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“Kieran and I are here to track down a strange organization.”

“Track down a strange organization? Is that what a student should be doing?” Leonith commented in surprise.

Durance smiled.

“I’ve already graduated. After leaving that little world with you, I sensed that I was close to the saint realm. Recently, I finally reached the verge of attainment. As per the academy regulations, one graduates right away when they are about to attain the saint realm. After all, there are innumerable paths to take beyond that realm. Not even the academy can provide guidance from that point on. So, I don’t have to return to the academy for the remaining six months. It just so happens they’re short of manpower due to the Great Celestial Rite, so I’m allowed to help out.”

“I see. So what you used to interrupt Thea’s skill is…”

“That’s right, it’s a premature domain,” Durance confirmed with a nod.

Whether it was a magic spell or a martial arts technique, being interrupted before the skill completion could lead to great risks. Even a minor slip-up could cause a violent backlash, potentially causing irreversible damage to the user.

Out of all the methods available, only fine point control of a domain could allow one to directly sever the energy supply from its source, easily interrupting the casting without any adverse side effects.

This was one of the reasons why there was a world of difference between the saint realm and the mortal realm.

“How nice it must be to attain the saint realm…”

Leonith fell back onto the bed. He grabbed the blanket and rolled back and forth.

“When will I be able to reach the saint realm?”

As a dragon princess, Lilith was born with a full level of magic power, which put her at the peak of the mortal realm and also made her a rank nine magician. As a martial practitioner, she had also reached the rank nine with the help of Elder White previously.

However, it had been so long since then and Lilith was yet to feel any signs of a breakthrough. For the sake of harmonizing a large amount of magic power and battle qi in her body, Lilith paid the price of losing her meridians.

Although this decision had significantly enhanced her combat power, no one had ever attempted it before so Lilith could not help but wonder if such a path was viable.

Dual cultivation of magic spells and martial arts in the absence of meridian was an unprecedented path, both for humans and dragons. Therefore, Lilith could only move forward blindly.

If this path turned out to be a dead end, she would have no choice but to get her mother’s help to rebuild her meridians and start all over again.

Fortunately, Lilith had the luxury of time, being a dragon. Thinking about how some of her clansmen had become chefs and tailors out of boredom in life, she figured that taking a little detour was not really a big deal.

Speaking of training, Leonith had a feeling that he had forgotten something very important…

What was it though?

Was it…

Never mind, Leonith did not want to worry about it. Nothing was more important than participating in the Martial God Tournament at the Great Celestial Rite right now.

“Durance, what is that mysterious organization you’re tracking down? Since you came all the way to a love hotel, is it related to gangs that are involved in po̲r̲n̲o̲gr̲a̲ph̲y, gambling, or drugs?”

Durance shook his head. “It would have been simpler if it was just an ordinary gang, but it’s not. This organization only appeared during the preparation of the Great Celestial Rite and it almost seems like it was formed specifically for this event. We don’t have any information about them. It was only brought to our attention because someone suddenly set themselves on fire in the downtown area and this incident greatly affected the surrounding areas. Even the Emperor himself has taken notice of this and ordered a thorough investigation.”

Lesiah rubbed her chin and said, “Someone set themselves on fire? Sounds like a cult to me.”

“It could be a cult, but I don’t think it’s very likely.”

“Why? Only a fanatical cultist would do something as extreme as setting themselves on fire.”

The pain inflicted by this act was excruciating, surpassing anyone’s imagination. Only those driven by the influence of radical ideologies could summon the immense courage and unwavering determination to execute such an act. Without the manipulative power of a cult, Lesiah could not fathom any logical reason for a normal person to commit such an atrocity.

“That person is no ordinary person. Otherwise, this incident wouldn’t have reached the Emperor’s ears.”

Durance took out a spectrum stone and projected an image of a kind-looking middle-aged man wearing a monocle. With a sigh he said, “This was the man who set himself on fire, Viscount Edgar. He came from a long line of esteemed nobles and was renowned for his benevolence toward the common folk. His popularity in the city was unmatched, and he was going to serve as the chief security enforcer responsible for maintaining law and order during the Great Celestial Rite.”

Leonith sat up from the bed and said seriously, “The chief security officer? Then this is no trivial matter.”

The Great Celestial Rite was an event that would bring high-ranking officials from many nations together. With an influx of tourists from other nations and its own citizens, the city would be very crowded, thus making security measures the priority during this period of time. For the chief security enforcer to suddenly set himself on fire, it was difficult to believe that this incident was not orchestrated by a mastermind.

Lesiah also nodded in agreement. “It’s hard to imagine a nobleman like him with a prestigious family background, high education, and notable power would succumb to the influence of a newly formed cult.”

“Indeed,” Durance agreed with her.

“After His Majesty assigned the investigation to my family, my father also believed it was not as simple as a cult. Our investigation of Viscount Edgar’s home led to the discovery of this.”

He fiddled with the spectrum stone, the projection suddenly changed into the image of a parchment with bright red handwriting on it.

“This is…”

Leonith tilted his head as he looked at the parchment for a long time.

“A threat?” he asked tentatively.

The letter was vague in its message, urging Viscount Edgar to perform a certain task at an undisclosed time, otherwise terrible consequences awaited him. However, the exact time and nature of the task were left unspecified. It only mentioned that further instructions would be provided to him in due course.

No matter how Leonith looked at it, the contents of the letter clearly looked like a threat.

Durance commented, “They used parchment, the raw material of magic scrolls, to make a threatening letter. How wasteful…”

Leonith tilted his head and said, “You think so? I don’t think this kind of stuff has any threatening power at all. If it were me, I’d just attach a few saint-level explosive scrolls along with the letter. That way, they won’t even have to worry that the viscount would disobey them.”

Lesiah chopped Leonith on the head with her hand and said exasperatedly, “Not everyone is as rich as your family.”

She then continued, “Did you find anything else?”

Durance switched the image to another section of the parchment and responded, “The only thing left is this strange symbol.”

Leonith immediately leaned in until he was just ten centimeters away from the projection. His eyes glowed with golden light as he stared intently at the strange symbol on the parchment.

It neither resembled a conventional drawing nor any form of writing.

The strokes were simple, yet seemed to convey a special significance.

Despite Durance’s orders to scour all the ancient history books in Jeorgetown, no reference to the symbol’s origin could be found.

He was even beginning to be convinced that the organization had fabricated it out of thin air.

Leonith’s fingertips delicately glided over the parchment, and as he did so, a mesmerizing pattern resembling water ripples emerged on the projection.

This symbol, no, this word… He knew it too well.

It shared the same origin as the symbol on Nine’s face.

This was a “seven”.

It was “seven”, written in the language of his previous life.

“And then what? What else did you discover about this symbol, Durance?”

Leonith’s tone turned icy cold. Despite wearing sunglasses, Durance could still clearly see the gold glow of Leonith’s eyes behind them.

Feeling the immense dragon aura emanating from Leonith, he instinctively stepped back.

“We discovered that there are some people secretly engaging in activities related to this symbol. They act with caution. We’ve tried to capture them several times, but all our attempts have been in vain. We were at a loss, almost at the end of our rope until not long ago, one of our informants sent us the name of a person before he went missing.”

“Lacey Guinevere. She’s the owner of Lovetide, this floating establishment.”