At this moment, the courtyard of Asiburn was in chaos. The fire that had been burning in the courtyard had not only not been extinguished, but was also showing signs of spreading.
Many servants from the surrounding villas came to help, carrying buckets and other items, and shouts rose and fell.
The villa was also engulfed in flames, with flames frequently bursting out of the windows, making it impossible to go inside and salvage belongings.
The key issue is that those three gunshots caused everyone in the courtyard to scatter in panic, frantically searching for cover. Now, no one has the mind to salvage anything of value.
Asiburn had no choice but to kneel in the courtyard and beg for mercy from the man with the gun on the roof.
After most of the firefighters hid, the courtyard became less noisy.
Odis had been waiting for this moment. He shouted to Asiburn, "Someone asked me to tell you that he thanks you for your concern, but he prefers peace and quiet, so don't send anyone to look for him!"
"He also told me to fire three shots at you, but not to kill you. But you should know that the fourth shot would definitely hit your head!"
Ashburn quickly replied, "I know, I know! Thank you... thank you for giving me another chance."
Odis smiled and said nothing more, but retreated to the center of the roof so that the people below could not see him.
Ashburn's bodyguards also took action, removing the iron gate at the entrance of the courtyard and using it as cover to help Ashburn hide.
At this point, the fire upstairs intensified, and the sound of glass shattering from the heat could be heard continuously.
One of the bodyguards hiding behind the iron gate smiled and said, "That sniper is an idiot. Unless he jumps down from the building, no one can get down from the fire now."
Asiburn, a man who had seen his share of storms, quickly calmed down once he was safe: "He was sent by that gentleman; I reckon he's already escaped."
The bodyguards were all taken aback, but only the three extraordinary bodyguards seemed to understand their employer's meaning.
Afterwards, Ashburn sat on the ground, staring blankly at the villa engulfed in flames, no one knew what he was thinking.
...
Wood District, Minsk Street.
Even through the fog, Klein, standing atop the clock tower, could see the distant firelight. He smiled and said, "Mr. Garr's prediction was quite accurate."
...
The villa in Asiburn.
A few minutes later, a hurricane suddenly blew through the street, so strong that it was impossible to open one's eyes, and the fire in the yard was extinguished just like that.
But the fire in the room was still burning. At that moment, the water in the pond in the yard suddenly seemed to come alive and flowed to the shore and into the house.
With the help of the water, the fire in the house was quickly extinguished.
At this moment, the hurricane stopped, and people opened their eyes. However, they could hardly believe their eyes; the fire had been extinguished just like that!
A carriage bearing the "Storm Emblem" drove into the courtyard, and members of the "Punisher" squad, dressed in police uniforms, quickly took over the area.
After learning a little about the case, the "substitute" went to the rooftop to look for the arsonist.
First, they found no remains, indicating that the arsonist had escaped. The area had been burned before, leaving no trace.
There was no other way, so the "punisher" had to use a sealing artifact to "communicate with spirits," but the surrounding natural spirits knew nothing about it.
Then they used the sealed item to perform divination, but they still couldn't get any information.
This is rather strange. Theoretically speaking, even if an arsonist has the ability to counter divination, he should still be able to divinate some information.
Moreover, extraordinary individuals who possess this ability generally do not have the capacity to make nature spirits ignore their actions.
If both are present, the other party must be at least a Sequence 6, but would a Sequence 6 commit arson?
It would be reasonable for a Sequence 6 to be after Asiburn's wealth, since a wealthy person of that level could at most hire some "low-sequence" Beyonders as bodyguards.
They mainly rely on the help of the church. For example, Asiburn is a follower of the Church of Storms, so when he encounters an enemy of Sequence 6, he will definitely ask the Church of Storms for help.
Because such believers typically donate a lot of money to the church, the church's extraordinary beings also have an obligation to protect them.
Even if there isn't enough time to ask the church's extraordinary individuals for help, after the incident occurs, the church's extraordinary individuals will be able to identify the suspect based on clues, and in some cases, bring them to justice.
If the murderer cannot be caught, a reward and a warrant will be issued, and the murderer will have to live in the shadows from then on.
Therefore, in general, ordinary "middle sequence" wild extraordinary beings would not take this risk.
The "substitute punisher" investigated to this point and realized that he could not find clues by extraordinary means, so he began to question the people at the scene one by one.
Upon inquiry, the "punishers" team discovered something strange: the fire spread too quickly from the start to the point of being out of control!
The member of the "punisher" team who was asking the question said loudly to the bodyguard in front of him: "Think about it again, are you sure you didn't remember it wrong?"
"The fire in the villa was out of control in just over half a minute?"
Unless there was a violent explosion, how could the fire have gotten out of control so quickly? But no one at the scene heard an explosion, and the gas lamp valves were shut off immediately, so there was no gas leak.
The bodyguard shrank back in fright at the question from the "punisher" team member, who seemed ready to charge at him and fight.
He thought about it carefully before saying with certainty, "That's right, it really only took a little over half a minute!"
"After the fire started on the first floor, we began to cover the Asiburn family as they walked out of the villa from the second floor."
"By the time we got into the yard, the fire was already out of control."
Thus, the "substitutes" made their first judgment: the arsonist was likely an "arsonist," or someone of a higher level in this field.
Then they learned what the arsonist had said to Asiburn, and they quickly concluded that Asiburn's enemies had hired extraordinary beings to retaliate.
But when asked, the millionaire insisted that he did not know who his enemy was and had no clues to provide.
Just as the "Punisher" was preparing to use the sealed artifact to obtain clues from Asiburn, Asiburn suddenly said he would donate 1,000 pounds to the Church of Storms and asked them to stop the investigation.
According to certain unspoken rules between the church and wealthy believers, in this situation, the "punisher" cannot use sealing objects to extract confessions from believers, and must respect the believers' choices.
The "scapegoats" realized that this case was likely to remain unsolved.
...
Odis had already returned to his base in the dilapidated apartment by carriage.
Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!
Of course, he still got off three blocks away and, under the cover of night, walked back here.
The cloth bag in Odis's hand, as well as the tools used in the crime, have been returned to the "wilderness of knowledge" using a "spatial magic circle".
Odis just used the movable "teleportation array" hidden in his coat to leave the roof of the villa.
After his improvements, the magic circle no longer causes the dizziness that it used before, and it can now be used twice a week.
After appearing more than ten kilometers away from the Asiburn villa, he quickly regained his composure and hid in a dark corner, putting his coat and all his weapons back into the "wilderness of knowledge".
He even had time to change his hat before leisurely returning to the outpost.
He then used the secondary formation at the stronghold to return home and secretly lay back down on his bed.
In the darkness, Odis looked at the ceiling and smiled. It felt pretty good to personally punish his opponent.
He quickly calmed his mind and fell asleep through meditation.
...
Wood District, 15 Minsk Street.
After breakfast, Klein decided to go to the Cragg Club. This might cause him to miss the messenger sent by Lord Asiburn to cancel the commission, but it would allow him to create the illusion that he was out investigating Mr. Gar's whereabouts, and use this as a reason to refuse to return the 10-pound deposit.
While he was riding in a public carriage, he bought a copy of the Backlund Morning Post from a newsboy and, sure enough, found on the second page news about the fire at Lord Ashburn's mansion.
Although it happened late last night, I didn't expect that the Backlund Morning Post would have already given a fairly detailed report on it.
However, the report stated that the fire at Ashburn Mansion was caused by an explosion due to aging gas pipes, indicating that someone had covered up the cause of the fire.
Continuing to read, Klein saw in the report, "...Fortunately, yesterday's fire did not cause any casualties; only some people sustained minor injuries while fighting the fire..."
Just then, the public carriage arrived. Klein closed the newspaper and, as he boarded the carriage, thought to himself: Mr. Garr is a man of his word.
...
At this time, "Mr. Gard" Odis was also traveling to the fight club by public carriage.
Upon arriving at the training ground, head coach Federer smiled and said, "I haven't been here for several days. I thought you weren't coming."
After all, he didn't have much left to teach Odis.
Odis smiled and took out a bottle of essential oil: "This is an essential oil extracted from several herbs, including Impatiens balsamina, and it has a very good effect on symptoms such as bruises and aches."
A long time ago, Odis discovered that there were no medicines like safflower oil in this mysterious world. Of course, the "pharmacists" must have similar medicines, but the characteristics of extraordinary beings meant that such medicines were not very widely available.
So he made his own liniment for sprains and bruises, and it worked quite well. However, he never used it for bruises or sprains, so it wasn't very well-known.
Federer paused for a moment, then said, "If there's anything I can help you with, just let me know."
Odis then stated frankly, "I want to practice running."
After participating in two extraordinary fighting competitions, he realized that running in a fight requires certain skills, so he wanted to ask if there were any tips.
Federer put away the essential oil: "Come on, let's go play on the court."