Lin Ze stared at the semi-finished product in the sarcophagus, and the hairs on his back stood up.
Mia was half a step behind him, pointing her wand at the sarcophagus. She was also nervous.
"You still have energy." Lin Ze said in a low voice.
The thing's chest was rising and falling, the amplitude was very small, but under the fluorescence, there were indeed faint pulse traces under the skin covered with villi.
He's still alive, or at least not completely dead.
"Don't touch." Mia said.
Lin Ze didn't touch it.
He just squatted down and raised his wand to the mouth of the sarcophagus to let the fluorescent light shine more clearly.
This body was stopped in an intermediate state during the transformation process. The right hand was completely alienated, while the left hand was still human. Only half of the fangs on the face grew out, and the lips were gray in color.
"There is a pulse, which proves that he is not a vampire..."
"Is this the Number Forty-Nine test subject?"
"Maybe..."
Those cards only range from one to forty-seven. Where did this Number Forty-Nine come from?
And where did Number Forty-Eight in the middle go...
Mia pointed his magic wand at the body in the sarcophagus and recited a long ancient mantra.
The cyan light slowly condensed at the tip of her staff, and penetrated into the sarcophagus like a thin thread, slowly traveling along the meridians of the body.
After about a minute, Mia took back his wand, his face a little solemn.
"There is something in his body that maintains his life, like a sealed magic core. It is different from the pure black mist of the vampires, and is more like some kind of alchemy product."
"Can I take it out?"
"I don't know, but it's best not to act rashly. This body is too fragile. A slightly larger energy impact may cause the entire sarcophagus to collapse."
Lin Ze nodded, stood up and looked around the dark room.
Iron nails on the wall, hardened animal skins, stone basins on the ground...
His eyes fell on the dark brown powder in the stone basin.
He felt something was wrong when he saw those empty bottles in the cellar before. The residue in those bottles was almost the same color as the powder in the stone basin.
"Mia."
"Hmm."
"Can you identify what the powder in the stone basin is?"
Mia squatted down next to the stone basin, used the tip of the wand to gently stir the powder on the bottom of the basin, looked closely for a while, then took out a thin glass rod from the bag on his waist, scraped a little sample from the bottom of the basin and put it into a small bottle.
"It's like some kind of powder ground from bones. It has been oxidized for a long time, but it still retains a weak magical activity."
"Skeleton."
"Hmm."
Lin Ze's eyes turned to the body in the sarcophagus.
"Mia, do you think the experiments recorded on these forty-seven cards are really to transform wizards into vampires?"
Mia raised his head and looked at him.
"You mean..."
"What if the real purpose of these experiments was never to turn wizards into vampires?"
Mia was stunned for two seconds, and then his pupils dilated slightly.
"You mean..." Mia's voice was very low, as if he was afraid of being heard by the things in the sarcophagus.
"What if the real purpose of these experiments was never to turn wizards into vampires?"
Mia was stunned for two seconds, and then his pupils dilated slightly.
"Maybe... they're building a container?"
"I don't know, but Burke Family has been purchasing goods from Charles Street and Whitechapel District for more than three hundred years, bringing different people here to do experiments..." Lin Ze stood up and moved his eyes from the semi-transformed body to the animal skins nailed to the walls of the darkroom.
"It's common sense that the blood of vampires is poison to wizards, but Burke Family insists on using wizards for experiments, and puts together things from wizards and vampires. Why?"
Mia said, "Because what they need is never transformation, but... adaptation."
"Yes."
Lin Ze walked to the sarcophagus and pointed at the half-human, half-vampire body, "Look, his right hand has been completely alienated, which means that the vampire components can survive in his body, but a balance point has not yet been found. If the adjustment continues, the adjustment will allow the human body to fully accept the vampire tissue without rejecting it..."
"Then this 'person' can have the strength of the vampires, but does not have to bear the weaknesses of the vampires." Mia's voice gradually became colder.
Lin Ze Suddenly remembered something.
Black The box of tusks in Chamber of Secrets's old house, Chivalis pried it out of the mouths of forty-seven blood slaves. Those tusks are still lying in Black family's Chamber of Secrets.
And there are exactly forty-seven cards here.
No more, no less, forty-seven.
His spine tingled for a while, and the coincidence in the numbers made him feel unspeakably uncomfortable.
"Mia, did you bring your camera?"
"I brought the magic camera."
"Take pictures of everything here, the cards, the sarcophagi, the stone basins, the animal skins on the walls, and the records on the parchments. Don't leave out any details."
Mia took out a palm-sized silver magic camera from his waist pocket and started taking pictures everywhere along the darkroom.
When the flash came on, the fingers of the body in the sarcophagus seemed to move.
Lin Ze's wand pointed over instantly.
The body curled up quietly in the sarcophagus, breathing so weakly that it was almost imperceptible. The moment just now might have been just a muscle spasm.
"Don't be nervous." Mia said without looking back.
"I always feel that this thing is not dead, and I have to find a way to deal with it."
"Do you want to notify the department?" Mia took the last picture and put the camera away.
"Notice, but cannot follow the regular process."
Lin Ze squatted next to the sarcophagus and tapped the Runes on the coffin with his wand. The runes lit up slightly under the tip of his staff, like some ancient mechanism that had been triggered and then stuck.
"Burke Family left the experimental subjects here, indicating that this place is not safe enough for them, or they think it is hidden enough that no one will find it."
"But we found it."
"It was the reporter who gave the address."
Lin Ze thought of the note paper that Sterling thrust into him. The accuracy of those three addresses was so high, it was as if someone had written them on purpose and delivered them to his door.
"Do you think there's something wrong with that reporter?" Mia asked.
"It's still too early to draw a conclusion. But we checked the address he gave, and there is indeed something there. This shows that there is someone behind him, either a traitor to the Burke Family, or..."
"Another group of people are staring at the Burke Family."
"That's right."
Lin Ze stood up and took one last look at the sarcophagus.
"Evacuate first and bring the evidence back. This place needs to be under control, but I need to confirm one thing first."
"What's the matter?"
"Whitechapel District 9 St Mary's Lane, Barty Crouch Jr. haven't replied yet."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Ze's communication badge vibrated.
It was Barty Crouch Jr.'s voice, a little more urgent than usual. "Lin, Whitechapel District something is wrong here."
"What?"
"9 St Mary's Lane is an abandoned church. There is a tomb underground. What's inside... you'd better take a look for yourself."
"What?"
"The coffins are all coffins. I counted them, forty-eight in total."
Lin Ze's footsteps stopped at the exit of the darkroom, and his entire figure was nailed to the spot.
Forty-eight mouthfuls.