After handing all the time‐consuming troublesome matters over to Detective Valentine, Fang Zheng enjoyed a period of leisurely days. His daily routine was reading newspapers, drinking tea, chatting with Nymph, going out for walks, then having meals together with Nymph and Ryoko Asakura, and by the way keeping in contact with the Heavenly Dao Palace.
Of course, Fang Zheng also reported the situation here to the Goddess of Order, but just as he had expected, neither Fina nor the composite avatar of the Goddess of Order knew what the true body was doing in this world, nor why she was doing it. So Fang Zheng could only continue the investigation on his own.
And during this time, judging from the news in the papers Fang Zheng read, this world could really be described as a pandemonium of dancing demons.
Yes, a pandemonium of dancing demons.
Normally, in other worlds, most media and proper newspapers lead with national affairs on the front page, then discuss social and legal issues, and only after that come the entertainment, gossip, sports and the like. But in this world, whether it was finance and law, or politics and entertainment, all sorts of media were devoting large amounts of space to reporting various mysterious incidents occurring everywhere.
For example, in some place during spring there had been a bout of group hysteria and frenzy; many people who had previously been complete strangers suddenly started shouting that the end of the world was coming, then proceeded to loot, smash, and burn their way through the entire city. Yet about half a month after the police arrested these lunatics, they suddenly regained their senses and claimed to have no memory whatsoever of what they had done.
There was also an artist who, after submitting a blasphemous and horrifying painting to an exhibition, jumped to his death in full view of the public, and a group of Cultists who launched an assault on the police.
All in all, the media were filled with suicides, murders, group madness, the ravings of artists, and a bunch of eerie letters to the editor that made you feel the editors themselves ought to be sent to a mental hospital... Hmm, in short, after reading enough of this stuff, you could only feel that the whole world had become a tangled mess.
Of course, as material for horror fiction, it was still quite interesting.
Incidentally, during this period Detective Valentine had also made quite a few discoveries.
As a Detective, he was indeed very capable when it came to taking action. It only took him a few days before he reported the results of his investigation to Fang Zheng. Using the photo taken of that piece of jewelry (the jewelry itself had been returned to Fang Zheng because Valentine found it disgusting), he went to ask some friends in the police department, and quickly learned that the pattern on this jewelry was related to a missing persons case the police had recently cracked.
At that time, the police were investigating a cult gathering in New Orleans, where they had arrested a group of Cultists. At first they thought it was just an ordinary group of Voodoo Cultists, but as the arrests and investigation deepened, the police came to believe that this was a completely new type of religious group unlike any they had encountered before. So they requested assistance from archaeologists and anthropologists.
Valentine himself thus obtained some information from his colleagues at the station, and then went to visit the anthropologist William Channing Weber, who had previously helped the police resolve this matter. Although Valentine tried to discuss the issue further with Professor Weber, unfortunately Professor Weber was already very old and gravely ill at the time, making it difficult for him to communicate with others. The only information Valentine managed to get was that the pattern on the pin he held in his hand and the eerie idol the police had asked Weber to examine were both related to a very strange religious tribe on the west coast of Greenland.
After that, Valentine headed for Greenland, and once again sent a report back to Fang Zheng.
Only this time, his tone sounded somewhat hurried. He informed Fang Zheng that he had indeed discovered a mysterious group of Inuit People in Greenland and learned some terrible things. He would continue to investigate and then report again. Then, before Fang Zheng could speak, Detective Valentine hung up on the pretext that he was worried someone might be listening in.
And when Fang Zheng received another call from Detective Valentine a few days later, the Detective’s voice was already starting to sound distorted, with even a hint of hysteria. He demanded that Fang Zheng immediately come to Dunedin Port in New Zealand to rendezvous with him. He had discovered something terrible, but he wasn’t sure... All right, by the time he heard this much, Fang Zheng already knew he’d come to the right place.
More or less.
After that, Fang Zheng brought Nymph and Ryoko Asakura, and also called Francis along, and together they headed for New Zealand to meet up with the Detective at the specified inn.
However......
"You really look terrible, Detective Valentine."
Seeing the deathly pale face and sunken cheeks of the Detective before him, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but sigh. Valentine, on the other hand, nervously waved his hand, indicating for Fang Zheng not to speak. Then he quickly opened the door and glanced around outside, as if worried about being watched by someone, only then did he hastily close the door.
Not only that, Fang Zheng also noticed that almost every door in Valentine’s hotel room was locked, and even the windows were tightly covered. Not even the mirrors were an exception.
"To be honest, Mr. Van Helsing, if you hadn’t come any later, I think I might have had a complete breakdown..."
As he spoke, Valentine made a gesture behind him. Only then did Fang Zheng notice that a red‐haired woman was lying on the bed not far away, currently unconscious.
"Who is she?"
"Her name is Wendy, she’s Professor Weber’s granddaughter. Earlier, when I told Professor Weber I wanted to investigate this matter, he himself was too ill to move, so he sent his granddaughter to assist me with the investigation."
"Oh..."
Fang Zheng gave the red‐haired woman a meaningful once‐over, then fixed his gaze on Valentine.
"You used the funds I gave you to pick up girls?"
Although in detective novels, this sort of thing is pretty much par for the course.
"No, I didn’t..."
Faced with Fang Zheng’s question, Valentine looked a bit embarrassed, but he quickly changed the subject.
"And these are...?"
"They’re my assistants, and this is my client."
Fang Zheng briefly introduced both sides to each other, then sat down on the sofa and looked over at Valentine.
"All right, Detective Valentine, we didn’t come all the way from Arkham to this godforsaken dump in New Zealand just to exchange pleasantries and make friends. Let’s hear what you’ve found."
"Yes, Mr. Van Helsing. To be frank..."
Facing Fang Zheng, Valentine’s complexion seemed to improve a lot, and he began to continue recounting his previous experiences. After finding clues in Greenland, Valentine had come to Dunedin Port in New Zealand. According to Valentine, there was a group of hybrids who also worshiped that same religion and seemed to be up to something here, and they had an extremely bad reputation around the docks. Rumor had it these people always ran into the woods at night to hold some shady gatherings, and some even believed they were Devil worshippers.
In addition, Valentine also learned that these people seemed to be planning some kind of "major ritual" recently, but just when he was about to take his investigation a step further, Valentine discovered that he was being followed.
And after that, he kept experiencing all sorts of mysterious hallucinations, encountering things that defied explanation, while Miss Wendy, who had been with him, fell into a coma two days ago. Although he called for a doctor, for some reason the ones who showed up were actually members from among those terrifying hybrids. Fortunately, Valentine was very wary at the time, and only then did he manage to scare them off.
But......
"At that time, those people didn’t feel like humans at all. They gave off this very strange, fishy stench. I originally thought it was that particular smell fishermen have from being out at sea, but it wasn’t that at all. And their hands and feet also seemed different from ordinary people’s......."
Hearing Detective Valentine’s account, Francis also turned deathly pale and nodded repeatedly. It seemed he, too, was recalling the miserable experience he had back in Innsmouth.
"I understand the situation."
After listening to Detective Valentine’s account, Fang Zheng nodded, then narrowed his eyes and looked at Valentine.
"I should have warned you not to dig into the contents, that you only needed to investigate their destination and whereabouts. That’s what I said, isn’t it."
"......Yes."
Faced with Fang Zheng’s questioning, Valentine looked somewhat crestfallen. In fact, during their phone call, the other party had indeed warned him not to concern himself with what they were doing, and to just find out where they were going to do it. To be honest, this kind of request was quite strange to Valentine, because generally clients wanted him to figure out what the target of the investigation was doing and why.
But Fang Zheng’s request went completely against that. He kept warning Valentine not to bother about why they were doing it or what they were doing, and that it was enough to know where they were doing it.
Yet he had still......
"......Because of that woman, right."
Fang Zheng silently glanced at Wendy, who was lying on the bed, and Valentine lowered his head in embarrassment.
"Yes. She said this cult was very ancient and of great research value......."
I knew it. In horror novels and movies, women stirring up trouble is just standard operating procedure.
Women, archaeologists, researchers are basically the standard troublemaking package in horror stories.
With his own instincts as a Detective, plus Fang Zheng’s earlier reminder, Valentine had an innate feeling that getting close to those disgusting things was bad news, so he was still able to remain rational. Wendy was different, though. She had almost completely sunk into researching those things that, in Valentine’s eyes, were downright nauseating. Not only that, her expression had grown more and more vacant, like she was high on something.
And two days ago, an earthquake and a storm hit this place, and it was right after that that Wendy fell into a coma and never woke up.
Fortunately, Valentine had already called Fang Zheng by then, so he managed to arrive in time.
"Forget it, seeing you like this......here, drink this."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng took out something that looked like a bottle of mineral water. Valentine took it in confusion, opened it, and then gulped it down. And then......
The next instant, his face suddenly changed, and he rushed straight into the nearby bathroom.
After that came a bout of "uwa, uwa" sounds of vomiting and diarrhea. It wasn’t until quite a while later that Valentine, looking like a wraith, weakly dragged his feet back out.
"Sir, what was that you gave me to drink......?"
"Just think of it as holy water."
"Holy water......? But why do I feel like I just took a massive laxative?"
"A little detox never hurts. You’re feeling much better now, aren’t you."
"This......indeed......."
Although he looked even more haggard than before on the outside, Valentine was shocked to discover that after that round of vomiting and diarrhea, all those voices that had been plaguing him had completely vanished. Not only that, the tension that had felt like it was clutching his heart and filling him with fear had quietly dissipated as well, leaving him feeling an unprecedented lightness.
It wasn’t like the aftereffects of taking some drug. It was more like the Shadow that had been clinging to him had completely disappeared.
"This is......."
"Looks like it really does work."
Seeing this, Fang Zheng silently nodded. He had always wanted to figure out from what level the Cthulhu Mythos began to affect the humans of this world. What he had just given Valentine was a Magic Potion he’d casually bought back in the Main World, something that could dispel Spirit charms. Fang Zheng’s original thought had been that if this didn’t work, he’d just try some others as test samples......he really hadn’t expected it to go this smoothly.
"All right, let’s get down to business now."

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