When Norton fell, the three giant modified corpses also lost their ability to move and froze in place.
Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi were out of combat mode at the same time.
Bai Xiaowen recalled the summoned creatures and carefully avoided the area covered by the frost poison. Then, he ran with Li Shuyi, one in front of the other.
Along the way, they passed by sealed coffin-shaped boxes and arrived at the stairs leading out of the cellar. Large chunks of mud and stone fell, but Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi still managed to safely escape the underground research institute and return to the surface.
After rushing out of the cellar, the two could feel the ground rumbling as if it was the precursor of an earthquake.
The underground research institute that Norton had excavated covered a vast area, almost emptying out the entire street. The collapse of the underground research institute was no different from a small-scale earthquake. Now, there were already cracks on the ground of the street. The other residents screamed and ran out.
With a loud bang, the underground research institute completely collapsed, and smoke and dust rose everywhere. Half of the street collapsed, and the ground sank by five or six meters! Huge cracks spread on the ground, and it was a scene of devastation.
Under the collapsed houses, there were screams and cries for help. Many of the residents of Hodge Town who had not managed to escape in time were suppressed.
"Oh my god..." Li Shuyi exclaimed. "What should we do now?"
Bai Xiaowen glanced at Li Shuyi. He could understand what Li Shuyi was thinking. He probably wanted to evacuate and rescue the innocent residents, but he was worried that Bai Xiaowen had other plans. Therefore, he looked at Li Shuyi inquisitively.
Bai Xiaowen nodded slightly. "Save them... See how many people are still alive under the collapsed houses. Save as many as you can."
Li Shuyi agreed, but he felt a little strange. He smiled and said, "You don't seem like such a caring person."
Bai Xiaowen smiled faintly. "Hurry up... We'll be in contact with the sheriff of Hodge Town soon."
Li Shuyi had an epiphany and curled his lips at Bai Xiaowen. Then, he trotted to the side of Akaia's Cauldron, lifted a collapsed wall, and pulled out a resident of Hodge Town.
Bai Xiaowen summoned the Skeleton Swordsman and other creatures again, and also joined in the rescue mission.
After the underground research institute collapsed, Bai Xiaowen received a notification.
"A-rank Elite Side Mission: The Secret of the Voodoo Sect has been completed. Degree of Completion: S.
[Based on your completion evaluation, you've received 10,000 Mana Points as a reward.]
"Your reputation in the Poison Sect has dropped significantly. Current reputation level: Hostile."
"Your reputation with the Radiant Church has increased. Current reputation level: Friendly."
"Your party gained 400 EXP."
The party's EXP increased the level of the elite party. Bai Xiaowen didn't care too much about it, because the main reward of the A-rank Elite Side Mission was combat EXP (Awakened level up). After the mission was completed, Bai Xiaowen's combat EXP bar rose to 68% of Level 5. Li Shuyi's leveling speed was even faster. He was already at 81% of Level 5.
Bai Xiaowen had stayed in the Dead Soul Lake for a few days to practice his combat skills and specialties. He had earned a few more days of combat EXP than Li Shuyi, but now, Li Shuyi had surpassed him. Compared to Hero Classes, elite classes leveled up faster.
A series of footsteps sounded, followed by a loud voice.
"Team One, Team Two, rescue the victims in groups of two. The rest of you, evacuate with me. Send the injured to an open area... "
Bai Xiaowen glanced at the direction of the street. A group of neatly dressed, fully armed soldiers quickly spread out under the command of a strong, burly man. They carried out the rescue work in an orderly manner.
This burly man must be the sheriff of Hodge Town, Ahan.
Bai Xiaowen's skeleton sword-and-shield was an undead summoned creature. It was very conspicuous in the scene. Ahan, who was in charge, quickly noticed it.
"An undead creature?" Ahan quickly walked in front of Bai Xiaowen and sized him up. "You're... the master of these monsters? An undead summoner? Strange, I think I've seen you before. Just... "
"Mr. Sheriff, let's talk later. Right now, I just want to save people!" Bai Xiaowen ignored Ahan and turned his head to call Li Shuyi. "Charlotte, help me lift this pillar..."
Spirit World Rule Notification:
[Hodge Town's sheriff, Alexei Ahan's favorability towards you has increased. Current favorability level: Neutral.]
This feeling of insulting a Spirit Realm expert and increasing his favorability was very satisfying.
Ahan didn't get angry. Instead, he quickly stepped forward, grabbed the pillar with one hand, and gently lifted it onto his shoulder. Then, he motioned for Bai Xiaowen to drag out the injured person under the pillar.
Bai Xiaowen's eyes twitched. Hodge Town's buildings were mainly made of earth and stone. This stone pillar probably weighed three to four tons. Yet, Ahan was able to lift it with one hand so easily. One could only imagine his strength.
However, Bai Xiaowen didn't have any strange expression. After rescuing the injured person, he immediately rushed to the next ruined building. He was extremely busy. However, he still secretly used Insight on Sheriff Ahan.
[Alexei Ahan (Leader Level 8)]
[Race: Humanoid/Human]
[Profession: Great War Hero]
[Attributes: STR 79, DEX 30, CON 50, WIL 20]
[Skill 1: Brute Force: Passive skill. When Ahan uses a two-handed weapon, his damage will be increased by an additional 20%. Additional True Damage will be dealt to targets with less than 60% of his Strength. There is also a chance to inflict a crippling effect.]
[Skill 2: Unyielding: Ahan's Strength will be increased by an additional 10% every time he is affected by a debuff or control skill. This effect will last until the end of the battle state. This effect can be stacked up to three times.]
[Skill 3: Battle Roar: Ahan lets out an inspiring roar, increasing the attack power of all allies within 100 meters by 10 points. Lasts for 30 seconds.]
[Skill 4:???]
[Skill 5: Firm Will Level 3: Ahan's HP will be increased by an additional 500 points. The duration of abnormal statuses and control effects will be reduced by 50%.]
"The Blacktide Realm … Where did it come from? Even a sheriff is so powerful! "
Bai Xiaowen muttered to himself.
This sheriff named Ahan was a complete waste of talent to be the sheriff of a town. First of all, he had explosive attributes, and then he had an army skill like Battle Roar. Coupled with a violent damage output skill like Brute Force, he would definitely be a fierce general on the battlefield.
What also surprised Bai Xiaowen was Ahan's general skill.
As a high-level leader, it was normal for him to have a toughness skill that increased his HP and reduced control effects. However, this skill of Ahan's was actually Level 3! What did this mean? In the treasure space of the Dead Soul Lake, the chief of the Naga Tribe, Alicia's "Naga Leader" skill was only Level 2.
Bai Xiaowen now understood why the ticket was prefixed with the word "Speculation" and reduced the difficulty of the main mission by 50%.
This Sheriff Ahan was definitely a person with a story and was not easy to fool. If Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi had rashly appeared as strangers and contacted Ahan, they might not have been able to win the sheriff's trust. Instead, they might have been treated as suspicious people.
Now, it was much easier. The two of them and Ahan were "neighbors" on the same street, so Ahan had some impression of them. The difficulty of winning Ahan's trust was much lower. After gaining Ahan's trust, the work of solving the missing persons case was simple.
Bai Xiaowen only needed to solve the riddle. When it was time to fight, he just needed to close the door and release the sheriff! Then, the opponent would type GG.
In this collapse, there were more than 70 injured people and three dead people, including the boss of "Akaia's Cauldron" — Mr. Akaia.
"You two come with me and tell me what happened." Ahan called Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi to the side. "I remember now. You two are siblings who live on Windmill Street, right? Why are you here? My intuition tells me that this incident should be related to you two. "
Li Shuyi secretly glanced at Bai Xiaowen. It was best to leave the work of dealing with the powerhouses of the spiritual world to Bai Xiaowen.
"We came all the way here to investigate the recent missing persons case."
Bai Xiaowen's voice was somewhat low, and there was a trace of unconcealable regret on his handsome face.
"Missing persons case? You found the culprit? "Ahan asked in surprise.
Bai Xiaowen nodded. "Yes, the culprit behind the missing persons case is a voodoo sect alchemist. He has a secret evil laboratory under the commercial street … I saw with my own eyes that he pieced together the corpses of the deceased to create a giant corpse and conduct inhumane experiments. My sister and I fought fiercely with him and spent a lot of effort to kill him. But I didn't expect that before he died, he activated the mechanism that caused the underground laboratory to collapse … "
Bai Xiaowen sighed, looking as if he regretted his actions.
Ahenong's blade-like brows furrowed, and he turned to the patrol soldiers and shouted, "Clean up the street! There is an evil underground laboratory here. Dig it out! "
A group of elite and ordinary soldiers responded loudly and continued to work without any complaints. From this, it could be seen that Ahan's management of the patrol team was very effective. In other words, he had the talent to manage an army.
Bai Xiaowen was well aware that Ahan still had a trace of doubt about him, which was why he ordered the excavation. But it didn't matter. When the laboratory was dug out, Ahan would definitely believe him.
A clever way to tell a lie was to tell nine truths with one lie.
In Bai Xiaowen's statement, the voodoo sect alchemist, the evil laboratory, the giant corpse, and so on were all true. But there was one lie, and that was the "motive", or rather, the starting point. Bai Xiaowen knew very well that the voodoo sect alchemist Norton had nothing to do with the missing persons case. His motive for finding Norton was the "secret of the voodoo sect" mission.
However, in Ahan's eyes, as long as the information about the voodoo sect and the giant corpse was true, then he would naturally believe Bai Xiaowen's motive. This was the advantage of telling nine truths and one lie.
There were better ways to tell a lie than nine truths and one lie. That was to tell the whole truth, but hide the most important one or two sentences, causing the other party to misunderstand and go astray … But in this case, there was no need for such a sophisticated way of lying.
Before long, the patrol soldiers came to report that they had dug out broken alchemy tools, boxes containing corpses, and so on.
Ahan's gaze towards Bai Xiaowen became much friendlier.
He nodded and said, "Since you destroyed the voodoo sect's evil laboratory for the sake of Hodge Town's safety, then I won't hold you responsible for this incident. But if you encounter such a thing in the future, you have to inform me in advance. You and your brother are also residents of Hodge Town and are under my protection. Rashly coming to the voodoo sect's villains is too reckless. I don't want to see another name added to the list of missing people. "
Bai Xiaowen sincerely apologized, "It won't happen again. In the future, as long as we discover something dangerous that could affect the safety of Hodge Town, we will report it immediately."
Ahan asked again, "I'm a bit surprised by your skills. You two have always been apprentices at the bread mill, right? I didn't expect you to have such strength. "
Bai Xiaowen made up a lie, saying that he had met a wandering adventurer and saw that the siblings were talented, so he gave them some guidance and so on. Afterwards, the siblings had always followed their teacher's instructions and didn't easily reveal their strength, living an ordinary life in this town. It wasn't until the disappearance case occurred that the siblings decided to come forward and investigate the truth …
Under normal circumstances, Ahan most likely wouldn't believe Bai Xiaowen's lie. However, Bai Xiaowen and his sister were residents of Hodge Town and lived on the same street as him, so there was a basic level of trust. In addition, the voodoo sect's evil laboratory that had just been excavated also confirmed that Bai Xiaowen wasn't lying. Therefore, Ahan accepted Bai Xiaowen's explanation and didn't probe further.
At the mention of the missing people case, Ahan sighed and said, "Let's go. I want to see the corpses in those sealed boxes with my own eyes. If the voodoo sect is behind the missing people case, then I can answer to the mayor and the people of Hodge Town. "He shook his head and sighed.
Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi followed behind Ahan. Li Shuyi asked through the team channel, "It's strange. From Ahan's perspective, he should be happy that the missing people case has been solved. Why does he look a bit depressed?"
"It's a good thing that the case has been solved, but the missing people have all turned into corpses. With so many dead people, it's reasonable that he's in a bad mood. Besides, he wasn't the one who solved the case. As a police officer … no, as a sheriff, Mr. Ahan must be very disappointed. "
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