139 A Study of Blood Words I

Early morning in downtown, dawn had not yet come and everything was still in darkness.

"Last night, the police office received a message," Lestrade stood at the crossroad and said to the man beside him. "The man who betrayed the professor was found. He contacted us on his own prerogative.

"After betraying the professor, he should have left Avalon secretly by boat last night. Unfortunately, the Professor somehow suddenly controlled all the smuggling routes. The guy was cautious and sent a man to take his place first. When the guy didn’t come back after five minutes, he ran.

"His buyer behind the scene had abandoned him, and he had no choice but to turn to the police for help. The guy said in the message that he knew a big secret about the Professor, an absolutely unbelievable secret. If we want to know the secret, we need to save him immediately.

"When we received the message, we quickly organized a brigade of police to help him. The director personally applied for the 'Silent Authority, ' which is used to deal with musicians.

"Unfortunately, it was too late." Lestrade sighed. "When the police arrived, all they found was a body. The upper part of the body was burned to ashes, as if it had been thrown into an incinerator, but the lower part was intact.

"According to the coroner's report, he was still alive when his body was lit—he burned to death. Even most of his blood had been vaporized. He died in the flames of hell. The only clue was a line of words that the man had written in blood before he died."

"Where are the words?" the man known as Holmes asked from the shadows.

Lestrade pointed back at the house. Almost half of it was charred. "It’s inside. The crime scene is well protected. I know you are concerned about the Professor, so I took it from the inspection—"

"Wait here." Holmes interrupted him without emotion. Lestrade’s smile stiffened. He stood at the crossroad awkwardly, and waited obediently.

When they brushed shoulders, a small bag was thrown into his arms. A hoarse voice sounded by his ear. "You did a good job. This is your reward."

Stunned, Lestrade opened the packet to see dense handwriting written on a stack of papers. He immediately became ecstatic and no longer dared to complain.

--

"What did you give to him?" Bai Xi whispered after he entered the room.

"Another part of the Pyramid King’s scheme. It includes some of his trade channels." Ye Qingxuan shrugged. "Anyway, we still have enough for at least ten more times. This guy is kind of interesting. Let’s just have some fun with him."

"..." Bai Xi pursed her lip, not knowing what to say. She looked around at the messy and cramped room and all the charred things. "What are we doing here?"

"To find a big secret. The Professor’s big secret." Ye Qingxuan looked around, searching carefully.

"Why don’t you just fight him?"

"There’s already a big difference between our abilities. If you don’t even know your enemy well, and you try to fight him, there’s no way you’ll win. Our aim is to force the Professor to withdraw from the fight for the Blood Path. Or at least ask him to let go of me, the Eastern kid…"

Ye Qingxuan stopped searching suddenly. He looked at the center of the wall and exclaimed, "That’s it!"

-

In the dilapidated room, Ye Qingxuan looked up and gazed at the vague handwriting on the wall. It had been two days since the crime was committed. The blood at the scene had faded, but the original shape could still be seen.

The walls had been painted white. Now they were blackened by flames, but one could faintly see the dried blood. That was the mark the traitor had left before his death, but it seemed to have no patterns and no meaning at all.

Even as Ye Qingxuan thought of all the languages he knew, he still could not figure out one that matched with the strange handwriting. The music notes were the same, but the handwriting looked as if it had been written casually, like a child’s doodles.

If one was forced to explain it, it could be understood as a variant of calligraphy, but that type of writing required time and energy. How could a dying person who was on fire write something like that?

"How bizarre." Ye Qingxuan gazed at the bloodstains on the wall and shook his head slowly.

By his side, Bai Xi was bored enough to roll her eyes. "What if he did it for fun?"

"How could a man getting burned to death and suffering to that extent have the energy to write something like that for fun?"

Ye Qingxuan understood that this was the guy's revenge. Even if he was killed, he would reveal the Professor's achilles’ heel and let others kill the Professor to avenge his own death…But why would the Professor appear? It was too reckless if it had been just for revenge. If he were the Professor, he would definitely take it for now and find another chance.

It could be concluded that the traitor must had been the Professor's confidant who knew many things that he should not have known, including the Professor’s biggest secret! The professor was badly injured now and needed to recuperate. All of his allies had abandoned him, betraying him under the hunt by the parliament. It could be said that he was weak as never before. How important must the secret be for the Professor to personally go out and risk being killed by the police?

The policemen might not be very powerful, but one must not forget that they were from the police department. As long as they had the Silent Authority, they could send a signal at any time and call up the silent enchantment over Avalon. At that time, the aether would be suppressed until it was useless. A musician would essentially be powerless.

Moreover, the musicians stationed at the headquarters could arrive at any time. If the commotion became messy, it could attract the attention of the Garrison Corps. If he had bad luck, the leader of the garrison that day would be a knight of the round table, and then the best solution for the Professor would be to commit suicide. 

The Knights of the Round Table were the defenders of the knight's virtues and the supremacy of the armed forces in Anglo.

Before King Arthur had died, he had sealed his phantom beasts into twelve sacred sets of armor. He gave them to his knights who were asked to guard the empire he had established for eternity. The Knights vowed to guard Anglo with their lives, gaining the recognition of the twelve sacred armors, and came to possess extraordinary powers. The terrifying power that the armor contained was equal to that of the saints. Just one millionth of the power was enough to defeat any musician.

So...What secret was big enough for the Professor to risk being besieged to personally kill the traitor?

Ye Qingxuan fell into deep thought.

"Why are you so interested in the Professor?" Bai Xi asked. "Is it because you two are fated?"

"Stop kidding. That guy is still after my head." Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes. "I was thrown into all this for no reason, you know. I obviously need to find out who started the rumors. I'm also curious about whose attention I’ve caught."

"You suspect the Professor?"

"It’s possible. When everyone was still skeptical, he was the first person to declare that he wanted the kid. He must have evidence to prove that I have something to do with Avalon’s Shadow. Or does he want me to join him because I’m so attractive?"

"...Cousin, you’re self-love is getting to be as shameless as Charles."

"I'm flattered," Ye Qingxuan accepted the praise unabashedly. The result was getting kicked on the shin by Bai Xi.

"Then you have figured something out?"

"Almost, almost." Ye Qingxuan rubbed his painful shin. "Let me look again."

Bai Xi pursed her lips. Looking around at the ruins, she shook her head. "Look at this mess. Only a saint could find anything."

"Not necessarily," Ye Qingxuan muttered. "Sometimes, a ruined site reveals more." He looked around in the silence. Suddenly a glimmer of enlightenment flashed through his eyes. "It’s a murder!"

And then he was kicked by Bai Xi. "No sh*t! Everyone can tell it’s a murder. Would you believe me if I said I even know who the murderer is?"

Ye Qingxuan shook his head. "No, I mean the whole process was part of the Professor’s plan, including the traitor's escape."

"Are you saying that the Professor deliberately let the traitor go?" Bai Xi was stunned. "How do you know?"

"It’s easy. Look at the whole room." Ye Qingxuan stood at the door. "If I have some dirty secrets, I’ll choose somewhere to hide and prepare everything. The least I’ll do is conceal and closure, right?"

"No sh*t."

"Then here is the question." Ye Qingxuan looked around and asked, "How did the Professor get in?"

Bai Xi thought for awhile and looked at the broken door. "It’s obvious. The door was smashed in. Didn’t he enter through the main entrance?"

The youth shook his head. "Kicking the door in is the most barbaric way. Our lovely professor likes using his brain. How could he kick the door in?"

"Then how did the door break?"

"It’s simple." Ye Qingxuan fiddled with the fragments of the door on the floor and put them together. Looking at the cracks, he laughed. "As I assumed, the door was smashed in by a hammer. The police equipment...They probably saw this strange state and just rushed in," he said. "This kind of hand-held hammer is made by machine springs and power. Even an iron gate can be smashed instantly."

"How do you know it's a hammer?" The girl rolled her eyes. "You haven't seen it before."

"I have," Ye Qingxuan replied lightly. "I don’t think you’d ever forget it if your door was smashed in by a hammer once."

"..." Taken aback, Bai Xi did not question further and changed the topic. "Why not from the window, then? The window is broken too."

"That’s even easier to understand. If the window had been smashed from the outside, the glass shards should have fallen inside. But now the shards are all outside with scorch marks. That's because when the Professor used a music score to ignite the man, the flames expanded, and then everything exploded."

"So it’s not the window or door and there is no other entrance. There’s not even a skylight. So how the h*ll did the Professor get in here?"

"Well, there are two possibilities."