Chapter 194: A Search

Within half an hour, both of them reached the Midnight Wings Organization.

Lionel paid for the carriage. Afterward, they entered the Midnight Wings, where a strange silence lingered.

The crows of the organization who usually worked until morning weren’t present there today; only a few officials could be seen wandering.

The air around seemed to absorb the ink scent, and the very next moment they stepped into the library, the scent of the old dusty pages rushed in.

Lionel darted his eyes around to find Old Bai, who usually slept in the library while studying about potions and occult things. Tonight, he couldn’t be seen reading books or creating potions that exploded relatively fast.

Mo Fei glanced at an open book, then took a brief look at Lionel before walking toward it. As he read the few words of the book, a sudden quietness fell over him... the book wasn’t an ordinary occult book... in the very first page it had a warning.

The book — titled as — Return — had a very unusual classification. On the very first page the warning was... "Avoid performing the ritual until your life is on the verge of losing and you want your wish to be fully fulfilled."

A document about the ritual of return by death, something that was almost a mocking laugh toward the very nature of the end. His eyes lingered at the formulas, which had a few things that directly seemed connected to the explosive potions.

The payment of the mystical potion for the wish fulfillment was very ordinary at first. Explosion. That was what Mo Fei thought for a brief moment until he realized that the miracles were only temporary a thing; if somehow the wish was fulfilled, then it’d not make the events change much. In the end, an event was always greater than miracles — the temporary happiness.

Finally, he thought about this book... why would Old Bai need to complete a wish?

Knowing that eccentric Old Man, he would have likely wanted to wish for an infinite amount of wine or at least would want to own a club, perhaps to enjoy his last few years of old age.

Mo Fei shook his head to subside the thought. It was a serious matter; to others, it might have been just a miracle-creating book, but to him, who had noticed that Old Man always working at the table to create potions, it couldn’t have been just a need for explosions.

Suddenly, he recalled the day he first joined the organization, nearly a month ago, he found Old Bai working on a potion that had also exploded... could it be that Old Bai was hiding something?

What was his true wish then?

He thought before turning toward Lionel, who was still searching for Old Bai. He lifted a carpet and looked at the dust beneath.

Mo Fei called out. "Mr. Lionel, I believe he is not a rat that you can find beneath carpets."

"No, I do know that. Well, he usually leaves a letter beneath this carpet if he leaves the library for work. I suppose he forgot to leave it today; we have to search for him throughout the building."

Mo Fei exhaled a sigh and glanced at the book once more before walking toward the stairs. "I’ll check the upper floors."

"Old Bai is really good at hide and seek."

"Why would a sixty-year-old man want to play hide and seek, Mr. Lionel?"

Lionel shrugged and turned away. "Who knows why."

Mo Fei walked toward the staircase to find him there. The rhythmic thock of his footsteps echoed through the silent path.

In a while, he heard the sound of someone working that came out of a room. He changed his direction and opened the apartment room, where he found Old Bai lying his head on a table.

His one hand held a page of formulas while on the other side, an artifact that resembled a mystical wing of a mythical bird rested on the table.

Conversely, he held a black feather in his other hand, resembling the Ji Yu feather. Mo Fei stopped just before him and found him slightly exhausted from the late-night research, and he called out. "Old Bai, what are you doing here?"

The Old Man let out a yawn before stretching his arms outward. "Ah, nothing too serious, Mr. Sherlock. How can I help today?"

"Have you not heard of the radical church’s attempt of awakening artifacts?"

"Not truly, what happened?"

Mo Fei sat on a nearby chair, his gaze examining the room that had been a simple place to sleep, perhaps it was where Old Bai lived. "Lionel and I came here to take you. Your knowledge will be helpful to seal them away."

"That’s terrible news." He stood up abruptly, putting the ingredients aside and grabbing a long, old coat. Afterward, he put on the spectacles and locked the open wardrobe.

For a brief moment, Mo Fei saw something reflect the light. The spiritual presence that directly seemed similar to a human...

"Old Bai..." Mo Fei murmured, pulling his top hat down and adjusting his posture. His expressions were different from usual; after all, he knew Old Bai was going to perform a ritual. "I have an important question."

Hearing that tone, Old Bai paused and turned back toward Mo Fei. His hand froze at his collar; the air suddenly turned suffocating as a prickle of sweat dropped from his forehead. "What is it, young Sherlock?"

"You know very well what I’m talking about... I have also checked the book in the library’s table."

Old Bai glanced at his room’s table and remembered that he had left that book in the library... a wish fulfillment ritual, of course, to ask something in these worlds meant to give something more. "What are you implying?" He chuckled softly, pressing his hand against Mo Fei’s shoulder. "It was only research as to how wish fulfillment works."

Mo Fei studied Old Bai whose eyes seemed to be tired, hiding something for who knew how many decades, but hiding that from Mo Fei was simply harder due to his observation.

He instantly noticed the faint hesitation on Old Bai’s brows and the eyes that uttered more than the mouth. "I suppose... but Old Bai, you already know more than me. As compared to your experience, I’m merely a new recruiter... I’ll ask two last questions."

Old Bai swallowed and removed his hand from the collar of his long coat before walking toward the door. "Well, ask."

"Do you truly believe that if you perform the wish fulfillment ritual, the Midnight Wings will be enough to protect you?" He asked while following him behind, after a pause, he continued. "And what is that ’Wish’ that you want to be real so badly?"