Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

bach:"……!"

He suddenly jumped up and said:

"It's you! You're the one who led us to find [Schubert], if it weren't for you!"

Luo Tianming calmly replied, "If it weren't for me, you still wouldn't have guessed the abnormality of [Schubert]. The women inside probably wouldn't realize they were serving a corpse until the effects of the drug wore off."

"Think about it, by then his corpse will probably be unrecognizable, wouldn't that kind of environment be more advantageous for me?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent for a moment.

No one likes Schubert's death, especially such a undignified one.

Nan Mengya was still helping the group check on the women's situation to see if they had poisoned them... They also needed to check if the women had been infected with the toxins.

Also, regarding the question about Bach, he seemed a little uneasy.

It's not that I suspect he killed Schubert, I just think he was the one most surprised by Schubert's death.

Before, when I saw him mocking Beethoven, I thought he had a grudge against everyone, but now it seems that's not the case.

After a while, Nan Mengya returned from the group of women.

From her, everyone learned that these women were specially selected by the perverted Schubert, seemingly for the purpose of being enjoyed by all the believers during the 'alternative concert'.

They were all lured in by Schubert through deception or purchase, and then controlled with drugs.

On these women, Nan Mengya found no trace of poison... because even they themselves thought it was impossible.

Schubert preferred to be served by them cleanly, believing that even wearing clothes was a defilement of a work of art.

Therefore, all the women's clothes were confiscated as soon as they stepped off the submarine, and their internal organs were examined by X-ray. For the next few days, they were only given nutrient solution to prevent the production of unclean substances. In addition, they were subject to a special management system that required them to shower before and after getting into and out of bed, making it impossible for them to carry poison.

As for Schubert's death... it seems those women had never noticed it before.

They were terrified of Schubert. One woman had been beaten half to death by the unpredictable Schubert simply for glancing at his face while riding on him.

Even more so, he was used to having women serve him while he remained motionless... sometimes even falling asleep was common.

But if anyone dares to stop moving at this moment, they will immediately be met with punches and kicks.

They dared not resist... These women's arms were covered with needle marks from morphine abuse.

At first, Schubert made no sound, and they thought he was dissatisfied, so they served him even more enthusiastically.

Until Luo Tianming and the others came in...

As for the exact time of death of Schubert and others, no one can say for sure.

They were given drugs as soon as they were locked in the room, and they are still in a daze.

Nan Mengya first found a cabin to settle them in, and then had each of them have their blood drawn and sent for testing.

Seeing how capable JK was, Luo Tianming couldn't help but go up and pat her head.

Nan Mengya: "Hmm... Captain~"

She puffed up her cheeks and made them look like steamed buns, which made Luo Tianming want to poke her.

He coughed lightly.

"Now we can basically confirm in advance that Schubert's death was a murder, and that it may have been committed by the same person as Beethoven."

[Bach]: "Wait a minute, it seems you haven't been cleared of suspicion yet, have you?"

Nan Mengya completely ignored the man and said, "Moreover, the method of murder was 'pre-poisoning,' and the murderer was someone who knew the victim very well...?"

[Bach]: "Little girl, how did you know?"

Nan Mengya inexplicably distanced herself from him and said, "Do we still need to look? This room and the previous victim's room are both 'locked rooms.' If we want to kill someone without leaving a trace, we have to poison him very early on."

"Similarly, the other party must be very familiar with Schubert's habits, because the other party must have used some kind of drug to distract the nerves so that Schubert would not realize that he had already been poisoned."

"When he realized it, he was already unable to speak... This further proves that the other party must be a master who has a very precise grasp of the dosage of poison."

Luo Tianming immediately clapped his hands and said, "Look, even a high school student can deduce something so simple. Some people just have one-track minds."

[Bach]: "Who are you insulting?!"

"enough!"

A hoarse voice immediately interrupted them; it was a missionary.

His face was hidden by his robe, so his expression was not visible; only his voice conveyed anger.

He said in a voice that sounded like it had been torn apart, "The most urgent thing now is not to point fingers at who is the murderer, but to make sure that there are no more victims."

"Otherwise, this 'concert' simply cannot proceed!"

"..."

Chapter 119 The Missing Person

After the missionary said that, the others stopped arguing.

Looking at the still conflicted relationship between Luo Tianming and [Bach], he had no choice but to offer some earnest advice:

"The most urgent task now is not to find the murderer, but to prevent any more victims from being victimized."

“If another high-ranking member is murdered, it will not only be the responsibility of us, the organizers, but it will be a devastating blow to the entire ‘Painted Skin Cult’.”

"..."

Faced with the horrific truth the missionary revealed, Luo Tianming and [Bach] both fell silent, their faces grim... There was no way around it; they both suspected the other was the real murderer.

The missionary said, "The most urgent thing now is to gather the remaining people together and manage them. No matter how arrogant the murderer is, he won't kill someone in front of everyone."

Luo Tianming nodded reluctantly: "No problem. Now only [Mozart] hasn't arrived yet. Send someone to call him over."

Bach: "No, what if Mozart gets killed on his way here?"

"Just in case, we must find a reliable person to protect him first!"

Luo Tianming: "No problem, I'll send someone right away..."

[Bach]: "I don't trust you!"

Luo Tianming raised an eyebrow: "Oh, you're going to go yourself... Then we can wait to find Mozart's body."

[Bach]: "You!"

"Stop saying a few words!"

The missionary's voice contained a hint of anger.

"If you don't believe each other, then let me go."

“Anyway, I don’t have any of those ‘musician’ code names like you guys, so I don’t have to worry about being targeted by the killer… Jeffrey and I are old friends, I’ll go and talk to him.”

"..."

The two exchanged a glance, then each snorted in dissatisfaction.

-

After the missionary left, Bach and Luo Tianming quickly fell into an awkward silence.

Finally, Luo Tianming broke the silence first: "There's something I'm curious about... what exactly is the status of a 'missionary' in your sect?"

[Bach]: "Hmph, what do you mean by 'your sect'...aren't you a member of one of those sects?"

Luo Tianming: "..."

He almost forgot that he had been thinking of himself as the captain of the Alliance for too long, and that he still had the special identity of "Robert Schumann".

"Okay, can you tell me about him?" he asked curiously. "I don't think I've ever heard of him before?"

Bach curled his lip in disdain: "Don't even mention you, probably no one in the sect knows his name... The only one who knows is Archbishop Yakov."

"Missionaries are a special profession; they don't have names... they only have the code name 'missionary'."

“Back when the sect was first established, we had many missionaries whose duty was to spread the doctrines of the ‘Painted Skin Sect’ to every part of Europa.”

“These missionaries… were among the earliest believers. They concealed their names and dedicated everything to the sect. It is because of their sacrifice that the ‘Painted Skin Sect’ exists today.”

Luo Tianming asked again, "But... why is there only one 'missionary' left now?"

[Bach] looked at him with a worried expression: "Can't you tell? His Highness the Missionary's throat..."

“There is a legend in the sect that the missionaries were the original incomplete ‘skin-co-existing’ people, and that they were the losers.”

"fail?"

“Yes, you should know… the rituals held by the archbishop cannot guarantee that everyone will become a symbiotic being like him,”

"The initial participants in this experiment were these missionaries... Although they failed, they did not completely become parasites of the painted skin."

"The Painted Skin altered some of their abilities, but it was to manipulate them. Left with no other option, the Archbishop apparently surgically severed the Painted Skin tentacles parasitizing their throats, which is why their voices became like that..."

"However, these are just rumors... It is said that the archbishop has now completely resolved the issue of the ritual."

“Solve… I don’t think so.” Luo Tianming pointed out the suspicious points in Bach’s words.

“If this problem were completely solved, the ‘Painted Skin Cult’ would already be full of painted skin symbiotes.”

"I'm afraid it's not that the success rate has increased, but rather that there are more people willing to be sacrificed?"

[Bach] cannot deny this, but he put it another way:

"Tsk, to voluntarily sacrifice oneself for a great scientific experiment, that is a noble and silent act."

Luo Tianming: "Then why don't you go and 'offer yourself'?"

The implication is that Bach doesn't believe in so-called self-sacrifice either... and he's probably waiting for a conversion technique with a higher success rate.

However, this matter surprised Luo Tianming a bit - he originally thought that Archbishop Yakov should have completed many 'painted skin symbiotes', but now, apart from himself being a perfect symbiote, those missionaries were all defective parasites with a fairly high failure rate.

The so-called missionary spirit of sacrifice was probably because they were used by the archbishop for new biological experiments, which is why they disappeared.

As for the 'missionary' who remained by his side last, he was probably a defective product left over from some experiment.

The reason he has survived to this day may not be because Archbishop Yakov softened his heart; perhaps he simply forgot about him.

After learning some secrets about the sect, the two found themselves in an awkward situation once again.

……

To find something to do, Luo Tianming and Bach had no choice but to search for clues at the scene of Schubert's death, while keeping an eye on each other.

Judging from Bach's actions, he seems to genuinely want to find the murderer... but how do we explain his previous strange behavior?

Unable to figure it out, Luo Tianming could only begin collecting information about Schubert.

Soon, Bach found a document in the room's drawer. After reading it, he cursed, "That damned Schubert!!"

Luo Tianming also went over... He took a look, and the contents were nothing unexpected, just the names of some high-ranking officials of the alliance.

Looking at the next few pages, the thing made his scalp tingle.

These so-called 'high-ranking officials' were all guests at Schubert's banquets, and some of them were controlled by him through despicable means:

The main method involves providing a variety of women at banquets, along with various bizarre activities—such as having relations with the corpses of beautiful women parasitized by the painted skin, skeletal figures with severed limbs, and organizing cannibalistic feasts among the painted skin creatures…

Honestly, after seeing all this, you just feel that this guy died too easily.

As one of the high-ranking members of the 'Painted Skin Cult', Schubert has been posing as a philanthropic artist to infiltrate the circles of high-ranking members of various alliances, and seems to have gathered a group of forces.

Attending this meeting, he seemed to intend to use these achievements... to exchange for a chance to be blessed by Archbishop Yakov with the 'symbiotic relationship of painted skin'.

[Bach] clutched the letter, his eyes practically spitting fire!

"That damned fellow, using despicable means to gain the archbishop's trust, if he succeeds..."

If Luo Tianming hadn't dodged the letter, which was probably related to 'political affairs,' Bach would probably have torn it to shreds on the spot.

Leaving aside the bizarre parts, Luo Tianming discovered some very interesting things in it.

"Hmm?" he said, looking at the other musicians' names that appeared on the letter.

"It seems that not only Schubert has this plan, but others have also made their own plans."

“Look here…”

Luo Tianming pointed to the name "Beethoven".

"Industrial Plan 1.0 template... Ha, so everyone heard about the concert and the news that the archbishop might come."