The Death Knell

The night wind in winter is always like a sharp blade, scraping away heat from everyone's body bit by bit. People who still appear in the dark night at this time basically have their own difficulties.

The black ice crust formed after the snow has been trampled by people covers the road. The trees beside the road are as bare as ghosts. If serious people have to go out at this time, they will always be in a hurry and even slip on the ice. Instead, scare yourself.

It is almost never seen that people like Su Ming and three people strolling around in light clothes.

After passing by several street girls and rejecting their cheap invitations, you can see their disappointed and painful eyes through the night and the smell of bad perfume.

But this look soon turned into numbness. They would spit on the ground, wrap up their coats tightly, and continue waiting for business on the roadside.

As to whether they need money to buy drugs or have babies at home to raise, no one cares.

Their experience has proved that praying to God is of no use. At this time, calling the devil may be more pleasurable.

But everyone is like this. If they can live, no one wants to die. In order not to die, people can make many, many sacrifices.

Such as selling your body or becoming a vampire.

Su Ming and others came to the river and continued walking under the dim street lights, the sound of horse hooves accompanying their footsteps.

"The last time I came to Philadelphia was eighty years ago. It has changed a lot." Parham hid his revolver under his windbreaker and adjusted the hat on his head: "In the past, prostitutes were in taverns or Sojourning in an inn, wearing a tutu and a corset, and the transaction process is called bathing, which is not what it is now."

Su Ming smiled and patted his shoulder. He could feel that Parham was still radiating heat like a furnace.

"Are you saying that when we passed by just now, they pulled open their coats and directly exposed the contents to customers for inspection? Times have changed, the pace of life is getting faster and faster, no one does the drinking and flirting thing anymore, and Fela Delphia was what it was called decades ago, but now the city is simply called Philly.”

"Yeah, people nowadays don't even bother to say a few syllables." Parham folded the horse's rein in his hand and looked at the river beside him. The river had frozen, and the sound of water he heard before was just the sound of water. hallucination.

Modu followed silently. He was stimulated by the white scenery, and now he was doubting life. Why should he see such a depraved thing?

What he saw in Kama Taj was order and light, but now, chaos and darkness appeared in front of him, and he was extremely uncomfortable with it.

But seeing that the Mage Supreme and the Ghost Rider turned a blind eye to this, and instead started chatting with each other, Mordo felt that he still had a lot to learn.

"Vampires are quite nostalgic. I think their dressing style may suit your taste. If you want to take a bath, I'll treat you today." Su Ming waved his hand generously. He had already seen the neon lights on the other side of the river.

"Thank you, I'll go get some information for you first." Parham didn't refuse. He had a deep imprint of the Old West on him, and it was very common for friends or employers to treat him to a 'bath'.

In fact, the only woman he ever loved was a prostitute. Unfortunately, when he was fighting with a black friend, the black friend lost his mind and killed her.

Because uncleanness symbolizes depravity, depravity is also a sin, and the guilty must be punished. The uncontrolled spirit of vengeance is as rigid as a machine.

Parham avenged her, but... the method was to kill his benefactor completely. He didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but from then on he only loved prostitutes.

He wanted to find her shadow in them, but unfortunately, some people were unique.

"It's not necessarily a vampire. It's probably the stronghold of the Death Cult." Su Ming looked across the frozen river at the small building opposite. Many people walked in swaggeringly. This didn't look like a vampire. He He took out a pile of bills, counted out five hundred and handed them to Parham: "Find a few more and try them all."

The Confederate Major put away the money and put his gun in the bag on his horse. He smiled and nodded: "I will."

After saying that, he jumped directly from the river edge and walked directly across the ice to the small building.

Su Ming took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, lowered his head and lit it, exhaled in the cold wind, and waited quietly.

"Master, why do we allow darkness to exist?"

Modu kept rubbing his hands. He was disgusted with these environments that would directly expose the darkness of human nature.

Ancient One has enough power to make everyone glorious, but she is indifferent. Deathstroke is simply gray, and there seems to be no boundary between black and white in him.

Su Ming threw a cigarette to him, but Modu originally wanted to refuse. He didn't smoke and didn't have any personal hobbies.

But the Supreme Mage glared at him fiercely and explained that he must smoke. This was an order.

In the smoke, Modu kept coughing and tears froze on his face. Su Mingcai answered his previous question in the form of a rhetorical question.

"Xiao Mo, do you think that in the world, which came first, the egg or the chicken?"

"Ahem...this...the chicken came first? Did egg laying evolve later?"

"Wrong." Su Ming spit out a circle, which was almost immediately blown away by the wind under the light: "Guess again."

Modu was desperate in his heart. There were only two options, either one or the other. What else could you guess?

But the Sorcerer Supreme asked him to guess, so he guessed.

"The egg came first?" Mo Du asked against his will.

"It's still wrong." Su Ming retorted calmly, looking at Modu as if he were looking at a fool.

Mordo suddenly turned into a black question mark face. Isn’t it a multiple choice question? Why are both answers wrong: "Please give me some advice, master."

Su Ming looked at him, as if Mo Du was disappointing, slowly shook his head and sighed.

"Someone comes first."

"ha?"

"Think about it for yourself. Without people, chickens wouldn't be called peppers, and eggs wouldn't be called eggs. Maybe there are the same creatures on some alien planet or other dimensions, but chickens are called peppers and eggs are called peppers. Maybe curry... Without the existence of humans, and no one considering this, the question of the chicken and the egg does not exist at all, so the answer is that humans existed first."

"this......"

Modo was entangled in tongue twisters, and in the meat grinder of logic, his whole brain turned into paste.

Su Ming turned his head and continued to look at the dim lights on the other side of the river. He sighed quietly: "It seems that you didn't realize anything even if you watched the chef crack a hundred eggs. You have to work more carefully in the future."

In fact, this is a statement that uses idealism to fool people. After all, the objective existence of chickens and eggs is still there, but after Deathstroke's series of uncertain actions before, Modo can no longer tell how much knowledge he has mastered.

Besides, things like the theory of evolution are not necessarily true for mages. There are so many existences that can create artificial things. Sometimes the more you know, the easier it is to become confused.

When Su Ming took the time to educate Modu, he saw Parham actually returning the same way.

"Um?"

This speed... is a bit too fast. I only talked to Modo for three or four minutes, and this western cowboy is done? Are vampires so powerful?

Parham didn't see any expression on Su Ming's face, so he couldn't tell what he was thinking. The one-armed man in a windbreaker ran back from the river and climbed over the fence to report the situation to Su Ming.

"No vampires found, but the atmosphere is not right, I'm not sure."

"It's okay, let's go take a look together. Did you come in just now?"

"I just walked around the small building and didn't feel much guilt. The people inside were guilty, but not up to my standards."

Parham has his own set of standards. I don’t know how he measures a person’s sinfulness. Maybe becoming a Ghost Rider will have an additional numerical display in his mind, just like Dragon Ball’s combat power detector?

This standard is actually quite subjective.

Compared with him, Johnny Blaze, the next generation of Ghost Rider in the future, has even lower standards. One theft is enough to sentence him to death.

Su Ming climbed over the river embankment guardrail with one hand and led the two of them towards the small building.

It appears to be an old brick building. The walls have become mottled and faded over time, and the red bricks appear black under the moonlight, like blood.

Although the building is old, the decoration of the facade is not old at all. Not only are the bunny girls painted on the big billboards, but even the pink neon lights have various suggestive patterns.

"Blood of Immortality? The name of the brothel is good." Su Ming glanced at it before entering and commented lightly.

Of course, to the outside world this is not a brothel, just a hotel.

Among the states in the United States where brothels are legal, Nevada is the only state where Las Vegas is located, while Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia is located, is a state with a relatively conservative social atmosphere, assuming that in this era.

As for why this store can exist openly, it is actually some dark rules. Enough money is provided, every aspect is taken care of, and various institutions turn a blind eye to such a small store.

After all, even if Iron Touwa investigates this place, unless the transaction process and payment process can be recorded, there will be no evidence to prove that this is a robbery, and it will also attract some underworld attacks and retaliation.

Looking at the constant flow of people entering and exiting this store, and the people who come out are all excited, it is estimated that this store can earn tens of thousands of dollars every month.

In this day and age, this number is crazy enough.

Su Ming paid special attention to the necks of these people. Although they were in a daze, their legs were weak, and they were rolling their eyes and giggling, their necks were clean and had no teeth marks.

After pondering for a moment, he pushed the door open and went in. Parham searched at the door for a long time and could only tie the horse to the fire hydrant on the roadside.

There is a red world inside the door. Everything is red. It is not the bright red at ordinary weddings, but a kind of dark red that is a little purple, like a black light.

In the hall, there were many women walking around in modified medieval costumes, such as women who only wore whalebone skirts and aprons, or women who forgot to wear skirts and exposed stockings and underwear.

Their expressions are very plain, without the sense of debauchery and despicability of ordinary prostitutes, but they are like queens patrolling the territory, looking at the guests who come in as if they are looking at slaves.

Modu had already covered his eyes.