Tivian North Suburb, King's College, Royal Saint Crown University.
Underground at King's Campus, within the Secret Knowledge Society's gathering point, members of the society were gathered at this moment, just as they usually exchanged and studied with each other.
These young students were currently reading and discussing here, studying hidden culture. Their behavior was no different from usual, even though they were missing one or two companions, and even though Mr. Ci Rong, whom they usually respected, was no longer here.
At this moment, these students of the society were gathered around a new masked person, asking him all sorts of questions with an attitude of worship, and that masked person patiently helped these students of the society with patient and detailed explanations.
These students of the society's reverence for this new masked person was no less than for Ci Rong. In their interaction with him, the students even seemed to forget that Ci Rong had ever existed.
After a simple exchange with the students of the society, he let them continue their self-study, then got up and walked out of the gathering point, into the school.
The man took off his mask, revealing the face of an ordinary middle-aged man. Then, like a normal person, he walked quickly down the school's corridor, weaving through the crowd. After a short while, he arrived in front of an office and knocked on the door.
"Come in."
A dry male voice came from behind the door. Hearing this voice, the man pushed the door open and entered a dimly lit office with all the curtains drawn.
In the center of this office was a desk. Behind the desk, Claudius, wearing Andrew's clothes, was sitting there, drinking a glass of red wine while watching the man who entered the room.
"Captain." After closing the door behind him, the man immediately knelt on one knee on the ground and saluted Claudius. Only after seeing Claudius nod in indication did he stand up again.
"How are those students? Avery."
Claudius asked the man in front of him named Avery, and the other party answered quite respectfully.
"Everything is fine. Those students have read a considerable amount of the 'Chapter of the Worker Insect' and are deeply influenced by it. Although that guy Chad is gone, for me, who has also read the 'Chapter of the Soldier Insect', I can control these little insects."
"That's good... The Queen Bee Queue cannot be disobeyed. Everyone in this queue must remember their place."
Listening to Avery's words, Claudius nodded and murmured. It was evident that although Ci Rong was dead at this time, they had not lost control of the Secret Knowledge Society. The students who read The Queen Bee Queue did not only worship Ci Rong alone.
This was also the reason why they were able to make the society's students obediently listen and cooperate with them in acting to deceive the An Yin Bureau investigators this morning.
"Captain, following your orders, I brought people here to reinforce, but found that almost all of Chad's men are gone. Now there is a shortage of hands for the reconstruction of the stronghold and the arrangement of the ritual. Do you know where Chad is now?"
Avery said to Claudius. He was originally stationed at other strongholds in the City, and was then transferred to King's Campus for reinforcement by Claudius's order. He had no good feelings towards his colleague Chad, who left a mess, that is, Ci Rong.
"Chad went to investigate a clue. He said he was just going to find a student, but he hasn't come back yet. He should be gone by now..." Claudius said in a deep voice. Hearing his words, Avery was slightly startled.
"What... Chad is dead? Who did it?"
"I don't know. It could be Black Dog, or it could be that third-party organization he mentioned." Claudius said seriously, while Avery gritted his teeth and immediately responded.
"Captain, do you want to investigate?"
"Investigate? Now there aren't even enough people to prepare the ritual, so how can we investigate? Two Black Ranks have already died here. After transferring you over, I currently don't have the ability to ask for more people from above."
Claudius said slowly. The Eight Point Nest has a large influence in Tivian, but there are also many places where manpower is needed. Although Claudius is a White Rank, the resources he controls within the organization are limited, and he cannot use manpower without limit.
"Our top priority now is to quickly complete the remaining ritual and then evacuate, because due to what happened last night, this stronghold has been noticed by the Black Dogs. Although we have temporarily fooled them, this won't work for long. So the primary task must be focused on the preparation of the ritual. There is no time or energy to deal with other things."
Claudius said this. Not long ago, he had just used the identity of an An Yin Bureau observer, combined with mild hypnotic suggestion and the cooperation of the society's students, to send the An Yin Bureau people away.
But this is obviously not a long-term plan. Since the An Yin Bureau has noticed that there is a problem in Tivian North Suburb, they will naturally conduct a long-term investigation. After finding nothing elsewhere, their investigation focus will naturally shift back to the school. Therefore, the best choice now is to finish the matter and leave quickly.
"Understood. I will put all my energy into the ritual."
Avery replied like this. Listening to his words, Claudius also nodded, then spoke again.
"How is the ritual preparation going now?"
"It's mostly smooth. It can be completed within three days."
"What about counter-reconnaissance?"
"According to your requirements, we are currently reconstructing the counter-reconnaissance measures in the entrance corridor of the ruins. Hui Jian Lamp, sensing threads, and anti-divination are all being prepared, and sufficient guards have also been deployed to ensure nothing goes wrong. Now, no external object can unknowingly enter the ruins."
Avery said with assurance, but towards the end, his expression changed, and he continued to speak.
"Captain, actually, regarding the ritual, another crucial point is that since the criminal slaves Chad originally prepared have all escaped, we are now lacking living sacrifices to further pollute the mirror moon statue. How about... Captain, you contact other strongholds and have them transport some criminal slaves over?"
"There's no need for that. I said, it's not easy for me to keep asking for things now, and that includes criminal slaves. Besides, transporting these criminal slaves from other places is very troublesome. Now the Hunters have started to tighten up this area of the North Suburb. Transporting criminal slaves over might attract their attention. Moreover, we are not without living sacrifices available now..."
Taking a sip of red wine, Claudius said slowly. Hearing Claudius's words, Avery was stunned, and then said somewhat fearfully.
"There are still living sacrifices available? Captain, are you perhaps going to let your subordinates..."
"Heh, what are you talking about? What I mean is, aren't there quite a lot of students? Taking more than half of those who don't read much to be living sacrifices should be enough, right? Anyway, this school stronghold can't be stayed in anymore. After the ritual is completed, these students used for cover will be useless. They are perfect for living sacrifices."
Claudius continued to murmur. Listening to his words, Avery couldn't help but be stunned. After a while, he slowly said.
"Captain, you mean to use those students as living sacrifices... Won't this kill too many at once and anger the An Yin Bureau if discovered, causing them to increase their search?"
"Don't worry. As long as the contamination ritual for this statue is completed, along with the previous ones, our 'influence' will be able to expand further. Presumably, by then, the threat from the direction of the Kingdom government can be suppressed to a certain extent, including the An Yin Bureau."
Waving his hand, Claudius said with a hint of a mysterious smile. Listening to old Claudius's words, a trace of confusion flickered in Avery's eyes.
"Is it okay as long as the ritual is completed?"
In the office, Claudius and Avery were discussing with each other like this. And at this moment, in a place neither of them saw, under the crack of the door, a small gecko was lying there, quietly observing the scene inside the room before its eyes.
...
At this moment, inside the library of King's Campus, on a seat in a quiet corner, Dorothy, who was pretending to read, was feeling the information transmitted back by the remote Corpse Puppet, and thought thoughtfully.
'Eavesdropping went smoothly... As expected, I wasn't discovered by that guy this time.'
Thinking, Dorothy put down the book in her hand, picked up a notebook from the side, and listed and wrote down a summary of Vampire abilities on it. These were all summarized from the information Beverly sold her.
Holding the notebook, Dorothy's gaze swept across the various abilities before her, finally stopping at the item "Spirituality Perception (Cup. Shadow)".
'The reason that bald Vampire named Claudius was able to perceive my small Corpse Puppet before was probably because of this skill... It can perceive the 'Cup' Spirituality in the surrounding environment to a certain extent, as well as the'Shadow' Spirituality that has not undergone concealment application, and can detect whether it is abnormal."
'My small Corpse Puppet is a flesh puppet driven by 'Cup'. Compared to the 'Cup' within a normal human body, this 'Cup' that has been influenced by Extraordinary power is inherently in an abnormal state, so it could be easily perceived by Claudius, leading to my monitoring failure.'
While thinking this, Dorothy shifted her gaze away and looked at a ring with a crescent moon engraving on her hand. This was the ring of concealment left to Dorothy by her mother.
'However, this time, my Corpse Puppet was successfully not perceived after being protected by the ring of concealment. I didn't expect my reconnaissance ability to also improve somewhat after advancing to Black Rank.'
Dorothy continued to think. At this time, she was using the Extraordinary conduction effect of spiritual threads to transmit the effect of being "invisibly protected" by the ring of concealment onto the small Corpse Puppet in the distance. The small Corpse Puppet could enjoy the protection of the ring of concealment, which is why it wasn't detected by Claudius's Spirituality sense.
Unlike the Corpse Puppet's own ability, to maintain the Corpse Puppet, Dorothy needs to constantly transmit "Cup" Spirituality from herself to the Corpse Puppet through spiritual threads to maintain its activity. Therefore, there is always a certain amount of "Cup" residing within the Corpse Puppet. The ring of concealment, on the other hand, remotely incorporates the Corpse Puppet into its own protection range through spiritual threads. During this process, it does not transmit "Shadow" to the Corpse Puppet. The Corpse Puppet itself does not contain "Shadow", so Claudius's "Shadow" Spirituality perception cannot perceive the existence of the Corpse Puppet.
Furthermore, "Shadow" Spirituality perception can only perceive "Shadow" used in a non-concealed manner, such as stored "Shadow", "Shadow" Extraordinary items, "Shadow" wind created through elementalization, "Shadow" blades created through enchantment, and so on. A "Shadow" Extraordinary who relies on "Shadow" Spirituality for concealment cannot be detected by "Shadow" Spirituality perception; they still need to be illuminated by "Light".
Relying on the new abilities gained by advancing to Black Rank, combined with her original abilities, Dorothy successfully eavesdropped on Claudius this time and obtained a series of very valuable pieces of information.
'These guys... want to perform some ritual around that statue on the second underground floor? And time is very limited, it will start in three days. During the ritual, they will also use those students corrupted by Spirit Sight as living sacrifices?
'Heh... I originally thought that these guys should be withdrawing from this school because of the pressure from the An Yin Bureau. I didn't expect that somehow they actually managed to send the An Yin Bureau people away, and now they want to play a big one? This is truly...'
After sorting out the information obtained from Claudius, Dorothy was still a bit surprised. At the same time, she also had many questions in her heart: What exactly is the purpose of the Eight-Pointed Nest? Why do these people need to search all over Prit for that mirror moon statue? What exactly are they trying to do by polluting the mirror moon statue with rituals? Why will they expand some 'influence' if the mirror moon statue is polluted more? This so-called 'influence' can even reduce the threat from the Kingdom government and even the An Yin Bureau?
A series of questions lingered in Dorothy's mind, but at this moment, she didn't have much time to think about them. The pressing matter was how to deal with the ritual three days later.
'I have successfully advanced to Black Rank. The ruins below are useless to me now. I actually don't need to get involved in this matter at all. Continuing to accumulate Spirituality and follow the new advancement clues is what I should do."
'But... if I don't do anything, those corrupted students of the Secret Knowledge Society might be beyond saving. They will be sacrificed in the ritual, and I promised Naifnis to help her fight Ci Rong and save her fellow members of the society...'
Dorothy thought this way. To be honest, Naifnis helped a lot in Dorothy's advancement action this time. She is now planning to cultivate Naifnis as part of her own force, like Vanya... She doesn't really want to break her promise, nor does she want to stand by and do nothing when people are in danger.
'Moreover... judging from the current situation, this Eight-Pointed Nest is searching for some mirror moon statue all over Prit, so they must have excavated quite a few ancient ruins, right? Maybe they know the whereabouts of the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) ruins? Maybe there are other places, just like inside King's Campus, where ruins of the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) and the mirror moon statue coexist? If I target the Eight-Pointed Nest, perhaps I can find some clues?
'Furthermore... I am now terribly poor. After advancing, I instantly became poor again. Not only do I have no money, but I also have little Spirituality. Thinking back to when I was in Igwinte, I made my fortune by robbing the Holy Communion Society. Now that I want to get rich again and strive for a comfortable life, isn't there a good target and a good opportunity right now?'
Thinking of money and Spirituality, Dorothy's mind couldn't help but become active. Looking at the Eight-Pointed Nest stronghold with Chalk sitting in front of her, her courage suddenly rose significantly, and she had the idea of hitting them hard.
"Well, but there is always a Chalk there. I should still report it as a routine first and see the An Yin Bureau's reaction before deciding."
Dorothy murmured this, then closed the book in her hand.