Deep Sea Embers

In the antique shop in the lower city of West Land City, Duncan was sitting behind the counter holding a copy of City State's weekly newspaper, looking as if he was reading the contents of the newspaper casually. Suddenly, his eyes blinked twice, and his originally somewhat distracted eyes refocused. Then he glanced at the newspaper in his hand and calmly turned it upside down.

The front page of the newspaper is printed with the recent major events in the city-state - His Excellency Bishop Valentine of the Deep Sea Cathedral will preside over a large-scale prayer event in the near future, and more than ten churches in the city will ring loudspeakers. Bells and whistles are sounded to call upon the power of the Storm Goddess to bring blessings to the city.

As a warm-up for this blessing event, Archon Dante Wayne expressed congratulations to the cathedral last night and sent gifts

The face of the city magistrate was printed on the front page of the newspaper - he was a middle-aged man with a serious expression, gray hair, tall and thin, and the most eye-catching thing was that he had a rather scary scar on his face. , a prosthetic eye replaced his original eyeball.

It was obviously the mark of a fatal accident.

Duncan's eyes slowly scanned the newspaper, and the face of the young judge named "Fana" emerged in his mind - the judge also had a scar near his eye, although it did not affect his vision. But it's enough to make people laugh.

He recalled recent intelligence gathering:

The governor of this city-state, Dan Fuliwei, is the uncle of Judge Feng Na, and the scars on their dangerous faces are said to have originated from the same accident, which happened eleven years ago in the "Sixth District" near the Cross Block. "There was a factory leak and a cultist riot. Dante Wayne and Vanna Wayne were injured by the thugs. The two people left permanent scars in the accident, which also prompted them to become staunch supporters of the Deep Sea Church. , and actively crack down on cult activities in the city-state...

This information is not a secret in the city-state. It can be found in official records and folk rumors. If you ask around in Xiacheng District, you will hear these things.

Eleven years ago again, another "factory leak" in Block 6

Duncan turned the newspaper to the next page silently, while his mind combined and sorted out the various clues he had collected recently.

The fragments of the sun, the fire in Nina's Chronicles, Nibe's recent nightmare, the accidents that happened to Judge Vanna and Archon Dante, and the girl of unknown origin "Shirley" who seems to be investigating the truth... "These things are all surrounding the "factory leak" in the Sixth Street District eleven years ago. Now the Sun Cultists are ready to move in the city again, and the "Sun God" behind them is a burning evil god. s things.

That thing is still asking for help.

Duncan doesn't plan to deal with the sun god yet, but he is a little worried that this unknown fire smoldering in the darkness will burn Nina.

The pigeon was released early in the morning by him to search for clues about the cultists in the city-state. It is still wandering outside. Nina is packing books upstairs and will leave for school soon. The street outside the shop is gradually becoming lively.

The sounds of cars and passers-by pass through

The door brings fresh vitality and vitality.

Brisk footsteps suddenly came from the stairs, and the old wooden floorboards made a slight creaking sound. Nina trotted into Duncan's sight, carrying her schoolbag in her hand and grabbing the bread for lunch in her other hand: "Uncle !I'm going to school!"

"Run slowly, don't fall, it's still early," Duncan glanced at the girl helplessly, and then thought of something, "By the way, today is your day to go to the museum?"

"Yes! I made an appointment with classmate - Gu!" Nina turned around with a bright smile on her face, "I won't come back for lunch at noon. I will go directly to the museum with my classmates. You can get something to eat by yourself." "I know, I know," Duncan smiled, waved his hand, and warned again, "Slow down, and pay attention to the car on the road..."

"Okay okay bye uncle!"

With the girl's crisp shout, brisk footsteps and the jingling of the bell at the door, Nina's figure disappeared from Duncan's sight. She crossed the road in front of the antique store and ran quickly into the morning light of Praland.

Duncan watched Nina leave, recalling the previous "home visit" and what the old Mr. Morris told him: Nina had few friends in school, and most of her classmates didn't like to deal with her. .

But even if she has few friends, it seems that there are one or two classmates with whom she has a good relationship. Some people are willing to invite her to go to the museum together, and it seems that she is very happy herself. This is of course a good sign. He had already inquired yesterday. The classmate who went to the museum with Nina was a quiet girl who also lived in the lower city. The two had only recently become friends and had a good relationship.

Duncan put down the newspaper.

Nina has already gone to school and won't be back in the afternoon. Today is a working day again, so there shouldn't be much business in the antique store. It's a waste of time to stay here and look at the store. Maybe you can go for a walk in the city and... investigate some things.

Duncan sensed Ai's current position in his mind, and gave the pigeon the instruction to "continue hunting." Then he put on his coat, hung the temporary rest wooden sign at the door, locked the store door, and came to the nearby area. station

There were a lot of people at the station. This time was the peak time for people to take the bus to work and school. Duncan mixed in the crowd and came to the sign next to the station and looked at the route map above.

His eyes fell on one of the lines - a location was clearly printed on it: Sixth Street.

av

Official records indicate where "factory leaks" have occurred.

Duncan withdrew his gaze and waited patiently in the crowd. Buses came and went. Several Cai Automobile-driven buses took away half of the people on the platform. After a long time, he finally saw an old bus. The old bus came swaying from the end of the road, and the number plate on the front showed that it was the one he was waiting for.

Duncan followed—the crowd piled into the car.

The old bus was overcrowded, and citizens rushing to work occupied all the seats and corridor space. Duncan silently squeezed in near the back door and waited patiently for the bus to start.

Accompanied by the hoarse and labored roar of the steam engine, the severely overloaded car started. The conductor began to walk hard through the sardine-like crowd, while greeting people to buy tickets and came to the vicinity of Duncan, dark blue

The uniform was so crowded that it changed.

shape.

"Sixth Street." Duncan gave the conductor a friendly smile.

However, the crowded conductor was obviously startled when he heard Duncan's voice, and asked as if he didn't react: "Ah? Where are you going?" Duncan frowned: "Sixth Street— —I saw it on the route map. Isn’t this train going?"

The conductor was stunned again, then looked up at the route map posted on the car next to him, and then nodded quickly as if he had just woken up from a dream: "Oh, of course, no one goes there usually, I forgot about it. ...Four pesos. No one usually goes to Block 6? It’s been eleven years since the accident, and the area around the factory hasn’t been rebuilt yet?

Duncan had some doubts in his heart, but he still bought the ticket calmly, and then watched the conductor squeeze back into the crowd like a warrior fighting against thousands of troops. The next step is to wait silently for the bus to arrive.

But at this moment, he suddenly felt a line of sight coming from nearby.

That gaze was very brief, as if it just glanced at him accidentally and then quickly moved away. However, Duncan's senses were extremely keen. He could not help but feel that the gaze was indeed "pointed" to him, and even looked away at that point. When he was there, he vaguely felt a sense of fear and avoidance, which made him immediately follow the feeling in his heart curiously.

The next second, he saw a short figure trying to dodge back among the crowded passengers at the rear of the carriage.

He saw the figure, and the figure also saw him - so the other person stopped instantly and stood stiffly on the spot, as if he didn't even dare to dodge. It was a girl wearing a black skirt. She looked about the same age as Nina. She also wore a strange collar around her neck. There was a small bell hanging on the collar, which was Shirley.

Duncan raised his eyebrows immediately, never expecting that things could be such a coincidence, and then squeezed in the direction of the girl - the latter had completely stiffened at this time, but looked nervously and even a little fearfully. Facing Duncan, who was walking towards him, he didn't even dare to turn his head, let alone continue to dodge.

Duncan slowly came to the other party and greeted the girl with a smile: "We meet again - are you going to school at this time?"

Shirley mustered up the courage to force out a smile. Although she had always expressed her intention to hug the boss in front of Ah Gou, now that she had realized how incompetent Duncan was, she smiled. It looked uglier than crying: "...good..."