Harley came to attend today's charity banquet mainly for Xanadu and her possible friends.
Bruce came here for the Wayne board of directors.
He was not stupid. He learned that the Court of Owls was composed of Gotham elites, especially his great-grandfather Thomas Wayne, who might have been the founder of the court. He naturally thought that his Wayne Group probably hid a nest of owls.
So, he planned to take the opportunity to explore the bottom and observe their reaction when facing him.
When necessary, he will also use language skills to deceive them.
The idea is good, but he got one thing wrong: Too many charitable foundations under the Wayne Group can avoid taxation and promote the company's image.
Hence, the directors don’t care about this “small” banquet worth tens of millions of dollars.
The directors did not come, and only a middle-aged black girl named Marissa was arranged to be the supervisor.
Bruce had no choice but to eat a big meal, so he had to make do with side dishes.
"Ms. Marisa, I'll tell you the truth. I want to talk to the directors about two things. First, why the Arkham project was divided into three and why it needed to cooperate with the two Black Bond families; second, last year, my parents
Was killed, Wayne Manor was raided by assassins a few days ago, is it possible that some of the directors were involved."
Bruce didn't mince words.
The skinny middle-aged black girl seemed to be greatly frightened. She covered her mouth and said in horror: "Bruce, who gave you the ecstasy soup to make you say such terrible things?
Wayne Group has never cooperated with criminals, and all directors are kind and hard-working good people.”
“Are you sure?” Bruce frowned.
“Of course, Wayne Group never does anything illegal, I swear to God.” Black girl Marissa vowed.
The video wall next to "Tilla" that was playing a charity video flickered, and the angry look of a long-faced middle-aged man appeared on the screen.
“The Wayne Group is the root of all evil, and today I am going to prove it to everyone!”
Judging from the background of the video, a man wearing a chef's uniform seems to be on the rooftop, near a ventilation fan.
There is also a big iron can in front of him.
“Have you ever heard of a drug called ‘Viper’? As a new type of drug, it has become very famous in Gotham recently.”
“Shit!” Harry slapped his forehead and guessed what happened.
As the world's largest drug-consuming city, all kinds of new drugs flow into Gotham every day every year, but recently there is a drug in particular called BT, which shocked even Harley.
That kind of stimulant is extremely volatile. Just open the bottle cap and put your nose to it, and the liquid will naturally vaporize into green smoke.
In addition to being very exciting, it also has a powerful effect: making people become Captain America in a short time!
That Rogers next door.
It is more like a failed soldier-strengthening potion than Du Ping.
It can only make people temporarily stronger, and the side effect is the body's potential and vitality.
After using it for more than ten times, the bones became brittle to wood, the muscles were as weak as jelly, and the heart could not bear its own gravity and burst. It was almost a suicide drug.
But even though it had huge side effects, all the big bosses in Hedao, including Falcone, were alarmed.
The reason is very simple, Gotham lacks everything but lunatics.
What if a madman organizes a group of reinforced soldiers to raid the boss's lair?
“Yes, it was me who did it! I gave them to drug addicts on the street. I wanted to give you a warning, but Wayne Enterprises is so rich and powerful that it was easy to suppress this big news.
Thinking about it, I suddenly got enlightenment from the Witch Harley!" A proud and sinister smile appeared on the long-faced middle-aged man's face, making everyone in the hall feel frightened.
Many people also looked at Harry warily.
Harley's expression was dull, her face was calm and calm, and she cursed in her heart: Sister Harley does things so cleanly and neatly, how can it be like you acting blindly at the critical moment, wasting time waiting for others to come back? You are poisoning people to death, and then you are bragging.
Can't force it?
“The death of ordinary people in the city cannot attract the attention of the big shots, so kill the big shots! Today, here is a repeat of what happened in Gotham Cathedral.”
"This bastard is slandering my reputation." Harry couldn't help complaining to Xanadu.
The middle-aged man patted the "liquefied gas tank" in front of him and sneered: "It is filled with the 'venomous snake' potion that can make people in the whole building crazy. Now it is in the vent. As long as I unscrew the gas
Valve, hey hey hey”
The middle-aged man in the white coat was still chattering, and Harry had already caught a glimpse of Jim Gordon rushing into the hall like wind and entering the stairwell without looking back.
“My name is Stan Potowsky, a biopharmaceutical researcher at Wayne Group.
Wayne Pharmaceuticals has no regard for life. Not only did it use living people for experiments and killed countless homeless people captured from the street, it even planned to put this kind of drug with extremely side effects into use.
The high-ranking big shots don’t care about the lives of ordinary soldiers at all. They only want money, war, and victory.
Witch Harley is right, Gotham is hell, and the well-dressed elite are demons in human skin.
Every person in Gotham has symptoms of demonic possession.
This sick city needs an exorcist, I'm going to exorcise Gotham, oops"
Two gunshots rang out. The self-proclaimed "Second Generation Exorcist" scientist staggered and fell down.
Jim Gordon’s square, square face appears in the camera.
“Don’t worry, everyone, the terrorists have been killed, the crisis has been resolved, the music does not need to stop, and the banquet continues.” He said with a positive face.
“Pah, pah, pah, pah!”
“Heroic detective, well-deserved!”
The applause and cheers in the hall were deafening. Everyone watched a thrilling and exciting show and were very satisfied.
“This trash” Harry felt a little sad, sad for such a stupid student.
If you want to imitate Sister Hallie, just learn the whole set.
Sister Harley didn’t teach you how to talk.
And the “Bulletproof Windbreaker of the Same Style as the Witch” only costs 99, not 100.
The sales are so popular in Mercenary Supermarket. Since you are a fan of Sister Harley, why not get a set?
Although there was a near miss, the charity banquet ended hastily.
In fact, while reporters gathered around Gordon and Harvey for interviews, Harley and Madam Xanadu left.
They returned to Mrs. Xanadu's apartment.
The apartment faces the street, and Xanadu lives on the first floor. There is a small garden outside the door, and a signboard "Mrs. Xanadu (Welcome, don't be afraid)" is erected on the iron fence.
Well, it’s that straightforward.
The wooden door is also engraved with green eyes in relief.
Perhaps it symbolizes that Mrs. Xanadu’s eyes can see through the future?
“Do you know the origin of ‘Mrs. Xanadu’?” Xanadu asked leisurely while sitting on the single sofa, stroking the black cat’s back.
She has several cats at home, all of them black.
Harry shook his head, "It sounds a bit like Chinese."
“It’s Chinese, Xanadu, Dadu, Zhongdu. Does it sound familiar to you?” Mrs. Shangdu said in a standard Beijing movie.
Harry said in surprise: "The 'Xanadu' of the Yuan Dynasty?"
Mrs. Xanadu smiled and nodded, "I am Kublai Khan's astrologer. He trusts me very much and respects me very much. The courtiers often call me 'the lady from Xanadu'."
So, after leaving China, I have always used this name."
“Your hometown is in England, right? Why don’t you become a forest fairy?” Harley asked doubtfully.
“For some reason, the ancient spirit in the forest abandoned me, and I lost all my magic power.”
A gloomy look appeared on Xanadu's pretty face.
After the death of King Arthur, Britain fell into turmoil, but Xanadu lost power and was wanted (implicated by her second sister Morgan Le Fay).
In order to leave England, she worked as a slave for more than a month with a rude Viking captain.
Finally escaped to Europe, and medieval Europe was frantically purging witches.
If a witch has power, she is not afraid of church warriors.
Afraid of having a reputation but not having the strength.
For example, Xanadu.
In order to survive, she sold her body many times like a skilled craftswoman until she fled all the way to the distant east.
Not only did the people there not hunt witches, they also treated her as a guest because of her amazing talent in prophecy.
Kublai Khan even gave her a formal official position, and he listened carefully to her advice on all matters big and small.
Not as lovers, but purely as a relationship between monarch and minister.
It was also because she gained a long-lost dignity under Kublai Khan in the Yuan Dynasty that she was particularly grateful for those wonderful years and was named "Mrs. Xanadu".
“Harry, you don’t want to be controlled by others. I understand, but reality doesn’t give us much choice at all.
Only when there is magic power, there is power.
Having power and not having power are worlds apart for witches.
No matter how great the final price is, it cannot compare to a bleak life without power.”
Mrs. Xanadu felt this and sighed deeply.
Harry could feel that Xia Du was telling the truth, but she still asked: "My lady said before that the ancestors thought of a way to avoid the source of magic and use magic."
Shangdu nodded lightly and sighed: "Throughout the ages, countless people with lofty ideals want to find another way, a way where their own magic power is not affected by the source of magic power.
It’s a pity that the world has long lost its masterless magic power.
You said that your magic power is innate and has nothing to do with any gods.
The problem is that the world you live in is only part of the magic power of the Supreme Being.
Like a parasite in a person's body, he proudly tells his companions that I can survive without relying on anyone.
But in fact, every part of the power for its growth comes from the body of the person who is like a god to it."
"In such a desperate situation, where did our ancestors find a breakthrough?" Harley frowned.
“They spent a lot of money and finally found the simplest answer. The supreme being must also exist in the universe, so there must be a universal law that overrides the supreme being.” Shangdu Fu said.
“What rules?” Harley asked.
“Magic must pay a price.” Xanadu said solemnly.
Harry had a strange expression, "What is this?"
“This is the truth!” Xanadu said seriously.
Harley did not argue, only asked: "How to use this truth?"
“Magic must pay a price. So, if you pay the price first, can you get the magic power? I tell you, you can!”
Next, Xanadu taught Harley a magic: the escape room spell.
This is a spell that requires no incantation and no incantation.
It is more like a meditation method to develop the special potential of the body than a mantra.
“You can understand it this way, the human body itself is a small universe. The big universe has magic factors, and the small universe should also have it.
Now, with this spell, you have activated your own little universe."
Harry practiced for two hours, opened her eyes and said, "I don't feel anything."
There is no sense of energy and no blood flow.
Other than being more focused, nothing seems to have changed.
Mrs. Xanadu smiled strangely, found a hemp rope, and tied Harry up from top to bottom like a mummy.
“Can you break free?” she asked.
Harley tried it and shook her head.
“Remember that spell.”
Harry nodded.
Everyone picked up a fruit knife and stabbed Harry in the arm hard.
“Ouch! What are you doing?” Harley howled.
Everyone looked down and asked strangely: "Why is there no bleeding?"
"I practiced "Iron Shirt", a hard-body qigong." Harley said nonsensically.
He didn't even comment, he put the tip of the knife against her arm and pressed it down hard.
There is not even the tiniest bubble in the Consciousness Sea Experience Tank, and the explanation is completely harmless.
So, Harley didn't resist and endured the pain and let her poke her.
Suddenly Shangdu put away his sword and said, "Get up."
"What?" Harley wondered, subconsciously moving, and then she was shocked. The rope that had been tightly tied to her body had loosened and fell to her feet.
“Is this magic? What you just tied was a dead knot!” Harley said in surprise.
Shangdu threw the fruit knife back into the fruit bowl and explained: "This is the escape room technique invented by Zatara.
I poke you with a knife, and you are suffering the damage. This is the price.
You pay the price and the magic is activated.
It's that simple.
There is no doubt that this is magic too.
The entire process completely avoids all sources of magic.
In other words, your own body is the source of magic."