North Shore of Conquest Sea, Adria.
Inside the Net Flow Church, a famous tourist attraction in Adria, outside the door of the Crown Hall, Dorothy stood in a place where the light radiating from inside the door could not reach. On the surface, she was admiring an antique plate with a missing corner in a glass cabinet, while simultaneously deep in thought. Her gaze swept over the exhibit description attached to the outside of the glass cabinet, which contained donor information, but her mind was completely elsewhere.
'The exhibits inside that Crown Hall... are constantly illuminated by the crown of Emmanuel. If any Extraordinary traces appear on the exhibits inside, they will be immediately exposed. If Azamu is determined to donate that divination tool to the Church rather than give it to Garib, then it would be best to place that divination tool in a place Garib wouldn't dare to easily tread, so that the divination tool can be completely confiscated by the Church as soon as its cooldown is over. There is no place in the entire Net Flow Church that better meets this requirement than this Crown Hall...'
'But the problem now is that if the divination tool is placed in the Crown Hall, not only will Garib's people find it difficult to get involved, but I will also have trouble entering to investigate. The crown of Emmanuel's illumination within the Crown Hall is much stronger than its illumination outside the Church. Whether it's me or a Corpse Puppet going in for a look around, it would likely consume a considerable amount of ""Shadow"".'
While circling a vase and appreciating it, Dorothy thought to herself. Although she now knew the approximate location of the divination tool, she temporarily didn't plan to spend a large amount of ""Shadow"" to investigate inside. As she admired the exhibits, she slowly moved away from the door of the Crown Hall and began exploring other parts of the Net Flow Church. After walking around the Net Flow Church several times, she left the Church through an exit.
Using the ring of concealment, Dorothy quickly moved away from the Net Flow Church, enduring the illumination of the crown of Emmanuel. Crossing the arched bridge, she left the Church square and returned to the City. She did not immediately return to her hotel but boarded a small tourist boat at a small dock and then had the boatman take her to explore other parts of Adria.
Following an experienced guide, Dorothy visited the old lord's mansion, the arsenal, the water stage, the Bridge of Sinners, and other places in Adria. Finally, she spent some time in Adria's largest library... After a solid half-day of touring and a period of serious relaxation, the sun in the sky was gradually setting.
At dusk, Dorothy chose a restaurant along the waterway to have dinner. Many pasta dishes here left a very good impression on Dorothy, such as Adria macaroni and Iweig biscuits, which she quite liked.
Dorothy had been traveling for some time now, visiting many cities in many countries. Overall, the cuisine of every country and city had generally satisfied her, which might be because Dorothy's expectations for food were relatively low after staying in Prit for a long time.
After finishing dinner, Dorothy took a brief boat tour of Adria at night. Finally, amidst the scattered lights along the riverbanks, she returned to her hotel. Upon returning to her room, she took off her shoes and lay face down on the bedding for a while. After wrestling with her thoughts for a bit, she propped herself up with her hands, got off the bed, put on the slippers by the bed, and came to the table by the window of the suite. After recalling her afternoon's experiences, she let out a long sigh.
"If only this trip was purely for tourism with no serious business..."
After finishing her lament, Dorothy temporarily ended her tourism time and began to attend to the real business she came to Adria for, planning how to get her hands on the divination tool in the Crown Hall.
'The divination tool is most likely stored in that Crown Hall... If I want to get my hands on it, I must steal it from the Crown Hall before the three-year period for the divination tool is up, otherwise it will be discovered and moved by the Church.
'The crown of Emmanuel's detection efficiency in the Crown Hall is very high, but according to my calculations, it's not excessively high. If I can finish quickly in the Crown Hall, my ""Shadow"" will definitely be sufficient... But the key problem is that I don't know what the divination tool looks like. There are dozens of exhibits of various sizes in the Crown Hall, and I can't take them all back. For me, silently opening a locked display cabinet takes a considerable amount of time. Opening dozens of these cabinets would take I don't know how long, and I don't have that much time.'
Looking out the window towards the distant Church square, Dorothy thought to herself. Overall, her ""Shadow"" reserves couldn't support her staying in the Crown Hall for too long. Since she couldn't pack up all the Crown Hall's collections and take them back, she could only perform a precise theft, but the problem was that Dorothy didn't know what the divination tool actually looked like.
'Actually, the labels on all the display cabinets within the Net Flow Church have the donors' names written on them... If I knew the alias Azamu used when donating the divination tool, I could also find the divination tool among those display cabinets, but the problem is that the information obtained from Beverly didn't mention what alias Azamu used when donating?
'More importantly, I don't know Azamu's alias, but Garib's people do. If he chooses to forcefully steal the item, he would have a much greater advantage than me...'
Thinking this, Dorothy took out her satchel, unzipped it, and took out a bundle of things from it. It was clearly a large roll of newspapers rolled up.
Dorothy unrolled these newspapers and scanned the dates on them. These dates were mostly from last year, so they were old newspapers.
These old newspapers were obtained by Dorothy from the Adria City Library this afternoon. She was very interested in some of the old news on them.
"September 20, 1359, Moran City Museum was burglarized... October 9, 1359... Lonia City Museum was burglarized, the stolen artifacts were all donations... November 26, 1359, Cadena Museum was burglarized, several artifacts were lost..."
Looking at the news reports in these newspapers, an ordinary person would likely have envisioned a group of thieves specifically targeting museums and stealing artifacts. However, Dorothy knew that these thieves were not ordinary people; they were subordinates of Garib from the Hai Sha Society. What they were frequently stealing from these museums was not ordinary items, but Azamu's divination tool.
To cover his tracks, Azamu donated artifacts to seven museums using different aliases and mixed the divination tool among them. To find the divination tool, Garib had already consecutively stolen from six museums besides the Net Flow Church.
According to Beverly's information, the Hai Sha Society would usually be preparing to excavate a new Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) ruin around this time in previous years, but now they showed no activity at all. This proved that Garib had not found what he was looking for in the previous six museums. Although Garib's six failures seemed irrelevant to Dorothy's current goal, they actually revealed some important information to Dorothy.
'Garib stole the suspicious collections before the divination tool's cooldown was finished. There are two possibilities for this: first, he possesses some method to identify the divination tool without using the Hui Jian Lamp. Second, he is simply recovering all the collections Azamu donated, getting all these collections back into his hands, so that he can easily use the Hui Jian Lamp to find the divination tool after the cooldown period ends.
'According to the newspaper reports, the stolen museum didn't lose many exhibits. This proves that Garib's theft had a clear target, and that target was the artifacts Azamu donated. This also means... Garib holds all the aliases Azamu used when donating... Museums usually put the donor's name on the tags of the artifact display cases. They just need to take back everything donated by Azamu...'
Looking at the newspaper in front of her, Dorothy thought this. She knew very well that she wasn't the only one eyeing the divination tool. The current leader of the Hai Sha Society, Garib, was also secretly eager to make a move. His strength and the intelligence he possessed surpassed hers, making it very difficult for her to snatch the divination tool from their hands.
'According to the information provided by Beverly before... after obtaining the abundant resources accumulated by the Hai Sha Society, Garib completed the ritual he had been preparing for many years and successfully advanced to the Crimson Tier at the beginning of this year...'
'A Crimson Tier Extraordinary who controls a not-so-small society is difficult for me to deal with. It's very hard to snatch food from his mouth...'
Frowning, Dorothy thought to herself. This action against the Crimson Tier was a considerable challenge for her, but within this challenge, although it seemed extremely dangerous, Dorothy still saw an opportunity.
This opportunity lay in a crucial point Dorothy discovered.
'Garib, as a newly promoted Crimson Tier... with the resources of a society at his disposal, clearly knew that Azamu's last batch of donations was in the Net Flow Church, yet he hasn't made a move!? Garib was promoted to Crimson Tier at the beginning of this year, and Azamu's donations in the other six museums were all stolen last year, but only the donations in this Net Flow Church haven't been touched. It's already mid-March, and Garib has waited for one or two months without choosing to do this last job.
'The Extraordinary detection of the Crown of Emmanuel is indeed strong, but it's not insurmountable. As long as you gather a large number of "Shadows", you can still steal without being affected by the Crown of Emmanuel. After all, the Crown of Emmanuel was placed there by the Church specifically for citizens to admire, not specifically for theft prevention.
'As the head of a society and being so close to the Dark Gold Society, there's no reason Garib couldn't gather them. Although this Net Flow Church has an Extraordinary treasure like the Crown of Emmanuel, it is essentially a museum facing ordinary people. The difficulty for a Crimson Tier to steal something here is very low. However, Garib still waited for two months without doing anything.'
Continuing to look at the newspaper in her hand, Dorothy thought this to herself. She believed that it wouldn't be much more difficult for Garib, as a Crimson Tier, to steal Azamu's donations from the Net Flow Church than from other ordinary museums. However, there has been no news of any exhibits being stolen from the Net Flow Church so far. There must be a reason why Garib hasn't moved for two months, and Dorothy could also guess what that reason was.
Opening her bag again, Dorothy took out a small booklet. This was a guide she bought at the Net Flow Church during the day, which detailed various aspects of the Net Flow Church Museum.
Dorothy opened the guide and quickly turned to a page that introduced the rotation system of the Net Flow Church.
Due to the fame of the Crown of Emmanuel, the Net Flow Church receives many different donations every year, much more frequently than other museums. As a result of years of accumulation, the scale of the Church's collection has long exceeded the exhibition scale.
This means that the Net Flow Church has too many exhibits, and only a portion can be displayed at a time. After this portion is exhibited, it is the turn of the next portion. Several batches are displayed in rotation to allow citizens to see as many exhibits as possible. Therefore, generally, new exhibits need to wait until the next rotation to be put on display.
The exhibition at the Net Flow Church changes about every six months, and the most recent change was at the beginning of March. This means that the divination tool might have only recently been moved to the Net Flow Church for exhibition. Before that, these donations were all stored in the Holy Light Church in Adria.
The Holy Light Church is a new church built by the Adria Church after moving out of the Net Flow Church. It is not a museum, but the current location of the local Church in Adria. Investigating or stealing something there would be much more troublesome and difficult than in the Net Flow Church. Although it would be fine for Garib, with his newly promoted Crimson Tier strength, to deal with the Adria Church, which is generally at the bishop level, it wouldn't be impossible to take it by force, but this would anger the higher Church and cause him a lot of trouble.
Therefore, for Garib, it would be better to wait for a while until the Net Flow Church puts the divination tool on display as an exhibit, and then he can steal it from the Net Flow Church. The Net Flow Church is essentially a museum rather than an Extraordinary institution, and the possibility of a fierce Extraordinary conflict with the Church by stealing something that appears to be an ordinary object there is very small.
Anyway, the cooldown of the divination tool will be over in mid-to-late March, and the Net Flow Church changes things at the beginning of March. Garib still has time to steal the item.
But... it is already March 10th, and the time has entered mid-March, and the cooldown is about to end. Why is Garib still not making a move?
And for this question, Dorothy still had the answer in her heart.
Sitting on the chair, Dorothy put down the newspaper in her hand, then picked up another newspaper and unfolded it. The black and white photo printed on the newspaper showed a kind-looking old man wearing a bishop's robe. The title of the newspaper read as follows:
"Archbishop Antonio will hold a grand welcome banquet at the Old Lord's Mansion tomorrow to entertain the pilgrims returning from the crisis. Archbishop Antonio will personally attend the banquet and meet with Sister Vania Chafilun... It is reported that after this banquet, Archbishop Antonio will end his trip to Adria and return to Peizi."
Looking at the newspaper in her hand, a half-smile appeared on Dorothy's lips. She thought that this Natsuki incident had also caused a very unexpected impact.
...
Late at night, by a waterway near the Church square.
In the darkness, a man in a trench coat and hat quickly walked towards the waterway, lightly leaped into it, and landed on a small boat. Then the small boat began to move, and the boatman in a black hood rowed the boat away from the Church.
"Have you figured out the situation inside?" Without looking back, the boatman rowing the boat whispered, and the man in the trench coat pressed the opening of his hat.
"Although it cost a lot of'Shadows', the general situation has been figured out. I've already seen it outside. Azamu's alias donations are placed in the Crown Hall. As soon as Antonio leaves, we can make a move..."
"Well... according to information from all sides, Antonio will hold a banquet tomorrow and leave the day after tomorrow. If that's the case... we can now inform the Captain and have him come over." After hearing the man's words, the boatman rowing the boat also nodded and said.
"Yes... as long as the Captain comes, everything will be fine. Really... if Antonio hadn't suddenly shown up, we would have finished long ago..."