperate with us, so that we can hope to repel the hook demon.

"Now I can only hope that you haven't left any other cursed items... Demon scholars at the second level can only curse one person once a day. I have already been cursed, and you and your wife are left. If we are lucky, maybe we can curse one person once a day. Procrastinating until the end... There are still two hours left."

Hearing this, Aiwass touched his nose subconsciously.

... There is one thing to say.

It's not me.

If the enemy is a demon... then the difficulty of this ceremony may be due to my carelessness.

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(End of this chapter)