My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Beatrice pushed the official documents on the table aside and listened patiently to the bald man's words, her expression gradually becoming serious.

Chapter 33 Tarozk, His Hometown

"You mean, a Starry Sky Demon with close ties to the hybrid mage lost contact with the Church of the Demon after descending upon the Western Continent. Now, for unknown reasons, this demon can no longer be found by the hybrid mage, so the Church of the Demon sent a Shadow Demon capable of reading memories to investigate, is that right?"

Beatrice said, "Is this your guess, or is there already a solid chain of evidence? Is there anything I can do?"

Rexor bent his arm and rested it on the edge of the desk. “Beatles, I admit that much of what I said was speculation. But I don’t have any better ideas right now. I need your help. I want to read the true historical records of the Starry Night Kingdom, especially those related to the bandits, including their origins, members, detailed events, and many illogical details. I’m convinced that the evidence of the Black Flag’s existence is hidden in this history. In this respect, I think the same as the Church of the Otherworld.”

Beatrice pondered for a few seconds, "Alright, I'll tell you the truth. There are indeed significant problems with the history of the bandit gang, and while you were telling me your speculations, I had already pieced together the whole story."

"I'm all ears," Rexol said, arms crossed.

“Helmster, do you remember this bio-alchemist? He became a subordinate of Quarovich and used his status as an outer temple researcher and his information advantage to develop his own ordinary people’s power in the province of Spreel.”

Beatrice rummaged in the drawer and took out a bottle of potion, placing it on the table.

Through the glass bottle, you can see the fiery red medicine slowly sliding down the bottle wall.

"Helmsster gave orders to his third-rate alchemists and bandits, instructing them to capture children in the provinces of Spree and Rosac and test them one by one with this fiery red potion."

Beatrice pushed the potion bottle in front of Rexor. "Try this potion."

Rexol uncorked the bottle, and a strong, pungent odor instantly filled the study. Visible red smoke billowed from the bottle opening, as if flames were exploding inside.

“Hiss~” Rexol snorted. “I remember this potion. You mentioned it at the regular meeting between the two halls. At the time, you said it was a special potion that could ignite the user from within.”

“Yes.” Beatrice nodded. “The recipe for this potion comes from Hemsster’s alchemy diary. The materials required for the recipe are not available here in the Western Continent. Third-rate alchemists, guided by Hemsster, can only try to find local materials as substitutes. The potions they concoct have no effect other than causing pain, fever, and ultimately death from bodily damage.”

Beatrice paused, then tilted her chin slightly. "But the one you have is different. I retrieved all the raw materials needed for the recipe from the Temple and personally crafted a batch of potions to deliver to the Temple. The one you have is one I kept as a backup; it has perfect quality and the effects described in the recipe."

Rexol held the vial to his nose and took a deep breath. The fiery red air rushed into his nostrils, and he was surprised to find an unexpected sweetness amidst the spiciness.

He drank the entire potion, feeling the spicy and sweet liquid slide down his throat and into his stomach.

"You feel a little hot." Rexol put the potion bottle on the table and looked at the red palm.

He clenched his fist, swinging his arm to create a whooshing punch in the air. "I can feel a strange power growing within me, as if it's making my muscles stronger. But this power is rapidly waning..."

Rexol patted the muscles on his arm. "Hmm...maybe my resistance to the drug is too strong. This stuff has limited effect on me. Maybe I should find someone with physical abilities closer to that of an average person to try it."

“No need for all that trouble, I can tell you the result directly. In fact, the temple has already conducted experiments on this.” Beatrice put the empty potion bottle back in the drawer and continued:

"The younger the child, the better the effect and the longer the duration of the effect. Children under 15 years old with a lack of spiritual energy may have a small chance of directly awakening their bloodline power after taking this medicine. If the child is too old, or if their spiritual energy has reached the standard of a mage's servant, then the effect of the medicine will only be a temporary strengthening of muscle strength."

"This potion can awaken bloodline power?" Rexor was taken aback. "The Church of the Otherworldly Demons has obtained the formula for a potion that creates artificial bloodlines?"

“No, this potion doesn’t give the user an artificial bloodline.” Beatrice shook her head. “It temporarily increases the user’s bloodline concentration. If the concentration just exceeds the threshold, the user will awaken their bloodline power. If a person doesn’t have any potential bloodline, this potion will only make them feel hot and have no other effect.”

"When I handed over the finished product and research report to the outer sanctuary, we were all puzzled as to why Quarovich would instruct Hemst to instruct mediocre alchemists to concoct this medicine and then test it on children one by one?"

Beatrice said:

"Now, I think we know the answer. They encountered an accident while searching for the Black Flag—this Starry Sky Demon—during its descent to the Western Continent. It may have temporarily transformed into a child and lost some of its memories."

"The Blood Demon, Kualuo Wuqi, traveled all over the country, carefully examining the blood pattern characteristics of everyone, but found nothing."

"Ultimately, it had to have Hemst test the drug on a large scale, hoping to use this potion to stimulate the Black Flag's bloodline power, significantly enhance the Black Flag's bloodline characteristics, and then find the Black Flag. But unfortunately, due to the limitations of materials and alchemy technology, the third-rate alchemist turned the task of finding the Black Flag into a tragedy of child abuse."

Rexor nodded slowly. "I agree with your theory. We need evidence now. Either find the black flag, or find evidence that it breached the defenses of the Starry Sky Border. Do you have any good ideas?"

“After the temple issued the long-term mission to find the Black Flag, I would think about the mission whenever I had free time.” Beatrice took out several notebooks from the drawer. “I used elemental golems to visit two inner sanctum mages in the western continent. These are the magical records of my conversations with them.”

Rexor opened the notebook, which contained dynamic two-dimensional images depicting Beatrice's conversation with the Inner Temple Mage. By focusing his mind on the images, he could hear the recording of their conversation.

The magic log shows that Beatrice first inquired with the Inner Temple mage about the defenses of the Starry Sky Border. The Inner Temple mage replied, "Everything is normal. The number of Starry Sky Demons above the Western Continent is only about three percent of that of the Eastern Continent. The defense pressure is usually very light."

When Beatrice inquired whether any Star Demons had successfully breached the defenses, the two Inner Temple mages replied with unanimous certainty: "No Star Demons have breached the defenses. In fact, due to the small number of attacking Star Demons, they would not have been able to reach the middle layer of the Creation Smoke even without our intervention."

The inner temple mage took Beatrice to see what was happening in the Creation Smoke. Beatrice's elemental golems lingered near the smoke for about half a month.

During this period, the behavior of the Starry Sky Demons was just as described by the inner temple mage—as soon as they came into contact with the outermost layer of the Creation Smoke, more than half of them were melted by the smoke, and by the time they approached the middle layer of the smoke, almost all of them had died or been injured.

Before leaving, Beatrice routinely checked the light elemental status of the inner temple mages to confirm that they had not betrayed the temple.

After reading everything, Rexor asked, "Could it be that the Black Flag didn't descend from the Western Continent? Did it descend from somewhere else and then come to the Western Continent?"

“Now it seems that’s indeed the case.” Beatrice nodded, pointing to another notebook. “This is a list of people. It records all the children who were captured by the bandits and forced to test drugs. My subsequent investigation revealed that in the first two years of the bandits’ rampage, they would receive Hemst’s list before capturing people, and they would only abduct children on the list. But from the third year onwards, they no longer received Hemst’s list, and instead abducted all the children they could based on vague instructions.”

"Why is this happening?" Rexol asked as he read the list.

“Because at that time, you and Adanavardos came to the Western Continent. Especially you. After learning that the Demon Hunter Master was among the expedition team sent by the Temple, the Blood Demon Quarovich immediately stopped its activities in the Starry Night Kingdom and hid in the plains and mountains on the west side of the Storm Mountains,” Beatrice said.

Rexall discovered that in the first half of the list, bandits abducted 10 to 30 children each year, while in the latter half, the number rose to as many as 150 children annually. It's unimaginable how many children and families were destroyed by these bandits, all in search of the hidden Black Flag.

"Are all these children still alive?" Rexol asked.

“Those whose names are underlined are still alive; the others have died from drug trials or other accidents.” Beatrice took out another stack of notebooks. “A few years ago, when I took a break from my royal duties, I worked with Dim to conduct blood concentration tests on these surviving children. These are their blood concentration test reports.”

Rexol glanced at the concentration values ​​on the report, his expression immediately turning serious. "While their bloodline concentrations haven't reached the level required to awaken bloodline power, they're all higher than ordinary people. Is this the effect of the drug, or are they simply special?"

“It’s not the potion that’s working.” Beatrice shook her head. “Like I said before, the potions made by Hemsster’s third-rate alchemists aren’t very effective.”

"So these children have a higher blood concentration?" Rexol asked.

“That’s right. I’ve discovered even more interesting things.” Beatrice took out an old map of the Starry Night Kingdom. The map showed the kingdom’s territory on the east side of the Storm Mountains. At that time, the capital, Starry Night City, was still on the northeast coast of the kingdom, and the country only had a few old provinces such as Starry Night Province and Night South Province.

Beatrice used illusion magic to summon hundreds of small flags and place them on the map, marking each flag with a number ranging from 1 to 10.

“These flags represent the children’s birthplaces. The numbers on the flags indicate the concentration of their bloodline. Can you see anything?” Beatrice asked.

After a moment's thought, Rexor cast an illusion spell, connecting the flags with the same bloodline concentration number using magical lines. This created a bloodline concentration contour line, similar to an altitude map—the outermost coils had lower bloodline concentration numbers, ranging from 1 to 5. The closer to the innermost coils, the higher the bloodline concentration numbers.

There are 10 flags on the contour line at the very center of the coil, and each flag is numbered 10 for blood concentration.

Clearly, something peculiar once existed here, which interfered with the blood concentration of newborn children in the surrounding area through radiation.

If you were to ask where the black flag is most likely to be, the answer would undoubtedly be here!

“Where is this, Beatrice? Are these villages still there?” Rexor asked, sounding somewhat anxious.

“That’s the southernmost part of Rosac province. It’s a pity, Letso, those villages are gone.” Beatrice sighed. “The bandits slaughtered the villagers like madmen and burned everything. Only 10 people survived the disaster, and they were all children who had been kidnapped by the bandits.”

Rexol clenched his fist. "Where are those 10 kids now? Black Flag could very well be hiding among them."

“Three of them are on campus. The other seven live in nearby cities.” Beatrice paused. “One of them, you and I know very well.”

Rexor paused, then looked down at the map, place names, and village names again.

[Tarozik village, Rosac province.]

“The name of this village… I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before…” Rexor pondered for a few seconds, then slapped his forehead, “Shazo! This is Shazo’s hometown!”

Rexor frowned. "He...couldn't be Black Flag. If he were Black Flag, he would have died in the Hall of Creation long ago. But..."

“But what?” Beatrice asked.

“But he’s a pure-blooded mage…” Rexor scratched his head in frustration. “We previously speculated that the Black Flag was an Otherworldly being related to half-blooded mages. Shazo, being a pure-blooded mage, fits this speculation perfectly. He’s also a child born in Tarozk village…”

Rexor picked up the bloodline test report and looked at the bloodline status of the other nine children. Apart from Shazo, who had awakened bloodline power related to bodily activity, the bloodline power of the other nine was not related to that of a half-blood mage.

"Could our deductions be wrong...? The Black Flag has nothing to do with the half-blood mage; it might be some other kind of demon." Rexor placed the test report on the table, feeling frustrated. He took out his flask and took a swig; the cool liquor eased some of his agitation.

After Beatrice waited for the other person to calm down, she asked, "What do you plan to do now?"

Rexor put away his flask, picked up the list and bloodline test report, and said, “I plan to test these people again, the most rigorously. If he is a mage, he will have to remove his elemental husk. If he is a bloodline awakener, his bloodline power will have to be temporarily sealed. If... if he has both, I will also ask him to remove all disguises so that I can test him properly.”

Rexor stuffed the list and bloodline test report into his alchemy pocket. "Where's Shazo? Let's start with him."

“He’s condensing his inner body and elemental body in the quiet room.” Beatrice thought for a moment. “If you want to detect him, I can create an opportunity for you. Although he’s easy to talk to and won’t mind your suspicions or offenses, I still hope that the two of you won’t clash, even though the possibility is very small.”

Rexor, considering Shazo's current status, nodded. "Then what do you suggest?"

“When the inner body is formed, the outer body needs to be removed. At that time, the disguise spells in blood magic will also be temporarily ineffective,” Beatrice said. “This is your best chance to detect him. I will let you know when he reaches this stage.”

“Okay.” Rexol nodded. “I’ll wait for your reply. I’ll go scout out the others first.”

Rexor left the room.

Beatrice tidied the table, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes, as if to rest.

A few minutes later, she used a communication spell to call Erin, who was waiting on the balcony, in.

Chapter 34 Breaking 100

After leaving the study, Rexor found Dim, and the two embarked together on a journey to find the people on the list.

Just as Rexor and his companion were leaving the academy in their airship, Xia Zuo finished reading the book on condensing inner body shells.

He was completely unaware of what was happening in Beatrice's study, as he was fully absorbed in creating the inner shell.

If we compare the outer shell to patching the surface of the body, then the inner shell is like filling the outer shell with solid material, making it stronger and more stable.

Take a chestnut.

A mage with an outer shell ran out of supplies when facing a high-intensity attack. He had no energy left to cast spells, and even the alchemical tools in his alchemy bag were completely used up.

What happens if he continues to be attacked at this point?

The outer shell will crumble at the slightest touch due to the lack of energy source, and the flesh will be charred in high-powered flames.

Imagine if a device were implanted inside the body that could automatically generate elemental energy without the caster expending any energy. Would that give the mage a chance to survive?

The inner shell is such an energy device.

It is a product of the intersection of alchemy and magic.

The inner shell has a total of 216 units, each of which is a small elemental energy generator, or simply an energy unit.

The energy unit is designed to mimic a spiritual ocean, containing 1 to 10 small elements. These small elements are enclosed within the energy unit and continuously output energy.

The process of outputting energy is energy-free, but there is some loss.

The magic array inside the energy unit will be depleted due to the disordered movement of small elements.

The mage needs to maintain the magic circle frequently, otherwise the energy units will become unusable.

The difficulty in condensing the inner shell lies in creating 216 energy units. Each energy unit has a volume of about 5 cubic centimeters, but if it is sliced ​​and laid out on a plane, the unfolded diagram of its internal structure will occupy an area of ​​1 square meter.

The best way to create an energy cell is through the energy injection method, which is similar to injection molding—the caster injects energy into a pre-made mold and, by continuously adjusting the mold details and energy parameters, finally obtains the ideal energy cell.