My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Xia Zuo walked to the side, away from Rexor who was checking the warning array, to avoid the energy fluctuations of the array affecting his spacetime container.

He summoned the Sands of Time, infused them with attribute-less energy, and expanded the spacetime container to a size roughly the size of an adult. Then, he calmed down and examined the historical scenes within the spacetime container.

About ten minutes later, Xia Zuo made a discovery!

The historical footage from the time-space container shows that at 4:10 PM today, after the afternoon surgery session, a person wearing a white cloak walked past the alchemists as they left the bio-alchemy room and entered the room unimpeded.

However, in the footage recorded by the warning array, the same white-cloaked figure could not be seen at the same time and place, and the alchemists did not notice this white-cloaked figure at all.

Chapter 2 Scapegoats in Historical Scenes

"Master, come and see!" Xia Zuo waved to the bald man.

Rexor walked over and was immediately drawn to the historical scenes inside the time capsule.

His head swiveled from side to side, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the historical scenes and the images recorded by the magic array, his expression growing increasingly grave. "The warning array didn't detect this guy..."

Rexol pointed to the time-space container. "Let's see when he leaves the bio-alchemy lab."

Xia Zuo continuously injected attribute-free energy, propelling the historical scenes to play out according to the normal flow of time.

"Isn't that Letunia?" Xia Zuo was stunned, watching in surprise as the white-cloaked figure brushed past Letunia and left the room as she opened the door.

Throughout the entire process, Retunia, the Eternal Mage, showed no reaction whatsoever to the cloaked figure who brushed past her.

Rexor patted Shazo on the shoulder. "Can you move the time-space container while preserving the historical scenes inside?"

Xia Zuo understood what the other party meant: the bald man wanted to track down the cloaked figure in the historical scene.

"Perhaps, Master. I've never done this before. Let me give it a try."

Xia Zuo stretched out his arms and placed his hands on the time-space container, making a hugging motion.

He used attribute-less energy to weave two chains to bind the spacetime container, and then, with the help of muscle strength, he pulled the energy chains little by little, pulling the spacetime container forward.

This process is both easy and difficult.

The spacetime container was as light as a feather, and Xia Zuo pushed it away without much effort.

The challenge lies in reading the spatiotemporal information recorded on the Sands of Time in real time. Xia Zuo felt like his brain was a computer operating at full capacity, processing large amounts of data and dynamically rendering historical scenes.

His cognitive abilities meant that he would be slow in tracking the cloaked man, and the historical scenes were often choppy, making it particularly easy for him to lose track of his target.

It seems only someone like Master Tyson, who has installed a mind booster, could possibly increase the frame rate of historical scenes to over 30 frames per second.

Shazo pushed the time-space container, stopping and starting intermittently, while Rexor cast a magical veil to conceal their figures.

They walked along the corridor to the spiral staircase, then descended the stairs to the fountain and sculpture plaza, finally stopping in front of a teleportation room.

"Where does this teleportation room lead?"

Rexor stopped by the door and examined the inscription on the doorplate.

"Regions BC-43~89, this is a wide-area public portal that can be used by all temple territories. This is troublesome..."

Public use means a large flow of people.

The two had only been standing by the door for less than a minute when more than a dozen mages either arrived at or left the teaching area through the teleportation room.

"Xia Zuo, when that cloaked person entered the teleportation room, did he open the door himself or follow someone else in?"

“Let me see…” Xia Zuo said after observing for a few seconds. “He opened the teleportation stone door himself and went in alone.”

“That’s good news.” Rexor pulled out a communication ring and said while fiddling with the dial on it, “Disarm your spacetime container. I’ll have the Temple’s security center retrieve the teleportation records. We’ll soon know where he went and what his identity is.”

The two waited a moment, and then a reply came from the security center.

Upon investigation, the cloaked figure was identified as Baman, an extremely old alchemist who was 87 years old and had never undergone any alchemical transformation.

The cloaked figure didn't look like an elderly person at all when he walked. Meanwhile, the security center confirmed that the old alchemist, Baman, was currently teaching at the local academy and was not wandering around the outer sanctuary teaching area.

It was clear that the cloaked man had forged Baman's identity emblem to activate the teleportation crystal, and his teleportation destination was Stormhorn, the southernmost city of the Desolate Hammer Kingdom.

Leaving aside the question of how the cloaked figure forged the identity emblem, Shazo and Rexor teleported directly to Stormhorn and continued using the time-space container to track their target.

"Master, this guy has disappeared."

In the corridor outside the teleportation room, Xia Zuo pointed to a stone brick in front of him and said, "Right here, he disappeared. His body became pale and transparent, as if he melted into the air. It looks like he used some kind of illusion."

Rexor took out sand, water, and a bag of ash for casting spells and cast a detection spell to search for residual energy traces.

Because the entire kingdom of Wild Hammer is sweltering, the energy environment here is extremely hot, with 46% fire energy, 32% earth energy, and the rest being wind energy and a small amount of water energy.

Rexor found nothing; he was unable to detect any energy anomalies.

This lead ends here.

Rexor wasn't troubled at all; on the contrary, he seemed excited, as if he had spotted prey.

He stood with his hands on his hips, circling the stone bricks in the corridor, muttering to himself:

"Great, great! This is truly an eye-opener for me."

"The warning array set up by the tower mage was useless to this guy; he forged an identity emblem to fool the temple guards; and then used superb illusion magic to make himself disappear without a trace, successfully shaking off the pursuit and taking away Karles's bloodline power."

“Any one of his actions would be enough to get him skinned alive by the inquisition and thrown into a cell for serious crimes.”

Rexor stopped and clenched his fists together in front of him.

“I have a feeling that this guy is backed by an illegal organization that has infiltrated the temple extensively.”

"Although the Tower Mage's warning array is highly sensitive and can accurately detect suspicious persons, no one can say for sure whether the array has been tampered with or whether a so-called whitelist has been set up."

"Not to mention forging identity badges."

"The right to manufacture identity emblems has always been held by the Holy Emblem Department of the Temple. Each emblem is manufactured under the supervision of the Tribunal, and the manufacturing process and materials are top secret."

"There have been cases of forged identity emblems in the history of the temple, but this is the first time that a fake emblem has been used to activate a teleportation crystal. Usually, fake emblems are just used to deal with ordinary city guard checks."

After listening to Rexor's analysis, Shazo realized the seriousness of the situation.

"Master, what do we do now? Our focus is on the pseudo-blood mage legion, and we may not have enough time to investigate such a complex case."

"No, Xia Zuo, we have plenty of time."

Rexor took a parchment scroll from under his leather armor and handed it to Shazo.

"This is a new development discovered by Legion scouts at the headquarters of the Church of the Otherworld."

"Contrary to our expectations, the withered blood vessel didn't resume functioning after Nukalofa's death. The incubation process of the Otherworldly Demons remains stalled. It seems the Otherworldly Demon Church has given up on pushing forward the incubation work; the church headquarters has driven most of the Otherworldly Demons out of the flesh wall, leaving them to carefully search for our traces within the anti-magic field."

Rexor patted Shazo's arm. "Thanks to the blood magic disguise you taught us, the Legion spies were able to obtain this intelligence right under the noses of the Otherworlders."

Xia Zuo glanced at the words on the parchment scroll, looked up and blinked, "So the two of us are now the most relaxed people in the pseudo-blood mage legion? We don't need to watch the training normally, we just need to go over occasionally to improve the spells, right?"

“Yes.” Rexor put his hands on his hips. “In fact, maintaining the unity and stability within the Temple is what the Witcher School should be doing. Fighting the Otherworldly army is just my side job.”

Rexor waved his hand and walked towards the teleportation room. "Let's go back to the bio-alchemy room. I need you to use the time-space container to recreate the process of that guy extracting bloodline power."

"What about the forged identity badge?" Xia Zuo asked as they walked.

"We don't need to worry about this. The Holy Marks Department will investigate this matter. They take it much more seriously than we do, and I believe we'll have results soon."

...

Inside the bio-alchemy chamber.

Calles has been taken away by the court.

Yes, it was the Tribunal, not any of the Temple's other law enforcement agencies.

According to the court guards who escorted Calles, it was the Holy Crest Department that requested the court's intervention.

This bio-alchemy lab will also be sealed off by the court.

Fortunately, Rexor had good relations with the Holy Mark Department and the Inquisition. He managed to obtain permission from the Inquisition Guards to take Shazo into the bio-alchemy lab for an in-depth investigation.

Xia Zuoshi released the time-space container and examined every corner of the room inch by inch. The replay of historical scenes was set to start at around 4:30 pm.

Rexol's investigation methods are more conventional.

He used detection spells, witcher senses, alchemical tools, and other methods to search for clues.

However, the convenience of the time-space container significantly slowed down his investigation.

The bald man simply abandoned his plan to conduct the investigation himself and instead instructed Xia Zuo to use the time-space container to search for places that were easily overlooked.

An hour later, six image beads filled with historical scenes appeared on the operating table.

These six precious beads, viewed from six different angles, record the entire process of the cloaked figure extracting the power of bloodline.

“There are more clues than I thought, Xia Zuo.”

Rexol pointed to one of the video feeds.

In the video, a cloaked figure is setting up the ceremony venue.

Kales's bloodline power is the Blood Rune, and the carrier of the Blood Rune is blood. The physical and chemical properties of blood affect the quality of the Blood Rune.

Although alchemy did not delve much into the microscopic realm of blood, it still had some understanding of the various changes that blood undergoes after leaving the body.

The cloaked figure first used a detection spell to locate the area where the bloodline power was most concentrated throughout Karles' body.

Then, he took out a special syringe and a cap tube, inserted the hair-thin syringe into Calles' heart, drew out the bright red liquid, and channeled it into the cap tube.

The image freezes at this moment. Rexol zooms in on the image, enlarging the image of the cap tube to its maximum size, revealing a relatively clear inscription on the edge of the cap.

[Gabisson brand custom cap tube, size 13x77, shelf life 32 hours, bloodline power decay rate of contents <1%.]

“Xia Zuo, if this guy didn’t use a fake identity badge, then our investigation ends here.”

Rexor gestured on the inscription, "Following this clue, we can narrow down the investigation to no more than 30 people, and the court will find the criminals among these 30."

“But that probably won’t work now,” Rexol said, arms crossed.

"If this guy can forge identity badges, then forging a scalpel shouldn't be difficult for him either. This clue might lead us to a scapegoat."

Xia Zuo asked, "Then we're completely helpless against him? All the clues were fabricated by him, and he's been playing us for fools."

“No, no, no, Shazo.” Rexol waved his hand. “Chasing after suspects to investigate clues is what ordinary people do. We are mages, of course we have different methods.”

Rexol pointed to the video feed. "Let me ask you a question. Why do you think this guy needs the power of Calles' bloodline?"

If we rephrase Rexol's problem, it becomes like this: