My health recovery is incredibly fast.

"If you find any suspicious clues, you can give them to me as well."

“Very well, Your Excellency. I’ve always carried these things with me, and I can hand them over to you now.” Yanni took a leather bookcase out of her alchemy pouch.

Xia Zuo took the box with his hand made of silver sand, opened it remotely, and let the books inside float to his side, quickly browsing through them.

When Kristor was promoted to High Mage, one of the spellbooks she received contained an enchantment spell called [Reading Acceleration].

This spell can significantly enhance the caster's reading speed for a short period of time. For every 20 points of non-elemental power invested, the caster can read an additional book in the same amount of time.

Xia Zuo can now easily read seven books at the same time.

About 20 minutes later, Xia Zuo finished reading the seven notebooks.

The large amount of text information he received in a short period of time caused his forehead to swell slightly, making him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Xia Zuo suppressed the urge to rub his temples and press his forehead, striving to maintain the image of a profound and unfathomable high-level mage.

During his short rest, he quickly reviewed the whole incident in his mind.

About 10 days ago, the kingdom's army, while fighting against the monster invasion, unexpectedly discovered several monster cubs - 4 saber-toothed porcupine cubs and 3 creek hydra cubs.

Some people in the kingdom's army suggested: Could we tame monster cubs to fight against monsters?

It must be said that this idea is rather unconventional among many strategies, and it has gained the approval of some innovative and pioneering people in the country.

The Masano Provincial Council decided to give it a try. As a result, the seven monster cubs survived and were brought to the city of Masano.

Five days ago, these seven monster cubs broke free of their cages and embarked on a journey to escape into the central mountains of the western continent.

In the end, they succeeded.

For Xia Zuo, who was aware of the plan to release the monsters, the number of monsters that escaped this time was not large, and their growth stage was limited to infancy. Overall, they posed little threat and the consequences were not too serious.

The problem is that neither the saber-toothed porcupine cubs nor the creek serpent larvae are the kind of monsters that can stealthily move around.

They are very similar to human infants in their active nature; if they are not watched by their parents, they will run around and cause trouble.

Moreover, the droppings of saber-toothed porcupines and the saliva of stream snakes both have a strong, pungent odor, making them easy targets for trained fortress garrisons and garrison mages…

The search results recorded by Yani showed that the group of monsters left almost no trace within the kingdom. Even if they accidentally revealed their presence, it was covered up by someone, as if someone had escorted the group of monsters out of the kingdom.

All the evidence points to one hypothesis:

A person with deep knowledge of monster habits and how to care for monster cubs, after mastering the layout of the kingdom's defense lines, secretly transferred this batch of monsters abroad. His purpose might be to perform flesh-and-blood alchemy to create even more powerful monsters, or perhaps to craft alchemical armor. Because the kingdom had suffered from banditry, internal checks were now far more stringent than before, so this unknown mission had to be carried out in the desolate, uninhabited central mountains.

In summary, the scope of the investigation has been narrowed down considerably, with the focus now on the fact that the target individual is well-versed in the habits of monsters.

txt80.com

Chapter 18 Breaking the Rules

Assuming the target is a member of the temple, then the entry point is someone related to bio-alchemy, as only this alchemy school can conduct in-depth research on the habits of monster cubs.

…呃

...Bioalchemy again?

Xia Zuo restrained himself from scratching the back of his head, and secretly sighed to himself that bio-alchemy was indeed an alchemical discipline that easily produced traitors... Bio-alchemists had to come into contact with monsters all day long, and if they weren't careful, they would be targeted by a half-blood mage possessing a monster.

Xia Zuo pondered for a moment, then flipped through the notebook in front of him again and began to read it carefully.

Years ago, there were traces of ordinary people involved in Helmst's betrayal of the Temple. Most notably, when Helmst attempted to leave the Warriors' Guild, the people guarding the gate driving the carriage were ordinary people. After confirming that Helmst couldn't leave the Warriors' Guild, these accomplices deliberately caused a plague outside the city.

Throughout the entire process of releasing the plague source, Helmst did not need to lift a finger; it was all done by ordinary people.

The combination of Temple traitors providing intelligence and controlled supplies, and ordinary accomplices carrying out the plan, could very well have been applied to the recent escape of the monster cubs. Those who helped the monster cubs escape and clean up the trail were not Temple traitors, but a group of ordinary people.

Xia Zuo reviewed the garrison mages' work records and found that everyone was normal, and no one had left their posts without authorization. There were no abnormalities in resource requisitions, spellcasting permits, or field reports. This undoubtedly increased the possibility that ordinary people were involved.

Let's look at the researchers from the Western Continent sent by the Temple.

Only two alchemists from the Silvermoon Federation have access to these monster cubs.

In the fortress of Pisco, his public identity is that of a herbalist who runs a pharmacy and helps the garrison treat injuries caused by monsters, but he does not participate in the affairs of the garrison.

The other one is in Masano City, responsible for raising monster cubs. Intuitively, this person is the most suspicious, since the monster cubs escaped from his care.

However, he was unaware of the layout of the academy mage defenses in Pisco Bastion. Even if he secretly released the monster cubs and guided his ordinary accomplices to bypass the army's defenses, he could not escape the academy mages' blockade.

After the incident, the person immediately reported to the leader of the research team and voluntarily accepted the investigation in order to clear his name.

Therefore, the problem returns to the resident mages of Pisco Bastion, as only they know the defensive layout of the academy mages.

If a traitor among the garrisoned mages had contact with the Church of the Otherworldly Demons, then he must have some degree of filth about him.

Each school of thought within the temple had its own methods for detecting impurity.

Scholars in the Tower will use the [Identification] spell to detect anomalous spell codes.

Xia Zuo planned to take advantage of the opportunity to cast this spell and use the detection technique given to him by his cheat code to take a good look.

He closed the notebook, pondered for a moment, and then asked:

"Yani, the records you submitted are very detailed. Go and summon all the resident mages."

"Yes, Your Excellency. I'll go right away." Yani gave a slight bow, transformed into a magical bat, and flew down.

A few minutes later, a group of five garrison mages stood in a line in front of Xia Zuo.

"Gentlemen, I need to detect any potential demonic corruption." Xia Zuo slowly paced in front of everyone, observing the changes in each person's expression. "Each of you will dismantle your elemental body one by one. Only after I have completed the detection can you resummon your body. I know this may cause elemental dissipation. But rest assured, I will compensate you for your losses."

The elemental shell can interfere with many detection spells, leading to incorrect detection results. The cheat-like detection spell faces the same problem, but the results are simply less detailed.

Xia Zuo stood in front of everyone and pointed to Yani, who was standing at the very front of the line, "Let's start with you."

Yanni nodded calmly, took a deep breath, and entered a light meditative state. A colorful outer shell appeared on her body, which flickered a few times before disappearing.

Xia Zuo raised his hands, palms facing Yani, and released silk-like magical lines, a magical phenomenon of the Appraisal spell.

Xia Zuo cast the Detection spell along with the Appraisal spell, obtaining a precise character template. Details of identity, elemental resistances, eight attributes, spell power, character talents, and other data were all fully displayed on the template.

Yani's stats are all at normal levels, and she has no other identity besides being an academy mage or an alchemist.

She has no problem.

Xia Zuo lowered his hands. "Detection complete. Summon the elemental body."

The colorful shell reappeared on Yanni's body, turning transparent in a second.

“Next.” Xia Zuo pointed to the female mage next to Yani. She had also dispelled the elemental anomaly, allowing Xia Zuo to cast his Appraisal spell.

The resident monk is also fine.

After detecting four garrison mages in a row, it was soon the turn of the youngest member of the group.

According to Yanni's notebook, the resident mage is named Erline, a natural affinity user, and just turned 18 this year. She has been away from the academy for less than half a year. Guarding the Pisco fortress is her first job.

Erin was visibly nervous when questioned by the high-ranking mage.

Xia Zuo thought that Erlin was acting awkwardly because she lacked experience in dealing with people, but as soon as he cast his detection spell, he immediately knew that things were not so simple.

..

[Character Name] Erin

[Identity 1] Alchemist at Starry Night Academy

[Identity 2] Official Mage of Starry Night Academy

[Identity 3] Magistrate of Piscol Fortress

[Identity 4] Beast Speaker (Bloodline Awakening)

(The rest omitted)

..

Erin has awakened her bloodline power!

The identification numbers are ordered sequentially.

Therefore... Erin awakened her bloodline power only after becoming the resident mage.

Can a fully qualified mage become a bloodline awakener?

Has this happened before?

Xia Zuo maintained his identification technique while quickly thinking.

According to documents from the Second Era to the present, as well as reports from bloodline awakeners at Starry Night Academy, a person will not awaken bloodline power once they have absorbed elements.

For this reason, the Starry Night Academy has never required its mage apprentices to participate in the bloodline concentration test, which is conducted every two months.

Now, a living example was standing right in front of Xia Zuo, and he instantly felt that the bloodline awakening pattern formed by past history had been broken.

Perhaps among the many mages stationed in the city, Erin is not the only one who has awakened her bloodline power.

Xia Zuo immediately realized the seriousness of the situation.

If, before the Shadow Energy Sub-Dimension is fully constructed, any of the garrison mages awakens the bloodline of a Shadow Mage... that would be disastrous.

“Alright. Summon your elemental bodies,” Xia Zuo said calmly. “Next, I will speak with each of you individually.”

Xia Zuo pointed at Erin, "Let's start with you, everyone else go..."

Chapter 19 Rhetoric

Yani and the other three resident mages used magic to leave the top floor.

Erin was left alone by Xia Zuo, and she immediately became very uneasy.

"Relax, let's sit down and talk." Xia Zuo wove a magical sofa out of silver sand and invited the other person to sit down.

Although the character template provided by the Detection Spell did not indicate that Erin had any connection with the Church of the Otherworldly Demons, Xia Zuo still kept a few extra precautions in mind.

The silver sand sofa where the two were sitting could be used as an enhanced version of a magical cage. If Erin showed hostility, Xia Zuo would use the silver sand sofa to bind her.

Secondly, after sitting down, Xia Zuo placed his hands in front of him, covered the secret message ring on his palm with his sleeve, and sent a secret message to Beatrice.

The fact that temple mages can also awaken bloodline power must be reported immediately, both for safety reasons and to ensure the overall situation is in order to prevent any disruption to the plan to build the sub-plane passage.