Chapter 189: Close Behind

Chapter 189: Close Behind

Let’s set aside Zheng Yichen, who snatched someone and ran. Not long after he left the town, a group of people arrived there. Deya led them. This time, she was not acting alone. Considering the appearance of the Undying Witch, whose target was also Zheng Yichen, it would seem too simple if she worked by herself.

More people made it easier to handle emergencies. For example, if the Undying Witch found Zheng Yichen first, and they arrived later, Deya alone might be able to fight the Undying Witch for a while, but she wouldn’t have a free moment to do anything about Zheng Yichen.

Thinking of that Little Dragon’s nature… having more people was good. With a team, they could also prevent him from running away without a word during the fight. Believing he wouldn’t run? Might as well dream about Zheng Yichen suddenly having a change of heart, running to the Sanctuary Church’s doorstep, and crying out to surrender or something.

The Mages skilled in Prophecy Art could not directly locate Zheng Yichen, but they were all crafty old foxes. When the proper path didn’t work, underhanded methods turned out to be unexpectedly useful. If they couldn’t locate Zheng Yichen directly, couldn’t they just find clues based on the traces he left behind?

Such tracking made it too easy for them to discover some of Zheng Yichen’s traces. However, due to Zheng Yichen’s unique traits, this had to be done continuously, and they needed a fairly broad area. If too much time passed, even Prophecy Magic wouldn’t yield useful clues.

So, even though Deya had been acting alone before, the Sanctuary Church behind her had actually been working hard all along.

This town wasn’t large, and they didn’t track anything specific here; it was just a supply point… But after arriving, they found things weren’t that simple. Traces of the Undying Witch had also appeared here. A Spellcaster following Deya discreetly cast a hard-to-detect Detection Magic. “That’s right. Everyone in the entire town has been turned into Corpse Puppets. It happened over half a day ago. We cannot rule out the possibility that some Corpse Puppets have left.”

“This is a bit troublesome,” said an older member of the Sanctuary Church in the group, frowning. A Corpse Puppet out of control wouldn’t cause major trouble right away, but it would be hard to detect. Detection Magic for Souls, even basic ones, was much harder than some entry-level detection spells. Moreover, such Magic was quite niche and had a very narrow range of use.

Who would go around casting Soul detection spells on everyone they met for no reason? Were they that bored?

Anyway, the trouble this brought wasn’t too big, but it wasn’t small either. On a small scale, even if a Corpse Puppet went wild, if there happened to be a strong person nearby who destroyed it, then it would be fine. On a large scale, if a Corpse Puppet went wild in a place full of ordinary people, the consequences would be severe. A Corpse Puppet with plenty of blood and flesh grew very fast.

There had been disasters caused by overlooked Corpse Puppets before. And the stronger the Corpse Puppet was before it went wild, the greater the disaster it could bring.

So, if the escaped Corpse Puppets were ordinary people, that was somewhat better. But if they were skilled Mercenaries or Adventurers, the chance of a big trouble brewing was high.

“Let’s go gather some information first,” Deya sighed softly. The Undying Witch, as soon as she appeared, had already caused two major incidents. They hadn’t fully dealt with the situation from the last town, and not long after, here was another victimized town. Although this town seemed perfectly normal, even “welcoming” their arrival… The Sanctuary Church had a very good reputation in the Otherworld…

Anyway, taking advantage of this convenience, they quickly learned about recent events. It was a peaceful town usually. Apart from some local bullies and thugs acting like bad apples, daily life here was uneventful, as calm as water… Incidents caused by visiting Mercenaries and Adventurers were rare, so any slightly unusual information was quickly picked up by the Sanctuary Church.

—Probably!

For example, in the afternoon, a cloaked outsider came to the town. Without a word, he snatched away a beggar child. To take her away smoothly, he scattered so much money along the way that it could have directly bought that beggar child… no, several of them.

According to sharp-eyed townsfolk descriptions, when the cloaked figure scattered money, the hand that showed looked like bone, but not bone-colored—it was metallic. That was unmistakably Zheng Yichen… After all, based on the description, no Alchemical Puppet could pull off such a slick act.

“Currently, we can confirm that twenty-three people have left the town. One was taken by force. Among the remaining twenty-two, four were Adventurers, eight were townsfolk leaving together, and the rest were all Mercenaries. The Mercenaries’ accepted commissions have been verified at the Mercenary Guild, and their movements are tracked. People are already following them; results will come before tomorrow.”

“We could only track the movements of two Adventurers. The townsfolk went together to a nearby city for trade and purchases. The movements of the remaining two untracked Adventurers and the taken beggar child are unknown.”

A young-looking man dressed tidily stood before Deya, reporting the gathered information.

“No need to go into so much detail for me,” Deya shook her head. The accompanying team members had basically handled what needed to be done. She was good at fighting, but when it came to handling such matters, she was still far behind those who did this regularly.

“No, this is a necessary report,” the young man shook his head, speaking earnestly. “Ninety percent of the town’s situation is handled. A follow-up team is on the way and will arrive by the day after tomorrow at the latest. For now, leaving a few people stationed here can prevent the townsfolk from scattering. After resting, we can continue the operation.”

Now that they had confirmed Zheng Yichen had been lingering nearby, some Spellcasters from the Sanctuary Church could use this to lock onto Zheng Yichen more precisely. In fact, if the Corpse Puppet didn’t lack a Soul and wasn’t so hard to pinpoint with Prophecy Art, once they figured out the identity of that beggar child, as long as Zheng Yichen kept her with him, it would be like carrying a huge signal transmitter.

“Let’s proceed then,” Deya nodded. She didn’t resist the man’s words. Strictly speaking, she was combat personnel, while the man was more like a strategist. She had no need to interfere in areas she wasn’t good at. The only worry was whether the Undying Witch would find Zheng Yichen directly because of that beggar child Corpse Puppet he took…

“Little sister, I have a Lollipop here. Want some?”

“……” Still wearing those dirty clothes, but clearly a little beauty in the making, the beggar girl hugged her legs and looked at Zheng Yichen indifferently, as if not putting a dragon in her eyes at all!

Weren’t they supposed to be scared and crying?