Exploring Technology in a Wizard World

Chapter 191: Chapter 190 The Identity of the Murderer
 

In that moment, Richard felt an intensely clear sensation of being spied upon. It was as though another person, identical to himself, used a consciousness to leave their body and watch him from within the cabin.

This…

Staring at an empty corner, Richard furrowed his brow. Without giving it much thought, the No.1 Ring on his finger flickered slightly, activating Pearce’s Nerve Sensitivity Technique.

The hair on his skin stood up, enhancing his perception all around. By then, the secretive, prying sensation from the corner had become strikingly apparent.

The next moment, Richard did not hold back; he reached out for the Crystal Skull, aiming it at the corner. Free Energy Elements within his Magic Origin began to stir, getting ready to trigger the Spirit Shock of the Crystal Skull to attack the invisible voyeur.

Other attacks, Richard felt, were useless, but the Crystal Skull’s attack could definitely teach a lesson to the potential spy.

After all, back when the Beast Tide had subsided in the forests of the Jade Kingdom, he explored a hidden chamber with a Crystal Skull while out-of-body. It had almost fatally wounded him with its powerful force.

Thinking this, Richard’s gaze sharpened. He was fully prepared to attack, but suddenly, the prying sensation from the corner vanished without a trace.

This…

Richard’s eyes flickered. He did not relax his guard easily. After pondering, he still unleashed the Spirit Shock of the Crystal Skull into the air. When he found it elicited no response, he tentatively walked over to confirm multiple times that the feeling of being spied upon was truly gone before he slightly eased his mind.

Was it an illusion? Or was there really someone spying on him who had quickly left?

Richard speculated in his mind, unsure which idea was correct.

Nevertheless, he became even more cautious, mulling over the ongoing murders on board the gigantic wheel. He could not help guessing that the recent spying sensation might very well have been from… the murderer.

In that case… since the murderer had spied inside the cabin, could it mean they had done something nearby?

Thinking along these lines, Richard turned and walked towards the cabin door, opening it a crack and peering into the outside corridor.

The corridor was silent at night, empty. But… there were three bodies.

Yes, three bodies!

Richard raised an eyebrow, his eyes landing on the trio of corpses not far away in the corridor.

The three bodies were stacked together, looking like a heap. The blood from their wounds had already coagulated, suggesting they had been dead for a while. Beneath the bodies, on the wooden floor of the corridor, clotted blood sketched out a pattern, resembling a Pentagram—like it was part of a sinister sacrificial ritual—the bodies serving as the sacrifice.

This…

Richard’s gaze intensified as he observed more details.

For instance, the identities of the three bodies were no longer sailors but students, indicating the murders had escalated, shifting targets from sailors to students. It is worth noting that these three students were linked to the previously deceased sailors—they were the ones always following Potter and had been directed to move and manage the bodies.

“Killing specific individuals? Is the murderer deliberately making people connect the dots? Adding patterns to the death scenes to intentionally stir up an increasingly terrifying atmosphere?” Richard thought swiftly. “If so… what is that?”

Richard blinked, noticing something inconspicuous near the bodies.

“That seems like…”

Thinking to himself, Richard made a move to walk over there,

lifting his foot, shifting the weight of his body onto the forefront of his foot.

Landing, his body weight shifted to the heel of his back foot, with the outer edge of the heel touching the ground first, then rolling like a wheel, the entire sole of the foot orderly pressed against the ground.

He lifted his foot, and his center of gravity shifted with it.

Landing again, shifting his weight back…

Step by step, Richard walked past, silent as a black cat, akin to a ghost.

As he reached the body, Richard squatted down, his eyes fell on something he had seen earlier—a small pile of black powder that was easily overlooked.

Flipping his hand, he took out a glass bottle from the Space Iron Ring and carefully collected some of the black powder, then turned around, intentionally continuing to walk silently, and quietly returned to the cabin, closing the door.

As for the body in the corridor outside the cabin, Richard decided not to bother with it.

On one hand, the body was clearly dead, and there was no reason to try to save it out of kindness.

On the other hand, making a fuss and reporting a death was pointless—the body would eventually be discovered, and naturally someone else would take care of it. Doing it himself would not only waste time, but it might also attract unnecessary trouble—discovering a body in the middle of the night would require an explanation for why he was not asleep, and likely necessitate inventing a multitude of reasons, which was effort he need not exert.

Thinking so, Richard seated himself back at the table and placed the glass bottle with the collected black powder on the table, observing it intently.

“I’ve seen this substance somewhere before,” Richard muttered to himself, “It looks like…”

The very next moment, Richard’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he flipped his hand, taking out a stored glass bottle from the Space Iron Ring.

The glass bottle contained the exact same black powder and was labeled—”Cuijin City—Golden Wine Glass Inn—S Incident—No. 1″.

Cuijin City and Golden Wine Glass Inn were the locations where the black powder in the bottle had originally been collected.

The S Incident referred to an event when the Third-Level Apprentice, Hua’er from the White Stone Tower had died, and Richard had gone to the scene of the death for investigation and found this black powder there.

No. 1 referred to the sequence, and there were also No. 2 and No. 3 in the Space Iron Ring, both containing the same black powder. No. 2 was found at the same scene of Hua’er’s death, identical to No. 1, while No. 3 was found later during an encounter with the mysterious Black Robed Man at the place where the other’s body twisted, became insubstantial, and vanished.

The speculation at that time was that this black powder had some relationship with the spell causing the Black Robed Man’s body to dematerialize and disappear—it was either a result of the spell or material used to cast it.

And now, it had appeared again.

There were mainly two explanations.

The first: Someone, meaning the murderer, possessed the same abilities as the Black Robed Man back then, and used the same spell to come to the third deck below this deck, killed the three students, and then left, thus leaving this black powder at the scene.

The second: The murderer was the original Black Robed Man!

Compared to the former, the latter was highly likely!

After all, when in the Jade Kingdom, Gro had mentioned that someone was targeting the White Stone Tower for sabotage. The Third-Level Apprentice Hua’er had arrived early in the Jade Kingdom for investigation and was murdered.

Now, the opponent had come aboard this ship, continuing to kill, clearly carrying through the original target in order to complete the plan.

So…

“It seems my previous conjecture might indeed be true,” Richard’s eyes flashed.

…