Complete silence... waiting for the storm to subside.
This was the final directive received by Grego, who was still using the identity of "Yadlin" at the Eight Point Nest two days after the Duke's assassination. In this order, the Eight Point Nest instructed Grego to actively cease all proactive espionage activities and switch to passive silence to resist the high-pressure searches by the Preet Kingdom government.
The Duke's assassination case shook the upper echelons of Preet, including the King. Shortly after the incident, they united with the Church to launch a strict search for all Eight Point Nest members throughout Tivian.
Originally, the Eight Point Nest was just one of the countless evil secret societies in the capital that the An-Yin Main Bureau had to deal with. Their original criminal activities mainly included... illegal associations spreading secret knowledge to others... worship of evil gods... kidnapping for the purpose of making Slave... intelligence theft and sale targeting the An Yin Bureau, and so on...
These crimes led the An-Yin Main Bureau to list the Eight Point Nest as a high-threat target, alongside several other societies. However, after this wave of the Duke's assassination case, the threat level of the Eight Point Nest was not only infinitely raised by the An-Yin Main Bureau, but their information also appeared directly at an important imperial meeting attended by the King and the Archbishop.
At this imperial meeting, the entire high-level leadership of the Preet Kingdom unanimously agreed that the Eight Point Nest was the most serious threat to the Kingdom at present and that forces from all sides must be mobilized for a severe crackdown. Therefore, the enemies of the Eight Point Nest escalated from the An-Yin Main Bureau to the entire Preet Kingdom, with the Church fully supporting from the side.
Starting from the third day after Duke Barret's assassination, a vast force, primarily led by the Preet An-Yin Main Bureau, with the participation of the Preet Army, Preet Royal Navy, Preet Royal Guard, Church Saint Knights... and many other forces, began a cleanup operation targeting the entire secret world of Tivian, aiming to uproot the Eight Point Nest's influence from Tivian in one go.
With the full cooperation of many of the Church's "Light" Extraordinary, countless joint search teams swept across Tivian. In just over a week, more than eighty secret society strongholds of various sizes throughout Tivian were cleared and eradicated. Among these, only about six or seven strongholds were clearly identified as belonging to the Eight Point Nest; the vast majority were strongholds of other societies.
In this extremely severe search wave, almost all secret societies in Tivian were affected. With large numbers of society members arrested and many strongholds destroyed, all secret organizations in Tivian were forced to temporarily halt their activities, and everyone was silent as a cicada in winter.
The actions of the Eight Point Nest had a profound impact on the entire secret world of Tivian. Even the Wolf Blood Society, in their letter to Vanya, instructed her to act cautiously in the near future. Their forces, which had already suffered setbacks in Tivian, were also hit in this round of mass arrests, losing several strongholds. When Dorothy's neighbor came over, she also heard a clockwork person complain that the activities of the Kingdom government and the Church had significantly reduced secret activities in Tivian, causing his business to cool down considerably.
Due to the large-scale official search, many societies that were not cults were also affected. Some relatively law-abiding Extraordinary and Extraordinary practitioners were inexplicably thrown into prison. The An Yin Bureau's Extraordinary prison was already overcrowded, and Grego was working crazy overtime every day in various arrest operations. On the other hand, Adele's Scarlet Heart, due to its Church background, was not affected much; instead, its influence grew as it accepted some Extraordinary who came seeking refuge amidst the chaos.
In short, because of the Eight Point Nest, the entire secret world of Tivian was severely shaken. The secret of the Eight Point Nest assassinating the Preet Duke also spread throughout the secret world. Many societies that suffered losses in this search developed resentment towards the Eight Point Nest. However, the Eight Point Nest itself had anticipated this outcome and initiated a withdrawal plan early on. The main forces of the Eight Point Nest in Tivian had withdrawn before the mass search even began, and the strongholds they lost in this search were not considered very important.
For over a week, Dorothy rested at home while keeping abreast of the series of major events happening in the city through multiple intelligence channels such as Adele, Misha, Grego, Vanya, Beverly, and others. After learning about the turmoil caused by the assassination, Dorothy couldn't help but lament in her heart that her decision seemed to have stirred up such a great wave in this world for the first time.
'It's clear that the Eight Point Nest also anticipated the Kingdom government's reaction after Barret's assassination, which is why they specifically designed and lured the New World natives to take the blame. However, due to Dorothy's secret planning, the natives abandoned their original revenge plans, causing the Eight Point Nest to succeed in the assassination but also expose themselves.
'Just imagine, if the Eight Point Nest's plan had fully succeeded, this large-scale search operation in Tivian would not exist now. Instead, there would be conscription by Preet for the New World, and the Preet expeditionary force would ignite the flames of war against a large number of native tribes in the New World.
'And now, the Eight Point Nest's plan to use the natives as scapegoats has failed, and they have to strategically contract under Preet's wrath, even withdrawing from Tivian.
'This will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the Eight Point Nest's long-term plans. However, judging from the fact that the Eight Point Nest stubbornly carried out the assassination even after knowing there was a problem with the native scapegoats, it seems that in the eyes of the Eight Point Nest, as long as Duke Barret's research cannot proceed and their core secret is not exposed, enduring this suppression is acceptable. Perhaps in their eyes, as long as that core secret is not exposed, they have a chance to turn the tide.
'Regardless of what the Eight Point Nest's core secret is, given the current situation, they will definitely be quiet for a while. The entire Tivian secret circle, the Eight Point Nest will not cause any waves in it for a short time.'
Inside the villa in Green Shade Town, Dorothy, wearing a thickened pajama, sat by the fireplace, analyzing the intelligence she had received over the past week while thinking in her heart.
As she pondered, she raised her hand and continued to think with a serious gaze.
'The Eight Point Nest poses no temporary threat to Preet... but for me, the potential threat cannot be ignored.'
"I really didn't expect that the Spiderfang Priest's derivative would have kept a hand..."
Looking at her hand, Dorothy murmured like this. At this moment, she... could feel an extremely faint spiritual thread connected to her, extending towards a distant and blurry place.
Dorothy had a spiritual thread connected to her at this moment, but the problem was that Dorothy was not controlling even a single Corpse Puppet or Living Puppet.
This spiritual thread was connected to one of Dorothy's discarded bird corpse puppets, the very bird corpse puppet that Dorothy sent to scout Barret's mansion on New Year's Eve!
That night, when this bird corpse puppet was transporting the "Shadow" Holy Emblem back for Dorothy, it was discovered by the pursuing Spiderfang Priest and swatted down. At that time, Dorothy felt the spiritual thread of the bird corpse puppet break, so she thought the bird corpse puppet was completely destroyed by the Spiderfang Priest and didn't pay attention to it afterward.
However, the reality was not what Dorothy thought. This morning, more than a week after New Year's Eve, Dorothy sensed a spiritual thread connection to herself that was almost imperceptible. After subsequent verification, she was surprised to find that the target connected by the spiritual thread was that bird corpse puppet that she had thought was damaged!
This discovery shocked Dorothy at the time. Afterward, she immediately checked the state of the spiritual thread again and found it to be very unusual.
The connected spiritual thread was very weak, so weak that Dorothy could barely detect it if she didn't feel carefully, and its state fluctuated, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, so weak that she could barely feel it at times.
Facing a spiritual thread as thin as this, let alone trying to control or transmit through it, it was difficult for Dorothy to even sense the location of the connected target; she couldn't even determine a general direction.
Facing this phenomenon, Dorothy meditated for a long time to find the reason. After much thought, she came up with some possibilities.
In Dorothy's opinion, her bird corpse puppet must have been tampered with, and that tampering could only have been done by the Spiderfang Priest. He possesses the ability to use blood to corrode the Corpse Puppet and the spirits on it, thus making it impossible for him to break the spirits link. When he attacked the bird corpse puppet with his claws back then, he should have also injected a sufficient amount of his own blood into the bird corpse puppet, causing the spirits connected to the bird corpse puppet to be corroded.
Dorothy judged that after her bird corpse puppet was attacked, it was severely damaged due to the fall. In this situation, the spirits should have automatically broken off. However, because the blood corrosion left by the Spiderfang Priest inside the bird corpse puppet was forcibly maintaining the spirits link state, the breaking of the spirits was somewhat incomplete, with still a trace of connection remaining.
The Corpse Puppet corrosion carried out by the Spiderfang Priest using blood has two effects: one is to make it impossible for Dorothy to control the Corpse Puppet, and the other is to make it impossible for Dorothy to actively break the spirits link with the Corpse Puppet. On this basis, if the Spiderfang Priest absorbs the Corpse Puppet, he can follow the spirits to find her.
There are two ways for Dorothy to break the spirits link: one is to actively break it herself, and the other is for the Corpse Puppet to automatically break it after being severely damaged. The situation with the bird corpse puppet back then belonged to the second type.
However, this method of damage, being smashed into a pancake due to a fall, is not as thorough as Dorothy using a lightning strike to char someone. When Dorothy uses a lightning strike to electrocute a living being into charcoal, it is equivalent to completely evaporating the """Cup""" within it, but damage from being smashed into a pancake clearly leaves residual """Cup""".
Therefore, after the bird corpse puppet was damaged by being smashed into a pancake, the Spiderfang Priest's power still remained on it, stubbornly maintaining a trace of a weak and incomplete spirits link. This link was so weak that Dorothy herself even thought it was broken.
At this moment, this incomplete spirits should be maintained by the """Cup""" Spirituality injected by the Spiderfang Priest into the bird corpse puppet. The Spiderfang Priest absorbed all of Dorothy's Corpse Puppets in the villa, leaving only this one bird corpse puppet. In a sense, this was a backup he left behind.
At that time, the Eight-Pointed Nest killers should have recovered the smashed bird corpse puppet on their way back. After they took the bird corpse puppet back, it is very likely that they tried to reinforce the spirits link using some kind of """Cup""" power, wanting to use this link to find Dorothy's main body again.
And the fluctuating spirits state that Dorothy just felt might be the result of experiments being conducted by the Eight Point Nest.
With the incomplete spirits on the bird corpse puppet, it is impossible to locate Dorothy. Therefore, they reinforced this spirits again so that Dorothy could be located again, and after the spirits were reinforced, Dorothy could also sense its existence again.
'This is bad... I still have incomplete spirits in the hands of those guys, and they are still trying to use it to locate me... Although at present, the strength of this incomplete spirits is far from reaching the level where it can locate me, it is not ruled out that after their experiments have some breakthrough in the future, they will be able to locate me again...'
'Although if the spirits is really strengthened by that group of guys to the extent that it can be located, I can also use damage transmission counter-control, but since they have already seen my transmission ability, they will not fail to think of some countermeasures.'
'In short, although this incomplete spirits cannot locate me now and poses no threat to me, it is a hidden danger, and it is hard to say that it will not develop into a big problem in the future.'
'So... this spirits must be broken!'
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy thought seriously. This incomplete spirits is currently being maintained by the Eight-Pointed Nest side actively providing Spirituality. Therefore, they will definitely use it to deal with her in the future. She cannot leave this hidden danger and must solve it immediately!
'So... what method can be used to break this corroded incomplete spirits?'
Stroking her chin, Dorothy thought seriously. After thinking for a while, she had a slight idea in her heart.
"Perhaps, a long enough distance can forcibly break this spirits..."
Dorothy murmured like this. That's right, the method she thought of was to run far enough! Far enough to break this spirits!
A Puppeteer using spirits to control a Corpse Puppet has a distance limit. The ordinary Corpse Puppet Ring is three kilometers, Dorothy's range after simulating the Puppeteer is ten kilometers, and now after simulating the Thread-Controlling Spirit Witch, it is twenty kilometers. Although the control distance of a single Corpse Puppet can be extended by paying extra Spirituality, there is ultimately a limit.
The length of the spirits is limited! Although on the surface it seems that Dorothy's Living Puppet has no distance limit, this is not the case. The Living Puppet controlled by Dorothy is essentially limited, but this limit is merely extended by the information channel.
Yes, the ability of the original Puppeteer cannot control Living Puppets without distance restrictions. The length limit of the spirits linking Living Puppets is the same as that of ordinary Corpse Puppets. The reason why Dorothy can control a Living Puppet on another continent across the ocean is because of the system; it is the system's information channel that extends the control distance of the Living Puppet!
In the past, Dorothy was also very confused as to why there was a distance limit when controlling ordinary Corpse Puppets using her Puppeteer ability, but no limit when controlling Living Puppets. It wasn't until she simulated the Thread-Controlling Spirit Witch and gained a deeper understanding of spirits that she understood the principle behind it.
Dorothy's Living Puppet control targets are either people with whom she has an information channel link, or those near the person linked by the information channel. A long time ago, Dorothy's spirits inadvertently extended its reach through the information channel. Each of her information channels can make one spirits extend indefinitely.
And because only targets with real souls and who are truly alive can pray to Dorothy, allowing Dorothy to establish an information channel with them, Corpse Puppets, which are essentially dead, cannot establish an information channel with Dorothy. Therefore, the control range of ordinary Corpse Puppets is still limited by the length of the spirits, while Living Puppets that can utilize the information channel do not have this restriction. That spirits, which extends infinitely to the channel-linked target via the information channel, can also affect the surroundings with the target as the origin point.
In the past, Dorothy attributed the infinite control range of Living Puppets to the Puppet Mark, but now it seems that although the Puppet Mark is still necessary, without the system's information channel, the control range of Living Puppets is no different from that of ordinary Corpse Puppets. Essentially, the system is awesome.
Therefore, in the spirits theory mastered by Dorothy, without the assistance of the system, the control distance of spirits is limited. Consequently, as long as she runs far enough, and the distance from the bird corpse puppet remains is long enough, she can forcibly break the spirits.
"It seems... I'll have to travel far after the New Year..."
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy murmured as she looked at the world map on the wall.
...