Chapter 51: I Didn't Work Overtime Last Night

[By the way, be careful not to possess too many skills. The number of skills a person can accommodate is limited, and any excess will turn into redundant gravity, causing you to sink faster in the Sea of Origin.

Using this ritual, you can fuse skills with good affinity.

Although this often causes the skills to lose some functions, compared to the increased buoyancy, these losses are negligible.

Furthermore, cases where skills become even stronger will occasionally occur.

The deity I pray to is a benevolent god who is highly praised by the Containment Bureau and frequently sought for help, so when you have too many skills, go ahead and fuse them boldly; usually, nothing will go wrong.

(I have written the ritual diagrams and text, along with the relevant raw materials required for the ritual, in as much detail as possible on the following pages)]

Xia Shou continued turning the pages, and the next page displayed an extremely profound and complex magic array pattern.

When he finished viewing the magic array pattern and turned to the next page, the text had become extremely blurred.

"It seems I've reached my reading limit again," Xia Shou said with regret, putting down the Notes of Death.

He sorted through the skills he had acquired in his mind and was shocked to find that the skills he possessed already exceeded five.

Initially, he devoured the wax figure and acquired [Court Death].

Then, in the Blood Demon's House, he devoured corpses and acquired [Perpetual Wound] and [Reach the Pinnacle in Solitude].

Later, he devoured parts of the blood demons and obtained [Blood to Stanch Wounds] and [Blood Riot].

Finally, during this sanatorium incident, he obtained the fragmented [Misery Loves Company] from the abnormal patient.

Before he knew it, he already had six skills.

He needed to fuse the skills as soon as possible, but he hadn't finished reading about the ritual yet.

"This time, it took two days for the handwriting in the Notes of Death to become clear, so as long as I wait another two days, I should be able to learn about the fusion ritual... This bit of waiting time is acceptable," Xia Shou said, rubbing his chin.

As for sending the blood demon residue to weaken Idris, he had to return to the House of Doors to do so.

And if he wanted to return to that room, it had to be when Alice was awake.

Xia Shou didn't know exactly when Alice would wake up, so he could only wait.

The phone on the desk vibrated slightly, and the screen lit up, showing a text message from Shangguan Yan: [You didn't come to work overtime yesterday.]

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Oh no, I overslept!

He was supposed to meet with the senior colleague of his department last night!

Just this short line of text made Xia Shou's spine turn cold.

Although this text message stated nothing more than a fact and made no mention of any penalties or disciplinary actions, Xia Shou still felt a strong sense of crisis.

Judging by Shangguan Yan's personality, she probably wouldn't let him off so easily.

...I wonder if playing the pity card will get me through this.

"Alice, help me wash my face and brush my teeth," Xia Shou instructed out of habit.

A towel and hot water were brought before him. Xia Shou opened his mouth, and the toothbrush flew in, efficiently completing his washing using the Bass brushing method.

With Alice's help, Xia Shou finished his morning routine at an extremely fast pace.

When he walked out of his dorm and came to the room next door, he found a note pasted on the door: [I went to read to 678]

Xia Shou came to the department alone. The office was still empty, save for the innermost independent office, from which the clacking sound of a keyboard constantly echoed. Xia Shou deeply suspected that Shangguan Yan might have been working overtime here straight through the night.

As a leader, working so hard was purely a stress-inducing move.

Xia Shou stopped outside the office door, took a deep breath to adjust his mood, and tried his best to present a weak and anxious appearance.

When he felt everything was prepared, he immediately pushed the door open and apologized sincerely, "I'm sorry, Director, I was a bit anemic, so I overslept yesterday!"

"It's fine. After all, the one you stood up yesterday wasn't me," Shangguan Yan said with a smile, looking completely unconcerned.

From beginning to end, her gaze never left the computer screen.

Xia Shou felt like a martial artist who had tensed his entire body in preparation for a fatal blow from his opponent, only to find when the strike landed that the opponent's punch was soft and weak, and the opponent even told him, "I didn't want to hit you; the person who wants to hit you is behind you."

"The interrogation of the only surviving guard has been completed. You should go take a look this afternoon as well. In addition, he left a message for you, saying he wants to find an opportunity to treat you to a meal."

Although Shangguan Yan didn't mention the other person's name, Xia Shou knew it was Wang Long.

There was only one surviving guard in this incident; besides Wang Long, there was no one else.

The casualties this time were truly heavy, but thinking that someone had survived because of his efforts, Xia Shou finally felt a slight sense of comfort.

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"You should have noticed it by now, right? The blood demon incident is not over yet," Shangguan Yan said indifferently.

"Yeah, the appearance of the closed domain is no coincidence either. I guess someone secretly performed some kind of ritual." As he spoke, Xia Shou sat down at his workstation, which was piled high with file bags.

"You will continue to investigate the blood demon incident. Furthermore, I have arranged painting training for you. Starting today, after dinner time every day, you must go to the art studio to learn how to paint."

"Learn to paint?"

"You will encounter even more dangerous things in the future. As the holder of Dorian Gray's Pocket Watch, if you don't make use of it, you'd be a complete fool, so you must learn to paint your own portrait as soon as possible."

"Is... is this something that can be learned quickly?"

"Of course it is. It's just a portrait, not asking you to become a professional painter. You just need to treat yourself like an assembly-line worker dedicated to copying the same painting over and over. Did you really think all those painters painting Van Gogh nowadays went to art school?"

Xia Shou nodded, opened the file bag on his desk, and dumped the contents onto the table.

The first document was submitted by Wang Long, containing Liu Guangyao's drawing—a portrait of the assassin who hunted him down in his dreams.

Using this crude portrait as a clue, the Containment Bureau searched globally and finally locked onto the most suspicious suspect among a large pool of similar figures.

The suspect's name was Lawrence. He had an optimistic and cheerful personality and a very friendly relationship with his neighbors, but he was physically disabled, having had his right arm amputated in a logging accident many years ago.

Lawrence's abnormal behavior began about half a year ago; around that time, his lifestyle suddenly became reclusive.

First, he moved into the attic to live alone, avoiding his wife and daughter during daily activities and communicating through the closed door.

Then, after a period of time, Lawrence's family suddenly vanished from the residential neighborhood.

His neighbor last sighted him on a commercial street in a neighboring county. The neighbor was certain that the person he saw was Lawrence, but strangely enough, the arm he had lost many years ago had grown back, and he had become a sound and healthy person.

The neighbor tried to greet Lawrence, but Lawrence merged into the street crowd and disappeared. To this day, there has been no trace of his whereabouts.

Subsequently, local government departments investigated Lawrence's whereabouts from various angles such as daily consumption and house leasing, but turned up nothing. The person seemed to have vanished into thin air.

The Containment Bureau's conclusion was that the individual had received assistance from special persons.

"In other words, this one-armed Lawrence killed Liu Guangyao multiple times inside the door, and then his arm grew back, while Liu Guangyao's arm turned into a semi-rotten state," Xia Shou muttered to himself softly.

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