Elegy of the Thorny Rose

The Thornwood Rose Garden is one of the Butler Family's largest assets, so ordinary people are generally not permitted to enter this private aristocratic plantation.

But Ye Yan and Watson are not ordinary people.

Because the trial for Cyril Butler's case is currently underway, the Butler Family has no time to attend to other matters, and their control over their own properties has significantly declined.

After knocking out the guards on-site, the two of them took over the entire estate with ease.

The scent of damp soil mixed with the fragrance of roses, brewing a lethargic atmosphere in the halo of the setting sun that made one feel drowsy.

Ye Yan's boots stepped onto the soft soil.

The dark green stems made the unopened buds appear even more vivid red, like beads of blood oozing from thorns scratching a young girl's delicate skin, slowly dripping down the briars.

Most of the roses in the garden are common varieties.

However, hidden deep within the garden is a special type of rose that emits an overly sweet, cloying scent, like the final fragrance of a ripe fruit just before it begins to rot.

It is the sweetest and most alluring scent of all.

[Color-Changing Rose]

[Category: Tier 1 Material (Harvestable)]

[It was originally as pure as white snow, yet it turned as red as a raging flame under the irrigation of heart's blood.]

[Aspects: Honey, Cup]

An unexpected discovery of a new Tier 1 material.

But this is not the most important thing; the [Color-Changing Rose] has allowed Ye Yan to understand two new Principles.

Cup is the Principle concerning fertility and feasting; food, sex, and nature are closely related to the various sensory desires of humans.

Ye Yan curled the corner of his lips.

It sounds like a very sinister Principle.

This couldn't help but remind him of the bizarre flesh mass formed when he killed that cultist, where his body was influenced by the alien aura and produced an uncontrollable, inexplicable appetite.

In this light, that alien entity possessed the Principle of Cup.

Fertility, temptation, agony, blood and craving, coupled with sensory desire.

He is now quite certain that most of the cases of human mutation and collective loss of control recorded in the Beginner's Guide to Occultism are likely influenced by the Principle of Cup.

As for the introduction to Honey...

"The evergreen treasure in the world's veins, the pulsing heartbeat of the turning seasons."

Could it be that Honey represents vitality and healing?

Ye Yan is a bit unsure.

However, although the introduction to the Principle of Honey is somewhat mysterious, it looks much safer than the Principle of Cup.

Ye Yan stopped in his tracks and raised a hand to stop Watson behind him: "Dr. Watson, I believe this is where Cyril Butler killed those young girls."

Roses irrigated with heart's blood.

He would not believe that the "heart's blood" mentioned in the description refers to the common, literal meaning of cultivating them with care.

Watson was somewhat hesitant: "Are you sure?"

Ye Yan nodded.

He doesn't just have one bottle of Salt Trace on him; even if he guessed wrong, he could always search again.

The entire rose garden is only so large; even if he used the most clumsy method of elimination, the Salt Trace he carries is enough for him to search the place thoroughly.

Watson said nothing more. He turned and opened a box he was carrying, inside which lay an exquisite glass bottle on velvet lining: "A request from Detective Lestrade."

The doctor's voice was very soft, as if afraid to disturb something: "He hopes Daphne can witness the truth with her own eyes."

Ye Yan silently took the glass bottle handed over by Watson, his boot heels crushing a patch of withered rose petals, and he carefully placed it amidst the rose bushes.

Afterward, he stood up, pulled the cork from the Salt Trace bottle, and the glowing salt poured out from the mouth of the bottle.

The salt grains scattered onto the black soil, merging into the ground as naturally as raindrops returning to the sea. Only the faint, rustling sound of salt crystals hitting the soil remained, like countless tiny claws crawling.

Suddenly, a dull cracking sound came from beneath the ground, as if something were awakening.

White phosphorescence broke through the soil, like salt crystals precipitating out of a black sea. Those lights flowed as if they had a life of their own, gradually converging into a huge, strange pattern resembling a pupil.

Almost at the same time the pattern formed, points of phosphorescence began to emanate from various places in the rose bushes.

On the ground, on the stems and leaves, on the petals, in mid-air...

Whether in splashes or droplets, they eventually converged into individual handprints.

Those small, twisted handprints had some fingers splayed wide, while others were tightly clenched into fists; most terrifying were the dragging marks clearly left during a struggle, extending from the ground deep into the thicket of rose thorns.

"My God..."

Watson was left speechless by the scene before him.

Standing in the area dense with phosphorescence, Ye Yan's eyes clearly reflected the countless handprints.

"One, two, three..."

Ye Yan's breathing grew rapid as he mechanically counted the hand seals: "Seventeen, eighteen..."

Soon, the number of hand seals exceeded thirty-seven.

As he reached the forty-seventh, a faint, intermittent sobbing interrupted him.

The sound began like the whimpering of wind through thorns, gradually transforming into clear, overlapping cries of a young girl that surrounded him from all directions.

The rose bushes began to tremble violently.

The Color-Changing Roses in the garden bloomed in unison, looking like faded color photographs as they shifted from vibrant red to pure white, finally turning into a mottled black and white.

The entire garden seemed as if it had been splashed with ink.

Blackness spread downward along the stems, staining even the green leaves with a somber hue.

One flower, one phantom.

Like a thin mist upon the sea, the Sorrow of the Abyss Ocean.

The warm twilight was dyed into a white mist by the fragrance of the roses, and the phosphorescence on the ground transformed into bright moonlight within the fog, outlining the soft silhouettes of dozens of young girls.

"This... what is this?"

Watson looked at Ye Yan in astonishment: "Does the Enchanted Dust you crafted have such immense power?"

"No, I fear this is because of those peculiar roses."

Before Ye Yan could finish his sentence, Daphne's pair of heterochromatic eyes, placed amidst the rose bushes, suddenly underwent a strange transformation.

A young girl's voice emanated from the glass bottle.

The once-dead eyeballs pulsed with life at this moment, and a rustling ballad accompanied by the sound of crashing waves drifted out, as the black shadows on the ground gathered toward the glass bottle like a tide.

When the final shadow merged into the bottle, the heterochromatic eyes vanished, and a translucent figure slowly rose.

The outline of a blonde girl gradually sharpened in the twilight; Ye Yan saw dark stains still clinging to her ethereal white dress, and a distinct ligature mark around her neck.

Yet, those heterochromatic eyes were startlingly bright.

"Who am I?"

The girl's voice carried the ethereal resonance of the deep sea.

"I am Daphne, Daphne Crowley..."

Watson's face was filled with shock.

"A complete spirit—this violates the laws of necromancy!"

Even the mediums and witches of Witch Lane could only commune with the dead who had passed within twenty-four hours; they could never summon a complete spirit for conversation.

And Daphne Crowley had been dead for twenty years; her soul should have long since dissipated. How could she possibly have been summoned?

All sound in the garden seemed to vanish.

The girl floated a foot above the ground, and after a brief moment of confusion, those heterochromatic pupils locked onto Ye Yan.

"It was you who summoned me from the deep sea." Daphne Crowley's dress fluttered without a breeze as she drifted closer to Ye Yan: "May I ask what you require of me, Master?"