On the road in the dark woods on the southwestern outskirts of Tivian.
Controlling the Corpse Puppet coachman, Dorothy urgently stopped the carriage. As the horses' hooves slowed and the wheels gradually stopped, Dorothy opened the carriage door, stepped out with a gas lamp, ran a few steps off the main road, and onto the muddy ground by the roadside.
Arriving on the soft mud, Dorothy didn't stop but scanned the surroundings. Using the light from the lamp in her hand, she picked up a branch from the side of the road. Holding it, she began to draw on the mud.
Following the knowledge from the advancement stone tablet in her mind, Dorothy quickly began drawing a magic array on the ground. With the powerful information processing and control abilities of an "enlightenment" Extraordinary, she drew incredibly fast and with astonishing precision. Within ten seconds, she had drawn a perfectly regular magic array, one that looked like it could only be drawn with numerous auxiliary tools, embodying the meaning of "enlightenment".
At the center of this magic array was a large open eye, and around the outer circle were five smaller marks of other Spiritualities. Regular curves and mysterious symbols connected these one large and five small marks, forming a whole. This was the advancement magic array for Dorothy's Sequence "Mystic Professor".
After drawing the magic array, Dorothy threw away the branch in her hand. Then, she opened her right palm, looked at the six Holy Emblems placed on it, and placed these Holy Emblems on the corresponding Spirituality marks around the magic array. After placing the five Holy Emblems of other Spiritualities, Dorothy placed the last Holy Emblem of "enlightenment" that she had folded herself at the center of the magic array, on the large eye.
Having completed all this, Dorothy's ritual preparation was finished. Next was the Spirituality preparation.
According to Dorothy's current Spirituality reserves, she was still short 5 points of "Shadow" and 1 point of "Lamp" to meet the advancement requirements. However, fortunately, she had looked at a batch of information in Barret's basement just now and had seen many things with Spirit Sight.
First was the 524 copy of "The Legend of Arthur". This book recorded the stories of Arthur, the Stone Sword, the Lake Fairy, the bloodthirsty monster Agello, the Eight-Eyed witch, and so on, involving three Spiritualities: "Shadow", "Cup", and "Stone". From most to least, Dorothy extracted a total of 11 points of Spirituality from it: 4 "Shadow", 3 "Cup", 2 "Stone", and 2 "enlightenment".
Then there was the research summary written by Barret himself, "The Shining Light Church's Influence on Prit's Traditional Culture". It pointed out the Shining Light Church's transformation of Prit's culture and beliefs over a thousand years and mentioned the "Wind King Rebellion" that erupted when local Prit forces attempted to resist the Shining Light Church's influence. From this, Dorothy extracted three Spiritualities: "Lamp", "Shadow", and "Stone", totaling 8 points of Spirituality: 3 "Lamp", 2 "Shadow", 1 "Stone", and 2 "enlightenment".
Finally, there was the shield emblem painted by the Venerable Ancient Faction during the Wind King Rebellion period, depicting four knights who were possibly subordinate gods of the Mirror Moon Goddess. Since the four knights' Spirituality range was very wide, Dorothy extracted all Spiritualities except "Lamp" from it, totaling 9 points: 4 "Shadow", 1 "Stone", 1 "Cup", 1 "Silent", and 2 "enlightenment".
Combining Dorothy's original Spirituality, her current Spirituality status was as follows:
14 "Cup", 20 "Stone", 15 "Shadow", 12 "Lamp", 24 "Silent", 30 "enlightenment"... These Spiritualities had completely met the advancement requirements.
After the Spirituality extraction was completed, Dorothy immediately began her ritual. She adjusted her small cotton skirt, then closed her eyes and knelt before the "enlightenment" Holy Emblem at the center of the magic array. She calmed her mind and began to silently chant within her heart.
'Knowing the long road... knowing the boundless sea... I walk halfway... already initially understand all principles... initially glimpse the six forms...'
'Heavy fog, heavy obstacles... I beg the great divine natures within to dispel the clouds for me and see the true path...'
Kneeling at the center of the mysterious magic array, Dorothy silently chanted the incantation required for advancement within her heart. As the words of the incantation echoed continuously within her, the six Holy Emblems on the simple magic array began to emit various Shimmer (faint lights). The advancement ritual, inherited from the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) and lost for thousands of years, was now reenacted on this desolate suburban land.
After Dorothy finished silently chanting the incantation within her heart, she received the prayer she had sent to herself, praying for herself to guide her advancement ritual. After agreeing without hesitation, an invisible wind seemed to sweep across the ritual site.
At the moment the wind swept past, Dorothy felt her thoughts suddenly expand in an instant. She felt a pain as if her brain was about to explode, and her thoughts seemed to shatter into countless fragments. Each fragment was a memory belonging to Dorothy, or to the transmigator...
In this explosive head experience, Dorothy's consciousness could not focus. She seemed to be recalling all memories, thinking about all problems. She felt time become long, and after an unknown duration of her confused state of mind, her scattered consciousness began to re-concentrate, and her fragmented consciousness began to reassemble.
And during this process, Dorothy vaguely saw five huge, blurry shadows. These shadows flashed past her surroundings from a distant place, then suddenly disappeared.
After these shadows disappeared, Dorothy's fragmented consciousness finally returned to completeness. She suddenly opened her eyes, immediately bent over, covered her head, and began to gasp for breath.
"Hoo... hoo... hoo... So... painful... This advancement... truly gets more intense each time..."
Covering her forehead, Dorothy endured the lingering pain in her head and murmured. Every time she advanced, it was a spiritual storm, and it got more intense each time. This time advancing to Chalk, Dorothy felt like her head was about to explode, and she once thought the ritual had failed and she was going to die.
But thankfully, the ritual did not fail; it was almost successful. The current Dorothy could be said to be a Chalk Extraordinary.
If it were other professions advancing to Chalk, the ritual would be considered complete here, but Dorothy's profession is pure "enlightenment", so she still has one final step.
'Hoo... hoo... Rank promotion complete. Now it's time to choose the next auxiliary Spirituality.'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. Regarding her second Spirituality, the question of what kind of mixed profession she could simulate had actually been considered and answered by Dorothy long ago.
When Dorothy was Black Rank, she found her biggest weakness was her insufficient combat ability. She was good at hiding behind the scenes and manipulating, but often found it difficult to face enemies directly. Once her operation failed and she fell into danger, she would face extreme difficulties, just like now.
So, long ago, Dorothy had the idea of improving her direct combat ability, the idea of improving her self-preservation ability. Among the remaining three mixed professions within the path of "enlightenment", there was only one profession that could most significantly improve frontal combat power, and that was the Elementalist, a Summoning Thunder Master, which is auxiliary to "Stone"!
Dorothy had witnessed the battles of the Church's Saint Knights and the An Yin Bureau's Station Captains. She understood that the frontal ability of this type of profession, which directly converts Spirituality into elemental attacks, was definitely among the top of all professions. It just so happened that she now had 20 points of "Stone", abundant Spirituality reserves, making Summoning Thunder Master very suitable to choose.
Without thinking further, Dorothy, kneeling in the magic array, closed her eyes again and chose Summoning Thunder Master as her second simulated profession. As the "Stone" emblem belonging to the Stone Prince once again flickered with a faint light, Dorothy opened her eyes again. At this moment, her scarlet eyes held an unprecedented depth.
At this very moment, her advancement ritual finally ended. She had now successfully advanced to a Chalk Extraordinary, a Sequence "Mystic Professor".
The ritual was complete. Dorothy stood up from within the magic circle. After brushing the dirt off her small cotton dress, she turned her head to look into the distance, in the direction the enemy was flying from.
"Three kilometers left... That's good. If handled properly, I won't have to reveal my appearance..."
Gazing at the distant sky, Dorothy murmured. At this moment, she couldn't spare the time to check the specific changes after her advancement. She needed to use her ability to deal with the approaching enemy.
Without hesitation, Dorothy took out her magic box, adjusted the opening to the maximum, and placed it on the ground. Then, Dorothy activated her ability, controlling the Corpse Puppet inside the magic box. Soon after, Edrick, wearing a gray trench coat, crawled out of the magic box under Dorothy's control and stood before her.
Dorothy controlled Edrick to stand properly in front of her, then after scrutinizing him for a moment, she had Edrick take out a revolver from under his trench coat.
Dorothy had Edrick take out the revolver not to point it at the distant enemy, but to raise it, aim it at his own head, and press the muzzle against his temple, adopting a suicidal posture.
"Let me see, then, how far this new ability can go..."
Murmuring, Dorothy subtly shook her hand, controlling Edrick to pull the trigger.
"Bang!"
Accompanied by a violent gunshot, the bullet sprayed out from the muzzle, directly entering Edrick's brain through his temple. After piercing one side of Edrick's skull, the bullet spun and shredded his brain, then exited through the other side of the skull, bringing out the brain matter it had carried with it.
With his skull shattered and brain matter gushing out, Edrick staggered two steps after shooting himself, then fell heavily to the ground. Watching the fallen Edrick before her eyes, Dorothy remained silent. Along the spiritual thread connecting her to Ed, she mobilized the 'Cup' and 'Enlightenment' Spirituality within her body, activating her Extraordinary ability.
Subsequently, under this ability, the two bullet holes in Edrick's head began to heal at a visible speed. His brain, which had been churned into a paste, also began to recover rapidly.
...
Above a field on the southwest outskirts of Tivian.
Under the dark sky, the elderly man with wings on his back was flying at high speed, following the direction indicated by the spiritual thread. The Spiderfang Priest continued flying towards the prey's location. He had already flown most of the way and would soon reach his destination to finally meet the person behind the scenes.
The Spiderfang Priest could sense that his target was desperately fleeing in the opposite direction, but the other party's speed was far inferior to his.
Facing this situation, the Spiderfang Priest had already envisioned the panic on the target's face in his mind, envisioning the despair of the other party struggling to escape but unable to shake him off.
As a high-ranking member of the Eight-Pointed Nest, he reveled in such despair and fear.
'If your fear tastes sweet to me, I might spare your life and turn you into one of my Fear of Punishment slaves.'
The Spiderfang Priest thought this to himself. As the distance between him and the other party gradually closed, he couldn't wait to savor the fear of that self-righteous individual.
Just then, the Spiderfang Priest felt the distant target suddenly stop moving, halting in place. This situation led the Spiderfang Priest to believe that the other party had given up on escaping.
"Knowing you can't escape, so you've chosen to accept your fate directly? Those who willingly compromise and give up, neither the taste of their blood nor the taste of their fear is very good..."
Murmuring softly, the Spiderfang Priest continued to fly rapidly towards the target ahead. Although the other party's act of giving up on escaping was somewhat disappointing, he was still curious about the taste of their fear.
And so, the Spiderfang Priest continued flying forward. After flying for a little while longer, he suddenly heard a faint gunshot from ahead.
The direction of the gunshot was the same as the direction of his pursuit, so it might have been fired by his target, but because it was so faint, the location of the shot was still a bit far, making it impossible that it was fired at him.
Combining this with the other party's sudden act of giving up on escaping and choosing to stop, the Spiderfang Priest immediately assumed that the person behind the scenes had chosen to commit suicide on the spot after realizing escape was hopeless.
Due to the reputation of the Eight-Pointed Nest's Fear of Punishment, many of the Eight-Pointed Nest's enemies would choose suicide to avoid the subsequent painful torture once they knew they were about to be captured by the Eight-Pointed Nest. Therefore, the Spiderfang Priest immediately thought this gunshot was the sound of the other party committing suicide.
'A bullet for himself? Hmph... In a sense, that's quite wise.'
After hearing the gunshot, the Spiderfang Priest thought this to himself. And just as he was about to consider other matters, something unexpected happened.
"Ahhh!!!"
Without any warning, and for reasons unknown, an intensely sharp pain erupted within the Spiderfang Priest's head. Suddenly, the Spiderfang Priest's eyes turned blood-red, and he felt as if his head had been pierced.
No! Not as if! It *was* pierced! On the Spiderfang Priest's head, from the left temple to the right temple, two large bloody holes suddenly exploded into existence out of thin air, as if something rapidly rotating had passed through his brain. The skull on both sides of his head was instantly perforated, and the brain within was thoroughly shredded. Under an invisible kinetic force, the blood and brain matter in his brain were churned together and sprayed out from the hole in his right temple.
It seemed that the faint shot from afar had hit his head. With his head pierced, the Spiderfang Priest lost control in the air amidst a painful scream, his entire body swaying as he plummeted straight down from the dark sky, falling heavily to the ground.
...
Three kilometers away, on the muddy ground beside a road, Dorothy sensed the situation in the distance through the spiritual thread and couldn't help but murmur.
"Shot through the head and still not dead... Is this the vitality of the Scarlet Tier? No, this guy is just a derivative, not the main body. It's normal that he wouldn't die this time. I wonder if the main body would die after taking a hit like that?"
Dorothy said this. The Spiderfang Priest just now was indeed shot down by Dorothy, and what Dorothy used was her new ability after advancing to Chalk.
Main 'Enlightenment', auxiliary 'Cup', Chalk Tier profession - 'Thread-Controlling Spirit Witch'. The ability is Damage Conduction. Dorothy can use spiritual threads to conduct various types of damage.
Any target linked by Dorothy's spiritual thread that suffers a certain type of damage within a specific time can have that damage conducted to another target linked by a spiritual thread using the spiritual thread. Just now, Dorothy used this ability to conduct the fatal gunshot wound on Edrick's head to the Spiderfang Priest. Why? Because that old man, in order to track her, absorbed the Corpse Puppet and had been holding onto the spiritual thread!
"Can't even kill him by putting a hole in his head, that's a bit troublesome. It seems we need to put in more effort, Mr. Ed."
With her small hands behind her back, Dorothy spoke with a smile. Just then, Edrick, who had fully recovered, stood up beside her. After brushing the dirt off his clothes, he spoke seriously.
"Just say the word, Miss."