No, no!
Where's the notebook?
Luo En frantically rummaged through his satchel. If he hadn't been on the street, he would have dumped everything out of his bag.
Oh, fate! Why do you treat me like this?
"I mustn't be impatient. I need to calm down."
"At this time, I should find the police."
"Wait… I'm a Transmigrator!" Luo En was a bit annoyed. In his understanding, Transmigrators and the Official were enemies.
Although the police might not see that he was a Transmigrator, he himself was also a Beyonder. If he were found out, he would not have a good outcome.
Moreover, that notebook must be related to Beyonder, and if the police discovered something, and he was also a Beyonder, then it would be impossible to explain.
Could it be that Diviner, who deliberately pretended to be asleep to distract me, then used some unknown ability to steal my notebook?
After all, Sequence 7 of the Seer Pathway is called Magician. It would be very reasonable if he knew some kind of illusion.
"That doesn't make sense either. When I left, I specifically felt around in my satchel with my hand, and I did feel that notebook."
Wait!
Seer… Clown… Magician…
That Circus seems to have them all.
Luo En felt like he had discovered some secret.
"Could it be that the Circus is full of Beyonders?"
"And they are all from the Seer Pathway."
"So, is it a group crime?" Luo En lowered his head, his face looking a bit grim.
"No, this is just a guess, and if that were truly the case, every Circus would be highly suspicious."
"It shouldn't be that much of a coincidence."
"In any case, I should search the path I took to get here first."
An hour and a half later, Luo En sat dejectedly by the roadside. He had searched the entire path he had taken, and even returned to the Circus, but still found nothing.
The employees at the Circus also looked very normal, and he didn't see any signs of guilt.
Now the clue was broken. The only thing he could be sure of was that the notebook had mysteriously disappeared after he left the Circus.
But his satchel was still intact, with no holes or other damage, so the notebook certainly wasn't simply lost.
"Could it be a pickpocket? After all, with the crowd around the Circus, it's not impossible for a few thieves to be mixed in."
"Fortunately, I put all my money in my inner pocket, otherwise I probably wouldn't even have money for the fare." Thinking of this, he felt inexplicably relieved.
He rose somewhat dejectedly, intending to return to Azure Hotel first to see if he could use divination to determine the whereabouts of the notebook.
Luo En took out a few coins from his Pregnant, intending to find a public carriage, but he had only taken two steps when he suddenly noticed something unusual.
'The spiritual intuition of a "Monster" is quite sensitive; it's impossible for a thief to steal something from my bag without me feeling anything at all!'
As his thoughts deepened, Luo En realized many things were amiss.
"I'm usually so cautious, how could I go to a Circus with such a large crowd while carrying such a precious item?"
"Even if it was for relaxation, even if I had never seen a Circus before, it shouldn't have been like this!"
"Isn't it better to just lie on the hotel bed and relax?"
"But I didn't. Was I out of my mind?" For a moment, Luo En fell into self-doubt.
"No, this is definitely not as simple as my own carelessness." Luo En shook his head, refuting this idea. He wasn't that muddled yet.
"Whatever the reason, everything that happened today was too coincidental, too unreasonable."
…
In Tingen City, a certain clumsy Author suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
…
Azure Hotel, Luo En, who had searched around on the street with no success, could only return.
"Meow~" Lachi, lying on the bed, let out a joyful cry when she saw him return.
But she seemed to have sensed the negative emotions overflowing from Luo En, and chose to quietly shut up, continuing to close her eyes and sleep.
Luo En came to the desk, took off the pendulum from his wrist, and prepared to perform divination.
There was no other way; he had searched everywhere he could. Now, only divination was left.
"My notebook is still in this city."
The pendulum rotated slightly clockwise, indicating affirmation.
Luo En was not surprised by this result.
"That notebook was stolen by someone else."
This time, the pendulum didn't have much reaction; it just twitched slightly and then stopped moving.
Luo En knew that this situation meant there wasn't enough information for divination.
In other words, the divination failed.
"Could it really be an accident?"
…
The next morning.
Morning fog, laden with coal ash, condensed into a gray veil in the alley, as Old Tom's square-toed leather boots crunched over shards of glass in the cracks of the flagstones.
As an antique dealer with a bit of money, he wouldn't have walked down this dirty alley if he weren't in a hurry to conduct business.
He pulled his coarse wool coat tighter and quickened his pace.
"Just around this corner, and I can avoid the sour smell of the dock area."
His boot suddenly slipped, and he stumbled, grabbing onto the damp brick wall.
"What?!" The sudden situation startled him.
Blood, black-red viscous fluid, streamed from the base of the wall all the way to the center of the road. A grotesque corpse lay in the middle of the alley.
But he wasn't that panicked. He had traveled extensively for so many years and had seen a lot.
He picked up his silver-plated cane and poked the tip of it at the corpse's ribs, while also examining the body before him.
"Ragged clothes, a copper ring on a severed finger. Sure enough, it's a pickpocket kid from the dock area who didn't live past twenty. How unlucky!"
The death of such a minor character was a common occurrence in this era, and Old Tom had no intention of bothering to report it to the police.
He rubbed the tip of his cane against the brick wall and was about to leave when he suddenly noticed something next to the corpse, like an old dog's nostrils twitching at the scent of rotten meat. He stopped and leaned closer to examine it.
It was an old-looking book with a black cover. The antique dealer's intuition made him stop.
He subconsciously swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Parchment? No, this tanning method… This should be something from the Fourth Epoch, at least several hundred years old. Damn it, where did this kid get it…
A rustling sound came from the alley. Old Tom's movement to snatch the book and stuff it into his embrace was swifter than when he stole a widow's silver cutlery in his youth.
As he stood up, he felt an unusual sensation under his foot and suddenly realized he was stepping on the corpse's severed neck.
With the scraping sound of his boots repeatedly rubbing against the brick wall, Old Tom quickly left the alley without looking back.
…
…
"Young Master Welch, how about it? This is a genuine ancient text, passed down from the Fourth Epoch."
"I put in a lot of effort to get it." Old Tom excitedly introduced the ancient text he had just picked up to the young man in front of him.
For this, he even concocted a story about treasure, which left the person opposite him stunned.
Seeing the young man named Welch pay cheerfully, his face creased with wrinkles from his wide smile.
"A wise choice. You definitely won't be disappointed."
…
…
"What should I do to find my notebook?" Looking at the mystical item box in front of him, Luo En asked this question.
A few seconds later, a note appeared out of thin air in the box, on which was written:
"10 days later, go to Iron Cross Street in Tingen City."