Volume 7 The Inverted Man Chapter 72 Exploration

　　Verdoux subconsciously swallowed his saliva, creating a feeling of unspeakable fear.

　　He didn’t know what he was afraid of, obviously no substantial danger appeared, just a drop of liquid of unknown origin falling from a high place sent chills down his spine and tightened his pores.

　　Perhaps the environment here was too eerie and dead, or perhaps the identity and source of the liquid was unknown …… Verdoux cautiously moved two steps outward and patiently made his observations.

　　In the next few minutes, nothing more unusual happened here, no more liquid fell from the high place.

　　This gave Verdu the reasonable suspicion that a bird of prey had just passed by with a sea fish or a freshwater fish from the island stream in its beak, and that a slightly viscous liquid had fallen from the surface of the fish.

　　He calmed himself and examined the ruins of the telegraph office again.

　　Nearly ten minutes passed, and Verdoux tentatively confirmed that the only traces of blood and rudimentary murals here were related to the occult and worthy of study.

　　He did not recklessly pick up the blood-colored soil, topography strange murals, but from the pocket of his clothes took out a pure and dreamy crystal ball.

　　As an “astrologer”, of course, he had to use the most skillful means to confirm whether to take action or not.

　　Holding the crystal ball in his left hand and touching the top of it with his right hand, Verdoux entered the state of “astrology”.

　　In the next second, the crystal ball blossomed with a bright light.

　　Bang!

　　It exploded, throwing debris in all directions.

　　…… Verdoux’s gaze was frozen in place, ignoring the pain caused by the fragments inserted into his body.

　　”It exploded. …… Surprisingly, it exploded. ……” he whispered to himself in an unacceptable manner.

　　The crystal ball shards inserted into his body didn’t seem to have broken through the classical robe, and at this point, they fell in droves without staining a single bit of blood.

　　Of course, a small amount of crystal ball fragments remained on Verdoux’s jaw and face, creating one modest wound after another.

　　”Who?” Verdoux suddenly woke up and turned his head to look the other way.

　　In the ruins on the opposite side, a figure walked out, the slightly scantily clad woman from the pirate ship.

　　She was originally well hidden and wasn’t discovered by Verdoux, but the explosion of the crystal ball just now startled her, causing her to make an overly aggressive and obvious reaction, resulting in the failure of the sneak.

　　Verdoux’s injured face twisted a little:

　　”Why are you here?”

　　The woman quirked up her mouth in a pose of little concern:

　　”This is Banshee Harbor, not your home, why shouldn’t I be here?”

　　”I was bored and got off the ship for a walk, hoping to pick up some jewelry in the ruins, no problem?”

　　She asked two consecutive rhetorical questions, not moving away from Verdoux at all.

　　Without arguing with her, Verdoux took out the pre-prepared ointment and medical alcohol, treated the injuries on his face and jaw, and put all the pieces of the crystal ball he pulled off back into his clothing pockets.

　　He didn’t want to leave blood in such a rather creepy place.

　　Next, Verdoux pulled at one of the decorations on his classical robes.

　　It was a “door” pattern made up of three rubies, three emeralds, and three diamonds.

　　Almost instantly, the robe tightened violently, causing the flesh on Verdoux’s body to bulge out.

　　Just as Verdoux’s bones were about to break, his figure faded and disappeared.

　　Then, he “teleported” to a seaside mountain outside of Banshee Harbor.

　　The mountain had also collapsed and become a pile of rubble.

　　As far as Verdoux knew, this was the place where the people of Bansi used to worship the “God of Weather”, and it was also the target of the Storm Church.

　　–After the crystal ball blew itself up to alert him to the unknown dangers of the Bansi Telegraph Office, Verdoux didn’t dare to continue exploring the place to collect occult materials, and could only force himself to move to the next predetermined location.

　　And this also allowed him to get rid of the woman’s trail.

　　As soon as Verdoux’s figure protruded, he bent his back and gasped for air there, with the feeling of finally easing up from his suffocating state.

　　At the same time, Verdoux only felt a stabbing pain at the location of his right rib, as if a bone had been broken.

　　After taking several consecutive deep breaths, he forced himself to endure the pain, and with a sweaty forehead, he took a few steps forward, arriving at the location of the altar marked on the map.

　　There was no doubt that the altar had been destroyed, leaving only a glassy, slightly charred and blackened huge crater, with different shapes of rubble piled up sporadically around it.

　　The rubble bore more or less the marks of fire and lightning.

　　After looking around, Verdu Abraham raised his right hand and raised his sleeve robe.

　　The sound of wind appeared, and some of the very small rubble was “pushed” out of its place, revealing the ground they had covered.

　　This is the “master juggler’s” “wind blowing technique”, Verdoux used it to replace their own manual labor, to maximize the protection of their own safety.

　　As the debris “flew” away, Verdoux saw the same scorched ground, with a few, very broken patterns, designs and symbols left in certain areas.

　　Whoosh!

　　The sound of the wind grew more intense, and it rumbled in Verdoux’s ears, causing him to look up high in the sky in surprise.

　　His wind, which could only blow small pieces of debris, had somehow turned into a hurricane, “pushing” him and causing him to sway a bit.

　　Verdoux immediately saw thick clouds gathering in the sky, as if a storm was about to descend.

　　Although he had heard that Bansi was a “weather museum”, he had never imagined that the change would come so suddenly.

　　For a moment, Verdoux wondered if it was his “Wind Scouring Technique” that had attracted the storm, or if it was the clearing up of the altar ruins that had triggered some kind of change.

　　Such speculations made his forehead quickly seep out cold sweat.

　　In the midst of the storm, Verdoux saw a pile of debris flying up in front of him, revealing a boulder buried underneath.

　　The surface of the boulder was crisscrossed with deep cracks one after another, giving people the feeling that it would crack if they touched it.

　　By now, the gale had calmed down quite a bit, and the heavy rain was still brewing.

　　Thinking that he had already come to Banshee Harbor and couldn’t just be scared off, Verdoux gathered his courage and approached the boulder covered in charred black cracks.

　　He then took out a magnifying glass with a strange pattern engraved on the grip and carefully examined the condition of the boulder.

　　After seven or eight minutes, Verdoux put away the magnifying glass, which was a magical item, and sighed with regret and frustration.

　　He had initially confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the boulder that did not involve occult stuff.

　　Verdoux was just about to withdraw his gaze and prepare to leave when he suddenly saw a bit of bright red seeping out from the bottom of the boulder where it met the dirt.

　　That bright red gradually expanded, like gurgling and spreading blood.

　　However, it didn’t soak in too much, confined to a very small area.

　　The traces of the two blood-red figures within the ruins of the telegraph office flashed instantly through Verdoux’s mind, and an uncontrollable tingle ran through his scalp.

　　His lips flew dry, and he intuited that this was not good.

　　Swallowing another mouthful of saliva, Verdoux raised his right hand and created another gust of wind, causing a number of miniature pieces of debris to roll over, filling the base of the boulder completely and hiding the seeping bright red.

　　He didn’t stay here any longer, and braced himself for another “teleportation” to the last intended target location.

　　This time, he broke another rib, and the pain was so intense that he was about to faint.

　　Coupled with the suffocation brought about by the compressed space, Verdoux had the feeling that he was teetering on the edge of death.

　　It took him a full dozens of seconds to slow down and cast his gaze ahead.

　　This place was also a ruin, with collapsed blocks of houses covering the overgrown ground.

　　According to a certain pirate who had once explored the ruins of Banshee, there was an item here worth studying:

　　It was an ordinary wooden door, but it was the only thing that remained intact in the whole of Bansi.

　　The pirate did not find any special features from this wooden door, so he asked his men to lift it and try to carry it back to the ship.

　　However, they had only taken two steps when it suddenly collapsed, its head dragging its spine, leaving its body and rolling to the side.

　　This frightened the pirate, who dared not stay any longer, and led the remaining crew to flee in haste.

　　Verdoux did not fully believe the story told by the other party, although he did not move much at sea, but he also knew that sailors love to brag, always exaggerate things that are only two or three points to eleven or twelve points.

　　However, even if that was bragging, Verdoux thought the wooden door was worth studying.

　　After some searching, he found his target:

　　The plain-looking wooden door leaned against a collapsed wall and had brass-colored lock holes and handles.

　　There were no bodies around it, and no blood, consistent with the vast majority of the ruins.

　　Sure enough it blows, heh, the pirate probably heard about this wooden door from somewhere else, and he and his men didn’t even dare try to carry it …… Verdoux looked around the room and suddenly spoke up:

　　”Who?”

　　”Why are you spying on me?”

　　He didn’t actually realize that there was someone around, he was just using his words and reactions to defraud the possible monitors based on his previous experience and lessons.

　　In the next second, somewhere in the shadows, a middle-aged man with a protruding stomach walked out.

　　He didn’t speak and silently moved away from the place.

　　Verdoux was thankful and secretly relieved at the same time, and grasped the door, approaching the wooden door.

　　According to the information he had gotten, this wooden door would not bring about unusual changes no matter which side he pushed it, and there would be no danger in touching it without attempting to move it.

　　After a few seconds of thought, Verdoux retracted his hand back into his sleeve robe, and using his classic robe as a “glove”, pulled down on the wooden door.

　　The door stood up and silence fell over the area.

　　Verdoux then pushed the door as if it were a normal door, but still did not see the slightest change.

　　He tried various other methods, but none of them made the wooden door show any abnormality, it really seemed that it was just too lucky to be preserved intact under the Storm Church’s city-destroying strike.

　　Taking a deep breath, Verdoux tried to regain his composure.

　　After thinking about it, he tried up the action of opening the door once again.

　　However, unlike before, he gripped the handle and gently twisted it downwards.

　　After hearing the clicking sound of metal slightly clashing, Verdoux pushed forward, causing the wooden door to spread diagonally backward, leaning back against the collapsed and dilapidated wall.

　　This time, a grayish mist suddenly appeared before Verdoux’s eyes.

　　Within the mist was a looming street and a row of townhouses.

　　Outside one of the houses, there was a wooden sign inlaid with what appeared to be a few words written in Lune:

　　”Banshee Harbor Telegraph Office.”

　　Verdoux’s pupils dilated at the same time as a calm voice came from inside the telegraph office, which was shrouded in a light mist:

　　”Are you, here to shoot, a telegram?”

　　”Come in.”