Chapter 879 - 378: The Foul Stench
Wu Chang calmly took out the wooden token, the Sword Qi left by Sword Star on it had indeed vanished.
He remembered Sword Star saying the Steam Council would take action a week later, but now the token had already broken, wasn’t it a bit too early?
The sudden signal from Sword Star meant he and Cold Mountain had entered the Steam Council’s secret base; the Power of Root was being shielded, unable to sustain the Sword Qi.
Or perhaps the Steam Council thought Henry wanted to contact the Secret Security Department, and after silencing Henry, worried some information had been exposed, they acted ahead of time.
No matter the situation, since the signal had been received, it was always right to be cautious.
Wu Chang put away the wooden token and started considering countermeasures.
Sword Star only mentioned that the Steam Council was planning something big; the specific actions were still unknown.
To be safe, he planned to retract the Secret Magic Knight Order members back to the headquarters at No.6 Bai She Avenue, so they could respond immediately, whether the Steam Council was targeting the Transcendent or attacking important Stilan institutions.
But he couldn’t let the Secret Magic Knight Order members return directly to headquarters; he had to find a suitable excuse.
Sword Star must have sent the signal at the first moment of receiving the news, it wouldn’t do if, right after the Steam Council announced its action, before even stepping out, they found the Secret Knights already gathered, ready for battle, waiting for them at the door.
That action would be too obvious; even if the Steam Council were fools, they would notice an insider had infiltrated the organization.
To ensure Sword Star and Cold Mountain’s safety, he focused on the imaginative Henry and suddenly had an idea.
He had the accompanying Secret Knight send a Communication Magic, gathering all Secret Magic Knight Order members at Henry’s house.
Using Henry’s death investigation as an excuse to gather the Secret Knights together, making sure they wouldn’t be captured alone by the Steam Council.
After investigating the scene, they would then proceed to move everything from Henry’s house back to headquarters under the guise of searching for clues.
The Secret Magic Knight Order had a special method of communication; the players who joined the Secret Knights mastered this method during their induction training.
When Wu Chang gave the order as the deputy head of the Secret Magic Knight Order, and it was approved by his main body as the leader, within half an hour, all Secret Magic Knight Order members gathered around Henry’s house, sealing off Tals Street.
Wu Chang’s main body also arrived at Henry’s house, examining the scene with Raventon.
Raventon meticulously checked Henry’s eyeballs and after a brief check over Henry’s body, he said to Wu Chang’s main body:
"There are no traces of Extraordinary Energy inside Henry; he’s just an ordinary person."
"Clearly, he unwittingly fell victim to the attacker’s ability, entered a hallucination, which led to him shooting himself."
Raventon took out a hand-pinch dust sprayer, squeezed it twice, and pointed at the evenly spread fluorescent dust on the ground, saying:
"The opponent cleaned the scene using Extraordinary Power after silencing."
He picked up his cane and pointed to an area where the fluorescent dust was especially dense, showing many rectangular rule patterns.
"The opponent seems to have cleared away a book and some other paper materials scattered on the floor."
On his way there, Raventon bought an evening newspaper and folded it to quarter size, placing it on one of the square areas; the width was almost the same.
"The burnt paper materials seem to be some newspapers."
He turned to Connor and Nestor, asking: "As colleagues of Mr. Henry, do you two have any clues on this?"
The two asked by Raventon fell into thought, and after a while, Nestor, who shared Henry’s radical views, spoke first:
"Regarding the newspapers, I do have some clues. Henry usually liked reading the Hills Newspaper; no matter whether there was news recently, he’d buy it on time."
"Henry was impatient, liked to skip unnecessary information and go straight to the point. But I once caught him reading the Hills Newspaper, he read it very carefully, more meticulously than reviewing edits for others."
"Not just political news and international affairs, even opinion columns and advertisements weren’t overlooked."
"I once asked him why he reads these, and he said he was studying the content structure of the Hills Newspaper to improve the Bright Lamp Report."
Wu Chang said from the side: "That sounds like there’s no issue."
Nestor shook his head, saying: "The layout changes of the Hills Newspaper are minimal; if he was just studying the content structure, there’s no need to read every issue so thoroughly."
Wu Chang was enlightened: "Indeed."
He turned around and gave Raventon a look.
Nestor could say Henry was reading every issue thoroughly; this degree of observation couldn’t be explained by just coincidentally coming across it a few times.
Connor’s entanglement with the Extraordinary Miner Thieves is unclear, Henry being silenced by the Steam Council, and now this third person among the trio, Nestor, doesn’t appear very clean either.
However, the investigation on Nestor would have to wait for later.
On the way there, Wu Chang’s main body had already informed Raventon about the impending actions of the Steam Council.
Now that the groundwork was laid, it was time to lead everyone in evacuating.
Raventon continued from Nestor’s response, saying:
"Mr. Nestor has a point. Mr. Henry being silenced is likely related to the Hills Newspaper he was sorting."
"There might be other clues in the room; let’s first move everything from here back to the Secret Security Department, and then further investigate the Hills Newspaper."
While the Secret Knights were moving things, Wu Chang extended invitations to Connor and Nestor under the guise of someone targeting the leaders of the Charter Movement for assassination, hoping they would accompany him back to the Secret Security Department.