Unable to repay my student loans, I had no choice but to work part-time as a demon hunter.

The river was quiet for a while.

Through the blood-stained river, Gordon saw that it had turned into a corpse, so he used a recall spell to pull the rat back to prevent it from gnawing around and damaging the source matter inside the demon's body.

The rat was led back, still carrying a large piece of meat in its mouth, which it swallowed whole. For the time being, it had no need for food, and its body looked stronger.

Finally, it matched Gordon's initial idea: to send Ratbars to fight the Otherworldly Demons. Now it's finally coming in handy.

"Is that guy dead?" The river police captain's eyes widened.

"He's dead," Gordon confirmed.

The riverside guards let out excited shouts, and people on several speedboats in the distance raised their hats and waved to Gordon and Vera on the flagship.

At this moment, the rescued people on the ship sat on the ground, their gazes towards Gordon and Vera filled with even more excitement. These remarkable figures, whom they had only ever seen in newspapers, were now standing right before their eyes.

"Well done," Martin nodded. The two of them had now clearly reached the level of the Empire's core fighting force, and their teamwork was seamless.

"I'll think of a way to go down there and dig up the bodies." Gordon looked down at the river.

At this moment, Shirin had already led the patrol officers into the dock.

"Everyone, stand against the wall! Drop your weapons! Put your hands behind your heads!" she shouted.

A man with wet feet tried to pick up a gun to fight back, but the moment he poked his head out, Shirin shot him through the shoulder, and the gun fell to the ground.

"I told you, put down your weapons!" Shirin shouted.

The person with wet feet immediately lay down on the ground.

One team of patrol officers controlled the entrances and exits, while another team advanced along the warehouse. Altars filled with iridescent liquid, cells, smuggled goods, fish, and crates of supplies were discovered one after another.

Following the earlier call of the red signal flares, more gunboats came from the upper reaches of the Blackwater River to provide support, dispelling the last thought of resistance from the wet-footed men.

They blocked the waterway from the Black Ferry dock to the Cold Water Warehouse, aimed their cannons eastward, and lined up the black ships to block the Blackwater Hermitage's waterborne support.

"Look, here he comes. Our nemesis." Martin turned his head.

Gordon picked up his binoculars and looked in the direction Martin had indicated.

"That's... Tobias."

In the darkness downstream, a fleet of ships sails upstream.

At the forefront were two low cargo ships, crowded with indifferent-looking, wet-footed men, followed by more barges and wooden boats, making for a large and imposing force.

On the deck of the cargo ship stood a tall man.

He was wearing a thick overcoat and carrying a rolled-up net on his back.

Gordon saw him arguing fiercely with the person next to him.

Some pointed to the occupied Coldwater Warehouse, while others waved their arms forward, clearly intending to charge directly and avenge the loss of the Coldwater Wharf.

Tobias remained silent.

He first looked at the cold water warehouse, then at the gunboat, then at the large group of sailors following him, and finally his gaze fell back on the flagship, looking in the direction of Martin and Gordon.

A moment later, he raised his hand, seemingly signaling those around him to stop arguing, and then made a gesture to retreat.

The people around him quickly fell silent.

The boats coming from the direction of Hei Du Wharf slowly stopped, then turned around and headed back towards Hei Du Wharf.

The riverbank guards, who were about to fire, were extremely tense, but when they saw this scene, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

They had all heard of Tobias's reputation, and whenever there was any action involving the Black Crossing, they would try to avoid it to avoid being killed.

"Thank goodness they didn't come to kill us."

"That's terrifying..."

"If a real fight breaks out, this river will be filled with corpses tonight..."

"This man won't easily engage us in battle unless he's forced to," Martin observed the direction Tobias was retreating.

Gordon suddenly remembered that in the large pool at the bottom of the Green Shade Mansion, there were countless corpses of wet-footed people fighting each other.

Some say Olivia got into a fight there, which was clearly an internal conflict within the Blackwater Order. Olivia was on one side, but who was on the other?

"...There are disagreements within the Blackwater Order." Gordon pondered. "They're all researching how to get back into the water and become fish, but they don't seem to agree on how to do it."

"Write down all your speculations. You're now the number one expert on the affairs of the Hermitage," Martin said.

"Or am I the only one seriously researching this?"

"Maybe."

Once Shirin and her team had taken control of the warehouse, the gunboat slowly approached the shore.

Remember the updated address so you don't get lost: ???.、.、.、.、.、.、.、.、.、.、??.?、????.ɡ、????.??、????.?ɡ、???.??ɡ、????ɡ、????.?、???.??ɡ Or Bing search:

She saw Gordon disembark and immediately ran over, splashing water from her boots.

"Investigator! The Coldwater warehouse is under control. We've apprehended 37 members of the Blackwater Order, discovered an altar, and found a large quantity of undeclared weapons. No officers were killed, and three sustained minor injuries!" she reported, standing at attention.

As she finished speaking, she became increasingly agitated.

This was the largest operation she had ever participated in, and the location was more in line with her imagination of an evil, dark cult camp.

Gordon looked into the dark interior of the cold water warehouse. The tide was already half-risen, and they were moving supplies to higher ground to avoid the entrance that was about to be flooded.

"Seal off the warehouse and register all evidence." Martin handed Shirley a lockdown order.

"There's a refrigerator inside; make sure to keep it for me. It'll be of the greatest value to me," Gordon instructed.

"I've seen it, isn't it filled with meat?" Shirin said.

"I have a plan. You know it."

"Oh my, oh my." Shirin touched her chin.

"Okay." Martin didn't know what a refrigerator was, but he decided to give Gordon face. After all, the biggest credit for tonight belonged to Gordon.

"You don't seem so rigid anymore."

"You're probably just too tired."

"Remember to get me another set of diving equipment; I need it very much. The giant salamander is at the bottom of the water, and it may contain source matter inside its body. You said that the hunters involved in the operation have priority over source matter," Gordon hurriedly said.

"Be careful during the salvage operation." Martin turned and ordered someone to inform the agency.

……

The patrol officers continued to gather up the wet-footed people and the stolen goods.

Gordon and his companions slept on the boat, relaxing their tense nerves.

At 6:10 a.m., the city was still not fully awake.

By this time, the cold water warehouse had been completely submerged by the tide of the Blackwater River. The patrolmen piled the salvaged items on the embankment outside the warehouse.

After Gordon woke up, he continued to inspect the seized items to ensure that valuables would not suddenly lose their value during the sorting process.

After all, Martin promised to give him 10% of the warehouse's total value as an incentive.

He spotted a box containing smuggled goods and pried it open with his hunting knife.

He lifted the lid of the box, but there was no fish or cured meat inside; he only saw rifles neatly stacked up.

These guns were coated with moisture-proof oil, and their design differed from the rifles issued to Logris's army. They were all wrapped in oiled paper, indicating that the contents were of high quality and well-preserved.

[A standard-issue Unión rifle. He came from afar and has no passport.]

Gordon opened another box, which contained double-barreled shotguns made in Norheim.

[Norheim hunting rifle. Suitable for hunting in snow.]

"Arms smuggling." Martin walked over and picked up one of the guns.

"Harpoons are religion, rifles are reality," Gordon warned. "They are building an armed force. If we don't take Black Cross Wharf now, it will be even more difficult later. We will not only have to face a group of superhumans of all sizes, but also thousands of cultists with military weapons."

"From dockworkers to infantrymen... they're now a barracks," Martin mused.

"Worse still, they are systematically arming the Blackwater River. As long as they can continue smuggling weapons through this river, they can continue to cause trouble in the city, not to mention that colored water."

"Hmm... do you think they'll launch a rebellion?"

"It's possible. I have a feeling they've been waiting for a way to change the situation. Whether it was Olivia before or Tobias now, they always backed down after clashing with us. This colored water is a form of retaliation, but it doesn't seem like something they would have done themselves."

"The King of Fishermen?"

“Yes, Martin, the Fishing King,” Gordon emphasized. “These people are all puppets of the Fishing King, perhaps pushed to the forefront by him to distract us. If the myth is true, our enemy has been this immortal trying to return all along. And it may be about to awaken.”

Gordon deduced the time.

In March 3355, Harold first infiltrated the Monford family home and awakened the Silverfish Box, causing it to secrete amniotic fluid—this was the beginning of everything. By mid-July, an even more terrifying "resurrection fluid" began to appear. Clearly, some higher power was awakening.

"That means the extraordinary war is about to begin." Martin nodded. "I'll request assistance from higher-ups."

"That's incredibly powerful."

"At least it will ensure the safety of our subsequent operations. Be prepared, they are just as important as you." Martin turned around.

"Are you indirectly admitting that I'm a pillar of the empire?" Gordon followed up.

"Perhaps we shouldn't pay attention to such details."

Martin led Gordon to continue taking inventory of the supplies.

Another hour later, the initial inventory of the warehouse goods was completed.

This includes imported seafood, illegal spiritual supplies, mechanical parts, smuggled weapons, some undelivered goods, and illicit income from the Blackwater Hermitage.

The total value exceeds 1500 gold pounds.

In other words, Gordon will receive 150 gold pounds as an incentive from this operation.

He did like the investments made by the nobility, and he also liked the "money for supporting men" that Charlotte gave him, but a man would feel more at ease earning his own money.

Martin gave Gordon a temporary voucher; the real money would only be calculated after the warehouse's value was fully entered into the logistics accounting system.

"Don't forget you owe me two-thirds of a copper coin," Gordon warned.

"I know," Martin knew.

"I also want that refrigerator."

"Can."

"Yay!"

"But your research confirms that it does not spread pollution."

"You are the most humane stone I have ever met." Gordon and Martin shook hands.

"Let go."

Finally, there's the matter of dealing with the iridescent water in the altar.

Because the cold water dock had been flooded, and the pit at the altar was too large to be completely cleaned in a short time, they only brought out a few large barrels containing unidentifiable soft tissue that had not rotted even after so long.

[The regenerative mother fluid. It brings everyone back to the same answer.]

"We can't be sure what it is. It's a fact that the contactants liquefy, but we can't confirm whether it dissolves or turns into something else." Martin looked at the several large barrels that were carefully sealed.

"We must seal it up and take samples, and wait for the university's detailed analysis," Gordon pondered.

"You human thing, why don't you take Ratstick out for a good meal?" Ratstick popped out from behind Gordon.

"Oh, right, the living water compass." Gordon asked it to hand over the compass.

Gordon walked toward the mother liquor tank with his compass, and its needles quickly pointed to the tank.

Now Gordon is gradually beginning to sense that what he initially told Professor Winslow—"there is a large source material continuously emitting spirituality in the Blackwater River"—is true...

This hypothesis is probably true.

Gordon scratched his head.

No matter how you look at it, it seems extremely dangerous.

It's like a long line that connects a bunch of questions that have no answers.

As the Blackwater Hermitage's number one thorn in their side, he also followed the clues and eliminated these troublesome matters one by one. Otherwise, when the Fisher King woke up and asked his underlings who had recently caused the most damage to the Hermitage, they would not hesitate to name Gordon.

A while later, the diving equipment that Gordon had specifically requested arrived.

The diving suit is made of thick rubber and multiple layers of canvas. The helmet is a round brass visor that looks very bulky. It has thick glass in the front and two hoses connected to the back. Air is continuously supplied by shore staff using a hand pump.

"I'll go down and see. If I pull the rope three times, pull me up." Gordon changed into his diving suit, secured a rope to the deck of the boat, and then went into the water.

"Understood." Vera watched Gordon dive down, the image of him jumping into the pit at the pumping station to dig up Harold's body flashing through her mind—a memory that remained vivid.

Gordon felt the water gradually engulfing him, the sounds from the shore quickly receding into the distance, the air pipes swaying behind him, and the air pumped by the hand-cranked pump carrying a smell of engine oil.

He sensed the location of the giant salamander below and used the flow manipulation technique to quickly descend.

Five meters, ten meters...

Gordon saw a huge black shadow lying across the middle of the riverbed. The morning light could no longer reach this place, and the river water had turned murky black.

It was much larger than it appeared from the water, and its body was covered in strange bruises, all the work of Gordon.

This monster is indeed very... resilient. Gordon wouldn't admit it.

Get closer and observe carefully.

Inside the corpse, the spiritual energy rapidly dissipated, like deep blue smoke merging into the river.

However, a dark blue light was still hidden inside the monster's abdominal cavity, indicating that the demonic organs had become sufficiently mutated to form source matter.

Gordon quickly approached, using his hunting knife to cut through the flesh of the corpse, reaching for the mass of source matter, and finally carefully removed a soft, cool substance.

The moment Gordon saw it, he felt much younger, as if a whole new energy had come back to him.

The tired muscles regained their energy, and the scars on my face tingled with a faint itch, as if my body was recalling a younger and more complete state.

[A flowing, miniature source of essence – the "Pool of Rebirth." It can be used to slightly extend lifespan and rejuvenate tissues and organs, reversing aging. Scars, destruction, and decay only make one whole again.]