Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 497 The Secret Guide
Traveling through the snow-covered mountains was no easy task, but fortunately, this wasn't Li Wei's first time traversing the snow. They had a mechanical mule that could pull a snowmobile through the mountains, where they could sit and enjoy tea heated by the mule's steam engine.

This is most useful in cold places.

The area Jeanne was unfamiliar with was large, but Levi felt they had narrowed down their search area because there were other "clues".

"water."

Li Wei sat in the sled, swaying as he spoke to Jeanne.

“Water is the source of life. That saintess is an alchemist. Whatever she wants to do, she will definitely need water. Moreover, if she really has a castle here, it means that there will be many people in the castle, and these people also need to survive, so they also need water.”

"So what we need to do next is find a water source?"

Jeanne clearly understood what Li Wei meant, and the latter nodded.

“That’s right. Going upstream, supplying water to a city is definitely not something that can be solved by an ordinary stream. They need a large water source, and I think that kind of thing is obviously not common in the high mountains.”

indeed so.

Jeanne nodded. A knowledge that seemed to come from nowhere told her that Li Wei was right; on the ground, the intricate network of underground waterways and rivers would be a major problem. But in the mountains, similar water sources were far fewer.

Generally, the water that melts on the mountain is snowmelt. It flows down the mountain, gathers into streams, and becomes waterfalls, flowing all the way down to the foot of the mountain. Now, they are going to go upstream to find the source of these streams and see if they can find any clues.

Water is the source of life.

Looking at the snow-covered landscape around him, Li Wei felt somewhat speechless. He had seen some movies about tomb raiding and treasure hunting, where the adventurers were all knowledgeable historians. Unfortunately, Li Wei was no historian; he could only try his detective skills.

After all, human nature has remained unchanged for thousands of years.

Perhaps it won't change even in a thousand years.

Looking towards the Sunset Mountains from here, it feels like a blooming flower, with white snow covering the surrounding peaks. These peaks are quite steep, and they surround the forests at the foot of the Sunset Mountains, making them look like unfolding petals.

He also confirmed something else.

“Krant is also looking for the Saintess’s castle.”

Li Wei gazed ahead and spoke.

Do you know why they're looking for the saint's castle?

"I do not know."

Jeanne shook her head.

"Why are the Krant people looking for the Saintess's castle? It doesn't seem to have anything to do with them, does it?"

"I suspect the Krant people might be after immortality."

Li Wei chuckled.

"After all, isn't the biggest legend about the Holy Maiden that she can be resurrected after death? And more than once?"

As he spoke, Li Wei looked at Jeanne and sized her up.

"Perhaps you were the saintess, then killed, and then resurrected."

"Then why am I wearing a long dress and lying on the grass?"

Jeanne was clearly baffled by this.

"If someone killed me, who was it? And... I don't think an ordinary person could kill me, right?"

"Yes, that's true."

Li Wei shrugged.

"That's a problem too, but it's not easy for us to find the answer right now. Are you sure there was nothing around you when you woke up? Anything will do, maybe we can use it as a clue."

"I'm sorry, I was only wearing one set of clothes."

"Is that outfit still there? I'd like to see it."

"I do carry...with me as a change of clothes."

Jeanne hesitated for a moment, but still took out a long dress from her backpack and handed it to Li Wei.

Can you glean anything from this outfit?

“That’s what a detective should do, believe me, Miss Jeanne.”

Li Wei took the long dress and smiled slightly at Jeanne.

"For us, the deceased's clothing can often be used as evidence to confirm their identity."

"…………………"

Hearing Li Wei's answer, Jeanne's expression became somewhat complicated. However, Li Wei clearly didn't care; he carefully opened the garment and examined it closely.

Just as Jeanne had said, it looked like an ordinary long-sleeved dress, with a white blouse on top and a long red skirt on the bottom. Li Wei looked at Jeanne and could easily imagine her dressed like that, holding a tree branch, with a sheepdog herding sheep beside her.

"It's a very ordinary knitted garment, a style that looks like it can be found anywhere."

Li Wei held the dress up in front of her eyes and examined it carefully.

“Well, it looks like a normal style, but it doesn’t look like an industrial product. It looks more like it’s hand-woven… which is a bit rare in this day and age.”

"Is there anything else?"

Jeanne looked at Levi with curiosity. She had never imagined that a person could say so much based on just a piece of clothing.

"The clothes themselves show no signs of wear and tear; they're new, meaning you haven't been wearing them for very long. There are some scratches on them, probably from your previous battles."

Li Wei looked the dress over from head to toe, then shook his head.

"Well, there aren't many clues. At most, we know that this outfit was probably specially changed into for you, and that it's not a mass-produced industrial product, but rather handmade. However, these clues aren't very useful right now. Perhaps we need more information to find something useful."

With that, Li Wei returned the clothes to Jeanne.

"Now, let's see if we can find any clues here."

As they were talking, a lake appeared before them.

There are always lakes on the mountain, and although this particular lake was cold, it hadn't frozen over yet. Even so, Li Wei had absolutely no intention of going down to explore it. In the game, adventurers were willing to go anywhere, even into freezing water, but Li Wei wasn't.

To borrow a famous saying from the ancients.

The water was too cold. Li Wei tossed a twin-tailed Pokémon down to check for any underground waterways, while he himself began to examine the lake's edge. The lake appeared calm, as clean as a mirror, reflecting the azure sky and white clouds.

Jeanne was also searching nearby, carefully examining the footprints in the snow, seemingly using her knowledge to find clues. Levi, on the other hand, relied mainly on the twin-tailed sprite and the doll-like bird for aerial reconnaissance.

Then… Li Wei was slightly taken aback.

He sensed a sudden surge of water that swept the little sprite, who was searching underwater, into a nearby crevice.

A gap?

The water swept up the little sprite, whose tiny body offered no resistance. Li Wei could only watch, through the perspective of the [Puppeteer], as the unfortunate creature was carried away and into the depths of the passage. He didn't know where his puppet would end up, but perhaps this would be a clue he could find?
The twin-tailed sprite rose and fell, swaying in the current, and Levi watched it drift among the water, and then…

Suddenly, a huge mouth appeared and swallowed the twin-tailed sprite whole.

"???"

Li Wei was stunned for a moment before realizing that it was a fish. It had obviously mistaken the twin-tailed sprite for some kind of delicious food and swallowed it whole.

Well, this thing is completely useless now.

Li Wei silently rolled his eyes.

Looks like next time I should make some dolls specifically for swimming in the water. Otherwise, these things are practically just free food for people. Twin-tailed sprites aren't exactly off-limits to fish in the water. After all, not everyone is as picky about what they eat as humans.

Oh, speaking of which, Li Wei also saw it on a website before. There are factories that specialize in raising Twintail Pokémon, and the people there even stir-fry them to eat.

It seems that humans don't have any dietary restrictions when it comes to this stuff.

Now that the twin-tailed sprite had been eaten, Levi stopped paying attention to it and was about to look around again when Jeanne's voice suddenly rang out.

"Mr. Levi, I've found something here!"

"Oh?"

Hearing Jeanne's call, Li Wei hurried to the other side of the lake, where Jeanne was standing, frowning as she stared at the stone wall in front of her. Most of the stone wall was covered with snow, and what remained were withered vines and ivy, but there was a small blank space in it, a mark that looked like a flower petal.

Regardless, it was definitely carved by human hands!

Seeing this, Li Wei immediately perked up. He picked up his cane and swept away the vines and withered grass around him, and then the marks hidden among them gradually emerged.

It was a carved decoration, seemingly part of a wall decoration, featuring six lilies connected end to end, their six petals open to form a similar artistic pattern.

How did you find this?

"I just suddenly..."

Jeanne frowned when Li Wei asked her question.

"When I walked here just now, I simply felt... that this thing was here."

"Then you found it, so it seems our trip wasn't in vain."

Li Wei felt that Jeanne hadn't truly lost her memory; rather, it was as if her memories were sealed away. Especially the part about the Château de la Sainte-Ville, and now, in such a place, Jeanne had found a sign from the Château de la Sainte-Ville.

This raises a problem.

Thinking of this, Li Wei glanced at Jeanne again.

Is she really that legendary saint? Has she lived for thousands of years? Is this how she lives? And then she loses her memory and starts all over again?
Or is there another explanation?
After all, in science fiction movies, the profession of alchemist is basically on par with mad scientist. They can create all sorts of things, from good to bad, from monsters to artifacts, they are almost omnipotent.

Nobody knows what they're capable of doing.

Incidentally, besides immortality and elixirs, artificial life forms have always been a very popular topic in alchemy, and there are even detailed steps involved. That is, to put a human mirror, herbs and horse manure into a flask and seal it, using the fermentation of the horse manure to keep it warm. After forty days, a transparent thing with a human form will appear in the flask.

However, at this stage, the life form is not yet a human body and requires the addition of human blood. The horse is also kept at the fetal temperature for forty weeks and fresh blood is added daily.

In this way, an artificial life form will be created after forty days. Its appearance will be the same as that of a human child, but its size will be only that of a fairy, and it will possess all kinds of knowledge from the moment it is born.

Of course, this is just a record in "The Wisdom of Solomon," and Livy didn't intend to try it.

The reason is simple. Putting everything else aside, the key point is "various herbs"... Well, at least from Li Wei's memory, most of those herbs have become extinct or disappeared in modern times.

Huh? Wait a minute...

Thinking of this, Li Wei suddenly paused.

Is the Kingdom of Crant's search for the Saintess's castle related to this? After all, the Kingdom of Crant currently primarily uses chimeras, and alchemy contains many legends and knowledge about things like flesh and blood synthesis and creation. Could it be that the Kingdom of Crant wants to find the Saintess's castle to gain her knowledge as an alchemist and strengthen its chimera army?

Forget it, I'm not going to guess anymore.

Li Wei shook his head, putting his guesses out of his mind.

In any case, he could not let Krant succeed.

"Now we have found traces of the castle's existence."

Li Wei looked at the mural again, then at Jeanne, whose expression was somewhat complicated.

"Unfortunately, we still haven't found the castle. But it seems this saintess really loves lilies..."

At this point, Li Wei paused for a moment, then looked at the pattern in front of him again.

Blooming lilies.

It has six petals. In the mural, these six lilies bloom in unison facing east. Their petals are also the same shape, two on the left, two on the right, one on top, and one on the bottom, while the stamen in the middle faces the sky.

Its shape resembles a funnel, or a passageway… or a tall tower…

Li Wei took out a map and compared it with the pattern in front of him.

At the same time, he switched his perspective and contacted the puppet bird, looking down at the entire Sunset Mountains from the sky.

Then, Li Wei saw it.

Mount Sainte resembles a flower petal, and the surrounding peaks, covered in snow, also seem to unfold like petals in all directions.

And in the middle of them……………

"Perhaps we can find out where that castle is."

Li Wei looked at the map and said in a low voice.

(End of this chapter)