My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Andrew went to several shooting locations, collected the shell casings left by himself and the mysterious fourth person, dug out the pressure-sensitive bombs that had not been triggered, and then used the shovel in his alchemy pocket to fill the craters caused by the explosions.

When the arc gun shattered Scarface's back armor, small black fragments scattered all over the ground.

Andrew carried the alchemical lamp and carefully searched for the small fragments.

But the night was too dark, and the light from the alchemical lamps wasn't bright enough. After collecting a bag of fragments, he felt he might have missed a few.

He simply used his feet to loosen the soil on the ground, letting any small pieces of armor sink to the deeper soil, then tamped it down before returning to the fire and throwing the cloth bag containing the armor fragments into the flames.

“Andrew, do you know how Abigail is doing…” Ross muttered to himself, staring at the firelight.

Andrew lit a cigarette and said while smoking:

“While cleaning up the scene just now, I thought about it carefully. We have to leave tonight. No matter how carefully I check, I will still leave a lot of clues: footprints, gunpowder residue, traces of explosion, fragments of armor, and so on. If the people of Mishima search carefully, they will still be able to find out who we are.”

Andrew took a deep drag of his cigarette, his brows furrowed, and said with concern:

"Moreover, the fact that Scarface is Carpenter is no simple matter. We may be entangled in some unknown trouble. If some people find out that Carpenter's death is related to us, I estimate it will be very difficult to leave Stillwater."

The fire was dying down and would be extinguished in a few minutes. Scarface's body had turned into black ash.

“Let’s go. Let’s find the carriage. Hopefully, we can reach the north side of the Mogus Mountains before the pursuers from the three islands show up.” Andrew stubbed out his cigarette.

The two men, carrying alchemical lanterns, searched for the rented public carriage in the dim forest.

Predictably, this carriage, rented for only five days, will soon be gone from its original owner. The two detectives have no intention of returning to town to pay the overdue rent or to buy a new carriage…

After finding the carriage, Andrew first had Ross lie down in the carriage with his back facing up, treated his wounds, and tied Ross's back with clean medical bandages.

"How are you feeling? Are you feeling better now?" Andrew glanced at the snow-white bandage that was no longer bleeding.

"Much better." Ross stretched his shoulders and put on his usual detective clothes.

"Feed the packhorse some food and water, and groom it properly. We'll be relying on it for the next few days." Andrew picked up a trench coat from the floor and put it on, covering his advanced weaponry with added armor plates.

He pushed open the carriage door and said, "You drive, I'll wipe off the tire tracks. Once we're inside the Mogus Mountains, we'll go full speed ahead."

"Roger!" Ross jumped off the carriage, but the sudden movement aggravated his wound, causing him to gasp for breath.

Andrew tore down the sign on the outer wall of the carriage—it had the name of Stillwater and the name of the original owner, which would give away their trail.

As Xia Zuo saw that the two were about to set off and leave the territory of Jing Shui Town, he wondered whether he should let servant number 4 continue to follow Andrew.

He opened the map he had copied from the city hall earlier.

From Jing Shui Town, heading north into the Mogus Mountains, there is only one north-south trade route that runs through the entire mountain range.

Stillwater is located on the south side of the Mogus Mountains, while the north side of the mountains is the territory of the Ossi family.

The straight-line distance between the two is about 100 kilometers, but if you travel slowly by carriage along the mountain trade route, it will take at least 3 days to enter the territory of the Ossi family.

If Servant No. 4 continues to track Andrew, he will be hundreds of kilometers away from the other Bloodline Servants. In exchange for this, he can obtain information about the Ossie family and the Heterogeneous Group.

Xia Zuo thought it was worthwhile.

Let Servant Number 4 act alone.

Xia Zuo retrieved the message sent by his cheat code after killing Scarface.

Although Scarface was an adult Transformer, he was indeed dead—a true death, not a faked death that could be resurrected.

This is fundamentally different from transformants created through transformation rituals.

Transformers created through the transformation ritual possess the blood of the Blood Demon, allowing them to linger on after their physical bodies are burned to ashes, waiting for their master to revive them.

However, Scarface did not possess the Blood Demon's blood, and died instantly after his heart was shattered by six pistol bullets.

His death gave Xia Zuo 1330 experience points and a large amount of firearms specialization experience, directly raising his specializations such as [Revolver Specialization] to level 3!

The primary reason for this was that the bullet accurately hit the target's vital points.

Xia Zuo noticed that of the six bullets, the one that hit the heart provided half of the total specialization experience reward.

If that bullet hadn't been there, Scarface's health wouldn't have instantly dropped to zero.

Of course, Rose also deserves credit.

Without him blasting Scarface's back armor with the arc gun... six pistol bullets would have posed no threat to Scarface at all.

There was another takeaway from this kill of Scarface.

Xia Zuo discovered the hidden benefits of using Blood Element minions for shooting.

Blood Servant has no emotions, no breath, no heartbeat; when firing, it can be viewed purely as a cold machine.

This advantage may not be obvious at close range, but it is reflected in the dense bullet impact and 100% accuracy.

However, if the firing distance is extended to 300 meters or even 1000 meters or more, this advantage will become the enemy's nightmare.

As long as Xia Zuo ensures that the sniper rifle is absolutely reliable and accurately calculates environmental factors such as wind direction and humidity that affect bullet flight, he can guarantee that almost every sniper bullet will accurately hit the enemy's forehead.

At that time, you can definitely do it like this:

Send a Blood Elemental minion, carrying nothing, into the enemy's stronghold and mark the locations of all enemies with Blood Elemental markers.

Arrange a sniper minion to attack the enemy from a distance, sniping out enemy sentries, scouts, and patrols.

Assign a fully armed minion to mark the enemy's bloodline markers and clear the entire stronghold at close range.

Finally, have the blood elemental servants that have marked the enemy carry alchemy pouches to collect loot from enemy strongholds.

Xia Zuo thought to himself that if he had a sniper device, he could control three blood element minions in turn and wipe out the entire nest of acorn worms.

Three Bloodborne minions wipe out an enemy stronghold... Just thinking about it is thrilling!

Xia Zuo found a notebook and wrote down his conjectures.

This sparked a series of ideas that quickly surfaced in my mind, all pointing to the same need:

Solve the problem of sourcing firearms, protective gear, and ammunition.

This is a very complex issue, involving many factors such as raw material sourcing, production and processing, transportation, storage, and maintenance.

Finding a suitable foothold, or rather, building a base that would never be found, became the key to solving this problem.

One of my plans fell through tonight.

Xia Zuoben wanted to examine Andrew and Ross's alchemy pouches in search of any possible teaching materials or operating manuals related to bone sacs.

If Ross hadn't been rescued and Andrew hadn't escaped from Scarface's clutches, then there would indeed have been an opportunity to carry out this plan.

But now...

Xia Zuo glanced at the perspective of Servant No. 4.

Andrew and his companion had already entered the Mogus Mountains. The carriage weaved through the dense forest, and the alchemical lamps illuminated the road ahead.

The bone pouch and alchemy pouch were both on Andrew's undergarments.

Getting Servant #4 to rip open his clothes and untie the drawstring of the alchemy pouch is virtually impossible…

The plan to search for knowledge about the bone sac had to be postponed until at least when Andrew and his companion arrived in the Ossie family's territory.

Chapter 15 Bone Marrow

December 27, 9:12 AM Silvermoon Federal Time.

After several days of light snow and cloudy skies, the weather finally cleared up today.

Anru and Janice couldn't wait to go shopping.

Xia Zuo woke up in the bedroom.

I rescued Ross at 4 a.m. last night.

He had no choice but to ask the bald man for half a day off again. As soon as he woke up today, he ate breakfast and then went out to the manor for training.

Before going to sleep last night, Xia Zuo lay in bed recalling what had happened to Scarface, and a sense of relief rose in his heart.

I'm glad I didn't try to get Scarface's Bloodline Mark and use the [Bloodline Curse] to farm experience!

Some time ago, while monitoring the movements of the half-blood mage in the Silvermoon Federation, Xia Zuo confirmed that the blood magic talent spell of casting curses remotely did not exist in the Church of the Otherworldly Demons. It was definitely a top-tier blood magic spell and very representative.

Using the [Blood Curse] to gain experience in the remote town of Stillwater, deep inland, could easily attract the attention of the Church of the Otherworld.

From the perspective of ensuring one's own safety, using ordinary and common firearms and ammunition to gain experience might be the safest method.

...

In the backyard of the Demon Hunter's manor.

Xia Zuo landed in the training field, his figure appearing amidst a swirling turquoise whirlwind.

Rexor lay listlessly by the fireplace, meditating with his eyes closed, and woke up at the sound of movement in the yard.

"You've arrived." The bald man stood up, stretched, and squinted at the sun in the sky. "What a rare good day, isn't it? I haven't seen the sun for several days."

"Good morning, Master." Xia Zuo also felt that the weather was very comfortable, unlike Jing Shui Town where the sun never shines and the weather is always gray with occasional light rain.

To be honest, the Silvermoon Federation is like paradise compared to Stillwater Town.

In terms of food, drink, and entertainment, the Silvermoon Federation is at least ten times richer than Stillwater Town. Its medical and public safety environments are also far superior to those of Stillwater Town.

Even the old buildings in the northern part of the city are cleaner than the main roads in Jingshui Town…

Thinking of this, Xia Zuo casually asked, "By the way, Master, I previously obtained permanent residency in the Federation as a [Class 1 Alchemist Talent]. Can people from other regions also obtain this right under the same status?"

Rexor put his hands on his hips, took a breath of fresh air, and exhaled a cloud of white mist.

"Yes, but it's extremely difficult. The Silvermoon Federation is one of the safest and most comfortable places within the territory of the Mage Temple."

"The conditions for obtaining federal residency are extremely stringent."

"Either become a high-level mage and come here to serve as the resident mage, or like Serret and me, come to the Federation as advisors. Or... you can only enter the Federation by relying on your own skills."

Rexor spread his hands forward and said:

"Compared to people born in other parts of this continent, those born in the Silvermoon Federation are the happiest."

"Their birth environment is far superior to that of people in other parts of the continent. Walking on the street, they don't have to worry about getting their foreheads smashed; walking in the forest, they don't have to be wary of monsters. They have stable jobs, fixed holidays, and can travel by convenient train."

"If there's anything wrong with this... it's probably that we're too comfortable, which makes us forget about potential dangers. If we don't handle a crisis properly, the number of casualties could be higher than the total number of casualties in other regions during the same period."

Rexor picked up the flask, took a sip, waved his hand, and walked towards the weapons rack. "Alright, enough talk. Let's start training."