Open a Clinic to Cultivate Myself Chapter 327 Treasure Hunting in an Ancient Cathedral

The Mexican man had gone up the slope. He finally discovered a clue— footprints under a tall Chinese fir tree. Squatting down, his fingers touched the footprints in the soil, trying to determine their wetness and hardness.

“No one can escape my pursuit, not even if you were a fox.” A cold smile hovered on the Mexican's lips. Those who thought that they could escape him were all dead.

Whoosh!

The sound of a breeze.

The cold smile on the Mexican's lips suddenly vanished. He raised his head fiercely. In that instant, a human figure descended from the sky, one foot stepping on his back. Before the Mexican could duck, his face had plunged into the freshly discovered footprints. The violent concussion almost made him pass out!

Ning Tao's foot kicked the Mexican's miniature submachine gun. Then he grabbed his hair and lifted him up by his head.

“You understand English? If you want to live, answer my question. Or I will kill you,” Ning Tao said.

“Pooh!” The Mexican man spat on the ground.

Before the sound of his spitting had faded, a surgical blade had already stabbed into the Mexican's chest.

“You…” The Mexican's terrified eyes stared at the surgical knife stabbed into his chest. He shifted his eyes and looked at Ning Tao, his expression full of fear, shock, regret, and an unwillingness to rest.

Ning Tao said blandly, “You think this is a movie? I meant it when I said I will kill you.”

The Mexican man cupped his chest and collapsed to the ground. His eyes were large and bulging— he could not die in peace.

There is a danger in spitting. Sometimes, one is not spitting away saliva but one's own life.

Ning Tao found a passport on the Mexican's body. It was a Murica passport, its photo that of the just slain Mexican. He could ignore the name as the Mexican was probably using a pseudonym.

“These people must have come after me from America. Or they might be Italian mercenaries hired by the Black Fire Company. If the latter is true, the company's real pursuers must be still on the way.” Ning Tao made this deduction from the passport. He found an intercom device on the Mexican's body, as well as a hotel room card.

Ning Tao put the intercom device back on the Mexican's body, only keeping the card.

The location of the intercom device could be traced. It was certainly not wise to take it.

Ning Tao pulled out the Blade of the Solar Eclipse from the Mexican's body. He dragged the dead body along the ground, leaving a grisly trail of red blood.

Ning Tao did not proceed far. After about 10 meters, he abandoned the body and turned back. Along the blood trail, he found a rock which had not been stained by the blood. He drew a blood lock on the rock, opened the convenient door, and walked in.

A few seconds later, Ning Tao appeared on the top story of Giotto's Campanile.

He had dragged the Mexican's corpse up the hillside to mislead them— pretending that he had escaped up the hill after killing the man. There were five people against him and he had only killed one. The other four would make their own deductions and impart the false information to their commander. It might be that Audrey, or someone who had not shown his face before. It might even be Nicholas Conway!

They did this solely for one reason— Zhu Hongyu's skull fragment must be hidden in Florence Cathedral.

How could Zhu Hongyu's skull fragment be in Florence Cathedral? The answer to this question might one day surface, but not now.

Ning Tao stood beside the iron clock, gazing out of the window. As he gazed, the fiery setting sun sunk down the horizon. The massive dome of the Florence Cathedral seemed gilded with a layer of gold dust, appearing even more sacred than before.

At this moment, visiting hours were already over in both the Florence Cathedral and Giotto's Campanile. There would no longer be any tourists in these buildings. This was the reason why he had so boldly opened the convenient door to reach Giotto's Campanile.

What followed would be a long wait— a wait for night to arrive.

As he waited, Ning Tao took out the residual Ancestor-seeking Elixir and triggered his allergic reaction to it. At the same time, he activated the Whisperer to capture spiritual energy from past souls.

A silent image appeared before his eyes.

Many workmen were working on the scaffolding of the half-erected Florence Cathedral. On the streets, there were many aristocratic guards riding tall horses, as well as beggars begging with broken bowls. There were also women selling apples in bamboo baskets, and children pursuing one another at games.

He did not know which year it was, neither did he know who these people were or their life stories. But regardless of whether they were nobles dressed in finery on horseback, or beggars in tatters, they were all now sleeping deep in the earth, overcome by darkness.

Suddenly, Ning Tao's pupils shifted to his right. From the corners of his eyes. he could see a woman in red standing silently beside himself, watching the construction of Florence Cathedral outside.

Ning Tao did not dare move. He was afraid he would make too big a movement. Even if he trembled slightly, she would be like a mirror struck by a stone, shattering to the ground.

They were so close that he could even see her long eyelashes, as well as the minute pores on her skin. But he could not detect any odor on her body, nor could he sense her innate aura.

She existed in a past time zone. She might only be a hallucination or an illusion.

The two of them remained in their respective positions. This instant seemed like an oil painting from the past. The painter seemed to be portraying a couple having to separate for some reason, and then meeting again in this life.

“Come here.”

A snowy scene appeared on the Whisperer's screen.

Her voice appeared in Ning Tao's mind— a distant and mysterious voice.

In that very instant, he was thoroughly agitated. He wanted to speak to her and asked her all the questions that were stifling his heart. But he did not dare to speak. He feared that if he spoke, she would vanish.

“Find me.”

Another snowy scene on the Whisperer again.

Her voice had appeared in Ning Tao's mind. This was the first time he had heard her say something different! It gave him the impression that she was a real soul, whispering just beside him!

Ning Tao's lips trembled, but in the end, he still held himself back and said nothing.

Although he was already very calm in the face of such change, and had been as still as a sculpture, the woman in red had still disappeared. The scene from the past outside the window also disappeared. His vision soon returned to normal.

Inside Giotto's Campanile, it was completely quiet. Time seemed to have frozen and was no longer elapsing.

Ning Tao did not try to trigger a second allergic reaction to the Ancestor-seeking Elixir. He only kept to the same posture, watching the sky outside the window, stupefied.

Come here.

Find me.

These were the words uttered to him by the woman in red. He did not understand why all this was happening, but he was certain he had heard her voice and that it was no hallucination.

After some time, Ning Tao finally came out of his stupefaction. A bitter smile hovered on his lips. “You want me to come and find you. But I don't even know your name, or where you are. This world is so huge. Billions of years have passed. Where can I go and find you?”

No one answered him. Only a feeling of loneliness accompanied him.

The setting sun sunk down the horizon and night loomed, engulfing the sky and the earth. Street lamps began to shine. Both ancient and modern buildings were illuminated by lights.

Whoosh!

The shadow of a rope soared through the air, its one end thrusting into a stone brick on the roof of Florence Cathedral. Ning Tao was grasping one end of the herb-collecting rope. He leaped out of the window of Giotto's Campanile, his body flashing through the night sky. When he stopped, his feet were already touching the rooftop of Florence Cathedral.

Ning Tao gathered his herb-collecting rope and bent double, sneaking across towards the large dome. The moment he reached it, he leaped, executing Ladder under Feet, and stepped up the dome arch. The dome which ordinary people could not surmount was like a gently inclined slope under his feet. He had not mastered lightness skill, but his movements on the huge dome seemed even more like lightness skill than those described in Wuxia novel.

In a period of a few breaths, Ning Tao had reached the top of the dome.

On the summit of the dome was a white tower built out of marble. At its top was a golden sphere, upon which a golden crucifix stood. Below them were scintillating glass panels, which also doubled as the maintenance access.

Ning Tao took out his Blade of the Solar Eclipse and pried open a glass panel. He entered the interior of the dome.

Below the glass panels was a mezzanine, from where a narrow staircase spiraled down. On one side was the exterior wall of the dome. On the other was the interior wall on which the Last Judgment was painted. But standing in the mezzanine, he could not see the painting of the Last Judgment on the interior wall.

There was no light in the mezzanine. It was pitch-dark.

Ning Tao took out his tactical flashlight from the small medicine chest and turned it on. The darkness inside the mezzanine was immediately dispelled. Stepping on the staircase, he gingerly proceeded down. During this process, he had summoned the state of smelling in his nose.

He did not need his eyes to find something.

Soon, a strange aroma crept into his nostrils. He quickened his pace and went in the direction of that smell.

That whiff of aroma was that of the Buddha incense.

Until now, he had only smelled this aroma on Zhu Hongyu's skull fragment. Since he had caught this aroma, he could pinpoint the location of the skull fragment.

Ning Tao had only gone down the stairs for a short while when he stopped. He shone the tactical flashlight on a stone brick in front.

The aroma of Buddha incense was creeping out from a fissure between the bricks.

Ning Tao inserted his Blade of the Solar Eclipse into the fissure between the bricks and dislodged one. Under the bright illumination of the flashlight, a scrunched linen cloth appeared before his eyes. He put down the stone brick, reached out his hand and grabbed the linen cloth. He spread it and a skull fragment appeared in his sight.

On the inner side of the skull fragment were characters written using Buddha incense. All the spiritual materials required and their dosages were recorded on it.

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Ning Tao scanned it swiftly three times and committed the content to heart. Then, he put the skull fragment into his small medicine chest, replaced the stone brick, and retraced his steps.

Just when he was nearing the glass panels, he suddenly halted his steps.

There was no one outside the glass windows. He could see a murky blue night sky, as well as the stars and the moon.

The moon of Florence was no rounder than that of Hua Country.

After a short pause, Ning Tao came to the glass panels and pushed one outward.

At that instant, a human figure suddenly appeared. It swung its arm and soon, a black pistol smashed at Ning Tao's head.

Chapter end