West Tivian, Coal Ash District.
On the outskirts of the Coal Ash District, near the western suburbs of Tivian City, in a secluded small forest, stood a massive mansion. This mansion had five floors and its own courtyard and fountain. Although located in the Coal Ash District, it was situated away from the bustling traffic, so not much dust had accumulated on the buildings and courtyard.
The mansion stood quietly in this secluded corner of the City, its doors and windows shut tight, its iron gate locked. At first glance, it looked like an abandoned house, with only occasional passersby glancing inside as they walked past the iron gate.
Inside the mansion, within a brightly decorated yet dim small room, an elderly man named Alex sat on a sofa, stroking a cloth-wrapped staff in his hand while frowning.
"Hmm... still no movement. What exactly are those Black Dogs interrogating? Who did they catch? Shouldn't they have gone after Adele?"
Using the vision he had set up at the depot, Alex monitored the movements of the Hunters there. After the dust was kicked up at Carbonwood Crossroads, he temporarily lost sight of Adele and the others. After the dust settled, the Corpse Puppet he had placed at Carbonwood Crossroads could no longer find any trace of Edmund and Adele. Only being able to control one bird corpse puppet, he lacked the control that Dorothy had with multiple bird corpse puppets monitoring simultaneously.
After the dust settled, Alex could only continue monitoring Edmund's subordinates and carriages that were still at Carbonwood Crossroads. He then had his bird corpse puppet follow one of the carriages to the vicinity of the depot, wanting to confirm Edmund's success. However, what surprised him was that although Edmund had captured someone there, it wasn't Adele, but another young man whom he didn't recognize. This instantly left Alex feeling very confused.
'Who is that man? Is he also one of Adele's followers? And he's different from the one who was with her at the crossroads. What did he do to make that Black Dog Captain give up on Adele and turn to capture him instead?'
Alex thought urgently to himself. What he wanted most at this moment was to confirm Adele's current situation. However, the number of Corpse Puppets he could control was limited, with only one active bird corpse puppet. It was very difficult to find Adele who had disappeared into the City, so he could only monitor Edmund and the others, whose targets were more obvious.
'Hmph... this thing isn't very useful either. If that bitch Adele didn't have the habit of changing things to cover her scent, who would use this kind of thing to find someone.'
Alex thought resentfully to himself, while taking out a badge from his person and examining it in his hand. The badge was engraved with a pattern of small figures holding hands. It was clearly also a Corpse Puppet item. In the hidden world, this type of Extraordinary item did not seem to be unique.
Although dissatisfied with the detection efficiency of the Corpse Puppet item in his hand, Alex did not discard it. Instead, he continued to use it to monitor the distant scene, keeping an eye on the Hunter's carriage near the depot. The bird corpse puppet he controlled was standing on a lamppost more than two hundred meters away from the carriage. Fearing detection by the Hunters, he did not let the bird fly too close, so he could not hear the content of Edmund's interrogation on the carriage.
And at this moment, he finally saw the Hunter Captain get down from the carriage, his expression appearing very grim.
'He came out? Did that Black Dog Captain interrogate something out of him?'
Seeing this scene through the Corpse Puppet's vision, Alex thought to himself. Just as he was about to continue monitoring, he heard a whistling sound from the sky.
Hearing this sound, Alex controlled the Corpse Puppet to turn its head and look up at the sky. He saw a majestic eagle flying down from the sky, swooping directly towards his bird corpse puppet. Alex wanted to control the Corpse Puppet to evade, but it was too late. His bird corpse puppet was snatched by the eagle's talons, and the vision he had through it began to blur with blood after a shake, before completely turning black.
Just like that, Alex lost his vision of the depot. From the last image transmitted to him by the bird corpse puppet, he knew it had been preyed upon by an eagle.
"An eagle? What a coincidence! How could there be an eagle in the Coal Ash District!?"
Slapping the table, Alex said directly. The scene just now was too bizarre, making him feel suspicious.
'Hiss... Could I have been discovered by those Black Dogs? Was that eagle trained or controlled by the Black Dogs? Or was I simply unlucky and targeted by a regular passing eagle?'
Alex thought to himself. To avoid attracting too much attention, the bird corpse puppet he used was a common small bird found in the City. Although using a bird corpse puppet of a raptor for scouting could fly higher and faster, it would also be more conspicuous. Alex, with his limited number of controllable Corpse Puppets, would therefore not use one.
His Corpse Puppet used for monitoring was suddenly eliminated, which gradually made Alex feel that something was off. However, he still thought that perhaps the Black Dogs had discovered the Corpse Puppet and didn't feel that his own safety was compromised. Therefore, he planned to continue controlling other bird corpse puppets to continue the search in the Coal Ash District.
...
Just as Alex was planning to continue his reconnaissance, outside his mansion, on the rooftop of a tall building five or six hundred meters away, Detective Ed, wearing a trench coat, stood here, holding a telescope and looking towards the distant mansion. Standing beside him was Adele.
"How are things over there?"
Adele asked Ed beside her. Ed put away the telescope, gazed at the distant mansion, and replied.
"Just as you said, the area around that mansion is very deserted. None of the doors or windows are open, and there are very few pedestrians passing by. There's no one inside the mansion walls either. At a glance, it looks abandoned."
Putting away the telescope in his hand, Dorothy controlled Ed to turn around and continued asking Adele.
"It feels like there's no security over there at all, so I'm a bit confused. Why did you stop me from sending in small flesh puppets to scout?"
"Heh... it only *looks* like there's no security. There's a lot of stuff inside. I don't know why your small flesh puppets can block Spirituality perception, but against that guy, just blocking Spirituality perception isn't enough."
Crossing her arms, Adele said to Ed. Her words piqued Dorothy's interest, and she controlled Ed to speak.
"Oh... just blocking Spirituality perception isn't enough? Why?"
"Because he is Alex Kronde, an executive of the Wolf Blood Society's Chalk rank, a Werewolf on the Treading the Path of the Beast. You should have experienced the super strong sense of smell brought by the Finding Breath Seal, right? For Werewolves, this effect is permanent and even stronger. Any unfamiliar scent that approaches a Werewolf can be easily distinguished and smelled by them. For familiar scents they remember, they can track them from several kilometers away. At closer distances, a Werewolf's sense of smell can even detect scents that have been masked by Stone Wisdom Powder."
Adele said this to Ed. Having frequent dealings with the Wolf Blood Society, she naturally knew the names of some important executives of the Wolf Blood Society in Tivian. Listening to Adele's words, Dorothy furrowed her brows slightly, then had Ed respond.
"So you mean, if my small flesh puppets enter his mansion, he will smell them?"
"That's right. Didn't you see? There's nothing inside the mansion walls. As soon as any unfamiliar scent enters, he will immediately smell it and become alert. You can block Spirituality perception, but you can't block scent, right?"
Adele said this, and after thinking for a moment, Dorothy realized that it was indeed the case. Her ring of concealment provided Extraordinary detection shielding, which could block Spirituality perception and Extraordinary perception, but it couldn't do anything about scent. Although she could wrap the Corpse Puppets in Stone Wisdom Powder before sending them in, during the movement of the small Corpse Puppets, the applied Stone Wisdom Powder would inevitably flake off, greatly reducing its effectiveness. For living beings, Stone Wisdom Powder is far less effective than for objects.
"Such a powerful sense of smell, is this a Chalk Werewolf?" Listening to Adele's reminder, Ed exclaimed with emotion, and Adele also nodded in response.
"Yes, those guys all have noses like dogs. To prevent them from remembering my scent by chance, I spray different special perfumes every day to change the smell on my body. It's quite troublesome..."
"If a Werewolf deeply remembers a scent, by carefully sniffing, it can distinguish the remembered scent within a range of over ten kilometers and find the direction. However, fortunately, this deep memory process requires being very close."
Adele said so, and after hearing her words, Ed also slightly furrowed his brow.
"But if that's the case, any unfamiliar scent entering that mansion will be smelled, so won't we be unable to sneak in?"
"If we don't go in, then we don't go in. Didn't you say you already notified those Black Dogs? They know their target is Alex, right?" Adele said with a smile, wagging her finger. Hearing Adele's words, Dorothy had Ed nod in response.
"Yes, I just helped the Hunters get rid of the flesh puppets monitoring them. They are now rushing towards this mansion. I used the previous 'captive' to reveal Alex's name to them."
Ed responded this way. Since Edmund was coming over, they couldn't leave Alex's Corpse Puppets monitoring them. Dorothy had already controlled the eagle corpse puppet she had prepared earlier to deal with Alex's bird corpse puppet. In Tivian, a capital city with developed trade and abundant resources, raptor corpses were not too difficult to find.
When she was in Igwinte, because ordinary bird corpse puppets couldn't carry bombs, Dorothy had the idea of making some raptor corpse puppets. When she arrived in Tivian, she specifically took the time to get this done.
"If it's been revealed, then it's easy. Those Black Dogs also know who Alex is. They have a way to get close. We'll just wait here."
Adele said so. Hearing Adele's words, although Dorothy felt doubtful, she still listened to her and waited quietly for the Hunters to arrive.
After a short while, Dorothy saw from a high-altitude perspective that a large black carriage was driving along the road towards the mansion and stopped at a place relatively far from the mansion. Edmund and his subordinates got off. After getting off, they observed the distant mansion from afar but were not in a hurry to act, seeming to be waiting for something.
From the high-altitude perspective provided by Dorothy's Corpse Puppet, another carriage drove over in the distance and stopped directly beside Edmund's carriage. A group of other Hunters got off. They were led by a middle-aged gentleman dressed appropriately with a small mustache. After getting off the carriage, he began conversing with Edmund. The status of the two seemed equal.
"Those Hunters have arrived, and they've called for reinforcements. Looking at this, it seems like another Chalk Captain."
Standing on the rooftop, Ed said to Adele. After listening, Adele raised her eyebrows and spoke.
"Another Chalk Captain? Heh... As expected, after hearing that the opponent is Alex, they chose to seek reinforcements from headquarters? In terms of prudence, the Black Dogs have always done quite well."
Adele said frankly with a hint of a smile. Knowing that the opponent was a Chalk level combatant, Edmund's choice was not to have himself, a Chalk, go one-on-one against the opponent, but to immediately use his method to call for people from headquarters, ultimately bringing another Chalk level combatant over to form an absolute advantage. This is the more correct choice for the side with the intelligence advantage.
From Dorothy's high-altitude perspective, she saw that after the new Captain exchanged a few simple words with Edmund, they both looked towards the distant mansion. Then they gave a few instructions to their subordinates, telling them to spread out and be on alert. After that, the two resident Captains walked towards the mansion together.
As they approached the mansion, Edmund and the mustached Captain applied two seals to themselves. Their figures began to become somewhat blurry and indistinct. After that, the two of them began to sneak into the mansion together, extremely lightly and agilely. Soon, they entered the interior of the mansion without triggering any alerts.
"Those two Hunter Captains went in. Aren't they afraid of being discovered by Alex? Aren't Werewolves' noses very sensitive?"
"It's probably quite difficult for Alex to discover them. Most Black Dogs are'Shadows', and ordinary Extraordinary detection methods are useless against them. And as Wind Manipulators, these Black Dog Captains can slightly manipulate the airflow around them, keeping the scent they emit contained near them and not spreading out. If there's no wind to carry the scent to a nose, a wolf's nose, no matter how sensitive, is useless."
Adele said so. Hearing her words, Dorothy immediately understood why these two Hunter Captains were able to sneak in.
To put it simply, scent needs to diffuse into the air and spread using the air as a medium. Those two Captains, being Wind Manipulators, can control wind and airflow, so wouldn't hiding their own scent be easy? As long as a Wind Manipulator wants to, a Werewolf shouldn't even think about smelling their scent.
"I see, this is a professional counter."
Listening to Adele's explanation, Ed nodded in understanding and spoke, while Adele continued to speak.
"Exactly. The Wolf Blood Society in Tivian has had many conflicts with the Black Dogs. These wolf cubs have been suppressed by the Black Dogs many times. This is one of the reasons."
Listening to Adele's words, Dorothy on the distant carriage nodded. Adele truly deserved to be a senior Chalk level Extraordinary who had operated in Tivian for many years. The information she provided was quite useful to Dorothy.
Ed and Adele continued to look towards the distant mansion. After gazing for a moment, Ed seemed to have thought of something and murmured again.
"This time, Alex has been infiltrated by two Chalks, and he seems unaware of it for now. I think he's in for more bad luck than good this time. If the Hunters rely on surprise to quickly deal with Alex and rapidly control the entire mansion, it won't be good for us either. We need to find your teacher inside this mansion."
"Hmm... That's right. A great advantage for the Black Dog Bureau isn't necessarily a good thing for us either, and we can't let the teacher ultimately fall into the Black Dogs' hands..."
Adele affirmed Ed's words, and Ed immediately responded with a wave of his hand.
"So, we need a little chaos. Only with chaos can we fish in troubled waters." Dorothy had Ed say this. Now the two Chalk Captains had already sneaked in, and the Werewolf Alex seemed not to have noticed yet. Dorothy's method for creating chaos was simple: cause some trouble for Edmund and his colleagues, letting Alex discover the intrusion now, making them fight, and turning Edmund's stealth mission into a direct confrontation.
What Dorothy needed now was chaos, chaos that would allow her to fish in troubled waters, not a situation completely controlled by the Hunters. Therefore, she controlled her flying Corpse Puppet, which was originally high in the air and keeping its distance from the mansion, carrying the small Corpse Puppets she had prepared, and formally flew towards Alex's mansion, flying in and scattering them inside. The unfamiliar scent carried by these small Corpse Puppets was enough to make Alex inside notice that someone had invaded his mansion.
After doing all this, Dorothy began to wait patiently. Sure enough, not long after her Corpse Puppets entered the mansion, a howl erupted from inside.
"Go to hell! Black Dogs!!"
"Boom!!!"
Accompanied by a huge roar, the windows on the fourth floor of the mansion shattered almost simultaneously. Violent airflow wildly blew out from within, making whistling wind sounds. Then, wave after wave of intense noise erupted from inside the mansion, and a large amount of messy debris was blown out of the windows by the strong wind.