Chapter 631

Chapter 447 Verification

Mador pondered deeply, but just as he was about to say something else, a sudden exclamation came from behind him.

“This, this… is impossible…”

Hearing the familiar voice, Mador immediately turned around to look at Bosk, who was crouched on the ground examining the body. Upon seeing the astonishment on his face, Mador furrowed his brows and asked, “What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with the corpse? Isn’t it a Stone Demon?”

“No, I’ve already verified the true identity of this corpse. He is the ‘Shattered Body Bongo’ of Dark Gold, indeed a Stone Demon; there is no doubt about that.”

Looking at the corpse before him, Bosk spoke with wide eyes, and before Mador could say anything more, he stood up solemnly to address Mr. Brandon in the room.

“Mr. Brandon, I have finished examining this corpse; there are no issues. Thank you to the master you serve for offering assistance. I, Bosk, have brought one of the chips prepared for that master, and it’s right here.”

As he spoke, Bosk opened another suitcase and politely handed an oiled paper package to Brandon. After receiving it, Brandon smiled and said, “Thank you both for your hard work. I need to report back now, so I will take my leave.”

With that, Brandon quickly left the room with the oiled paper package, leaving only the serious-faced Bosk and the puzzled Mador behind.

Glancing at the corpse on the stretcher in the distance, Mador’s expression turned peculiar as he walked directly towards Bosk.

“So, he is the Shattered Body Bongo? Hmph, I didn’t expect that this old guy would d*e; that’s one less trouble. But now that we can confirm it’s him, wasn’t your reaction a bit too much?”

Mador said this to Bosk, who after giving him a glance, pointed at the corpse on the ground and said, “Take a look at the wounds.”

“Wounds?”

Listening to Bosk’s words, Mador walked to the side of the stretcher, crouched down, and leaned in to examine the body lying on it. He soon noticed that the upper clothing of the corpse had been removed, revealing a very distinct wound on the chest.

It was a perfectly circular hole located in the left chest area, piercing completely through the torso. Upon seeing this hole, Mador’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“This is… an external injury?! And such a large one. The Shattered Body Bongo… shouldn’t it be a Stone Demon? How can there be such a major external injury…?”

Looking at the wound on the corpse, Mador murmured in disbelief. Bongo was a Stone Demon, known for having defensive capabilities akin to steel, a White Chalk Tier “Stone” Extraordinary Being. How could it sustain such severe injuries?

Mador contemplated how the mercenary could have dealt with a Stone Demon. It might have involved mental or spiritual interference, but such methods generally wouldn’t leave wounds. Perhaps the mercenary used powerful “Cup” power to gradually choke him to d*ath, but then the wounds wouldn’t look like this. Or maybe the mercenary used overpowering “Shadow” powers to shatter its armor; if that were the case, there should be various sharp instrument wounds, not a cleanly pierced hole.

When Mador and Bosk had first discussed the cause of d*ath of the Stone Demon from Trua, they had all agreed that it was improbable for a mercenary to defeat a Stone Demon in the material realm, yet it seemed that was exactly what had happened.

For a Stone Demon, even a rifle b*llet would only leave a light mark; what kind of attack could cause such a penetrative wound?

“Terrifying… To pierce through a Stone Demon like this, what kind of attack could achieve such power… The Shattered Body Bongo, dying from this kind of injury…”

“That’s not all. Come here and take a closer look at the inner side of the wound.”

Crouching beside the stretcher, Bosk pointed to the corpse and continued, and upon hearing Bosk’s words, Mador bent down to observe the inner side and edges of the wound, only to surprisingly find a circle of charred blackness.

“This is… a burn mark from high temperatures? This hole was actually burned through? Did he suffer from an extraordinary attack of fire?”

Looking at the soot marks on the wound, Mador blurted out, but suddenly realized something was off.

“Wait… wasn’t the Shattered Body Bongo a Stone Demon? Isn’t it supposed to absorb all elemental and spiritual attacks? How could it be burned through directly?! How high must the temperature have been… and how could the flames be concentrated enough to only singe a small area?”

Mador expressed his disbelief, and upon hearing this, Bosk sighed heavily before speaking again.

“Stone Demons are naturally resistant to all Elementalists… This is indisputable. If an Elementalist wants to forcefully k*ll a Stone Demon with elemental attacks, they would have to raise their elemental power beyond the Stone Demon’s limits, and that’s something a White Chalk Tier Elementalist could not achieve…”

Bosk stated seriously, and as he listened, Mador swallowed hard, recalling a recent fire incident he had read about in the newspapers. At the time, they thought the fire was unrelated to the Stone Demon.

If that place was indeed the scene, the presence of an explosion and fire clearly indicated a material plane battle had occurred, and generally, dealing with a Stone Demon in the material plane would require a fierce struggle. The scale of destruction seemed small, but now thinking back, there could be another explanation.

That is, the mercenary had a rank advantage over the Shattered Body Bongo, easily dispatching it without much effort, thus leaving minimal signs of damage at the scene.

Such a conjecture emerged in Mador’s mind, and it closely aligned with his previous assumption that the mercenary might have had a close trust relationship with someone from the Grand Workshop. Now it seemed that person might indeed be a high-ranking official within the Grand Workshop, as those closely associated with the Red Tier may well be Red Tier themselves.

“Could it be that the mercenary, the master that Brandon serves, is a Saint of Fire? Is he from the Church?”

With his speculation, Mador spoke to Bosk, who pondered before replying, “It’s very likely. If that’s the case… the Grand Workshop is cooperating with the Church militarily, right? Unless there are Saints of Fire in this world beyond the Church’s control.”

Bosk said earnestly, and for a moment, both of them felt as if they had caught a glimpse of some unspeakable secrets among the high ranks of the Artisan Guild, causing a slight chill to run down their spines.

“Don’t think too much about it; these levels of issues are not for us to consider. Let’s hurry and transport the body back.”

“Understood…”

……

In the early morning, at a high-end suite of another hotel in Trua, Dorothy was sitting by the window, having breakfast while placing her “Navigation of the Literary Sea” on the table. In her left hand, she held a grilled sausage, and with her right hand, she wrote on the book’s pages.

“They’ve completed the verification on their end; you can tell me the report now, right?”

After finishing her writing, Dorothy took a big bite of the grilled sausage, just as printed letters began to appear on the page.

“Is it already verified? That’s good; they are quite fast. I won’t go check the results myself; I’ll just tell you directly, neighbor. You want information about the Star Number Repair Association, right?”

“Of course. Do you know of any secret ruins related to the Repair Association? Preferably something larger.”

“I don’t know about secret ruins, but I can tell you about those who frequently visit them. Neighbor, have you heard of the Boneyard Society?”

“The Boneyard Society? What is that?”

“It’s a Treasure Theft Society, active in a wide range of areas, targeting various ancient ruins for excavation. They are the only society among many that has records of plundering multiple Repair Association ruins. Just by selling ‘Enlightenment,’ they have become one of the wealthiest Treasure Theft Societies, deeply interacting with the Star Number Repair Association.”