Chapter 11: Insight
Inside the second-floor meeting room of the "Imperial Special Affairs Department" headquarters.
Everything in the room had been cleared out, replaced by various types of ritual arrays on the floor, walls, and ceiling. All the arrays glowed with a soul-penetrating blue, giving off a fantastical feeling.
Soul Mentor Jeff Crane stood at the center of the array with a strange smile, spreading his arms and saying, "Bai Ye, the ritual for the Ultimate Sublimation Secret Art has been set up for you. Whether you dare to use it or not is your own problem."
The ritual itself was actually fine, but with this transaction of the [Soul Secret Treasure Box], the Soul Clock Tower had suffered a great loss, and they didn't want Su Xiao to have an easy time either.
"Oh? That dangerous, huh."
Su Xiao stopped outside the room. After observing the situation inside, he shook his head. "Since you all have set up such a terrifying Ultimate Sublimation Secret Art ritual, I'll just pass on using it."
With that, Su Xiao turned to leave. It was already dawn, and he planned to get some breakfast. There were still things to do afterward.
"Shut up, Jeff Crane!"
The broad-shouldered, stout Soul Mentor Loich roared angrily. Overnight, his figure had become even more bloated.
"Mr. White Night, I swear on my soul that this ritual is fine."
A Transcendent Sorcerer's oath on their soul had about the same credibility as Su Xiao's personal guarantee.
"Alright, I believe you."
"Mr. White Night, before you use this ritual, you must give us some kind of guarantee. Otherwise, we won't be able to report back to Lord Shilgof."
Thinking of their faction's leader, the Clock Tower Master Shilgof, Soul Mentor Loich couldn't help but shiver. He always had a feeling that, from the First Era to the present, the records of the 155 Clock Tower Masters seemed to share some subtle similarities.
Soul Mentor Loich was one of the very few Transcendent Sorcerers who had visited the Soul Great Library. That place was forbidden to Transcendent Sorcerers, but many years ago, Loich had saved a small elf. Through that elf's recommendation, he gained three opportunities to enter the Soul Great Library. This was one of the reasons Loich had achieved his current status as a Soul Mentor.
According to the records in the Soul Great Library, each generation of Clock Tower Masters had some similar small habits. These habits would persist for several generations before gradually changing over time.
For example, from the first to the fifteenth generation, the Clock Tower Masters habitually touched their heads when thinking, feeling the condition of their "Soul Orifices." From the sixteenth to the fiftieth generation, this changed to touching their foreheads. In short, these small habits were bound to change.
This led Soul Mentor Loich to guess a terrifying possibility: could the Clock Tower Master who founded the Soul Clock Tower be the same person as the current one?
Regarding this, Soul Mentor Loich chose to turn a blind eye. He didn't investigate, didn't probe, and even suppressed the urge to think about it. Because a very frightening reality was: where did those Transcendent Sorcerers who had opened ten "Soul Orifices" and were qualified to succeed as "Clock Tower Master" actually go?
An even more horrifying thought emerged in Soul Mentor Loich's mind: for the first-generation Clock Tower Master, only those he personally cultivated could be eaten with peace of mind and assurance. He wouldn't have to worry about devouring some messy abilities. A successor raised by his own hands would taste just right.
"Mr. White Night, don't push it too far. This is our bottom line."
Soul Mentor Loich's gaze darkened as his soul aura gradually emanated.
From the eight "Soul Orifices" in his brain, visible deep-blue soul power spread out, forming a soul manifestation behind him with eight arms and three heads. Each hand held a weapon with different attack characteristics—either a black-flame twisted sword or a lightning bow and arrow. In truth, late-stage Soul System cultivators were the most versatile of all systems.
However, since they were indoors, Soul Mentor Loich deliberately shrunk the soul manifestation's size to just over three meters tall.
Soul Mentor Loich's attitude hardened. The massive frozen battle axe in his soul manifestation's hand swung down fiercely.
Crack!
The axe blade was caught barehanded by a hand wrapped in a crystalline layer. The powerful collision sent a burst of wind pressure outward, but it immediately triggered the headquarters' defensive barrier, which absorbed the impact.
After half a minute of silence, the frozen battle axe dissipated. Soul Mentor Loich snorted coldly and said, "Bai Ye, think it over yourself."
Leaving that remark, Soul Mentor Loich led several colleagues away. The colleagues were satisfied with Loich's attitude—this was the Loich they knew. First, lower the stance to negotiate; once negotiations failed, immediately show one's fangs.
After the Transcendent Sorcerers had all left, Su Xiao didn't immediately use the ritual in the room. He went to the third-floor office, sat behind the desk, and activated the office's anti-surveillance barrier. Only then did he gradually remove the crystalline layer he had formed on his hand earlier.
He didn't let the crystalline layer shatter into fragments and dissipate. Instead, he manipulated it to crack into grid-like pieces. When all the crystalline layer had peeled off, several crystal blocks with inscribed characters floated before him.
The inscribed blocks weren't many, and they were easy to piece together. It turned out that when Soul Mentor Loich suddenly attacked earlier, showing the mad side of an eight-"Soul Orifice" Transcendent Sorcerer, he was actually trying to convey something to Su Xiao.
'Tomorrow at 3 PM, 1019 Fanke Street.'
The probability of this being a trap was very low. The three major factions were checking each other within the Royal Capital, which meant none of them would engage in large-scale combat here. An attempt to surround and kill Su Xiao could level most of the Royal Capital district. And this was considering that the Royal Capital was vast—one district was the size of an entire ordinary kingdom.
It seemed the waters of the Soul Clock Tower were deeper than imagined. Moreover, Su Xiao always had a feeling that this world's "Star Heart" had appeared far too conveniently for his needs. It wasn't that Su Xiao was arrogant enough to think every major event was targeting him, but at the end of his previous world, he had just obtained the "Origin Codex" and activated it with a portion of "God's Blood."
Calculating the timing, the "Origin Codex" and this world's "Star Heart" had appeared simultaneously. And it had appeared right in the stronghold of the gods.
As for the causal curse on the "Star Heart," who was to say this was the initial state of the causal curse, rather than something added later by someone else? Su Xiao and Kaisa had just artificially created a "World Daughter"—turning something that was currently a humanoid existence, but might become something else in the future, into a "World Daughter."
Su Xiao began to contemplate, from entering this world to the intelligence he had gathered so far.