I, Wang Ha, the Three Red Unparalleled Assassin

"The right choice. Moreover, according to human records, all supernatural beings that had the behavior of drinking blood before this time were collectively called vampires, not specifically vampires."

Holmes, who had only read half of the documents in his hand, was blowing smoke rings as he picked up where Demiurge left off.

"The origins of vampire legends can be traced back thousands of years. In the myths and legends of early Mesopotamian civilization, ancient Hebrew civilization, and ancient Roman civilization, there were demons that sucked the life essence and blood of humans."

Having little knowledge of human history, Demiurge ignored Holmes's on-the-spot explanation and continued with his own analysis.

"Now that the time frame has been defined, the next step is to find the cause. Whether it was manufactured or occurred naturally, there must be corresponding conditions involved."

"The town has an exceptionally high mortality rate, and the heavy pressure of life fills everyone with despair. It is quite possible that dark and evil creatures could be born here."

Demiurge then distributed the document in his hand to everyone present except Dracula, indicating that it contained all the factors he could think of.

It was one or more of these factors that came together to give birth to the original vampire legend.

Of course, Demiurge, with his meticulous approach, also acknowledged that there might be omissions and encouraged anyone who could add to the information to be so kind as to speak up.

When the Demon King Dracula first heard Demiurge's speech, he was a little nervous, but after seeing the contents of the document with his extraordinary eyesight, he immediately felt relieved.

Demiurge did indeed consider all aspects very thoroughly, but after all, he was created by one of the forty-one Supreme Beings, and his worldview was different from that of the rest of the world, lacking knowledge of normal human history.

The divine race and human history are interdependent.

The miniature world is a third observational universe created by the gods.

Its purpose is to monitor and guide the development of human history, so as to prevent the destruction of human history from taking the miniature world down with it.

Therefore, most large-scale gift competitions revolve around human history, and games like this one, which involve seeking truth or solving puzzles, are even more likely to have historical precedents.

Therefore, after seeing through Demiurge's mistakes from the very beginning, Dracula concluded that they would not be able to solve the final mystery.

Just as the demon king Dracula breathed a sigh of relief, the mirrors around Holmes, who had finished reviewing all the information, suddenly lit up with a blinding white light, like stage lights.

The light dispelled all the surrounding darkness, leaving no trace unseen, as if it could reveal all the unseen things hidden by darkness in the world, exposing them to the sunlight.

Holmes noticed the gazes directed at him and sensed the dissatisfaction and condemnation within them. He then gave a gentle, apologetic smile.

"Alright, I have a pretty good idea now. My friends, would you like to hear my basic speculations about this mystery? Most of them are just immature little ideas."

Chapter 71 A Detective Driven by Interest

"This survey data is very detailed. You've worked so hard, young lady. It saved me a lot of trouble."

Holmes first raised the thick stack of documents in his hand and praised Leticia, while also giving her a word of advice.

"However, in the process of obtaining these clues, you are merely observing without delving into the essence. The difference between the two is obvious, which leads to some things that are originally very simple becoming unclear."

Leticia nodded her little head, somewhat confused, about what Holmes had said, but she made sure to remember it.

"Then, let's return to the mystery: 'Breaking down the false legends and revealing the original truth of the vampire legends.' It is indeed a very cleverly designed question."

Holmes paused briefly, took a puff of his pipe, and looked at Dracula, the evil king, standing in the distance.

"The key to solving this mystery lies in the word 'legend,' which means 'a saying that has been passed down' or 'a record of something that has been passed down.'"

"So in this game, not only are the legends that need to be broken false, but even the truth that needs to be restored is false in a certain sense."

When Dracula faced Holmes's gaze, he felt as if he had been stripped naked and placed under the light, and all his secrets had been seen through by this man in an instant.

When he heard Holmes slowly recount the first paragraph, his bloodshot eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, and his pale fists clenched instinctively.

"Is it fake? If we set aside the mystical world and only talk about the secular world, then all of this is fake, without any basis."

After being reminded of this, Scáthach seemed to have figured something out, but she didn't want to reveal it.

"Indeed, the cleverness of this Gift Game lies precisely in this: it naturally takes advantage of our habitual thinking and our bad habit of always approaching problems from the perspective of the mystical world."

"But after observing the town, we found nothing related to the supernatural. Therefore, nothing is more unusual or more worthy of study than the ordinary."

Holmes smiled slightly as he spoke, then took several items from his pocket and placed them on the stone table.

A sickle, an iron needle, and a small, unidentified wooden stake.

“I just dug these things out of the cemetery not long ago. They should be able to explain one of the many vampire legends.”

Leticia and Scáthach, who initially recognized the items on the table, immediately realized when and where they had seen them before after Holmes's reminder.

The sickle and iron needles were placed next to the body during burial, while the sharp wooden stake was driven into the heart or stomach of the corpse.

"Are these items placed out of superstition and fear to prevent the appearance of vampires? This is a widely circulated legend based on the idea that vampires are blood-sucking corpses."

"In essence, it is nothing more than the skin contracting after a person dies, causing the nails and hair to grow longer, and the bacteria producing gas after corroding the corpse, causing swelling. The iron needles are placed to puncture the skin and release the gas."

The old man of the mountain, who was more familiar with inanimate objects than anything else, thought of the zombies under his army of the dead, some of whom did indeed have a penchant for drinking blood.

"As expected of Lord Mountain Elder, you were able to uncover one of the truths with just three items. I suppose you sent me here to report earlier to cultivate the Guardian's abilities."

Demiurge pondered the intentions behind the Old Man of the Mountain's words and actions. His loyal mindset prevented him from considering anything negative; instead, he felt an ever-growing reverence for the Supreme Being.

The Demon King Dracula trembled, quite surprised that a well-founded legend had been reconstructed in just a few words.

But he could only silently comfort himself and stay calm, since there were still several clues that hadn't been guessed.

But Holmes doesn’t seem to have any intention of wasting or delaying time. He is a detective who values ​​efficiency and also pursues speed in solving mysteries.

"Then, the origins of the next two vampire legends are both related to the poor medical skills of medieval doctors. The first is that they only knew how to bleed people, no matter what the disease was, and the second is that they treated people in shock as if they were already dead."

"The second point probably doesn't need much explanation; people who crawl out of graves have always been considered undead. As for the first point, take a close look at this vampire's face. Doesn't it look somewhat like the complexion of someone who has been excessively bled out?"

As Holmes finished speaking, the demon king Dracula was immediately surrounded by onlookers.

What's even more tragic is that, under the watchful eye of the old man of the mountain, he didn't dare to resist much. Didn't he see that the knife was already raised?

The pale face of the demon king Dracula did indeed resemble that of someone who had lost too much blood, only it was more ferocious and terrifying than those people.

There was no need to explain further now that things had come to this point. Only the Demon King Dracula remained calm, believing that the last three answers he had devised were not so easy to guess.

However, he was unaware of who the man standing before everyone at this moment was, revealing the mystery, nor did he know what terrifying abilities this man possessed, making him a veritable human-shaped puzzle-solving treasure.

As the world's finest and only consultant detective, Sherlock Holmes is the epitome of the concept of 'detective' and the representative of 'revealer'.

No matter the mystery, crime, or conspiracy, nothing can escape Sherlock Holmes's keen eye.

Even if it's a terrifying murderer, an ancient curse, a monster lurking in the night, or a secret organization beyond the scale of a nation, he will reveal the truth to the world—and, if necessary, defeat it.

Even when faced with a truly unsolvable mystery, clues or paths leading to the truth will inevitably emerge.

Even if there is a treasure chest that doesn't even have a key, the key will be put into a 'not lost' state, meaning it will definitely be found somewhere in the world.

Sherlock Holmes' existence has long transcended the realm of humanity, manifesting himself in the world as a 'sage' and a 'revealer'.

"If the mystery hasn't been completely solved by now, then I can be sure of my next judgment. Eliminate all the impossible, and what remains, no matter how impossible, must be the truth."

The world-renowned detective Sherlock Holmes uttered his famous quote, and the white light emanating from the mirror shone even brighter, for the sword of truth had been drawn, its edge fully revealed.

"As the guy before me already said, the vampire legend was set in the medieval period of Europe, which was undoubtedly a very dark era. Not only were there cruel and inhumane nobles, but there was also a great plague."

"Did you see the 'P' written on the wall of every house in town? The word for plague is 'Pest,' which means that all the residents of the town were infected with the plague, which is why the mortality rate was so high."

"The Black Death spread extremely rapidly, and these signs were meant to warn people to avoid the sick. But often, once a dark, eerie 'P' appeared on the wall of one house, the rest of the town would be doomed."

After being reminded by Holmes, Leticia realized what she had missed while searching for clues.

Since every house had the same letters, she ignored it as a normal factor.

“The scenes that repeat themselves every day in the town are very short-lived. By cutting off the beginning and the end and only taking the middle, it is actually a kind of illusion, making people only care about what they see and ignore what they don’t see.”

Upon hearing Holmes's words, Dracula's heart leaped into his throat, and a very ominous premonition arose in his mind.

"The legend of vampires largely stems from the terrifying impressions left on people by the Great Plague of the Middle Ages. Whether it's the horrific appearance of the corpses or the quack doctors' misdiagnosis by bloodletting, it's all inextricably linked to the Great Plague."

"The prototype of Dracula is actually Vlad III, the Grand Prince of Wallachia. Furthermore, many other vampires are also based on famous nobles, such as the famous Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Later on, vampire itself became synonymous with the nobility of the night."

(Inside Valhalla, the Grand Duke, who was playing the erhu, and the Dragon Girl, who was singing, both sneezed in unison.)

"It is natural to know that the birth of the vampire image is necessarily related to both of the above. Therefore, the tyranny of the nobles and the devastation of the Black Death are naturally two pieces of the puzzle to solve the mystery."

At this point, the puzzle set up by the Demon King Dracula was on the verge of being solved, with only one extremely obscure legend remaining to be revealed.

Despite this, Dracula, the Demon King, still found it hard to accept that his meticulously planned Game of Grace had been so easily breached to the last line of defense.

"You figured all of this out by yourself from these fragmented pieces of information? Are you some kind of cheating being with an omniscient gift?"

Faced with Dracula's questioning, Holmes took his pipe from his mouth, exhaled a puff of grayish-white smoke, and his expression became slightly solemn.

"Guessing? Sorry, I never do that; it's a bad habit that damages the ability to think."

"And as I've already mentioned, my name is Sherlock Holmes, and I'm a detective by chance."

Chapter 72 The Trinity Demon King

"It is a terrible mistake to make wild guesses without facts as a reference. People who feel incorrect always try to fit their preconceived guesses with facts, instead of deriving conclusions based on facts obtained by correct methods and evidence, and seeing if they match the facts already obtained."

As they spoke, Holmes's aura had already overwhelmed the evil Dracula, and the dazzling lights illuminated a larger area of ​​the town.

Although he doesn't consider himself the best at solving puzzles and reasoning, when it comes to this kind of field, the great detective can't easily make any concessions.

Although it's somewhat regrettable, this is the only guy who has so far given Holmes a tough time, and even been considered a nemesis.

Only that gentlemanly old man who liked to use "Sparashi" as his catchphrase, the one known as the "King of Crime," James Moriarty.

Sherlock Holmes had a premonition that the time for him to meet his old friend again should not be too far off.

The Gift Game, a competition that allows for flexible use of the rules, is perfect for James Moriarty to plan and organize.

Therefore, the principle of making the best use of resources will never waste such outstanding talent.

With Moriarty's meticulous thinking and precise planning, coupled with his leadership as the 'leader of evil' and his encyclopedic knowledge, he was able to achieve great success.

Holmes had already been silently praying for the future participants in Moriarty's games, hoping that these unfortunate souls wouldn't be driven mad by the series of conspiracies.

But what Holmes didn't expect was that when Professor Moriarty met Demiurge in the future, the sparks that flew were truly devastating.

The grand spectacle orchestrated by these two like-minded villains left even Sherlock Holmes himself utterly humiliated.

Returning to the present moment, Holmes sighed softly, habitually placing his pipe to his lips and taking a puff to stimulate and excite his nerves with tobacco.

Although there are rumors that he uses drugs to maintain his mental activity, these are just baseless rumors. Besides, a spirit body could not possibly become addicted to drugs.

"Now it's time to unveil the last and most difficult mystery. To be honest, even I might not have made that connection without relying on 'hypothetical reasoning'."

As is customary, Holmes began to pique the interest of the listeners, but apart from Leticia and Dracula, the rest showed little interest.

Meili lay lazily on the stone table like a kitten, her tuft of hair hanging limply down her head, looking listless and weak.