Chapter 524

North Wind had certainly not come to replace Wood so that he could step down and return home.

She had indeed come to replace him—that much was true. However, replacing him did not mean having him step down and return home. It meant having him die.

None of this could be said aloud. Only a fool would say such things. North Wind had long prepared a set of explanations, and now she put them to use.

"Sorry, but I'm here to work with you," North Wind said. "Over the past few years, your work efficiency has clearly declined. 'Back home' thinks you may be fighting alone with only one hand, that it's inconvenient for you to handle everything by yourself, so I specifically underwent artistic training to become your assistant."

Wood was somewhat disappointed, but the doubts in his heart also faded.

Just as she had said, his intelligence-gathering efficiency really had fallen quite a bit over the past few years. On one hand, wood carving took up his time and energy; on the other, he was all alone, and many things were inconvenient.

To avoid arousing suspicion, he had been extremely cautious in his actions. While that made him less likely to be exposed, it also greatly restricted his movements. Over the course of an entire day, he often had only one or two hours of free time, and the area in which he could operate had to be strictly reasonable, with no behavior that exceeded common sense.

As a spy, Wood's caution was very necessary. In the past, when his main mission had merely been to lie low, there had been nothing wrong with being so careful. But now, with storm clouds churning across the continent of the main plane, it seemed likely that before long, the Arcane