Chapter 450: The Contaminated Seer Saint
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Hobert paid attention to the surrounding movements while using his knife to cut open two insect cocoons. As expected, two unconscious "Red Gloves" members fell out.
Hobert put on his gloves and examined the two members. They were not severely contaminated. Only then did Hobert carry them back to the hunting team, one in each hand.
The gray moths had all flown away, and the team members seemed to suddenly wake up, completely unaware of what had just happened. Some even said they thought they saw a grizzly bear again.
Hobert glanced at the team leader at the front, who gave off a furry feeling, and was speechless for a moment.
He pretended that nothing had happened and lied that he had found two unconscious people in the snow. Everyone helped carry the two people back to the manor.
"The hunting team is back!"
Amidst the shouts of several guests playing in the snow, Hobert and his group returned.
Mr. Wood and Mrs. Wood rushed out and said to Chris, "Serena is missing! We've searched the entire manor and can't find her."
Hobert listened to Mr. Wood's description from the side and quickly made a judgment: Serena disappeared not long before I arrived.
Meanwhile, in the hall, Leonard saw a young man in the hunting team carrying an oil painting. Without the old man's reminder, his intuition told him that the oil painting was the one that had disappeared before his eyes.
And the person carrying the oil painting must be the same person as before, but with a different appearance.
The other "Red Gloves" members saw the two teammates being carried in the team. After learning that the young man carrying the "easel" had saved the two companions, Daly stepped forward to express her gratitude.
Once the "Red Gloves" members gathered again, Daly whispered, "There's something wrong with the 'easel' of the young man who saved our teammates."
Leonard hesitated for a second or two before saying, "That's the person who gave me the three suspicious location information before. He, he changed his appearance, but I can recognize the oil painting he's carrying."
Everyone was stunned, and then they all looked at Daly.
Daly considered her words and said, "The situation here is obviously more complicated than Harold reported. Since the other party has enough goodwill towards us, we can cooperate.
"Leonard, please invite him over. At this time, we should put aside our prejudices and prioritize saving the tourists here."
...
When Hobert saw Leonard wave to him and sit down next to him, he knew that Daly had made the most rational choice.
"Sorry!" Leonard said with a smile, "We should always investigate the most obvious doubts."
Hobert asked, "And now?"
"Now we want to invite you to discuss the solution to the problem with us."
"Sorry," Hobert mimicked Leonard's tone and smiled, "I've provided you with such important information, but the reward I got was almost being arrested."
Leonard was slightly stunned before understanding Hobert's meaning. He immediately went back to report to Daly.
Soon Leonard returned, "The condition we can offer is that you have the priority to choose the gains in this mission. Even if there are no Beyonder gains, you will not be treated unfairly."
Only then did Hobert nod, "It seems that some official Beyonders are also reasonable."
He then sat among the "Red Gloves", first listening to the "Red Gloves"' investigation, and then said, "Everyone, I have a question. Why don't you quickly evacuate these tourists and then try to solve the problem?"
"A previous group of colleagues did this," Daly replied, "But after the tourists leave the manor for a distance, they will return here on their own.
"The method of evacuating tourists is not effective at all and easily alarms the source of corruption here."
Harold was the first Nighthawk captain to arrive here, but their actions failed, and the team members also sacrificed themselves here.
Only Harold escaped with serious injuries and took the train to the east at the station before Boklun Manor, reminding the people who came to the train for vacation not to go to Boklun Manor for the time being, and went to York Mountain.
Therefore, the Church of the Evernight Goddess sent Daly and others, who were reporting on the Backlund smog incident at headquarters, to investigate and eliminate the corruption here.
Hobert nodded, "My suggestion is to investigate from those three suspicious locations, but they all seem to be quite dangerous. I suggest investigating one by one.
"How about Mr. Leonard and I go to the hot spring again? You can wait outside the hot spring. No matter what happens inside, only come to support after the whistle blows."
He found that the "Red Gloves" didn't know more information than himself, and their investigation progress was too slow. If he waited any longer, Serena would be in grave danger, so he planned to take action himself.
Finally, Hobert said to Daly, "I don't think it's possible for us to solve the problem here with our strength."
Daly nodded, "I've already sent someone to ask for help."
Hobert 'hmm'ed and got up, heading to the public hot spring with Leonard.
At this time, outside the reception hall, two team members who were sent to ask for help, along with the two teammates who had just been rescued and were still unconscious, were preparing to take a carriage to the nearest church to ask for help from headquarters.
When the two unconscious team members were carried onto the carriage, a tiny crack appeared on their foreheads.
However, the two team members responsible for asking for help did not notice this in time.
...
In the public hot spring, Hobert asked about the entire process of the monster's appearance.
Leonard also explained in detail, and finally he said, "...As long as you come out of the hot spring, the feeling of paralysis will quickly disappear, but the tourists in the hot spring didn't realize that they were as still as statues just now."
At this time, the "Red Gloves" had blocked off the area, and there were no tourists in the hot spring.
Hobert held a "utensil" and sat in the pool, "You come down too. If we want to lure the other party out, we must take some actions to weaken ourselves."
Leonard hesitated for a moment, but still sat in the pool.
Hobert chatted, "You should have seen it too, right? The people in the manor are more or less contaminated and have become a little abnormal.
"But the problem is, if they were severely contaminated, they would have turned into monsters long ago, but they haven't! Don't you think it's strange?"
Leonard no longer had the confidence he had during the last conversation, "What are your guesses about this?"
"I heard Harold say that there is a village across that mountain," Hobert said, "Do you think that the people who have been severely contaminated are all in that village?"
"Very likely."
"Also, I found that," Hobert added, "The hunting team is generally more contaminated than the tourists in the manor!"
Leonard wasn't stupid either and immediately guessed, "The hunting team is closer to the source of corruption?"
He added, "Then we should investigate the hunting team..."
Halfway through his sentence, he denied himself, "It's dangerous to act rashly before getting enough information!"
Hobert nodded, "That's right."
In the two people's chat, half an hour passed in the blink of an eye, and the monster emerged from the depths of the hot spring again.
If there were ordinary people here, they would stand there motionless again, as if they had fainted.
But Beyonders like Hobert and Leonard were only paralyzed and moved with difficulty.
Hobert frowned and asked the monster in the hot spring, "I'm very curious, why are you wrapped in seaweed? Is it because you can't afford clothes?"
"Fool! This isn't seaweed!" the monster said.
"Okay, if you say it isn't, then it isn't," Hobert agreed readily, "Did something happen here that turned you into this?"
"Yes, it all started with that evil fog!" the monster said.
Hobert asked, "Evil fog?"
"You ask too many questions!" the monster was very close to Hobert, "But your physique looks very strong!
"That fog makes me have to keep looking for a new body, you are a good choice."
At this time, a milky white light fell, "Healing!"
Hobert immediately recovered his combat power, he jumped ashore and pulled out the knife from the cane not far away.
The monster turned around to run, Hobert quickly stepped forward and used the back of the knife to knock the opponent onto the shore.
The seaweed on the monster's body was like a snake, and it was about to drill into the hot spring in the blink of an eye. Without the "seaweed" wrapping it, only a severely rotten corpse remained on the shore.
Hobert was quick-witted and nailed the "head" of the "seaweed" to the shore with a knife, and then stretched out a foot to step on the tail of the "seaweed".
After taking a closer look, Hobert could probably determine that this should be a strip of human skin!
Hobert said to it, "You're going to answer a few questions!"
A small slit opened in the front section of the human skin, "Let me leave after answering the questions!"
"Okay, good!" Hobert agreed very readily, "What is the evil fog you just mentioned?"
"I don't know, anyway, that night, a strange fog came, and then many people became strangely shaped, and I became like this."
"What's in the fog?"
"I don't know, I only know that some people around me disappeared and then reappeared. They became completely different from before. They also said that they went to the village on the other side of the mountain!"
"What's in the village on the other side of the mountain?"
"Don't know."
Hobert asked a few more questions, and seeing that he couldn't get more information, he pulled out the knife stuck in the ground.
The human skin breathed a sigh of relief and was about to slip away when Hobert suddenly said, "Wait a minute."
Human skin: "Do you have any more questions?"
"I want to solemnly apologize to you, I lied just now!" Saying that, Hobert cut the other party in half with a knife, and then held the knife horizontally and cut it in half vertically.
The human skin didn't even leave a last word, twitched a few times on the ground, and soon lost its movement.
Hobert never intended to let go of the human skin from the beginning. No matter what the reason, it was no longer a person, but a monster that constantly devoured lives!
At this time, Leonard in the public hot spring weakly stretched out his hand, "Pull me up."
Hobert pulled him up and draped him in a bath towel.
Leonard asked, "You had a way to save yourself from the beginning, right?"
"Of course!" Hobert smiled, "I only said half of what I said before: If we want to lure the other party out, we must take some actions to weaken ourselves; but we must have enough confidence to escape danger, otherwise we are just courting death."
As he spoke, he put his "utensils" back into the cloth buttons reserved in his clothes.
Leonard sat on the shore, feeling deceived.
After reuniting with the other "Red Gloves" members and telling them the information he had just obtained, the group headed to the second target, the lake outside the manor.
Hobert and Leonard walked in the front, discussing the new information in a low voice.
Leonard suddenly said, "Could it be... could it be that this corruption comes from a 'Seer' pathway Saint or Angel?
"He or She doesn't know what kind of corruption he or she has suffered, so he or she hides outside the manor and uses 'spiritual threads' to transfer his or her corruption to other people or other creatures!"
Hobert could be sure that this must be a reminder from the old man.
Then he thought of the messenger's reminder, thinking that it was entirely possible, because the operating range of the "Scholar of Yore"'s spiritual threads seemed to reach several hundred meters, and the distance that could be affected reached 5 kilometers!
There was enough space for him to hide in the dark and quietly transfer his corruption.
Hobert hadn't thought of this before because he saw many tentacles wrapped in white mist with "True Sight". He naturally thought that the source of corruption was a monster.
But now Hobert thought, could that be the spiritual threads under "True Sight"?
"The Nation of Disorder" does not have the corresponding characteristics of the "Seer" pathway, so the spiritual threads are somewhat abstract in the vision of "The Nation of Disorder"?
Thinking of these, Hobert smiled helplessly, "We can only completely solve the problem after your support arrives. Before that, we will try our best to collect information."
The key is: do not have a direct conflict with the source of corruption!
Arriving at the lake, it was ordinary, just an ordinary semi-naturally formed, semi-artificially modified lake.
Because the water in the lake comes from hot springs and mountain springs, the fog on the lake is very thick. Even though it is noon now, the line of sight can only see the center of the lake.
The roads along the lake are paved with stone slabs, which are very suitable for walking here.
The only thing that is a little abrupt is that there is a warning sign on the shore that says: Do not throw stones into the water! It's very dangerous!
Daly said, "When we came just now, there was no sign."
"That's easy!" Hobert said, picking up a pebble and throwing it into the lake, but there was no reaction.
So he found a stone the size of a fist and threw it into the lake, but there was still no reaction.
Hobert found another stone the size of a head and threw it towards the lake, everyone watched as the stone disappeared into the fog.
Plop~
After waiting for two or three seconds, there was still no reaction.
While Hobert was looking for a larger stone, a child's voice suddenly sounded in the mist: "Help! I, I can't swim!"
It sounded like he could be drowned at any time. Everyone could hear the sound of splashing water, and they could also see the figure of a child in the mist.
But no one went to save him, because the voice appeared too abruptly.
Even ordinary members of the "Red Gloves" have experienced many cases, and of course, they know that sometimes a call for help is not a genuine call for help.
Hobert pondered for a moment and asked, "How should we save you?"
"Of course, by swimming over to save me!" It was the voice of a little boy.
"Is flying over okay?"
"Fly, fly...? No, no!"
Before everyone could react, Hobert had already flown low and entered the fog. He did indeed see a little boy struggling in the water.
But there was also a huge figure beneath the little boy!
After circling the little boy, Hobert finally saw clearly that there was a strange fish underwater, and on the head of the strange fish, there was a little boy!
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