Investigation

Although the operation was successful overall, it was not perfect.

Nia completed the mission the fastest; her Glorious Holy Light was bound and sealed by magical locks, and she had completely lost consciousness. The others ended their battles in different ways. Suoxiate, who was utterly incapable of combat, had only kept the female knight trapped in the labyrinth, and after receiving Nia's Telepathic Communication, she made her escape. Anna, who had overextended herself and failed to complete her mission, was clearly quite frustrated, leaving behind a pile of corpses before also choosing to retreat. Although Yi Aier felt quite good about herself, to prevent her from blasting other targets to pieces as well, Beika forcibly dragged her away from the scene. As for the other targets...

"Is this really okay, Nia?"

Miu'erkasi stood on the hillside, watching the halo recede into the distance. Just moments ago, Nia had withdrawn the barrier spell that had been isolating space. Sensing this, the Weapon Spirit fighting Miu'erkasi immediately transformed into a shooting star and left. Of course, before leaving, she didn't forget to take her master with her. Nia didn't kill the unconscious paladin but let him go, and gave the others the order not to pursue him.

"This is fine for now. We don't want to attract too much attention from the enemy. If we eliminate all Divine Envoys of the Seven Sages, it might force the Temple to devote unnecessary energy to the elven battlefield, which wouldn't be good for our strategy. Besides, we've already gotten what we needed."

Nia glanced at the unconscious priestess, then shifted her gaze to the nearly naked female archer bound and entangled in vines at Kalin's feet, and frowned.

"I played with it for a bit, and it didn't break, so I'm relieved."

Although it seems that's not the case at all, since the person has already said so, there's no point in saying anything more.

"Then, let's go back."

Decisively abandoning her attempt to teach Kalin, Nia raised her staff.

When the Nalu broke free from the magical shackles and regained consciousness, he had no idea how much time had passed.

(Where is this place?)

She looked up, gazing into the pitch-black room. She could hear the clear sound of flowing water, and felt the cold iron shackles on her hands and feet. Even her mouth was gagged with a small iron ball, preventing her from making a sound. Nalu instinctively tried to use divine magic to free herself from these confinement devices, but to her astonishment, she discovered that her divine power was completely unusable here! Although she could still feel the divine power flowing through her body, she could no longer unleash it. Even when Nalu tried to transform back into her weapon form, she failed completely. It seemed as if a strange force was preventing everything she wanted to do, turning this once powerful Weapon Spirit into an ordinary girl.

What do you think?

Through magic, Li Lin gazed at the awakened girl and turned to Nia, asking her a question.

"If Miss Angela were here, I think we would have a better option, but... as things stand for now..."

Nia's expression was grave.

"It's really strange. According to my intelligence, these Weapon Spirit are practically inexperienced. Perhaps that's why they're on the battlefield against the elves rather than the Magic Empire's front. But their level of personification is so high, it just doesn't make sense. The reason we've been able to achieve this level is not only because of your manufacturing skills, Li Lin, but also because we've accumulated and pondered for many years to gain our current souls. But these Weapon Spirit... I don't know how to put it. It feels to me that when I face them, it's as if I'm facing humans, not weapons."

"Humans?"

Upon hearing this, a strange light appeared in Li Lin's eyes.

"Yes."

At this point, Nia nodded and continued.

"We Weapon Spirit are, after all, weapons, so in battle, we don't consider protecting unnecessary parts of ourselves like humans do. However, in my battle, this Weapon Spirit lady behaved very much like a human. She seemed to value her body and life, and her way of thinking was also very similar to humans. While it's understandable that Weapon Spirit like us might develop human emotions if we spend enough time with humans, I think it's impossible for her to be more human-like than humans themselves."

Nia's words made a lot of sense. Although the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys different personalities, they clearly didn't value life itself much, and they had no opinion on some of the values that humans were unusually attached to. However, in their previous conversation, Nia discovered that the Nalu was not like that. If it was because she was a sacred weapon that she had certain obsessions, it would be understandable, but her "humanized" thoughts and behavior always made Nia feel that something was not quite right.

"Of course, I haven't come into contact with weapons created using divine power, so it's difficult to determine whether there are other types of mutations."

The Eternal Library maintained her consistently cautious style.

"Yes, Angela isn't here..."

Thinking of this, Li Lin couldn't help but smile bitterly. If the words "imprisonment" and "girl" were to come to mind for Angela, then the fate of this sacred Weapon Spirit would be unpredictable. As Angela's master, he had always known that the little one wanted to fight the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys in a real battle to determine who truly held the strongest position by his side. Therefore, facing Weapon Spirit that didn't belong to the Magic Empire, the little one was very likely to achieve her goal through a "roundabout" approach. But now, she had vanished without a trace...

Nia seemed to sense Li Lin's feelings and stood quietly beside him, watching him until Li Lin refocused his attention on the matter at hand...

"Do you have any leads on that book?"

"There are some."

As Nia spoke, she placed the book on the desk. Like Weapon Spirit, when they anthropomorphize, their weapons also appear. However, if the Nalu reverts to its original weapon form, the weapons they wield will disappear. This is why Li Lin restricted her transformation forms and instructed Nia to carefully investigate the holy book in her possession.

As for the other Ring Spirit Envoy, they had long since returned to their posts, especially Yi Aier and Anna. As if afraid that Li Lin would scold them for their mistakes, they took the initiative to "atone for their sins" and went to work as soon as they returned to Ringwraith City. This also lightened Nisi's burden - at least she no longer had to think about how much of those damn enchanting materials were actually needed.

"This book is essentially similar to me; it contains many divine spells that the holder can directly access and use."

"Just retrieve it and use it? I don't believe that's something a messenger of the God of Justice could do."

Although the God of Justice has absorbed a great deal of divine power and authority, he is still currently a member of the pantheon of benevolent gods. If the Nalu is a weapon he created, then it would undoubtedly be his follower, even though there is no precedent for a god creating Weapon Spirit. However, considering that this idea was originally Arcane Mage by the creation of angels by gods, the reverse wouldn't make much difference.

However, this leads to a problem.

Angels, naturally, devoutly worship their gods. It would be strange for an apostle who adheres to the principles of justice to wield divine powers like destruction and storms at will. These divine powers not only differ in attributes but sometimes even have completely opposite alignments. The God of Destruction's power is clearly chaotic, while the God of Storms is neutral. According to Nia's investigation of this holy book, only 40% of the spells belong to the order alignment, while the remaining 60% belong to the neutral and chaotic alignments. This includes a large number of spells that not only appear chaotic but are also fundamentally incompatible, such as destruction, fear, love, storms, ocean, fire, and murder. Judging solely from the contents, one would never imagine that an apostle of a God of Justice would possess such a thing.

"So, what about this Weapon Spirit? You should have done faction detection for her, right?"

"Of course I haven't forgotten that, but... it's strange, the faction detection spells aren't working on them."

Unable to perform?

Li Lin felt as if he had heard a lot of news that overturned his common sense today, much like discovering Saturn's moon Enceladus through a telescope and then being surprised to see a UFO base on the outskirts of Mars.

Generally speaking, everyone should have their own alignment, whether it be good, neutral, or evil. Their personality, emotions, and way of dealing with people determine this. Even Weapon Spirit, because they possess personalities, will also have alignment tendencies. Take Nia and the other Seven Ring Spirit Envoys, for example; they are basically in a neutral alignment. The inability to detect alignment only occurs in low-level Weapon Spirit that lack their own will.

Have you ever seen anyone care whether a table is evil or good?

But these so-called Divine Envoys of the Seven Sages clearly not like that... so how could they not have factions?

"Although I highly doubt that the priestess's ability to cast these spells has anything to do with her faith in the God of Justice of Justice, we cannot prove it at present. If Miss Angela were here, she could have trained the priestess to completely disregard the God of Justice, while still being able to cast those spells. In that case, I think we could prove our point. Unfortunately, Miss Angela is not here right now."

When he needed her, the little guy couldn't find her... Li Lin increasingly realized that Angela's disappearance had actually caused him a lot of problems.

"Perhaps we can let Catherine give it a try."

For some reason, Li Lin suddenly said that, which surprised Nia.

"Miss Catherine...?"

Li Lin's feelings towards Catherine were quite complex. First, she filled a century-old void—that "no one had ever gained magical power through faith in magic." Through her intense and fanatical faith in Li Lin, she gained power that no mage had ever possessed before. And according to Li Lin's observation, the way this power was used was more like divine magic than magic. Moreover, as an angel, Catherine possessed considerable divine power and should have a way to use the divine magic in this holy book. Of course, the most troublesome issue was the issue of alignment. Although Li Lin hadn't conducted an alignment detection on Catherine, he was certain that this saintess was clearly not someone without an alignment. However, for now, it seemed that there was no other way to deal with it.

"Then, it's decided."

Li Lin tapped the table, then looked at Nia.

Let's go see the other guest.

Compared to Nalu and the _book_, the female archer wasn't much better off. Whether it was Kalin's twisted sense of humor or something else, when Li Lin entered the cage imprisoning her, he was speechless to find that the vines binding the archer had, whether intentionally or unintentionally, been styled into a tortoise shell bondage by Kalin. And judging from her clumsy technique, it might be her first time...

"Your technique is terrible!"

If Angela were here, she would definitely ridicule Kalin's binding skills while showing a dismissive attitude.

"Waaaaah... Waaaah...!!"

Upon seeing a man enter the room, the female archer involuntarily twisted her body, trying to get away from Li Lin. Although she was still wearing her clothes, they were mostly torn after being "ravaged" by Kalin, rendering them completely ineffective in providing any concealment. Her beautiful, fair, and slender legs were firmly bound behind her by vines, fixing the female archer's posture.

That's really strange.

Noticing the female archer's reaction, Li Lin understood Nia's meaning. Weapon Spirit don't have any particular emotional reaction to nudity. Take the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys, for example; even if they ran naked through Ringwraith City, neither Nia nor Beika would have any strange emotions or thoughts. Their essence is, after all, that of weapons. While they can understand humans wearing clothes to cover their shame, they can't truly empathize. Just like when Nia transformed into her book form, although she witnessed Li Lin and Angela engaging in certain unspeakable acts several times, she still didn't show any particular shame or desire to avoid it. For weapons, such emotions are unnecessary. Therefore, when Li Lin realized that the female archer was actually trying to cover her body because of her gender, he found it very strange.

However, he didn't pay much attention to this. Soon, Li Lin stretched out his right hand and placed it on the female archer's head. As a low chanting began, a faint light appeared on the female archer's body, constantly changing colors. But as soon as Li Lin lowered his hand, these changing colors disappeared without a trace.

As expected, it's impossible to determine which faction they belong to.

Generally speaking, if Li Lin uses magic, the magical light will stabilize after a short while, displaying the color of the target's faction. However, the color disappeared before stabilizing, which indeed matches Nia's conclusion. This, however, only piqued Li Lin's interest further. Judging from the female archer's performance, she should possess faction attributes. So why did the detection spell fail on her? Was it due to an obstacle? Or some unknown change?

In that case, let's just look at their souls.

Thinking this, Li Lin pressed his hand against the female archer's forehead again. Magical runes flashed from the back of his hand, combining to form a new spell incantation. Then, a cold aura mixed with soul energy began to seep into the female archer's body, sensing everything she thought and remembered. Although divine power surged within the female archer's body, resisting the external invasion, the power of Arcane Mage was extraordinary. Soon, Li Lin easily broke through the divine magic's protection and entered the memories of the Weapon Spirit before him.

As the power of his soul deepened, Li Lin's eyes grew increasingly surprised. Although he had made a similar deduction before casting the spell, Li Lin was still very astonished when he verified his deduction.

Just as expected!

Using magical energy, Li Lin witnessed the life of a young girl within the female archer's soul memories. She grew up in a village, hunting in the mountains with her father, and after a series of family misfortunes, joined a mercenary group. She then became a devout follower and librarian of the Temple of the God of Justice, ultimately dying in an accident during a mission... Within these memories, Li Lin also saw things he never expected to see. Finally, the soul of this devout woman, devoted to the God of Justice, was taken to Heaven, and then...

However, this is not the weapon's memory at all!

Li Lin finally understood why Nia sensed that these Weapon Spirit thought "like humans."

Because the souls of these Weapon Spirit were not naturally generated.

Just as Li Lin deduced, cultivating the soul of a naturally occurring Weapon Spirit would take a considerable amount of time and effort, and these Weapon Spirit clearly hadn't undergone that long of cultivation. Therefore, their human-like behavior can only be explained by another reason.

If you can't cultivate a human-like soul into a weapon, then just put a human soul into the weapon.