parentshiftbook Chapter 628 Inspection
Chapter 628 Inspection
Hans the blacksmith's house is a two-story stone house with a yard on the east side of the town.
The anvil sign at the entrance of the courtyard was rusted, and there were piles of unfinished farm tools and several pieces of scrap iron in the yard.
The once bustling sounds of blacksmithing were now completely gone, replaced only by the mournful whistling of the wind blowing through the eaves.
Old Hermann walked at the front, his hunched figure casting a long, thin shadow on the stone path.
He stopped at the gate of the courtyard and turned to look at the nine wizards behind him.
"Hans' youngest son is inside," the old man said in a hoarse but calm voice. "His name is Karl. He's fourteen. He watched his mother and sister die this morning, and now he's alone, refusing to come out."
The sorcerer in the dark blue robe nodded. "Let's go in. Be careful not to startle him."
The group crossed the courtyard and pushed open the half-closed wooden door.
The first floor houses the kitchen and living room, and the air is filled with a salty, fishy smell.
Jemin noticed that there was still half a pot of soup left in the iron pot on the stove, with a thin, grayish-white film on the surface.
The dishes on the table were not cleared away, and utensils were scattered all over the floor. A chair was overturned next to it... probably knocked over when someone suddenly stood up.
In the corner of the living room, a boy was curled up in a chair.
He looked younger than his actual age, his thin frame wrapped in an oversized coarse cloth shirt, his hands tightly wrapped around his knees, his face buried in his knees, and his shoulders trembling slightly.
Hearing footsteps, the boy suddenly looked up.
His face was streaked with tears, his eyes were red and swollen, and there was something in his pupils that transcended fear—a doubt about the world itself that arose after witnessing his loved ones die one by one.
He looked at the nine wizards who walked in, his lips trembled a few times, but no sound came out.
"Karl," old Herman walked up to him, his voice unusually gentle, "these are here to help us. They're very capable; they can handle that damn finger."
The boy didn't speak, but stared intently at Jemin and the others, his eyes looking at some kind of strange and incomprehensible creature.
The wizards didn't rush to approach. They looked at each other and finally, the one with the gentlest demeanor, Jemin, and another female wizard stepped forward as representatives.
Jemin took a clean cloth from his storage space, poured a glass of water from the table, and placed it on the coffee table next to the boy.
"Have some water." His voice was soft, with a calming quality that put people at ease.
The boy hesitated for a moment, then reached for the cup. His fingers withdrew when they touched the cup, as if afraid that there might be something salty and bitter inside.
"Where is the kitchen?" the young witch asked.
Old Hermann pointed to a door next to the living room.
The wizards went into the kitchen.
This is a typical artisan family kitchen, with a simple stove, sink, and cabinets.
The cabinet door was open, and the condiment bottles inside were overturned, clearly having been rummaged through.
Jemin’s gaze fell on the salt shaker beside the stove.
It was a rough pottery jar with an uneven glaze and the lid was half open.
Judging from the condition of the jar, it is clear that this salt jar is also newly purchased.
Through the gaps in the lid, you can see the white salt crystals inside.
And half a finger sticking out from the salt grains.
His skin was deathly pale, covered with age spots, and his fingernails were wet, as if he had just been pulled out of the water.
It just sat there in the salt shaker, like a foreign object that someone had casually tossed in.
It is exactly as described in the report.
Instead of rushing forward, Jemin stood around the salt pot with the other wizards.
Nine people, from nine directions, surrounded the small pottery jar in the middle.
"I'll go first." The wizard in the dark blue robe stretched out his hand, palm facing the salt shaker, and closed his eyes.
A pale blue light emanated from his palm, enveloping the entire salt container.
The light remained steady for several seconds, then he opened his eyes, his brows furrowing slightly.
"The energy detector didn't detect anything," he said. "It didn't release any form of energy fluctuation. The mental scan results showed... it's just an ordinary dead man's finger."
The witch beside her cast a detection spell. A faint blue light swept across the salt container, and she shook her head: "There's nothing unusual at the level of laws. To my perception, it's just a piece of dead organic matter, without any laws intertwining it."
Jemin didn't speak, but silently activated the Fate System.
The information processing network constructed by the incense and deity system was operating at high speed deep within his consciousness.
With his rudimentary knowledge of fate, Jemin "saw" countless streams of information converging from all directions, weaving a vast network of cause and effect.
He focused the network on the finger in the salt shaker, trying to capture its trajectory, causal clues, and any possible unusual information flow.
The result made him frown.
No.
There was nothing there.
In the numerology system, this finger is like a blank space, with no past, no future, and no causal relationship with anything.
No.
There was nothing there.
In the numerology system, this finger is like a blank space, with no past, no future, and no causal relationship with anything.
It exists, but its existence does not generate any information.
Jemin activated the All-Seeing Eye again.
After he advanced to the peak of the Void Refinement stage, the perception accuracy of his Omnipotent Eye reached a new level.
A golden light flashed deep within his pupils.
Everything in the kitchen changed in his view: the walls became a translucent energy grid, the embers in the stove showed the flow of fire elements, and countless tiny elemental particles shuttled through the air.
But that finger in the salt shaker...
It has no energy flow.
There is nothing "special" that can be detected by the all-seeing eye.
It looked like an ordinary, dead, slowly decaying human finger.
Jemin deactivated his pupil technique and shook his head.
"I can't see anything unusual either," he said.
The brows of all nine wizards furrowed simultaneously.
If a person cannot be detected, it may be due to insufficient testing methods.
However, the nine people, each with their own area of expertise and using different testing methods, all came to the same conclusion: there was nothing wrong with the finger.
It was clearly stuck in the salt container, killing forty-nine people.
The silence lasted for a few seconds.
"Wait a moment." A gaunt-faced wizard in a gray robe suddenly spoke up.
He had been using some kind of witchcraft to analyze the microstructure of his fingers since the beginning, and now his expression showed a subtle change.
"I tested its genetic material."
All eyes turned to him.
"What happened to the genetic material?" the wizard in the dark blue robe asked.
The gaunt wizard raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the crowd, his tone cautious: "Its genetic material is highly similar to that of the blacksmith Hans's family... including their youngest son who is still alive. While not exactly identical, the similarity far exceeds that between ordinary strangers."
The air in the kitchen seemed to freeze for a moment.
A thought flashed through Jemin's mind. He looked at the gaunt wizard: "Tell me more."
"Simply put, if genetic analysis were performed, this finger would be related to the Hans family."
"That's impossible," the young witch frowned. "Unless this finger came from a member of the Hans family."
"Does the Hans family have anyone missing a finger?" another wizard asked.
Jemin recalled the body he had just seen in the basement.
Not to mention the entire Hans family, he scanned all forty-nine corpses with his mental power and found no missing fingers during their autopsies.
He then looked at old Hermann.
The old man shook his head: "All five members of the Hans family had their fingers intact. I've also examined the other deceased; none of them were missing fingers."
Therefore, this finger does not belong to any of the deceased.
However, it is highly similar to the genetic material of the Hans family.
Jemin roughly understood how the finger worked.
"Let me see." A deep voice rang out from the crowd.
The speaker was a burly male wizard dressed in a tight leather outfit.
He hadn't said a word until now, and he hadn't even participated in the testing just now.
The burly wizard stepped forward and, without any hesitation, reached into the salt jar and pulled out the pale finger.
His fingers twitched slightly between his fingers, and water droplets from under his fingernails dripped onto the stove, making a soft "plop" sound.
"What are you going to do?" the wizard in the dark blue robe asked.
The burly wizard did not answer.
He stared at his fingers for a while, then, under everyone's gaze, opened his mouth and put his fingers inside.
The wizards present were somewhat surprised by his actions, but considering that the finger would reappear even if it was damaged, no one stopped him.
However, the fact that the wizards can remain calm does not mean that others can accept it.
Old Herman took a step back, his amber eyes wide open.
Carl was even more frightened in the living room.
The boy quietly walked to the kitchen door while the wizards were conducting their tests and happened to witness this scene.
Watching a strange, burly man shove that terrifying finger into his mouth, his face instantly turned deathly pale, his lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a sound.
Jemin glanced at the boy and couldn't help but recall his own embarrassing experience when he first encountered anatomy.
So he stepped aside to block the boy's view, his voice remaining calm: "It's okay, he's checking that finger. Don't be afraid."
The burly wizard chewed twice, his Adam's apple bobbing, and swallowed his finger.
Then he closed his eyes, placed his hands on his abdomen, and a dark green light shone from his palms.
It appears that this wizard is using his own body as an experimental platform to directly perceive the properties and reactions of the substances he is consuming.
The kitchen was so quiet that you could hear the faint sound of salt grains rolling in the earthenware pot.
A few seconds later, the burly wizard opened his eyes, his expression somewhat strange.
The salt grains are crystal clear and look no different from ordinary table salt.
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