Chapter 314 Not Human? <TOC> Chapter 316 Suspected Parasite
Translator: SumTLMan
Could it be that someone is using divination magic to locate him for alchemy purposes? If that were the case, it would be quite extravagant!
Divination magic is widely acknowledged among various factions as the method with the strongest backlash. Moreover, divination magic rarely predicts the essence of an event directly, as doing so could easily provoke a backlash from greater wills. For instance, predicting someone’s location usually involves forecasting some trivial matters, then deducing the person’s whereabouts through celestial patterns, weather, or even the movement of stones. This is why diviners often appear cryptic, as their logical thinking is often characterized by leaps.
Angel felt a violent fluctuation in the “Obscurity” effect on his body, indicating that someone was directly observing him through some method.
If divination magic was being used, it must be for pinpointing his exact location rather than merely estimating it. That would be quite luxurious, but wouldn’t they fear the backlash from the world’s will?
Angel summoned Toby, who had been frolicking in the woods, placed the Phantom Island flight token into its Snowy Feather, and solemnly instructed it to hide. If the other party merely sought his alchemy services, so be it. However, if they intended to harm him, Toby should run away – preferably to Phantom Island – and seek help from a mentor.
As Angel was earnestly guiding Toby to hide, a crisp and clear voice entered his ears.
“Am I that terrifying that you need to be so guarded?”
As the voice finished, a blindingly radiant man appeared before him.
Upon seeing the visitor, Angel exclaimed in surprise, “Spirit? Lord Tree Spirit?!”
…
An hour earlier, in Mirror Lady’s residence. Lydia received a message from Tepicchio, transmitted at the cost of a blood sacrifice from their clansmen.
Upon seeing the characters arranged on the parchment contract—
“Ghostly place?!” The one who spoke wasn’t Lydia but Mirror Lady, who sat nearby.
Although Lydia had signed a supply contract with the Moya clan, she was not from the Shadow Demon Kingdom, nor was she from the Paramjit Plateau. Instead, she hailed from a wizard family millions of miles away.
This wizard family was more like a small wizard organization, which was basically self-sufficient. Furthermore, benefiting from their ancestors’ legacy, Lydia’s family was exceedingly wealthy.
For Lydia, it didn’t matter whether Shadow Demon Castle turned into a ghostly place, but the castle was situated within the Savage Grottoes’s domain. To a great extent, the other side of Shadow Demon Castle, the “Twilight Deep Well,” was secretly manipulated by the Savage Grottoes.
“With Shadow Demon Castle becoming a ghostly place, what is the current situation of Twilight Deep Well?” Mirror Lady worriedly asked.
Lydia’s face also darkened, and although, as Mirror Lady predicted, she didn’t really care about Shadow Demon Castle turning into a ghostly place, Mirror Lady didn’t know that the reason she signed a supply contract with the Moya clan was to protect them. If the Moya were to be annihilated, she would certainly suffer a strong backlash from the contract!
“As long as Twilight Deep Well remains in the vicinity of Shadow Demon Castle, it is impossible for Shadow Demon Castle to become a ghostly place. If what Tepicchio says is true, there must be a problem with them,” Lydia declared.
“I have maintained all my energy in the Mirror World, and I will go find Tree Spirit. My energy has leaked out in large amounts, so I should be able to sense what happened to Shadow Demon Castle,” Mirror Lady said.
As Mirror Lady finished speaking, she was about to leave with a sweep of her sleeve. However, Lydia stopped her, “Wait, I can contact Tepicchio.”
“You can contact him directly?” Mirror Lady frowned. If the other party were a wizard, it would be fine, but since Tepicchio was just an ordinary person, it would be extremely difficult for Lydia to make long-distance contact.
“When I signed the contract with the Moya clan, I left an alchemical puppet there. My essence is in that puppet, so I can connect to it, but my power is too weak. I need your help, Mirror Lady.”
“No problem, rest assured and perform your magic.” Although Mirror Lady’s energy was maintaining the operation of the Mirror World, it didn’t mean she had no energy. In terms of her current energy threshold, she was no less powerful than Sanders.
Lydia acted immediately, boiling her blood and resonating with the essence in the alchemical puppet.
“I’ve made contact!” Within a few seconds, Lydia’s forehead was already covered with sweat, “Mirror Lady, help me, and I will transmit the image to you!”
As Mirror Lady’s energy poured in, a blurry image appeared before the two of them.
In Shadow Demon Castle, thousands of miles away, a cruel ritual was taking place in a sealed underground space.
An old man, wearing colorful and bizarre clothes like a circus clown, was tied to an altar. He mumbled nonsense, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing with his mouth wide open. He looked like a child, but his eyes were filled with the madness of a mentally ill person.
“Father, must we really do this? Butler Horace has devoted sixty years of his life to our Moya clan. I cannot bear to see him being sacrificed in blood…” The young man’s eyes reddened.
“Domino, do you think I want to see Horace die? He has been with me for longer than you have! With the outside world becoming what it is, and us fleeing into the cave, Horace is the only one who has mutated. Right now, he can only be sacrificed in blood. Do you want me to kill someone who hasn’t mutated? Or shall we go out and find another mutated person?”
“Who knows if we will be infected with mutations when we go out. So, we have only one choice. To save ourselves, we must sacrifice Horace.” The speaker was a middle-aged shadow servant. If Ananda were here, she would probably recognize him at a glance. This man was none other than the powerful Duke Tepicchio of Shadow Demon Castle.
And the young man talking to him was Wimbledon’s biological brother, Domino.
Domino also understood their current predicament, nodding with difficulty, “Wimbledon is missing, and we don’t know if Lady Red Lotus will save us.”
“This is our only chance for survival, we have to try,” said Tepicchio, thinking of his young son, filled with sorrow.
Now was not the time for sentimentality. Tepicchio turned to the guards and commanded, “Begin the bloodletting!”
A guard climbed onto the altar, and with a diagonal slash, the mutated Horace’s thigh artery was severed, causing blood to spray out like a waterfall. The guard’s face was drenched in fresh red blood.
Seeing this, Tepicchio immediately arranged for another guard to escort the blood-splattered guard to the observation room. The cause of the mutation was still unknown, and the spread through bodily fluids was also possible, so they had to proceed cautiously.
As Horace’s blood sprayed, the accumulated blood on the altar slowly flowed outward, following the grooves throughout the base of the altar. Finally, with blood as ink and the grooves as bindings, an odd pattern formed, with a floating parchment contract at the center.
Horace had lost most of his blood, yet remained unconscious, laughing and crying eerily, everything appearing strange.
The entire process was silent, as Domino and Tepicchio watched Horace’s cheeks grow increasingly pale, their tears flowing slowly.
When the parchment contract emitted a stunning light, Tepicchio knelt on the ground, wailing mournfully, “Lady Red Lotus, Shadow Demon City has now become a ghostly place, the Moya people are on the brink of extinction, please show mercy…”
Time passed, and the parchment contract’s glow faded. However, Tepicchio remained kneeling, unwilling to stand up. Seeing this, Domino’s grief overwhelmed him, and he knelt alongside his father, praying for the wizard’s compassion.
After a long while…
A creaking sound came from deep within the sealed room.
Tepicchio and his son abruptly raised their heads, looking towards the source of the noise—
They seldom visited the sealed room arranged by Lydia, so they were unclear about what was inside. Thus, when they saw a legless, big-headed puppet floating up, they looked utterly bewildered.
It wasn’t until the purple-gray big-headed puppet emitted a familiar female voice that they realized, with joy, that Lady Red Lotus had indeed appeared!
…
Although the image was blurry, Mirror Lady still deciphered some information from it: “Are they the people of the Moya clan? They seem quite compassionate, resorting to a blood sacrifice with a madman tied up.”
Horace had reached the brink of death, but he hadn’t truly died yet, and his eyes still held a hint of madness.
Lydia had once visited Duke Tepicchio’s residence, so she recognized the identity of the sacrifice at a glance: “He’s not just a madman; I remember him as the butler of this ducal residence. Judging by his usual attire, he’s a reliable and steady person. How did he end up like this?”
Lydia didn’t pay too much attention to the sacrifice, as he was already doomed, and further thoughts were futile.
Utilizing Mirror Lady’s energy, Lydia manipulated the puppet to approach Tepicchio and his son. Amid their astonished gazes, she spoke, “Enough talk. Tell me precisely what happened in Shadow Demon City.”
As Tepicchio recounted the events, Lydia and Mirror Lady’s brows furrowed deeper. When he finished, Mirror Lady asked in a low voice, “Ask them if any wizards have come out of Twilight Deep Well.”
For most ordinary citizens of Shadow Demon City, Twilight Deep Well was merely a legend. However, for the nobles like Tepicchio, he was aware of the well and even its entrance, though he had never entered it.
Lydia asked, “Has any wizard emerged from Twilight Deep Well to resolve the issue?”
Tepicchio shook his head, “No, after the incident, I’ve had people watching the entrance of Twilight Deep Well, but no wizards have come out.”
Lydia whispered to Mirror Lady, “Something is amiss. If it were just a novel pathogen, Twilight wizards wouldn’t sit idly by unless…”
“Indeed, Lady Red Lotus, there’s one more thing,” Tepicchio addressed the puppet, “Before I took refuge in the underground cavern, I saw a witch flying on a broom in the sky. She was dressed strangely and acted as insane as Butler Horace, uttering incoherent words.”
Hearing this, the two women’s expressions darkened: “This is serious. Flying with a vehicle may be a mere apprentice wizard, but… the suspected pathogen can infect transcendent beings. We must isolate Shadow Demon City immediately!”
There were many pathogens that could infect mortals, but it was the ease and short time frame of infection that was most severe. Furthermore, they didn’t overlook one fact: no one had left Twilight Deep Well. Did this imply that even Twilight wizards were in trouble?!