North Tivian, Church District.
At noon, in a high-end hotel room on a street near the Church District, Dorothy, Sister Vanya, and Naifnis were gathered. Inside the room where Naifnis usually resided, the three sat around a small table.
"What? You mean the students from the society are going to be used as sacrifices for a ritual?"
Sitting on one side of the table, Naifnis spoke in surprise after hearing Dorothy's words, while Sister Vanya beside her also opened her mouth in astonishment.
"Miss Dorothea, isn't Ci Rong already dead? Why, why haven't my classmates been freed yet, and still have to be used as living sacrifices?"
Naifnis murmured incredulously, while Dorothy placed her hand on the table, slowly answering with a serious expression.
"Ci Rong was just a minor leader in the Eight Point Nest with not very high status. His death doesn't mean the Eight Point Nest's plan is interrupted. Underground at the society, the force that has replaced him has already appeared, and he is even more powerful than Ci Rong. According to intelligence, their latest action requires a large number of society students as living sacrifices."
"How could this be..." Listening to Dorothy's words, Naifnis felt a wave of disappointment. She had thought that after killing Ci Rong at the River Irrigation Bridge, everything should end quickly, but she didn't expect things to develop this way.
"Miss Dorothea, should we quickly notify the An Yin Bureau? They are obligated to handle such evil rituals." On the other side, Sister Vanya also spoke with a hint of worry, but Dorothy shook her head after hearing her words.
"Regarding the An Yin Bureau, I already notified them through special channels yesterday, but I haven't seen any movement from their side yet. To be honest, I don't expect them to take any action this time."
Dorothy spoke frankly. She had given the relevant information to the An Yin Bureau through Beverly a long time ago, but she hadn't seen any action from them yet. Dorothy suspected that this might be the effect of the "influence" that Claudius and the others had mentioned.
During previous eavesdropping, Dorothy heard that the Eight Point Nest seemed to be able to use some kind of "influence" to reduce threats from the King's government and even the An Yin Bureau.
As for what this so-called "influence" was? Dorothy wasn't very clear. She speculated that it might be like the Holy Communion Society, where the Eight Point Nest corrupted some people in the An Yin Bureau to act as moles, or they might use methods more consistent with their style, killing people in key positions and replacing them with their own people. Of course, it could also be something else.
Of course, it's also possible that the An Yin Bureau is suspicious of the intelligence coming from her source. After the North Pine Forest Farm incident, they have reason to suspect that she is using them as tools, and no one likes being used as a tool. Regarding her intelligence, the An Yin Bureau has reason to act more cautiously.
"The An Yin Bureau... actually didn't react?" Listening to Dorothy's words, Sister Vanya couldn't help but furrow her brows slightly, a worried look appearing on her face, and Dorothy took the opportunity to ask.
"Perhaps... could the Church intervene in this matter, Sister Vanya? Do you know of any channels to report such things to the Church?"
"Uh... As for the Church, unless they encounter otherworld or widespread heresy, they won't actively participate in handling Extraordinary events."
Sister Vanya replied to Dorothy, and Dorothy spoke with considerable surprise.
"What? The Church won't actively handle Extraordinary events?"
"Yes, in countries like Prit that have official Extraordinary agencies, the Church is always in a guest role. In various Extraordinary events, the An Yin Bureau, as the official government body, holds the primary investigation and disposal rights, while the Church generally exists as a support force, only acting after receiving an invitation from the An Yin Bureau. Unless it's a large-scale spread of heresy or otherworld incidents, the Church won't proactively intervene."
"Only in countries where there are no official Extraordinary agencies, or where they lack the capability to establish them, will the Church undertake the responsibilities like the An Yin Bureau, acting as the primary investigator and disposer of Extraordinary events. In these countries, the Church often has more power."
Sister Vanya explained, and after listening to Sister Vanya's words, Dorothy roughly understood what was happening. This involved issues of legal jurisdiction. Prit is an independent sovereign state, and a religious armed force like the Church stationed within its borders is naturally subject to certain restrictions, with clear boundaries of authority.
Within Prit, the An Yin Bureau is the leading official Extraordinary force, while the Church can only act as support on matters outside of heresy and otherworld. Furthermore, according to Sister Vanya's explanation, the relationship between countries with official Extraordinary agencies and the Church is generally like this. Only small countries that lack the strength to establish Extraordinary agencies will grant the Church full authority to handle domestic Extraordinary events, but this effectively means ceding part of their sovereignty to the Church.
Dorothy and Sister Vanya were talking, while Naifnis on the side was momentarily bewildered because she didn't quite understand what they were talking about. Only after they finished speaking did she interject with a worried tone.
"Um, Miss Dorothea, could you please ask more, more Rose Cross people to resolve this incident?"
"Ah, about that... I'm afraid it's already too late. The others are all on different missions right now. If I were to ask them to come over immediately, it would probably be too late." Dorothy said this, and she wouldn't tell Naifnis that almost the entire Rose Cross was already sitting in this room.
Listening to Dorothy's words, Naifnis felt another wave of disappointment, but before she could start lamenting, Dorothy smiled and added again.
"However, actually, we don't need anyone else right now. Since the An Yin Bureau and the Church aren't taking action, we sitting here alone can handle them."
"Handle them... Miss Dorothea, are you thinking of..."
Hearing Dorothy's words, Sister Vanya immediately had a bad premonition, and at this moment, Dorothy turned to look at her, smiling as she spoke.
"Ah, yes... Let us fight side by side once again, Sister Vanya, in the name of Aka."
Listening to Dorothy's words before her, Sister Vanya originally wanted to refute something, but upon hearing the phrase "in the name of Aka" and thinking that this was about saving innocent students, she couldn't refute it and sighed.
"Alright... May Aka bless us..."
...
Tivian North Suburb, King's College, Royal Saint Crown University.
In the afternoon, within the Secret Knowledge Society's meeting point, over ten students were gathered, listening attentively and seriously to Avery's words. Wearing a mask in front of the students, he had already taken over Ci Rong's position and was surrounded by the students' reverent gazes.
"As I said, a great opportunity is now before your eyes. In two more days, I will lead you to witness a sight you have never seen before, giving each and every one of you the chance to achieve the Extraordinary!"
Avery spoke passionately in front of the students, and bursts of applause rang out among the students, occasionally accompanied by cheers. In a shadow not far away, Claudius silently watched everything unfolding before him, and on a wall not far from Claudius, a small gecko was watching him.
After taking a brief look at the "class" before him, Claudius turned and walked towards the deeper part of the meeting point, and the small gecko also continued to follow. After following for a distance, the gecko stopped.
In front of the gecko at this moment was a long corridor. On all four surfaces of the corridor—up, down, left, and right—were covered with a familiar and dense layer of white spider silk. At the front end of this spider silk corridor, there were four guards standing watch, and a chandelier emitting an orange-yellow light hung from the ceiling of the corridor.
Seeing the setup before it, the gecko had no choice but to stop where it was, watching Claudius pass through the corridor and enter the deeper ruins.
...
'Good heavens, spider silk, Hui Jian Lamp, numerous guards... they've upgraded the security measures to such a strict level all at once. These guys are really going all out this time...'
Inside the library of King's Campus, Dorothy, sitting in her seat, watched the images sent back by the Corpse Puppet and thought to herself. She had expected the guys from Eight Point Nest to upgrade the security measures protecting the ruins, and it seemed they had indeed upgraded them quite severely.
First, the current spider silk corridor is not on the same section as before, indicating it's a newly arranged spider silk corridor, not the original one. This means Naifnis might not be able to pass safely. Furthermore, they have installed additional Hui Jian Lamp. Any unregistered Extraordinary Spirituality will trigger an alarm once illuminated. If her Corpse Puppet goes there and gets illuminated, it will continuously consume the """Shadow""" inside the ring of concealment. In addition, there are permanent guards to prevent anyone from making small moves.
'It seems that, for the ceremony to be held smoothly two days later, these guys are also going all out.'
Dorothy thought so. With the current level of security, even though her small Corpse Puppet is protected by the ring of concealment, it's absolutely impossible to sneak in. Not to mention how much """Shadow""" she currently has to resist the light of those Hui Jian Lamp, the spider silk will trigger a pre-warning with just physical contact, rendering the ring of concealment useless.
'It seems predictable... how strict the security here will be on the day of the ceremony... I feel completely unable to sneak in stealthily. Could it be that I'll have to break through head-on then? The risk is too great...'
Looking at the extremely strict security measures leading to the ceremony site, Dorothy couldn't help but think to herself that there is only one path leading to the ceremony site on the second floor of the ruins, making it very easy for Eight Point Nest to defend. No matter what, the frontal strength of Dorothy and them compared to Eight Point Nest is completely insufficient, so a frontal breakthrough is an absolutely impossible plan. They must use cleverness and play dirty; this is Dorothy's familiar territory.
'So, how should I be clever this time?'
Dorothy sat in her seat, contemplating. After a while, a thought formed in her mind.
"Perhaps... I can try it this way..."
Murmuring, Dorothy stood up from her seat and then left the library.
...
Outside King's Campus, a forest somewhere on the bank of Qingxi River.
In the afternoon, Dorothy walked through the forest outside the campus. In front of her, two Corpse Puppet were helping her push aside the dense bushes to clear a path, while Dorothy followed behind them all the way forward.
Finally, after traversing layer upon layer of bushes, Dorothy arrived before a moss-covered, seven or eight-meter-high giant rock hill. She had the two Corpse Puppet step back and walked to a flat stone wall of the giant rock. After concentrating, she saw a randomly carved scratch on the stone wall. After Dorothy stared at it for a while, the scratch twisted and transformed into Prit letters.
"Going to the Hall of Ascension"
Dorothy reached out and touched the words on it. Suddenly, a rumbling sound of rocks echoed around. Amidst the slight tremor, a stone door opened in the giant rock wall before Dorothy. Inside the stone door was darkness.
Looking at the darkness before her, Dorothy picked up the prepared gas lamp and walked in. After looking around, she saw two familiar statues in the image of hermits. One held a book in his hand, and the other held an armillary sphere.
That's right, this is the exit Dorothy used when she came out of the ruins' secret chamber. This exit is hidden outside the campus, in the dense forest on the riverbank. For thousands of years, Dorothy is the first person to open this secret door.
"As expected, it can be opened directly from the outside... If that's the case, I can go directly to the lowest level of the ruins from here, and then ascend from the lowest level to the ceremony site on the second floor."
Looking at the stairs leading downwards, Dorothy murmured. After mastering this secret passage that only """enlightenment""" Extraordinary can master, she can enter the ruins not from the front of the assembly point, but instead flank from here and attack the ceremony site from below.
"However, before that, the ruins and toxic gas on the sixth floor must be dealt with..."
Murmuring, Dorothy took out the magic box, summoned more, and handed her gas lamp to a Corpse Puppet, telling him to lead the way down.
Then, Dorothy began to remotely control four Corpse Puppet from the ground to descend to the place where Dorothy advanced to Black Rank, in the deep secret chamber of the ruins. Then, from the secret chamber, they walked along a corridor to behind the secret door that Dorothy first opened. Then, by linking with Spirit Thread and the Corpse Puppet, she opened the secret door in reverse, officially re-entering the sixth floor.
The moment the secret door opened, a large cloud of purplish-red toxic mist rushed towards Dorothy's Corpse Puppet. Fortunately, those who have died before are not afraid of these things; they are living Corpse Puppet that only need """Cup""" to move, so they all rushed into the toxic mist and continued forward.
Soon, Dorothy's Corpse Puppet reached the section of the corridor that had collapsed due to the Dragon Roar Unloading Force. Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppet to inspect it and found that there were hardly any large stones in the ruins here, mostly small and medium-sized rubble, which had the possibility of being cleared!
"Heh, it seems... this time I can pull off a surprise attack on them..."
Standing at the exit, Dorothy, sensing the situation underground, smiled and murmured.
...
For a period of time afterward, Dorothy completely transformed into the foreman of a Corpse Puppet construction team, remotely controlling the underground Corpse Puppet from the surface to carry out clearance work.
To ensure no mistakes and to demonstrate professionalism, Dorothy specifically went to the library at King's Campus and borrowed several books on mining operations, tunnel excavation, and mine disaster rescue to study. After spending an hour reading several books, Dorothy became a theoretical expert in underground tunnel excavation and civil engineering. Next, she also went to the City to buy a full set of equipment for her Corpse Puppet miners, including safety helmets, wheelbarrows, shovels, and support materials for their work down the shaft.
Under Dorothy's command, the Corpse Puppet construction team's work proceeded methodically. They continuously moved and shoveled away small and medium-sized rubble, clearing a path forward through the ruins, and erected supports overhead to stabilize the structure and prevent further collapses.
As for the large fallen rocks, Dorothy did not move them. One reason was the fear of damaging the structure and triggering a new round of collapse, and the second was the fear that the noise of excavating large fallen rocks would alert the people at the ceremony site above. Fortunately, there were not many large fallen rocks, and they could pass through without dealing with them.
The work of Dorothy's Corpse Puppet construction team was mainly moving small and medium-sized fallen rocks, shoveling fine sand, and erecting supports, which didn't cause much noise. The second and sixth floors of the ruins are thirty to forty meters apart, with layers in between, so Dorothy was not afraid that the noise would reach the upper level.
In addition, Dorothy also had a Corpse Puppet collect a sample of the toxic gas and send it to Beverly to request identification, wanting to know if there were any effective anti-gas measures. However, to her surprise, Beverly could not identify the toxic gas either, because she was an engineering student, not involved in biochemistry, so her expertise was not quite relevant. So, in the end, she took the bottle of toxic gas sample to find her own connections, stating that she knew experts in this field.
However, Dorothy also spent another 100 pound for this connection fee. Suddenly, Dorothy, who only had 10 pound left, was greatly startled by her own poverty.
'Damn it, this operation must succeed! If I don't get some money back, I won't even be able to pay the rent soon!'
After leaving Beverly's house, Dorothy looked at the only 10 pound cash left in her hand and shouted in her heart.