"This way, when you change the bullet, you can just take out a plate, bend it into a round shape, and push the bullet head into the corresponding hole."
It does sound like a lot less hassle.
But inexplicably, Hitzfeld remembered the time when the woman was injured and unconscious, and he searched her body but couldn't find any healing ointment, and finally he searched for treasure in her... mountains.
Could it be that Xia also hid a board of bullets there?
Glancing to the side, she felt that this was very likely.
Prince Gaunt couldn't wait any longer. He made a gesture and agents rushed out to the street and began to surround the yard of the old house.
Xia Yibing pinched the girl's leg again, quickly stood up, and took her with her.
Chapter 89: Roaring Fragments
There were figures moving around in the moonlight, along with the flickering light of flashlights and the barking of dogs, adding a bit of tension to the night fog.
With so many troops mobilized and the target being only one person, Gunter had obviously given up the idea of quietly capturing the person and was ready to force him to surrender.
When Hitzfeld and the other man rushed into the yard, "Villefort" had already been subdued by the police officers.
Several people pressed him to the ground with his back facing up, twisted his hands behind his back and put handcuffs on him.
Several police dogs brought in just in case were barking at him. Their cries were shrill and sounded a bit chaotic in his ears.
The entire arrest process went smoothly without causing any trouble.
But when they escorted Villefort to his feet and turned his face to the light, everyone was still shocked.
His face was rotten.
No, it should be said that his face came alive.
The whole face turned into a ball of flesh paste, as if someone had covered it with some mushy yellow mud as a prank, and the facial features were trembling rapidly with the distortion of the flesh paste.
Under the gaze of everyone including Gaunt, "Villefort's" facial features were gradually drawn into the vortex of flesh paste. His slightly opened mouth formed a deep flesh hole, in which his eyes, nose, ears... even his scalp were drawn, forming a spiral flesh pit that was egg-shaped and bald when viewed from the back and side, and severely concave when viewed from the front.
"What the hell is this?" Gaunt said with a disgusted expression.
Hitzfeld was the first to walk through the crowd to the strange man and began to feel his body.
"Aisun!" Xia Yibing rushed over and grabbed her hand tightly with a stern expression.
"I'm already a Devourer..." Hitzfell's voice stretched out.
The underlying meaning is obvious: I can’t be easily infected by other dirty things.
Xia Yibing was obviously still hesitating, and Hitzfeld took the opportunity to break free from her and continued to grope the weirdo, saying at the same time: "It's not just his face that disappeared, the fat on his body was also sucked in."
The police officer who was escorting the strange man was stunned and loosened his grip slightly, only to find that the strange man was about to fall down as if he had lost his strength.
"What's going on?" Gaunt came up with a frown and saw them laying the thing flat on the lawn. "Is he... is he dead?"
"Probably, but I can't be sure right away..." The mustachioed man who followed him during the day was also there, imitating Hitzfeld's method of "touching the corpse" while explaining: "This thing showed the same appearance as him before... It must have been disguised in some way. I guess it involves corpse puppet technology, that is, they found a suitable carrier, added some extra flesh and blood tissue to him, and forcibly turned him into that appearance."
"Who is lying here now?"
“…We are investigating.”
Gaunt was a little irritated.
This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as it shows that Hitzfeld's speculation is correct. The Eclipse Church is not satisfied with just stealing the sword and book, and they are indeed looking for other items to be contained.
But if all the effort is spent only to capture a corpse... in other words, only a puppet is captured, then it proves that the information is of little use.
On the contrary, it might alert the enemy, making it much more difficult to set a trap next time.
"He should be dead." The man with a mustache was finally sure of this.
I felt the person for a long time but couldn't find a heartbeat or pulse. The body was as cold as if it had just been taken out of a freezer. It would be a miracle if the person was still alive.
They took off the thing's coat and tore off all the cloth that was wrapped around its body. The stench of decay became increasingly evident in their nostrils.
The clothes were cut open with a knife and the inner linings were turned inside out and exposed on the lawn.
The surface of the liner of each piece is a mess, with a lot of skin and flesh tissue stuck on it, and the bloody smell mainly comes from this.
The smell of decay came from the body. Gaunt noticed that it had undergone tremendous changes. It had become extremely thin and there was no skin on its surface. The pink and crimson muscle tissue was completely exposed.
"It's a corpse puppet."
Xia Yibing made a conclusion about this thing.
"I've dealt with corpse puppets more than once, and I'm sure this is it."
Gaunt kicked the bushes in anger, causing branches and leaves to fly.
Disappointment was brewing on everyone's face.
They originally thought they could catch a big fish, but the enemy was more cunning than they imagined. They were reluctant to send even one member and used the man-made evil spirit, the corpse doll, to investigate.
"I remember that the controller of the corpse puppet is usually not allowed to stay too far away from it?"
Gaunt called the mustache to give orders.
"Is the perimeter blocked?"
"Blocked!"
"Then investigate—we must find them even if we have to turn Huaining Street upside down!"
Still a little anxious.
Hitzfeld looked at the long-haired young man and was a little curious about what the result would be if Villefort was in charge of the arrest operation.
He shouldn't send a large number of troops right away.
They may follow the corpse as it retreats, trying to find the hiding place of the evildoer behind it.
It was useless to say anything now, she had given up hope for the next round of manhunt.
Without the elite fighters gathered here, the police officers on guard outside...
Although they were considered elite compared to the Gray Clothes, they were still not able to stop the evildoers and accurately identify them from the crowd...
Shaking her head, she squatted down and continued to touch the corpse.
The police officer nearby immediately responded with admiring looks.
Corpse dolls...are very dirty.
According to legend, the technology used to make corpse dolls belongs to the category of "black magic" - some also call it "necromancy". In short, it is tainted with ominousness from the inside out.
A single corpse cannot be used to make a corpse puppet because its strength is too low. In the past, many dissections of corpse puppet samples have confirmed that they are made up of multiple corpses.
The only exception is the extraordinary ones.
When a transcendental person dies, his corpse alone can be used to make a corpse doll.
Therefore, this corpse may be a gathering of countless wronged souls and sins, and it is even possible that every piece of its flesh and blood, and every bone of it comes from a different victim.
Dealing with dirty things is the Shadow Lion's duty, but no one wants to touch dirty things extra.
She is so dedicated, she is indeed a good detective.
"Ms. Hitzfeld."
The mustache man came over and admonished her.
"We have carefully checked the coat and found nothing unusual... You can go back with Agent Xia Sha."
"Of course, thank you for your thoughts, and I say this without any sarcasm..."
"Do corpse puppets have intelligence?"
The girl interrupted him.
The man with a mustache was stunned.
"No." Xia Yibing replied, "Their behavior and intelligence usually depend on their controller."
This was valuable information obtained from the Golem Curse case, and she was deeply impressed.
"Then can the controller release the spirit through the corpse puppet?"
"Ms. Hitzfeld." The mustache frowned, "What do you want to say?"
"I think the enemy must have considered the possibility that there is no ambush here."
Hitzfeld's hands kept moving.
She even asked the police officer next to her for a sharp dagger and started hitting the corpse.
"There's no ambush. They sent this thing here to look for something...right?"
"This……"
"But the corpse puppet has no intelligence and cannot understand orders. One night is obviously not enough for them to control it to search the mansion and the yard. So why did they only send one?"
"Aisun!"
Prince Gaunt didn't know when he came closer to listen, and he couldn't help but interrupt her.
"You mean, they have a way to make sure they find that thing!?"
"...and this method is on the corpse doll?"
"I didn't say that."
As soon as he finished speaking, the back of the knife hit the corpse's back.
Bang bang bang!
The movement and sound are obviously different from tapping other parts of the body.
Just then, the corpse moved.
Its right hand was raised upside down, and five bloody fingers grabbed Hitzfeld hard.
Isn't there a hole in this thing's head?
Gunter and others were all shocked.
If the corpse doll's head is destroyed, it will lose its ability to move. How could it be that——
With a dull "bang", Xia Yibing grabbed its wrist tightly.
She quickly sank her body down, pressing her left knee on the back of the corpse's neck and spreading her right leg to step on the coccyx.
"I'm holding it down."
"You take the things."
The other police officers finally reacted and rushed forward to hold down the corpse. They were ashamed that they had been in a daze just now.
Hitzfeld glanced at the woman, raised the corners of his mouth, and began to cut the flesh on her back with a dagger.
The corpse struggled frantically, but with Xia Yibing and others holding it down, it couldn't break free.
The flesh and blood were cut open layer by layer.
Wearing the leather gloves handed to him by a kind person, Hitzfeld reached in and fumbled around for a while, then exerted force and slowly pulled out a leather package from his body.
The color of the package is dark brown.
Xia Yibing's face looked a little ugly.
The special texture of the wrapped surface looks like human skin...
Hitzfeld cut open the package and carefully pulled out a thin wooden board.
The wooden board is engraved with lines of characters, and pictures are engraved below the characters using the intaglio method. The edges on three sides are flat and smooth, except for one side which has a recessed slot.
It was as if it originally belonged to a larger wooden structure and was removed from that structure.
"what is this?"
Gaunt squinted at the board.
"The Book of Howling."
Hitzfeld said softly.
"They tore it down, and this is one of the remaining pages."
But there was one thing she didn't explain.
