My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Four days have passed since Callus began undergoing alchemical transformation.

Every morning, afternoon, and evening, a pureblood mage would go to check on his condition.

Letunia is in charge of the afternoon, Cynthia is in charge of the morning, and Christo is in charge of the evening.

Retunia discovered the anomaly in Calles this afternoon.

On the morning of the same day, when Cinfya went to check on him, everything was normal for Callas.

Xia Zuo flipped through the diaries of Letunia and others and confirmed the exact time when the abnormal blood pattern of Kales was discovered: 5:20 pm.

Before this point in time, Shazo, Rexor, and the others were conducting experiments in the underground alchemy lab…

It's hard not to connect these two things.

Because Callus was a person separated from the Black Flag, he was a suitable experimental subject. It was only because he obtained the status of a member of the Temple that Rexor didn't take him away for experiments.

Out of caution, Shazo plans to contact Rexor later using bloodline connection.

Before that, Xia Zuo wanted to ask Letunia and the others some questions.

"Is Karles' blood magic normal? Has he forgotten or been stripped of any blood magic?"

Letunia responded, "It's normal. The spell he used to create the blood magic clone is [Flesh and Blood Clone], which is a very sophisticated blood magic. I've checked carefully, and he still possesses this blood magic. The rest of his blood magic is also normal."

“It seems that only his bloodline features have changed…” Xia Zuo said after thinking for a few seconds. “I’ll go check on him first and be right back.”

Xia Zuo left the office and walked quickly to Calles's bio-alchemy room.

Using his identity emblem, he unlocked the warning array on the door, then pushed open the door to the bio-alchemy room and stepped inside. Standing outside the glass partition on the inside of the door, he observed Callas lying on the operating table through the transparent glass.

Pureblood mages have highly active bodies, allowing them to easily expel foreign substances and repair bodily damage.

Therefore, the surgical procedure to implant the alchemical bomb in Kallers' heart would be very long.

We can only confirm that the bomb has been successfully installed once his body has adapted to its presence and no longer experiences any rejection reaction.

On the operating table inside the glass partition, Callus's chest was pierced by a sharp scalpel, and alchemists were performing surgery on him with their silver sand palms, placing tiny alchemical bombs on Callus's heart.

They perform three surgeries a day, each time installing 30 miniature bombs.

These 30 bombs are not something that can be successfully installed on the first try. Most of them will be peeled off from the heart during the body's rejection reaction, and only a small portion will be accepted by Callus's body.

The repeated surgeries and bomb installations were ultimately aimed at implanting 30 miniature bombs into Calles' heart.

Xia Zuo suspected that it was this high-intensity surgery that caused the abnormality in Kales's blood pattern.

He cast a detection spell on Callus, and the feedback made him realize he was wrong.

The surgery will indeed affect the eight attributes, but only as a temporary negative effect; it will not affect the original values ​​of the eight attributes. Once the negative effect ends, the eight attributes will return to normal.

After removing the effects of the temporary negative effects, by comparing Kales' current character template with the previous one, Xia Zuo confirmed that the opponent's [Vitality], [Strength], and [Bloodline Quantity] attributes had significantly decreased.

The blood pattern is determined by the three attributes with the lowest values.

Callus has the lowest Charisma, Strength, and Agility.

The decline in strength attribute value significantly affected Kales' bloodline features.

[Blood Marks] are the bloodline power of pure-blood mages. Kales's blood marks have decreased to a certain extent, with the value being similar to the decrease in vitality attribute value.

Xia Zuo carefully reviewed the character template of Kales several times and found no negative or unknown effects that should not have appeared.

Let's take another look at Calles' wrist.

There is an alchemical bracelet there that restricts the use of any spells. The bracelet has a built-in alarm that communicates directly with the Temple Guards, and only the Temple Guards can remove the bracelet.

Kales probably doesn't have the ability or connections to persuade the temple guards to remove the bracelet for him and then use blood magic to transfer his bloodline power, right?

There's only one answer left.

Someone entered the operating room and used some means to extract some of the bloodline power. This bloodline power took away Karles' vitality attribute value, blood pattern, and some strength attribute value.

Those who can enter and exit this room have been authorized by the Two Temples Council, and the warning array on the door will record the visitors.

However, only the Witcher School and the Temple Guard are authorized to access the records.

As the one who devised the plan, Xia Zuo knew very well who would be authorized.

They can be roughly divided into three categories.

One type is alchemists, mainly students of the outer temple masters. Most of them are formal mages and do not have the light element.

The other type is the Temple Guards, each possessing light elemental power. In terms of loyalty, they should be about 30 times more loyal than Shazo.

The last category is supervisors like Xia Zuo, and pure-blooded mages such as Letunia and Xinfeiya belong to this category.

From the perspective of being a member of the pure-blooded mage faction, Xia Zuo felt that the alchemist who participated in the surgery was most likely to have problems.

While pondering, Xia Zuo cast a spell to detect blood patterns as a formality, thus completing his mission.

After that, he returned to Christo's office the same way he came.

Xia Zuo looked at the people in the room and said, "Everyone, I've confirmed it. Kales' bloodline power has weakened a bit, but it wasn't caused by the surgery. It's possible that someone took advantage of our absence to enter the bio-alchemy room and extract Kales' bloodline power."

Xia Zuo walked to the chair and sat down. "I don't think we can be 100% sure that Kales betrayed us yet. He might have been tampered with while he was asleep after the surgery, before the effects of the anesthesia wore off."

“I think so too,” Letunia sighed softly. “How do you think we should investigate this matter?”

“Leave it to me.” Shazo placed his fingers on the table. “I will contact Rexol. Once he replies and authorizes me to access the bio-alchemy lab’s records, I will investigate this matter immediately.”

After a pause, Xia Zuo said, "Since everyone is here, I would like to discuss something with you all."

Shazo recounted what Rexor had told him, deliberately obscuring the specific time of the experiment to prevent Letunia and the others from associating the experiment with Calles's anomalies. He also omitted the details of the experiment, and even the news of Sodike Black Flag's death was based on assumptions.

He portrayed Rexor's proposal as a pessimistic prediction of the Temple's future—once the Smoke of Creation was shut off, the dead surface demons would be resurrected with the help of the celestial demons, plunging the Temple into a perilous situation of being attacked from both sides.

As expected, when Letunia and the others heard that Rexor advocated keeping the Creation Smoke open indefinitely, they all shook their heads, expressing their disbelief.

Krestor said, "Shazo, you should know very well that the Temple's long-term battle plan clearly states that the ultimate goal is to counterattack the Vasaksat vanguard. If we don't shut down the Creation Smoke, how can we attack that giant fleshy ball floating above the Pillar of Creation?"

Letunia shook her head. "Excuse me for speaking frankly, Shazo, Rexor's proposal will be opposed by a great many people. The proposal itself is not convincing, and no one will vote against the Temple's long-term war plan because of Rexor's speculation about the future."

Xinfeiya was silent for a moment, and then expressed the same opinion.

“I know that the future Rexor described is very dangerous for the Temple, but I think that after we truly defeat the Church of the Otherworldly Demons, we will be able to gather enough strength to fight against that future. I guess the other participants in the Two Temples Conference think the same way. They might even think that the Temple should not be confined to the land beneath its feet, but rather that the starry sky above its head is the future of the Temple.”

All right..

Indeed, persuading others to completely seal off this planet and forever remain under the protection of the primordial smoke is an incredibly difficult and arduous task.

The vast and boundless starry sky is an irresistible allure for advanced life forms on every planet. The people of this planet, too, cannot resist their desire and yearning to explore outer space.

Xia Zuo slowly nodded and said:

"Gentlemen, I admit that Rexor's proposal contains many of his personal speculations and assumptions. I also accept your opinions. Personally, please forgive me for siding with him, and I will vote in favor of his proposal. Let's compromise. If I were to propose using the [Universal Star Orbit] to deduce Rexor's proposal at the Two Temples meeting, would you support my proposal?"

【Star Trails】is not something you can use casually.

Generally, it can be used only if one of the following conditions is met:

First, when a proposal about to be implemented involves the core secrets and safety of the temple, the [Omnidirectional Star Orbit] can be activated. For example, when deliberating on a proposal related to Callus, Rexor used the [Omnidirectional Star Orbit].

Second, when someone proposes to use the "All-Encompassing Star Orbit" at a meeting and receives more than half of the votes in favor, the "All-Encompassing Star Orbit" can be used to deduce a highly controversial proposal.

Rexor's proposal is clearly highly controversial and partially meets the second condition. Shazo wants to garner votes by submitting the bald man's proposal for analysis within the [Star Orbit] system.

If the simulation results show that the creation smoke can be dispelled...

Then there's nothing we can do.

Rexol's proposal had to be shelved.

Xia Zuo could only think of another way to avoid the negative impact of Sodike Black Flag's resurrection.

If the projections match Rexall's proposal... this will save a lot of time and effort. Rexall's proposal may be passed, or it may be discussed later, with the latter being more likely.

Compared to Rexor's proposal being passed directly, Shazo's proposal to use the [Omnidirectional Star Trail] was more likely to be passed.

Retunia and the others were well aware of this.

After exchanging glances, Letunia said:

“Alright, Shazo. We will support your proposal. We are also very curious about the results of [Omnidirectional Star Orbit]'s deductions regarding Rexor's proposal.”

The four of them sat around the table and discussed some voting details before leaving Christo's office to do their own things.

Xia Zuo arrived at the fountain sculpture plaza and activated [Bloodline Sense] to try to contact the bald man.

"Shazo, how did the discussion with Letunia and the others go?" Rexor asked through the bloodline connection.

“Master, they don’t think your proposal is feasible, but they agree to send it to the [Star Orbit of All Things] for analysis.”

"Oh, okay, as expected."

Xia Zuo continued, "I have something to tell you, I don't know if it's related to Sodike Black Flag."

He recounted what happened to Callus, and after a few seconds of silence, Rexor said, "I've confirmed it. Of all the humans who separated from the Black Flag, only Callus showed abnormalities. I think it's an isolated case. Wait for me in the teaching area, I'll be right there."

Xia Zuo waited by the fountain for two minutes before seeing the bald man walk out of the teleportation room.

As Xia Zuo led the bald man toward the bio-alchemy room where Kales was, he revealed all of his discoveries.

Rexor, with a stern face, took out an alchemy card and stuck it on the door of the bio-alchemy room.

Water-ripple-like magical patterns appeared on the door, and a magical interface woven by a tower mage appeared before the two of them.

The human-magic interaction interface is similar to the human-computer interaction interface, both consisting of boxes and text forming interactive buttons, each button corresponding to a spell function.

The warning array has a built-in image recording function, which can record the scene of entering and leaving the room in real time.

雷克索尔点选查看法术影像，把时间轴拨回今天下午1点，用30倍速查看下午1点到下午5点20分之间的画面。

Pay close attention to whether any unauthorized individuals are using magic or alchemical tools to secretly follow authorized people inside.

Unfortunately, no.

The warning array can detect any energy fluctuation with a minimum power of 1 point. Basically, no one can slip past it with a spell like [Invisibility]. Some alchemical items might be able to do this, but they will always leave a trace elsewhere.

Rexol carefully observed for half an hour, confirming that no one of unknown identity had entered or left the bio-alchemy chamber.

The search area for suspicious persons was narrowed down considerably. Rexor took out a notebook and checked the list recorded in the notebook against all the alchemists who had entered and exited the bio-alchemy room that afternoon.

Xia Zuo patted the bald man's arm and asked, "Master, can you grant me a spellcasting authorization? I'll use the [Time-Space Container] to see what happened in the past. If we investigate together, we shouldn't miss any details."

"I almost forgot you can use the Sands of Time too." Rexol slapped his forehead, took out his communication ring, and sent a message.

Thirty seconds later, Xia Zuo's secret communication ring activated, and he received the spellcasting authorization from the outer palace guard center.