110: Chapter 48 Visitors

On the first weekend of May, a cool breeze drifted through the streets of the River Bay District in Backlund, dispelling the lingering damp cold of early spring.

The apartment was quiet and peaceful, with only the faint sound of turning pages remaining.

Lu Li leaned against his desk, carefully reviewing the compiled weekly underground market briefing, his fingertips tracing scattered pieces of information regarding Beyonder materials, black market commissions, and rumors of ruins.

Just then, a very light sound of footsteps came from the corridor outside.

The person's pace was steady and even, lacking the dragging gait of an ordinary passerby, carrying the caution of a Beyonder deliberately restraining their aura, so faint that it would almost be drowned out by the wind in the hallway.

The footsteps paused briefly for two seconds at the end of the corridor, then proceeded precisely toward the door of the apartment next to Lu Li's, which had recently been vacated and had a new tenant move in.

Lu Li's fingers paused, and he closed the briefing in his hands.

Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out to grasp the cool copper bottle of holy water by his pillow, moved quietly to behind the door, and peered out through the dark peephole.

The corridor was dimly lit, and a slender figure stood in front of the door next door.

The woman was dressed in a dark gray wear-resistant canvas jacket with tightened cuffs and a sharp cut, paired with a pair of clean black canvas shoes, with no unnecessary decorations on her body.

She bent over slightly, her movements extremely crisp, and a neatly folded note was precisely inserted into the narrow door gap, without any hesitation or unnecessary probing throughout the process.

After doing all this, she straightened up, did not look down to check the house number, nor did she stop to look around, and turned to leave, as if she had just completed a routine task with a pre-planned procedure.

"Stop."

Lu Li gently opened the door, his deep voice sounding in the quiet corridor, not loud, but with clear penetrating power.

The figure in front suddenly paused.

The woman slowly turned around, her hood obscuring most of her face, hiding the contours of her eyebrows and eyes, revealing only a clean-lined jaw and a pair of eyes hidden in the shadows, filled with caught-off-guard surprise.

It was Vera.

She clearly hadn't expected Lu Li to happen to live here.

She had come this time to deliver a list of documents to a newly promoted member of the Apprentice Pathway of the Secret Order.

This low-Sequence newcomer had just been transferred to Backlund and was specifically placed in this hidden apartment, which was a pure coincidence that they happened to be neighbors with Lu Li.

Vera took off her hood, her eyebrows and eyes returning to calm, restoring her usual cold indifference.

Lu Li kept one hand in his pocket, put the copper bottle of holy water back into his pocket, leaned sideways against the door frame, and watched her with a calm gaze: "An Apprentice of the Secret Order, arranged to stay next door to me."

He raised his eyebrows slightly, his tone carrying a bit of insight: "Are you worried that his qualifications are too shallow and he's prone to getting into trouble, or are you worried that I will disrupt your layout?"

Vera shook her head, her tone firm and waveless: "Neither."

"This person has a low Sequence and a shallow foundation, so he needs a stable and hidden place for cultivation. This apartment area is adjacent to the church district, and the sky is shrouded in the bells of St. Hillan Cathedral all year round. The vast holy spirituality suppresses the surrounding fluctuations layer by layer. For all external Beyonders, it is a natural spiritual shielding barrier that can perfectly hide the aura of low-Sequence Beyonders and is rarely targeted."

Her gaze fell on Lu Li, and she said frankly: "As for you, I have long known your address. I have never actively contacted you before, simply because it was unnecessary."

A simple sentence, containing countless tacit understandings and considerations.

Lu Li didn't ask any more questions, turned slightly, and made a gesture of invitation.

Vera walked into the room calmly, sat directly at the desk, and took the canvas bag off her shoulder and placed it on the table.

She took out a heavy lead-sealed bag, the bag body engraved with the complex patterns exclusive to the Secret Order, isolating all spiritual prying, and placed it firmly in the center of the table.

"Regarding the recent case of counterfeiting Secret Order charms, the internal investigation has been completely concluded."

She got straight to the point, her voice cold, every word clear: "The counterfeiter is not a registered member of the Secret Order, but does not belong to any external hostile force either. Their true identity is a collateral descendant of a veteran retired member of the Secret Order."

"This person accidentally discovered family inheritance documents and found a batch of long-dusty coordinates of old Antigonus Family quarries that had never been reported to the Church. The mysterious client of this incident purchased the exclusive mining rights of one of the abandoned quarries from him and entrusted the other party to polish the excavated serpentine raw ore into standard mineral samples of uniform specifications for long-term storage."

"The batch of mineral samples you saw at the dock warehouse last week came from here."

Vera sorted out the truth clearly, her fingertips lightly tapping the cold lead-sealed bag: "This counterfeiter has superb craftsmanship, completely inheriting the skills of the older generation of members, and has received private recognition from the top charm makers of the Secret Order. The charms he counterfeited are not inferior products; he used the official Secret Order standard molds throughout, and the craftsmanship was flawless."

"The only difference is that he privately added a layer of exclusive private encryption marks on the back of every counterfeited charm."

"In other words, not only did he not forge for profit, but he also added an extra layer of exclusive protection to this batch of charms, and only with the corresponding specific token can the charm's Beyonder effect be successfully activated."

Lu Li reached out and picked up the lead-sealed bag on the table, his fingertips rubbing against the cold patterns, calmly opening the seal, and taking out the neatly bound investigation report inside.

Scanning the records on the paper, he spoke softly, his tone firm: "That encryption mark is a snake entwined with a quill."

"This is the client's exclusive family mark."

He had already connected the clues: "You told me before that this mark originated from the fourth epoch and is the exclusive symbol of a group of scholars who specialize in high-level encryption technology. After Emperor Roselle was assassinated and fell, this group scattered, and the vast majority of its members were absorbed and incorporated by the Eternal Blazing Sun Church."

"If this client's ancestor was one of the core members of this group, holding a large number of old Antigonus Family ruin maps that were not recorded by the Church and were secretly passed down, then everything makes sense."

Vera nodded upon hearing this, reached into her canvas bag again, took out a thinner two-page investigation report, and pushed it in front of Lu Li.

This was the preliminary background investigation record compiled by the Secret Order regarding this mysterious client.

The content on the paper was not much, but every word was precise, outlining the mysterious and low-key activity trajectory of this person, which was spread across the bottom layer—

Secretly helping ordinary people who drifted to Backlund find legal heirs to Roselle debt tokens.

Secretly controlling several freight companies in the Dock District, controlling a logistics network; saving many dock workers who were being persecuted and hunted by loan sharks, and arranging stable livelihoods for them.

Even on the eve of Old Kohler's daughter's enrollment, it was this person who, as an anonymous sponsor, silently transferred a full amount of tuition aid to the school account, quietly relieving the father and daughter of their worries.

This person's whereabouts were mysterious, and he was accustomed to using multiple aliases, each corresponding to an independently registered company.

The various enterprises were nested layer by layer through holding and cross-shareholding, isolated from each other, building an airtight identity barrier that no one could trace to the source.

Over several years, he quietly wove a huge interpersonal network covering the Dock District, River Bay District, and East Borough, with businesses spanning key industries such as freight warehousing, old book trading, and Beyonder material processing, rooting himself in the bottom layer of Backlund and cultivating it low-key.

From beginning to end, he never contacted anyone with his true face or true name. All commissions were passed on by intermediaries, and all remuneration was settled with bearer drafts, leaving no trace at all.

"The Secret Order's investigation into this matter is not to pursue the responsibility for charm counterfeiting." Vera's gaze was solemn as she stated the core reason, "What really caught the attention of the review committee was the layer of encryption he privately added."

"The technique is complex, exquisite, and unique in its system, completely matching a set of top-secret old archives sealed in the Secret Order archives for a full twenty years."

"And the encryptor of that set of old archives is the core collaborator who worked with Elliott Hoy back then to proofread the title page of the counterfeit notes."

All scattered clues were completely closed at this moment.

Vera got up and picked up her canvas bag, her shoulders sinking slightly, preparing to leave, and finished the follow-up arrangements in a steady tone: "At present, all internal investigation work has been concluded, and the review committee has officially ruled that the previous Antigonus Ruins seal damage incident has completely ended, and the seal status is stable and secure."

"All non-confidential investigation files will be publicly released through the urban old book exhibition hall next month to completely end this matter."

She walked to the door, paused, turned around, took out a simple kraft paper envelope from her canvas bag, and placed it gently on the shoe cabinet in the entryway.

"Secret Order official member document borrowing card."

"The signature is reserved as 'Traveler'. You can use this card to prioritize accessing internal collection materials, including complete analysis diagrams of ancient charms, a large number of low-Sequence potion formulas, and digestion research records."

After speaking, Vera did not stay any longer, pushed the door and left, her footsteps light and shallow, quickly disappearing at the end of the corridor.

The next morning, the morning light penetrated the thin mist and fell on the bluestone road of Mingde Street.

Lu Li changed into simple casual clothes and went straight to the detective agency at the end of the street.

The wooden door of the office was ajar, and upon pushing it open, he saw a quiet room.

Sherlock Moriarty was sitting behind the desk, head down, reviewing a new commission report, his expression focused.

The large desk was spread with details of ships entering and leaving the port of the Dock District freight companies, and storage scheduling records, with materials stacked neatly.

The enamel glass cup wrapped in a thick wool cup cover sat quietly at the corner of the table, and the sunlight fell on the cup, reflecting a bit of precipitated old color.

Hearing the movement of the door opening, Sherlock looked up, closed the file in his hand and pushed it aside, picked up the pottery pot, and skillfully poured a cup of warm black tea for Lu Li.

After Lu Li recounted the conversation with Vera last night and all the clues about the client, the office fell into a brief silence.

The hot steam of the black tea curled up, blurring the light and shadow.

Sherlock picked up the teacup, his fingertips rubbing against the warm cup wall, and after a moment of silence, he spoke slowly, his voice deep and clear: "The Secret Order's investigation report will never record his real name."

"But this is precisely his most impressive point."

"It's not that they can't find it, but that the investigators voluntarily give up on delving deeper and have no way to define it. This state is safer than being completely hidden and unnoticed, which is enough to prove that his self-protection methods have reached the extreme, and even the Secret Order's deep investigation can only touch the outer layer he deliberately exposed."

Lu Li nodded in agreement, reached into his pocket and took out a yellowed note, laying it gently on the table.

"In that batch of serpentine raw ore at the dock, there was a special variant mineral hidden."

"The mineral texture is special, and inside it is sealed a set of unactivated secret encrypted information. Its coding system and texture logic are completely homologous to the set of old archives sealed by the Secret Order for twenty years."

"If nothing goes wrong, it is precisely the secret clue left by this client's ancestor."

Sherlock stared at the note on the table, his gaze distant, slowly leaning back against the chair, looking up at the flowing morning light outside the window, his tone carrying a trace of heaviness: "The sealing of the ruins only represents the end of an old matter, definitely not the end of all storms."

"The tracks of the black sail ship wandering in Storm Cape have not ceased, Ince Zangwill is still at large, the undercurrents of the Psychology Alchemists have never stopped surging, and they are still secretly infiltrating all parties."

"All storms are advancing secretly, never stopping."

He looked down at the enamel cup in his hand, the cup body simple and unadorned, yet carrying a heavy past.

This was the cup that Captain Dunn Smith had used to drink his last cup of black tea in the lounge on the eve of his sacrifice.

After the captain died in the line of duty, Rozanne carefully put it away and sealed it in the deepest part of the pantry cupboard.

Later, this cup was included in Klein Moretti's box of martyr's relics, following him from Tingen City to the bustling and cold Backlund.

The object remains, but the people are gone.

Sherlock murmured softly, his voice deep: "The cup is still here, which means there are still unfinished matters waiting for someone to complete."

...

At the same time, outside the church adjacent to Mingde Street.

The warm sunlight covered the green grass, and the tree shadows were mottled.

Audrey Hall, dressed in an exquisite lady's long dress, walked slowly out of the church gate, her gaze suddenly attracted by a small figure under the tree.

Old Kohler's young daughter was squatting under the roots of the old locust tree, clutching colored pencils in her hand, focusing on drawing on her sketchbook, her eyebrows and eyes clean and gentle.

Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, the little girl looked up, saw the elegant Audrey, a warmth lit up in her eyes, and she took the initiative to open the sketchbook and hand it to her.

The colors on the drawing paper were soft, outlining the ordinary yet warm life of all beings.

In front of the old book exhibition hall stood an old man with white hair wearing copper-rimmed glasses, holding a heavy old book with a snake-shaped ring engraved on the cover.

On the stone bench of the church sat a figure whose face could not be seen clearly, the backpack adorned with eye-catching copper buttons, and a loaf of white bread placed quietly beside him.

In the distance at the street corner, a figure in a wide-brimmed hat walked slowly, carrying a box of brightly colored pencils, the outline gentle and hazy.

"Pretty sister, this painting is for you."

The little girl carefully tore the drawing page from the notebook, handed it to Audrey solemnly with both hands, her eyes pure and sincere.

"Thank you for the colored pencils you gave me before, I have drawn so many, many paintings."

"In here, there is a kind old grandfather, a warm-hearted bakery aunt, and that kind person carrying a copper-buckled backpack. I have never been able to find him, I have never seen his face, but I know he must always be there."

Audrey reached out and took the thin piece of drawing paper, her fingertips gently caressing the delicate brushstrokes, gazing for a long time, a soft touch rising in her heart.

The back view of the copper-buckled backpack in the painting was still blurry, without a clear face, and no one knew its identity.

But every copper button on the backpack was carefully depicted, and even carefully brightened with light gold paint, reflecting a fine and gentle shimmer under the sunlight.

She carefully put the painting into her handbag, and on the way back by carriage, she took it out to gaze at it again, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

Countless scenes, countless corners, churches, old book exhibition halls, dock warehouses, street shops... this nameless back view had quietly appeared.

He hid behind the crowd, wandering between light and darkness, silently protecting countless ordinary people caught in the Beyonder storms.

Audrey's eyes flickered, and she already had a plan in her heart.

Perhaps she could go and ask Mr. Moriarty for advice.

That intelligent and clear-headed private detective, wandering in all the secret corners of Backlund, accustomed to seeing light and shadow storms, might be able to see through the true tracks of this nameless good person from the scenes and details in the painting.

The fog still shrouded, and the undercurrents were still surging.