My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Of all the tower mages present, each knew this spell, but in terms of success rate, Master Lemon undoubtedly had the highest…

Hillenburg knew this, but if he wanted Master Lemon to perform the Appraisal spell, he would first need to consult the alchemy masters.

Hillenburg glanced at Rexor, who was deep in thought, and then instructed Shazo:

“I’ll go and discuss this with Master Adanavardos. Please wait a moment. Xia Zuo, please write a research report on the lungs and gastrointestinal tissue of the baby soft-shelled turtle.”

“Okay, team leader.” Xia Zuo nodded in response, watching the other person walk out of the anti-peeping barrier.

He sat down in the observation chair and began writing a standardized research report.

“Shazo, I need you to do something,” Rexor suddenly said, and then set up several airtight anti-peeping barriers around the two of them, which, together with Hillenburg’s barrier, blocked outside vision.

"Uh..." Xia Zuo paused, his hand holding the pen still. "Master... do you want me to use my blood..."

"Shh..." Rexol gestured for silence, nodded, and took out several bottles of potions from his alchemy pouch, sprinkling them around. Instantly, many different types of energy fluctuations appeared here.

"Let's begin, and be quick."

“Okay…” Xia Zuo glanced nervously at the tower mages outside the barrier, calmed down, entered a shallow meditative state, and skillfully created a blood element servant.

The moment Xia Zuo activated [Flesh and Blood Control] and commanded his blood essence servants to contain the "hair strand," his body involuntarily trembled, and his face was filled with astonishment. "Huh!!??"

"How is it? What's the result?" Rexor immediately grabbed the other's shoulder, his eyes fixed on the blood mass in the air, wary of any possible changes.

Xia Zuo put the "hair strand" back, waved his hand to disperse his blood-element servants, and his mind was churning with thoughts, with more than a dozen ideas flashing through his mind in just a few seconds.

In that brief moment, a message from a cheat code appeared in my mind:

"The host's Blood Element Servant No. 1 has been found to contain an unknown entity. This can be used to forcefully digest the unknown entity. There is a 90% chance of gaining 1 to 6 opportunities to cast the [Telepathy] spell, and a 10% chance of an unknown event occurring."

This was the first time Xia Zuo had encountered this situation. The effect of accommodating the item was not simply to increase or decrease attributes, but to gain the opportunity to cast a spell.

As far as he knew, the telepathy taught in the Temple of Mages did not limit the number of times the spell could be cast each day. Like other spells, telepathy could be cast as many times as the caster wanted, as long as the caster had the energy.

If he digested the "hair strand" using [Flesh and Blood Control] and obtained a 90% probability of the effect, wouldn't that mean that Xia Zuo, who has never learned telepathy, could cast this spell?

Since the "hair strand" effect works on Blood Element Servants, it's highly likely that it will also work normally on Deep Sea Turtle...

Doesn't this mean that the mental energy fluctuations emanating from the deep-sea turtle are artificially created?

Various speculations filled Xia Zuo's mind. He rubbed his temples, took a deep breath, and freed himself from the chaotic thoughts before revealing the information about the "hair" and his own speculations to Rexor beside him.

When describing the effect of the "hair strands," Xia Zuo consciously used a language style closer to alchemy, without directly stating the information provided by the cheat system.

Compared to Shazo's great shock, Rexor, as a master demon hunter, was much calmer.

After listening to the other person's account, the bald man remained silent for a few minutes, then suddenly revealed a very strange expression on his face, as if he had thought of something secret.

At this moment, a question popped into Xia Zuo's mind:

Since "hair" can grant living beings the ability to sense and communicate with them, why did the Church of the Otherworldly Demons choose a deep-sea turtle as its vessel?

Why not choose a monster that is more hidden and less likely to be detected?

Shazo expressed his doubts to Rexor.

Rexor composed himself and waved his hand, saying, "Master Lemon is more authoritative on this matter than I am. After she successfully casts the Appraisal spell, most of the truth will come to light, including your doubts. Why don't you listen to what the expert has to say?"

Xia Zuo had no choice but to suppress his curiosity for the time being.

Rexor inspected the area within the barrier and, after confirming that there were no traces of blood element servants' remaining matter or energy, dispelled the anti-peeping barrier he had set up and waited with Shazo for the arrival of the school's master.

Just then, Hillenburg finished his discussion with Adanavardos and the two were heading towards Master Lemon.

About three minutes later, the three of them stepped into the privacy barrier together.

When Master Lemon first saw the "hair", a look of surprise appeared on her face. Although she quickly suppressed the brief strangeness, it was still noticed by Rexor beside her.

"Lemon, do you recognize this?" Rexor asked.

“I’m not quite sure.” Lemon frowned slightly, drew a few circles behind his head with his fingers, and tied his long hair with a thin blue magical rope to avoid affecting his spellcasting. “This thing looks somewhat similar to a certain spiritual material from the Spiritualist school. I need to cast a high-powered Appraisal spell to confirm it.”

"Gentlemen, the spellcasting process may take several minutes, and I cannot be disturbed during this time."

Raymond waved his hands, creating several magical barriers around himself and "Hair" from the others present. "Don't touch these barriers that block airflow, otherwise the identification may be flawed."

Under Xia Zuo's gaze, Master Lemon's fingers danced as if plucking strings, his ten fingertips radiating different magical energy lights, outlining strands of energy that seemed to have substance.

These bright, differently colored energy threads spiraled down around the "hair," weaving into a colorful, glowing sphere that enveloped the "hair."

The moment the luminous sphere took shape, all the energy threads began to change their respective energy systems and types at an extremely fast speed. The number of colors on the sphere gradually decreased, from nearly ten to six, then three, and finally only one remained—golden white, the color of spiritual energy.

This evolution of energy color is related to the magical principles of identification techniques.

As the signature spell of the Tower Wizards, this school intentionally revealed some of the secrets of the Appraisal spell when compiling "An Introduction to Schools of Spells," in order to increase the school's appeal.

Unlike conventional identification methods, the Identification Spell, as a form of magic, uses the energy reflection of magical energy on the target to identify items.

After learning the language of the weavers, spellcasters will discover that when different types of energy act on the same object in different forms and types, the results of energy reflection will be different.

By recording the characteristics of these energy reflections in the language of those who understand magic and writing them according to a standardized format, a set of magical energy reflection codes that can accurately describe a certain item can be obtained, which is called reflection codes.

Each item has a unique reflection code; there are no two items with exactly the same reflection code.

What Master Lemon is doing now is to emit energy of all types into the "hair strands," collect the reflection codes of the "hair strands," and then match the codes with known items to find a perfect match.

This is the magical principle behind the appraisal technique.

It's simple and easy to understand, but difficult to operate.

To successfully use the Appraisal spell, one must be able to weave magical energy and possess extensive knowledge of reflection coding theory. The High Tower School of Wizardry did not reveal information about these two aspects in its "Introduction to Spell Schools," thus whetting the appetite of every mage curious about the Appraisal spell.

Xia Zuo, who was confident in his cheat-like abilities, was more interested in the knowledge of reflective coding. If he could memorize this knowledge, he might be able to easily obtain the same appraisal results as the appraisal technique simply by using the detection technique that came with his cheat-like abilities.

Just as Xia Zuo was staring blankly at the golden-white sphere, the sphere's light quickly dimmed, and the energy threads that made up the sphere turned into specks of light and dissipated into the air.

Master Lemon removed the barrier around him, his face very solemn.

"Gentlemen, I know what this is now."

"It grants the holder the ability to cast mind spells."

"If the user does not have the basic conditions to cast mind spells, then the ability granted by this item will have a limit on the number of times or the time limit."

"However, if the user possesses a special ability similar to telepathy, then as long as they carry this item, they can permanently have the ability to cast mental spells. I think the Deep Sea Turtle is such a case."

“The name of this prop is…” Lemon paused, uttering a somewhat awkward word:

"Nyxat's tentacles."

The two who reacted the most were Adanavaroth and Hillenburg; the former unconsciously pinched his beard with his fingers, while the latter subconsciously pushed up his glasses.

The two said almost at the same time:

"Spiritual material from a deceased shamanic master?"

"Hasn't he already passed away?"

Rexor had already guessed some of the inside story, and now he had an expression that said, "I knew it."

“Clearly, the reality is more complicated than we thought.” Lemon’s fingers were interlaced in front of her, and her heaving chest suggested that she was also shocked. “We need to have a serious talk with the shaman and prepare for the worst.”

Xia Zuo and his team leader, Hillenburg, were far inferior to the three masters of the school in terms of aptitude. This conversation left them completely bewildered, and they could only roughly guess that something extraordinary had happened.

Rexor crossed his arms and said:

"Those guys at the Shamanic Society are as stubborn as rocks. Even if we went to them with evidence, they wouldn't necessarily react positively; they'd just spout nonsense about 'the natural balance of all things' and 'disruption of balance leads to conflict.' I feel like punching them in the face..."

“This time it’s different, Rexol.”

Lemon reassured the Witcher Master, who was known for his decisive actions, and she had no doubt that he might take action.

"Nyxat's sacrifice was recognized by the Temple and recorded in the annals."

"Now that his spiritual material has emerged, it means that Nyxat is still alive in the world in some way that we do not know."

"This contradicts the historical facts recorded by the Temple."

“If the Shamanic Society doesn’t want to invite a thorough investigation from the Temple—an investigation led by the Demon Hunter School—they will inevitably reveal the truth, even if it’s incomplete.”

“I agree with Lemon’s point of view.” Adanavanados slowly stroked his beard. “The immediate priority is to report to the inner palace. As for our research…”

Adanavardos looked outside the barrier and saw that the alchemists had almost finished their research tasks and were writing their research reports.

The alchemist's work can confirm the unique characteristics of the deep-sea turtle, providing evidence for its compatibility with the tentacles of Nyxath.

The High Tower Master is tracing the direction of the telepathic connection; it will take some time, but he will surely have an accurate result.

With the two combined, it would be easy to target Ner'Xarth himself, or anyone else who opposes the Temple through Ner'Xarth's tentacles.

The two schools of thought once again cooperated amidst competition.

Adanavaldos continued:

"Our research findings can be used as leverage in negotiations with the Shamanic Society."

"I will first dismiss my students and have them swear an oath by the element of light before they leave."

"Then, we invited the shaman master who resides in the outer shrine of the shamanic society in, and together we questioned him about Nyxat. If he was vague or avoided the topic..."

Adanavardos emphasized, "Then let's go to the crater!"

“Let’s do it this way.” Lemon nodded, loosened the hair tie at the back of his head, stepped out of the privacy barrier, and personally went down to track the direction of the mental energy.

Rexor walked alone to a corner and used the cipher ring to contact the people in the inner sanctum.

Adanavardos looked at the only marine alchemist present and said, "Hilenburg, you have done a good job. I will present your research findings truthfully at the school's monthly meeting."

“Thank you, Master Adanavardos.” Hillenburg bowed. “It is what I should do, for the alchemy school, for the nascent ocean alchemy.”

"After you and Shazo complete your oath, leave together. Things will get complicated afterward," Adanavados instructed.

Both Hillenburg and Chazor considered themselves pure alchemists and were determined to avoid anything politically charged, especially since the upcoming academic conference would involve several other schools of thought...

Neither of them had any intention of staying to listen in.

After listening to a few words of advice from his mentor, Xia Zuo followed the group leader in swearing an oath to the light element in his spiritual ocean, and was then sent out of this special area where time was frozen by a beam of teleportation.

When we got back to Lumington, it was only 7:30 p.m.

Shazo said goodbye to Hillenburg and then returned to Poseidon City through the teleportation room.

On his way home using Windwalk, he kept summarizing the intelligence he had gathered that night.

While attempting to create a totem pole, Xia Zuo obtained a spiritual material called Gesangda's tentacles from the Yingrui Academy.

Just now, he learned the name of Nyxath's tentacles and the naming convention of this material—the shaman master's name plus the word "tentacles".