OBS Chapter 4066 Igniting Life
Chapter 4066 Igniting Life
Chapter 4066 Igniting Life
To avoid being tracked, the murderer, who used the power of decay, took a roundabout route after leaving the crime scene. Therefore, upon entering the lower city, Shade and the three girls disembarked from the carriage and ventured into the alleys to pursue him on foot.
Even if the bloodstains of the dead are given new life, it is not easy to trace their echoes in time and space. Shad must observe carefully along the way. Sometimes the bloodstains in the air will be interrupted, and he must explore in different directions to find those traces again.
Fortunately, as the sun gradually set and night fell, not only did Shad's magical effects become more pronounced, but the red mark in the darkness also became clearer and more obvious than at dusk.
Around 7 p.m. on Sunday night, the four of them somehow returned from the lower city to the outer city and ended up near the Arcadia City Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Like the morgue, the Arcadia wastewater treatment plant is built beside a tributary of the Thernnir River. Spanning approximately 100 acres, the plant serves millions of residents in the Arcadia area. It is one of the most advanced wastewater treatment plants of its time, featuring a semi-automated wastewater treatment system powered primarily by steam.
When the Old World Industrial Exposition was being held in Arcadia, this location was one of the three options, in addition to the Candleburg Library and Oakham Park.
The vast open-air sedimentation tanks, sludge drying yards, lime reaction tanks, brick pump houses, and pipeline networks operate day and night. But at night, only a few night watchmen patrol the wastewater treatment plant, and lighting is limited to the main entrance and the area around the control room.
"The target is right here."
Xia De spoke softly, and Wei Ge nodded, glancing at her two followers behind her:
"One stays, the other follows."
The girl with the ninth ring stayed outside the factory, while the girl with the tenth ring continued to follow the two. The two night watchmen guarding the entrance to the sewage treatment plant hadn't gone to bed so early; they were playing Roderick and didn't notice anyone going in.
Xia De led Wei Ge and the girl with the ten rings through the enormous sewage treatment plant. Brass pipes meandered like giant pythons, slippery, rusty grates lay beneath their feet, and sewage churned and flowed in the hidden channels beside them. Gears and valves creaked and groaned, and the rumbling of water echoed continuously from beneath their feet and all around them. The needles of pressure gauges bounced incessantly on the walls, and water droplets dripped from the dense network of pipes overhead.
The factory had a strange smell, a mixture of cleaning agents and chemicals, which reminded outsiders of the laboratories they used to study in their hometown.
The sewage treatment plant was almost deserted at night, but heavy cast-iron gates sealed off some important areas. The interior corridors were as complex as a maze, but fortunately, important intersections were marked on maps.
Upon seeing the underground mechanical pump room, Shad immediately recalled his encounter with the "Construct Master" this week and was very worried about facing a large mechanical giant standing up again.
Fortunately, they were just passing by and did not enter the mechanical pump room area. Eventually, Xia De followed the trail of blood to the main sedimentation hall of the sewage treatment plant, which is used to settle the city's domestic sewage and is the most important step in sewage treatment.
Several enormous sedimentation tanks, reeking of foul odors, gleamed eerily in the moonlight from the windows high above. These huge, circular, open tanks were dozens of feet in diameter, with iron gratings forming a walkway above them and iron railings half a person's height on both sides.
In the center of the sedimentation tank, a thick iron pillar extends upwards, serving as a support point for the boardwalk above, allowing people to walk directly above the sedimentation tank.
At this moment, a night watchman carrying a kerosene lamp walked on the narrow bridge above the settling pond, making a loud noise with each step he took.
The red aura that Shad was tracking finally landed on him; this was the target the three were looking for. However, the three people hidden in the shadows by the wall of the sinking hall did not immediately reveal themselves. Although they were far away and did not know the situation of the Night Watchman, Shad and Viggo clearly felt that there were more than just the three of them among the ring sorcerers present.
"Is there anyone else?"
Those who arrived before Xia De and his companions also did not show up, and Xia De had no idea what they were planning. But since they weren't making a move, Xia De and Wei Ge didn't intend to either.
So the people in the darkness just watched the night watchman walk back and forth on the grating above the settling pool. After waiting for twenty minutes, the sound of light footsteps came from the corridor outside the settling hall, and then another group of people came here.
There were three new arrivals in total. When Xia De saw that the leader was the "Construct Master" with the thirteenth ring, he clearly felt Wei Ge next to him gasp slightly.
They came here only to search for traces of the demons, and no one had expected to see this "traitor."
"What are they doing here? Are they also looking for the power of 'Withering'?"
"Construct Master" Gerald Delon also sensed that quite a few people were already here when his group arrived. However, he didn't care. The strength of a thirteenth-ring cultivator was top-tier even in the entire material world. Since the previous group hadn't appeared immediately, it meant that they didn't have absolute confidence in resolving the situation here.
Instead of taking action himself, he stopped in front of the sinking pool closest to the entrance. The eleventh-ring warlock who had come with him leaped into the air and landed on the narrow bridge above the sinking pool, blocking the path of the Night's Watchman who was diligently working.
The night watchman was a scruffy man in his thirties, the kind of unfortunate middle-aged man who was unhappy with his life, had conflicts with his wife, and had disobedient children.
He wasn't surprised at all that someone had flown directly here; on the contrary, his tone was calm:
Are you here to arrest me?
The eleventh-ring warlock who had accompanied the "Construct Master" was visibly taken aback, but as a former Church Ring warlock, he still followed the established protocol and conducted the inquiry:
"Before I take action, I can give you a chance to explain your purpose in doing all this."
The middle-aged man carrying the kerosene lamp sighed, his tone unusually dejected:
“I’m a native of Arcadia. I lived in the lower city with my parents when I was a teenager. We had a small shop. Later, the shop went bankrupt, and we moved to the outer city. My studies were interrupted, and I started working to support my family. Then, like everyone else, I met an ordinary woman, married her, and had an ordinary child.”
I'm 38 years old this year. During the day, I work as a stevedore at the docks near Gray Rock Pass, and at night I work as a night watchman here. My father's health is poor, my mother always tells me to have a second child, and although my wife is loyal, she always complains that I'm incompetent. I've given my child the best educational resources I can provide, but he doesn't like studying and will probably be leaving school soon.
Everyone noticed that the ring on his right hand was emitting a red glow:
"Although I am still alive, I feel that my life is dead. I am no different from the cold machines here. Only when I dream of my youthful ambitions and ideals can I feel that the flame of my life has not been completely extinguished."
"What does this have to do with what you did?"
The eleventh-ring warlock asked, having confirmed that the other party was just an ordinary person; the anomaly came from the relic ring on the other party's finger. But the ring's danger level should not be high, at most only at the level of a guardian.
"Not long ago, while I was working at Greyrock Pass, I heard a strange sound. I followed the sound and found this ring on the riverbank of the Thernnir River. It rekindled my life force, allowing my almost dried-up life to feel warmth again. I feel like I've come back to life."
I'm addicted to this feeling, and even knowing that maintaining this burning passion requires taking other people's lives, I'd be willing to do it.
The night watchman threw his kerosene lamp off the low bridge, letting it fall into the sewage settling tank below.
"If I die because of this, I will do it willingly. Rather than die cold, I would rather turn to ashes in full bloom."
The flames from the ring on his finger, which had turned into a ring of fire, spread across his entire body, enveloping him in flames.
Almost everyone watching frowned. The relic ignited his life force, transforming it into extraordinary flames. Such relics, which required burning one's life force to use, were extremely dangerous to ordinary people, yet the life force he displayed within those raging flames was so immense, far exceeding the limits of ordinary beings.
The middle-aged Night's Watchman raised his right hand, and flames from his body transformed into a fireball that flew towards the eleventh-ring warlock. The flames, condensed from life force, contained whispering elements, making them far more powerful than ordinary flames. However, the fireball was not fast, so the attack was easily dodged.
The middle-aged man rose into the air, enveloped in flames, using the power of the flames to fly. However, he was clearly not very skilled at using this power in combat. He tried to continue his attacks with fireballs in the air, but those fireballs were quite inaccurate.
If his opponent were an ordinary low-level sorcerer, he might be able to put up a good fight, but against a high-level sorcerer trained by the church, his strength was simply insufficient.
The dangerous fireballs never touched the eleventh-ring warlock, who didn't even leave the aerial walkway, simply dodging all the middle-aged man's attacks. He didn't know what this relic, being used by an ordinary person, was, but it seemed to possess the ability to ignite life and allow the user to steal the life force of others.
After a brief assessment, the ring sorcerer, who had only been dodging, launched his attack. Two metal rings flew from the index fingers of his left and right hands, collided in front of him, and then bounced off each other, transforming into copper hoops that bound the long staff he had summoned.
PS: Bonus chapter for Chinese New Year, 6/10.