Rowena showcased her extraordinary talent in an unusual place. When Ian followed the trail left by the electric wheelchair to find her, she was intently crouched beside a highly decomposed horse corpse, gently waving her wand to cut off a small piece of bone.
He had expected to find Rowena in some gutter where horses and people were overturned.
As Ethan walked over, the tip of the wand released a blue beam that struck the detached bone, instantly turning it into bone powder that gently fell onto the parchment Rowena had laid on the ground.
He checked the electric wheelchair; it didn’t have a single scratch.
Rowena noticed Ethan’s motion and said, "Don’t worry about breaking it. Back when I was in school, I was a top-notch user of magical brooms."
However, her tone subtly shifted. It was no longer filled with the boastfulness of a child; now, her voice was somewhat solemn, showing traces of a Great Mage’s demeanor. She casually picked up a twig and handed it to Ethan, "Lend me some fire."
The tip of the twig ignited, and as it touched the bone powder, it emitted a radiant light like fireworks. Rowena placed the Crystal Ball in front of her and began chanting.
Ethan could tell the divination process was not going smoothly; her brow furrowed deeper and deeper until the dim glow of the Crystal Ball completely dissipated, and she opened her eyes in confusion.
"It was Blanche who intentionally led the wolves here, but why?"
The more Rowena thought about it, the stranger it seemed. She took another bone and repeated the same procedure.
She saw Blanche running through the night, seemingly searching for something. When it detected the wolves, instead of fleeing, it moved towards them, and soon it was knocked to the ground under their bites, its eyes slowly losing their shine, as the wolves tore at its flesh until only a skeleton remained.
Winter was approaching, and the beasts outside the town had become exceptionally fierce.
A brown stallion had escaped the stable and the town, seemingly to come here to die—a realization that shook Rowena’s understanding.
Holding a charged crystal, she spoke, "Red Fur, Red Fur, please respond, this is Nana, investigating the case. We’ve found a body attacked by wolves. Do you have a way to track the surrounding wolf pack?"
A response quickly came from the other end of the charged crystal, "Shh. Keep your voice down. We’re tracking a super rare magical creature here! It’s me, the whispering voice from beyond."
The voice from beyond still briefly shared some hunting tips with the two. This season’s wolves were much fiercer than usual, sometimes hunting far from their dens due to food shortages. The dens are usually located in hidden corners of the forest, making them difficult to find.
They could do the opposite by using the scent of blood to lure them out. Hungry wolves are highly sensitive to the smell of prey.
Ethan said, "Wait for me here. I’ll go to the town’s market and get some meat."
Rowena took up her wand, pointed it at her wrist, and suddenly a cut appeared on her fair skin. Blood ran down her wrist onto the parchment, leaving a blood mark. Normally, Rowena would scream if Lindong scratched her head, yet now she didn’t even blink as she continued casting spells. Red light hit the parchment, and her blood transformed into swirling red dust carried by the cold wind into the forest.
The air was filled with a strong scent of blood, almost comparable to what had happened at the Haywood Mine.
Soon, rustling sounds came from the shrubs, and shadows darting between grass and trees came ever closer. The wolf pack seamlessly coordinated and launched attacks from all directions at the two, but Rowena showed a fanatical smile, and her wand spun a circle around her, slicing the approaching wolf pack into several pieces before they reached her.
A bizarre scene quickly unfolded; the scattered wolf pack did not immediately die. They stared with eerie green eyes as their bodies writhed on the ground for several minutes, and then red cestode-like objects wriggled out from the meat chunks, scattering away.
Rowena naturally wouldn’t let them escape. A more intense slicing spell enveloped the clearing, precisely leaving only one red cestode close to her. She placed it in a transparent jar, where it wriggled incessantly.
"This is the reason."
She observed the red cestode for a moment and then reached a conclusion, "Blanche was infected by this parasite. The wolves that devoured its flesh were also infected, and the bad news is that Old Leicht, upon contact with Blanche’s corpse, also had these cestodes burrowing into his body. They invaded his eye, possibly causing his hallucinations."
Yet this still couldn’t answer her other question.
Why did Blanche come here to attract the wolf pack and deliberately let them eat it?
This was definitely not typical horse behavior.
"I’ve heard of a type of parasite that controls the host’s body, making it get hunted and eaten to spread to more people."
Ethan felt this was not a good sign. "Understanding 100 Dark Creatures" didn’t document this red cestode, yet he immediately thought of the 74 refugees, with their numbers increasing, and many of them already sick before arriving at Ximu Town. He wondered if this was connected to those red cestodes.
"This doesn’t make sense. Suppose someone deliberately had Blanche parasitized by these cestodes."
Rowena still frowned, "If it were me, I would ensure Blanche transmitted the cestodes to the Leicht family, and then through their cultivated fruits and vegetables, spread them to the entire town, so that every town resident would be parasitized by cestodes. If Blanche escaped the town and got devoured by the wolf pack, my plan would undoubtedly fail."
In this regard, she, often seen as a witch, was quite authoritative.
This is a typical trick of witches; they prefer to use curses or diseases to infect entire towns, effortlessly causing mass fatalities.
The inexplicable phenomena made Rowena feel irritable, "I need to visit Old Leicht’s place to investigate how Blanche got infected."
Ethan trusted Rowena’s judgment. If Mr. Leicht were also infected by these red cestodes, they’d have to isolate him. The sight of the writhing meat chunks earlier gave him a bad feeling.
This resembled something in Old Ba’s artistic style.
And the path of witches is closely linked to Old Ba.
Upon further thought, there was also a suspect near Ximu Town who summoned the Giant Divine Soldier.
It seemed he’d have to visit ’The Slaughtered Lamb’ again.