Chapter 270 Relics For a moment, Lumian suspected that he was hallucinating: There was no couple at all, and no attempt was made to blow out the candles! If the memory was not so vivid, if he had not had a very clear understanding of the dangers of underground Trier, Lumian would definitely look for the problem in himself instead of searching for traces of the couple's existence here. The few guests who were previously behind the couple quickened their pace and caught up with the people in front, filling the sudden gap in the team. They were not surprised, nor frightened, nor confused. Everything is so normal. Lumian, who was already being watched by countless invisible eyes, had his body covered with tiny goose-skin-like bumps that became more and more obvious. He subconsciously looked at Kendall, the grave manager walking in front of the two policemen, to see how he reacted to what had just happened. Kendall, wearing yellow trousers and a blue vest, held an extinguished calcium carbide lamp in one hand and a quietly burning white candle in the other. He walked straight along the same path toward the exit of the catacombs, seemingly unaware of what was happening in the team next to him. Suddenly, he turned around and his eyes met Lumian's. "What's the matter?" Kendall's slightly low voice echoed in the corridor with tombs on both sides and in the hollow of the nearby skulls. Lumian did not seem to be surprised and replied calmly:

“I’m afraid of losing you.” Kendall nodded slightly: "Then I'll go slower." He continued to walk towards the exit, his pace slowing down a lot. He walked leisurely, staggeringly, and silently, like a zombie described in some horror novels. Lumian held up a white candle with a flickering yellowish flame, and walked past the group of bridal party participants who were still laughing and deliberately staring at a certain white skull from time to time. Thoughts flashed through his mind one after another: “They really didn’t notice someone was missing… “When they leave the catacombs, will the family members of the man and woman find out that their relatives are missing? “I was thinking before, the catacombs are open to the public, and college students often come here to take risks and dance with the skeletons, is there really no problem? "Even those who accept the guidance of the tomb manager will not heed the warnings, not to mention the young people who enter the catacombs with only a white candle... "I originally thought that there were safer protection measures, or that the frequency of accidents was not high enough to scare those people. Now it seems that it is another matter..." Lumian suspected that those who were "swallowed" by the catacombs would not only disappear physically, but also have their existence erased from the minds of their friends and relatives! "Why can I remember them? Because Thermiporos is sealed inside me, and my fate is connected to Him in some way? "Why do the government and the two major churches open such a dangerous place to the public? The catacombs need a large number of living people to come and go frequently to suppress something? Those who don't heed the warnings are considered necessary sacrifices?" The more Lumian thought about it, the more his hair stood on end. He forced himself not to analyze it further. Lacking sufficient information, he was unable to conduct an in-depth analysis. Anyway, there was nothing in the catacombs worth his risky exploration, so if he came here occasionally, there wouldn't be any problem as long as he followed the rules! From the moment he entered the catacombs, the "talkative" policeman Robert fell silent and seemed not to be able to adapt to the environment here. He didn't speak, and no one chatted with him. In the unspeakable silence, the four of them returned to the natural doorway with exquisite reliefs and walked out. As soon as he crossed that line, Lumian immediately felt the countless invisible gazes disappear. He no longer felt the chill inside his body, and his skin quickly returned to normal. "Huh..." Robert let out a long breath. "Every time I go into the catacombs, I feel uncomfortable all over. Kendall, how can you go in there more than a dozen times a day and still be so happy?" Kendall laughed and said: "Do you think we are not affected? As long as we don't have to stand guard, those who have families will rush to find their wives, and those who don't will go to places like City Wall Street to warm themselves with the warmth of others. "Honestly, after staying here for so long, I feel like I'm slowly turning into a corpse." While chatting, Kendall lit the calcium carbide lamp and extinguished the candle in his hand.

After returning to the ground, Robert glanced at the Market District Police Headquarters carriage parked outside the entrance building and smiled awkwardly at his colleagues and Lumian: "I've been feeling uncomfortable for a long time, so I need to pee. Wait for me, I'm going to the bathroom first." After saying this, he walked towards the two-story mud-gray building where tickets to the catacombs were sold. Lumian looked at the dome covered with stone reliefs, stood next to the pillar at the edge, and looked aimlessly at the pedestrians going to Purgatory Square, while the other policeman got on the carriage and sat waiting. At this moment, Lumian suddenly felt a little chill again. It was very similar to what he had felt after entering the catacombs, but not as intense. He turned around instinctively and cautiously, and saw the tomb keeper Kendall standing behind him, staring at him expressionlessly. "What's the matter?" Lumian asked calmly. Kendall, who had a thick brown beard, asked in a deep voice: "What were you looking at just now?" Lumian's heart sank slightly, and he asked half sincerely and half for show: "Which time are you referring to?" "On the way back, when I passed by that group of people." Kendall's tone was flat. Lumian pretended to understand something. "I was fascinated by the wedding that took place among the dead. They didn't seem to be scared at all and were having a great time." Kendall stared at him for two seconds, then nodded. “Don’t learn from them.” After saying this, the tomb manager, holding an unlit calcium carbide lamp, walked towards the mud-gray two-story building that belonged to them. Soon, policeman Robert came trotting over and the carriage returned to the Honest Market area. ………… The Market District Police Headquarters is located in the "Relic Room" deep in the corridor on the first floor. Robert walked to the wooden frame divided into multiple grids and pointed at one of the grids. "Here, Flemish relics." There was a dark suitcase, pens, paper, ink bottles and several large books stuffed there. Lumian pulled out a book, flipped through it briefly, and found that it was a mineralogy textbook on Trier's underground rock formations. For a young man like him who had dropped out of school, the content was very difficult and there were even a lot of words he didn't recognize. Those were technical terms in mineralogy. Several other books also belong to mineralogy, some are basic textbooks, and some are more complex collections of papers. After a quick check, Lumian picked up the suitcase, put it on the ground and opened it. In addition to two sets of clothes and necessary daily necessities, the suitcase was filled with small gray-white cloth bags, each with a different name written in pen: "Flowers", "sedges", "sheep"... These were the names of the different rock formations under Trier that Flamant had mentioned... What were the corresponding mineral specimens in the bags? Lumian recalled briefly and roughly guessed what was in the bags. After Flamand went crazy, he did not forget to bring his research subject with him! But none of this meant anything to Lumian, and he began to consider letting the Police Headquarters handle the matter on their own. At this moment, he heard Thermopylae's magnificent voice:

"The cloth bag on the far right." Hey, you loser finally spoke again? Lumian's first reaction was to laugh at Thermiporos, and then he looked at the bag that the angel of fate had mentioned with surprise and suspicion. The cloth bag was located on the far right side of the suitcase, with Flemish socks on top and his razor on the bottom. On its surface was written a compound proper noun in dark blue ink: "Earth Blood" The earth...blood...Lumian, who was squatting next to the suitcase, muttered silently, and then he calmly picked up the cloth bag and opened it in front of policeman Robert. There was a flaky stone in the cloth bag. Its surface was brown and full of pits. In each pit there were dotted dark red spots, as if blood was seeping out of the earth. For some reason, Lumian felt quite irritated just by looking at this thing. He didn't touch the mineral specimen with his hands. He tied the bag again and put it back into the suitcase. Then he quickly flipped through the mineralogical material about Trier's underground rock formations. Because the purpose was clear, he quickly found the answer: "The 'Blood of the Earth' rock layer is located between 55 and 56 meters underground in Trier and is about meters thick... This is the deepest mineral we can collect. Below that is the ancient ruins protection area, and entry is not allowed..." Next to this textbook description, Flemish added a few notes in his familiar handwriting: "A small amount of minerals in the 'Earth Blood' formation are more special than the rest. They are suspected to contain volatile toxins that can make people irritable and even cause a mental illness called mania. "One researcher suddenly went berserk and slashed a colleague. "You must wear appropriate protective gear to handle the specific mineral specimens of the 'Blood of the Earth' formation." Is the "Earth Blood" a rock formation near Trier in the Quaternary Period? It has obvious peculiarities... No wonder Thermipolos asked me to pay attention to it... While Lumian was thinking, the policeman Robert urged him: "Do you want it or not? Make a decision quickly!" “Yes.” Lumian stood up. Although all he wanted was the mineral specimen of the "blood of the ground" stratum and the mineralogy textbook describing the underground strata of Trier, in order not to arouse suspicion, he signed and took away all of Flemish's relics. After returning to Room 207 of the Golden Rooster Inn, Lumian did not bother to wash off the mystic makeup on his face and asked Thermopylae in a low voice: "What's so special about this mineral specimen?" Thermiporos' voice once again echoed in Lumian's ears: "You don't think it's normal that the ghost of Montsouris never came to kill Flemish?" (End of this chapter)