Preparation for the Ritual (Revised)

In Tin City, South River District, inside a detached villa far from the residential areas.

Sacia and Malcolm sat quietly on the sofa in a reception room, the air filled with the scent of strange incense.

The waiting process was nerve-wracking; Malcolm kept flipping and playing with a Fenso coin in his hand, while Sacia gripped the sides of her long dress tightly with both hands.

Finally, the carved wooden door of the reception room was opened from the outside.

A middle-aged man dressed in dark gray priest robes, his eyes as deep as an ancient well, walked out. In his hands, he held the now-blank notebook and the translated manuscript.

"The High Priest has finished his review." The priest's voice was low. He looked at the two people waiting for the result and continued: "The High Priest said that the fact the content on the notebook vanished confirms its essence as a divine vessel. This notebook could not have been forged by human hands, so there is no issue with the notebook itself.

As for this translation..."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Sacia and Malcolm with a hint of obvious approval: "The ritual structure within is rigorous, and the title of the 'Holy True Lord' it points to contains a breadth and sanctity that far exceed any records our church has possessed until now."

The priest reined in the approval in his tone, then said solemnly: "The High Priest has ruled that a small-scale, cautious sacrificial ritual may be conducted to verify its authenticity. If successful, it would be best to establish an initial connection with that Holy True Lord.

We piously worship all holy, vast, great, and unknown transcendent existences."

A flash of irrepressible excitement crossed Sacia's eyes, and she nodded slightly: "We obey the High Priest's will."

Malcolm also let out a sigh of relief, putting away the coin he had been fiddling with into his pocket.

The priest's gaze finally landed on Malcolm, his tone softening slightly: "Brother Malcolm, your actions this time have been indispensable. The church will remember your contribution, and the High Priest is deeply satisfied with your performance."

Malcolm immediately stood up and bowed slightly to show his humility.

This indicated that he was not merely in a simple cooperative relationship with Sacia, but was also a member of the secret cult represented by the priest before them.

"The time is set for noon tomorrow, right here." The priest instructed: "Some of the items needed for the ritual have already been arranged for others to prepare tonight. We must ensure tomorrow's ritual is foolproof."

He added at the end: "You two will stay here tonight, and tomorrow you may observe the ceremony from the side."

"Understood," Sacia and Malcolm replied in unison.

The priest turned to return to the study but paused at the door. With his back to them, he added in a calm voice: "Once the ritual is confirmed to be effective, that boy named Gallo... he knows too much, and he himself may have become somewhat special due to his contact with the notebook.

Find a way to deal with him to ensure our actions remain sufficiently secret, and do not let Clovin sniff out any traces.

Do not feel it is a pity just because he is clever; once communication with a great existence is established, abilities like his will become insignificant and not worth mentioning.

After you finish dealing with him, we must all evacuate immediately!"

Malcolm's eyes sharpened, and he nodded: "I will handle it."

At dawn, at the Clovin headquarters, "Lepest."

An elderly couple, around sixty years of age, were crudely brought into one of the underground prison cells of this castle complex.

Terrified and trembling like chaff, the couple was separated and detained individually. The old man was roughly pressed onto a cold, bone-chilling metal chair, his hands bound to either side of the chair with special handcuffs.

"Officer, please have mercy on my wife. She is too timid, she doesn't know anything." The old man's plea was met with a heavy slap from the other side.

A stern-faced Clovin agent sat at the interrogation table opposite him. The tungsten bulb overhead, under a special lampshade shaped like a conical hat, trapped the examinee within a beam of light.

In the interplay of light and shadow, the interrogator's face was obscured, as if he were dwelling in the darkness.

The Clovin agent who had just struck him immediately stopped the thought of hitting him again; he worried whether the elderly man could withstand another heavy blow. The slap just now also made him regret being too rash; in fact, that had been an subconscious reaction after working for too long.

It was a case where his hands moved faster than his brain.

"South River District, 35 Elysée Avenue. That detached villa is your property." Clovin, sitting at the interrogation table, asked.

"Yes, that is my property." The old man felt only a searing, burning sensation on the side of his face that had just been struck, and his vision in that eye was completely blurred.

When he and his wife were brought here, he had long since prepared himself mentally. He would answer whatever the people from Clovin asked; after all, no one could oppose Clovin.

He had several properties under his name, and 35 Elysée Avenue in the South River District was just one of them.

He was considered part of the wealthy class in Tin City, but in Lepest, all his wealth and social status lost their meaning, leaving only fear of Clovin.

"According to our investigation, you rented this property half a year ago to a gentleman named 'Elliott' for a two-year term." The interrogator in the shadows spoke in a steady voice, devoid of emotion, yet carrying a sense of oppression that held everything in its grasp.

"Ye... yes, officer." The old man struggled to swallow, his scorched cheek making his voice distorted.

"Mr. Elliott paid a full year's rent in advance, along with a deposit of 150 Nalang. He was very generous.

We... we only met twice. The first time was when he came to look at the house, and the second was to sign the lease agreement. After that, we never saw him again."

The old man felt a lucky, slight sense of relief; it sounded like it was related to that tenant, but in his heart, there was more resentment toward that tenant. If it weren't for him, how could he and his wife have been brought to Lepest?

In the eyes of the Empire's people, Lepest was more terrifying than hell.

"Describe this Mr. Elliott, and anyone else you know who lived there."

The old man dared not hide anything, describing intermittently: "He was an elegant, well-dressed middle-aged gentleman who claimed to be from the south, but his accent leaned more toward the Imperial Capital.

I don't know if there were others in that house, but because of his work, some wealthy people might have come and gone.

His job was an investment broker, but he only served one major client..."

The interrogator's index finger tapped on the table, making a rhythmic sound, as if urging the other party to continue revealing more useful information.

"He... when chatting with me, said that in their industry, one must keep client information confidential... but he hinted that his client was a noble from the Faruon Kingdom era, and that he used to be a senior manservant in the client's family."

The client is a noble from the Faruon Kingdom era, and since their accent leans toward the Tin City side, it is highly likely that they are a kingdom noble who fled abroad twenty years ago and began returning to the Empire a year ago.

According to the policy promulgated by the Head of State, exiled nobles from the kingdom era are permitted to return and retain their property, but they must pay a high property entry tax upon entering the Empire and its various colonial jurisdictions. We can consult the property entry tax payment records from a year ago when the kingdom-era nobles entered the country to infer and confirm the identity of the client served by that tenant.

Meanwhile, in another interrogation room next door, the old man's wife is undergoing a similar questioning.

Fear has made the couple's testimonies highly consistent; they have only met the tenant named Elliott twice, and the couple does not usually live in the South River District. They reside in the central area of Tin City and know very little about the tenant's information, nor did they delve into the tenant's background.

After organizing all the testimony materials, this report began to be handed upward.

In the superstructure of Lepest, inside a conference room belonging to the Special Affairs Bureau of the Ninth Bureau, the clues handed over by the Third Bureau were like scattered puzzle pieces being placed on the table one by one, to be analyzed and integrated by four senior investigators of the Ninth Bureau.

These four senior investigators, including the female lead, Damon Marco, who previously appeared at the scene of the Jeffrey Gito apartment, were all focused on the intelligence before them.

"Let's start with the fake document case from the Third Bureau." A senior investigator with graying hair and eyes like a hawk spoke first, his finger tapping the report regarding Malcolm.

"According to the thief's testimony, the fake documents were stolen from a young man in a brown trench coat near Lubo Lane.

The Third Bureau followed up and identified the suspect holding the fake documents as this young man named Malcolm.

He and two accomplices have been renting a room long-term at the Youth Hostel on Lubo Lane, and their objective is surveillance."

The other party paused and continued: "Surveillance of the perimeter of the Moonlight Cafe; it could be a person, or it could be something else... If it is a person, the specific target is unclear, but we can narrow the scope by observing the flow of people outside the cafe.

However, that is not the point!"

"Based solely on the thief's testimony, there is no direct evidence that Malcolm possessed the fake Clovin documents; he is merely a suspect in the fake document case. But coincidentally, he is involved in another case." Another younger, yet sharp-eyed senior investigator added.

"Regarding the death that occurred in the apartment where Jeffrey Gito lived!" He continued: "We thoroughly investigated his social connections and recent activities.

We discovered that he had recently concluded a research expedition to the Southern Continent, and the sponsor of the activity was an overseas fund established by the Taylor family.

Furthermore, among the list of accompanying students, there is a student named Sacia Taylor, a history student at the Imperial Industrial University who enrolled a year ago."

He continued: "The key is that the Third Bureau's surveillance confirmed that Malcolm had direct contact with Sacia Taylor.

This connects the figures from the two lines, but it is still not closed."

The female investigator, Damon, nodded and pushed Sacia Taylor's file to the top of the table.

"Third!" She continued, pointing to a report regarding the teaching assistant Allen and Professor Vanason Joel.

"The first person to report the incident at Jeffrey's apartment was this history teaching assistant from the Imperial Industrial University named Allen, and the reason he appeared at Jeffrey's apartment was to look for Professor Vanason Joel, who had been missing for several days.

This authoritative professor in the history department of the Imperial Industrial University went missing three days ago without requesting leave from the school; even his teaching assistant did not know where he had gone.

Therefore, this assistant speculated that Professor Vanason was likely at Professor Jeffrey's home, because he had just finished the Southern Continent expedition, and the two were very close history professors..."

She continued: "Although Allen was the first to report the incident, he was not the first person to discover Jeffrey's body.

The Third Bureau found Professor Vanason Joel in his hometown of Delan County, and the reason he ran to Delan County and hid in an inn was... because a Clovin agent demanded he do so..."

The others looked at her in confusion, and she pulled out the original first report on the Clovin fake document case.

"In the inquiry by the Third Bureau's Clovin agent, he said he had gone to Jeffrey's apartment three days ago and discovered Jeffrey's body and the 'anomalies' in the study. Subsequently, he was threatened and warned by a Clovin agent not to speak of what happened there.

It would be best to stay home honestly for a few days, and the other party also said that Clovin would naturally handle things at the school.

Then, in a state of terror, Vanason blindly ran back to his hometown in Delan County to hide."

"Hmph! That is not standard Clovin procedure at all." The gray-haired senior investigator let out a disdainful sound; there are only two ways Clovin makes people shut up: either lock them away or kill them outright.

She continued: "The Third Bureau's Clovin agent showed Vanason a sketch of Malcolm, and he firmly insisted that Malcolm was the Clovin agent who appeared at Jeffrey's apartment that day—a fake Clovin!"

Damon placed the three reports on the table: fake document case suspect Malcolm, Jeffrey death case associate Sacia Taylor, and Vanason disappearance case suspect Malcolm.

She said: "Looking at these three cases alone, they can already be linked and closed, but... there is one more report, recorded by the senior investigator of the Third Bureau's Special Affairs Group, Kalieqin. Up to this point, Kalieqin has not yet woken up."

She placed the file marked "Malicious Psionic Outbreak" on the table.

"The malicious psionic outbreak is inextricably linked to the three cases above and is the direct cause of Jeffrey Gito's death.

First, Jeffrey Gito died in a severe psionic outbreak. According to what the Clovin agent learned from Professor Vanason:

Professor Jeffrey fell into a delusional cognitive trap during this Southern Continent expedition. The process involved the annihilation of an ancient dynasty in the Southern Continent, so I will only state the judgment of a senior investigator after reviewing Professor Vanason's testimony materials."

She took a deep breath, suppressing the unsettled emotions in her heart, and said: "Jeffrey Gito was clearly influenced by the seduction of a Spirit Realm entity, and he remained on the verge of losing control until his death."

She continued: "From the fact that Jeffrey was able to receive funding from the Taylor family's overseas fund from the start, it is clear that this was a deliberately driven result, coupled with the fact that one of the students he led was a member of the Taylor family, Sacia Taylor."

The gray-haired senior investigator sneered: "It seems this young lady of the Taylor family is obsessed with the ancient glory of the Faruon Kingdom era, even to the point of being willing to touch these dangerous things."

Another senior investigator shook his head: "Too ignorant! To think that such things can be controlled and used to threaten the Empire!"

She placed a brief surveillance report on top: "And what anchors all the clues together is this—when our Third Bureau agents were tracking Malcolm, they discovered that both he and Sacia Taylor eventually entered 35 Elysée Avenue in the South River District."

Then she placed a report that had just been delivered on top of the table: "This is the relevant intelligence obtained from interrogating the owner of 35 Elysée Avenue, which includes a record of property entry tax payments from a year ago regarding kingdom-era nobles.

I will state the result directly: the person who rented 35 Elysée Avenue is an economic investor named Elliott, who mainly serves a major client. This major client is a high-ranking noble from the kingdom era, and the tenant once served as a high-ranking manservant in this noble's household.

In the property entry tax payment records from a year ago, we found the name 'Muzov Taylor,' and this person is Sacia Taylor's father.

Furthermore, Sacia and Malcolm are currently staying at 35 Elysée Avenue."

A senior investigator nodded: "So this is a conspiracy by exiled nobles from the kingdom era, attempting to master some Spirit Realm supernatural power to do something that threatens the Empire."

Damon said: "And according to Vanason's testimony, Malcolm had also hoped he could translate the contents of a notebook, but Vanason declined because he was not proficient in the field of ancient hieroglyphic translation.

Combined with the occurrence of the malicious psionic outbreak, it can be determined that they already possess important materials capable of communicating with Spirit Realm entities."

However, according to Kalieqin's testimony, there was another powerful Psionic present at the scene, with the connection point being that teaching assistant, Allen. We will not be merging the cases for the time being.

She paused, then added, "Based on Vanason's confession and the residual fluctuations at Jeffrey's apartment as described by Kalieqin, it is highly likely that Sacia and Malcolm are conducting or preparing to conduct some kind of high-risk ritual."

But whether there are other forces infiltrating from behind the scenes remains unclear.

Therefore, the operation must be swift and decisive; we must not let them complete it.

The four senior investigators reached a unanimous judgment, and Damon issued the direct order:

"Target, 35 Elysée Avenue, South River District.

Maintain tight surveillance and confirm the locations of the primary targets.

Once locked on, execute the arrest immediately. Use lethal force if necessary."