Today, they too are going to their deaths.

"A fantasy demon?"

The Duke of Surrey's words failed to move anyone, except for the Dean, who was curious about them.

"What is that thing? How did you come up with the idea that I would offer a sacrifice to an imaginary demon?"

Duke Surrey sneered, "At a time like this, you still want to pretend! Why don't you create simpler mechanical constructs instead of directly creating intelligent mechanical life? How can steam power alone propel such a massive steam behemoth? Why has the number of inventions from the Royal Academy of Sciences exploded in recent years?"

"Is there any other answer besides trading with beings other than humans?"

The dean answered each question patiently, as if instructing students: "The method of creating mechanical life is an improvement on the spirit-awakening magic of the northern islands. It is just that the method has changed from molding short-lived monsters from clay to infusing life into sturdy containers made of steel."

"Steam technology doesn't have much power at the purely material level, so most machines today are powered by steam engines that simulate the movement of elements to drive other forces. In a sense, the improved steam engine can also be called an elemental furnace."

"As for the surge in the number of inventions? This is the result of talent training programs over the years, the repeated expansion of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and the upgrading of research tools."

"If you had enough intelligence personnel, you wouldn't have come to such an absurd conclusion. So, am I saying that I accidentally killed all your spies, leaving you to rely on mere clues and wild guesses?"

The Duke of Surrey scoffed at the Dean's answer, scoffing, "What a fine liar! You've woven such a near-perfect lie that you've even fooled yourself, but you can't fool me!"

"I know you all too well: cruel, cold-blooded, two-faced, profit-driven, a research machine utterly devoid of humanity. The sudden lockdown of the Royal Academy of Sciences just now was probably your attempt to fake your death to break the contract with the Imaginary Demon and deny it, wasn't it?"

"Heh, if I hadn't happened to possess the same skill, I probably wouldn't have thought of that either."

This conjecture finally piqued Cui Xun's curiosity, and he pressed for details, asking, "How did you fake your death to deceive the contract? Could you explain in detail how this method is performed?"

For the past month, Cui Xun has been studying the extraordinary systems of the current world, especially the oath power of the Albion royal family. After reading all the original texts related to oath power provided by Charlemagne, he was not satisfied and went on to read the contract-based spells of other systems as well.

In general, contract-based spells in this world can be simply divided into "contracts between multiple beings", "contracts with concepts such as death, earth, and sea", and "contracts with oneself" depending on the object.

The first type of contract can achieve a supervisory effect that surpasses the law through supernatural means. The second type of contract can often cause large-scale environmental impact or bring about powerful forces. The third type of contract can achieve the effects of self-discipline, life reshaping, and securing the future.

However, powerful contracts often come at a significant cost, and Cui Xun has yet to cast any permanent contract-type spells.

Now that he knows someone can fake their death to circumvent the contract, he suddenly became interested.

The Duke of Surrey had no intention of satisfying Cui Xun's curiosity. He retorted sarcastically, "When you seek knowledge from someone, do you grab their hair and lift their head up like this?"

Cui Xun retorted, "Otherwise what? Cut your flesh piece by piece and torture you? I don't know much about empathy spells, and even if I torture your puppet like this, it won't transmit the pain to you. I'm too lazy to waste my energy."

"However, it seems I'm not without other ways to humiliate you. How about I throw your head into a cesspool?"

The dean kindly reminded them, "The waste in the Seventh New District is partly self-circulating, and partly flows directly to the Solar Tower through the sewage pipes. There are no latrines in the conventional sense."

Before Duke Sari could recover from his shock, Cui Xun decisively said, "At times like this, we must use the power of authority to make one now."

The Duke of Surrey could no longer contain himself. He demanded, "What deep-seated grudge do you hold against me that you would do something so utterly uncouth?"

Cui Xun said bluntly, "I heard from a friend that you're a loan shark, and I hate that kind of behavior."

The Duke of Surrey retorted, "My willingness to lend money to others already surpasses that of 99% of the world's population, making me the last savior for many."

"Those who want to take a leap forward and seize the opportunity can use it to gain a stepping stone to heaven, while the incompetent and foolish will become the lubricant that accelerates the operation of society in their failures, and even those who lack motivation will be subject to external supervision and criticism."

"What reason is there to be angry about something that benefits the public and the kingdom!"

Tessa exclaimed in shock, "He said it! The Duke, in such a shameless tone, gave such a depraved answer without hesitation, and he even acts like it's no problem at all!"

"Brother Cui Xun, please allow me to throw it into the latrine myself!"

Duke Sari quickly reminded him, "Wait, this is just remotely controlling a puppet. Even if you throw this head into the filthy land, I can simply transfer my consciousness out, and you'll be wasting your time."

Tessa said nonchalantly, "It doesn't matter, I just want to humiliate you as much as I can anyway."

The Duke is a terrifying figure. If she weren't in the Seventh New District and without Cui Xun's protection, Tessa would probably only dare to glance at the Duke from afar, let alone have such a rebellious thought as to humiliate him.

But her current stance has already proven that she is hostile to the Duke, and as a human being, she cannot accept such a madman who ravages others and expects them to be grateful.

Although she hadn't experienced it firsthand, she had witnessed countless times how loan sharks destroyed a person. It didn't just give the greedy a chance; it used a whole process to drive everyone targeted into a corner, squeezing out every last drop of blood.

People driven mad by addiction, people who have lost all their property, people whose wives and daughters have been taken as collateral, people whose organs have been harvested...

They were far away from her and had nothing to do with her, yet they were also very close to her, so close that one day she might become their target. As a result, she was terrified whenever she thought about herself and her friends being targeted, and she wished she could kill them all.

The Duke of Surrey's expression turned extremely ugly. He had never encountered anyone who was so utterly shameless yet able to suppress him.

Based on past experience, he felt this was just Cui Xun threatening him. After all, no rational person would ever offend someone with such important intelligence and immense power.

But he has no way of guaranteeing that Cui Xun, this barbarian who came from who-knows-where, and this lowly peasant who came from who-knows-where in front of him, will not act impulsively.

When Tessa actually took action, trying to find others to help create execution props on the spot, Duke Sari finally couldn't hold back any longer and decided to sacrifice some information to save his own head: "Alright, in order to expose the true face of our dear Dean, I'll explain the principle of feigned death."

"The Serpent Cult possesses a ritual called the Molting Ritual. The ritual props, environment, and core serpentic arts used in it can be flexibly changed, resulting in drastically different outcomes between the highest and lowest level rituals, creating a huge gap between bishops."

"The more powerful the molting ritual, the stronger the impact it will have, and it may even completely etch the power of molting into the bishop's soul."

"Unlike snakes in nature, which shed their skin simply because their scales cannot grow, the molting in the transcendental concept is the birth of something new from something old, achieving the birth of a new self through the death of the old self."

"Therefore, the rite of molting can get rid of most contract-related effects through this rebirth."

"In addition, if bishops can still recall the experience of the moment of shedding their skin after the ceremony, truly achieve a sleep like death, and then wake up from death, then they can shed their skin again and again without the aid of the ceremony, thus escaping death."

"Our dear Dean, who once went by the name 'Ki-Lin' in the Serpent Cult, was extremely skilled at faking his death and even used this method to avoid the enemy's curses in battle many times."

The dean corrected him, "My feigned death was merely a deliberate avoidance of battle, followed by bribing others to say that I died briefly in combat."

"As for avoiding curses? Part of it is a rumor, and the other part is because I carry a complete set of protective gear with me, which can easily deflect or protect me from curses and block other types of attacks."

"At that time, although I had to serve the Serpent Cult because I did not gain the knowledge I wanted, I personally despised it."

The Duke of Surrey firmly denied it: "Impossible! If I can do it, there's no reason you can't!"

As he spoke, a sudden realization dawned on him, and he understood exactly where the problem lay: "I get it! You weren't just fooling yourself; you're simply a snake's shed skin left behind by a symbiote!"

The instant Duke Sari uttered those words, Cui Xun felt a force that had been covering the entire Royal Academy of Sciences, as natural as the environment itself, suddenly surge toward Duke Sari's head.

Cui Xun instinctively reached out and grabbed, trying to use his hand to block the force that seemed to want to kill Duke Sari or do something else.

The next moment, Cui Xun felt his thoughts split into two parts.

One part of the mind, suppressed by willpower, maintained its observation of the normal world and the mysterious power, while the other part was affected by the mysterious power, seeing the world turn into a frozen gray-white color, and a gentleman in a suit who looked debonair suddenly walked towards the Duke of Surrey.

"Hello, let me introduce myself. I am the fantasy demon you just mentioned. As you guessed, there's a small problem with my contract. A skilled conman has taken a large sum of money from me and is planning to renege on the deal."

"I want to make a deal with you and help me get back the money I owe you. As for the reward, that's up to you."

Faced with the only living being in the frozen, gray world, Duke Sari was extremely nervous. He never imagined that he would be targeted by a demon.

Most of the nobles of the Kingdom of Albion despise the beliefs of other races such as demons and totem gods, believing them to be nothing more than garbage created by human imagination and no match for the power of the kingdom. But when facing such a monster alone, who could not be nervous?

Whether the imaginary demon controlled his senses or actually created an independent flow of time, such a monster was not one he could defy... right?

In the gray, frozen world, Cui Xun, who should have been unable to move, reached out and patted the Demon of Imagination on the shoulder: "Hey, you're not a loan shark too, are you?"

The willpower that can shake reality can naturally shake things that are far weaker—such as the mental interference that a demon might use to create an air of mystery.

Now, there's one more person "sweating profusely" in this gray and white world.

Although the daydreaming demon was nervous, he still smiled and raised his hands as if everything was under control, answering Cui Xun's question lightly: "How could that be? I'm just a diligent businessman who ended up being tricked by an evil old scoundrel."

Cui Xun was unconvinced and instead channeled even more of his willpower into the space: "I've read many stories about demons. It's because demons always deceive those who make deals with them that you are called demons, not worshipped as gods."

The delusional demon confidently declared, "Sir, that's an old concept from the past. Now it's a new era, an era where people yearn to see saints fall from grace and prostitutes reform, and are more interested in entertainment than faith."

"As a newborn in this era, I am naturally just a monster in name only. In reality, I am pure and kind, never deceitful, and a pitiful little thing who has to endure the humiliation of others. After all, you see, the monsters in stories nowadays are all like that."

"My contract with Mr. Gottlieb is that he gives me all the ideas born within the Royal Academy of Sciences, and I give him the wisdom from the demon of imagination, and finally take away his soul."

"This was a normal transaction, exchanging uncertainty for certain gains. But he tampered with the contract, took my power for free, and refused to pay. I can't take away the inspiration from the Royal Academy of Sciences, nor can I take away his soul, yet I have to provide them with wisdom for free."

"Clearly, I am an innocent victim."

The delusional demon spoke with absolute certainty, as if these things were true, but Cui Xun never believed anyone's one-sided story. Even if his ability to discern crimes failed, he tacitly accepted that the delusional demon was deceiving him, and all information could only be used as a reference and not be completely trusted.

Before Cui Xun could ask any further questions, he sensed the power permeating the Royal Academy of Sciences in the real world crack. The power possessed by the Imaginary Demon seemed exceptionally weak compared to the entire Royal Academy of Sciences.

The gray, frozen world was supposed to allow the imaginary demon and Bishop Sari to enjoy some time alone, but Cui Xun's willpower interfered, causing the flow of time here to change.

The Imaginary Demon failed to evade the power of the Royal Academy of Sciences as it had anticipated. Faced with the Royal Academy of Sciences' counterattack, it fled without hesitation.

The gray, frozen world also collapsed.