Coming out of the Legal Department, the streets surrounding the palace had already returned to their usual order.
Li Yuan and Hogg walked side by side along King's Avenue. Angela had been sent back to Intelligence by Hogg. After spending so much time in the detention cell, breathing the fresh air outside felt quite refreshing.
The two walked for a while without either of them speaking. Hogg was likely still trying to figure out the right words to apologize, while Li Yuan hadn't taken the recent incident to heart. Instead, something else had suddenly crossed his mind.
Before he had been taken away from the gates of the Duke's estate, he had originally intended to check on the reconstruction progress of his tea shop. Thinking of the tea shop brought to mind that compensation list of over ten thousand gold coins. And thinking of the list brought to mind the perpetrator who had blown up his shop.
“Royal Preceptor,” Li Yuan said, turning his head slightly. “Is the main culprit from the Blood Moon Cult still in the Royal Capital?”
Hogg paused for a moment and looked over at him.
Li Yuan added, “He should still be alive, right? I want to go see him.”
“He is in the mana-suppression cell on the third basement level of the Magic Tower.” Hogg regained his usual composure. “You wish to see him, sir?”
“I haven't received the compensation for the tea shop yet,” Li Yuan explained frankly. “Even though he likely doesn't have any money now, it's always better to confirm it in person.”
Hogg remained silent, trying his best to process the fact that a being beyond the Heroic Spirit rank was preoccupied with a compensation of ten thousand gold coins. However, he didn't ask further and simply nodded.
“I will take you there.”
The Magic Tower was located in the palace's backyard, about a ten-minute walk from King's Avenue. Li Yuan had only seen this massive cylindrical building from a distance before. Now that he was close, he realized it was taller than he had imagined—a grey-white tower thrusting straight into the sky, looking particularly conspicuous among the surrounding three and four-story palace buildings.
The Imperial Guards standing watch at the entrance straightened their backs and saluted upon seeing Hogg. Hogg pushed open the heavy oak door and led Li Yuan through the front hall, descending a spiraling stone staircase. The steps were polished smooth by countless feet, and ever-burning lamps were embedded in the walls at regular intervals, their dim yellow glow barely dispelling the subterranean chill.
The air grew heavier the further down they went. The oppressive feeling unique to anti-magic stones squeezed in from all sides, instinctively making one want to circulate mana to resist. Of course, Li Yuan felt nothing—to him, it was just a bit damp.
The corridor on the third basement level was narrower than those above, with a row of iron-grated gates on either side. Behind the bars were pitch-black individual cells. Most of them were empty, except for the one at the very end of the corridor, which emitted a faint light.
The two Imperial Guards at the corridor entrance were about to salute when Hogg raised a hand to stop them.
“Go back upstairs first.”
The two exchanged a look and withdrew without asking questions.
Hogg took a lamp from the wall and led Li Yuan to the door of the innermost cell.
There was a small window in the iron gate. Through it, they could see a similarly dim lamp burning inside. Ignatius was sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning against the wall with his legs stretched out. The mana shackles on his ankles glinted with a dull metallic sheen under the light.
His condition was much better than it had been a month ago. His shriveled skin had regained some color, and his sunken cheeks were a bit fuller, making him look less like a skeleton wrapped in skin. However, his pale grey eyes remained hollow as he stared up at a corner of the ceiling, lost in thought.
Hogg hung the lamp on a hook beside the bars and glanced inside.
“Someone is here to see you.”
Ignatius did not react, continuing to stare at the ceiling.
Li Yuan stepped up to the bars, his gaze falling on the figure huddled on the edge of the bed. Compared to when he had seen him at the academy, the karmic debt on this man had faded significantly—after that crystal core shattered, most of the aura of death had vanished along with the incarnation. What little remained would eventually dissipate on its own.
But after watching for a moment, his brow furrowed slightly.
Something was wrong!
It wasn't the aura of karmic debt. Back at the academy, he had only seen the entanglement of deathly aura and karmic debt on Ignatius. But now, he detected another, more hidden layer—this man's life force was continuously leaking away.
The rate of loss was slow but extremely stable, as if an invisible tube were plugged into him, siphoning something out bit by bit. It wasn't just life force; it was also what was known in the cultivation world as the “soul source.”
Strangely, he couldn't see where the other end of that “tube” was connected.
Li Yuan stared at Ignatius for a long time, his frown deepening.
“What is going on with your body?”
Ignatius's gaze finally moved down from the ceiling. He turned his head, his pale grey eyes landing on Li Yuan.
His expression shifted visibly. No longer dull or hollow, he regained a bit of spirit. He braced his hands on the edge of the bed and straightened up, his lips twitching several times as if confirming that what he saw wasn't a hallucination.
“Why are you here?”
He didn't answer Li Yuan's question, his voice raspy and filled with clear wariness.
“To see you,” Li Yuan said in a casual tone. “And to ask about the compensation.”
Ignatius stared at him for a while longer. Then, as if remembering something, a corner of his mouth twitched, and he leaned back against the wall.
“You're late.” His tone carried a hint of schadenfreude. “I don't have a single copper on me.”
“We'll talk about that later.” Li Yuan pulled the conversation back. “You haven't answered my question—what is happening to your body? If this continues, you will be dead within two days.”
Hogg's expression changed instantly.
“Sir, are you certain?” He took a step forward, his gaze moving between Ignatius and Li Yuan. “Our healers have examined him and found no issues other than the exhaustion of his mana source. His injuries are healing well, and his internal organ functions are basically normal—”
“It's not an injury.” Li Yuan shook his head. “His life force and soul are being sucked away by something. The speed isn't fast, but it's constant. At this rate, he will be completely hollowed out within two days, leaving nothing but this empty shell.”
Ignatius's expression shifted dramatically at that moment, his eyes filled with surprise and a certain shock at having been seen through.
He remained silent for a few seconds before letting out a few light chuckles.
The laughter wasn't loud, but it sounded exceptionally clear in the empty cell. He looked down at his shackled wrists and shook his head.
“How did you know?” He looked up at Li Yuan. “No one should be able to feel it besides myself—”
“Tell me what's going on first,” Li Yuan interrupted.
Ignatius stared at him for a long time before his tone returned to its previous unhurried pace.
“There's nothing to say. From the moment my body became the Incarnation of the Blood Moon God, it no longer belonged to me.” He raised his hand, looking at his skeletal fingers. “This body is nothing but nourishment for the Blood Moon God. Even if you destroyed the incarnation, you cannot sever the connection between us.”
He lowered his hand and turned toward Hogg, a smile touching the corner of his mouth.
“Hogg, you lost from the very beginning. Did you think locking me here meant victory?” He shook his head slightly. “As long as I live for one more day, the Blood Moon God can draw nourishment from me. Even after I die, everything remaining in this body will return to its embrace at the final moment. Everything you've done is merely delaying its awakening.”
He leaned against the wall, the mockery in his smile turning into a sort of tranquil acceptance.
“So to me, death is not a punishment. On the contrary—it is the very meaning of my existence. Offering everything to the Blood Moon God has always been my lifelong pursuit. Whether you lock me here or send me to the execution block, it won't change the final outcome.”
Hogg's face darkened.
The cell was silent for a while. The flame of the ever-burning lamp flickered within its cover, casting the shadows of the three men onto the opposite stone wall, where they swayed back and forth.
“Ignatius,” Li Yuan spoke, his tone still unhurried. “Your symptoms—most likely—are not due to a sacrifice.”
Ignatius turned to look at him, his brow furrowing slightly.
“A sacrifice is one-way. Is there something wrong with a god taking what belongs to him?”
Li Yuan continued to explain, “But your situation is two-sided—there is a hidden mark inside you that is continuously channeling your life force and soul source in a specific direction. Furthermore, this mark itself does not belong to the Blood Moon God; it is merely using a layer of the Blood Moon God's aura as a disguise.”
He paused, as if organizing his words.
“In other words, the soul and life force being sucked out of you are not being used by the Blood Moon God. At least within the portion of aura I purified, the Blood Moon God didn't take anything. Its aura is just a shield for the thing truly draining your life—or rather, a smoke and mirrors act.”
Ignatius's body stiffened slightly.
“Impossible!” The expression on his face shifted from shock to a sort of stubborn denial, and his voice rose. “I can feel the Blood Moon God's aura still inside me! That feeling cannot be wrong—”
“The feeling you mentioned does exist,” Li Yuan nodded. “But it's just a shell, not the true master.”
His tone remained gentle, but his words were so blunt that even Hogg instinctively shifted half a step.
Ignatius stared at him blankly, his lips trembling for a few moments, unable to speak.
Li Yuan did not explain further.
In truth, he didn't know how to explain it. When he had tried to use his Divine Sense to trace the source of that mark just now, the information he received was blurred and unclear. He could only vaguely perceive a direction, but he couldn't see the specific form of the target itself.
This, however, piqued his interest slightly.
In the Kyushu Continent, there were only a few things that could block the Divine Sense of a Mahayana stage cultivator—ancient sealing formations, barriers made of specific materials, or deliberate concealment by another power of the same level. But in this world of swords and magic, he hadn't encountered anything that could shield against his Divine Sense yet.
“Interesting,” Li Yuan whispered to himself.
Ignatius was still trying to deny it, but his voice began to waver. “What are you trying to say? Are you telling me that the decades of hard work I dedicated—no, the faith passed down through centuries by the entire cult—has been a joke from beginning to end?”
“ I have no intention of mocking you, nor can I clearly tell you what is on the other side,” Li Yuan said honestly. “For some unknown reason, my detection methods are ineffective against it.”
Ignatius clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, still struggling. “What evidence do you have?! Just because you say so—”
Li Yuan thought for a moment and raised his right hand.
A beam of faint golden light shot from his fingertip, sinking directly into Ignatius's chest. The Purification Art—one of the most basic exorcism spells of the Daoist sects on the Kyushu Continent—washed away the evil within with noble spirit. It had a powerful effect on clearing deathly aura and karmic debt, and it was also exceptionally effective against certain deceptive spells.
Ignatius's voice stopped abruptly.
His pupils dilated instantly, and his face turned deathly pale, as if all the color had been drained from him. He clutched the collar of his clothes with both hands, his fingers twisting into unnatural angles, and his eyes began to lose focus.
His mouth hung wide open, but he couldn't make a sound—his throat seemed blocked by something, and only a few intermittent noises escaped.
Then, a primal terror surged in his eyes, as if he were seeing something completely beyond his understanding.
Ignatius's body began to tremble violently, the veins on his forehead throbbing, and cold sweat poured from every pore. He desperately raised his head, looking past the iron bars toward Li Yuan—he was pleading for help.
Hogg stood stunned outside the bars. He had never seen Ignatius like this and instinctively moved to call the guards, but Li Yuan stopped him just in time.
“Don't call anyone yet,” Li Yuan said. His voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally serious. “Anyone who makes contact now could easily be polluted.”
Hogg's movement stopped mid-air.
“Polluted?”
“The mark itself isn't much, but the Purification Art just now temporarily stripped away the surface disguise, leaving it completely exposed.” Li Yuan looked at Ignatius, who was curled into a ball behind the bars, his brow furrowed. “Isolate him until the disguise recovers. Anyone who rashly approaches him now might be affected and become a new extraction target.”
As he spoke, his other hand was quickly forming seals, performing a more complex technique—the Spirit Protection Art.
Golden threads of spirit light wound around Li Yuan's palm before scattering and shooting toward that distorted black shadow along different arcs.
The moment the spirit light touched the black mist, the mist's expansion clearly stalled. Then, those golden threads began to weave silently, layering over each other to form a dense, spherical cage, locking the black mist and that faint “umbilical cord” inside.
The black mist churned violently within the cage, repeatedly striking the walls woven of spirit light. Each impact sent ripples across the surface of the barrier, but it could not break through. Eventually, the black mist stopped its assault and slowly dissipated within the sphere of light.
Ignatius collapsed on the ground, gasping for air, his body drenched in sweat. He was still shaking, but he was much better than before. The terror in his eyes slowly receded, leaving only the relief of having survived a disaster.
After another long while, when Ignatius could finally manage to raise his head, the look he gave Li Yuan was filled with disbelief.
“Wh-What was that—” He struggled to push himself up from the floor, his legs sliding on the stone before his back hit the wall heavily, barely steadying himself. “Tell me! What was that—that thing I just saw?!”
His voice was extremely shrill, every word trembling. In just a short time, Ignatius seemed like a different person. The previously composed Ignatius was nowhere to be found.
Li Yuan did not respond, simply watching the huddled Ignatius in thought.
Ignatius opened his mouth to ask more, but he couldn't make a sound. Finally, he slid down the wall and curled into a ball, clutching his head tightly with both hands.
The faith passed down through the cult for centuries, the decades of planning and endurance—all that time, all those sacrifices... only to end up as someone else's nourishment?
Ignatius's convictions began to crumble, and he fell into a state of extreme contradiction.
Hogg looked at the enemy who had once driven him to the brink, and a flicker of pity actually stirred in his heart.
Ignatius was not a weak-willed person—there was no doubt about that. To have survived the catastrophe fifty years ago and spent decades perfectly laying out his plans in the Royal Capital, his will would not collapse so easily.
Therefore, Hogg was equally curious—what exactly had he seen?
If Li Yuan's deduction was correct, then the Blood Moon Cult's centuries of revenge had been nothing but a carefully designed scam from the start.
Sacrifices, rituals, offerings—all their efforts had turned into bubbles in this single moment. Hogg took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing these chaotic thoughts. He turned to Li Yuan, his gaze solemn.
“Sir, did Ignatius really turn into this just from seeing the truth?”
Li Yuan nodded, then shook his head.
“The Purification Art only temporarily stripped away the surface disguise, allowing him to look directly at the thing draining his life force.” His pace was a bit slower than usual. “It's normal for most humans to have this reaction when facing certain existences that far exceed their cognition. It's not because his will wasn't strong enough—in a way, being able to maintain any sanity after seeing it already makes him stronger than most.”
Hogg remained silent, looking at the shivering figure behind the bars, then instinctively looked up at Li Yuan, as if searching for some comfort in the other's face.
Li Yuan's expression remained calm, but his brow was still furrowed. The Spirit Protection Art had blocked the connection between Ignatius and that thing, but when he performed the technique, he had tried to trace the mark back to its source. His Divine Sense still couldn't lock onto a specific location—this was a first for him.
Unknown things always piqued his interest, but seeing Hogg looking as if he were facing a great enemy, he thought for a moment and offered a word of comfort.
“There is no need for the Royal Preceptor to worry too much.” He pulled his thoughts back. “That thing hasn't awakened yet. And judging by its residual aura, its strength isn't particularly great. It's roughly—”
He paused, mentally converting the strength standards to this world's level.
“Roughly a bit stronger than your gods. Of course, this is just a guess based on the power comparison with the Incarnation of the Blood Moon God. Ignatius is likely just one of many extraction points; it's just unclear how many of these extraction points there are... It's impossible to judge the specific situation for now.”
A bitter smile crossed Hogg's face. “A bit stronger than the gods”—that description sounded far too casual coming from this man. But for the kingdom, and even the entire world, it was a threat from another dimension.
“What do you think that thing is, sir?”
“I'm not sure for now,” Li Yuan said frankly. “It could be a parasitic life form, or a fragment of a sleeping consciousness... Without more information, I can't make a judgment. Being able to distort my detection is indeed quite interesting.”
This assessment made Hogg's feelings even more complex. After committing these words to memory, he intended to investigate using his own methods first.
Li Yuan glanced back behind the bars—Ignatius had regained his calm, but his consciousness was scattered... even though he had helped block the connection, the tiny bit of life force remaining in his body was only enough for him to survive for a few more months, and his soul was fragmented.
It seemed he wouldn't be able to talk about compensation today.
Li Yuan sighed softly and turned to leave.
Hogg followed behind Li Yuan, suddenly speaking after they stepped out of the prison.
“Sir, the compensation regarding Ignatius will be covered by the royal family, as a form of restitution for this incident.”
Li Yuan's footsteps paused for a second as he looked at Hogg, somewhat confused.
“This is my personal atonement,” Hogg added, his tone sincere. “The matter with the arrest warrant was my oversight. This compensation is only right—the full cost of rebuilding the tea shop, plus the cost of purchasing all the supplies, will be handled by our side.”
Li Yuan thought about it and nodded in agreement.
“Then, thank you.”
“I will have someone continue to follow up on this. As for Ignatius—” he paused, “if there are any new developments, I will contact you.”
“Alright. You had better keep a close eye on him; do not let anyone make unauthorized contact.”
Li Yuan gave the instruction and turned toward King's Avenue. Before he had gone far, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from behind.
The footsteps were extremely fast, stopping abruptly when they were less than two steps away from him. Then, a force slammed into him from behind—two arms wrapped around his waist, locking tightly in front of him.
The strength was a bit excessive, but in contrast to that force were those slightly trembling hands.
Li Yuan's body instinctively tensed for a split second upon contact, but in the next moment, he recognized the owner of these hands.
“Miss Setis, you—”
“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time...”
The voice behind him was muffled and carried a bit of a nasal quality. Setis's entire face was buried in his back, her breathing shaky. It took a full ten seconds before she slowly pulled away.
From the moment she watched that carriage turn the corner at the gates of the Duke's estate last night, she hadn't closed her eyes all night. Even though she knew nothing could happen to Li Yuan—even though she knew he would be out soon—she still couldn't help but worry. As for what she was worried about, she couldn't say for sure herself.
Li Yuan raised his hand and turned to pat her shoulder, feeling a bit moved by the young girl's actions.
How many years had it been since he had felt this way... he had likely, perhaps, probably forgotten.
Having overly rich emotions on the path of cultivation was a dangerous thing... before one was strong enough, excess emotions brought only danger and trouble.
After thinking many thoughts, he could only let out a soft sigh in the end. Resuming his usual gentle tone and smile, he said softly,
“I made you worry. Let's go back.”
“Mm...”
Setis nodded gently, giving a barely audible response before secretly wiping her eyes. When she looked up at Li Yuan again, she seemed completely refreshed, even taking the initiative to pull on his arm. This time, Li Yuan chose to ignore the overly intimate gesture.
“Let's go home.”
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