Versatile Mage

It did not take Lingling long to arrive.

When Bobby saw a little girl coming into the house, he quickly rose to his feet and said, “Little girl, don’t come in here, it’s too scary!”

Lingling continued on her way, her eyes displaying intelligence unfitting her age, staring right at the gory scene.

She went closer and felt the blood in the pot with her fingertips, before lifting Norke’s head to inspect it closely.

Bobby was stunned. He stared at Lingling with a blank face, and it took him quite a while to recover.

“Don’t tell the cops or the Magic Association yet, we won’t be able to find what we want if they come,” Lingling said.

“I’ve used the Space Element to quarantine this place, it will stop the smell from leaking out too,” Mo Fan complied.

“What’s this?” Lingling pointed at some strange-looking thing stuck to the pot and asked curiously.

“No idea, it looks like dander,” Mo Fan said.

Lingling cautiously collected the dander stuck to the pot into a vacuum bag so she could experiment on it.

“Find a skilled pathologist and let him dissect the body,” said Lingling.

“Di…dissect?” Bobby immediately began to reject.

This was his younger brother. How could he let them dissect his corpse? He had to give him a proper burial!

“If you think a proper burial is more meaningful than finding the true cause of his death, or the real culprit behind it, you can ask the Magic Association to send someone over now. Those bunch of idiots will only tell you that it’s safer to cremate him,” Lingling said firmly.

Bobby did not expect to hear such words from a little girl. He looked at Lingling with a blank face.

“If you want to know what killed your brothers, just like we do, then just do as she said,” Mo Fan patted Bobby’s shoulder and told him earnestly.

Bobby was a rational person. He nodded to give his consent, and let Lingling take care of the body.

—

While Lingling and the pathologist were dissecting the body inside the house, Mo Fan and Bobby sat in the garden, each holding an iced bottle of stout beer, taking sips at times. They did not look like they had just gotten into a fight not long ago.

“How did you take care of your elder brother’s corpse? Did you burn it?” Mo Fan asked.

“Mmm, on the same day. An old pharmacist from the Magic Association said it might be some kind of contagious disease, so they had to burn it. I tried to stop them, but they insisted on burning it anyway,” Bobby confirmed.

“Your brother Norke, when did he… turn…”

“Lose his mind?”

“Yeah, when did you realize he wasn’t himself?” Mo Fan asked.

“Around a week ago, his temper suddenly worsened. I thought he was only behaving like that because of what happened to my elder brother,” Bobby said.

“Did he show any peculiar behavior?”

“Nothing in particular… he seemed pretty normal, although he did have a better appetite recently,” Bobby said.

“Better appetite?” Mo Fan immediately recalled the families of the victims he visited. He remembered them mentioning the same thing.

Lubi was picky when it comes to food, but he’s been eating everything lately. I thought he was finally going to grow a lot stronger. His feeble body was going to improve too, but to think that he would die all of a sudden…

Mo Fan remembered one of the victims’ mum saying the same thing!

“Xue Xue, can you go pay the families a visit again and ask them in particular about the appetites of the victims?” Mo Fan asked Mu Ningxue.

Mu Ningxue nodded and immediately headed out.

—

It did not take long for Mu Ningxue to revisit the families with the speed of her Wind Element. She soon returned to Bobby’s house.

Mo Fan already knew the answer when he saw the look on her face.

“Every victim had a better appetite prior to their deaths. The amount of food they ate was around two to three times their usual amount, with not a single exception,” Mu Ningxue said seriously.

“It’s likely that the cops and the Hunters would disregard a tiny detail like this. They won’t assume there’s any problem with it, but it might actually be the clue we’re looking for,” Mo Fan opened Lingling’s database and searched it using the keyword ‘appetite’.

Even though not every record of the victims of the Drowning Curse had taken note of their appetite, he did find some other information about sudden changes to a person’s appetite!

“Appetite? What does that have anything to do with the curse?” Bobby asked in confusion.

“An increase in appetite isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially when each victim did not seem to gain weight despite eating a lot more than they usually do,” Mo Fan replied.

—

While they were discussing the victims’ appetites, Lingling walked out of the house. She looked at the three sitting in the garden with glittering eyes.

“We found something,” Lingling said.

“So did we!” Mo Fan immediately told Lingling how every victim had a sudden increase in appetite before they died.

Lingling pondered for a while before sharing her discovery, “Norke’s body is extremely feeble, like a person who hasn’t eaten for more than ten days. He only looks normal on the outside. The inside of his body is actually swelling because of taking in too much water.”

“That’s…that’s impossible!” Bobby screamed.

Norke had clearly eaten a lot. How was it possible that his body was like an empty shell only full of water? That didn’t make any sense!

“I can feel my head hurting,” Mo Fan smiled wryly. He simply could not find any possibility to explain it.

The victims were starving when they ate more than they usually did… it was simply impossible, no matter how fast a person’s metabolism was!

“I think we’ve found some clues,” Lingling said. She went into the house and returned with the pot filled with blood.

Mu Ningxue and Mo Fan were confused. Why did she bring the pot of blood out?

Lingling asked Mo Fan to hold onto a filtration net.

Mo Fan did as she asked and held out the net. Lingling started pouring the blood through the net.

The viscid blood flowed through the tiny gaps of the filtration net. Bobby had a complicated feeling watching it. How daring was this little girl? Even a Mage like him was frightened by the gory sight, but the little girl seemed perfectly normal.

The blood continued to fall through the net. Mo Fan almost wanted to ask questions when he suddenly saw something wriggling in the net.

It looked like a blood clot, but it was soft and squishy, as if it could pass through the net with a little push.

“What’s that?” Mo Fan asked, pointing at the blood clot.

“Don’t touch it, it’s very fragile. It will die as soon as it leaves a body of liquid,” Lingling warned him.

Mo Fan immediately took back his finger. Mu Ningxue and Bobby went up to take a closer look.

“Go get some water,” Lingling said. She poured the quickly-retrieved water onto the wriggling blood clot, to wash the crimson off it.

To their surprise, after the viscid blood was washed off, the wriggling blood clot totally vanished, as if it had melted.

“Where did it go?” Mo Fan asked in astonishment.

“It’s still there, look closely,” Lingling said.

Mo Fan lowered his head and took a closer look. He finally discovered a completely transparent, tiny maggot at the same spot where the blood clot was in the filtration net!

The thing was soft like a jellyfish, but more transparent than it. It was almost invisible to the naked eye. It had the shape of a maggot, and was slightly bigger than a thumb.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mu Ningxue admitted.

Mu Ningxue was considered the knowledgeable sort, yet it was her first time seeing the creature. Most importantly, why was it in the blood clot? Did that mean everyone that died to the Drowning Curse had this transparent maggot in their blood?

“It’s understandable if you haven’t seen it before. This is only the larval form of the creature. They can only grow into their true form by taking in enough water from the ocean,” Lingling told them.

“What true form?”

“It’s hard to say. The scariest thing about these Jellyfish Evil Maggots is that their eggs are like an embryo that can attach to any living creature, allowing them to take their host’s form,” Lingling said.

“Are you saying that this thing can grow into any creature? Like, if it attaches to a Scarlet Demon, it will turn into a Scarlet Demon, and if it attaches to a sea monster, it will turn into a sea monster?” Mo Fan exclaimed.

“Something like that. It’s also my first time seeing a living Jellyfish Evil Maggot. I can finally conduct some experiments on it tonight!” Lingling said, her eyes glowing in excitement.

“But how about the Drowning Curse?” Mu Ningxue asked.

“Didn’t I already say it? This Jellyfish Evil Maggot can take the form of any living creature, including humans!” Lingling said.

Mo Fan and Mu Ningxue were stunned. Didn’t that sound extremely terrifying?

Bobby snapped furiously after hearing the conclusion, “What…what did you say!? My brothers were actually transformed maggots like these! Impossible, that’s impossible!”

“It’s only a speculation for now, I’ll need to investigate it further,” Lingling said.

“But that’s crazy, to think that every victim of the Drowning Curse was actually a maggot like this! How could a tiny, transparent maggot transform into a human, and be able to speak and move like one?” Mo Fan thought Lingling was exaggerating. Even he was having a hard time believing it!

“Speaking of which, I heard that an enormous skeleton showed up at the beach not long ago?” Lingling asked.

“Mmm, that did happen,” Mo Fan confirmed.

“Hopefully, it’s not the doing of these creatures. Otherwise, this city is most likely in big trouble,” Lingling said grimly.