Chapter 16

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Thirty percent of the task remained unfinished.

…This was rather intriguing, Iris thought to herself.

It seemed that in the system’s understanding, the ebony wood itself was not important; what truly mattered was certain information derived from it.

Surrounded by onlookers… Iris frowned.

She wanted to step forward and try using blood traceback to see if she could obtain more information, but acting under so many watchful eyes was not a wise choice. She needed to get hold of the victim’s blood to make progress.

The two corpses showed starkly different bleeding patterns. Both had been pierced through the chest with sharp weapons, but the bleeding on the ebony wood victim matched expectations better: his chest garment was soaked in red, and the ground beneath his lower back was stained with blood. In contrast, the bleeding from the walnut wood victim was much less.

Having studied some knowledge comparing wounds before and after death, Iris guessed that the walnut wood victim had already died before being stabbed, while the ebony wood victim was the one who actually died from the penetrating wound.

At that moment, Andy, standing beside her, suddenly lunged forward. Trembling, he reached out to pull at the blood-soaked clothes of the ebony wood victim!

“Mon-money… give me back my money…” he muttered repeatedly, trying to bolster his courage.

“Andy!” Ellen’s face changed as she shouted.

Before he could reach his brother’s side, a sharp female voice cut through the crowd: “What are you doing?!”

Iris saw a sharp-featured middle-aged woman crash into the crowd like an iron ball. Using both hands, she hurriedly approached the corpse. She was quite strong, pushing Andy aside, then—

She began rummaging through the ebony wood victim’s clothes, her movements frantic and violent, almost tearing them apart.

Andy, knocked to the ground, stared in disbelief.

Iris realized this was a perfect opportunity to muddy the waters. She quickly stepped forward and “concernedly” helped Andy up, taking the chance to brush her robe against the victim’s bloodstains.

Compared to the walnut wood victim, the ebony wood corpse was relatively “fresh,” and the blood had not dried yet. She successfully stained a patch on her robe.

Breaking through the crowd, Ellen saw her brother being helped up by Iris.

He approached the two, but before he could utter a “Are you okay?”, the middle-aged woman on the ground frantically searching the ebony wood victim’s clothes interrupted with a wild voice.

“No! No money! Nothing at all! How can there be nothing?!”

She shouted, unable to accept the fact, venting her anger by violently tearing open the victim’s clothes.

Every pocket of the ebony wood victim was turned inside out, but empty.

Unlike Andy, the middle-aged woman showed no fear of the two gruesome corpses, solely focused on searching for something. To the crowd, this scene was rather eerie.

Slowly, the woman ceased her frantic search, suddenly turning to glare at Andy. She sprang up and grabbed his shoulder with one hand, the other reaching to search him.

“Did you hide my elixir?!” she accused.

Andy was terrified, struggling hard to break free and defend himself, “Hey! I just got here a few seconds earlier than you!”

Fortunately, the police arrived in time to end the commotion.

They began cordoning off the scene, removing the bodies, and dispersing the crowd—including Iris and her group.

The middle-aged woman, unwilling to give up, had been pulled away from Andy by the police before they fought, but her gaze still lingered on the ebony wood corpse and Andy, making him shudder.

“Mom, I… I finally found you! Stop looking for Mr. Ebony Wood… Come home with me!”

A blonde girl gasped as she ran up to the group, breathing heavily, nearly exhausted.

The middle-aged woman hugged her concernedly, letting the girl lean on her as she soothed her breathing: “Marina, I told you to wait at home. Your health is too poor; it’s not suitable for you to be outside… If I could get medicine from Mr. Ebony Wood, you would get better.”

Marina coughed weakly and said, “…There’s no such universal medicine that can heal the body instantly. Didn’t Kai say? Such a thing can’t exist in this world!”

“What does she know?” the woman scoffed. “She’s just an apprentice, not even a licensed pharmacist!”

Marina: “…Even if such medicine existed, we couldn’t afford it.”

“But I have to try,” the woman said. “Do you want me to watch you die?”

Marina was speechless.

Faced with her worried daughter, the woman softened, abandoning her earlier fierce demeanor and speaking gently, as if coaxing a child.

She whispered, “…I heard this medicine might even turn you into a transcendent, but I don’t expect that much. I just want my Marina to be healthy and live a normal life.”

Iris, the only transcendent present and thus better attuned to sound, thought silently, This is unreliable, extremely unreliable!

Could that be the same potion Ebony Wood gave to the original owner?

Seeing Marina unable to reason with her mother, she looked over at Iris.

Iris: “…” This scene felt familiar. Yesterday, when Ellen and Andy argued and suddenly shifted the topic to her halfway through, was she some kind of chosen topic receiver?

But Marina just mentioned Kai… the Kai she knew?

Is the world really this small?

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Iris stepped forward: “Ma’am, just as you suspected, Ebony Wood was indeed a fraud. As far as I know, he deceived many people. I even know a few victims myself. Ebony Wood would approach them as a middleman, selling overpriced medicines with little effect.”

She paused, then fixed her gaze on Marina’s mother and said solemnly: “Some of the medicines he sold had serious quality issues. One victim even died directly after taking the medicine.”

The middle-aged woman retorted: “…How do I know you’re not in cahoots with that kid to scam me?”

Iris was not angry at the accusation.

She understood the woman was grasping at straws, just like the former “Iris” once did.

Calmly, Iris said: “We arrived only a few minutes before you, and Andy only touched the body a few seconds earlier. Other bystanders here can testify.”

Perhaps because of her composure, the woman quieted down.

Andy nodded vigorously behind Iris: “That’s right. Also, I don’t have any of that so-called medicine. I don’t even have money in my pockets!”

The woman looked at Andy half-doubtfully, then at Iris, still suspicious of the situation.

Behind them, Ellen kicked Andy, signaling him not to stay silent.

Andy forced himself to speak: “…I was deceived too. I originally wanted to get my money back today, but unexpectedly, he’s dead. And now, the money’s disappeared…”

“I had an appointment with Ebony Wood to receive goods today, but it turned out like this,” the woman said with a sneer. “Anyway, if I didn’t get what I paid for, I have to get my money back.”

Several victims simultaneously looked toward the police-surrounded scene, where only a pool of blood remained.

…Where is the money supposed to be found?

The atmosphere grew awkward.

Marina’s breathing had eased. She asked Iris, “What happened to those who were deceived before? Did anyone get their things back?”

Iris: “None that I know of.”

Marina seemed to have expected this answer and showed no particular disappointment.

She asked: “…Do you have any advice?”

Iris sighed: “…Report it to the police.”

=

Before leaving, Iris asked Marina and her mother, Rita, if they knew where the medicine Ebony Wood sold them came from or who made it, but received no useful clues.

Leaving the backstreet of Golden Locust Blossom, Iris’s mood was not bright.

It wasn’t that she was so kind she couldn’t bear to see people scammed; she just thought that Ebony Wood had deceived so many people, not only stealing money but possibly costing lives with that miraculous potion. Death cancels debts—dying like this was too easy for him.

She found a deserted alley to dispel the effects of the transformative potion, then took off the blood-stained outer robe. Afterwards, she bought a cheap new robe at a clothing store and naturally used the fitting room.

Holding the bloodied robe, Iris performed blood traceback on the stains.

Her consciousness entered a vast misty cinema screen.

Iris gathered her focus; the mist cleared, and the scene replayed.

“Please, please spare me! I’m just a small player following orders. Everything I did was on the Baron’s instruction. I had no intention of offending you!”

Ebony Wood lay on the ground, crawling backward with hands and feet, his face twisted by fear.

…An executioner was slowly closing in on him.

“I don’t know whom I offended—whether it’s you or your relatives. I’m willing to pay back from my own pocket! Five times… no! Ten times, twenty times?!”

Ebony Wood desperately offered more compensation, but the merciless executioner ignored all his terms.

“I stashed a treasure from the Baron in the backstreet of Golden Locust Blossom! And good stuff for transcendent users! If you spare me, it’s all yours—”

The next second, a black spike pierced his chest. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, choked on it, and coughed uncontrollably.

The executioner violently pulled out the spike, and Ebony Wood flailed like a fish thrown into a basin before receiving a second piercing. His limbs kicked wildly, then went still.

He was dead.

The scene then panned upward from Ebony Wood’s feet.

A short young man watched the corpse with satisfaction. His eye sockets were deep, cheeks hollow, but his eyes glowed. He pulled out a sharp black spike and repeatedly stabbed Ebony Wood’s body, a smile creeping across his sickly face. He was consumed by uncontrollable frenzy.

“You lowly mortal dare to trespass on the Lord’s domain! You deserve this fate!”

“You should be thrown into the sacred light furnace, burned like those heretics, scorched by holy fire until all your sins are cleansed!”

After repeatedly whipping the corpse, the man gradually calmed down, his expression suddenly turning timid like a child who had made a mistake.

He knelt on the ground, took a holy cross from his neck and gripped it tightly, bowing his head as he uttered a voice resembling confession:

“…Lord, I cannot bear their offense to Your majesty, nor their delusions of replicating Your powers… Please forgive my rashness in purging these blasphemers on Your behalf.”

“Blasphemers deserve such punishment. Let their death warn others with similar thoughts. If I can make them repent, my actions shall be meaningful!”

The scene abruptly ended. Iris, drained of much of her magic power in an instant, lost strength and accidentally bumped her head against the fitting room wall. She quickly adjusted her position to avoid hitting her forehead but still made a loud “thud.”

The store clerk outside was startled and called out, “Are you okay? Do you need help?”

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“…I’m fine, I just slipped because I lost my footing.”

Iris felt a bit dizzy and sat for ten seconds before recovering. She didn’t want to use her magic supplements—too wasteful at a time like this.

Under the clerk’s worried gaze, Iris left and sat on a bench by the fountain park nearby. Just as she finished viewing Ebony Wood’s final moments, her task prompt switched to completed.

[Task: Find Ebony Wood]

[Task Status: Completed]

[Task Reward: Sienna’s Moon Vessel (Converts moonlight into moonlight droplets; can store up to three droplets. Consuming a moonlight droplet fully restores magic power, slightly restores stamina, and grants increased magic resistance for half an hour.)]

[Reward has been sent to your inventory.]

Iris’s spirits lifted; this was a good reward.

Her innate skill “Magic Torrent” had played a significant role. After a brief rest, she no longer felt weak and could refocus on the investigation.

The murderer who killed Ebony Wood was purposeful: to purge those he called “blasphemers against the Lord.”

Both Ebony Wood and Walnut Wood had done things that made the killer believe they offended the Lord. Ebony Wood thought before death that the Baron’s orders had brought him to this deadly fate.

If Ebony Wood and Walnut Wood shared the same master—the “Baron” Ebony Wood mentioned—what exactly was the Baron doing?

=

Iris felt an itch in her heart.

Her intuition told her not to continue investigating this matter. Since the task reward was already obtained, investigation could stop here.

If the blasphemy referred to Ebony Wood selling medicine purported to cure diseases or even grant transcendence, did the killer think the act of selling was blasphemous, or was the medicine itself offensive to the Lord?

Iris sighed and decided not to trouble herself further. She had other matters to attend to.

She messaged Kai and Ray to inform them of Ebony Wood’s death.

Kai immediately replied, wanting to meet, and they met at the entrance of the commercial street.

Kai’s first words upon seeing her were, “He really died?”

“Completely,” Iris said. “Pierced through the chest; no chance of survival.”

Kai’s mouth dropped open: “…Whoever killed him must have really hated him. Could it also be some unlucky person he scammed?”

Knowing the truth, Iris nodded guiltily: “Yeah, that’s possible.”

Kai didn’t dwell on it. She pressed her temples painfully: “…My money… no, our money is gone. Damn it, whoever killed him really picked the worst time.”

“Are you going to investigate further?” Iris asked tentatively.

Kai shook her head without hesitation: “I don’t have time. Money that can’t be recovered is lost. I have to focus on making new money.”

From their previous encounters, Iris had long known Kai’s sense of urgency about earning money, so she wasn’t surprised.

But she suddenly remembered something.

“Do you know a girl named Marina?” Iris asked.

Kai’s expression stiffened: “Where did you hear that name?”

The frail Marina and the desperate-to-earn Kai collecting prescriptions… the connection was almost obvious.

Iris told Kai about the mother and daughter she had seen today.

Kai’s face scrunched up when she heard about Marina’s mother, clearly recalling unpleasant memories.

“…I didn’t expect her mother to have contact with Ebony Wood. That’s really…”

Kai muttered a few curses under her breath.

Iris warned, “Don’t let Marina drink that unknown universal medicine; it’s not harmless. It can really kill.”

“I’ll go see her soon,” Kai gritted her teeth. “Luckily Ebony Wood is dead, so Marina didn’t get the medicine. Thank the Lord, he died just in time.”

Hearing “the Lord,” Iris again thought of the fanatic killer.

…The Lord?

She instinctively glanced toward the church bell tower, then quickly looked away.

Iris echoed Kai: “Yes, thank the Lord.”

Iris then asked, “So, what did you want to see me about?”

She really had no reason to meet just to confirm Ebony Wood’s death, and couldn’t think of what Kai might want from her.