My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Regardless, this person's abilities are absolutely comparable to, or even surpass, those of Black Flag.

They modified the cheat system, removing elements that could potentially corrupt the host, rendering it harmless before placing it into Xia Zuo's spirit thread.

So, who is this third party?

The answer may only be revealed when Xia Zuo uses the Sands of Time to recreate the historical appearance of the underground alchemy chamber.

Xia Zuo wasted a lot of time thinking wildly.

He rubbed his temples a few times, walked to the alchemy table, and relit the furnace.

Although the Golden Finger's actions in preventing the host from being discovered by the Blood Demon Quarovich earned Xia Zuo some of his trust, he still insisted on refining the trigger-type blood-melting agent, keeping the key to turning the tide in his own hands.

...

Rexor's call for reinforcements from the Temple was carried out in secret.

He arrived at the town where Serites and the others were, but did not show himself directly. Instead, he sent a request for a meeting to Cresto through Shazo, and then met with Serites alone away from the town.

His approach might seem like a sign of distrust towards the other members who infiltrated the team, but it is absolutely justified.

As a seasoned witcher who knew the cunning of Otherworldly demons, he remained vigilant at all times, especially in the anti-magic field where he could not use magic to distinguish the real from the fake or detect Otherworldly demons.

The more secretive or important a matter is, the more cautious one should be; it's always the right thing to do.

Christo found a cave in a valley for the two of them.

After checking the place several times, Christo signaled that she could speak. Her curly-haired cat went to the cave entrance to keep watch, leaving the bald man and the cold-faced man inside the cave.

In the flickering candlelight, Ceres first described the recent situation, then asked, "I heard from Christor that you've changed your mind? You want to pull off a big heist in the anti-magic field?"

“Yes.” Rexor nodded, recounting all the information Shazo had gathered at the headquarters of the Otherworldly Church, “...I have reason to believe that the Otherworldly are determined to create a large number of Otherworldly beings to wage a full-scale war against the Temple. This requires a massive amount of life force and bone sacs. The Otherworldly have found a way to convert various energies into life force and have also obtained 112 million bone sacs. We cannot destroy the Otherworldly Church headquarters, destroy the shriveled blood vessels that convert life force, nor can we destroy the bone sac inventory, but we can cut off the supply of bone sacs.”

Serites asked, "So you want to?"

“I want to wipe out the strongholds of the Alien Group.” Rexol clenched his fists. “Both to stop them from producing more bone sacs, and to obtain the bone sac manufacturing technology in order to prepare for dealing with the Alien army in the future.”

“That sounds dangerous…” Serites said, waving his arms. “It would be difficult for just the few of us to do it.”

“I need to call more people,” Rexor said. “At least 200 warriors trained in weapons alchemy, and plenty of machine guns and mortars. There are plenty of explosives in the anti-magic field, and it would be even better if we could send some weapons alchemists to help us mass-produce ammunition and shells.”

Rexor looked at Ceretus, who was deep in thought, and continued, "Shazo and I have made a plan. He will create more defensive blood magic golems to protect the temple reinforcements."

Rexol paused. "The entire plan must be carried out in secrecy, without letting the Alien Group find out. Try not to reveal this plan to the members of the infiltrated team. I still can't completely believe that the members of the Rose Knights, who were born in the anti-magic field and only spent a few years in the temple territory... don't even have light element."

“Alright.” Serites nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on them and make sure they do their jobs properly.”

Rexol thought for a moment, "Perhaps we should release a smoke bomb."

"Oh?"

Rexor said, "Tell the infiltrators that a reinforcement team of about 100 people is on its way. Once they arrive, everyone will attack the Mishima Group's stronghold together to obtain medicine and the tomes of flesh alchemy."

“Good idea. If the Mishima Group makes any unusual moves, it means there’s a traitor in the team. That’s when Shazo’s red vest will come in handy,” Serites said.

“I will not forgive traitors, but I will not be harsh on the loyal,” Rexor said. “If it turns out that those who infiltrated the team are loyal, then after this mission, I will apply to the Council of the Two Temples to grant them the Light Element.”

Rexol patted his chest and pointed to a patch of red vest fabric sticking out of his collar, saying, "Shazo, after Ceres releases the false information to the infiltrators, I need you to keep a close eye on everyone's movements. If anyone acts strangely, report it to Christo."

At this moment, Xia Zuo was condensing the improved red vest.

After hearing the bald man's words, he responded with the thin line on the other man's vest, "No problem, I'll keep an eye on them."

Rexor conspired with Ceretus for a while, and then rested in the cave.

Christo's curly-haired cat stayed at the cave entrance to keep watch for the tired Rexor.

Serites returned to town alone and gathered everyone to announce the false news.

Xia Zuo kept a close eye on everyone's expressions from beginning to end.

Everyone behaved normally, either excited or calm.

After Serites finished speaking and announced that everyone was dismissed, the team members scattered, some training, some playing rock-paper-scissors, and some reading.

Two unassuming people came together and started chatting about the dancers at the town's entertainment venues.

They chatted back and forth, talking about everything from physique and appearance to technical skills, ending with the clinking of wine glasses.

It was a normal conversation, and Xia Zuo didn't pay much attention to it. The blood magic puppets following the two of them also didn't take the conversation to heart.

But just as the two put down their glasses, smiled at each other, and whispered "Enjoy your pleasure," a change occurred at the ceremony site of the Church of the Otherworld.

Chapter 68 Acceleration (2-in-1)

On the grand plaza atop the headquarters of the Church of the Otherworld, the devout chanting ceased with a long exhale.

"Whoo~~~~"

The voice came from a tall figure standing at the very front of the demons. It was very close to the shriveled blood vessel. From the perspective of the blood element servants, it was almost directly below the shriveled blood vessel, clearly indicating its extraordinary status.

Xia Zuo unleashed his detection spell on the tall, otherworldly demon.

...

[Character Name] Nukalofa

[Identity] Master-level flesh alchemist, butler of essence and flesh, several unknown identities.

[Health Points] 150

[Strength] 367

[Agile] 367

[Endurance] 367

[Vitality] 165000

[Perception] 367

[Willpower] 367

[Mental State] 367

【Charm】367

...

So that's who he is... Xia Zuo looked at the tall figure and the stats on the panel and noticed a few strange things.

The first is the attribute of [Charm].

This attribute has different upper limits in different species.

From the advanced knowledge of blood runes imparted by Christo, Shazo saw a list recording the upper limit of a species' charm.

Small creatures such as insects will have a charm attribute value of no more than 10 points.

Small creatures such as rodents will have an attractiveness score of no more than 20.

Medium-sized creatures such as cats, dogs, and poultry have a maximum charm score of 30.

Humanoid creatures and other humanoid beings have a maximum charm score of 40.

Humans have a maximum charm score of 50.

A creature larger than a human and possessing greater intelligence has its charm increase progressively with its size and intelligence.

The creature with the highest charm limit recorded in the temple is the Golden Vitex, the national treasure of the Golden Vitex Ideal Kingdom, a flowering plant with self-awareness, whose charm limit may be as high as 500 points.

In advanced knowledge of blood patterns, the characteristics of blood patterns are used to measure the life level of a species.

The bloodline feature is limited by charm, willpower, and spirit, three attributes that are extremely difficult to improve.

Clearly, in Nukalofa, these three attributes, which should have been constraints, did not limit his growth.

Nukalofa deeply understood the principles behind the formation of bloodline characteristics and consciously averaged out his eight attributes to better enhance them... just like he possessed a cheat-like ability...

This made Xia Zuo feel somewhat irritated.

Two tigers cannot share one mountain; in this world, one person who can outsmart others is enough.

But then, a demon with the same characteristics appeared right in front of him…

After thinking for a moment, Xia Zuo denied the speculation that Nukalofa also possessed a cheat ability.

the reason is simple.

Xia Zuo has improved his eight attributes from single digits to his current level in less than 20 years.

But Nukalofa has been alive for at least a thousand years. If it also had a cheat code, then its eight-dimensional attributes would have to have several zeros added to them.

Xia Zuo composed himself and looked at the [Spirit] indicator on Nukalofa's panel.

Nukalofa is human, not a demon. This was confirmed by Rexor himself, and the feedback from the Detect spell also clearly indicated his human identity.

Why would a human being, deep within the headquarters of the Otherworldly Church, possess a mental attribute value?

In Xia Zuo's understanding, "spirit" is the ocean of spirit, which is a chaotic container that contains elements, and the chaotic container is uniformly placed deep in the magma of a great volcano.

Is the spiritual ocean of Nauk Alofa also beneath it?

If that's the case, wouldn't it be possible to severely damage Nukalofa by going directly to the bottom of the volcano, finding his spiritual ocean, and destroying it?

Of course, the prerequisite for doing so is that one can find his spiritual ocean there.

Xia Zuo wasn't sure if the temple had thoroughly searched the spiritual ocean within the volcano, so he noted the idea down and planned to discuss it with Rexor later.

Just as Xia Zuo cleared his mind and was about to remind the bald man that the situation had changed, the exhalation that had lasted for nearly three minutes stopped.

All the demons under the [Forced Piety] state uniformly lowered their raised arms, letting them hang naturally at their sides, and slowly lowered their heads, bringing their chins close to their chests.

After holding this position for a few seconds, they seemed to come to their senses and raised their heads, silently gazing at Nukalofa directly in front of them.

Xia Zuo noticed this strange phenomenon immediately.

He cast a detection spell.

The [Forced Devotion] status on the demons has disappeared.

Xia Zuo's first thought was that the two infiltrators who simultaneously mentioned "enjoying pleasure" were spies sent by the Church of the Otherworld. These two had triggered some kind of pre-set magical alarm by using the short phrase "enjoying pleasure." Upon realizing the alarm had been triggered, Nukalofa immediately deactivated the [Forced Devotion Aura] on his withered blood vessels.

Xia Zuo considered it for a moment and felt that this speculation was somewhat untenable.