Southwest of Chiyan City.
A drainage tower, abandoned for years, stood amid the weeds.
Half the tower had collapsed, and stones and earth sealed its entrance.
Two clerks from the Yulan Empire delegation stood outside.
Delia handed them the investigation document issued by Joanne.
"From now on, no one is allowed inside."
"Yes, Special Envoy."
"If the city guards ask, show them the document."
Delia then turned to the merchant association guards Yale had sent.
"If you see anyone approaching, record their identity first. Do not attack."
The guards nodded.
Linley stood beneath the drainage tower.
Bebe crouched on his shoulder.
Sessler still wore his gray robe, his emerald-green eyes fixed on the earth near the entrance.
Doehring bent down and picked up a pinch of black crystalline sand.
"Someone has been coming and going," he said.
"How recently?" Delia asked.
"Yesterday at the latest."
Doehring pointed beneath the stones.
"This surface layer of earth was freshly packed. The stone slabs underneath have been moved often enough to wear their edges smooth."
Linley walked up to the sealed entrance and gripped the outermost boulder with both hands.
He exerted a little strength.
The boulder lifted, and he set it aside.
He did not use large-scale Earth Element magic.
As the boulders were removed one by one, a staircase descending underground appeared before them.
Damp air surged up from below.
Mixed into it was a very faint smell of oil.
"Bebe," Linley said.
Bebe immediately leaped from his shoulder.
His black figure flashed and vanished into the depths of the stairway.
"There's no one within thirty meters ahead."
Soul Transmission rang out in Linley's mind.
"There are two branches. There's water on the left and an oily smell on the right."
Linley relayed Bebe's words.
"We'll go right," Delia said.
She took out the anomalous black shard.
The white patterns on its surface were giving off a faint glow.
The five entered the old waterway one after another.
Linley led the way.
Delia walked second.
Sessler and Doehring followed behind.
The stairs were narrow, and moss covered the stone walls on either side.
The farther down they went, the colder the air became.
After several dozen meters, an underground channel a full five meters wide appeared ahead.
The water was only ankle-deep.
Abandoned iron brackets were fixed to the stone walls at regular intervals. They must once have held torches for lighting.
Now, however, there was no dust on the brackets.
Linley reached out and touched one.
"Someone cleaned these."
"They weren't cleaned," Sessler said.
He leaned close to the bracket and sniffed.
"A medicinal powder that masks odors was burned here."
"What can it mask?" Delia asked.
"Blood, corpses, and the presence of living people."
Sessler's emerald-green eyes turned toward the depths of the waterway.
"People from the Radiant Church like to keep themselves spotless."
"But the harder they try to stay clean, the more obvious the traces they leave."
They continued forward.
Bebe returned from the darkness from time to time, telling Linley what lay ahead through their soul connection.
The right-hand waterway gradually narrowed.
After about half a kilometer, an unbroken stone wall appeared ahead.
The passage ended.
"A dead end?" Linley asked.
Bebe landed before the wall and scratched its surface with his claws.
"There's an empty space behind it."
Linley raised the Black Jade Heavy Sword.
"Wait," Delia said.
The black shard in her hand was growing brighter and brighter.
The fine white patterns slowly moved across its surface as though they had come alive.
Delia searched carefully along the stone wall.
Soon, she found a groove in a corner, so shallow it was almost invisible.
The groove was exactly the same size as the black shard.
"This isn't a clue," Doehring said. "It's a key, too."
Delia did not immediately place the shard inside.
"Will it trigger an alarm?"
"Yes," Sessler said.
"There are very faint spiritual energy fluctuations behind this wall. As soon as it opens, the people inside will know."
Linley tightened his grip on his heavy sword.
"Then break straight through."
Doehring shook his head.
"There are light formation patterns inside the stone wall."
"If you slash through it, the people inside will still know, and you may destroy what's behind it."
Delia looked at Linley.
"We'll open it the intended way."
"Bebe and I will go in first," Linley said.
"All right."
Delia did not argue over that position.
She pressed the shard into the groove.
Hum!
White patterns instantly spread across the entire stone wall.
The wall silently parted to either side.
A powerful stench of blood struck them.
Linley and Bebe charged inside together.
Beyond the wall was a vast underground stone hall.
More than a dozen stone chambers lined its sides.
Chains, wooden crates, and trampled glass bottles littered the floor.
At the far end, a gray-robed man was throwing a torch toward a wooden table piled with paper scrolls.
"Intruders!"
Bebe became a black afterimage and lunged straight at the gray-robed man.
The gray-robed man did not turn.
He crushed a magic crystal beneath his foot.
Boom!
A muffled crash came from the ceiling of the stone hall.
Several pillars that had already been hollowed out cracked at once.
Large rocks came crashing down from above.
Linley did not pursue.
He turned and drove the Black Jade Heavy Sword into the ground.
Dense Earth Element essence rapidly gathered.
A thick stone wall rose from the ground, shielding Delia, Sessler, and Doehring.
Boom! Boom!
Rocks slammed into the stone wall one after another.
Cracks spread rapidly.
"The third pillar on the left!" Doehring shouted.
Linley stamped his foot.
A new stone pillar burst from underground, bracing the vault just as it was about to collapse.
He was only a ninth-rank Earth Element mage.
He could not stabilize the entire underground stone hall permanently.
But holding it up for a moment was enough.
"Get the evidence first!" Delia said.
She did not retreat.
The flames on the wooden table had already caught.
Delia murmured a magical incantation.
A fierce wind suddenly swept through the stone hall.
The flames were blown to one side.
Every paper scroll on the table flew into the air as well.
She brought both hands inward.
Dozens of paper scrolls, wrapped in currents of air, landed in her arms.
Sessler rushed toward the stone chambers on either side.
The first was empty.
The second was empty as well.
Only magic-suppressing shackles and bloodstained straw mats remained inside.
In the third stone chamber, a layer of ashes lay piled in a corner.
Sessler crouched and brushed aside the ashes with his withered fingers.
A charred finger bone was revealed.
"People died here."
"At least a dozen or so."
Delia came over, carrying the ledger pages.
"How long ago?"
"Some more than three months ago, others only a few days."
Sessler closed his eyes.
Emerald-green light spread from his fingertips.
"Their souls have all dissipated."
"All I can confirm is that their spiritual energy was suppressed before they died."
A scream came from the other end of the stone hall.
Bebe had caught up with the gray-robed man.
His sharp claws slashed several wounds across the man's back.
The gray-robed man staggered, but used his momentum to crash through a side door.
Three more people waited beyond the side door.
Two black-clad warriors swung their blades at the same time.
Their blades blocked the narrow passage.
Bebe's body abruptly shrank.
He skimmed along the ground between two sabers and bit one man's ankle.
Crack!
The bone snapped.
The man fell with a scream.
The other man turned and slashed at Bebe.
Linley had already arrived.
The Eightfold Gravity Spell descended in an instant.
The black-clad warrior's body suddenly sagged.
Before his saber could fall, Linley's fist had already slammed into his chest.
Bang!
The black-clad warrior struck the stone wall and passed out on the spot.
The gray-robed man, however, did not stop.
He rushed to the end of the passage and pulled down an iron lever.
The heavy roar of water sounded from every direction.
"They've opened the sluice gates!" Doehring's voice came from behind.
Deep in the waterway, several iron gates rose at once.
The river water stored in the old channel surged toward them.
Water rushed into the stone hall.
Wooden crates and ashes were swept up in an instant.
"Fall back!" Linley shouted.
Delia did not leave immediately.
She stuffed the ledger pages into a waterproof leather pouch and handed it to Doehring.
"Keep this safe."
Then she rushed toward the innermost stone chamber.
"Someone's still alive!" Sessler said.
He stood outside the stone chamber, his palm pressed against the wall.
"The soul aura is very weak."
Linley turned to head back.
The gray-robed man had already leaped into the hidden channel ahead.
"Boss, I'll go after him!"
Bebe's Soul Transmission rang out.
"Don't chase him too far," Linley said.
"Catch one of them and come back."
Bebe rushed into the hidden channel.
Linley turned back toward the stone hall.
The river water was already waist-deep.
Stones were still falling from the damaged vaulted ceiling.
"Here!"
Delia cut through the iron lock on the stone chamber's door with several wind blades.
Linley kicked the stone door open.
Inside was a tiny water prison.
A middle-aged man was chained to the wall.
His body was covered in lash marks, his eyes were closed, and his breathing was already extremely faint.
Black magic-suppressing cuffs clasped his wrists.
Linley swung the Black Jade Heavy Sword.
Thwack!
The cuffs broke.
The middle-aged man's body toppled forward.
Delia immediately caught him.
"It's Cole."
"You know him?" Linley asked.
"A guard aboard the Yulan Empire's merchant ship, the Morning Tide," Delia said. "A Level Seven Water Element Mage."
Cole barely opened his eyes.
"Lady... envoy?"
"Don't speak yet."
Delia cast Wind Element magic, levitating Cole's body.
Sessler looked toward the corner of the water prison.
There was a wooden crate there that they had not had time to take away.
He kicked the lid open.
Inside were black cuffs and a stack of metal tags.
There were no names on the tags.
Only ship names and numbers.
The Morning Tide.
The White Sail.
The Iron Leaf.
All twelve missing merchant ships were represented.
"Take it," Delia said.
The river water kept rising.
Linley hoisted Cole onto his back.
Sessler picked up the wooden crate.
Doehring brought up the rear.
He did not use divine power, only kept pointing out footholds that were still stable.
"Right."
"Don't touch that wall."
"Stop after five steps ahead."
They retreated along the way they had come.
Just after they passed through the hidden stone door, the vaulted ceiling behind them collapsed completely.
Rumble!
Rubble buried most of the stone hall.
The current carried ashes and wood fragments deeper into the old waterway.
"Bebe hasn't come back yet," Delia said.
Linley stopped.
He could clearly sense the other end of the Soul Contract.
Bebe was unhurt.
But he was still moving quickly.
"He's caught someone," Linley said.
A moment later, a dragging sound came from a narrow side passage ahead.
With a black-clad man's collar in his jaws, Bebe backed out of the darkness, dragging him along.
The man's right leg was broken and his forehead split open, but he was still alive.
"What about the gray-robed man?" Linley asked.
Bebe released his jaws.
"He jumped into a deeper hidden channel. There was an iron gate inside. Just as I chased after him, it dropped."
"This one tried to escape by another route, so I grabbed him on the way back."
Linley relayed Bebe's words to the others.
Sessler crouched before the black-clad man.
"Look at me."
The black-clad man squeezed his eyes shut.
Sessler stretched out his gaunt fingers and pressed them against the man's forehead.
Emerald-green light shone.
The black-clad man's body convulsed violently.
Sessler soon withdrew his hand.
"Some of his memories have been erased."
"What can you find?" Delia asked.
"He was only responsible for bringing people here from the merchant ships."
"Before each operation, someone delivered the ships' schedules and docking locations to him."
"He doesn't know who the messenger was, or where the captives were eventually sent."
"What about the gray-robed man?" Linley asked.
"All he knows is that the other man was called Deacon."
Sessler sneered.
"The Radiant Church loves that title."
The black-clad man's body was still trembling.
His soul had not been destroyed.
This time, Sessler had only read the most superficial layer of his memories.
"Take him outside," Delia said. "He's a living witness."
They continued toward the exit.
By the time they emerged from the old waterway, it was already afternoon.
The delegation's clerks immediately came forward.
Their expressions changed when they saw Cole and the wooden crate full of metal tags.
"Record this," Delia said.
"The time, the location, the order of discovery. Don't leave out a single word."
The clerks immediately took out paper and pens.
Cole was sent to the embassy for treatment.
The black-clad man was confined separately.
Linley did not hand him over to Chiyan City's officials.
The old waterway had only just been exposed, and no one knew how many people in the city belonged to that network.
In the embassy's study, Delia spread out the ledger pages they had salvaged.
Parts of the pages had been soaked.
Most of the writing was still legible.
A number was recorded beside each missing merchant ship.
Level Seven Mages, two.
Level Six Mages, four.
Person with abnormal spiritual energy, one.
Some names also had "damaged" or "transferred out" written beside them.
"They're selecting mages," Linley said.
"They're also selecting souls," Sessler added.
He pointed to the words "person with abnormal spiritual energy."
"Ordinary slave traders wouldn't record this."
Delia continued looking through the pages.
At the end of the ledger pages were several night-sailing permits from the Chiyan City River Affairs Office.
Every missing merchant ship had docked near the old waterway, citing hull inspections or water leaking into the cargo.
The permits all bore the same official seal.
Linley stood.
"Let's go to the River Affairs Bureau."
"Sit down," Delia said.
Linley looked at her.
"These permits are enough to make an arrest."
"They're enough to summon someone for questioning, not enough to establish that the person who stamped them knew everything."
"All twelve ships bore the same seal."
"So he might be involved, or someone might simply have used the official seal without his knowledge."
Delia divided the night navigation permits into two sets.
"If we arrest them now, and they're only scapegoats, the person actually passing on the list will disappear immediately."
"The old waterway has already been exposed," Linley said.
"That's all the more reason not to scare off the second lead."
Delia looked up at him.
"Linley, you promised to follow my methods for this investigation."
Linley fell silent.
He looked at Doehring.
Doehring was examining the black crystal chip.
"Don't look at me," Doehring said. "She's right."
Linley sat back down.
"What do we do next?"
"Copy every ledger page," Delia said. "Divide the originals into three sets for safekeeping."
"One set stays at the Yulan embassy."
"One goes to the Dawson Chamber of Commerce."
"You keep the last set."
"As for the River Affairs Bureau, tomorrow we'll use an official diplomatic document to request all night navigation permits and records of official seal usage from the past six months."
"Without giving them time to prepare?"
"The document won't be written until tonight," Delia said. "Before it arrives, Yale will have the chamber's people watching every exit."
Linley nodded.
"I'll have Bebe watch the person responsible for stamping the permits."
Bebe immediately raised his head.
"No charging in this time," Linley said through Soul Transmission. "Just watch who he meets."
Bebe swished his tail.
"Boss, you've finally learned to let me watch without fighting."
Linley ignored him.
Sessler picked up a metal number tag.
"Once Cole wakes up, I have some questions for him."
"You can't use Soul Search on him," Delia said.
Sessler glanced at her.
"I know."
"He's a survivor, not a prisoner."
"I've lived for over eight hundred years. I can still tell the difference."
Delia did not apologize.
"As long as you can."
Sessler snorted coldly.
Doehring finally put down the black crystal chip.
"This isn't just a key for opening doors."
"The white markings record the light magic formations it passes through."
Delia asked, "Can you read them?"
"Not right now."
Doehring said, "The markings have been sealed. Forcing them open would burn up the chip outright."
"But whoever made it must have a corresponding master chip."
"If the two get close enough, they should react to each other."
Linley looked at the chip.
"So they can find us too?"
"It's possible."
The study fell silent.
Delia reached out and took the chip back.
"Then let them come."
Linley frowned.
"You're planning to use yourself as bait?"
"I'm simply continuing to hold on to my own evidence."
Delia said, "If they come looking because of the chip, that's their choice."
"Teacher Longers is here at the embassy, along with Hadon and Parei."
"This place isn't undefended."
Linley's brow remained furrowed.
Doehring, however, gave a small smile.
"Linley."
"She's already laid out the risks, the guards, and the escape routes."
"You can suggest a better plan."
"But you can't just say no."
Linley looked at Delia.
After a while, he said, "The chip stays at the embassy."
"Bebe will stay here tonight too."
"All right," Delia said.
"But Bebe follows my arrangements."
Linley looked at Bebe.
Bebe circled around on the desk, then finally settled beside Delia.
"Boss, I'm listening to her this time."
Linley nodded helplessly.
Outside the window, the lights of Chiyan City had already come on.
At the same time.
In an unremarkable residence in the northern part of the city, the gray-robed man emerged from an underground trapdoor.
Bebe had clawed several wounds into his back, and blood had already soaked through his robe.
A person wearing white gloves stood inside the room.
"The old waterway is lost?"
"Yes," the gray-robed man said, kneeling. "The Yulan Empire's special envoy, Linley, and Sessler all went in."
"What about the ledger pages?"
"I couldn't burn them all."
The person wearing white gloves was silent for a moment.
"The master chip has reacted."
He took out a white crystal chip.
The black markings on its surface were slowly moving.
"The secondary chip is still at the embassy."
The gray-robed man asked quietly, "Should we retrieve it?"
"No."
The white-gloved hand closed.
The light on the chip went out with it.
"The old waterway was only the first layer."
"Tell the people at the River Affairs Bureau to get ready."
"From now on, keep watch on Delia."
"I want to know who she gives the evidence to."