Chapter 340

Chapter 297: Chaos

Tivyan, Coal Ash District.

On the outskirts of Tivyan near the western suburbs, in a secluded small forest, stood a large mansion. This five-story mansion had its own courtyard and fountain. Although it was located in the Coal Ash District, due to its distance from busy traffic areas, the building and courtyard were not very dusty.

This mansion quietly stood in a remote corner of the city, with closed doors and windows and locked iron gates, looking like an abandoned house. Only occasionally would a passerby glance inside when passing by the iron gate.

Inside the mansion, in a dimly lit room decorated with eye-catching furnishings, an elderly man named Alex sat on a sofa, stroking a wrapped scepter in his hand while frowning.

“Hmm… Still no movement. What are those black dogs interrogating? Who did they capture? Shouldn’t they be after Adele?”

Using his surveillance set up in the Storage Yard, Alex watched the movements of the hunters there. After the dust storm at Charred Wood Intersection, he lost sight of Adele and her group. Once the dust settled, the zombie puppet he had stationed at Charred Wood Intersection could no longer find any traces of Edmond and Adele. With only one bird zombie puppet under his control, he lacked the control that Dorothy had with multiple bird zombie puppets.

After the dust settled, Alex continued to monitor the area around Charred Wood Intersection. He saw Edmond’s subordinates and their carriages. He then directed his bird zombie puppet to follow one of the carriages to the Storage Yard, hoping to confirm Edmond’s success. However, he was surprised to find that although Edmond had captured someone, it wasn’t Adele but another young man he didn’t recognize. This left Alex quite puzzled.

“Who is that man? Is he also one of Adele’s lackeys? And he looks different from the one who was at the intersection earlier. Why did the black dog captain abandon Adele to go after him?”

Alex thought urgently, wishing to confirm Adele’s current situation. However, with the limited number of zombie puppets he could control, having only one active bird zombie puppet made finding Adele in the city very difficult. Thus, he focused on monitoring Edmond and his group instead.

“Hmph… This isn’t very useful. If Adele didn’t have the habit of changing her scent, who would use such a thing to find someone.”

Alex thought angrily as he took out a badge from his pocket and examined it. The badge had a small figure holding hands etched on it, clearly indicating it was a zombie puppet prop. In the Secret World, this type of extraordinary item seemed to be more common.

Although dissatisfied with the efficiency of the zombie puppet prop in his hand, Alex continued to use it to monitor distant scenes, keeping an eye on the hunters’ carriages near the Storage Yard. His bird zombie puppet stood on a streetlight about two hundred meters away from the carriage, too far to hear the interrogation happening inside.

At this moment, he finally saw the hunter captain come down from the carriage, his expression appearing very serious.

“They’re out? Did the black dog captain extract something?”

Thinking about what he saw through the zombie puppet’s perspective, Alex wondered. Just as he intended to continue monitoring, he heard a whistling sound from the sky.

Hearing this sound, Alex maneuvered the zombie puppet to look up, only to see a fierce eagle swooping down towards his bird zombie puppet. Alex tried to maneuver the puppet to dodge, but it was too late. The eagle grabbed his bird zombie puppet, and the view began to shake and turn red before going completely dark.

Thus, Alex lost his view of the Storage Yard. Through the final image transmitted by the bird zombie puppet, he realized it had been caught by an eagle.

“Eagle? How could there be an eagle here in the Coal Ash District!?”

Slamming his hand on the table, Alex said directly. The previous scene was so bizarre that it made him suspicious.

“Sigh… Could I have been discovered by those black dogs? Was that eagle trained or controlled by them? Or am I just unlucky, and a regular eagle spotted me?”

Alex thought to himself. To avoid drawing too much attention, he used a common small bird for surveillance. Although raptors fly higher and faster, they attract more attention. Given the limited number of zombie puppets he could control, Alex wouldn’t use them.

Suddenly losing the zombie puppet he used for surveillance made Alex feel uneasy. However, he still believed it might have been discovered by the black dogs and didn’t think his safety was compromised. So, he decided to continue controlling other bird zombie puppets to search the Coal Ash District.

…

Just as Alex planned to continue his investigation, on the rooftop of a tall building about five or six hundred meters away from his mansion, Detective Ed stood there in a trench coat, looking through a telescope at the distant mansion. Standing beside him was Adele.

“How is the situation over there?”

Adele asked Ed, who then put away the telescope and looked at the mansion, saying, “As you described, the mansion is very quiet. The doors and windows are all closed, and there are very few passersby nearby. It looks like it has been abandoned.”

Dorothy controlled Ed to turn around and face Adele, continuing the conversation.

“Why did you stop me from sending small flesh puppets to investigate? It seems like there’s no guard at all.”

“Hmm… It may seem unguarded, but there are many things inside. I don’t know why your small flesh puppets can shield spiritual perception, but dealing with that guy requires more than just shielding spiritual perception.”

Crossing his arms, Ed said to Adele. This caught Dorothy’s interest, and she manipulated Ed to ask, “Why not? What else is needed?”

“Because it’s Alex Crannd, a cadre of the White Chalk tier of the Wolf bl**d Association, and a werewolf on the path of beasts. You should have experienced the super-strong sense of smell provided by the Breath-Sensing Sigil. For werewolves, this effect is constant and even stronger. Any unfamiliar scent approaching a werewolf can be easily detected, and familiar scents can be tracked from several kilometers away. Even smells masked by stone powder can be detected by werewolves at close range.”

Adele explained to Ed, who often dealt with the Wolf bl**d Association. She naturally knew the names of some key members in Tivyan. Hearing Adele’s words, Dorothy frowned slightly and had Ed respond.

“So, you mean my small flesh puppets would be detected if they entered his mansion?”

“Exactly. Haven’t you seen? There’s nothing inside the mansion. Any unfamiliar scent would immediately trigger his alertness. You can shield spiritual perception, but you can’t mask scents.”

Adele explained, and Dorothy realized it was indeed true. Her Veil Ring provided extraordinary detection shielding, which could shield both spiritual and extraordinary perceptions, but not scents. Although she could cover the zombie puppets with stone powder to help them infiltrate, the powder would inevitably fall off during movement, greatly reducing its effectiveness. For living beings, stone powder worked much better on objects than on them.