At the sa ti, Nephret Continent.
The Tribunal.
The central building.
Dawn Corridor.
The passages within this corridor were more complex than a maze. Every hundred ters in the corridor's center, a slender, ornate yet darkly-toned pillar would appear.
At the top of these pillars sat human head-sized spherical fire cages, with white flas gently licking the edges of the cages. They seed completely capable of breaking free from the cage's restraint, yet remained willingly imprisoned.
The pale light made the already dark-styled building even more terrifying.
The architectural style within this corridor was unchanging. Walking inside gave one a helpless feeling of constantly repeating the past.
If no one provided directions, intruders would be forever lost within, unable to escape even through death.
Their souls would wander eternally within, becoming yet another wisp of green smoke in this Dawn Corridor.
Each day in the Dawn Corridor, a judge would walk barefoot within, cloaked in black robes, responsible for receiving and conveying the Tribunal Chief's decrees.
At this mont, white flas on one pillar suddenly surged. White tongues of fire pierced through the black fire cage, like several arms reaching toward the sky in prayer.
The black-robed figure walking in the corridor imdiately stopped upon seeing this scene, prostrating himself completely, hands clasped and placed before his knees, forehead pressed tightly against the backs of his hands.
"Chief," he said respectfully.
"Have you found him?" Frim's deep voice rang out.
"Not yet. The person who infiltrated the Evernight Royal Palace is very cunning. After stealing the Red Sea Tree source prepared for the coronation ceremony, he didn't flee but instead went to the palace and directly took half the blood from Alexandra's body. If we hadn't already made his heart symbiotic with the Red Sea Tree to prevent Alexandra's accidental death, he probably would have..."
"This person must be third-rank. Investigate all third-rank wizards who recently entered the Evernight Empire."
"Yes!"
"He stole the tree source and took the Evernight Royal blood..."
During the pauses in the Tribunal Chief's words, the black-robed figure maintained his prostrated position without change.
"...And at precisely this ti, Justin, the sole inheritor of the Black Sea Tree source, suddenly appeared and sought treatnt from a first-rank wizard? Yet Justin's mories contain no information related to the Black Sea Tree source—obviously the mories were extracted before he ca. Did he think Wind Sprite would kill him? Or had he already guessed I would appear through the large-scale Storm Eye search operations? Two tree sources having problems simultaneously—could those rebels still not give up? Must they be satisfied only when this world is destroyed?"
The black-robed figure prostrate on the ground quietly listened to Frim's contemplation. He didn't deliberately try to morize the content of these words.
Even reaching fourth-rank didn't make one omniscient; one might even have more questions from contacting more of this world's secrets.
The black-robed figure was never interested in superiors' doubts—that would only make him live in extre pain and die miserably.
After a mont, the light source's voice stabilized again.
"Send people to the Borderland entrance. The person who stole the Red Sea Tree source will definitely go there next. Make sure to stop him outside."
"Yes!" The black-robed figure paused montarily. "Chief, new purge orders have been issued—the numbers are quite large. Our manpower might not be very sufficient."
Only Tribunal wizards could view the purge order lists, and judgnt executions all had ti limits. If large numbers of Tribunal wizards were sent to guard the Borderland entrance, then purge order executions would be affected.
The light source was silent for another mont before finally saying, "I will personally execute this purge order."
The black-robed figure's entire body shook as he prostrated again, wishing he could press his head into the ground. "Yes!"
...
Borderland, Rhine Lake, Purity Wizard Tower.
Saul was walking in the dark stairwell.
"Maybe I should also learn from my master and set up a row of white candles?"
Steward Hope followed behind him. "The pipework within the walls has completed developnt. If you need it, I can complete the candlestick installation at any ti."
"I don't particularly like those arms and mouths running around in the wizard tower."
"If you need it, they can naturally be confined to underground level 2. However, if I may say so, there will definitely be more people entering your wizard tower in the future. Installing so monitoring facilities within the wizard tower would be more convenient."
Saul pressed his hand against the wall with its sandpaper-like texture. "I don't plan to develop the wizard tower into a pseudo-academy organization like my ntor's. But you're right. Even if it's just treating pollution, there will still be more wizards like Justin coming in. If we can't control their movents, it would be too troubleso and dangerous. Let's do as you suggest. First release the mouths, then have the eyes watch underground level 1 and the third floor."
Saul ultimately chose the sa managent approach as Gorsa.
"By the way, I once saw so mist-like human forms in my ntor's wizard tower. Hope, do you know what those are?"
Hope bowed slightly. "Tower Master, those mist-form people are byproducts of the wizard tower. They serve both as protection and early warning asures. When the wizard tower's resentful spirits increase, most will be absorbed by the pipework. But so residue remains, carrying the spirits' obsessions. They cannot communicate but instinctively gravitate toward areas with abnormal magical power and ntal power fluctuations. You can check these mist-form people's distribution on underground level 2. Through their distribution density, you can determine which areas have abnormalities."
"You have more experience in this area. Did you previously monitor these mist-form people's distribution?"
"Yes, sir."
Saul increasingly felt this wizard tower steward was quite impressive.
He not only had to manage every living person's daily needs but also control every dead person's movents.
Looking at the steward's humble yet elegant deanor, Saul felt sowhat admiring.
No wonder he could beco the wizard tower's head steward.
At the sa ti, he rembered when he had entered the curse gap in the second storage room and seen the room's ceiling crawling with mist-form people.
At first glance, there were nearly a hundred.
If one second storage room had so many mist-form people, how many did the entire wizard tower have?
How many ordinary people and apprentices would have to die to form such a scale of mist-form people in the wizard tower?
He felt both shocked and curious. "How many mist-form people in one place indicates an abnormality?"
"If a room has no abnormal fluctuations, there might only be two or three mist-form people inside. If the number exceeds 10, it ans soone is using first or second-rank magic or conducting equivalent-level experints. If it exceeds 30, it ans soone is using third-rank magic or conducting uncontrollable experints. Since third-rank and above magic might damage the wizard tower itself, we prohibit casting destructive third-rank and above magic within the wizard tower."
Hearing the steward's answer, Saul felt sowhat confused.
He asked hesitantly, "What if a room has nearly a hundred mist-form people?"
This ti it was the steward's turn to hesitate. "Perhaps only large-scale experints conducted personally by the Tower Master would have such an effect?"
Saul fell silent. His second storage room seed to always have nearly a hundred mist-form people wandering around.
But he wasn't conducting dangerous experintal operations every ti he hid in the gap to observe.
Was it because the items stored in the second storage room itself were very dangerous? Or because it was surrounded by eye monitoring and interlayer, causing these mist-form people to linger year-round?
However, the steward responsible for monitoring mist-form people hadn't ntioned this point.
"Can you usually monitor the second storage room too?"
"The second storage room has an interlayer. Normally only the Tower Master can monitor it, and only the Tower Master can freely enter and exit without going through the bronze door."
"I see..." Saul looked back at the steward and found he didn't seem curious about what was in the second storage room.
Suddenly, the steward's left eye exploded violently.
The explosion turned his entire left half face into a hollow.
Then tiny sparks automatically ignited on his face, rapidly spreading, about to burn away his entire head.
Saul didn't hesitate, imdiately transforming one hand into gray semi-transparent tentacles, covering the steward's head.
Those tiny sparks were imdiately absorbed into Saul's tentacles, quickly extinguishing and becoming fine black ash.
The steward's body swayed, and in the blink of an eye, grew a new head.
"Tower Master, there's bad news," the steward's new head spoke.
Saul's expression darkened. "I know. Justin is dead."
(End of Chapter)
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