Embers of Embers

Chapter 223 The Smuggler
Today, Old Dunling looks dull again. A faint mist overflows from the ground, and gray and black smoke columns rise from the chimneys. One after another, they support the distance between the sky and the earth. The machines operate slowly, pushing forward the miraculous creation. , in which airships like giant whales cruised during this period, like an illusion from another world.
For people like Lorenzo who have lived in Old Dunling for a long time, all this has indeed been taken for granted. This is the forefront of steam technology, and new things are born every day, but for those visitors from afar, everything here They are all extremely novel.
The street lamps are already covered with banners, adding a bit of color to this gray world. Many strange strangers can be seen on the streets. They are walking excitedly on the streets of Old Dunling, looking at the sky and looking at the people in the clouds. of black shadow.
Due to the visit of the mission, there were more tourists. Most of them went to visit the factory. This kind of large-scale mechanical assembly line was extremely rare in their country. In this case, it actually became a tourist attraction.
In order to maintain law and order, there are more mounted policemen, and the roads are a bit crowded and lively, but these have nothing to do with Lorenzo. Under his coat, there is a weapon brought by Joey. He is very busy, busy going Solve crimes and kill people.
The purge agency was busy looking for the whereabouts of "Apocalypse". For this reason, the remaining knight commanders were transferred back to the old Dunling, so the stowaways could only rely on Lorenzo himself.
Just like the connection in the dark, Lorenzo always had a strange feeling, as if this inconspicuous case would lead him into some grand vortex.
It was obvious that there were many more police officers in the area bordering the lower city. Bypassing the sight of the mounted police, Lorenzo sneaked into the lower city again. He needed to find the Rat King. That guy must know something.
Lorenzo searched for traces of the rats. As usual, these homeless people are very common. They wander around, and sometimes they are not limited to the lower city. But for some reason, Lorenzo walked here for a long time, and unexpectedly Not a single tramp was seen, as if they all disappeared overnight.
With a bit of vigilance in his eyes, he lowered the brim of his hat and completely hid his face in the shadows. He put his hands in his pockets, just like before. Gun handle.
Something happened... The atmosphere here in Lower Town is not right.
Although the lower town was chaotic and dirty, it had never been so lifeless. As Lorenzo went deeper, he couldn't see anyone else, until a rat flashed before his eyes.
Rats are so common, but there are not many rats with chains tied to their tails, and they are the police yellow chains Lorenzo has seen.
He looked around, as if he wanted to find the guy who was secretly controlling all this, but he found nothing, and the mouse almost disappeared from sight.
Lorenzo followed without thinking. Judging from his previous pursuit in the rat nest, this warning yellow was an indication of the location. The mysterious rat king wanted him to go somewhere.
It might be a trap, or it might be a clue. Lorenzo didn't care about this anymore. There were weapons under his clothes. At this moment, the detective was fully armed.
The mouse finally led Lorenzo to a twisted building. Just like other houses in the lower city, it was a dilapidated house. The door was open and it was pitch dark inside. Lorenzo walked in and found that it was basically It was an empty room with nothing but the disgusting smell.
"I'm really becoming more and more curious about who you are..."
Lorenzo looked at the empty room, paused for a while and suddenly thought of something. He walked to the corner, swung out the folding knife, and thrust it into the ground. The sharp blade easily penetrated the hidden wooden cover. .
Just like when Lorenzo first went to the Rat's Nest, the Rat King seemed to have anticipated all of Lorenzo's actions, and the hints were just right.
He cut open the hidden wooden cover with force, and the dark hole appeared in front of Lorenzo's eyes.
"No way..."
Smelling the stench, Lorenzo knew exactly where the hole led, but he had to set off to find out the truth.
Jumping down, there was a faint sound in the darkness. The mouse was waiting for Lorenzo. When it saw Lorenzo coming down, it started to move again, guiding Lorenzo forward in this complicated tunnel.
Lorenzo didn't know how long he had advanced. When he lost track of the mouse, a bright light appeared at the end of the tunnel.
But before Lorenzo could lean out to observe the outside world, turbulent steam poured in from the outside world. The moist and high-temperature gas suffocated Lorenzo for a while. Fortunately, the gas seemed to have overflowed for a long time, and the temperature dropped a lot, otherwise the instantaneous High temperatures can easily burn or steam people.
After wiping off the water stains on his face, Lorenzo breathed heavily and moved towards the cave entrance again. He seemed to know his position.
When I poked my head out, the outside world was dim, with only a faint light above my head. However, due to its age and disrepair, the light was not strong and flickered on and off from time to time.
The steel creation breathed steadily, as if falling into a deep sleep, and from time to time there was the sound of mechanical rotation, just like it was talking in a dream.
It slept peacefully, and it had been silent in the darkness for who knows how long. Lorenzo saw it breathing out again in the dimness. Hot steam overflowed from the gaps in the machine, surging out like a wave breaking a dam. In an instant Filled the entire space.
Lorenzo hid directly back in the cave, and ran a few steps as hard as possible to get as far away from the cave entrance as possible, but the rushing air wave still caught up with him, and he stumbled and fell to the ground, followed by a blazing heat Waves of steam passed over his body, and after the high temperature, it was cold.
It was cold and hot, and Lorenzo couldn't help but sneeze.
The outside world is the furnace pillar. To be precise, it is an exhaust part of the furnace pillar. This must be where the steam overflows every day. It is released from here, guided by the pipe, and returns to the ground.
But Lorenzo didn't expect it to be so huge and so deadly.
Just like its name, the main structure of the Forge Pillar is column-shaped, like a stone pillar inserted deep into the earth's surface, but no one knows how deep it is, not even its creator. In this way, it is said that there are thousands of design drawings for the Pillar of the Furnace, which weigh more than 20 tons when stacked together.
Of course, this is only the initial scale of the Furnace Pillar. After so many years of technological updates and the whimsical ideas of those scientific researchers, more and more new functions have been placed on it, and the Furnace Pillar has continued to grow along with it. The expansion of the old Dunling grew wildly together until it looks like this today.
Lorenzo stood at the entrance of the cave. The dimness was not an issue for him. He could see the steel barrier extending to the end of his sight. There were countless exhaust holes on the rusty surface. The entire air was moist and warm, and there were also There is some water accumulation.
It seemed that the exhaust was temporarily over, and Lorenzo jumped down vigilantly from the hole and stepped on the wet ground.
There were several corpses where he came down. They looked like they had been dead for a long time. The flesh was rotten and entangled with the clothes. They looked disgusting. The arms were raised upwards with difficulty. This was the last posture of the deceased. .
Lorenzo could easily guess their identity and cause of death. They should be bad rats. The winter in Old Dunling was extremely difficult. They tried to keep warm here, but they were suffocated and cooked by the hot steam in an instant.
Looking away, Lorenzo knew clearly that the Rat King had led him here for something. He moved forward in the darkness, searching anxiously.
He didn't dare to go too far from the entrance of the cave. Although he was a demon hunter and had encountered all kinds of critical situations, Lorenzo hadn't been steamed yet, so he was still a little panicked.
Not knowing when the next exhaust would be, Lorenzo worried that he was too far from the cave entrance but had no shelter.
After walking for a while, the sound of mechanical rotation sounded, and the hot gas was ready to be released. At this time, Lorenzo also saw the way out. There was a staircase on the wall on the other side, which extended to the faint light above. It is the maintenance channel for workers.
With almost no time to think, Lorenzo ran directly towards the maintenance channel. He was confident that he would reach there before the steam engulfed him.
The so-called agility is probably like this. He jumped up and stepped back and forth on the rusty iron ladder. At the same time, the high-temperature gas began to be released, and the sound of howling wind came from the darkness.
Suddenly Lorenzo stepped on the air. The iron ladder had been eroded by moisture day and night, and had long been fragile. Under Lorenzo's pedaling, it finally couldn't bear it anymore and it burst apart.
Lorenzo directly swung the folding knife, just like he did in the rat's nest, slashing into the wall, and used the force to move forward again. The door lock had long been rusted to death, but fortunately Lorenzo's physique was very suitable for violent unlocking, and the handle of the knife was heavy. Hitting the door lock, Lorenzo opened the door with a teeth-piercing sharp sound, and closed it forcefully when the hot gas hit him.
He was in a safe space, the air was turbid and hot, like being in a steam oven.
Lorenzo became more and more curious about what would be waiting for him next. Of course, if he had time in the future, he would also like to explore this mysterious underground world. No one knew what kind of things were hidden in the shadows where the light could not reach. Strange things.
The passage was very long, and there were traces of someone coming inside. Lorenzo kept moving deeper, and after an unknown amount of time, he came to the outside world again, but this time it was different from what he thought.
It was a huge underground space. At the end of the passage was the machinery of the Furnace Pillar, but I don’t know who renovated it. You can see many buildings that were not originally part of these machinery being built on it. From a distance, Go, Lorenzo can still see some figures walking among them.
The sound of rushing water came from it, and Lorenzo lay down on the ground. He was in a higher position, and the iron ladder leading here seemed to have been damaged long ago. Those people did not realize that there was such a hidden intersection here. .
Lorenzo hid behind the pipe. Because this space was located in a dark underground space, only a few searchlights at the top maintained illumination. However, due to its limitations, it was unable to illuminate the overall situation. Lorenzo hid in the darkness and was not discovered.
"Are these people... looking for trash?"
Lorenzo looked at it intently. This seemed to be a water inlet of the Furnace Pillar. Because the boiler needed water, the Thames River was diverted into the Furnace Pillar. This should be one of several water inlets, but this group of people were entering. A barrier was built on the channel at the water mouth to filter debris from the water.
No...it's not just as simple as filtering out debris, they find what they want from the debris very purposefully, one box after another wrapped in tarpaulin.
"smuggling?"
Lorenzo felt a little surprised. Although smuggling was very common in the downtown area. For example, in order to smuggle small items, some people would swallow the objects in their stomachs, or hide the items in buckets, and then fix the buckets on the bottom of the boat, but Lorenzo has never seen anything like this in such a long time.
They dropped items directly into a fixed section of the Thames, where they then traveled with the current.
Although it is not a genius, it is still a clear idea.
So what did the Rat King do to lead himself here?
Lorenzo approached with some curiosity. He lurked in the shadows and approached the underground dock little by little. His hand was already holding the folding knife tightly and his eyes were cold.
"Is this all the goods?"
someone asked.
"Yes, it's the last box." Someone replied.
The man pried open the box. Although measures were taken to drain the water, some water still entered inside, but this did not affect anything. He looked down at the potion soaked in the water, which had a confusing color. .
"Now the investigation is becoming more and more strict, and the channels for hallucinogens are basically blocked. Now we are the only ones who have the goods. This is an opportunity to make a lot of money." Someone else said.
"Wealth has nothing to do with us, but just drinking some soup is enough."
The man said, reaching into the box and taking out one at random.
"This batch of goods is complete, there is nothing damaged...but there are damage standards on it."
He looked at the guys around him, and they all had evil smiles on their faces. After all, with this method of transportation, the goods will inevitably be damaged. This batch of goods is so complete, but it also needs to be "damaged" by humans. They are the only ones here, No one will find out.
The man dispensed the hallucinogen, and someone couldn't wait to inject it here, and then fell down, causing everyone to laugh, but these people hadn't realized the danger lurking in the darkness.
Lorenzo hid in the shadows and slowly approached. With a cold face, he suddenly understood everything.
Even though the distance was so far, even though the place was so dark, Lorenzo could still clearly detect the disturbing aura when the man injected the hallucinogen.
The scent of a demon.
The man who fell to the ground got up, and suddenly something caught his eye, and he looked into the darkness.
The burning whiteness slowly rose in the darkness, maybe it was the dreamlike hallucination causing trouble. He rubbed his eyes, and sure enough, the whiteness disappeared. He smiled stupidly and relaxed to his heart's content.
(End of this chapter)