What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

Lena stood in front of the workbench and dissected a mouse that had contracted salinization disease and had been given a special treatment over a period of time.

The magic essence with a purity of 85% can be used to make a special medicine that can reverse the crystallization on the bodies of mice suffering from salinization disease.

However, the results of several autopsies suggest that the disease in the internal organs is still progressing, albeit at a much slower pace.

Lena sighed softly; even the current effective medicine has not been able to completely cure the salinization disease.

However, based on current experimental results, the drugs can now reverse the symptoms on the body surface, allowing patients to regain their mobility and significantly extend their lifespan.

If the same effect can be achieved in humans as in animals, then in cases like Mrs. Hershey's, where she was originally expected to have only about a year left to live, continued medication should be able to extend her life to five years, or even longer.

Moreover, before the internal organs fail, the patient can still retain the ability to move their limbs and live with some dignity. The efficacy of this medicine is beyond what holy water can compare to.

Overall, it's already a decent treatment plan, but it's still a long way from her goal of eliminating halogenation.

The research has reached a bottleneck; the purity of the magic element can no longer be improved, and the only remaining option is to work on the formula.

However, based on the materials passed down from my grandmother, research in this area has almost reached its limit.

Without further knowledge, it will be difficult to achieve any breakthroughs.

Lena reluctantly put aside her research for the time being, cleaned up the experimental table, and then she had to deal with the work of taking care of the monsters.

As usual, she prepared water and feed, then pricked her finger with a needle, dripped her blood into the water, and finally carefully lowered the water and feed into the feeding tank.

After winter arrives, the activity of monsters slows down significantly and they will temporarily stop reproducing. However, they will not go into hibernation. They still need to be fed and cared for regularly to ensure that they can continue to produce magic essence in the coming year.

Moreover, if she is not fed a little blood every now and then, the blood alliance will fail, the monsters will become frenzied and aggressive, and will even kill each other in the small breeding pool.

Fearing unforeseen circumstances, Leon slaughtered all the adult monsters, so she wouldn't need to refine magic essence for the next six months.

With such meticulous care and feeding them with plants collected from the maze, once the existing monsters have grown up next year, and after accumulating them in the maze over the winter, the first batch of magic essence harvested should yield a considerable amount.

This year, we sold just over a million. If we continue at this level of production next year, reaching a transaction volume of 1.5 million shouldn't be a problem. Those money-grubbing guys must be ecstatic.

Thinking about this, Lena suddenly realized that her thoughts were a bit strange.

No, what does it matter to me how much money he makes or whether he's happy?

Her goal has always been to develop a cure for salinization disease, and making money has always been Leon's goal.

Although, if you really want to say it, not many people dislike money, and she is no exception.

Now she has about 500,000 yuan. With this money, she no longer needs to worry about money for her life and research, which is a good thing. She didn't live that frugal life because she liked it before.

But she was still worried that the money might cause trouble, so she only kept a few tens of thousands of pfennigs at home and put the rest into a box and buried it in a hidden place. That place was originally used by her grandmother to hide the props and books left behind when she was a witch.

She even considered that, if necessary, she could redistribute the money she received to Leon so that he could reach his money-making goals as soon as possible.

She knew that Leon's 50/50 split was already a concession made to maintain their partnership, and that Leon had protected her more than once. She didn't mind giving him a little more back in terms of the profit split.

And it will also get rid of that guy as soon as possible, so I won't have to do this dangerous tightrope walking with him anymore, right?

get rid of……

Thinking about this, she suddenly hesitated.

Having made enough money, there seemed to be no reason for them to continue cooperating.

Although Leon promised to always protect her and she promised to develop medicine to treat his injuries, what happened after that?

If she develops the medicine Leon needs and the research on halogenation comes to an end, then...would they no longer need to have any contact?

Thinking of this, even Reina herself didn't realize that she let out a soft sigh at this moment.

"Clang!"

The sound of the earthenware pot shattering echoed through the cave, crisp and loud, instantly interrupting Lena's thoughts.

Lena woke up with a start, her blood freezing for a moment.

After Caron broke into this place, Leon not only dug out a new way out, but also set up some simple mechanisms at the entrance of this maze.

Some of the threads are so subtle that they are not visible in the dark, and if you are not careful, you will inevitably trigger them.

Once triggered, the jar, which was placed in the dark, will break, making a sound that can be clearly heard in this underground space.

This was only for alarm purposes; Leon didn't set up any dangerous traps to prevent himself and Lena from accidentally triggering them.

Of course, there's a possibility that Leon accidentally triggered it when he entered, but that has never happened before.

"There's someone inside, search quickly!"

A low shout shattered the last shred of hope in Lena's heart; the intruder must have realized that this was a warning mechanism.

A flurry of hurried footsteps sounded, another mechanism was triggered, and the sound of the earthenware pot shattering rang out once more.

Someone has wandered into the maze! And of all times, while Leon wasn't around!!

Lena was terrified, but thankfully her reason quickly brought her back to her senses.

We have no choice but to run!

Lena rushed toward the exit immediately. She hesitated for a moment as she passed the table. In the end, instead of taking the magic essence from the table, she grabbed the alcohol used for ignition and heating and poured it onto the oil lamp. The flames immediately spread across the table.

She then rushed out of the studio and fled into the depths of the maze, disappearing into the darkness.

It's impossible for such a small fire to destroy evidence, but the intruder will be attracted by the firelight when searching this place, and will then have to spare some manpower to fight the fire and protect the scene, which will buy her some time to escape.

She learned this trick from Leon, who used it to lure her out of the house to put out the fire.

Even after escaping the studio, Lena could still hear the noisy shouts behind her, while the glowing plants and mushrooms provided her with barely any light.

She had practiced escaping with Leon several times, but when it really came down to it, she couldn't stay calm at all. Her head was buzzing, and only one thought kept flashing through her mind: "Escape, get out of here no matter what!"

Leon taught her that the first priority in any situation was to escape the maze to avoid being caught red-handed.

She finally reached the end of the left fork in the road and found the passage that Leon had dug out. It was low, narrow, and well hidden, only wide enough for one person to crawl through.

Lena crawled into the tunnel, moving through the pitch blackness. The tunnel, which was only a few dozen meters long, seemed endless.

Finally, she came across a clump of withered grass. She reached out and brushed it aside, and a sliver of light shone through the grass.

These withered grasses were used by Leon to cover the entrance and exit, which was located more than ten meters away from the original exit, and was also covered by a lot of shrubs.

Lena emerged disheveled from the dense grass, dusted off her cloak, and, making sure no one was around, immediately moved down the slope.

She had finally escaped the maze; now all she needed to do was leave the mountain!

The inquisition in Hamel had fewer than thirty people, more than enough to search the labyrinth, but far too few to search the mountain.

The slope here wasn't steep, but without a mountain path, it was still quite dangerous for her to walk, and she twisted her ankle several times.

Finally, she passed through the bushes on the hillside and approached the foot of the mountain, which was in another direction from Hekou Village.

But just as she walked out through the trees, several figures suddenly came into her view.

Lena froze on the spot. What she saw was a group of people wearing light armor, with the church's four-pointed star emblem on their breastplates.

These are... people from the church!

The other side seemed to have noticed the movement of someone coming down the mountain and had already moved to surround them.

Lena looked around and saw that there were still many people gathered in the distance. Just from her position, she could see at least thirty people.

This is a mountain-sealing search, and the search is being conducted by two hundred apprentice knights from an entire knightly order. From the moment the search began, Rena, who had entered the labyrinth, had no chance of escape!

"Hello, miss, we are apprentice knights from the Church of War, ordered to cordon off and search this mountain," a female knight stepped forward and said in a businesslike tone. "Could you please cooperate with the investigation?"

Lena stood frozen in place, unable to offer any response.

The female knight didn't wait for her response, but turned to the person next to her and whispered, "Notify Bishop Beckett immediately."

Chapter 64 Decisive Evidence

In the infirmary of the Inquisition, the Healer bandaged Leon's wounds, explained the situation to Aaron, bowed, and left.

"The injuries are minor, and you'll be fine after a few days of rest. Fortunately, there wasn't anything troublesome coated on the dagger," Aaron said.

“Thank you, Chief.” Leon nodded in response. “Have you found any clues about the assassin?”

“Not yet.” Aaron shook his head. “All we know is that he possesses extraordinary blessing power, and he used it to kill Henry Porter and eight other gang members at the winery. He killed them all with a single stab to the throat with a dagger, and hid the bodies of the others in various locations within the winery after assassinating them.”

“Could it be that Henry Porter’s client or partner knew he was being targeted by the Inquisition and sent someone to silence him?” Leon asked.

"I'm also keeping that possibility in mind for now, but it's not very likely. We found Potter's apothecary located beneath the winery, where two pharmacists are responsible for preparing potions."

The assassin also found the apothecary, killing the guards and the pharmacist. The magic essence he'd taken was also found on the assassin. However, the assassin didn't destroy the apothecary; someone connected to Potter's criminal network wouldn't likely leave so much evidence after a murder. "Based on everything we found at the winery, plus the witness testimonies, we can basically convict Potter," Aaron replied.

Although the person who needs to be tried is now just a corpse and can no longer appear in court.

"Why does that assassin possess that invisibility ability? That ability shouldn't have anything to do with the church, right?" Leon cautiously probed.

The assassin possessed the ability to become invisible, a fact known not only to him but also to at least two other inquisitors who witnessed Aaron capturing the assassin.

Leon himself wasn't suspected of not being killed. He slightly modified his confrontation with the assassin, claiming that the assassin could have easily killed him but never did, seemingly because the assassin was worried about the trouble killing the Inquisitor might bring to his employer.

Aaron's eyes dimmed slightly, and he replied in a low voice, "Unfortunately, that was undoubtedly the blessing of the Mystic God. That assassin was a blessed superhuman."

"Could he be...someone from the church?" Leon asked, feigning surprise.

In the church, only those who are elected knights, bishops, and other officials with ranks have the opportunity to receive blessings. Among the inquisitors, only those above the rank of chief of the local court can hold church ranks.

In the general public's perception, apart from witches, only the four major churches have a monopoly on the methods of cultivating extraordinary individuals.

Extraordinary miracles are the grace of God, and the church acts on behalf of God's will on earth.

“There have always been apostates in the church for various reasons. Some openly oppose the doctrine, some flee after violating the rules, some were spies from the beginning, and some deserted during missions or on the battlefield…” Aaron paused here, “Where there is light, there is shadow, and the same is true for the church.”

He deliberately avoided mentioning another possible scenario.

That is, there are actually some powerful figures who have obtained methods for cultivating extraordinary individuals from the church, and they disregard church rules and privately cultivate extraordinary individuals to serve them.

"To be able to use such assassins, they must not be ordinary people, right?" Leon continued to ask.

The assassin, having no hope of escape, committed suicide very decisively, clearly to prevent the Inquisition from investigating him further. He was undoubtedly being instructed by someone behind the scenes.

“We still need to investigate this further,” Aaron said, patting Leon on the shoulder. “You should go back and rest. You did a great job today, and I will remember it.”

“No, I didn’t do anything.” Leon stood up.

“You took on the most dangerous job, there’s no need to be modest.” Aaron said, walking to the door. “Do you want to rest here for a while, or go home first? I’ll have someone take you home.”

“It’s alright, I can get back by myself,” Leon replied.

Although Potter wasn't arrested, it was unclear who killed him. Leon wasn't sure who was targeting the local trade, but in any case, the deal couldn't proceed, and he needed to leave as soon as possible to deal with the farm in the maze.

"Alright then..."

Just as Aaron was about to say something, a commotion suddenly came from outside.

Then Bishop Beckett's voice suddenly rang out in the corridor: "Sir, we've finally found you!"

“Bishop Beckett, has your operation yielded any results?” Aaron turned around.

"Yes, we followed the advice and searched the labyrinth that was sealed thirty years ago. Inside, we found a monster breeding farm, confirming that the magic element was not smuggled from outside, but produced locally."

Bishop Beckett's words plunged Leon, who was in the infirmary, into an icy abyss.

The maze was searched by Bishop Beckett? All the inquisitors of the Inquisition were raiding Potter's manor; where did they get their search party from to search the maze?

Potter's manor and the farm in the maze were searched at the same time. It turned out that they had already found out the clues and did not intend to give him any chance to react!

The maze has been searched, so what happened to Lena?

"So, the producers of magic essence have also been caught?" Aaron continued to ask.

“There were people in the maze during the search, but we didn’t catch them on the spot. They had secretly dug a passage through the maze. But our people found three people during the process of closing the mountain: a local hunter, a woodcutter from nearby, and a woman who claimed to be gathering herbs in the mountains. Just to be safe, I brought them all back. Let me take you to see them.”

Bishop Beckett led Aaron toward the hall, and Leon suddenly snapped out of his daze and quickly followed behind.

When Leon entered the hall, he saw several knights in light armor escorting a suspect into the Inquisition and handing him over to the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor bowed respectfully to the knights and then led the suspect to the interrogation room.

These knights did not have the official crests of their respective churches; instead, they wore a uniform four-pointed star in the center of their breastplates. They were apprentice knights in the knightly order who had not yet obtained a rank.

In terms of their duties, they are not much different from the church's agents, accepting various missions and assignments. However, their status is slightly higher than that of the lower-ranking inquisitors, since apprentice knights have the opportunity to be promoted to full knights, and not everyone has the means to become a knight.

Leon saw two men being escorted in, and when the third man entered, the world seemed to lose its color for a moment, with only the faded pale red on his shawl standing out.

He clearly saw Lena being brought in wearing shackles.

Lena's face was deathly pale, her eyes filled with terror, like a deer surrounded by a pack of wolves.

Her gaze swept over the neatly dressed inquisitors, each wearing a mask. Only three were different: Bishop Aaron and Bishop Beckett stood at the back of the line, scrutinizing the suspects being brought in, while another person stood far behind them.