My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Rexor said as he walked forward:

"The spam sent by the mysterious group is undoubtedly a provocation against the Temple. The Temple is indeed unsatisfactory in many ways, but it is much, much better than in the last era. We can continue to improve the Temple instead of making noise like the mysterious group and destroying the achievements of the past thousands of years."

"Just watch, Shazo. From now on, it won't be just our Demon Hunter school fighting alone. The Temple Guards and the Inquisitors will also get involved. I estimate that in less than half a month, this so-called mysterious group will be completely eradicated."

Rexol quickened his pace, illuminating the path with the orbs of light from his fingertips, and swiftly walked through the corridor.

After turning several corners, Rexor found the alchemical powder he had left behind while resting in a corner of the wall.

He went in a big circle and ended up back where he started.

His extensive experience told him that some kind of illusionary item was working.

Generally speaking, the projection range of an illusion is much lower than that of a force field, and the source of the illusion may be behind a stone brick.

Rexor cast blood magic, summoning more than a dozen blood-red whips. He walked along, striking the stone bricks with the whips, searching for the hollow one.

This was a time-consuming and mentally taxing task... Xia Zuo looked at it for a short while before turning his attention back to it.

He sat at his desk for a moment and decided to go to the outer hall to destroy the broken secret communication ring and find out what was going on on the circular island.

After greeting Anruer, Xia Zuo arrived at the outer teaching area through the teleportation hall.

As soon as he stepped out of the teleportation room, he felt a solemn atmosphere.

More than a dozen fully armed temple guards appeared beside the fountain sculpture pool. The Holy Marksmen, dressed in robes and wearing crowns, stood on a high platform by the pool, overlooking the entire scene. Many translucent glass spheres floated in the sky.

At the entrances of each teleportation chamber, two-person temple guards stopped everyone who had teleported there and checked the temple crests of each visitor.

Xia Zuo stood in line for a while, and a minute later it was his turn.

The temple guard's gaze pierced through the mask covering his face, scanning Xia Zuo from top to bottom before finally settling on the identity emblem in the other's hand.

"Good day, Lord Xia Zuo." The temple guard touched the front of the metal emblem, and a white light flowed from his fingers. The light flashed by and returned to the temple guard's fingers.

"Identity verification passed. What brings you to the outer teaching area today? Please don't mind, we're just doing our routine, registering visitors' basic information."

Xia Zuo calmly took out a bag of broken communication rings. "I want to go to the Holy Rune Department to destroy these broken communication rings, and then visit my pure-blood mage friends."

“Okay.” The temple guard handed Xia Zuo a numbered metal tag. “Please keep this safe. You’ll need to give it to the guard when you leave. Also, leave this bag of coded message rings to us.”

"Thank you." Xia Zuo handed over the alchemy pouch, picked up the metal plate, and put it in his pocket.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard a clear, cold voice coming from the high platform.

"Wait a moment." The deacon of the Holy Mark Department on the high platform was a woman, who covered her face with a piece of white silk hanging from the brim of her crown, and her long silver hair hung down her back.

She used the [Group Telepathy] spell to speak to Xia Zuo and the temple guards beside him, "I invite you to witness the glory of the temple, Xia Zuo. Guard, give him a video box that broadcasts the scene of the ring island. If any other pure-blooded mages arrive later, give them a video box as well."

"Yes, Lady Celine." The guard nodded to the deacon of the Holy Mark Department, then took out a wooden box and handed it to Xia Zuo.

Xia Zuo, holding the wooden box, bowed slightly towards the platform and then walked towards the tower without hindrance.

As he passed through the fountain sculpture pool, Xia Zuo adjusted his angle and used his detection spell on the figure on the platform to capture Celine's character template.

After a brief mental search, Xia Zuo found Celine's general information in his [Knowledge Reserve].

This is an Eternal Mage, not much older than Xia Zuo, and the youngest deacon in the Holy Rune Department. She has no bloodline, relying solely on her own magic and alchemical talent to reach this point... In a sense, she is like someone with a cheat code, accomplishing most things that are impossible in just over thirty years.

The people in the Holy Mark Department are basically like this; each of them was a genius with exceptional talent when they were young, and they were recruited by the Holy Temple as secret apprentices at a very young age.

If Xia Zuo is willing to live in the Holy Mark Department all day long and recite the Holy Temple Laws every morning and evening, he can also apply to join the Holy Mark Department and become a being above the two temple councils.

But he didn't want to live a life with no privacy... so he decided against it...

Shazo shook his head, banishing the distracting thoughts from his mind, and went straight to Christo's office, knocking on the door.

"Come in, Shazo," Christo's voice came from behind the door.

Xia Zuo pushed open the door and went inside.

When Rexor left, he took all the parchment scrolls with him and put the sofa and table back in their original places.

At this moment, only Christo was sitting at her desk in the office.

In front of her was an open image box.

The box contains four image orbs, each projecting a different image.

Christo pulled up a chair for Shazo and invited him to sit down, then stared intently at the video feed without saying a word.

Xia Zuo glanced at it.

The footage shows a large group of temple guards surrounding... uh... four pyramids?

Xia Zuo was slightly taken aback, and for a moment he couldn't figure out where he was.

“Crestor, where is this place?” Shazo asked, sitting down in the chair opposite the other person.

"Underneath the roundabout is an altar plaza where a shamanistic school performs festival rituals; the place in the picture is this one."

Xia Zuo hesitated for a moment, "Could Reina be here?"

“Yes,” Christo said worriedly, clutching a handkerchief in her hand. “She’s in the stone tower in the square.” “And what about Nyxat? Where is he?”

"And I wanted to end all of this in the stone tower, Shazo. I really wanted Rena to leave that place and come back to me. But..."

Christo's eyes reddened slightly. "But the Temple Guards and the Witcher School refused my request. They demanded that Rena make some sacrifices, and they promised to protect her, but I'm still worried something might happen..."

Christo shed tears and sobbed softly, her love for her family overwhelming her.

Xia Zuo felt a little awkward and didn't know how to comfort the other person.

Fortunately, at that moment, there was another knock on the door.

Letunia and Simfia each carried an image box as they entered.

Xinfeiya was in a relatively good state; although she was nervous, she didn't burst into tears.

Like Christo, Letunia also has a child involved in this incident. The two women huddled together and cried as soon as they met, while Cynthia gently comforted them.

Xia Zuo touched his nose, feeling utterly powerless in the face of this scene.

Female pureblood mages can reproduce without a husband; this is a blood magic unique to female pureblood mages.

Christo and others may have had husbands, but after the vicissitudes of life, they may have grown tired of love, or for some other reason. In any case, at this time, they are single but have a large number of female offspring.

Pureblood mages have very limited offensive options, and powerful offensive blood magic can cause them to degenerate into hybrid mages. This means that the long-lived and naturally kind and law-abiding pureblood mage faction often has to silently endure pressure and suffering...

Like a pampered young wife kept by a tycoon...

This analogy might not be quite right... but that's what Xia Zuo thinks.

From the perspective of the only male pure-blooded mage present, Shazo decided to do something to change the gloomy atmosphere and cheer up Christo and the others.

He took out the image gem and examined the image.

A total of four Templar teams appeared. Two of them surrounded the Shamanic School's altar plaza, while the other two split into two groups—one joined forces with the Witcher guarding the first floor of the Eye Potion Research Group's stone house to support Rexor, and the last patrolled the island, looking for suspicious individuals.

With such a powerful protective force, how can this mysterious group fulfill its prophecy?

Xia Zuo frowned in thought.

He kept switching between images while using his bloodline connection to contact Rexor, asking for more details about the altar square.

'Master, what was the original purpose of the altar plaza beneath the roundabout? Was it merely for celebrating important festivals of the shamanistic school?'

Rexor is still searching for illusion devices.

Why are you asking that? Did you go to the outer hall?

"Yes, Master. I'm currently here in Crestor, viewing the image orb provided by the Temple Guardians, which shows the ground conditions of the altar plaza and the circular island." To prevent further nagging, Shazor quickly added:

"Don't worry, Anru is looking after my blood mage descendants. She'll contact me if anything happens."

'Okay...' Rexol paused, 'The shamanic altar plaza is only used during the annual Revival Festival...'

Rexor spent a few minutes introducing Shazo to the altar square and the Revival Festival, and also mentioned the shamanic school's plan to find its progenitor.

"Master, how long has the shamanic school been around?" Xia Zuo asked.

"Well...it's been at least 16,000 years, right?" Rexor shrugged his bald head. "I'm not entirely sure. When they first came into contact with the Temple, they were still wearing the legendary savage clothing. It's hard to imagine that a civilization so isolated on a ring-shaped island could be so proficient in spirits, totems, and the psychic arts. Especially the psychic arts; their mastery far surpasses that of the psychic mages in the Tower of Hell."

'The shamanistic school has a history of 16,000 years... such a long time...' Xia Zuo sensed something was amiss. 'Master, do you think it's possible... that the shamanistic school actually discovered the location of the [Land of the Long Sleep] long ago...?'

Chapter 14 Mastering its power, using its power, and finally...

"Do you think the shamanic school has already discovered a way to enter the [Land of the Dead]?"

After hearing Shazo's words, Rexor recalled for a moment and said:

“Let me think… It seems that similar ideas to yours have appeared in the Tower School a long time ago. Since the Shaman School applied to join the Temple, countless Tower scholars have conducted in-depth investigations into them, and finally confirmed that the Shaman School has not discovered the [Land of Rest].

"But why did they set up the altar underground on the roundabout?" Xia Zuo was puzzled.

"Once in a meditative state, the spirit appears at the spatial coordinates of the physical body. Without the help of the spirit shrine, the spirit cannot travel very far, which means that the shamanic school can only explore the space around the altar. More than ten thousand years have passed; even a grain of sand should have been found by now, right?"

"Oh, so you didn't know about the special uses of the meditation state." Rexor raised an eyebrow, pondered for a few seconds, and said:

"Okay, let me tell you a secret."

"In totem and spirit magic, there is a spell that can make the meditator's spirit appear in a place outside the spatial coordinates of the physical body. This requires the use of a shamanic altar. The altar is like an alchemical machine that launches spirits all over the world. People who enter a meditative state on the altar will have their spirits appear near the pre-set spatial coordinates."

Rexor shrugged. "The shamanic school has searched almost the entire world using altars, but they still haven't found the entrance to the [Land of the Dead], which is why they've partnered with the temple."

"If that's the case, then the shamanic school would frequently enter and leave the territory of the Otherworldly Church, wouldn't they?" Xia Zuo asked.

“Yes.” Rexor nodded.

"The actual situation is terrible, Shazo."

"Before we rescued Ner'xath from the demons, the temple was unaware of the existence of the shrines and had no intention of exploring the underground areas of the ring island. We granted the shamanic school the generous treatment that we, as allies, deserved."

"It was only after the temple took full control of the circular island that the underground altar plaza was discovered. Only then did the high-ranking shamans, who had been temporarily imprisoned, reveal the truth about the annual sacrificial ceremony."

Rexor sighed deeply, his face filled with bitterness. "It's unimaginable how many times the shamanistic school contacted the Church of the Otherworld through rituals and shrines over the past thousand years. And how many temple secrets did they reveal to the Church of the Otherworld during these contacts? The twelve shamanic masters were all top-secret confidants..."

"Hiss..." Xia Zuo gasped sharply upon hearing the bald man's words, then asked, "With all-out war looming, if there are spies from the Otherworldly Church within the Shamanic sect, the danger would be no less than that of Sodike Black Flag. Has the Temple searched their memories?"

"Reading memories is useless against shaman masters."

"It didn't work?" Xia Zuo was taken aback.

Rexol held up three fingers: