The Devil’s Cage

Five minutes later, a patrolling security guard discovered Richard Mayden’s body and broken head in the garden.

Without a moment’s notice, the security guard reported it to the chief security guard.

The chief didn’t call the police, but instead made a call to Aison Den.

As the chief security guard in charge of Richard Mayden’s safety, the man seemed to know something, something secretive.

Another 10 minutes later, Aison Den, the boss of the Herders of the South Sector, came back to the villa again.

This time, he wasn’t alone.

All the idle Herders of South Sector, plus many others from the other sectors were called in, Bain included.

Bain was less than pleased about being here; he pouted and grumbled.

“Come on, I have my own missions, too! Don’t keep calling me down here, won’t ya?” Bain complained to Hoen.

“The fact that you appeared here shows that the so-called mission you are on isn’t that important, or rather, you are not indispensable in your mission. I trust Huai Cuike’s eyes and… based on my experience, there is only one reason you would complain to your acquaintance on the first meeting: you must have stumbled upon a stud in your mission.”

Hoen pushed his glasses, which reflected a meaningful glare.

“A stud?! What kind of stud? And, do I know you well?! Stop kidding me,” Bain argued stubbornly and turned around.

How could he have the heart to tell others about the ‘stud’ he stumbled upon?

Should he tell Hoen that his seemingly talented and smart disciple that had the potential of becoming a prophet ditched him and went to be a cook?

If he really did, he would become a joke among the Herders and everyone in the organization would know before sunrise.

Although, Roye’s dishes were really good!

They smelled good, tasted scrumptious, and were fulfilling!

‘Ah, I want to have another bowl of soup!’

Unknowingly, his mouth started to salivate, especially when the autumn wind blew into his face. His mind imagined himself being in Leaf Dining, sitting by the warm heater and drinking a bowl of hot, tasty, aromatic chicken soup. He talked to Royan occasionally, and although it was mostly him talking and Royan listening, it felt good for him. At least, Royan never refuted his statements; he was a perfect listener.

Except for the lack of alcohol, Leaf Dining was like heaven!

Phew!

While Bain soaked himself in his imagination, a stronger wind blew at him.

He was just wearing a common jersey, so when the cold wind struck him, he shrunk his neck and walked to a corner of the wall. He glanced over at Aison Den, who was checking on the body, and then lost interest.

Bain knew he wasn’t here to help with the investigation, and nor did the Herders of the South Sector require his help.

As the strongest sector of Ai City, the Herders of the South Sector required none of his concern.

The true reason for him being in the South Sector was purely for show, a show for those who supported the Herders financially. It was to tell them that the Herders took them seriously.

That’s all!

Locating Richard Mayden’s killer would also require none of his help.

The youngsters of the South Sector Herders were eager to find the killer.

Leaning on the wall, Bain watched as Stina, the hot-tempered youngster with decent strength, questioned several people in a rush and then shook her head in the end.

Moving fast was good, but no matter how fast, efforts without results were futile.

Bain believed Stina would return empty-handed, just like the mysterious surroundings of Carrie Mayden’s death.

This was the kind of rich man that Bain disliked the most; he ought to keep his distance and was reluctant to even make contact. A millionaire like this represented huge trouble.

“Hey, Bain.”

Yutenta Dako, the Herder from the North Sector, squeezed his big, fat body into Bain’s corner. When he felt that the blowing wind had weakened a lot, he widened his mouth into a smile. “This is a good place to avoid the wind.”

“It would have been better if you hadn’t squeezed in.”

Bain rolled a white eye at Yutenta, as half of his body was squeezed out. He then pinched Yutenta’s fat belly. “Mate, you should go on a diet.” He sighed as he felt the fat in his hand.

Yutenta touched his belly and said proudly, “Are you giving me advice after feeling its cuteness?”

Bain shook his head and said seriously, “No. I think you are rearing a pile of ungrateful freeloaders! Feeding your belly to the brim, but during critical moments, it can’t help at all! I suggest that you better cut the fat away!”

“No! I’m not cutting any fat, and I’m not dieting! Only food can make me feel the good side of being alive!”

Yutenta waved his hand in denial and then pointed at Aison Den, asking, “What do you think?”

“Think about what? They can only summon the guy’s soul back in order to locate the killer quickly,” Bain said affirmatively.

“Then… what if something were to happen during the soul summoning process? What do you think will happen then?” Yutenta purposely prolonged his tone.

“What do you mean? You know something, don’t you?” Bain frowned.

“I know nothing, but something strikes me as strange. A series of events happened in the North and when the support from the South arrived, something like this happened in the South. We haven’t even started an investigation at my place! This is already the second time, don’t you think it’s strange?” the fat Herder said to Bain.

Bain was in deep thought. He didn’t deny Yutenta’s words because just as he said, Bain also felt something was fishy, but he couldn’t get a grasp of the details here and there.

“What have you found in the North?” Bain asked.

“What could I find? I scraped the land for more than a year, yet I couldn’t even locate a dime. Don’t you think I’m a little thinner than before?” Yutenta sighed.

Bain rolled a white eye again.

He knew how dark and wicked this fat guy was. Originally, the North had two Herders in charge, so there was still someone else keeping Yutenta in check, but when the other Herder died in a messy gang fight, the whole North Sector fell into this fat guy’s hand, becoming his own playground.

It was impossible for Yutenta to scrap a fortune from the North Sector, but he had definitely grown stronger than normal Herders.

Otherwise, he would not have been able to send his own daughter into the ‘military camp’ for training.

Those training camps were black holes of money.

“What’s that all about?” Bain muttered in a muffled voice.

Further away, Aison Den had sprinkled some sparkling dust around Richard Mayden’s body. The sparkling dust was sprinkled meticulously, as if sprinkled by a machine after precise calculation. The dust formed a perfect circle and encircled Richard Mayden inside; mystical wordings were then written on the circle of sparkling dust.

In the end, a diamond as big as a pinky finger nail was used.

Yutenta couldn’t help but drool when he saw that diamond. “Aison Den really went all out on this!”

Bain didn’t say anything, for he was very familiar with the scene.

Throughout the entire Ai City, probably only Aison Den, the boss of the South Sector, had the rights to simply use such a big diamond as an offering in the soul summoning ritual.

The others could only use some nice food as offerings and even that was already considered extravagant.

Muffled incantations came from Aison Den.

A translucent soul then slowly floated up from Richard Mayden’s body.

The soul was at a loss, its consciousness all over the place.

So it was natural that the secrets Richard Mayden used to keep when he was alive were all exposed after his death.

A slight menacing, depressing, and uncomfortable aura started to emanate from Richard Mayden’s soul, and all the Herders on the scene became astounded.

It was… the aura of witchcraft!

The Herders were very familiar with the presence of witchcraft!

When Bain and Yutenta felt the sinister presence, they spoke in one voice, “The North Sector!”

Aison Den, who led the soul summoning ritual, looked extremely ugly at the reaction.

As his gray wind coat fluttered in the autumn wind, his sharp gaze revealed killer intent, and he then waved his hand.

All the Herders in the area rushed towards the North Sector right away.

…

“Time’s running out!”

When Bloody Mary the Superior Demon calculated the time in its heart, it moved even quicker.

It was onthe last of the ‘strange’ spots that it got from those wandering souls and monsters, so it intended to be even more careful.

It had a feeling that this last search would be as dangerous as the previous times.

To be on the safe side, Bloody Mary transformed into Bain’s image, along with the jersey.

Bloody Mary, in Bain’s image, approached the sewers of the North Sector.

Although most of the public facilities and buildings at the surface of the North Sector were all destroyed, the underground was a different story. The facilities were all kept intact, just like how it used to be.

The Northerners might be boorish thugs, but they were not idiots.

They didn’t want to live in a big shit hole either.

Bloody Mary didn’t need the blueprints that were left behind from the old age; the dirty water and walls weren’t a hurdle at all.

It went into its ghost form and swiftly flew down to the last floor.

Bloody Mary paused for a while on the last floor and examined the place before diving deeper.

This time, it arrived in a dry area, though it was still filthy.

It wasn’t dirty water and shit anymore, but a myriad of organs that were black and rotten.

The confined space reeked terribly. Bloody Mary glanced over at the arrangements of the organs and noticed that some weird markings were stuffed in between, so it wisely kept its distance.

Even its own Mystical Knowledge could tell what the markings were about, but when using Kieran as a model, it knew it shouldn’t touch things it wasn’t familiar with.

The organs filled the space, which looked like a passage dug out by someone.

It was simple and crude but effective as a trap!

At least for other people it was effective, but for Bloody Mary?

The trap was non-existent!

If it couldn’t go through this passage with organs, it would just find another way!

Bloody Mary dove deeper. It threw itself into the bottom of the passage, and relying on its decent perception to tell the direction, it soon circled around the blocked passage and arrived at the end of the passage.

More precisely, the location that the person who dug the passage wanted to reach.

It was an ancient ruin!

It wasn’t huge, only the size of a basketball court.

There were murals on the walls, but they were rotten beyond recognition, and only bits and pieces were made clear.

In the middle of the room was a cube platform as big as a billiard table. Other than its surface, which was as white as snow, the other sides were all black.

In the middle of the platform was a black colored rack with a gemstone as big as a red date.

The gemstone was as clear as glass, but it emanated a colorful glow. Bloody Mary didn’t get close enough, but its body bathed in the colorful glow and felt that its faded energy was quickly replenishing.

It must be good!

Bloody Mary looked at the gemstone with shining eyes, but it wasn’t in a hurry.

It meticulously examined the whole room and moved its head closer to the platform. When it saw certain arrangements around the platform, it grinned.

A very simple and crude trap was installed in the rack; once the gemstone was taken away, the trap would be triggered and the lack of pressure on the rack would activate the contraption.

“Simple and crude!”

Bloody Mary then flew up to the passage above the ceiling, found a cobblestone of the same size, and returned to the room.

It then reached out to the rack with one hand, pressing the contraption down, while its other hand took the gemstone.

Then, it placed the cobblestone on top, replacing the original gemstone.

After switching out the gemstone, Bloody Mary heaved a sigh of relief but quickly realized something unusual.

It was recovering! Very slowly, the sealed power in its body was recovering!

Dumbstruck for a second, Bloody Mary shook its head.

“Too slow!” Bloody Mary sighed.

This kind of slow recovery wasn’t useful to itself and may even be considered useless.

It could already recover after it left this place because as long as its boss recovered, it would also recover.

However, Bloody Mary did not ditch the spoils, as it wasn’t its decision to make, but it’s boss’. The gemstone also belonged to its boss.

As for the credit of locating the gemstone?

Was that important?

Its whole existence belonged to its boss, let alone the things it located.

Holding the gemstone tightly in its hand, Bloody Mary dove into the ground and returned to where it came from. It worried that it might expose the aura of this gemstone, so diving deeper into the ground and returning to the restaurant was its best bet.

Less than 20 minutes after Bloody Mary left, the wall of the secret room opened up.

A person walked in.

“The Philosopher’s Stone! It is finally mine!” the man cheered, but when he saw the cobblestone on the rack, he felt doubtful and confused.

The people behind the man shared the same expression too.

“This is the Philosopher’s Stone?” one of them asked.

The leader of the bunch quickly reacted and scolded his men, “Of course! Isn’t it magnificent? It looks exactly like a normal stone so people wouldn’t be able to discover its secret! Did you really think it would emanate its magic at first glance, like the other magic stones?”

This was the Philosopher’s Stone!

He spent his life locating it, and he would not allow others to insult it!

Insulting the stone was like insulting his hard work and wisdom!

When the others heard what the leader said, they nodded in agreement.

Infatuation with the mystical!

The men heard the rumours before, and it wasn’t all that weird if the stone was really the Philosopher’s Stone.

Only this stone was the true Philosopher’s Stone!

If it were a stone emanating a colorful glow, it must be a trap!

When the thought spread into everyone’s mind, they landed their gazes on that cobblestone.

Burning gazes!

Raging eagerness!

Endless greed!

Despite the feelings, they didn’t move because they knew there must be danger or traps lurking around the platform that held the Philosopher’s Stone.

They must be careful!

However, a series of footsteps sounded through the passage they dug up.

Aison Den led the Herders into the passage, and when he saw the group of men ahead of him, his eyes overflowed with killer intent, which became heavier when he saw the cobblestone on the rack through the seams in the group of people.

Without a second though, Aison Den drew his sword.

From the start, Witchcraft practitioners and Herders were arch nemesis, and now, there was the Philosopher’s Stone in sight!