Jia Lan recently found that his behavior had fluctuated strangely, which was due to the fierce conflict between two completely different concepts in his mind.

  As a spellcaster, he began to feel sympathy for a civilian.

  In history, it was not uncommon for spellcasters to cast plague spells at will in spell confrontations, resulting in the death of civilians in the entire city.

  Spellcasters have never compensated civilians, so the nobles in the secular world have always maintained an attitude of awe and fear towards spellcasters.

  Plague spells and other means of mass destruction are numerous in the spell lists of mages. If used in war, they will have a strategic-level map killing effect.

  In that era, "never provoke mages" had become a consensus among people.

  Jia Lan and his party took a carriage, passed through the huge and bustling construction site around the Doom Castle, sped along the newly paved dirt road, and finally drove into the Doom Castle.

  When the mercenaries at the gate saw the ‘silver-level thief’ driving the carriage, they immediately pushed open the newly replaced heavy log gate, allowing them to go to the warehouse area behind the castle group unimpeded.

  As the scale of production expanded, the demand for medicinal materials for Cole Pharmacy also increased significantly.

  Therefore, several castle buildings were specially cleaned up as medicinal material warehouses to purchase and store raw materials in bulk through the mercenary guild channels.

  When Jia Lan and his party arrived, the warehouse area was under martial law, and the use and transportation of medicinal materials were all the responsibility of the mercenaries.

  Although the hired workers noticed the strange atmosphere, they did not think too much because of the heavy production tasks.

  In their spare time, the mercenaries would also help complete the production tasks.

  Casey, Dave, President Clark of the Mercenary Guild, and Captain Kenmet of the Golden Two-Headed Dragon were all at the scene. The bodies of the hired workers who died were still in place.

  "No signs of fighting or struggling were found at the scene. The four hired workers died about five or six meters away, indicating that they did not even notice the existence of the attackers at the time of the incident, which is similar to the means of thieves." After greeting Jia Lan, President Clark directly introduced the search results of his experienced thieves on the scene.

  "However, there are no obvious external injuries on the bodies, and the tests showed that they were not poisoned. They seemed to have suddenly lost their lives..." As an experienced old mercenary, President Clark had never encountered such a bizarre incident.

  Jia Lan checked the bodies of the four hired workers one by one and found that they were all in a backward position.

  In addition to being pale and lifeless, they seemed to be sleeping.

  Some had a smile on their lips, and some had their lips and teeth half open, as if they were still happily talking with their co-workers the moment before.

  This scene was extremely weird and chilling.

  Although the mercenaries guarding the scene had silver-level strength, they could hardly resist the fear brought by this unknown and strange incident.

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  President Clark had no idea about the cause of the employee's death, but suspected that it was related to the Jinquan Society: "The atmosphere in Kolan City has been weird recently. A large number of neighborhood gangs seem to be as excited as smoking 'Devil Leaf' cigarettes, and hundreds of fights break out every night."

  "The prison of the city guards is almost full of captured neighborhood gang members! This is too unusual."

  "Although these gangs often fight each other for territory in the past, they have never been so frequent and unscrupulous."

  "Someone must be controlling them behind the scenes!"

  After President Clark finished speaking, he looked at Jia Lan and continued: "If nothing unexpected happens, it is very likely that the Jinquan Society is behind it. It's just that I don't know what their purpose is? Are they attacking us with force? Disrupting the market? Or using the city's security to force the Civil Affairs Council?"

  Jia Lan nodded and shook his head, and began to chant in a low voice and release a series of detection spells: detect toxins, detect secret methods, detect alchemy, detect charm, detect undead, detect immortality...

  When the "Detect Undead" spell was released, Jia Lan sensed a strange fluctuation and frowned slightly.

  Jia Lan said calmly: "It was not the poison that killed them, but someone attacked them from behind..."

  Jia Lan gently tilted the head of a hired worker's body, parted his loose hair, pointed to the skin below his ear and said, "Please look here."

  Everyone looked closer and found two small red spots about an inch apart on the neck of the hired worker, like a swollen bump from a mosquito bite.

  President Clark and the others were a little confused at first, but soon understood.

  Although the weather is not so cold now, it is still early for spring.

  How could there be mosquitoes at night when the temperature is so low?

  Jia Lan took out a bottle of "solvent" from his pocket, opened the lid, and dripped two drops on the wound of the corpse.

  If it were a living person, these two drops would be fatal, but they had no effect on the corpse.

  As soon as the two drops of solvent touched the red spots, the red spots began to emit white smoke and black pus and blood, as if corroded by strong acid!

  "Is this alchemical acid?" President Clark looked at Jia Lan curiously, but didn't understand why he used alchemical acid to get rid of the red spots on the corpse.

  "No, it's just an alchemical solvent." Jia Lan shook his head.

  Alchemical acid is a corrosive substance commonly used in alchemy. Only alchemists can refine it, and the output is very small.

  And alchemical solvents are commonly used alchemical reagents. They are used in many alchemical experiments to melt materials or combine insoluble things.

  However, alchemical solvents are not corrosive. As long as they are not swallowed, they can be applied to the skin or wounds.

  Seeing the red spots on the neck of the corpse, Jia Lan probably guessed how the four hired workers died, so he used alchemical solvents to melt the "thrombin" on the red spots.

  Yes, the murderer is likely to be a vampire among some undead creatures. Although it is not clear what kind it is, the traces left behind have exposed his identity.

  When vampires suck blood, they inject anesthetic substances into the body of their prey, making people feel no pain.

  Excessive blood loss can make people dizzy and produce hallucinations like taking drugs.

  This is the reason for the strange smile on the hired worker's corpse.

  After sucking blood, the thrombin in the venom on the vampire's fangs will cause the blood to coagulate quickly, producing a layer of transparent glue, making the wound look like a mosquito bite, so as to cover the wound.

  It just so happens that the alchemical solvent can dissolve this thrombin and expose the wound.

  After listening to Jia Lan's explanation, President Clark and others were shocked: "Could it be a vampire?"

  Jia Lan knew that vampires were not a legend... but he didn't need to tell Clark and others about this.

  Jia Lan just looked at the wound again and shook his head: "The distance of the wound looks like a vampire bite, but the 'features' are wrong..."

  "Vampire" is a name people use to belittle vampires. In fact, vampires call themselves "blood clan".

  They are undead creatures that are smarter than humans. They have noble and elegant temperaments and handsome looks. They think they are nobler than humans.

  Moreover, the vampires are very picky about their "tastes", just like human nobles choose fillet when eating steak, they prefer beautiful girls and handsome boys.

  The "dining etiquette" of the vampires is also very "elegant". They will first seduce their prey and then tease them, and this process may last for several days or even months.

  After making the prey fall in love with them, they will enjoy the "feast" when the prey is most fascinated by them.

  Therefore, unless they are deliberately killed, people attacked by the vampires will even fall in love with them without regrets, dedicate their blood, and willingly become their slaves.