Mystery: Emerging From Knowledge Moor

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Leyton and Eliza arrived at the third floor of the hospital where the explosion had occurred earlier. The doctors on this floor had already maintained order, leaving only small groups of people gathered together, discussing something. At the end of the corridor, in front of the washroom entrance, was a scattering of confetti, paper scraps, and fragments of burst balloons.

Looking at the mess before him, Leyton could already guess what had happened: the mischievous thief had prepared many balloons filled with air and confetti in the washroom, using mechanisms or Beyonder abilities to make them explode when someone opened the washroom door. This was likely the source of the explosion and screams that he and Eliza had heard downstairs.

The balloon trap wasn't far from the washroom, and Leyton could even see the words on the scraps of paper on the ground. After struggling to identify a few scattered words, Leyton's expression became strange: "This thief must have failed all his exams when he was studying! With nothing better to do, he stole my book just to tear it into pieces and scatter them everywhere?"

"Now you know how boring and annoying this thief is, right? Perfect, you go and see if you can divine anything from these scraps of paper," Eliza said.

"This isn't my book, it's borrowed from the library! I have to return it," Leyton said speechlessly, but he still silently walked to the ground in front of the washroom door and picked up some scraps of paper.

While Leyton was collecting the paper scraps, Eliza turned and walked in the other direction of the corridor. For a Sanguine with a keen sense of smell, the washroom was not a pleasant place.

By the time Leyton had collected the usable paper scraps, Eliza was nowhere to be seen. Leyton looked around, but he didn't see the captain and the others either. He didn't know if they hadn't arrived yet or had already left. Leyton guessed it was more likely the latter.

However, Leyton wasn't in a hurry to reunite with the captain and the others. Since the captain hadn't immediately come looking for him after he had fallen behind, it meant that the captain must have left a mark on him, so the captain could roughly know his situation in this hospital. He leaned against the wall in front of the window across from the stairs.

"Fortunately, the mystical knowledge I've mastered includes divination," Leyton sighed in his heart, then held the scraps of paper in his hand against his forehead and closed his eyes to meditate.

After a while, a picture appeared in Leyton's mind: a person wearing a linen robe was holding a book with the words "Hermes Language - From Beginner to Master" printed on the cover, but the person's appearance was blurred, and it was impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman. The picture turned again, and it became a gentleman in formal attire, wearing a top hat and a bow tie, tearing a book into pieces as if venting his anger.

The dream divination scene ended there. Leyton opened his eyes and sighed. He didn't get much useful information. He only knew that his book was indeed picked up by someone, and then torn to pieces by another person, but the attire of the two people before and after was completely different, and the picture divined was too blurred to determine the changes in body details, so he couldn't tell if it was the disguise of one person.

"You're divining? Any results?" Captain Icanton's voice suddenly came from the side.

Leyton quickly turned around and saw Captain Icanton standing beside him, watching him silently, while Josie and Mr. Kosith were nowhere to be seen.

"Captain! When did you get here? I bumped into someone at the hospital entrance and was delayed for a while, and then I found that you were gone," Leyton explained the reason for his lagging behind after seeing Captain Icanton.

"As for divination, there's a little information, but it's useless!" Leyton shook his head and added.

"Well, it's okay, I know. We originally planned to split up and walk around each floor of the hospital. Moving together would be too conspicuous, so I didn't wait for you. I left a mark on you before. As long as you don't leave this building, I can know your situation immediately if anything happens," Captain Icanton said, nodding, not minding Leyton's lagging behind.

"By the way, Captain, the book I took out of the library was stolen by that thief, and torn into pieces, all over the ground," Leyton spread out his palm to reveal the scraps of paper in his hand, and at the same time looked at the ground in front of the washroom door not far away, where the cleaners in the hospital were already cleaning up the scattered scraps of paper and confetti.

"So that's it! No wonder Kosith said the scraps of paper on the ground looked familiar," Icanton pondered.

"Do you remember how the book was stolen?" Captain Icanton asked.

"Uh... I remember some," Leyton nodded and continued when he saw the captain didn't interrupt him: "When I first entered the hospital and bumped into someone, the book in my hand also fell to the ground, but I didn't seem to notice it at the time. After getting up from the ground, I didn't remember that I had a book at all, until the lady I bumped into said I brought a book, then I remembered it, but at that time the book had already been taken away."

"Well, I see." Captain Icanton's brow furrowed.

"Captain, is there any problem with this? I always feel like I've forgotten something," Leyton subtly mentioned the topic of forgetting a part of his memory, so that the captain could associate it with the Dream Stealer from the Marauder pathway.

"Next, you stay by my side, we'll go find Josie and Kosith. This matter is more troublesome than I expected, we can't act separately. The other party is a high-sequence powerhouse with rather strange abilities," Icanton's tone became serious.

After speaking, Icanton turned and stepped onto the stairs, walking upstairs.

"Okay, Captain," Leyton replied while quickly following the captain's steps.

Following Icanton, Josie was found on the fourth floor of the hospital, chatting with a doctor about the recent gossip in the hospital. He was chatting enthusiastically with another doctor who looked about the same age, but whose hairline was receding severely and who looked tired.

"Oh? We'll talk next time, my friend is here to find me. Don't be too stressed either, the officials will definitely solve this matter. At worst, it's just a matter of losing face! As long as everyone loses face together, it's the same as no one losing face," Josie patted the shoulder of the haggard doctor opposite him and said.

After saying goodbye to the other party, Josie came to join the captain and Leyton who were waiting in the distance.

"Oh! Captain? Did you find any clues?" As soon as he came over, Josie couldn't help but start asking.

According to the previous agreement, everyone would only reunite after finding clues or visiting the entire hospital, but now it hadn't been long since they entered the hospital, and the captain had already come to find him with Leyton, which meant that they had found more important clues.

Captain Icanton didn't say much, just hummed softly and walked downstairs. Josie and Leyton looked at each other, and then followed the captain downstairs.

The three of them saw Mr. Kosith asking for information at the hospital front desk on the first floor of the hospital. After the three of them approached, Mr. Kosith also noticed the three of them walking over.

"Captain? Why are you all down here?" Mr. Kosith asked in confusion.

"Hello, are you Mr. Joshua?" The receptionist suddenly asked Leyton at this time.

Leyton's spiritual intuition was triggered at this time, and he subconsciously asked, looking at the staff in front of him: "Did someone leave something for me?"

"Yes, it's a book," the staff nodded.

Then, he took out a book that Leyton was very familiar with, "Hermes Language - From Beginner to Master", from a drawer on the side of the desk. Leyton reached out to take the book, but was stopped by the captain next to him. Just put it on the table.

"But, that gentleman said it must be handed to Mr. Joshua," the staff said helplessly.

"It's okay, you put it there, I'll take it when I leave the hospital later," Leyton didn't know why the captain didn't let him touch the book, but he still chose to follow the captain's suggestion.

"But..." the staff wanted to continue to persuade.

"Swish!"

Captain Icanton suddenly shook a paper figure out of his pocket, and the paper figure directly stuck to the staff member's body. The words that the staff member was about to say stopped like this, and the other party suddenly froze in place.

Then Icanton shook another paper figure out of the other pocket of his clothes. This paper figure swelled and deformed in mid-air, turning into a real person.

"Go pick up that book," Icanton quickly gave the order.

Upon receiving the order issued by Icanton, the person transformed from the paper figure reached out and took the book in the staff member's hand. Before he could make the next move, the person transformed from the paper figure suddenly rushed towards the staff member opposite, distorted for a while and turned into a pile of paper scraps floating in mid-air, and burned spontaneously in the air before landing and disappeared into ashes.

The change came too suddenly. Although Leyton had thought that something would happen after the paper figure took the book, he didn't expect that in just an instant, the humanoid transformed from the paper figure rushed towards the hospital staff in front of him, and there was no time to stop him. Fortunately, the paper figure then shattered into paper scraps and then spontaneously combusted.

"No, this is not good at all. If the captain hadn't used the paper figure to take the book, wouldn't the person who was hit be me," Leyton secretly rejoiced in his heart that he was following the captain.

The four stood in place in silence for a while, Icanton reached out and tore off the paper figure on the hospital staff, crumpled it into a ball and put it in his pocket.

"Let's go, the paper figure carries a psychological suggestion, she will wake up in a while and forget what just happened," Captain Icanton explained.

"Okay, Captain, then how should this book be handled?" Leyton pointed to the book that had just been thrown on the ground by the paper figure and asked.

"Take it back to the church!" Icanton said.

"Okay!" Leyton saw that the captain didn't say anything else, and knew that there should be no problem with this book, so Leyton bent down and picked up the book from the ground.

The weight in his hand was much lighter than Leyton expected. Leyton reached out and opened the book. Unsurprisingly, only the cover and the edges of the paper were left in this book. The content in the middle had been hollowed out and torn apart and scattered at the entrance of the washroom on the third floor.

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