I'm a proper student; I only take nine kinds of potions every day.

Chapter 186 (5/10, requesting monthly votes) The Unlucky Guys of the Secret Codex Brotherhood

The interior decoration of the private room was quite nice.

On both sides are chairs upholstered in deep red velvet, with matching tassel curtains, and a brass wall lamp overhead casting a dim yellow light.

It can't compare to the Hearst family's custom-made carriages, but it's much better than the ordinary seats from before.

Several people tiptoed into the carriage.

Since it wasn't a long trip, none of the four of them had much luggage.

Only Herbert's side carried a large box secured with copper corners.

The leather surface of the box was covered with scratches and wear, and it looked like it had been through a lot with its owner.

After getting into the car, the two continued to argue about the issue of soul and body.

Evan casually interjected, "Since neither of you can convince the other, let's just go for fencing."

""

"??"

Both of them looked at Evan at the same time.

Why fencing?

Evan said casually, "Herbert, you and Edward should first have a spiritual connection."

"Edward, you and Herbert should continue your physical union."

"You two experience each other first, and when you have a deep conversation, you'll be able to determine a winner."

After a pause, Ivan spoke with a serious expression and sincere eyes.

"It's okay if you don't know how; I can teach you some details about this."

Upon hearing this absurd suggestion, the two of them simultaneously turned to look at Evan in disbelief.

Ivan saw the shock, awe, and disbelief in both of their eyes.

Edward was silent for a few seconds before sighing, "Mr. Arkham, you are the true senior."

Herbert then said, "Sir, we are still students, so let's just... forget it."

Then both of them fell silent and stopped talking.

Edward pretended to look out the window at the scenery and muttered some affected words to ease the awkwardness.

Outside the window is the Connecticut countryside in December.

A thin layer of frost covered the withered grass, and wisps of white smoke rose from the chimneys of farmhouses in the distance.

Herbert, standing to the side, looked down at the wood grain on the small table in front of him, transforming into a botanist.

Seeing this, Ivan's lips curled up and he sneered inwardly.

"You think you can outdo me in being a pervert? I can handle you!?"

Soon, the train started moving, gradually accelerating amidst the hissing of steam and the sound of its whistle.

In a private room two boxes away from Ivan and his group, the three of them had just changed seats.

At this moment, the family of three seemed to be hypnotized, their eyes glazed over as they went to other places, leaving the room empty.

The three were two men and one woman, dressed in ordinary clothes and with ordinary appearances; they would not have attracted much attention in a crowd.

The leader was a young man with slightly red eyes.

He wore a plaid newsboy cap on his head, and under his dark gray wool coat was a white shirt that had been washed and turned slightly yellow.

He sat down first and said, "It's basically certain that the target has three security personnel, two apprentices and one expert."

-

Opposite me was a tall, thin man wearing glasses, a dark green hunting jacket, and a dark-colored scarf tied around his collar.

"Demon, the intelligence said there were only two apprentices, how come an expert suddenly appeared?"

The young man, known as the devil, stroked his chin: "That guy always gives me a feeling of familiarity, like I've seen him somewhere before."

"However, he looks to be only in his early twenties, so he probably doesn't have much practical experience."

"He just grins like an idiot when he meets people. He's probably the son of some professor at the University of Michigan or a student who's really into his studies. He doesn't seem to have any fighting ability."

At that moment, the woman next to her, whose hair was pinned up, opened her eyes.

She wore a dark brown long dress with a well-tailored short wool coat over it.

"The other side has set up a spiritual shield, so we can't hear any detailed sounds. Should we still proceed according to the original plan?"

The demon nodded: "Yes, a young expert looked completely dumbfounded. The students who come out of the University of Michigan are generally not very strong in combat."

"Moreover, experts are not an insurmountable barrier for our trio, especially since we have an employer to back us up."

The other two immediately relaxed upon hearing this.

The demon began assigning tasks: "The core objective is to steal the baby without causing any disturbance or harming anyone."

He looked at the woman beside him: "Poet, use your special abilities in conjunction with the magical artifacts your employer gave you to hypnotize these people."

""

"With the amplification from the magical artifact, you can temporarily hypnotize that expert as well."

The woman, referred to as a poet, nodded: "Understood."

The demon turned to the bespectacled youth: "Tree spirit, set up your root traps, then maximize your perception to prevent any other disturbances."

"If they make any unusual moves, just restrain them in place."

"Once I succeed, I'll use Flash to take you all away from here."

"The train is traveling at such a high speed that once we leave the train, they won't be able to catch up even if they want to, and the plan will be considered a success."

Both nodded happily, the treant youth with a hint of admiration on his face: "I must say, these Deep Ones are truly generous."

"Such an easy job, yet everyone can earn twenty dollars."

The poet said, "It's not just the Deep Ones who are generous, but also our Secret Brotherhood that has this reputation."

"Otherwise, why would they believe we can complete the mission? Why would they be willing to pay such a high salary?"

The demon nodded: "Of course, everyone highly approves of our Brotherhood of Secrets' business in Bolton and Newharfen."

All three belonged to the Brotherhood of Secrets, and were considered extraordinary individuals.

A few days ago, they received a job from a group of Deep Ones from Innsmouth, who wanted to take back their bloodline from a woman.

This is not a big deal.

The blood of those deep-diving beings is now everywhere in this area.

There have been many similar jobs over the years.

Furthermore, aside from their long lifespan, Deep Ones themselves don't possess much combat ability.

As long as they don't dig too deep into Innsmouth, the Deep Ones operating on the outside are not a significant threat.

When the task was assigned to the three-person team, all three felt quite fortunate.

The three had finished their reconnaissance, and the female poet got up and left the private room.

After gathering her emotions, she smiled broadly and knocked on the door of Ivan's private room.

Edward and Herbert, who were still silent inside, became alert upon hearing the knock on the door.

Ivan raised his hand, signaling the two to maintain their routine vigilance.

Then Edward closed his eyes, and Evan clearly sensed the departure of that invisible soul.

Herbert, on the other hand, pulled out a copper syringe about three fingers thick from somewhere.

At the same time, two more hands grew out of his wrists.

In his other two hands he held a poison bottle and a pistol, respectively.

At first glance, it has a kind of deadly quality.

Ivan smiled, stood up, and opened the door. "Madam, is there anything I can help you with?"

The female poet smiled and took out a round badge from her hand, which depicted a very large octopus.

"Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce you to our Heavenly Father, who can save humanity—"

As the voice rang out, an invisible force reverberated through the female poet's voice in the private room.

Almost instantly, Edward, Herbert, and James all rolled their eyes and fell asleep.

The female poet had just managed a slight smile as she watched the three men faint—

She saw a large hand snatch the sign from her hand with a speed she couldn't even perceive.

"This thing should be a pretty good antique; it should fetch a good price, right?"

The poetess's eyes narrowed sharply.

At this moment, she was surprised to find that the young man in front of her, who was grinning foolishly, was completely unaffected.

I clearly pushed my extraordinary abilities to the limit using this magical artifact given to me by my employer!

According to the employer, this magical artifact allows one to easily hypnotize an expert in a short period of time.

But why does this guy look so energetic?

Before she could react, she heard the young man opposite her speak.

"Then let me ask you, are you poets even human beings?"

"What—?"

The female poet was stunned for a moment, and then she felt as if her thoughts were blocked by something.

"Is a poet—a person?"

She stood there blankly, her eyes vacant, motionless.

This was a question she couldn't understand at all.

Just as the poetess was stunned, Evan noticed a large number of tree roots seeping out from the train wall and wrapping around Edward and Herbert.

One of the thickest roots, oblivious to its own danger, leaned towards him.

Ivan waved his hand casually.

The moment the palm touches the roots, a large number of plant viruses and fungi are directly injected.

Soon, the outer skin of those pure white, thick, and powerful roots began to peel off rapidly, rot, and limp up.

A few seconds later, a scream suddenly came from a private room not far away.

Ivan seized the opportunity instantly.

Just as he was about to finish off the tree spirit, his expert-level demon hunter vision keenly detected some unusual spiritual fluctuations.

So he turned around instantly.

Just then, a male demon with ram's horns on his head and flames burning in his eyes appeared out of thin air in their private room and grabbed the baby in James's arms.

A cold glint flashed in Ivan's golden vertical pupils: "You're sick!"

Along with this sound came a concentrated cloud of cerebral encephalopathy.

At this moment, Ivan was filled with rabies and tetanus viruses in the foggy encephalopathy.

The invisible fog of brain plague reached the demon's soul the moment the sound reached his ears.

It was at this moment that Evan truly felt the suppression of that status.

He could clearly feel that his own hazy, cerebral spirituality completely enveloped the demon's spirituality.

No matter how much the extraordinary characteristics within the demon's body struggled, they could not resist the control of the Fog Brain Plague.

In an instant, the terrifying concentrated virus, combined with the miraculous effects of the fog brain plague, directly controlled the demon's soul.

Then we saw that the demon, along with its soul, exhibited symptoms of rabies and tetanus, and directly lost control of its body.

Even his extraordinary form faded away, leaving him limp on the ground like a paralyzed ordinary person.

In less than five seconds, Ivan casually dealt with the three apprentices.

The whole process was so easy.

Ivan made no preparations, took no potions, and didn't even concentrate much.

It was as if an adult saw a few four- or five-year-old children and casually waved his hand, causing them to fall down.

Ivan bent down and patted the two men a couple of times, finding less than thirty dollars in their wallets.

"Turns out they're just poor guys from the bottom of society too!"

Evan sighed, then used the Fog of the Brain Plague to wake Edward and Herbert from their slumber.

The two instinctively stood up: "Prepare for battle! Aka—"

Before the two could finish speaking, they saw the female poet standing blankly at the door, and the male demon lying on the ground, his body convulsing.

"What just happened?"

The two blinked blankly, their eyes filled with the bewilderment of someone suddenly waking up.

Ivan injected some misty brain plague into the minds of the two men to prevent them from being mind-controlled: "You two keep an eye on this child. There's a third person on the other side who's injured. I'll go deal with him."

Although the two didn't understand what had happened, they knew what they should do: obey orders!

"clear!"

Ivan walked quickly to the private room outside the two private rooms.

He reached out and pushed the door open. The tree spirit inside trembled all over and turned pale.

"Master! Master, please spare our lives! We meant no harm!"

Ivan smiled and crouched down: "Which organization are you from? What are your plans and purpose for coming here?"

The tree spirit was completely terrified.

He couldn't even understand what kind of attack he had suffered.

Just now, I simply stretched out my roots and didn't even feel any extraordinary power.

Then he immediately felt his roots begin to decay rapidly, quickly lose their power, and become unresponsive.

Before he could even react, the power that caused the roots to decay had already entered his body.

He could clearly feel a large amount of mycelium that he couldn't handle spreading through his body.

The skin began to ulcerate, and the body gradually lost control.

Even if he directly activated his tree spirit form, intending to use the power of trees to resist the virus.

What terrified him even more was that this power was far more destructive to his tree spirit form than to his human form.

In less than ten seconds, the apprentice tree spirit had completely lost its ability to fight.

"Inform the lord that we belong to the Secret Brotherhood."

"This time, I was hired by a group of Deep Ones to kidnap the baby and bring it to them."

Ivan nodded, thinking to himself, "It seems the Brotherhood of Secrets isn't such a high-class organization after all!"

He then asked, "How many people are there on your side?"

The tree spirit hurriedly said, "There are three in total, but I heard that the Deep Ones' employer is also on the vehicle."

Upon hearing this, Ivan's nose immediately caught a sudden, foul odor.

"not good!"