99: Chapter 37 Tracking

The carpet search of the Old Industrial District lasted for three full days.

For days, Leonard would head out at dawn to investigate, weaving through stretches of dilapidated and desolate abandoned factories.

He checked the rusted wall panel interlayers, sealed hidden compartments, and blocked underground pipeline entrances one by one. Holding a notebook, he meticulously marked every trace of lingering spirituality, abnormal signs, and fissure marks, categorizing and clearly recording all suspicious clues.

Deep within his spirit body, Pallez Zoroast maintained a detached, spectator stance throughout. Occasionally, he would let out a short, soft hum, or speak up to remind him of an ancient Sealed Artifact rune on the verge of failing, or mock the deviation in his investigation direction. His words were few, stopping as soon as the point was made, never offering further explanation.

When investigating the fourth abandoned Textile Factory, a hidden clue finally surfaced.

Beneath the rotting floorboards of the old office lay a hidden secret passage. The entrance was tightly blocked by a rusted iron filing cabinet, showing no flaws. The stairs, deep and narrow, allowing only one person to pass sideways, wound downwards and disappeared into the depths of Darkness.

Leonard leaned down to investigate, his fingertips brushing against the cold, damp stone steps, instantly capturing the lingering spiritual aura.

On the surface of the stone steps, there lingered a layer of extremely faint yet highly recognizable fluctuations. It was the exclusive spiritual mark of a Sequence 5 Gatekeeper; without a doubt, it belonged to Ince Zangwill.

And covering this layer of familiar fluctuations was a wisp of an even thinner, colder, and extremely bizarre aura.

This pollution, which was dead, desolate, and carried the crushing pressure of fate, was identical to the aura left at the outer sealing node of the Chanis Gate in Tingen City years ago.

It was the trace of Sealed Artifact 0-08.

Like a layer of invisible, fine ash, it gently covered Ince's spiritual residue, intertwined layer by layer, inseparable, indicating that the two had overlapped and stayed here.

Following the narrow stairs down, the secret passage connected to an abandoned branch of the underground drainage pipe network in the Old Industrial District.

The pipe walls were damp and mottled, covered with dark green mold hyphae that had long since dried and turned black.

The hyphae were completely dehydrated and brittle, having lost all vitality, but the pattern of their growth was extremely peculiar—regular concentric circles, identical to the mold formation Ince used to locate nodes in the underground branch pipe of Iron Cross Street in Tingen back in the day.

Clearly, the opponent had replicated the same method in Backlund, using the special mold to mark hidden nodes.

It was just that these molds had been dead for a long time; a light touch caused them to crumble, turning into fine powder scattered on the ground, making it impossible to trace any fresh tracks.

At the deepest part of the branch pipe, there was a small, enclosed stone chamber.

In the center of the stone chamber's floor, a complete, ancient-looking spiritual rune was engraved.

The rune's lines were clear and intact, with no cracks from external damage, only the dark green crystal core embedded in the very center had completely shattered, and all the spiritual power stored within had dissipated, leaving it empty.

Scattered around the rune were several torn, yellowed pieces of paper, their edges curled and stained with dust, also lingering with a faint, elusive, cold aura of 0-08.

Leonard immediately took out a flashlight. The dim light pierced through the Darkness as he picked up the paper scraps one by one, piecing them together for comparison. Countless incomplete characters were all blurred, except for the edge of one page, which bore a line of incomplete Hermes script:

"...The Door has opened, Snake..."

His expression tightened slightly. He carefully placed all the paper scraps into an evidence bag to seal them, then gripped his Beyonder short staff and tapped it lightly against the shattered crystal core fragments of the rune.

"Hum..."

A vibration, so faint it was almost inaudible, echoed in the stone chamber as the remaining crystal fragments completely turned into ash, dissipating into the damp air.

Pallez, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke slowly from deep within his spirit body, his voice old and deep, hitting the key point with every word:

"This rune was not damaged by external force."

"It was destroyed by Ince himself. He used pure holy water to wash the crystal core, completely erasing all his own spiritual characteristics and destroying all traceable traces."

The old man paused, his tone carrying the calmness of someone who understood the whole situation:

"A Sequence 5 Gatekeeper, going to great lengths to mark nodes and set up runes, only to destroy them all by hand before leaving. This is not a hasty escape; it is a methodical cleanup."

"He is clearing away the old groundwork to pave the way for his next plan. Either he has found a better alternative node, or he is about to seize that key item capable of replacing the rune."

"Regardless of the result, it proves that he has never left Backlund; an unfinished scheme is still quietly advancing in this city."

...

Twilight fell, and the mist began to rise.

Leonard made his way to Mingde Street and stood in front of that familiar detective agency.

Inside the detective agency, the lights were warm. Sherlock Moriarty had just finished his day's work, with several completed assignment reports spread out on his desk.

One of the investigation reports on an abnormal incident at a Dock District freight company instantly caught Leonard's eye.

The conclusion in the report's main text was bland and routine, merely stating, "Internal employee theft; dispute resolved, case handed over to the police," appearing to be just an ordinary public security incident.

But in the attached file of the report, there was a detailed maintenance record of the Dock District's underground pipe network.

The record was in black and white, clearly marking several traces of spiritual residue of unknown origin. Their locations were only a few hundred meters away from the Textile Factory secret passage entrance he had discovered today, with the areas highly overlapping.

Leonard's gaze slowly lifted, landing on the bookshelf in the corner of the desk.

On the top shelf, a common enamel mug sat quietly.

The cup's walls were covered with fine cracks, with transparent tape stuck on the inside of the cracks, simply repaired, looking slightly old. There was no tea or water in the cup, only a thin layer of dust, standing quietly, unused by anyone.

In an instant, familiar scenes suddenly flooded his mind.

The enamel mug in Dunn Smith's office, the exclusive mugs for every Nighthawk in the Zoutland Street team lounge, the gentle past belonging to everyone in the Tingen team...

A trace of imperceptible bitterness and doubt quietly entwined in his heart, but he quickly suppressed these chaotic thoughts.

At the moment, tracking down Ince and uncovering the secret conspiracy was the top priority.

He returned the maintenance record to its original place, leaving no trace of it having been moved, then quietly turned and left the agency, walking towards the increasingly foggy Water Pump Street.

Inside the old bookstore, the lights were dim and yellow.

The shop owner, Old Eye, was holding a feather duster, slowly wiping a newly stocked set of old prints. Hearing the door open, he just casually lifted his chin, his expression bland, not asking the reason for the visit.

"Do you have any old maintenance archives for the Dock District's underground drainage pipe network?" Leonard asked directly.

Old Eye lowered his head to search for a moment, then pulled out a few yellowed, tattered thread-bound booklets from the bottom of the bookshelf and placed them casually on the counter: "Old archives discarded by the municipality, recording the early pipe network layout, branches, and maintenance traces. Don't take them all at once; someone else is also checking this batch of materials."

Leonard leaned over and opened the booklets, his gaze quickly scanning the dense, old handwriting and hand-drawn diagrams. Soon, in the crevice of the title page of one of them, he found a folded, thin slip of paper.

The pencil handwriting was faint, the strokes clean and crisp, the style as familiar as ever.

[The underground stone chamber and secret passage are real, the mold colonies are all dead, and the rune was self-destructed by Ince.]

[He intends to clean up traces and hide his tracks, rather than flee Backlund.]

[It is recommended to expand the search scope, focusing on comparing all abandoned spiritual anchor points with structures similar to the Chanis Gate sealing nodes.]

[Additionally: Codename Traveler, can provide support and intelligence assistance at any time.]

At the end of the note was still that minimalist snake-shaped ring emblem, silent and secret, echoing mysteriously.

Leonard pinched the cool slip of paper with his fingertips, was silent for a few seconds, then folded it properly and tucked it into his inner pocket.

He continued to check the old pipe network diagrams and soon captured a key clue in a corner circled in red.

The diagram clearly marked a hidden backup drainage branch pipe, branching and extending, with its endpoint pointing directly to — the Old Wharf in the River Bay District.

This location was close to the abandoned Textile Factory where the Aurora Order had once set up a formation, and also near the black market's permanent potion shop and the factory stronghold where the Aurora Order's remaining personnel were hiding.

All the scattered clues converged and connected at this moment.

He returned the archive booklets as they were, pushed open the door and walked out of the old bookstore, stepping into the damp and cool evening mist of Backlund.

The evening breeze, carrying the faint smell of coal smoke and the fishy scent of the river, hit his face. Leonard's gaze was calm as he looked towards the distant, misty River Bay.

Ince Zangwill was still hiding in Backlund.

He was methodically clearing all old traces and covering his past movements, just to conceal the key plan that was about to be implemented.

And the landing point of this next step, which had been dormant for a long time and was ready to strike, was now incredibly clear —

The depths of the underground pipe network at the Old Wharf, River Bay District.

A new tracking and confrontation was already close at hand.