Chapter 147: The Pied Piper and Pan's Pipe

Water mill town.

In the dim afterglow, the town was desolate and silent.

The pale church stood in the center of the town, and a flock of crows flew past in the twilight.

There were few pedestrians on the street, all with empty eyes. By the well, Clan Doyle stroked his beard and asked the ragged village elder:

"You mean, the Pied Man played his flute and disappeared without a trace with more than a hundred children in the town?"

The village elder nodded, his lips trembling slightly, and said anxiously: "The incident was discovered at sunrise yesterday... The night before yesterday, the village watchman said he heard a flute in the middle of the night and thought it was the devil, so he didn't dare to get close. As a result, when the sun rose, he found that more than a hundred children in the town were missing."

"My Lord, this must be the work of the devil in flowery clothes. I hope you can see clearly, my Lord Baron!"

The old man's fearful expression did not seem fake. Out of detective interest, Cran, who came to investigate, rubbed his chin and asked, "As far as I know, Shuimo Town was plagued by rats a while ago. How come there is not a single rat to be seen now?"

"this……"

The old man's eyes dodged, and under Clan's repeated questioning, he stammered:

"Indeed, a while ago, the streets of Shuimo Town were full of rats, and the terrible rat plague was about to submerge the town...The flute player in flowery clothes came and said he could solve the rat plague. Then he played the flute and controlled a large group of rats to jump into the river. The rats in the town were solved just like that."

Kelan frowned slightly: "So, what conditions did you agree to in order for him to help you solve the rat plague?"

The old man turned pale. He could no longer conceal the truth, so he immediately knelt down in front of Clan and said tremblingly:

"We didn't think at the time that he could really solve the rat plague, we just wanted to give it a try... He wanted us to enshrine a statue with a goat's head and a human body in the church, but that's clearly an evil demon, how could we dare to do that! Sir, he must have taken those children away for revenge, please save them!"

Clan stroked his beard, his eyes gleaming as he fell into deep thought.

The scene of that day seemed to emerge in his deep blue pupils: the streets were filled with rats, and the plague and epidemic had tortured the town to the point of dying.

At this time, a man in flowery clothes arrived. He played the magic flute to solve the rat problem. However, because his demands were not met, he played the flute in anger in the middle of the night and took away more than a hundred children...

"The goat's head and the human body—" Crane asked, "Did the flute player mention any other features of the statue?"

The old man looked fearful and said apprehensively: "That statue, with its goat legs, curved horns and ears, looks exactly like the devil the priests talked about!"

Cran was slightly startled, a specific image appearing in his mind.

Could it be that this flute player believed in a certain god? As a detective, Baron Crandall had the habit of taking a walk when he was deep in thought. He walked alone in the fields outside the village at dusk.

The breeze blew through the swaying wheat grass. In the empty and lonely wilderness, Cran suddenly felt a sense of panic.

He remembered the name.

"The Terror of Pan".

Shepherds often felt fear in deserted places, either from the sound of the wind or from loneliness, and they regarded this fear as the authority of the god Pan.

"That's right." Cran's eyes sparkled as he said to himself excitedly, "That Pied Piper is most likely a follower of Pan!"

According to legend, in the last era, the half-man, half-goat god Pan held the power of music, poetry and terror.

Bards would also worship the god Pan and practice the way of poets under his guidance.

But in modern times, the belief in Pan has long since declined, and in church records, Pan is regarded as the evil god of hell.

The Pied Piper, who tried to revive the faith in the god Pan, disappeared into the mountains with more than a hundred children and his whereabouts are unknown.

Clan looked at the blood-red sunset on Aries Mountain near the execution ground and murmured:

"It's impossible for such a large group of people to disappear out of thin air through teleportation. If they were to move, they would be discovered immediately... The only possible reason why they disappeared is that their whereabouts were covered up by the power of Pan."

At this time.

Cran saw a snowy owl flying overhead.

Its yellow eyes were piercing, revealing the light of wisdom, and when it flapped its wings it revealed the aura of a commander-level magical pet.

Clan was amazed, and then a little surprised. This snowy owl seemed familiar?

On the small road outside the village, three pedestrians came on horseback. The young man in the lead was handsome, with good looks and temperament, and his silver hair made him look heroic.

"Mr. Yeats?" Cran called.

Ye Zhi looked in the direction of the voice and was startled when he saw a familiar figure.

"Bearded Detective!" Gray exclaimed.

Your nickname is quite appropriate... Yeats coughed lightly, dismounted, greeted Cran, and asked him why he was here.

"I'm here to investigate the disappearance of children in Shuimo Town." After saying this, Cran glanced at the white-robed wizard beside Ye Zhi and said in surprise, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be... Master Kendra?"

Kendra smiled amiably and nodded, "Ye Zhi and I came here to investigate this matter."

For a moment, Crane's eyes flickered as he looked back and forth at Kendela and Yeats, as if he was guessing their identities.

This time Ye Zhi came to Shuimo Town with the mentality of increasing his spiritual power. Besides, if he remembered correctly, the quality of the magic flute player was quite good.

The musical instrument transformed by the musical instrument brooch is a panacea. The magic flute has additional bonuses on hypnosis and control spells.

Yeats pondered to himself.

As the chosen one of the Mist Gods, this flute is obviously the one I lost earlier! Fukas has been promoted to the third ring, so Ye Zhi asked him to return to Morning Frost Ridge first, and then find a way to prepare a Warcraft feast to let him return to the peak of the fourth ring.

Please...collect 6...9...books...!

At that moment, he, Grey and Kendra arrived at Watermill Town, and unexpectedly ran into Cran, a "detective motivated by interest".

Yeats asked curiously, "Mr. Crane, have you made any progress?"

Clan said seriously: "To be honest, I did find some clues, and these clues are related to the shepherd god Pan..."

He slowly and methodically relayed his observations and analysis to Yeats and his party.

Ye Zhi was slightly surprised and said, "According to your analysis, the Pied Piper may have led those one hundred children into Pan's Labyrinth?"

"That's right." Cran nodded. "If my reasoning is correct, the location of Pan's Labyrinth is on Aries Mountain next to the execution ground!"

Yeats was shocked.

In this way, we are one step closer to Pan's treasure.

Pan has a special musical instrument called 'Pan's Shepherd's Flute', which is a real bard artifact, much more powerful than any magic flute! Although even if he got the artifact, with the soul power of the second ring, it would be impossible to bring out the true effect of the artifact, but Ye Zhi couldn't help but daydream.

Pan's flute is said to be able to hypnotize even the fairies in the lake.

With it, wouldn't it be possible to hypnotize Grey and make her work hard to get admitted to Cam River University?

Yeats shook his head, dismissed the association, and cast a questioning look at Kendala.

Kendra pondered and said, "We must act quickly. Ye Zhi, you and Gray will stay in the town for one night. I will go to Aries Mountain tonight to find out what is going on."

Ye Zhi took the initiative to suggest: "Teacher, I will go with you."

"My musical attainments are not necessarily inferior to those of the magic flute player. Perhaps I can provide you with some help." Yeats said seriously.

Kendra pondered for a while, then nodded and said, "Then let's go together tonight."

Cran was full of surprise... Baron Yeats not only called Candela his teacher, but also offered him help? Every profession has its own specialty.

Although Candela is a versatile person, his musical attainments are not as good as those of the God of Art.

In addition, Kendela knew that if extraordinary people wanted to improve their soul power, they must go through tempering, and this investigation was also a good opportunity to train Ye Zhi.

"I am also very interested in the truth of the incident." Clan volunteered, "Will you allow me to go with you?"

As a noble and detective, Cran's strength is quite impressive. He is even better than the three-ring dragon vein warlock Gray and is already a four-ring 'combat master'.

With the four-ring level, he could have been famous among the Golden Lions, but Crane was a low-key person who was obsessed with the fun of tracking down cases.

Ye Zhi nodded in agreement, and the four of them discussed and prepared to take action tonight...

(End of this chapter)