Chapter 1607: A Deadly Secret II

The man had dark hair and olive-toned skin. Even with dried blood and dirt smudged across his face, his features were still undeniably handsome. Yet no matter how long Lory stared at him, she could not remember where she had seen him before.

On the contrary, Zhao Li Xin recognized the man immediately.

His expression instantly curled with obvious disdain.

"He’s the rude man with that group of fools you met when we stayed at the villa once," Zhao Li Xin said coldly.

Lory frowned as she tried to recall the memory. It took several moments before realization finally dawned on her face.

"Ohhh..." Her brows shot upward. "That annoying guy who acted like ’look how charming I am’. That guy?!" She paused briefly before tilting her head. "Wait, what was his name again?"

"It doesn’t matter." Zhao Li Xin scoffed disdainfully. "Don’t waste your memory remembering something so trivial."

"Yeahh..but he’s an important witness now," Lory pursed her lips

At that moment, the man lying on the floor suddenly let out a weak groan. His eyelids slowly fluttered open. The moment he saw them, his entire body jolted violently in fright.

"Y-You—!" His voice trembled as he instinctively tried to retreat. "What do you want?" His whole body became visibly tense, as though expecting another round of torture.

Seeing his reaction, Lory casually grinned. "Relax, buddy. You’re safe now."

She rose from the floor with Zhao Li Xin naturally helping her up, his movements smooth and attentive like a knight assisting his princess.

Afterward, Zhao Li Xin calmly picked up the coat he had spread across the floor earlier. He casually dusted off the dirt before tossing it into his spatial ring.

In the very next moment, another coat, identical in style and color, appeared effortlessly in his hands, and he slipped it on with smooth ease, as though nothing had happened at all.

Thankfully, the man was still in daze, too stunned to care what Zhao Li Xin had done. Instead, his gaze stayed fixed on Lory.

After several seconds, he finally realized that the cellar, once always dim and oppressive, was now brightly illuminated, while the man who had tortured him was nowhere to be seen.

"If you’re looking for Simon," Lory said casually while standing in a relaxed manner, "he’s dead, though."

The man’s eyes widened in disbelief. "W-What... what happened?"

"I killed him," Lory answered nonchalantly.

The man’s expression tightened instantly before he hurriedly asked again, "What about the other paladins and the Luxemborough soldiers?"

"Oh, them?" Lory merely shrugged before lazily pointing her thumb toward Zhao Li Xin beside her. "He killed them."

The man stared at them in complete shock. "All... all of them?" he asked in disbelief.

If his memory served him right, there had been nearly a hundred soldiers stationed on the island, including several Dragxtern warriors and a few Paladins.

Zhao Li Xin’s expression remained blank, while Lory just shrugged again as if she was talking about something insignificant. Well, it wasn’t that it was insignificant, but it was inevitable, they couldn’t let the enemy knew bout lory identity prematurely, cause that would ruin their plan. Besides, these people had done monstrous things to these innocent people; thus, they got what they deserved.

Lory quietly assessed the man before her. From his calm demeanor alone, it was obvious he was no ordinary man. Lory then asked, "What’s your name?"

Fortunately, the man clearly did not recognize her either. Since Lory had already changed her hair and eye color, it was not strange for her to ask such a question.

"My name is Enzo, I...wait, I knew you." Enzo didn’t look at Lory but at Zhao Li Xin.

Zhao Li Xin’s expression did not change in the slightest.

Not because he thought he was not famous enough, after all, he was a well-known painter whose works were sought after everywhere, but because he had always disliked publicity. He rarely accepted interviews and never appeared at public events. Therefore, very few people actually remembered what he looked like.

Although his strikingly handsome appearance naturally drew public attention, it could only go so far. Without media exposure and constant headlines keeping his name alive, that attention would inevitably fade away.

That was why many celebrities deliberately created scandals and sensational stories, anything to keep their names circulating in the news. As for Zhao Li Xin... he hated noise.

As a result, despite his grand debut in Harland and the sudden wave of fame that followed, not many people could immediately recognize his face. That was why he had not bothered to change his appearance like Lory.

But who would have thought Enzo would recognize him so quickly?

"You...You’re that man... Zhao Li Xin, the painter, right?" Enzo gasped in disbelief. Then his gaze slowly shifted back toward Lory, his expression turning even more stunned. "And that means you’re... Raven Jane."

"Aren’t you lucky?" Lory said in a playful tone. "If you hadn’t met me, it would’ve been the Angel of Death waking you instead."

Only then did Enzo finally notice something strange. All the wounds covering his body had disappeared. Even the massive gash on his abdomen that had caused severe bleeding was completely gone, without leaving behind even the faintest scar.

"This...how could it be?" His eyes widened slowly as realization dawned upon him. He stared at Lory in disbelief. "Is it you who hou healed me?" he asked incredulously.

Even the most powerful healers he knew would never have been able to restore his body so completely without leaving behind a single scar.

"Healing potion," Lory answered smoothly without the slightest change in her expression. "A new and improved version from N.I.M.S."

The moment she mentioned N.I.M.S., Enzo immediately fell silent.

After all, the N.I.M.S. Institute was widely known as the most advanced center of science and magic in Harland, the very foundation behind the kingdom’s terrifying technological progress.

If such a place truly developed a miracle potion capable of healing someone to this extent, then perhaps it was not entirely impossible.

"Is that also the reason no magic device could reveal your disguise?" Enzo asked, referring to how neither enchanted cameras nor anti-magic devices had been able to detect Lory’s true appearance.

Lory knew he was asking about the Versipell Potion, but there was no way she could reveal something like that to an outsider.

Instead, she merely smiled mysteriously.

"What do you think?"

Neither confirming nor denying it. Yet Enzo seemed to take her response as confirmation anyway. His gaze darkened slightly as he silently stored the information away in his mind.

Lory, on the other hand, could not care less what conclusions he reached.

"Anyway," she said lightly despite the horrifying scene surrounding them, "what nasty thing were you doing here with the paladins?"

The moment the question left her lips, Enzo’s expression immediately darkened.

"Why don’t you check behind that steel door over there?" he said grimly, turning his gaze toward the far end of the cellar. ℯ𝕝.

Lory and Zhao Li Xin followed his line of sight.

At the very end of the room stood a heavy steel door stained with rust and dried blood. Without hesitation, Zhao Li Xin, as usual, stepped forward first and slowly pulled the door open.

The moment the door creaked ajar, an even stronger wave of foul stench burst out from within. The nauseating smell of blood, decay, and rotting flesh instantly flooded the area, so overpowering that even the air itself seemed contaminated.

Lory reflexively covered her nose and mouth with her hand, her face immediately twisting in disgust.

"Dear God..." she muttered in shock. "What is that smell?"

Suddenly, Zhao Li Xin’s voice came like an ominous warning.

"Wife..." His tone was unusually low. "I’ll get the picture. You stay where you are."

At the same time, he took out his phone and began taking pictures of whatever was hidden inside the mysterious room.

However, human nature was strange.

The more someone was told not to look, the stronger the urge to see became, and Lory was no exception.

"What is it, honey?" she asked anxiously before hurrying toward him despite his warning. Then she saw it, and the sight struck her to the core.

Inside the hidden compartment were countless corpses piled together like discarded garbage. Blood still oozed from some of the bodies, while others had already begun rotting beyond recognition. The suffocating stench of decay filled every corner of the cramped space.

But what made the scene truly horrifying was the condition of the corpses themselves. Many of them were incomplete. Some were missing arms, others had no legs, while several bore grotesque burn scars across their skin. Most of the bodies were in such terrible condition that it was difficult to believe they had once been human.

Others had entire sections of their bodies grotesquely carved away, leaving behind mangled flesh and exposed bones.

Lory instantly covered her mouth, her face turning deathly pale as nausea violently rose within her stomach.

Before she could vomit, Zhao Li Xin immediately pulled her into his embrace, pressing her face tightly against his chest. The familiar scent of agarwood and pine instantly filled her senses, overwhelming the disgusting smell of blood and rot surrounding them. Slowly, the nausea clawing at her stomach began to ease.

Zhao Li Xin’s expression turned icy cold. The horrifying scene before him did not unsettle him as easily as it would most people, yet knowing the sheer savagery of their enemy only deepened his concern for Lory’s safety.

And because of that, a familiar thought once again surfaced in his mind: power. He needed more power. He had to regain his original power, he had to perfect his Immortal Flame, and reduce every last one of these monsters to ashes so Lory’s safety would be guaranteed.

Zhao Li Xin lowered his chin onto the top of Lory’s head while holding her tightly in his arms. "Don’t be afraid. Breathe slowly, I’m here,"

His deep voice gradually soothed the turmoil in her heart.

Lory clenched Zhao Li Xin’s shirt. "Li Xin... what happened here?" Her voice trembled heavily with emotion. After calming herself, she remembered she had a job to do, then she spoke again. "I need to examine the corpses and send the information to my brother and the others."

"Sssh, I’ll do it..." Zhao Li Xin immediately interrupted her. "You stay here and ask that man what he knows. Leave the investigation of the corpses to me, alright?" His voice softened into a gentle coaxing tone.

Lory knew he was right. In the end, she nodded weakly. "Okay..."

"Good girl." Zhao Li Xin gently stroked her head as though comforting a frightened child before taking out a scented face mask from his spatial ring.

"It’s bluebell scented," he said gently while carefully securing the strings behind her ears. Soon after, the aromatic floral scent immediately eased the lingering nausea in Lory’s stomach. Feeling much better, she looked at him gratefully.

Zhao Li Xin merely smiled faintly, "You go now..." After that, he turned around and walked back into the hidden compartment.

Meanwhile, Lory slowly approached Enzo.

Although half of her face was concealed behind the mask, Enzo could still tell how deeply shaken she was by the horrific scene.

"You saw it," Enzo said quietly.

Lory took a deep breath to steady herself before asking, "Are those all human trafficking victims they gathered before?"

Enzo’s expression darkened. "Yes,... and that’s not even all of them." His eyes lowered grimly. "They dispose of the corpses twice every month. The bodies are secretly sent to a funeral house in Dolza to be cremated since it’s the closest location."

He paused briefly before continuing in a colder tone, "They no longer dare dump corpses carelessly as they did before. They’re afraid another incident like Blackfog Hill will happen again."

Lory’s eyes immediately narrowed in realization. "The strange appearance of those unidentified corpses in Blackfog Hill..."

She remembered Lilly and Fargo mentioning the incident before. Fargo had even secretly smuggled several corpses back to Harland for investigation, though they had failed to discover much.

"Since you know about this," Enzo said while observing her carefully, "I assume you work for Harland, right? A King’s Men, perhaps... Noxcra agent?"

Lory smirked faintly behind her mask. "I do work for King Lucas."

Technically, she was not lying. Back when Lucas had been unconscious, she had practically handled all of his work in his place.

Enzo nodded inwardly, believing his assumption had been correct, unaware that while he was close to the truth, he had also missed it by an enormous margin. But that was a matter for another time.

"And who are you?" Lory narrowed her eyes. "You still haven’t told me your full name, or what exactly you were doing here. Don’t tell me you were just one of the innocent victims."

Since Lory and Zhao Li Xin had saved him from the brink of death, and since they were clearly working for Harland, Enzo knew there was little point in hiding his identity anymore.

"Vellacio," he answered honestly. "My name is Enzo Vellacio. I’m an agent of SID."

"The Secret Intelligence Division of Dolza?" One of Lory’s brows arched slightly.

"Yes," Enzo admitted calmly.