Lord of Mysterious Wizard

Chapter 69: Chapter 69 Black Blade

Tang Qi could only think of one possibility that would make him stamp his feet at this moment—he had found… something good.

His special ability had come into play once again. After pausing for a moment, Tang Qi naturally turned around and walked towards the deeper part of the tent, where there was another wooden table, displaying another serial killer’s artifacts.

Jeffrey Hegg, an active serial killer from year 10 to 23 of the Divine Eagle Calendar, claimed to have been called by a demon, killing for faith. Over the span of more than a decade, he brutally murdered nearly a hundred people, encompassing almost every race and age group… Eventually, he died of illness inside the prison.

The overzealous Federation media had dubbed him the “Devil Disciple,” despite the opposition from the police.

The display was extremely rich in items, including Hegg’s clothing worn during the murders, the murder weapons, crime scene photos, oil paintings created while serving time in prison… and an item that truly caught Tang Qi’s attention.

A small knife!

...

To be more precise, it was a bone blade.

Roughly made, with a wooden handle and a yellowing blade, it gave off an unpleasant, nauseating aura.

The description below stated that the bone blade, made from Jeffrey Hegg’s rib, was priced at a full fifteen hundred Divine Grace.

Seeing that price, Tang Qi immediately frowned slightly.

That price tag had actually surpassed what Tang Qi paid for Blood Python One.

Pondering, Tang Qi’s gaze focused and he looked earnestly at the bone blade.

Glimmers of light twinkled, and a special interface popped up.

[Curio: Black Blade.]

[State: Undeciphered.]

[Information Fragment One: Affected by a demon’s influence, the madness of Jeffrey Hegg, the human who relentlessly killed nearly a hundred of his own kind. The spurting blood, sharp screams, twisted souls… they created a demon-like body. All of the demonic nature, along with Hegg’s soul, converged in this bone blade. It is sealed and can be decrypted.]

[Information Fragment Two: Decryption method one, at midnight, hold the bone blade and silently chant Hegg’s name three times to summon his soul and acknowledge his achievements to receive a Demon Blade. Decryption method two, find a way to destroy Hegg’s soul to obtain an unknown bone blade.]

“Two decryption methods?”

The information about the bone blade made Tang Qi surprised as well.

He had seen sealed items, like the Meditation Method or Bloodline One.

But it was the first time he had seen one with two decryption methods.

After pondering on the spot for a few seconds, Tang Qi quickly made up his mind.

Buy it!

The price was steep, requiring a lot of Divine Eagle Gold Coins, but compared to Tang Qi’s fortune, it was still manageable.

Most crucially, compared to the curio, the Gold Coins seemed far less significant.

“Swipe the card!”

Once again, Tang Qi uttered these words, then handed his Gold Card to the sleazy merchant who had somehow closed in. A few seconds later, under the strange stares of the two gatekeepers, Tang Qi, the youth who appeared rather refined, left the mysterious and disgusting tent with a cloth bag in hand.

He headed straight back to the circus, where the apprentices had already successfully completed their tasks. Tang Qi checked and confirmed that all the materials he needed had been purchased, gladly gave a tip, and then took a ride in something specially arranged by the circus… a horse-drawn carriage.

Yes, a horse-drawn carriage.

Fortunately, Messer City, besides its fine modernization, also catered to some historical culture. During the day, one could occasionally see nostalgic residents who enjoyed riding in horse-drawn carriages, which turned out to be a fine revenue-generating industry.

It was just the wee hours of the morning, slightly strange, that’s all.

However, Tang Qi was in a great mood at the time, the night market at Blue Bear Park had yielded a very satisfying haul.

While concocting Secret Medicine did not necessitate the inclusion of Curios, and even most low-end Secret Medicines didn’t require Extraordinary Artifacts, on the other hand, they did need a plethora of not-so-common materials. The role of the Secret Medicine recipes was probably to extract unusual elements from these materials.

Eventually, they turned into Secret Medicines imbued with Extraordinary Powers.

Those materials, had Tang Qi been collecting them on Midtown Avenue, would probably have taken him at least a year and a half to gather fully.

But that night market, it was different.

Those mountain folk, indigenous people, from various deep mountains, swamps, canyons… brought all kinds of rare materials, perfectly fulfilling Tang Qi’s needs.

Amidst the “clippity-clop” and the unique bell sounds hanging from circus carriages, Tang Qi quickly returned to Thorns Campus.

After giving the coachman a few silver coins, this man named Larry, a burly bearded man briskly locked the carriage and then helped Tang Qi, carrying bags large and small of materials into the campus.

Opening the iron gate, letting Larry carry the materials into the first-floor living room, Tang Qi himself went outside, out of habit to retrieve all sorts of newspapers and magazines from the mailbox.

After moving into Thorns Campus, it was a custom Tang Qi had always maintained. Even though the information was filtered, in this era, there was no more convenient way to stay informed about the outside world than subscribing to newspapers and magazines.

Tang Qi’s favorites were the stoically styled, objective “Messer Evening News”, the mystery-loving “Purple Moonlight Newspaper”, and “Universal Wrench Magazine” which introduced all kinds of technology.

As usual, Tang Qi took out a stack of newspapers.

Just as he was about to step back into the house, this time, something that had never appeared before fell out from among the newspapers.

It was an envelope! @@novelbin@@

Clearly, the seal was not very tight, and with Tang Qi’s movements, the contents of the envelope—a stack of photographs, simultaneously slid out. With the light reflected from inside the house, Tang Qi immediately saw the content on those photos.

Black people, the photos showed several different black people.

It looked like… a family!

…

“Creak”

Tang Qi’s hands suddenly tensed, the veins bulging as he gripped the stack of newspapers tightly, his face showing a strange expression, quickly adjusted his demeanor, then put the newspapers and magazines back into the mailbox, and afterward bent down to pick up each photograph, reinserting them into the envelope.

After that, he paid Larry with his usual expression and bid the coachman farewell.

Following the routine, Tang Qi brewed himself a pot of coffee, prepared some snacks, and then sat down on the sofa, reopening the envelope.

The first photo was a group portrait.

The photographer seemed to be on the right side of the scene, at some distance, and the image on the photo was of a sealed-off villa. Outside the villa’s large iron gate stood eight black people, both men and women, all with somewhat gloomy expressions.

That villa belonged to Tang Qi.

And the appearance of these photos was a small foreshadowing before Tang Qi left.

He had asked a neighbor who was about to sell his villa due to income not covering expenses for a bit of emergency cash, only asking for a small favor in return. To set up a camera in the villa room by the window, so that if any “visitors” appeared outside his villa, they would be photographed and the pictures sent to him.

Having stayed in Thorns Campus for a while, Tang Qi had not yet received them.

He thought he might have some more time to stall, but on his first day as “Police Station Consultant,” the surprise had come.