I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

The surrounding streets had been ravaged by the cult, but this manor remained intact.

The walls were clean, the windows were spotless, and even the small flowerbed in front of the door looked like it had been tended, standing out starkly from the surrounding dilapidated landscape.

The main gate of the manor was tightly closed, and two guards dressed in heavy black armor stood like statues on either side of the gate.

Lynn stopped in the shadows at the street corner and activated his Appraisal spell.

[Elite Guardians of the Order]

[Level: 35]

[Class: Heavy Warrior]

......

[Elite Guardians of the Order]

[Level: 36]

[Class: Heavy Warrior]

It's not a high-ranking position, but it's enough for a gatekeeper.

Lynn's gaze swept quickly across the entire manor's outer walls, from the first floor to the fourth floor, and then to the roof. Apart from the two living people at the entrance, he found no other signs of life.

It's so weird.

The cult has transformed the entire city into an airtight cage, and even regularly releases monsters to clean the sewers. How could they possibly be so careless about the city lord's manor, which is one of the core parts of the altar?

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

Lynn suppressed the unease rising in her heart, went around to the side of the manor, climbed over the wall, and came to the window of a side building.

This is a bedroom on the first floor; the window is unlocked.

Lynn carefully pushed open a crack, and after confirming that no one was inside, she slipped inside.

Lynn quietly pushed open the door and stepped into the hallway.

The corridor was covered with a dark red carpet, and several landscape oil paintings hung on the walls, giving it a very elegant feel.

As he explored deeper into the manor, he kept his vigilance at its highest.

The journey was smooth and unobstructed.

Lynn quickly made his way to the third floor.

Just as he passed the end of the corridor, he caught a glimpse of an oak door slightly ajar, with a faint candlelight shining through the crack.

Finally, there are living people here?

Lynn stopped abruptly. He slowly moved to the door and peered through the narrow crack.

The room was large and appeared to be a study or reading room.

The candlelight came from a huge desk, on which a white candle was lit.

A little girl who looks no more than twelve years old is sitting upright behind a desk.

She wore a gorgeous black gothic dress, the layers of lace making her skin appear even paler.

Her smooth, ear-length silver-white short hair further accentuated her delicate, almost unreal face.

The desk was too high for her; when she sat there, her two legs, clad in white stockings, dangled in mid-air, swaying gently with boredom.

The girl was holding a black book that was bigger than her head, and she was turning the pages one by one.

The candlelight flickered, reflecting in her crimson eyes like two translucent rubies.

Lynn subconsciously used her appraisal skill on her.

The next second, the information that popped up on the panel stunned him completely.

【Name:? ? ? 】

[Level: 1]

Occupation: None

[Sanity Value: ???]

Level 1, no profession.

Isn't this just the data of an ordinary, ordinary girl?

Lynn's first thought was the advice Anna had once given him: "The results of forensic examination can only be used as a reference. Sometimes, your intuition is more reliable than forensic examination."

Why would an ordinary little girl be alone in the city lord's manor, which is under the tight control of the Abyss Cult, and so leisurely reading a book?

This in itself is the biggest irrationality.

But Lynn then thought of another possibility.

The City Lord's Manor was originally the residence of the City Lord of Holy Song City, a hereditary noble family.

After the cult occupied this place, they may have simply left a girl as a hostage.

Lynn didn't dwell on the issue too much.

Because his primary goal was to gather intelligence.

But he still silently memorized the location of the room, quietly retreated, and continued to sneak downstairs.

On the fourth floor, he found the former city lord's study.

The place had clearly been ransacked; the books on the shelves were pulled out and scattered haphazardly, and many papers were strewn on the floor.

But the cult members were clearly careless, or rather, they simply didn't care about these things.

Lynn found a stack of letters sealed with wax in a hidden compartment in the desk drawer.

He quickly opened and flipped through the book, his heart pounding faster than ever.

These letters turned out to be secret communications between the Order and several lords around Holy Song City!

The contents of the letter were shocking.

The order threatened to spread the plague, forcing the lords to provide them with large amounts of food and supplies, and even demanding that they send their private troops to help blockade the city of Holy Song.

In one of the letters, Bishop Karthus of the Abyss wrote in a condescending tone: "Either become a servant of my Lord and gain a place in the new order, or take your people and become fertilizer to nourish the coming of my Lord."

A blatant threat, without any disguise.

In addition to these letters, Lynn also found a stack of orders stamped with the cult's seal behind a fallen filing cabinet.

It records the number of "sacrifices" that need to be offered each day, as well as a percentage called "blood extraction progress".

Yesterday, the progress bar reached 82%.

Beneath these documents lay a dozen or so pages of parchment.

The parchment was covered with dense, eerie symbols, the writing distorted, exuding an aura of madness and chaos.

Lynn couldn't understand a single word.

Without hesitation, he stuffed all the letters, documents, and encrypted files into his spatial ring.

With these things, not only will Nora's rebels see the true face of their enemies, but they will also serve as irrefutable evidence to overthrow the Order and settle scores with those traitorous lords in the future!

Lynn suppressed his excitement and continued searching the manor.

Finally, in a large reception room on the first floor, he made a new discovery.

A huge blueprint was nailed to the wall.

Those were the complete construction drawings for the obelisk in the central square.

The blueprints, marked in red ink, detailed the layout of the energy conduits connecting the obelisk to the entire city.

The base of the obelisk is connected to four main energy transmission pipelines, which extend to the city in the four directions of east, south, west and north.

The source of these four main pipelines, which are the four corners of the obelisk base, is a circled node at each of them.

Next to the drawing, a note was written in messy handwriting: "The node is maintained by the priest to ensure a stable energy supply."

Lynn's heart skipped a beat.

A bold plan instantly took shape in his mind.

If... if these four core nodes could be destroyed, cutting off the energy supply between the obelisk and the city, would the life-devouring ritual be forcibly interrupted?

This is absolutely the key to breaking the deadlock.

However, he soon discovered a new problem.

Another note on the drawing reads: "If any node is damaged, the other three nodes will automatically compensate for the energy channel and operate under overload until repair."

This means that a fatal blow must be launched against all four nodes simultaneously.

Where can we find this fourth person?

Lynn felt a headache coming on, but now was not the time to think about that.

He tore the entire huge blueprint off the wall and stuffed it into his spatial ring.

After confirming that there was no other valuable information in the manor, he prepared to return the way he came.

We must inform Anna and Nora of this information as soon as possible; perhaps they can come up with a solution.

He walked briskly down the corridor he had come from to the window that had been flipped open, the whole process going so smoothly that he could hardly believe it himself.

However, just as his hand was about to leap out of the window, a slightly lazy, childish voice drifted over from behind.

"Since you're already here, won't you play with me for a bit?"

Lynn immediately tensed up. He was absolutely certain that he had been wearing an invisibility cloak the entire time he entered the manor.

How could this person possibly have discovered me?

Lynn slowly turned her head.

At the end of the corridor.

The little girl in the black gothic dress had left the room at some point.

She held the thick, black book in one hand, while the index finger of her other hand gently touched her soft lips.

She tilted her head, looking into Lynn's eyes with great interest.

She was smiling.

Her smile is innocent, radiant, and adorable.

But in those ruby-like eyes, there was no childlike emotion, only a bottomless darkness.

Lynn couldn't even muster the thought of summoning the temple guards; all his fighting instincts were screaming the same thing madly deep within his soul.

run!

Immediately! Right now!

Lynn did not hesitate for a moment.

He turned around abruptly, and with all his might, flipped over and jumped out of the window.

However, just as his body passed over the window frame, the scene before him changed.

Before his eyes was a pure white expanse.

An endless, dazzling expanse of pure white.

"boom!"

He crashed heavily onto a hard, flat surface.

Lynn struggled to his feet, looked around, and was completely stunned.

He... was standing in a world made up of black and white.

There is no sky, no earth, only an endless gray-white plane that stretches infinitely in all directions.

He looked down at his feet.

The so-called "ground" was a huge page of a book that stretched to the horizon.

On the pages, countless buildings, streets, and trees are outlined with exquisite black and white lines... It is clearly an aerial view of the city of Holy Song.

The style resembles some kind of classical print.