Chapter 1038 - 529: Important Clue

Burke County.

Located in the southern part of the Lan shi Kingdom, this county is one of the oldest in the kingdom.

Recently, Canglan Star experienced a global earthquake and worldwide volcanic eruptions.

Although the Lan shi Kingdom was not severely affected by the volcanic eruptions, the coastal areas suffered consecutive waves of tsunami impact.

The kingdom reported over 100,000 deaths, with up to two million homes submerged by surging waters, and more than 8 million civilians affected.

Burke County, located west of Lundin City, is considered an inland area, thus lucky enough to escape the tsunami’s reach.

Nevertheless, the county was still affected.

Nighttime has already fallen.

Yang Fan and Miss Jana walked side by side, strolling through the streets of Black City, observing a dense array of refugee houses.

The so-called "refugee houses" is what the Lan shi people call them.

More precisely — simple temporary shelters.

These are houses swiftly built in large numbers with equipment and materials procured from Great Xia after Lan shi Kingdom joined the Pioneer Alliance.

The houses consist of a steel frame structure, assembled and welded by engineering robots.

Once the framework is completed, another type of engineering robot comes into play, spraying a new material around the frame similar to "polyurethane foam agent," which turns into foam in contact with air and fills the frame to form walls.

Traditional polyurethane material has good adhesion, water resistance, sealing, insulation, and soundproofing effects, but its hardness is relatively low.

Even rigid polyurethane foam can be easily cut open with a small knife by a child.

But the new material is different.

Born from the Superpower Era, it not only boasts superior water resistance, sealing, insulation, and other properties, but its hardness is close to ordinary-grade cement.

Moreover, the walls sprayed by robots are extremely flat, and the irregularities are almost invisible to the naked eye.

Upon first contact, the Lan shi people were profoundly shocked by this architectural black technology from the Eastern Giant Dragon, as it threatened to render ordinary construction workers all unemployed.

According to Great Xia’s building standards, the foam layer should be covered by an additional layer of high-density material.

Foam exposed to the elements will age faster under prolonged sunlight, wind, and rain.

However, the Lan shi people decided to skip this step.

They hurriedly installed doors and windows on the houses, letting millions of affected civilians move in.

Lan shi Kingdom’s media praised these as "high standard" houses prepared for the affected civilians.

All of this made the Great Xia people a bit hard to bear.

"I feel a lot of dangerous stares; it seems the Lan shi people here aren’t very friendly."

Miss Jana suddenly said.

In truth, "not very friendly" is a euphemistic expression; the more accurate description would be — robbery, kidnapping, even murder!

Yang Fan replied, "Since the Age of Calamity, various violent crimes have been rampant in the Lan shi Kingdom.

"Especially now, at night, many desperate refugees are willing to do anything."

Miss Jana switched topics: "I can sense that many people’s souls here are filled with a desire for plunder; they don’t wish to build their homes like Great Xia people."

Yang Fan smiled: "Centuries ago, the Lan shi people made their fortunes through war and plunder, it’s ingrained in their souls."

Miss Jana pondered, "Groups like the Lan shi people only increase internal consumption within a civilization; I somewhat understand why Great Xia allows certain groups to be weakened by disasters."

Yang Fan softly responded, "Yes."

At this moment.

The Lan shi people glaring nearby finally took action.

Six sturdy Lan shi men, armed with daggers, baseball bats, and two pistols, surrounded them from both directions.

Many other Lan shi people looked on from afar, but none stepped forward to stop them or report them to the police, each wearing a cold, observing expression.

This was clearly not an individual evil, but a collective one.

The reason why cultural relic expert Chamberlain attempted to leave the Lan shi Kingdom, was due to his clear understanding of its situation, knowing what will happen here in the future.

The leader, a hawk-nosed man, said in a low voice, "This yellow-skinned monkey should be from Great Xia; Great Xia is not easy to provoke now, kill the yellow-skinned monkey and destroy the corpse, or we’ll be in big trouble."

The hawk-nosed man’s gaze turned to the Mermaid: "This chick looks good, we can capture her and sell her; be careful not to ruin that face."

The Mermaid used a secret technique to conceal her extraordinary beauty, so to outsiders she appeared to be a moderately attractive woman.

Yang Fan sighed, holding Miss Jana’s tender hand: "Let’s go."

He quietly activated the Shuttle Boat, disappearing with the Mermaid.

The stout men were immediately stunned.

Moments later.

Small dim lights appeared where Yang Fan originally stood.

The hawk-nosed man saw the lights, feeling an intense sense of crisis.

He roared furiously, "Quickly, run!"

But it was too late.

The lights flashed and each hit a stout man.

A terrifying scene appeared.

Their bodies aged rapidly and turned into mummies in a single breath.

"Hoo~"

The cold wind howled past.

The mummies turned into flying ash and dissipated completely.

The surrounding Lan shi People who witnessed this scene were affected by an inexplicable force, and their eyes became dazed.

A few seconds passed.

They recovered from the daze and completely forgot what had just happened.

*

One block away.

Yang Fan and Miss Jana appeared in front of a somewhat rundown manor.

Most people in the Lan shi Kingdom who can afford to collect antiques are quite wealthy, thus able to live in manors.

He stared at the manor’s gate, his eyes continuously shimmering with a faint glow.

Five seconds later.

Yang Fan softly murmured, "It’s really interesting, the penultimate owner of the War Horse Shield before it was collected by the Royal Museum, collector Sir Lambert, hasn’t been seen for half a year."

Previously, he visited the last owner, who was also a collector, and it was proven that this person had been missing for five months.

Miss Jana nodded, "Both collectors disappeared, and the disappearance time seems about the same. This shouldn’t be a coincidence."

The Mermaid glanced at him and asked, "Did you have any purpose for killing those thugs just now?"

Yang Fan replied, "When I was tracing back the two collectors, I could only see their experiences the day before their disappearance; their experiences that day seemed to be concealed by some force.

"I think if there’s something strange in the manor, and there’s a supernatural power nearby, the manor might be stimulated by this power and undergo unexpected changes, allowing me to find some clues."

Miss Jana "Oh"ed, "So it was to startle the snake, huh? But as far as the result is concerned, there are no snakes in the manor."

The Mermaid looked towards the manor, her beautiful eyes rippling with layers of pale blue waves, which then subsided.

She shook her head, "My Mei Jia Sacred Eye found nothing unusual."

From her attitude, it seemed she leaned towards thinking there was no issue with the manor.

At this point.

The journey to find the Supreme Treasure seemed shrouded in thick fog.

The third person to collect the War Horse Shield died over a decade ago, and the probability of obtaining clues was even smaller.

Tracing further back, it’s the ancient castle where the War Horse Shield was first discovered.

According to Chamberlain’s information, after the shield was crafted by Baron Mowbray, due to its age, it couldn’t be proven who owned it. Ultimately, over a hundred and sixty years ago, it was found in a hidden basement of that ancient castle.

The person who discovered the shield then had naturally long left the realm of the living, and it wasn’t possible to know if the full armor was excavated along with the shield.

Therefore, the two collectors were the most valuable clues, yet they both disappeared suddenly.

Yang Fan touched his chin and murmured softly, "Perhaps not finding clues in the manor is, in itself, an important clue."

Miss Jana thought for a moment and agreed with this conclusion, "If the manor is concealed by some high-level force, we might be able to discover something by surrounding it."

She silently noted to herself, "But the possibility doesn’t seem very high, as after all, Canglan Star appeared only four years ago."

Miss Jana asked, "Do you want to go inside the manor and take a look?"

Yang Fan hesitated and shook his head, "Forget it, if there’s really some unknown force inside, it’s best not to rashly go in before understanding the situation."

The collectors disappeared mysteriously, and he didn’t want to go missing.

The Mermaid was about to say "Aren’t you being overly cautious?" but, being smart, she changed her words to "Caution is a virtue."

Yang Fan immediately had an idea, "Now we can only use the clumsy method, visit each person related to this manor one by one, perhaps getting more clues from them."

Miss Jana proactively volunteered, "Let’s split up and act."

Half an hour later.

The Mermaid surprised Yang Fan.

She gently parted her red lips and blew, forming a mist that coalesced into a water mirror.

It displayed the face of a middle-aged woman, her eyes half-open and half-closed, seeming to be in a hypnotized state, "Once while working in the manor, I accidentally overheard Sir Lambert calling a psychiatrist.

"He said that recently when he sleeps at night, he often hears heavy footsteps sounding in the bedroom, but upon waking up, he finds nothing, and there is no discovery when checking the surveillance."

The mist fluctuated again, showing an old white man with glasses, his eyes similarly half-open and half-closed, "I can’t remember... No, I seem to have a bit of an impression, the sir told me about sleep issues... What exactly it was, I seem to have forgotten."

At this point.

The images dissipated.

Miss Jana said, "The middle-aged woman is a part-time worker and didn’t have much contact with Lambert. The psychiatrist often talked to Lambert, his memory was interfered by external forces, and I didn’t want to touch this power, so I couldn’t get more information from the psychiatrist."

The Mermaid paused and spoke earnestly, "Your instincts are very sharp, it seems that there is indeed some sort of power within the manor."

Previously, she didn’t think the manor had issues, but she never voiced it.

The evidence obtained now completely changed her previous thoughts.