Tivian's western suburbs, by the Moonflow River.
The tall villa that originally stood by the river was now engulfed by raging flames. The leaping firelight illuminated the dark sky. The fire in the entire villa was now out of control, the burning flames swallowed everything within, and thick black smoke billowed up into the night sky at this moment.
Surrounding the villa consumed by flames, a group of Hunters and Church personnel were gathered at its edge, jointly looking at the burning building. Some Hunters wanted to put out the fire, but after assessing the intensity of the blaze, they gave up on the idea and could only stand guard nearby, preventing the fire from spreading to the bushes and woods.
Standing before the raging fire, the Hunter Garrison Captain Edmund stood in place, looking at the flames in front of him, lit a cigarette, and began smoking. The flickering firelight shone on his face, revealing a complex expression.
"It's gone, everything's burned away... not a single clue left..."
Edmund muttered as he looked at the flames, and at that moment, a loud and hearty voice erupted beside him.
"Hahaha!!! Wonderful! Burn! Keep burning, purify all the evil and corrupted things of these wolf cubs!"
Anrexius, still wearing his helmet, spread his hands and shouted loudly at the fire he had created, seemingly very happy to be able to purify cultists with his own hands. As he spoke, he also patted Edmund's shoulder beside him.
"Ah, An Yin Bureau little brother, we jointly purified the cultists, why do you look unhappy?"
Edmund's shoulder felt a bit sore from Anrexius's gauntlet pat. His mouth twitched slightly, then he first took the cigarette out of his mouth, and after glancing at the Knight beside him, he said.
"Father Anrexius, I have a small question, why did the Church choose to send you over this time after we reported the situation to them?"
"Ah? Why send me? This incident involves the Placenta cult and needs to be completely purified and eradicated. Isn't it right to send me? Look at this... how beautifully it burns! I haven't personally purified cultists with my own hands in a long time, my hands have been itching for ages!"
Anrexius said this, showing that he had been itching to take action in the Church for a long time and couldn't stand it anymore.
"Hmm... indeed... it is reasonable for your Saint Knight order to handle otherworld affairs, but our actions here are always primarily focused on investigation and pursuit, belonging to covert operations. It should also be reasonable for your otherworld Judge people to come, right?"
Edmund continued to ask. Since this incident involved a hospital led by the Church and a Sister from the Church was captured, it was certain that the Church would send someone. However, Edmund didn't expect them to send a Saint Knight. Listening to Edmund's words, Anrexius waved his hand and spoke frankly.
"You're right, actually, it would indeed be acceptable for the Judge to come in this situation, but those guys have encountered trouble recently and don't have time to spare for the moment, so we had to come over."
Anrexius said directly, and listening to his words, Edmund also frowned in confusion.
"The Church's otherworld Judge... have they encountered trouble recently?"
Edmund was temporarily curious about what trouble the Tivian Church's Judge had encountered, but since this involved internal Church matters, Edmund didn't ask further.
Actually, the trouble the Tivian Church's Judge is currently facing is very simple: they are busy investigating internal spies. Last time, shortly after Vanya reported Kirk, before the otherworld Judge could act to arrest him, Kirk had already run away.
And according to Vanya herself, after discovering Kirk had issues, she didn't look for anything else and went directly to the otherworld Judge to report him. Therefore, Kirk's sudden disappearance made the otherworld Judge directly suspect if there was an internal spy within their ranks! After realizing this, the head of the Judge quickly reported the situation to the Archbishop of the Prit diocese. The result was that the Archbishop ordered the Judge to initiate the strictest self-examination activity.
From that moment on, the entire Tivian's otherworld Judge began a rigorous self-examination process. Almost everyone in the system was affected. In the activity of everyone digging three feet to find the internal spy, the normal functions of the Judge were greatly interfered with. When this incident happened, they were still looking for the internal spy there.
Since the internal spy within the otherworld Judge has not been found yet, in order to prevent information from being leaked again, the Church did not send the otherworld Judge this time, but instead sent people from the Saint Knight order to provide support. However, the Saint Knight order's fighting style is somewhat direct and rough.
"Haha... no matter what! This time was satisfying! I hope these guys can expose a few more strongholds, and we'll purify them all!"
Looking at the fire scene in front of him, Anrexius leaned his sword on his shoulder and said with a smile. Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something else and spoke up in realization.
"Hiss... right, it seems like it was mentioned during the mission that one of our Sisters seemed to have been captured and brought here. Tsk, I only just remembered now. I didn't see anyone similar during the fight just now. I wonder how she is now? Oh no, I was only focused on purifying the cultists just now..."
Looking at the burning flames in front of him, the Saint Knight suddenly reacted and said while scratching his helmet. Listening to Father Anrexius's words, Edmund sighed slightly and then replied.
"Just now, my people found a Sister who escaped from the villa during the chaos. After questioning, she is the missing Healing Sister."
"Oh! So you found her? Where is she now?"
Listening to Edmund's words, Anrexius's expression changed and he asked Edmund, while Edmund shrugged and replied to him.
"She is currently under our protection. According to her, the evil wolf came to intercept the prisoner, but his movements were too rough, causing the prisoner's injuries to worsen, so she was captured here as a medical caregiver... Also, it is thanks to her that we were able to find this place."
"Hmm? Weren't we able to find this place because you imprinted a Beacon on that prisoner?" Anrexius asked Edmund with a hint of surprise, while Edmund reached into his bag and took out a twisted handcuff, saying.
"We imprinted the Beacon on that prisoner's handcuff. We originally thought the Werewolf didn't discover this handcuff because he was careless, but it seems that might not be the case. According to your Sister, this handcuff was actually discovered by the Werewolf with the Hui Jian Lamp at the very beginning, then directly taken off, crushed, and thrown away. It was that Sister who picked it up when they weren't paying attention. She knew it could guide us."
"What she said should be true. She is from your Church and didn't know there was a Beacon on the handcuff. If the Werewolf hadn't noticed the abnormality of this handcuff from the start, then that Sister wouldn't have known. If she didn't know there was a Beacon on this handcuff, she wouldn't have specifically taken it out and told us... So it must be that the Werewolf said something when removing Davik's handcuff that made that Sister know the handcuff's function, which is why she specifically secretly carried it with her... There should be no possibility of malicious claim for credit here."
Showing the twisted handcuff in his hand to Anrexius, Edmund analyzed thus, denying the possibility of Vanya taking the handcuff to maliciously claim credit. After looking at it, Father Anrexius picked up the handcuff, examined it for a moment, and then spoke with understanding.
"So that's how it is. Haha, it seems our Sister is quite sharp. I thought we were able to find this place because the evil wolf was careless, but I didn't expect it was thanks to her. Such a sharp Sister should be credited with a merit when I go back and report. By the way, what is that Sister's name, and where is she now?"
"Her name is Vania Chafilun, and our people are currently on the riverbank gathering some detailed information from her."
"Sister Vanya? Then I must go and see this time's meritorious person..."
Saying so, Anrexius strode away in his iron boots, leaving only Edmund in place, looking at the raging burning building, lost in thought about something.
...
Meanwhile, in the woods five or six kilometers away from Smith's villa, a carriage was speeding forward in the dark night. Under the illumination of the dim Light, the masked coachman was focused on driving the carriage.
Above the carriage, a male eagle was soaring with outstretched wings under the night sky. It gradually lowered its altitude, flying to the side of the carriage's compartment. The carriage window also slowly opened at this moment, and a fair and tender little hand reached out from inside, taking the sword blade and book held by the eagle's talons into the compartment. Then the eagle flapped its wings and flew back up into the sky.
"It's over..."
Inside the moving carriage compartment, Dorothy, dressed in a small Western-style dress, sat holding the spoils of this operation, a secret transmission and a slender staff-sword. Stroking the ruby at the hilt of the heart-devouring staff-sword, Dorothy could feel that the entire staff-sword's Spirituality was close to being full.
'You've been with me for a few months, and today you finally got to taste some meat...'
Looking at the staff-sword in her hand, Dorothy thought to herself. An entire beast-human plus a weakened, dying Werewolf, the "Cup" within them was enough to feed the heart-devouring staff-sword.
"Phew... Now Vanya is also safe. It's time to settle accounts. Let's see what came of being busy for so long today."
On the carriage, Dorothy said this, and then she began to sort out the final results of this series of actions.
First, as usual, Dorothy began calculating her losses. In this operation, she only used one Finding Breath Seal at the beginning when she was still in Basket Street to search for Davik's blood scent. However, this use also used up all three Finding Breath Seals she had obtained from Adele at the theater back then. And Adele was very clear at the time that those were her only three Finding Breath Seals, and there were no more to ask for. This meant that Dorothy temporarily had no Seals available if she wanted to regain superhuman sense of smell.
'Speaking of which, this Finding Breath Seal is actually quite useful. All three Seals were used up at once. It would be better to keep some in stock if possible. If Adele doesn't have any more, I can only ask Beverly. I hope the price from that unscrupulous merchant won't be too outrageous.'
Dorothy thought to herself. Next, she began calculating her Spirituality loss. Undoubtedly, due to the prolonged use of Living Puppet, her "Cup" consumption this time was quite severe. After the Grego train incident, the 5 points of "Cup" Dorothy had left were completely used up, not a single point remained. Fortunately, the two pieces of jerky Adele gave her as "Cup" Spirituality storage replenished 4 points of "Cup", otherwise Dorothy would have exhausted herself by continuing to manipulate it.
By the end, Dorothy still had 2 points of the 4 points of "Cup" provided by Adele. If the Church's Thunder Technique User Knight hadn't arrived, and if Davik hadn't died, she wouldn't have been able to last much longer. Besides the large amount of "Cup", the only other Spirituality used this time was "Shadow". It consumed 2 points when she went to the An Yin Bureau to hide the Extraordinary traces of manipulation on Davik and when passing the Hui Jian Lamp. Of course, besides that, Dorothy also consumed quite a bit of "enlightenment", but since Dorothy herself is an Erudite, the "enlightenment" consumed could be ignored.
Next, after confirming the consumption, it was time to confirm the gains. In this series of actions, Dorothy also had quite a few gains, the most significant of which was that she finally successfully saw the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society)'s advancement stone tablet.
That stone tablet, found by Dalena in the ruins of the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) on the continent, inscribed with Common Sense Text, was stored in the An Yin Bureau's evidence room because Davik was captured. Under Dorothy's manipulation, she finally successfully saw it in the evidence room using Davik's eyes. The Common Sense Text on it, in the eyes of Dorothy, an "enlightenment" Extraordinary, revealed its hidden meaning, which included the advancement content Dorothy needed.
Closing her eyes, Dorothy began to recall the content of the stone tablet that had been deeply memorized. Then the Prit text transformed from the Common Sense Text on the stone tablet appeared before her eyes.
...
The Path of "enlightenment", the advancement from Black Earth Stage to Chalk.
Using "Cup" to carry "enlightenment", the Path of Spirit Threads, Puppeteer—Thread-Controlling Spirit Witch.
Using Stone to carry "enlightenment", the Path of Roaring Fury, Thunder Technique User—Summoning Thunder Master.
Using "Shadow" to carry "enlightenment", the Path of Bewitching Mind, Dream Interpreter—Illusionary Dream Traveler.
Using Light to carry "enlightenment", the Path of Foresight, Diviner—Prophecy Scholar.
Offering the Body to "enlightenment", the Path of Pure Reason, Erudite—"Sequence ""Mystic Professor""".
...
In her recollection, the names of the five branch paths in the Path of "enlightenment" as well as the advancement conditions and rituals, etc., appeared in Dorothy's mind. After casually reviewing them a few times, she didn't think about the extra things. She focused her attention on the last item of the stone tablet's content, which was also what she cared about the most, the content of the Erudite advancing to "Sequence ""Mystic Professor""".
...
Conditions for the Spirituality of Black Earth Stage Erudite advancing to Chalk "Sequence ""Mystic Professor""".
First is the Spirituality requirement. The Erudite themselves need to have their "enlightenment" Spirituality accumulated to the full, in addition to their inherent Spirituality, which is 30 points.
In addition to "enlightenment", the other five types of Spirituality also need to be accumulated to one-third of the maximum. The accumulation limit for each type of Spirituality in the Black Rank is 30 points, which means that the five types of Spirituality other than "enlightenment" each need to be accumulated to at least 10 points.
Besides Spirituality accumulation, there are also ritual requirements. Like the previous Erudite, the advancement to "Sequence ""Mystic Professor"" also involves all types of Spirituality. Advancing to Erudite required the Apprentice to have read the secret transmission of all six types of Spirituality, one book for each type, while advancing to "Sequence ""Mystic Professor"" requires understanding the deities of the six types of Spirituality and obtaining mediums.
To advance to "Sequence ""Mystic Professor"", one must know the revered names of the six pure-color Lord within the six Spirituality domains and obtain their saint emblems. In the advancement ritual, these six saint emblems are needed to set up the advancement magic circle.
It doesn't matter whether these six pure-color Lord still exist now or have fallen, as long as the revered names and saint emblems are obtained, the ritual can be set up. What the ritual requires is the mystical meaning within the revered names and saint emblems.