Bab 3138: Chapter 2287: Late Autumn in Jincheng (40)_1
A black gown dragged along the slightly damp floor while Talya landed and looked toward the richest greenery, but she did not see Pamela.
"What's going on? Weren't we supposed to meet in the garden?" she muttered with slight confusion and walked towards the outside of the garden.
Just then, her nose twitched slightly as a breeze from the corner of the south side of the garden brought a subtle scent of blood.
Talya's first thought was that someone in the kitchen might be preparing food. Although she was a battle-hardened female assassin, her sense of smell wasn't sharp enough to distinguish between human blood and pig's blood.
Contrary to what many might imagine, not all the scents at upscale parties were pleasant; various smells of ingredients would drift from the kitchen, with blood and the offensiveness of raw sewage usually being the most intense. The smell of blood could also come from women on their periods, it wasn't a particularly unusual scent.
However, turning her head, Talya saw that the manor building was to the north, while the south housed the estate's back door. Besides the large garden, there was nothing else, clearly no place there for handling fresh food ingredients.
After standing and waiting for several tens of seconds without seeing Pamela, Talya knew she must have been held up by something else, but more worryingly, the blood scent might be coming from her.
Considering what Talya knew about Pamela, this seemed unlikely, but she decided to check it out anyway; after all, they needed Pamela's help to carry out their plan.
Talya followed the direction of the wind past the central tree of the garden, bypassed the tool room beside the east wall, and found herself at the southwest corner of the garden.
The area appeared somewhat neglected, obviously not yet developed. A brick path was laid out as though to enclose patches of particularly fertile soil. Talya surveyed the shape of the plots and guessed Shiller might be planning to grow vegetables here.
Continuing forward, she crossed the small vegetable garden to reach the back door of the garden, but it was locked. Behind it lay the dimly lit old estate area, only the lights of Gotham River visible in the distance across the horizon.
The blood scent was growing stronger here, yet still faint. After circling the area for some time, Talya used her rich experience to deduce that the smell might be coming from underground.
In fact, there weren't many other possibilities. The area was all low bushes and plots of earth, with nowhere else to hide anything—the only likelihood was a cellar.
Talya knew that an estate of this size must have a cellar, which was often beneath the garden. Due to less advanced building techniques when these manors were constructed, wooden and stone buildings couldn't support as much weight as steel-reinforced concrete, so building a cellar directly under the main structure risked collapse. Hence, placing it beneath the garden was common practice.
She began to search the vicinity for an entrance to the cellar and finally, at an intersection of two small paths within a square bush seemingly decorative, she found an old, rusty iron door.
The camouflage made excellent use of optical illusion, making it seem as though the square bush was impenetrable, but there was a small gap close to the wall, invisible unless one went all the way to the back.
And since the wall behind was visible from the front, most would think it unnecessary to go around. The ground there was exceptionally loose, making even Talya, who was deliberately looking, hesitate a few seconds before deciding whether to step through and risk dirtying her shoes.
Fortunately, she was cautious, and she eventually chose to go through and discovered the entrance to the cellar.
Upon entering the center of the square bush, the smell of blood became much more pronounced. With care, Talya put on her gloves, took off her high heels, and stood barefoot on the edge of the concrete platform, crouching down to examine the rust on the door.
If no one had opened a door for a long time, rust would accumulate on the hinges. But if it had been unused for a while and suddenly opened recently, the rust would show signs of friction. From the depth of the marks and the degree of re-rusted surfaces, one could approximate when the door was last opened and how many times it had been used recently.
Upon inspection, Talya found that the door had last been opened that day, but had not been used for a long time prior, suggesting that this was unlikely a storeroom for party ingredients, as it would have been frequently accessed for the preparation of the banquet over the past week.
Talya then examined the lock on the cellar door and realized that it was locked from the inside, which meant there must be another entrance to the cellar, probably leading into the manor itself.
After some thought, she took out a small lighting device from her bag, but rather than shine it directly into the crack of the cellar door, she walked towards the direction of the manor building, simulating the manor's lights and casting a distant glow.
Good, it was a simple and practical bolt, meaning Talya had a way to hook it open from the outside.
This was familiar territory for Talya. Her earring was shaped like the eye spot of a peacock feather; the outer part was a ring of metal filaments surrounding a golden sequin. Once the sequin was removed, the metal filaments essentially became a wire loop.
She then took out a fishing line from her bag, tied it to the wire loop, and was able to slide it through the gap in the cellar door. With a few tries, the wire loop would catch on the iron rod of the bolt.
Once it was certain the loop was on, she used the uneven surfaces of the wire and rod for friction, slowly pulling the rod outwards. Talya adjusted a few times, finding the fastest and quietest angle.
But then she took the wire loop out and targeted the handle of the bolt from a different direction. The bolt was essentially a lever; when inserted, both ends were equally heavy, but as it was about to come out, the handle side would be heavier.
If she simply pulled the front part of the bolt, the handle would fall as it disengaged, hitting the iron ring that secured it and making a noise.
However, if Talya pulled from the handle side slowly, she could keep the handle from knocking against the iron ring, maintaining silence throughout the process.
Talya adjusted the tools for a while and, after hearing a quiet click, she finally managed to open the door without any mishap.
She retrieved her tools, turned around to hide her high heels beneath a nest of grass, and grasped the cellar door with her fingertips, slowly lifting it at an excruciatingly slow pace.
To prevent the door from being blown over by the wind, Talya's hand never left the door, yet she twisted her body agilely, and after turning, she set one foot on the ladder.
After her first foot had touched the ground, she decisively turned to face the inside of the cellar to avoid exposing her back to any potential danger, and so she descended slowly with one hand holding the cellar door.
The cellar was completely dark; Talya dared not light a lamp. Her feet detected some damp vapor, and the smell of blood grew stronger.
Moving forward, Talya realized this place was less of a cellar and more of a purpose-built underground fortress. The passage was not narrow but rather broad and majestic, like the ruins of an underground relic.
Talya examined the floor tiles and walls meticulously, then confirmed that this was neither an ordinary manor cellar nor a structure built later by Shiller.
That left only one possibility: this place had been built by the original owner of the manor.
Talya didn't know much about the history of Rodrix Manor, but considering the geography of the East Coast of the United States and the overall strength of the nation, the manor's owners likely had no need to dig complex subterranean labyrinths for hoarding troops or escaping, as European castle lords might.
So it was worth pondering why such an underground fortress was constructed.
Going further in, Talya heard the sound of heavy breathing and thought it must be the source of the blood smell.
Sure enough, a sliver of light at the end of a pitch-black corridor revealed a scene in the room. A figure was lying on the ground, clutching his abdomen, breathing long breaths, his chest rising and falling very slowly.
Before Talya had fully approached, she felt a bone-chilling cold. With that faint light, she saw that the walls of the cell imprisoning this person were covered in a layer of fine ice crystals.
The glowing blue blood flowing into the corridor made Talya hesitate; if the other wasn't human, she wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't suddenly lash out and harm her.
In the end, Talya still chose to approach.
After all, if Shiller chose to capture rather than completely eliminate a member of an alien race, it proved that this non-human entity must possess some value, and Talya always had an affinity for things of value.
If the other party was unconscious, she would just collect some blood and then leave. This blood evidently held great ice-cold power and might become raw material for certain things. If the other party was still alive and communicable, perhaps she could figure out why Shiller had imprisoned him here.
Quiet as a cat, Talya moved along the other side of the corridor and tiptoed to the opposite side of the cell, where under the dim light, she saw a handsome young man.
He had a somewhat effeminate and melancholic handsome face, which retained its attractiveness despite being turned blue, and under the dim light, it looked like a blurred oil painting.
For a moment, Talya was captivated by this sight, because this creature full of chill, with blue skin, lying in the dark cage, looked both like a captured Beast and like a shattered piece of ice.
At that moment, Talya's heart pounded violently; she suddenly realized she might not have the right to call Pamela's tastes peculiar.
The human race always has its own bizarre predilections; if you think you have none, it's surely just not time yet. Talya now understood this deeply.
If she had to summarize, she liked things that seemed human yet were not. To many people, such beings were terrifying, but to Talya, she appreciated their moments of vulnerability, madness, and lack of control.
As if possessed, she walked to the opposite side of the cage.
In the moment their green eyes met, Talya's internal monologue settled like dust.
This was the one.
But just then, a human-like panic flashed across the face of the strange creature; he opened his dry lips and mouthed something at Talya.
"Run!"
A bright light flashed by, and the shadow at the corner was visible for only a fraction of a second. By the time Talya realized it, the utmost danger was lurking in the darkness and then swiftly reemerged from it.
Bang!
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