My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Rexol took out his notebook and wrote down the subject markings on the students' clothes.

The two continued to review the video footage.

At that very moment, the teleportation crystal in the corner of the cabin shone brightly.

A stone box was teleported over.

Serites walked over, picked up the stone box, opened the lid, looked at the contents, and his face was full of seriousness.

Rexol gave a wry smile. "Ha, seeing you like this, I knew the worst had happened. Come on, tell me how bad the situation is in the Holy Mark Department."

“Very, very bad.” Serites put the stone box on the table, plopped down, picked up a piece of paper from inside the stone box and slapped it on the table. The paper recorded what a fellow Witcher had seen and heard in the Holy Mark Department.

Serites stared intently at the words on the note, his tone somber, "The Holy Rune Department is in complete chaos. These lazybones, who have been sleeping on the fruits of their predecessors' labor, have only just realized today that the Holy Rune Department has been thoroughly infiltrated and riddled with holes."

The Holy Emblem, or Temple Emblem, is a unique identifier possessed by each Temple member. It is used to activate the teleportation crystal and receive a personal, exclusive message ring.

The Holy Emblem Department is the department within the Holy Temple that manages the temple's emblems. Normally, aside from arduous spiritual practice, they simply handle official duties routinely and rarely experience the kind of busyness seen now…

Serites took out several metal heraldic emblems and a handwritten letter from the stone box, and introduced them one by one:

"The Holy Emblem Department has confirmed that there are three types of Temple emblems that may be counterfeit. These are the three that were sent over. This letter was sent by the Chairman of the Holy Emblem Department. Open it and take a look. I suspect it's not good news."

Rexor unfolded the letter and placed it in front of himself and Ceres.

Serites kept a straight face and remained expressionless.

Rexor then entered a new phase.

His eyebrows were raised high, his forehead was ablaze with fire, and his hands were clenched into fists, as if he wanted to tear the person who wrote the letter to pieces.

"These lazy bums! They only just realized now that the communication channel of the secret communication ring has been hacked!?"

Chapter 9 Screening Targets

The Kingdom of Wild Hammer.

The underground caverns remained bustling with activity. Alchemists, dragging their bodies along discs of silver sand, moved back and forth throughout the alchemy chambers, recording experimental data and reporting results. Their hurried yet orderly movements, free from collisions or other accidents, possessed a precise, mechanical beauty.

Deep within the underground cave complex, inside a heavy metal door, several high-ranking elemental servants drifted slowly in the alchemy chamber.

Each of them controlled several silver sand hands to organize the bottles, jars, and books in the alchemy room, prune the potted plants by the wall, clear away fallen leaves, and water them.

These high-ranking elemental servants seemed to receive a signal at the same time. They dispersed their silver sand palms, gathered around the desk in the alchemy room, and pieced together to form a humanoid shape.

Several other high-ranking elemental minions emerged from the shelves, each carrying a set of artificial skin and various bionic alchemical devices.

After a series of operations, a flat-headed man with a human body and the ability to speak human voices appeared in the alchemy room.

He reached out and grasped the edge of the desk, flicked his fingers to unlock the hidden latch on the inside of the desk, and then used a little force to move the entire desk to the side, revealing the hidden compartment inside the desk.

The hidden compartment, measuring 20x20 cm, contains a total of 400 small squares, each holding a secret message ring with a perfectly round white outer shell. Viewed from above, these rings resemble pristine white pearls.

The crew-cut man snapped his fingers, removing the white casing from the cipher ring.

"Click, click, click..." The dense sound of countless dials sliding echoed in the alchemy room, where countless secret messages sent from all directions were rapidly converging.

The crew-cut man snapped his fingers again, and the dial on the secret communication ring stopped, the white casing encasing it once more.

Several elemental servants appeared beside the flat-headed man, like humble and loyal servants, and held up the secret message ring for him to read.

With a rustling sound, the leaves trembled, and a graceful plant-like figure emerged from the flowerpot.

“Kalles has disappeared. It’s said he was taken away by a sorcerer,” the woman in a vegetative state said as she walked. “Earlier today, Rexol took Kalles from the court and conducted experiments on him in the presence of Tauwinset. My informant wasn’t invited, so he wasn’t present during the experiments. I learned about Kalles being taken away by the sorcerer from Tauwinset.”

"Hmm." The crew-cut man at the desk gave a soft hum in response and continued "reading" the text on the secret message ring.

"What do you plan to do now?"

The woman in a vegetative state didn't care about the other person's attitude. She went to the desk and scanned the hidden message ring in a compartment with her petal-shaped eyes:

"There are rumors that the Holy Emblem Department has discovered counterfeit emblem designs, and it's only a matter of time before they realize that you've cracked the communication channel of the Secret Communication Ring. Even so, do you still not intend to give up on acquiring the bloodline power of a pure-blooded mage?"

“I won’t give up,” the crew-cut man said using the alchemy device inside his body, “but my patience is limited.”

The woman in a vegetative state trembled slightly, seemingly uneasy. "Using violence will cause us to break ties with the Demon Hunter School and create divisions among the arcane mages. I advise you not to do it."

“I’m bound to clash with the Witchers, otherwise they wouldn’t be here.” The crew-cut man remained unmoved.

After reading the coded message in front of him, he said coldly, "Rexor reacted quite quickly; he has already had Shazo remind the pureblood mages to be on their guard."

The crew-cut man waved his hand, and the elemental servant put the cipher ring back in its original position and then moved the table back to its original place.

“Caselles is the perfect target for us, Merlindora. He always has been. We’ve almost gotten him several times.”

The crew-cut man slowly walked over and stood in front of the female vegetative patient.

"The plan against him was flawless, so why did something unexpected happen?"

"Why didn't Rexor and Serites die in the anti-magic field? If they had died, your informant would have been the only one left with the authority to deal with Calles."

"But why did she take it upon herself to gather people and go to the edge of the Grey Coast to aid Rexor and Serets?"

"I heard she has a young golden chaste tree, and you two seem to get along quite well. Can you tell me the answers to these questions?"

Merlindora, a woman in a vegetative state, remained silent.

The man with the crew cut came to her side and placed his hand on her waist. "Is it the natural tolerance and feminine kindness that influenced you? If so, I can understand what you did."

“I hope you’re not betraying our great cause.” The crew-cut man withdrew his hand and returned to his desk. “Now that we’ve lost Calles, we need to find another suitable target.”

"Aloof, solitary, unsociable, bloodline power at the lower limit required for the experiment, low combat strength, and a serious flaw for pure-blooded mage strategists—these are the most basic requirements. You are the most well-informed among us; do you have any recommendations?"

Merlindora pondered for a moment:

"There is only one, Rena, the fifth-generation pureblood mage of Christor."

"She suffers from a severe mental illness, is extremely afraid of men, and is difficult to eradicate with alchemy and mental magic, so she can only wear a cloak and hood all year round."

"It was because of this mental illness that she devoted all her energy to studying bloodlines and magic, and her strength was second only to Krestor and other first-generation pure-blood mages in the pure-blood mage camp."

"She is also the only one among Christo's descendants who cannot reproduce normally, which has always been a source of distress for Christo."

“A good target.” The crew-cut man nodded. “It’s quite normal for accidents to happen when exploring the sub-plane of the [Land of the Long Sleep] using a spirit shrine. I heard that Nyxat is redeeming himself by serving the Temple’s plane exploration team and has become an elite agent. Let Nyxat do it then. Have him bring Rena to me, preferably alive.”

"I understand." Merlindora turned and left the desk, returning to the flowerpot.

The crew-cut man glanced at the scattered dirt on the ground, then summoned his elemental servants to sweep the dirt into the flowerpots…

...

Inside the professors' dormitory at Xingye Academy.

Xia Zuo lay comfortably on the bed.

After fully releasing the pressure in his body, he felt much more relaxed.

Anruer came out of the bathroom in her bathrobe, her alluring fragrance wafting as she lay down beside Xia Zuo, gently embracing his neck with her arms.

"Are you still on edge?" Anru asked softly.

Xia Zuo looked down at the other person's pink cheeks, rubbed them with his hand, and grinned, "Much better."

"Hmm~ So tell me what's been going on lately?"

Xia Zuo propped himself up with his arms, sat up straight, and gestured with his hands as he spoke:

"It's actually not a very complicated matter, but it spans a long period of time. I have to start from a few months ago when I used my Blood Elemental Servant to carry out a mission in the anti-magic field..."

As Anru listened, she couldn't help but sit up, her expression becoming increasingly focused. Clearly, Xia Zuo had experienced something quite thrilling during this time.

Shazo told Anru about everything, including turning Rexor and Serites into blood relatives to help them escape the anti-magic field; participating in the arcane mage test and forming a pseudo-blood mage legion; the death of Sodike Blackflame, the rejection of his "repayment"; the extraction of Karles' bloodline power, and so on.

After saying everything, Xia Zuo felt incredibly relieved.

Anru'er, her delicate brows furrowed, entered a state of deep thought...

"So you think there's a group of unscrupulous people trying to obtain the bloodline power of a pure-blood mage, right?"

Xia Zuo nodded. "Yes."

Anru'er's fingers were twirling a strand of hair as she pondered and said:

"I agree with your speculation. Rexor specifically asked you to inform the other pure-blood mages to take good care of their offspring, probably because he came to the same conclusion as you. Let's assume that such a group does exist, and their goal is clear and specific: to obtain the bloodline power of pure-blood mages. So, with Karles under the strict supervision of the arcane mages, what would this group do?"

Anru loosened the strands of hair between her fingers and continued counting on her fingers:

"Look, what are some of Calles's characteristics?"

"His bloodline power is slightly lower than that of Krestor and others, but higher than that of second and third generation pure-blood mages. This is the first characteristic."

"Secondly, from your description, I find that Karles is not a pure-blood mage who is good at fighting. His blood magic focuses more on functionality, and he plays more of a support role."

"Third, he may have interacted with Letunia and others, but the level of mutual respect between them is definitely not as high as that between you and Letunia. Simply put, his relationship with Letunia and others is not very good. He may be quite withdrawn and even more determined to do things alone than you are."

Xia Zuo was stunned by An Ru'er's words.

He hadn't expected that Anru, as an observer, could analyze Callus so thoroughly, basically matching the [personality] and [spell list] shown in Callus's character template.

Xia Zuo reached out and patted her head. "You're so amazing..."

Anru rolled her eyes at him. "Please, I'm a professor, I have the ability to judge people. Unlike you, who deals with alchemy tables, spells, and energy all day long."

“You’re right…” Xia Zuo rubbed his nose. “Then what do you think of me?”

Anru said in a very serious tone:

"How much do you know about the members of the pureblood mage faction? Do you know what characteristics each person has? See how many people fit the three characteristics I just analyzed—bloodline power slightly lower than the first generation of pureblood mages, not good at combat, and having a withdrawn personality. Pureblood mages who fit all three characteristics are very likely to be the next target."

"You're right." Xia Zuo lightly slapped his palm.

He took out a secret communication ring from his alchemy pocket, intending to send a secret message to Christor.

But the next second, he changed his mind.

Considering that the information of pure-blood mage members is private and the information is quite lengthy, making it inconvenient to discuss in a private message, Xia Zuo decided to visit Christo in person to talk to her face to face.

"I'm going to the outer teaching area. You go to sleep first." Xia Zuo got out of bed and started changing his clothes.

"What were you doing there?" Anru'er pouted slightly, clearly annoyed. "Running around all night instead of sleeping..."

“Uh…” Xia Zuo stammered, “I’m going to find Christo and ask her for information on the members of the pureblood mage faction.”

"Heh." Anru sneered, "Then you don't have to leave me behind in the middle of the night to see other women."