Liang Lidong was quite familiar with the smell. When dark elements gathered, it would give off a rotten smell.
"Have you checked the inside of this tomb?"
Gavin nodded angrily. "Yes. My grandpa's body is gone."
Liang Lidong looked at the pitch-black cave, which was about a meter wide. Even a fatty could climb out of this cave, not to mention a skeleton that had been dead for decades and had no flesh left. It wasn't difficult for a Necromancer to control a corpse. However, this was also the strange part. Necromancers would usually drive a large number of corpses and it wasn't worthwhile for them to control a single corpse unless the corpse had some special meaning to them.
There was something else that was even weirder. Liang Lidong frowned and said, "The Guelph family built such a family graveyard with illusion and defense magic circles. Logically speaking, outsiders shouldn't be able to enter without the magic nameplate in your hand. However, not only did a Necromancer come in, but he also stole the remains of an elder of your family. It doesn't make sense at all. "
Gavin's chubby face was twisted. "At first, I thought that there was a mole in my family, but nobody touched my magic nameplate after investigation. Even if they conspired with a Necromancer, it's impossible for them to enter this place without destroying the magic arrays."
Liang Lidong waved his hand and said, "Show me your magic nameplate."
Gavin hesitated for a moment. The magic nameplate was the only way to enter this place. Also, the guy was a spellcaster. The Guelph family would suffer a great loss if he saw through the mysteries on it. However, after considering for a moment, he gave the magic nameplate to Liang Lidong in the end.
Liang Lidong accepted it and examined it for a while. Then, he returned it and said with a smile, "Your family hasn't changed the magic nameplate for three hundred years, right?"
Gavin was quite surprised. "How did you know?"
Liang Lidong smiled. He was a master of magic theories and magic arrays. In the game, he had helped the Guelph Family design this magic array to protect some of the Guelph Family's important places. He had also given the design to Dinah. To his surprise, after 300 years, the Guelph Family had not changed the design of the magic array at all. Even the core design of the magic nameplate was still the same.
Liang Lidong's smile was a little resentful, but in Gavin's eyes, it was meaningful and unfathomable. Nobles liked to read people's minds, and Gavin was no exception. He had several guesses about Liang Lidong's sudden smile, but he rejected them all. Then, he considered Liang Lidong's character and simply asked, "Your Excellency Beta, have you thought of something?"
"Now I can be sure that your magic nameplate has been deciphered." Liang Lidong turned around and walked out. "You'd better pay attention to the people around you and see who has a chance to touch your magic nameplate now and then."
Gavin's face was immediately gloomy. Liang Lidong's words had touched a scar in his heart. "My wife and daughter are the only people who can enter and leave my room freely. My wife passed away years ago, and my daughter is just an ordinary person. She can't know magic or be in touch with Necromancers. Mr. Beta, are you mistaken? Our family's magic nameplate has been used for three hundred years, and nobody has ever deciphered it. It's a special magic array that our ancestors left behind. Not just regular spellcasters, even the royal Mages in the royal capital can't understand our family's magic array. "
Liang Lidong, however, said coldly, "Are you sure that the magic nameplate is foolproof that hasn't been changed for three hundred years? Even the Goddess of Magic doesn't dare to say that, and yet the Guelph family is so sure. How confident you are. "
Liang Lidong's words were filled with merciless sarcasm. Liang Lidong wouldn't have spoken like that to ordinary people, but they were from the Guelph family, so Liang Lidong couldn't help but be so mean.
Gavin was rather bummed. He said, "If Mr. Beta thinks that Necromancers are in our family, you're welcome to investigate. I'll ask everybody in the family to stand before you and ask them anything you want. How does that sound?"
Liang Lidong waved his hand. "That's unnecessary. Now that Necromancers are related to the Hibiscus family, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to ask you for help. I'll investigate on my own. Don't worry."
Then, the two of them parted on bad terms. After they left the graveyard of the Hibiscus family, Joan Of Arc was still flying vigilantly in the sky. He said to his magic pet through the mental channel, "You'll monitor the Temple of Life every day. Tell me if you find anything unusual."
Joan Of Arc replied, "Aren't we looking for Necromancers? Why are they monitoring the Temple of Life all of a sudden? "
"I suspect that the Temple of Life is indirectly related to Necromancers," said Liang Lidong.
"That's unlikely. Life and necromancers are two extremes. They'd be lucky if they didn't kill each other when they ran into each other. How could they be related?"
Liang Lidong snorted. "It would've been impossible if it were the Life Goddess in the past, but the current Life Goddess is Rose, the Queen of Spiders … That b*tch is capable of anything. Naturally, she and her believers aren't any better. Also, this Necromancer is obviously after me. The forces that are in conflict with me right now are the mayor's mansion and the Temple of Life. Now that we've teamed up with the mayor, it's unlikely that he'll cause me trouble in this way. In this case, the Temple of Life is very suspicious. "
"Okay, I'll go there right now. I won't let go of any traces."
Joan gave a clear cry in the air, then flew towards the location of the Church of Life. Liang Lidong, on the other hand, returned to the castle. Hardly had he set foot on the bridge of the castle when a soldier rushed to him and said respectfully, "Mr. Red Priest, the mayor invites you."
In the study on the second floor, Liang Lidong pushed the door open and found the mayor, Uther, and the mayor's wife sitting inside. Their expressions were somewhat solemn.
Seeing Liang Lidong, Uther stood up. His bearded face looked a little tired. "Mr. Beta, Sophia has told me about the Necromancer. Now we've received bad news. In the cemetery on the northern outskirts of the city, many empty tombs have appeared. There's a cave in front of each empty tomb, and the surrounding soil is very fresh. This happened in the past two days. This situation makes me feel that things seem to be developing in a bad direction. I don't know how you can deal with the Necromancer now."
"Necromancers are very powerful, but they're not without weaknesses." Liang Lidong sat down and then said, "The Necromancer's most powerful thing is the sea of skeletons. We can't fight the sea of skeletons, but we can prevent the formation of a sea of skeletons in advance. If we can't find the Necromancer's hiding place, we'll cut off his source of combat power. Mayor, you can buy pure salt and have it sprinkled on all the tombs. It will effectively suppress the activity of dark elements and make it more laborious for him to summon skeletons. "
"Pure salt! How much do you need? "asked the mayor.
Liang Lidong replied, "At least fifty grams per tombstone. How many tombstones are there in Winterwind?"
The mayor's wife calculated for a moment and then took a deep breath. Her snow-capped mountain became even taller and straighter. "About two tons, that's not a small amount."
In this world, due to the limited extraction technology, people generally ate coarse salt that contained a lot of impurities. There were not many pure white salt, and its price was more than six times that of coarse salt. Collecting about two tons of pure salt at once was not a simple task, even for the city lord's mansion.
"Coarse salt can help, but not as much as pure salt," said Liang Lidong slowly.
Uther slapped the table heavily. "Then coarse salt. We don't want to completely cut off the Necromancer's source of combat power, but if we can suppress the number of skeletons, we might be able to win."
After three seconds of confusion, Liang Lidong realized that the mayor's residence was running out of funds. It did make sense. A lot of things had happened recently, and almost all of them were paid for by the mayor's residence. Although the Longman family was wealthy, they couldn't afford to spend so much money.
The mayor was an impatient man. After making the decision, he left the library immediately. Liang Lidong was about to leave, when the mayor's wife stopped him.
"Mr. Beta, this is too tricky. The Longman family might not be able to handle it. Do you have any good ideas?"
After a brief daze, Liang Lidong said, "You can ask the local nobles for help. They can't stay out of the threat of the Necromancer, can they?"
"It would be strange if those unscrupulous people were willing to help." The mayor's wife's charming face was full of sarcasm. "They will lunge at us like dogs if there are benefits. Let them suffer some losses, and they will all retreat."
"Actually, it's not difficult." Liang Lidong smiled. "Gather them and tell them about the Necromancer. Then, tell them that you've established a large magic array on the mountain. If Winterwind is conquered and the castle is breached, you can take refuge in the magic fortress on the mountain with the nobles who have paid. Those who don't contribute won't be treated that way. You can arrange for a few more people to help you hype up the atmosphere. I don't believe that nobody is willing to pay for their own lives! "
The eyes of the mayor's wife lit up: "Good idea, but what does 'hype' mean?"