If you asked Leticia where there might be clues, she would name one place—a place she had never been to but would definitely never forget.
"Though there's no blood relation with that person, I still feel it's not that simple." Standing before the weed-covered gate, Leticia held an umbrella, her expression somewhat complex.
This was the residence of that criminal during his lifetime. After she sent people to end all life here that night, it had remained in this ghostly state.
No matter how good the weather was outside, once you stepped into the manor's territory, the weather would immediately change.
Continuous rain, when it hit people, would make them feel a strange coldness.
But under the protection of the parasol gifted by Flora, Leticia felt no discomfort at all.
Thanks again to Flora—her gift was really very useful.
Brown boots stepped on the muddy path, leaving a string of small, cute footprints.
This place had been without human presence for too long, and combined with the year-round rain, it had become an extremely unsuitable place for human habitation.
Leticia came here because she felt this place definitely held secrets.
The connection between Mo Zili and that criminal was obvious. When she was abandoned, only that criminal had suffered defeat and fled the position in disarray.
Accidentally dropping a baby at that time would be normal, right?
Though she and Mo Zili weren't father and daughter, for her to be brought along with the army, Mo Zili and that criminal definitely weren't completely unrelated.
Right now, Leticia could say she had no clues whatsoever. The only clue she could find was here.
"I hope you won't disappoint me." Leticia passed through the dark red path and came to the already rotted wooden door.
Then she furrowed her delicate brows.
The door had been opened, and by violent means.
"Someone came here?" Leticia muttered to herself in confusion.
She put away her umbrella and stepped into the dim interior.
Casually snapping her fingers, light orbs emitting gentle illumination flew from her fingertips, illuminating the entire house brightly.
Dilapidated—this was Leticia's first impression of this place.
Dense spider webs, rain mist drifting in from broken windows had corroded the wooden floor to black. Leticia didn't dare step hard, fearing these boards couldn't bear her weight and would break.
"Already left? Looks like I came a step too late." There was no trace of other people in the entire house. Leticia felt that whoever had come here before her had already left.
She might have arrived too late.
But since she was here, she should take a good look around and see how that criminal had lived during his lifetime.
The first floor didn't have much worth seeing—just ordinary living room, kitchen, dining room and such. After wandering around, Leticia didn't discover anything noteworthy.
The second floor was the living area. Leticia first toured the study, and here she completely confirmed that someone had been to this place.
On the dusty floor were three very clear sets of footprints, all leading to the opened bookshelf, which was obviously missing several books.
Clearly, someone had reached this place before Leticia and taken away several books.
As for what books they were, Leticia had no way of knowing.
She wasn't some omniscient being. Faced with this situation, she could only rack her brilliant little brain.
But a brilliant little brain wasn't a cheat-enabled little brain. Without any clues, how could she guess?
"But when we inventoried this place before, we should have recorded the names of all the books here, right?" Leticia muttered to herself.
Though out of disgust for that criminal, she hadn't confiscated these items to the national treasury but left everything here, someone should have recorded all the various items here before.
She just needed to check the archives and compare to see which books were missing.
"These are the remaining books." Committing the names of the remaining books to memory, Leticia lightly moved her fingers, using magic to open the desk drawer.
Inside the drawer were some very ordinary things, most already rotted beyond recognition. Leticia even saw a large cockroach corpse cut in half lying in the drawer.
Looks like the previous visitor was startled by this big cockroach. Otherwise, why would the cockroach's death be so miserable?
"Tsk tsk tsk, good thing I had foresight." Leticia closed the drawer again and planned to look elsewhere.
Then, when she turned around, she saw a palm-sized spider slowly dropping down from the ceiling.
The spider was obviously trying to control its descent, but the thin thread from its rear seemed completely unable to support it.
What the hell was this thing?!
Leticia hated these bugs most of all!
Instinctively throwing a fireball to cremate the spider, Leticia fearfully cast a flame shield on herself so she wouldn't have to worry about more bugs getting near her.
Leaving the study, Leticia toured the second floor and found that her predecessor had also wandered around like her, but nothing much seemed to be missing from the rooms.
Perhaps those few books were the most important items.
"Let's go back and see which books are missing. This place really makes me not want to stay even a moment longer." Leticia sighed. She had found some clues, but didn't know if they could guide her to explore the truth hidden beneath layers of fog.
Just as she was about to leave, the entire house began to tremble slightly.
"An earthquake?" Leticia quickly flew out of the house through the window that had long lost its glass.
She could feel that it wasn't the house shaking, but the ground beneath the house.
How could the already decayed house structure withstand such devastation? The moment after Leticia flew out, this house that had been eroded for many years completed its mission, becoming ruins amid rumbling sounds.
"What the hell..." But beneath the ruins, a powerful force began to emerge. Leticia frowned. What was this?
A hidden boss?
Wait, why were those two people rushing out from the ruins?
"Stop!" Leticia instinctively reached out her hand and clenched hard toward the direction those two were fleeing.
A pair of flaming hands appeared out of thin air, blocking the two people's escape route.
But the next moment, the flaming hands were shattered, and the two people completely disappeared into the rain.
Leticia wanted to pursue too, but the giant monster emerging from underground blocked her steps.
Actually, the monster's strength wasn't very strong. Leticia didn't take much time to deal with it.
Just casually throwing out a few spells, Leticia successfully knocked the monster down so it could only whimper.
Though she defeated the monster, she couldn't find any trace of those two people, which made Leticia somewhat unhappy. Those two definitely held important clues, and letting them escape like this was too frustrating.
"Your Majesty!" Several attendants waiting outside the manor hurried to Leticia's side.
They had originally wanted to help Leticia deal with this monster, but before they could enter attack range, Leticia had already taken care of it.
The Demon King's combat ability was as formidable as ever.
"Did you see those two who escaped?" Leticia waved her hand, and a giant flaming sword fell from the sky, burning the monster rolling on the ground to ashes.
This thing looked too disgusting. Leticia didn't want it to stay in this world even a moment longer.
The attendants all shook their heads. They had rushed in after the house collapsed, taking no more than half a minute, but they indeed hadn't seen the two people Her Majesty mentioned.
This wasn't because of poor eyesight. To become Leticia's attendants, they could be considered top-tier among demons in every aspect.
If even they couldn't detect them, it only proved one thing—those two people's concealment abilities were indeed impressive.
"Heh, looks like this place indeed hides some secrets. Otherwise, so many people wouldn't come here." Leticia snorted lightly. "Send people to clean up the ruins here quickly. I want to see results within three days."
"Yes!"
"Let's go back. I need to check some materials in the archives." Leticia had no attachment to this place. The house was gone, so be it—there was nothing useful anyway.
And where that monster had emerged was probably severely damaged now too.
Currently, the most important thing was to find those two who escaped. Setting aside everything else, this monster was definitely released by them.
Finding them would provide answers to many questions.
As for whether they could be found—well, that was indeed a problem.
After all, in just the blink of an eye, Leticia had lost her spiritual lock on them. Even before that, she could only barely lock onto them with her mental power.
With the naked eye, she could only vaguely see two black shadows. She knew nothing about their age, build, or appearance—basically equivalent to having no clues at all.
And who were these two people? Obviously, they were Bai Ling and Mo Zili, who she had brought out from the academy yesterday.
"She saw us." Pulling Mo Zili to run to a relatively hidden place, Bai Ling finally stopped.
The distance just now was really too close, and they were both wearing the suspicious black robes favored by dubious people—this was basically writing "I am a bad person" on their faces.
Leticia's attention was obviously attracted, and Bai Ling also sensed the mental lock from the Demon King.
If she hadn't quickly increased the distance while Leticia was held up by that monster for a few seconds, Bai Ling would probably have been caught by Leticia already.
If truly locked onto by Leticia's aura, even for Bai Ling, escaping would be difficult.
Fortunately, the monster they accidentally awakened attracted Leticia's attention and blocked her line of sight. Though it only lasted three or four rounds under Leticia's hands, it was enough for Bai Ling to escape with Mo Zili.
"Hah, sorry, I didn't think something like this would happen." Mo Zili leaned against the wall, panting heavily.
She had just curiously touched the black gemstone on the table, not expecting it to shatter and release such a huge monster.
That commotion—if Bai Ling hadn't been quick to grab Mo Zili into her arms, Mo Zili would probably have been crushed into pulp by the suddenly appearing monster.
Seeing the underground chamber about to be burst by the monster, Bai Ling cut out a passage with one sword and rushed out with Mo Zili. Their encounter with Leticia happened at that moment.
Then they ran all the way here.
"That place was indeed wrong." Bai Ling had no intention of blaming Mo Zili. She didn't think Mo Zili did it intentionally. If she hadn't been beside her, Mo Zili would already be dead.
Someone deliberately seeking death?
Bai Ling felt Mo Zili wasn't that stupid.
Besides, being unable to control one's hands was something everyone experienced. For example, when Bai Ling played games before, she would also can't help pressing those colorful buttons and then get herself and Leticia killed.
Though Leticia would always scold Bai Ling crazily after being killed, when the next button appeared, Bai Ling would still press it and once again get herself and Leticia killed.
In games, she could respawn infinitely. In reality, she had nearly invincible strength, so she felt this was fine.
As long as she could protect those around her, unless she encountered opponents at Leticia's level or above, she was confident she could eliminate them before they harmed those she wanted to protect.
"But why did you know there would be a passage to the underground there?" This was what Bai Ling was curious about.
After entering the manor, Mo Zili had been in a mystical state. She first led Bai Ling to the study and opened the desk drawer.
Then the big cockroach in the desk was cut in half by the frowning Bai Ling.
Mo Zili took a key from the drawer, then led Bai Ling back to the first floor, opening the hidden door to the basement in an extremely concealed corner.
Unlike the desolate and decayed surface buildings, the underground passage was abnormally clean—no dust, and oil lamps on both sides of the path burned quietly.
Orange lamplight illuminated the path ahead. Bai Ling and Mo Zili walked like this to the basement where the black gemstone was placed.
The basement contained quite a few paper documents scattered about. Just as Bai Ling was about to examine them, Mo Zili touched that black gemstone.
The monster appeared. Bai Ling only had time to stuff the papers she had just picked up into her pocket. The rest were probably all turned to confetti now.
"I don't know either, but I had a feeling of being guided. Something was guiding me to that place." Mo Zili answered quietly.