Hoofed Beast carriage bearing the logo of the [Promising Future] Chamber of Commerce was traveling on the smoothed road, and a Dragonborn was cracking a small leather whip, singing a nameless tune as the carriage bounced along.
Beneath the rain and snow-proof canvas lay the goods the Dragonborn were transporting. The majority of them were junk brought out of Fir City by the Soul Returner, destined to gather dust in Seraphina's warehouse. The rest were items the employer had specifically requested to be delivered to the castle.
Before long, the Dragonborn arrived below the castle. He had seen this Shattered, floating castle countless times, but every time he saw it, he was still deeply shocked.
After hanging a box with a handle on a crooked vine, the Dragonborn completed the cargo transport and headed to the nearby headquarters of the Bright Prospects Chamber of Commerce with the receipt.
The crooked vine carried the box full of documents all the way up to a hole in the wall of the Shattered Castle.
After being relayed through countless vines, the documents were finally presented to Ed.
After flipping through the documents a few times, Ed frowned. The files in front of him seemed to be... warm?
It was winter, and even the best insulated wooden crates couldn't be heated for no reason.
After carefully sensing it, he discovered that this "warmth" did not exist on the physical level, but seemed to come from the realm of Psionic Energy.
There's something strange about these documents.
Just as he was about to use his abilities to input all of this information into the official website and carefully analyze the residual Psionic Energy, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Ed didn't immediately use his ability to sense who the newcomer was; instead, he began mentally using a process of elimination.
The Gungnir are currently undergoing modern military training. Seraphina probably won't come looking for him until his economics class, and the players haven't sent any appointment requests...
With this in mind, Ed already had a guess.
"Please come in."
The door opened, and there stood the Willow, just as expected.
Although this somewhat socially awkward and reclusive lich was also in this ancient castle, he could be described as living a very secluded life. In addition, the lich's research on Territory Secret Pact and rule-altering had recently hit a bottleneck, and Ed realized that he hadn't seen him for quite some time.
"What's the matter? Has the research made progress? Or have you run out of funding?"
The lich didn't answer immediately, but turned to look around, muttering to himself in confusion:
"Hey, is there no one else here?"
"No, it's just the two of us here now. What did you sense?"
"Yes, I sensed a new Psionic Energy emerging, belonging to no one here, yet extremely subtle. If it weren't for the fact that I was eating..."
Willow paused mid-sentence, thought for a moment, and then asked Ed:
Have I told you about the lich's feeding methods?
"No, you only said that as long as there is pure Psionic Energy, the lich will not die."
"That's right, so my method of eating is actually to calm my mind and then use my body to slowly extract pure Psionic Energy from the outside world."
So your meditation is actually just eating?
"Well, you could say that. Of course, I'll eat regular food too."
"Okay, now I understand why you were on the verge of death after I absorbed some of your Psionic Energy. So what exactly are you trying to say?"
"I sensed a new surge of Psionic Energy nearby."
Why didn't I feel it?
Ed scratched his head, feigning confusion, wanting to see just how refined the other person's perception was:
Am I not Middle Tier?
Willow's kind smile twitched slightly, inwardly thinking that her boss seemed to hold a grudge a little.
She had only mentioned him as a Low Tier employee when she first joined the company, but he still remembered it after so long. Moreover, ever since the boss was promoted to Middle Tier, he would always subtly add that comment. It was obvious who he was being sarcastic about.
Thinking of this Willow patiently explained:
"Actually, it's like this: liches are more sensitive to Psionic Energy when they are feeding; otherwise, I probably wouldn't have noticed."
"So, have you found the source of Psionic Energy?"
Ed asked with a sincere expression, while the lich turned his head and said:
"Not yet. If you allow me to Drain Psionic Energy here, I can give it a try."
"It's just a meal, there are plenty of seats here, please sit wherever you like."
Ed didn't seem to mind, waving his hand to let Willow begin her investigation.
The lich found an empty spot to sit down and quickly entered a meditative state, remaining motionless.
Ed held his breath and observed carefully. If it weren't for the surrounding Psionic Energy slowly gathering around it, the lich, which already had some undead characteristics, would have looked even more like it was dead.
A minute later Willow opened her eyes and pointed in Ed's direction.
"I?"
The lich shook his head, pointing downwards at the documents spread out in front of him.
"This?"
The lich nodded and came closer, their two heads huddled together looking at the document, completely ignoring the dense text on it.
"These things have strange and faint traces of Psionic Energy. Where did they come from?"
"The documents the Soul Returner stole from Fir City."
" Fir City? Isn't that the Tree Worship Church city to the south?"
"Yes, so why does Psionic Energy exist?"
"I don't know either..."
Willow thought for a moment and said:
"Could I borrow these things? The residual Psionic Energy on them is too faint; I'd need a large sample size for analysis."
"Yes, but don't damage the text."
"No problem."
Seeing the lich show a rare expression of interest, Ed asked in confusion:
"I didn't realize you were so interested in this kind of thing."
Willow shook her head:
"The research has encountered some problems, so I plan to put it on hold for now."
Hearing his employees speak like that, Ed couldn't help but feel thankful that he wasn't a boss in the real world.
If it were a slave owner who couldn't stand seeing his employees idle, he would definitely add more projects and workload at this point.
"Okay, then use this to relax for now. We can share any discoveries we make."
"No problem."
In the end, the lich left satisfied with a large stack of documents, while Ed secretly kept one of them, flipping through it and admiring it.
So that explains why the players' supply depots were discovered...
So where did these documents come from?
With these questions in mind, Ed leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes slightly, and began to trace back all the player vision records related to this document.
[ Good Times Don't Last ] and [ Do Some Farm Work ], one in the real world and the other in the World of Disorder, constantly communicate and gather information from each other:
[ Clear Soup Master ] brought intelligence that if you want to avoid the Treant Hunter ' attacks, you need to wear the Holy City- style Holy Crusaders combat robes at night. The local robes are not very effective. This wandering Treant has now confirmed the location of the reinforcements from near the Holy City.
[ Zhong Lele ] told the two that his tunnel was expected to reach outside the city in three days, and the exit was in the woods outside the city wall, which seemed to be relatively well hidden.
[ Ginseng Rooster ] has confirmed that the Holy Crusaders that launched the attack was the Second and Third Order of Knights of the local Holy Crusaders in Fir City, led by Grand Knight Commander Gorn of the Third Order of Knights. He is currently gathering more information to determine the percentage of Fallen One in these two knights' orders.
[ Mysterious Goblin ] and [ Dark and Heavy Secret ] provide free information on the location of the Second Order of Knights and escape guides to shake off pursuers...
As intelligence gathered, [ the Good Times Don't Last ] knew that the revenge he had been waiting for was about to arrive.