Wizard Earl

"Following the secret passage, I quickly returned to its entrance. However, unlike my expected smooth exit, the altar I had moved when entering the passage had been moved back, blocking the entrance once more. And Philo, whom I had suspected had escaped from the Ersakun barrier, was dead right there at the entrance!" Taking a deep breath, Connor solemnly stated:

"Connor, you mean you didn't kill Philo?" Margaret, sitting quietly in Connor's lap and listening to his story, showed a hint of surprise on her pretty face, then asked in return:

That day in the secret passage, she saw Connor unconscious, looking severely injured. Not far from Connor was Firo's body. She immediately assumed that Connor and Firo had fought. Although Connor had killed Firo, he was also seriously injured, which was why he had fainted. Because of this, Margaret was also curious as to why the secret passage was so clean, without any signs of a battle.

"No! When I saw Philo, he was already completely dead. Apart from being extremely cold, there were no other suspicious signs on his body. It looked like he died because of a mistake in his cultivation."

As soon as he finished speaking, Connor seemed to remember something. He took out a crystal ball from his spatial ring, placed it in Margaret's hand, and then a faint smile appeared on his face. He continued, "At that time, because Philo's soul had already begun to dissipate, although I vaguely felt that Philo's death was not as normal as it seemed, I did not investigate it further."

"I immediately used the Soul-Seizing Technique to try and extract the Blood Moon Codex from his memories. I was quite lucky; after resolving a few minor troubles, I actually managed to obtain these contents from Philo's memories. I've recorded all of this content into this crystal ball. Margaret, take a look, is this what you wanted?"

Before Connor's voice had even faded completely, Margaret, realizing that the crystal ball in her hand contained the Blood Moon Codex, immediately had a brilliant light in her beautiful eyes. Without hesitation, she immediately immersed her spiritual power into the crystal ball to study the Blood Moon Codex.

Ten minutes later, after finishing her observation, Margaret withdrew her mental energy from the crystal ball and launched a surprise attack on Connor. She embraced him and pressed her luscious red lips tightly to his. After a long, lingering kiss, the excited Margaret finally recovered from her mental frenzy and said excitedly, "With the Blood Moon Codex, I no longer have to worry about making mistakes in my cultivation..."

Hearing this, Connor looked at Margaret tenderly. He had finally fulfilled his promise to Margaret and had not let her down.

After carefully placing the crystal ball containing the Blood Moon Codex back into her spatial ring, Margaret blinked, seemingly remembering something. She looked up at Connor, who was standing close by, and asked, "Connor, since you used Soul-Seizing Technique on Philo and obtained the Blood Moon Codex from his memories, did you check how Philo died?"

Upon hearing Margaret's question, Connor's expression turned somewhat bitter. He shook his head and explained, "At that time, much of Philo's soul had dissipated, but his most recent memories were still preserved. However, all those memories—how Philo came out of the Ersakun Barrier, how he arrived at the entrance of the secret passage, and what caused his death—were erased by something. I couldn't find any valuable clues in those remaining fragments of memory."

Noticing the subtle detail that Connor used "something" instead of "someone" in his description, Margaret's expression changed slightly. She asked Connor in a low, somewhat surprised voice, "Connor, are you suspecting that the one who erased Firo's memories and killed Firo wasn't a wizard, but some kind of monster?"

Connor nodded frankly in response to his confidante Margaret's question, indicating that Margaret was right. Then, he took out a spatial ring from his pocket and showed it to Margaret.

"Is this Philo's spatial ring?"

After a brief examination, Margaret recognized the origin of the spatial ring that Connor had taken out. Because she wanted to obtain the Blood Moon Codex to solve her own cultivation problems, Margaret had been paying close attention to Firo's news through the Storm Church's intelligence system. That's why she could tell at a glance that this ring belonged to Firo.

"That's right, this is Philo's spatial ring. When I saw Philo's body, this spatial ring was still on his body, without any signs of tampering. Margrot, think about it, if Philo was killed by a human wizard, wouldn't he know the value of this spatial ring and the cultivation resources inside?"

"Knowing the value of this ring and its contents, wouldn't you be tempted? Besides, I haven't found any trace of other wizards in the dungeon or the secret passages!" Connor said in a deep voice, a hint of doubt in his eyes.

Upon hearing Connor's idea, Margaret looked at the spatial ring in Connor's hand, pondered for a few seconds, and then slowly nodded, clearly agreeing with Connor's idea.

Seeing this, Connor continued, "Given my condition at the time, I realized that there might be monsters hiding in the shadows. Naturally, I didn't want to stay in the secret passage any longer and wanted to leave immediately. Unfortunately, the entrance to the secret passage was blocked by the altar. I tried all the conventional methods, but none of them could open the altar."

"But the structure of the secret passage is too fragile. If I were to use the alchemy bomb to blow it up, although it would definitely blast the altar open, the entire secret passage would most likely collapse due to the shockwave from the explosion. I would also be in grave danger. So, just when I was in a dilemma, thankfully Margaret, you appeared..."

At this point, Connor looked down at Margaret in his arms, his eyes filled with gratitude. To be honest, even now, thinking back to that situation, if Margaret hadn't appeared, Connor wouldn't have had any particularly good way to escape safely from the dangerous secret passage.

"Connor, did you see the monster you mentioned?" After carefully considering the information Connor had given her, Margaret asked with some curiosity: