Though Bain hadn't appeared yet, the suspect was basically confird.
Bain was a pure pragmatist who prioritized Profit First.
In his youth, upon discovering his sister was in love with a noble, he had used every thod at his disposal to assist them.
Later, when Nels caused trouble, he firmly stood by the Dartnerly family's camp.
When Nemus first arrived in Tail Fin Town, Bain had even showed up at his door as a lobbyist.
Afterward, to target Nemus, Bain even sought out the Scavengers, an outer organization of the Construct Protocol, hiring them to attack Nemus's smuggling caravans.
However, because Isabella had not yet advanced to the Iron Rank, and the environnt at the ti prevented her from projecting her ntal power for perception, she couldn't definitively confirm Bain's identity. Consequently, there was no way to hold him accountable afterward.
On the surface, Bain was a die-hard loyalist to the Dartnerly family; his entire identity, status, and wealth were bestowed by them.
But peeling back the facade revealed that Bain was only loyal to profit. Everything else was rely an illusion.
Given this, as the statuses of the Dartnerly family and Nemus underwent a complete reversal, what would be the problem with Bain defecting to his nephew?
On the contrary, it was entirely normal.
Or perhaps, Bain had wanted to defect to Nemus early on, but hesitated out of fear that Nemus still harbored lingering resentnt over past grievances.
Therefore, as long as Nemus rely beckoned with a finger, Bain would imdiately run to his side.
"What is Bain doing?" Dartnerly sent people to confirm Bain's location, only to learn that he had gone to negotiate business with a certain rchant guild.
But when they dispatched n to find him, Bain was nowhere to be found.
Upon receiving this answer, Isabella's face remained calm, showing no significant emotional fluctuations.
Dartnerly's face darkened. He knew the family had major issues, but he never expected the problem to be this severe.
An outsider who didn't even share their surna had actually managed to access the official seal, then brazenly swaggered out to act on behalf of the Dartnerly family.
The most crucial point was that after he did it, the family didn't notice anything amiss.
It took an outsider showing up at their door and investigating step by step for them to finally realize the man's betrayal.
Everyone in the family seed to have been manipulated entirely in the palm of his hand. It was an unspoken humiliation.
Faced with this situation, Dartnerly wanted to erupt in anger but forced himself to hold it in. At the sa ti, a certain thought in his heart grew even firr.
"Lady Isabella, I believe you have seen the situation. We truly did not go and bring Xixi back."
"I understand," Isabella replied. She could confirm that Dartnerly was not lying at this mont, and subsequently bid him farewell.
Given the current circumstances, it no longer seed appropriate for her to stay.
After watching Isabella's departing figure, Dartnerly could no longer conceal his fury. The entire family desperately needed a thorough purging.
As Isabella followed a servant, preparing to leave, she noticed a young boy undergoing cultivation not far away.
He was swinging the blade in his hand while synchronizing his breathing.
His speed wasn't particularly fast, but it was obvious his hands were exceptionally steady. His movents didn't deform in the slightest.
This was a common form of Breathing Technique cultivation. By conducting sword art training synchronized with breathing, one could mobilize the muscles of the entire body to drive changes in their attribute values.
However, the reason this exercise caught Isabella's attention was due to the power the boy unintentionally displayed.
As the blade was slightly lowered, the breath he exhaled instantly swept over the fine grass on the ground.
Simultaneously, a fierce Life Path aura surged forth, causing the surrounding vegetation and insects to wither and die.
This was the compression of life against life. It generally occurred when a lifeform's tier ford an absolute crushing suppression over another, yet the entity lacked sufficient control or simply wasn't deliberately restraining it.
'An Iron Rank?' Isabella observed that the boy was not very old.
To beco an Iron Rank at an age that couldn't even be considered an adult ant this person's innate talent was abnormally high.
'A bloodline experint?' Isabella couldn't help but wonder. After all, the Dartnerly family had a prior criminal record of such things.
But soon, Isabella discarded the thought. After finishing his cultivation, the youth looked over. His entire being exuded a rustic, unadorned feeling, much like a tree naturally growing in a forest.
Even if he was a test subject, with a temperant like that, he was no ordinary test subject.
While Isabella was still pondering, the boy had already arrived in front of her.
"Auntie?" Nis looked at Isabella, his eyes full of curiosity.
Although he had frantically cramd a lot of knowledge about mankind recently, he still retained a great deal of curiosity about humans.
"Can you tell how you do it?" the Saint Child asked. "The feeling you give is completely different from other humans. It's like... it's like comparing animals and plants."
Isabella paused, taken aback, unsure of what kind of descriptive thod this was.
Before Isabella could figure it out, the Saint Child imdiately spoke again, "No, you aren't like an animal."
"You are like sothing far more advanced." Yet, the Saint Child couldn't articulate what that 'more advanced' thing was.
In his cognition, the majority of life in this world was no different from plants.
They rooted themselves in the mud, absorbing and competing for all external nutrients. Yet, in this process, they were bred by others, harvested by others.
But there was a portion that wasn't just plants; they were animals.
Take the Dartnerly family for instance. They were social animals that ford a tribe. The convictions of so among them had detached from the plant-like state of only growing for oneself; they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the developnt of their tribe.
But now, upon seeing Isabella, the Saint Child sensed a completely different kind of individual.
She possessed the essence of a social animal, yet was entirely different from those people in the Dartnerly family.
Mankind... was truly complex.
The Saint Child looked at Isabella with curiosity, but Isabella had no idea how to answer his question.
However, at this mont, Isabella roughly understood where the Saint Child's confusion lay. She paused for a mont before saying earnestly, "I am neither an animal nor a plant. I am human."
"And I hope that everyone can beco human."
Hearing this answer, the Saint Child froze in place.
He had constantly pondered all sorts of complicated questions, using different things to symbolize mankind, only to realize that he never knew what original humanity was supposed to look like.
Subsequently, the Saint Child raised his head and looked at Isabella. "So, should everyone be like you?"
"Is this what it ans to be human?"
"I do not know either," Isabella shook her head. She didn't know what mankind was supposed to be like either.
She simply wanted to prevent people from living such bitter lives because she could empathize with the suffering of the majority of mankind.
Prompted by the Saint Child's inquiry, Isabella's originally chaotic heart suddenly seed to recall her past self.
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