My health recovery is incredibly fast.

He took out the surveillance orb he had made in advance and placed it on the base of the orb.

After energy was injected into the jewel, a clear holographic projection appeared above the jewel, showing a huge, packed venue in front of Xia Zuo.

Xia Zuo reached out and turned the base of the jewel, and the angle of the holographic projection changed accordingly, slowly surveying every corner of the venue.

On either side of him, about 5 meters apart, there is a uniquely designed monitoring bead projection.

Xia Zuo looked at the base of the two orbs and saw the names of Krestor and another pureblood mage on it—Revinia, who sounded like a female pureblood mage.

Christo's projection has the appearance of a stemmed glass, with a pearl floating on the surface of a glass of red wine, and square ice cubes below the surface.

Revinia's projection is a seashell, and its jewel is the seashell's bright red pearl.

Further away on both sides, there were also projections of the orbs of a dozen or so pure-blooded mages, each with a unique design that reflected their individuality and status.

Xia Zuo's was rather unusual... it was just a bare, round, transparent sphere, which stood out among all the fancy jewels.

There's nothing he can do... he hasn't decided on the appearance and visual effects for his precious gem yet.

Gorgeous jewels in various shapes, such as eye-shaped, shell-shaped, and teardrop-shaped, can be seen everywhere in this venue. Xia Zuo even saw several jewels with similar appearances.

In an environment where everyone is racking their brains to create eye-catching designs, surveillance orbs that maintain a simple shape are actually quite rare.

As Xia Zuo admired the appearance of everyone's gems, he also identified the ownership of the gems in each area, and gradually his findings matched what Selena had told him the day before.

The entire venue is bowl-shaped.

The top six rows of seats are the seating area for the monks in the inner sanctum.

Shazo and Krestor, along with other pure-blood mages, sat in the topmost circle of seats, about five meters apart. A dozen or so original pure-blood mages, along with dozens of their descendants, formed a complete circle around the hall.

Two levels below are sorcerers with various bloodline powers, such as sand sorcerers, fire sorcerers, ice sorcerers, and lightning sorcerers. Their bloodline type can be seen from the appearance of the orb, which is either swirling sand and leaping flames, or chilling cold and moving lightning.

From the 3rd to the 6th floor, there are various inner sanctum mages who do not possess bloodline power. Judging from the emblems on the orbs, they are all from the Tower Scholars school.

The system is divided into sectors from the 7th layer down to the lowest.

At the bottom of the venue was a circular conference table, around which representatives from various schools of thought and departments sat.

It is worth noting that, apart from the different projections of the orbs on the inner sanctum members, most of the outer sanctum members have a uniform "outfit" for their orbs.

Like Xia Zuo's alchemy teacher during his studies, Adanavados, and the alchemy masters he led all used the shape of an alchemical crucible to decorate the jewels—a spoon scooping the jewels out of the steaming crucible, which looks a bit like scooping out glutinous rice balls.

Rexor and the other Witchers also arrived. Their orbs were shaped like black dragon heads, with amber eyes adorning the dragon heads.

Besides these two, there's also Hillenburg, who has just been promoted to Master of Ocean Alchemy, appearing as a "water column supporting a jewel." Master Tyson, who had met Shazo once, appears with a mechanical head, his jewel being the red-glowing eye.

After looking around, what impressed Xia Zuo the most was the precious pearls of the court members.

Their jewel is a pink peach hanging from the branch.

Whether it was the court's perverse sense of humor or some other deeper meaning, these "pink peaches" were shaped into an alluring, round shape, and so large that they bent the branches. Their bright red, juicy appearance made one want to devour them.

Xia Zuo shifted his perspective from monitoring Baozhu, moving his gaze from the "pink peach" to the circular conference table.

According to Selena, the meetings of the two temples are chaired in turn by four schools of thought, and today's meeting is chaired by the alchemy school.

The host is Adanavados, Shazor's alchemy mentor.

His precious pearl floated to the center of the circular table, and in a flash of light and shadow, it transformed into a human form.

Adanavados used illusion magic to construct his own human form and addressed the attendees from all directions:

"Gentlemen, this meeting will discuss 32 routine matters, 25 confidential matters, 1 hidden matter, and 1 top secret matter."

More than a dozen orbs flew out from the alchemy school's area, circled the venue, and placed the parchment scroll in front of the other orbs.

The parchment scroll landed on the table and automatically unfurled, displaying routine matters to Xia Zuo's jewel in the form of dynamic images.

Selena once said that Shazo should treat the Two Palaces meeting as a channel for gathering intelligence.

Now it seems that this is indeed the case.

The routine items on the parchment cover various influential events that have occurred in the temple over the past two weeks.

For example, a certain alchemist association invented a certain alchemical device, or a certain group of scholars researched a certain spell or deciphered an ancient book, etc.

None of these matters involve the Church of the Otherworldly Demons; they are only related to the progress of research projects within the Temple.

The parchment scrolls contained detailed information about each item. The initiator, participants, process, expenses and benefits, research results, and so on were all listed in detail.

It is evident that the Temple has developed an efficient, precise, and inclusive research and development system, which has gained the support and recognition of all schools of thought.

The process of deliberating on the 32 routine matters concluded quickly. Everyone present read the contents of the parchment within an hour and cast their votes in favor.

Adanavanades instructed his alchemists to collect the parchment scrolls from in front of the attendees and place them on the round table in the center of the circular table, then he said aloud:

"Let Rexor of the Witcher School explain this to everyone."

Adanavardos's jewel flew back to his seat, while Rexor's dragon-head jewel flew to the center of the arena.

Meanwhile, the other Witcher's orbs floated up from their seats and began distributing parchment scrolls.

Chapter 43 Bloodline Enhancement Potion

25 secrets, related to 25 cases of demonic infiltration.

In the past two weeks, at least 25 high-level demon teams have infiltrated the temple territory in search of the Black Flag.

Their methods have escalated from covert investigations to violent memory extraction and forced drug administration, targeting a wide variety of individuals.

In the Western Continent, the targets of the Otherworldly Demons are those associated with bandit groups.

On the Eastern Continent, they targeted city guards who had previously thwarted the Cult's operations.

Assumptions:

The first type of clue is the strange phenomenon of altering the blood concentration of children in the surrounding area through radiation, centered on a certain location.

The second type of clue involves the Church of the Otherworldly Demons tempting a key figure in a certain place to fall into corruption and conducting large-scale bloodline experiments, which were ultimately thwarted by the Temple.

The Church of the Otherworldly Demons sent Otherworldly Demons to infiltrate and investigate the people and objects whose bloodline experiments were thwarted, which is the third type of clue.

When these three clues come together, it leads to the speculation that a black flag may exist in a certain location.

The Demon Hunter School's report indicates that locations with all three types of clues exist throughout the Western and Eastern continents.

In other words, the Church of the Otherworldly Demons' investigation of the bandit groups in the Western Continent was not an isolated incident, nor was it a deliberate targeting.

There are many illegal organizations like the bandit gangs in the Eastern Continent, controlled by members of the corrupted temple and conducting bloodline experiments for the Church of the Otherworld. Moreover, their experimental subjects are concentrated in a certain area.

The Demon Hunter School has now identified 33 locations, including the Western Continent, where black flags may have appeared.

Children within a radius of about 20 to 30 kilometers around these locations were all found to have abnormal bloodline concentrations. However, apart from the Western Continent, the bloodline concentrations of children in other locations were far below the threshold for awakening.

As everyone was reading the parchment, Rexor introduced it, saying:

"Gentlemen, we have discovered a new situation. Among the 25 confidential matters submitted at this meeting, there is a phenomenon of the Church of the Otherworldly repeatedly searching for the same location in a short period of time."

“The Jade Willow City and Emerald Stone City of the Golden Bauhinia Ideal Kingdom, the Gansada War Zone and Rift Wasteland of the Desolate Hammer Kingdom, the Steam Mountains and Measurement Domain of the Kingdom of Truth, and the Tambus State of the Silver Moon Federation—these locations have been searched more than three times in the past two months by the Church of the Otherworldly Demons.”

"The Demon Hunter School has protected important figures in various regions, which has provoked violent resistance from the Church of the Otherworldly Demons," Rexor said, using illusion magic to conjure an unknown potion.

"They are no longer satisfied with the inefficient and high-risk method of reading memories. The potion I have is one that can greatly increase blood concentration in a short period of time. It is more effective and longer-lasting than the potions used by the Church of the Otherworldly Demons in the past, but the user will be seriously injured or even die in a short period of time."

“Every demon team that was repeatedly investigated at the same location carried 30 doses of this potion, which the Demon Hunters called the Bloodline Enhancement Potion. The demon teams attacked the Demon Hunters' and Temple Guards' strongholds not to abduct the protected personnel, but only to inject this potion into their targets.”

Rexul raised the Bloodline Enhancement Potion aloft. "Gentlemen," he said, "the secret matters of this meeting are related to the person who drank this potion."

He paused, his voice lowering slightly, "After testing by the Demon Hunter School, all 62 people who were forcibly given the potion were confirmed to be formal mages, and three of them had awakened their bloodline power."

"???" A series of question marks flashed through Xia Zuo's mind. The information revealed by Rexor was too astonishing.

If the attendees hadn't been there in the guise of monitoring the Orb, Rexor's words would have caused quite a stir in the room.

"The bloodline powers awakened by these three individuals are: a Water Burner who is proficient in water and fire elemental energies; a Wilderness Ranger who comprehensively enhances perception, strength, and agility and masters the ability to manipulate plants; and a Shadow Mage."

Rexor turned to look at the Alchemy School's area. "The Witcher School proposes that the Alchemy School decipher the Bloodline Enhancement Potion."

He pointed to the other side of the hall, "Then the Tower Scholars and the Warriors' Guild will jointly study the issue of mages awakening their bloodline power."

After speaking, Rexor dispelled his humanoid illusion, transformed back into his jewel form, and flew back to his seat.

Adanavanades walked to the center of the room and announced that all departments and schools of thought would have two hours of free discussion. After two hours, a vote would be held on the proposals from all sides.

A series of magical barriers to prevent spying and eavesdropping appeared between different areas of the venue, separating the circular seats and sections, creating relatively private spaces for each discussion group.

The seat on the top floor where Xia Zuo was located collapsed from a perfect circle towards the center, eventually becoming a more compact circular structure, with the distance between each jewel much closer together.

"Everyone, let me introduce our new member." Christo's jewel transformed into her likeness and pointed to the simple jewel beside her, saying, "This is Xia Zuo, a pure-blooded mage from the Western Continent. He also possesses a portion of the laws of spacetime and is responsible for guarding the southwestern star-crossing region of the Western Continent."

A wisp of white smoke rose from Xia Zuo's jewel, and as the smoke dissipated, he appeared as an illusion, bowing and greeting the surrounding jewels.

Then he transformed back into the jewel, never uttering another word, displaying a taciturn demeanor.

Let's leave the important task of group discussion to the other pureblood mages!

That's what Xia Zuo thought.

Unfortunately, the topic immediately turned to him as soon as the group discussion began.

Letunia, who was to Xia Zuo's right, asked, "Xia Zuo, how much do you know about bloodline power? Have you studied advanced bloodline languages?"

Xia Zuo responded through the monitoring orb, "I don't know much, about the same as a normal mage. In fact, because my advancement speed is relatively fast, my understanding of some common-sense issues may not be as high as that of an archmage. As for the high-level blood rune language, I haven't had time to ask Christo about it yet."

Christo chimed in, "I'll make it up to him after the meeting."

“Then, let me start,” Letunia said, glancing around to see if there were any objections.

“I have examined those three mages who have awakened their bloodline power. Their bloodline patterns are continuous without any breaks or obvious splicing marks. In other words, the potion that can stimulate bloodline concentration has not modified their bodies or injected bloodline seeds. Their bloodline power comes from the residual bloodline deep within their bodies.”

Letunia looked at Shazo, as if asking, 'Did you understand?'

Xia Zuo's precious pearl swayed up and down once, 'I understand, please continue.'

Chapter 44 Unifying Contradictions

My health is recovering incredibly fast.

Letunia withdrew her gaze from Shazo's jewel and said: