My health recovery is incredibly fast.

"Reading, sealing, and altering memories are not things that only the Tower Scholars can do. The Shamanic school also has related spells. They may have sealed or deleted their memories of contact with the Church of the Otherworld. In any case, we did not find anything suspicious in their memories."

“Alright.” Xia Zuo frowned. “It sounds like there’s no better way than to keep a close watch on them…”

“That’s how it is.” Rexor stood up and asked as he walked forward:

"What's the situation outside? When will the reinforcements arrive?"

"The Temple Guards have arrived at the stone house you are in. They have detained the entire Eye Potion research team and are now working on solving the maze."

Xia Zuo looked at the video feed and said, "I estimate you'll be able to get out of here in about two minutes."

"very good."

Upon hearing that rescue had arrived, Rexor simply sat down again and stopped searching for the illusion device.

He switched to Serites' perspective and watched for a few seconds, noticing the temple guards lying in ambush at the very edge of the square.

"The sacrificial ceremony is still ongoing... Can you see the footage, Shazo?"

"can."

"What about Christo and the others?"

“They can see the footage too.” Xia Zuo glanced back at the weeping people on the sofa. “They’re very emotional, tears are streaming down their faces. If I were in their shoes, experiencing the pain of losing a loved one, I think I would also be devastated…”

Xia Zuo paused for a moment, "To be honest, Master, the pure-blood mage faction is weaker than I imagined. I originally thought that a faction that could help others fight aging and extend their lifespan would win the love and respect of all factions and departments, but... the reality is much worse than I expected."

“Things will get better,” Rexor said. “It starts with you, Shazo. Have faith. Your cooperation with the Templar army is a good start.”

As the two were talking, the maze walls visibly shook.

Rexor heard the explosion, a short but powerful roar that, though weakened by the thick walls and soil, was still clearly audible.

"They're forcibly breaking through the maze." Xia Zuo watched the video. "One of the researchers working on the eye potion had his memories read by the Temple Guardians. The Temple Guardians successfully obtained a portion of the maze's map, and they're currently using alchemical bombs to blast through the walls of the room where the silence field generator is located."

"Boom boom boom..."

A series of explosions echoed down the corridor.

"Success, Master." Xia Zuo clapped his hands. "The silence field generator has been shut down by the temple guards."

Upon hearing this, Rexor immediately pulled a spell scroll from his alchemy pouch.

Untying the ochre-colored ribbon binding the scroll and tearing off the wax seal, Rexor held the scroll, which emitted an earthy brown glow, up to the ground.

A straight, brownish-yellow beam of light shot out from the scroll, rushing toward the stone floor with unstoppable momentum.

The stone bricks were pierced by the beam of light as easily as tofu. The beam thickened, enlarging the hole several times over. When the light disappeared, a downward-sloping circular passage appeared before Rexor.

The inner walls of the circular passage were smooth and flat. After Rexor jumped, he landed in the passage and slid down in a flash, heading straight for Hughie's room.

The descent was longer than Xia Zuo had imagined.

A full 10 seconds later, a faint light finally appeared at the end of the passage.

The light flickered, seemingly coming from a candle.

Five seconds later, Rexor landed steadily on the reddish-brown wooden floor.

Looking around, you see bookshelves, a desk, candlesticks, a fireplace, a single sofa, and a coffee machine—it's an elegantly decorated study.

The bookshelves were empty, without a single book or bookmark; the fireplace was devoid of ashes and warmth; the desk was bare except for a small piece of cloth.

Rexor first cast a detection spell to thoroughly survey the underground study, confirming there were no traps before approaching the desk and picking up the piece of cloth.

His expression turned extremely grave.

This piece of cloth, about the size of a fingernail, is a corner of an alchemical robe commonly worn by alchemists. In the very center of the cloth, in the most conspicuous position, there is a nearly invisible circular bloodstain.

"This is..." Xia Zuo suddenly sensed something was wrong.

“This is the blood mark I left on Hurley.” Rexol clenched his right fist, gripping the fabric tightly. “My blood mark was discovered, and the discoverer deliberately left this piece of fabric behind. He’s provoking me.”

Is it difficult to detect hemoglobin markers?

It depends on who did it and who set it up.

Rexor's control over his blood runes was not as strong as Shazo's; reducing the blood mark to the thickness of three hairs was already the limit.

A normal person can find Rexor's blood mark with careful visual inspection, and it would be even faster if a blood mark detection spell were used.

Rexor lingered in the labyrinth for so long... the people in the study could easily have found the bloodline mark on Hurley; the small piece of cloth in front of them was proof...

What price did the mysterious person who took Hughie pay to do so?

A labyrinth containing illusion devices, a silent force field generator covering an area of ​​hundreds of square meters, an eye drug research group, and many people drawn into the silent force field generator...

All of this was done to take Hughie away and achieve the goal set by the mysterious group.

As of now, the score between the Temple and the Mystic Group is 0 to 1.

Hughie is missing, the Mysterious Group gains 1 point, and the Temple is temporarily behind.

This is a match we cannot afford to lose, otherwise the temple will lose face and the people will be in turmoil.

With all-out war looming, it's hard not to link this mysterious group with the Church of the Otherworldly Demons. Especially at this juncture—with Nukoalov's death and the interruption of the Otherworldly Demon incubation—the Church of the Otherworldly Demons urgently needs to take measures to slow down the Temple's mobilization of its army, and a chaotic Temple undoubtedly better suits their needs.

All speculations point to the Church of the Otherworldly Demons, as both Shazo and Rexor believe.

"I never expected the Church of the Otherworldly Demons to have such a setup in the temple..."

Rexor Mosso, bald, muttered to himself:

"Whose work is this? The Archbishop of the Church of the Otherworldly Demons? Or Grandsa Bage? The Shadow Demon Lord also has some knowledge of mind magic. Could it be that it was secretly colluding with the shamanistic school, digging a trap on the atoll in advance, and plotting the mysterious group's plan..."

Rexor walked to the desk and sat down, taking in the entire 20-square-meter study. Before him appeared a deep vortex, a vortex capable of stirring up chaos throughout the entire temple.

This vortex is bottomless and keeps spinning all the time.

There is a fragile rope ladder at the edge of the vortex, which becomes Rexor's only way to explore the bottom of the vortex and find the root cause of the vortex.

This "rope ladder" is Tauwenset.

Capture him, use mind control to pry open his mouth, read his memories, find his sins, and then hand him over to the Inquisition to investigate his connections with the mysterious group.

“But I can’t do that…” Rexor said dejectedly.

"What can't we do?" Xia Zuo asked using his bloodline connection.

"I can't arrest and torture Tauvinsett without evidence... At most, I can use the privileges of the Witcher School to investigate him secretly, but that's another time-consuming task..."

Seeing Rexor's worried expression, Shazo felt a pang of sympathy.

He turned and stared at his pureblood mage colleagues on the sofa, a plan to turn the tables quickly forming in his mind.

The Demon Hunter School, which considers itself the watchdog of the Temple, has attracted too much attention. Many things that should have been done in secret have been forced into the open by those who are watching, which undoubtedly causes trouble for the Demon Hunters and makes them unable to act freely.

In that case, Xia Zuo decided to investigate the mysterious group using his own methods.

Mysterious groups have the ability to operate behind the scenes and create conflict, and so does Xia Zuo.

【Spore-forming cysts】are born for conspiracy; this is Sodike Black Flag's signature skill, so why not use it?

First, Shazo needs a completely new spore cytogenes that has never appeared in the temple before.

This cyst-like organism must possess excellent self-protection and counter-surveillance capabilities. It must use its magic to independently and without leaving a trace investigate Tauvenset.

The Lone Wolf template provided by Calles is perfect for this quest; all that's needed is to make some changes to the spell list, appearance, name, etc., of the No. 1 Spore Spawn.

After designing the No. 1 breeding body, Xia Zuo did not intend to stop.

While being a lone wolf is advantageous, it can easily leave one isolated and helpless. If this drawback is addressed, then the No. 1 breeding entity will be considered perfect.

Therefore, it is necessary to create a second reproductive entity to assist the first reproductive entity.

As for the second type of phallus... Xia Zuo thinks it would be better to find someone in the group that Towinset is in. In this way, the first and second types of phallus can form a situation of cooperation from the inside and outside. With the assistance of the second type of phallus as an inside agent, the first type of phallus can achieve twice the result with half the effort, and the risk of the operation is lower.

The key lies in the selection of the second breeding body.

This person must be able to contact Tauvinsett and obtain firsthand information from the bloodline research group in a timely manner;

At the same time, he kept a certain distance from Tauvinset and did not have strong strength himself, which made it easier for Shazo to devour his character template;

In the best-case scenario, this person would be easy for Xia Zuo to find, but would have no public interaction with Xia Zuo. In this way, when the truth comes out, no one will suspect Xia Zuo...

Xia Zuo reviewed these conditions in his mind and recorded them in the [Name] field of Entity No. 1.

After deciding to use two sporangia, Shazor had one sporangia remaining.

Due to insufficient charm attribute value, he can only control two spore brood cells at the same time.

Therefore, the fertilized organism in the remaining spore can only stay in the spore until Shazo raises the charm attribute value.

According to the spell template of [Nurture Sac], for every 100 points of Charisma attribute value gained, the number of Nurturing Sacs that can be deployed at the same time increases by 1.

Xia Zuo plans to raise his charm attribute to 300 points as soon as possible so that he can release the third nurturing entity.

With inside agents and spies working together, how could we not have scapegoats to take the blame?

Hehe, this candidate for the third breeding body must be able to serve a dual purpose.

He had to take the blame for No. 1 and No. 2, replacing them as suspects in the Bloodline Research Group, and he also had to be an important member of the Bloodline Research Group. Once he was labeled a traitor, it would have a serious negative impact on the Bloodline Research Group.

Maximizing the benefits of sporangiophores became the ultimate goal of Xia Zuo's plan.

This is the first time he has used sporangiosomes to do something, so he must do it well.

Chapter 15 Recorders of Knowledge and Civilization

Rexor sat in the basement study for a few minutes, pulling himself out of his troubled thoughts, and gave Shazo a small task.

Xia Zuo walked to the sofa and asked the pureblood mage, whose face was streaked with tears.

"Retunia, can you still sense Hurley's location? When she was taken from underground, did you receive any new bloodline information?"

Retunia seemed not to have recovered from her daze until Sinfia gently nudged her a few times, at which point she snapped out of her reverie.

“I…I don’t know, Shazo.” Letunia frowned slightly, trying to sense Hurley. “I can sense that she’s still alive, but I can’t be sure where she is, what she’s doing, or who’s around her. I only see darkness from her; someone has used magic to obscure the blood connection between us…”

"When did you first discover this situation?" Shazo relayed Rexor's question.

"The moment she stepped into the stone hut of the eye potion research group, I immediately informed Rexor." Letunia remained expressionless, though she seemed to harbor some resentment towards the Witcher.

Shazo was caught in the middle between Rexor and Letunia, which made him feel somewhat awkward.