Purpose

“Who is it...”

Seeing this familiar cloak, Solana was slightly stunned.

This cloak... she felt like she had seen it somewhere before.

Right, the cloaked man from earlier seemed to be wearing this exact one!

Could he be the mastermind behind the incident just now?

Not necessarily. It was also possible that someone took his cloak to forge this illusion... If that was the case, who could that person be?

While Solana was thinking, Theresa had already reached the doorway.

Theresa also suspected that this cloak was related to the mastermind. However, she didn't need to investigate the specific identity of the person from just now; she only needed to use the sound of the wind to investigate, and she would immediately find the other party's tracks.

So, she closed her eyes and began to listen.

What Theresa heard was the sound of a gentle breeze passing through leaves.

The wind swept past the eaves, ringing the bronze bells and making a series of crisp, chiming sounds.

Immediately after, a flurry of light yet hurried footsteps came from the wind, sounding like someone running across the tiled eaves.

Theresa frowned slightly, raising her fingertips gently to let the sound of the wind flow more clearly past her ears.

She heard bursts of panting and seemed to see the other party's urgency and panic.

In the end, she saw the other party flee into a cellar.

“Found them...” Theresa said. “The other party has entered an abandoned cellar in a secluded alley.”

She paused, then added, “Are you coming along? It's likely dangerous inside.”

Solana nodded.

...

The two walked all the way along that secluded alley.

The stone slabs beneath their feet had long since cracked, making faint noises from time to time as they stepped on them.

The alley was somewhat narrow, with tall stone walls rising on both sides, their surfaces already covered in many cracks.

However, embedded in them were various densely packed, bizarre stone statues. Their eyes were pitch-black like ink, and looking closely at them felt like staring into the Abyss.

No matter where Solana moved, there would always be one or two pairs of eyes staring straight at her, clinging to her.

“Close your eyes and hold my hand,” Theresa explained as she walked. “The stone statues here are spiritual creations of the Abyssal Order. They placed contamination in the statues' eyes. As long as you look into them, your mind will slowly begin to mutate, eventually driving you completely mad.”

“So this is their stronghold? Was the person from earlier from the Abyssal Order?” Solana asked.

If that was really the case, the possibility of it being the cloaked man was very high...

Solana still remembered the previous conversation between the cloaked man and several others. Whether it was his hatred for the Church of Life or his indifference toward those disease-carrying rats, there was a faint hint of strangeness in both.

And his cousin, keeping rats as pets, was bizarre just thinking about it. She wondered if the cloaked man had just made up this cousin out of thin air...

Theresa analyzed:

“It is possible. Their target is very likely me, because I have been investigating their tracks. This chest bleeding incident was probably an attempt to poison me using the ale, but it failed in the end...”

“Furthermore, most of the previous chest bleeding incidents occurred in those patients. The scales and flesh buds on the patients are also closely tied to the Abyssal Order, so it is highly likely that this is the work of the Abyssal Order...”

But in that case, didn't their final exposure seem very stupid?

Solana felt that something was not quite right, and she asked:

“If that's the case, why did they have to show up there? If the poison was already set beforehand, they could have just run away...”

“They needed to observe whether I was poisoned. Those people collapsed at the exact same time, and it happened to be the very moment I asked about the treatment. This indicates that someone must have been spying from the shadows, perhaps even wanting to prevent me from obtaining information...” Theresa said.

“Could that person be the cloaked man?” Solana suddenly asked.

“It's possible, but he is a bit foolish,” Theresa said.

True... The other party had exposed everything in just a few sentences, mentioning the disease-carrying rats, the Church, and then the chest bleeding incident...

She even felt like the other party had deliberately tried to steer the topic in this direction.

Soon, both of them fell silent.

They walked in silence like this until they reached the end of the alley.

The cellar entrance was embedded in the stone wall, with half of a wooden door leaning against the doorframe, pitch-black inside.

Theresa raised her hand and pushed, the door hinges letting out a creak.

In an instant, a chilly gust of wind rushed over them, mixed with a faint trace of strange black smoke, as if trying to devour them.

“I'll go down and take a look first. Wait here for a moment,” Theresa said.

“Okay.”