My health recovery is incredibly fast.

The fusion demon was clearly torn apart by some force within its body, but it certainly didn't die from an elemental spell like implosion, because Xia Zuo hadn't released any elemental energy just now.

Then there's only one possibility: Xia Zuo did indeed discover some magical use of the bloodline curse, which is why he was able to defeat the troublesome fusion demon in one fell swoop.

Rex and Rex exchanged a glance, then shook their heads slightly, seemingly signaling each other to be quiet, before falling silent together.

Xia Zuo knew what they were thinking. As the leader among his blood relatives, he could hear the thoughts of his other blood relatives unconditionally, and no little scheme could escape his eavesdropping.

Rexor and Serets must have wanted to discuss something private, but didn't want Shazo to overhear, which is why they chose to remain silent.

Xia Zuo didn't have time to think about what the other two were thinking; he focused all his attention on manipulating the crimson octahedron.

After the fusion demon died, the only shadow demon on the battlefield was left to fend for itself. It gathered its black mist, absorbed the shadow energy from the sea surface into its body, and then flew into the depths of the anti-magic field, completely ignoring the blood-red octahedron on the sea surface.

Thus, a rescue operation that was thrilling but ultimately safe ended with the Crimson Octahedron successfully reaching the Temple territory.

The various strange characteristics of the Blood Element servants have been fully revealed over the past month and will surely spread throughout the entire temple along with the action reports.

Xia Zuo no longer intended to hide anything and directly manipulated the Crimson Octahedron to place the bald man and the cold-faced man in front of the temple's rescue team.

To the astonishment of the rescue team, the 3-meter-tall crimson octahedron landed steadily on the ground and opened its frontal shell. After Rexor and his companion "disembarked," the crimson octahedron floated to a height of one or two meters above the ground and disintegrated into hundreds of crimson servants resembling glass beads in a cloud of blood mist.

Selena took an opaque leather pouch from her alchemy pouch, opened the opening with both hands, and took the Blood Element servants into it.

“Let’s go back to the temple.” Selena looked at the exhausted Rexor and Rex, and their blood magic packs. “You two should rest first. I’ll make sure the others are settled. We’ll hold an emergency meeting once you two are ready.”

Selena took out a miniature teleportation array, set it up on the spot, and then the rescue team disappeared in the teleportation light.

...

Inside the secret chamber of the temple.

While tidying up the alchemy room where he had stayed for nearly 50 days, Xia Zuo kept an eye on the physical condition of Rexor and the other two, who were currently receiving high-level treatment and necessary monitoring.

After confirming that they had no serious illnesses, Xia Zuo severed their blood ties as agreed and allowed them to return to the pure Demon Hunter camp.

About an hour later, Xia Zuo received his Blood Element Servant from Selena and then returned to Starry Night Academy to reunite with Anru.

For the next few days, Xia Zuo rested at Xingye Academy, researching rebirth potions and mutation nutrient paste, until the emergency meeting was officially convened, at which point he set off for the temple.

This meeting will involve many top-secret matters, and participants are required to attend in person.

After Xia Zuo arrived at the venue, he sat on a chair for a while. Once all the attendees had arrived, the venue doors closed.

The host, Rexor, sat on the high platform in the center of the fan-shaped conference table. He first distributed spell images to the participants, recounted the entire process of the infiltration mission, and obscured matters involving the Shazor Bloodline servants, citing that they could not be disclosed at the moment. He then raised the first item for consideration at this meeting:

How to deal with Callers?

Calles, intelligence agent number 3889310, is the real person behind the trench coat man that Xia Zuo encountered in the energy center.

At the same time the meeting was being held, this pure-blooded mage who had separated from Sodike Blackflame was being sealed in a cell in the snowfield prison of Erthogard.

About 22 years ago, when Rexor and Ceretus were on duty in the Silvermoon Federation, they discovered a sudden high concentration of shadow energy in a certain area, and they captured Kalles at the scene.

The two Witcher Masters conducted a detailed examination of Callus Blackflame on the spot, and the results showed that although he had a strong aura of shadow, he was not an evil person.

Karles was then taken back to the temple by the Witcher Master and underwent multiple memory searches and bloodline detections.

His identity, past history, deep memories, and so on made Rexor and Ceretus extremely conflicted at the time.

Callus's memories are filled with bloody scenes from the Church of the Otherworldly Demons, as well as many inhumane massacres.

These memories were not his own, but came from Black Flag and other creatures that Black Flag had swallowed.

This proves that he was once absorbed into the body of a demon over a thousand years ago.

Within the temple's territory, any demonic being must be killed without hesitation.

If the human who was separated from the demon is innocent, should he/she be executed immediately?

Normally, he should be executed.

The reason is the "Law of Corruption"—once someone has fallen, even if they are saved, they will fall again when faced with temptation.

Applying this law to Karles means that once someone has been fused with the Black Flag, even if they are later separated, they will be fused again the next time they face the Black Flag. If Karles is left behind and unfortunately found by the Black Flag and fused with them a second time, it could very well lead to the leakage of the Temple's secrets.

Just as Rexor was about to execute Callus, Callus, in order to save his life, handed over all the information about the Church of the Otherworld and offered to help the Temple obtain the internal structure of the Church of the Otherworld's headquarters energy hub.

He was willing to create a magical clone with 80% of his original strength and hand it over to the temple, while he himself would willingly accept the seal until the magical clone completed its mission.

Rexor and his companion did not have high expectations for Callus, and even felt that the task of obtaining the internal structure of the energy center was impossible to complete.

Now they've been proven wrong—Kales's magical clone has already completed its mission.

So, how will the decision be made regarding Calles's future?

Should we honor our agreement with him, unseal him, grant him the status of a temple member, and formally appoint him as a high-ranking codebreaker, or should we strictly abide by the law and secretly execute him to prevent future troubles?

If the choice is to execute Callus, then those who know the truth can simply choose to seal their memories and forget this history, thus avoiding the guilt of breaking the agreement and the remorse of executing an innocent person.

If Callus is chosen as a high-level codebreaker, who will guarantee his future loyalty?

Xia Zuo sighed, thought for a moment, wrote a few lines on the document, and handed it to the host, Rexor.

Next comes the vote counting.

As Rexor read out the voting results from the document, he divided it into two categories: "For Execution" and "For Admission." "The pure-blood mage camp, Krestor, Letunia, Sinfia... Shazo and 35 other pure-blood mages have voted to accept Karles."

There was no discussion session prior to this vote.

Shazo had not discussed the voting process with Christo and the others, but he had anticipated that they would all vote in favor of accepting the proposal.

The spell images distributed by Rexor contained a great deal of important knowledge about the Black Flag, which were top-secret documents that Callus unlocked after completing his mission.

As Calles said beside the energy hub, Sodike Black Flag is a fully-formed aberration with extremely high intelligence and extensive espionage experience.

The Temple currently possesses several clues directly related to the Black Flag. Besides the location where it separated from its internal contents and the fact that it contains more than just demons, there are three other clues that deserve special attention.

First clue:

[The creatures contained within the black flag (note) are all male.]

(Note: Living beings include humans, animals, plants, monsters, and otherworldly beings.)

Alchemists and scholars of the Tower, who have extensive knowledge of otherworldly beings, believe that Black Flag chooses to fuse only with men because it considers itself male and should continue to retain its masculine characteristics. Fusing with female beings would likely disrupt Black Flag's true self-identity, causing its thinking to become confused and gradually leading it astray.

Krestor and the others voted to accept Callus, mainly because he was a single male pureblood mage. His addition could, to some extent, slow down the rate at which pureblood mages' bloodline decays.

Furthermore, Christo and the others also possessed the blood magic of bloodline marking. Like Shazo, they could imprint bloodline marks on specific targets to prevent them from being seduced and corrupted by the Church of the Otherworldly Demons…

The second clue: the timeline.

The time when the Church of the Otherworldly Demons issued the spy mission to the Black Banner should be before 1880 AD.

Because in Callus's memory, in the summer of 1880, the Black Flag separated the first creature in the territory of the Crystal Remnants.

Between 1880 and 1892, before Black Flag separated Callus from the Silver Moon Federation, it separated organisms in more than thirty regions. The separation locations and times coincided with the Temple's investigation results.

After 1892, Callus, having left the Black Flag, no longer retained its memories and knew nothing about the more than 70 beings that subsequently separated from it. The Temple, through a large-scale search, has now gained a basic understanding of these 70-odd beings.

The third clue.

This lead is closely related to Shazo, and it was the second item that Rexall announced to be discussed at this meeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the voting results regarding Callers are in. More than two-thirds of the attendees voted to accept Callers."

Rexor placed his hand on the pile of documents in front of him. "According to the Temple's regulations, any matter that may lead to a leak must first be submitted to the [Omnidirectional Star Orbit] for deduction. Only when the deduction results are clear and there are no serious consequences can it be officially implemented."

Rexor looked up at the ceiling, where there were scattered star patterns.

He raised his right hand to reach the magic circle pattern, and with his left hand he cast a wind spell, sending the document to the ceiling.

A dark blue crack appeared in the ceiling, casting a deep blue beam of light that drew the document into the crack.

The stars, moon, and sun on the starry sky pattern slowly rotate, beginning to deduce the consequences of accepting Callus.

"【Star Orbit】will need some time to provide a final answer. Let's take this opportunity to discuss the second matter."

Rexor took out a box of parchment scrolls and distributed them, saying:

"The Demon Hunter School recently completed its self-examination of the Temple."

"From 1880 to the present, a total of 682 male mages have entered important departments of the Temple."

"Among them, there are 230 male mages who are directly associated with the location where the Black Flag was decomposed."

"What is being distributed now are the basic information and personal resumes of these 230 male mages."

This list of personnel is the third clue that the Temple has directly related to the Black Flag.

The moment Xia Zuo got his hands on the parchment, he found the part related to Xingye Academy.

Sure enough, his name appeared on this side.

What surprised Xia Zuo was that Professor Kulov's name was also on it.

Xia Zuo carefully read through Kulov's resume and understood what was going on.

Professor Kulov was born in 1867 in a small village in the southeastern part of the province of Sbreil in the Kingdom of Starry Night.

He became a professor of poison alchemy at Starry Night College in 1902.

The location where Black Flag separated its creatures on the western continent was the village of Tarozk, with the separation time estimated to be around 1882.

In 1882, Professor Kulov was just a little boy. Although he lived in the Sbril province, the village of Tarozk was only 80 kilometers away.

When the Black Flag broke away, children within a 100-kilometer radius of the village of Tarozko experienced bloodline mutations, including Professor Kulov.

The time, place, and department all matched, so Professor Kulov was naturally included on the list.

Students like Xia Zuo's good senior, Mars, and many male students from Xingye Academy in the same year either did not meet the requirements in terms of living conditions or did not work in important departments of the temple, so they were not included in the list.

After distributing the parchment scrolls, Rexor stood on the platform and continued:

"More information about Sodike Black Flag was already known at the meeting a few days ago. It has the ability to evade all detection methods, and the Demon Hunter School believes that perhaps only the Blasting Thorns can find its trace."

"Now, let's begin discussing whether to allow the court to use the Tribunal for the Tribunal to review all those on the list. We will vote on the decision in two hours."

What's meant to happen will happen... Xia Zuo shook his head.

This large-scale investigation, involving so many people, is unlikely to be rejected by a vote.

As one of those being investigated, Xia Zuo had no choice but to endure the situation. He turned back to the first page of the parchment and began to check who was on the list.

It must be said that those who can enter the important departments of the temple are all extraordinary individuals; they are truly a gathering of heroes.

Each of the male mages on the list has made significant achievements in their respective fields. Their research results, such as inventing functional potions and a series of matching refined powders and purified potions, are numerous.

Those with less experience and fewer research achievements, such as Xia Zuo, a young alchemist who entered the temple at less than 30 years old, have at least participated in one or two research competitions and achieved good results in the top three.