Lord of the Mysteries

The group of five circled around Nois City’s perimeter, making a few attempts to enter, but they were frightened away by the seemingly normal but silent city’s carrying out of its “daily routine.” They didn’t dare to venture in.

With the frequency of the lightning reducing, and how darkness was slowly beginning to rule the world, Colin took a deep look at Nois City for a few seconds and said, “We will first set up a small camp. We will continue when it’s ‘daytime.””

The so-called “daytime” meant when the frequency of lightning was relatively higher, keeping the moments of darkness to a minimum.

The expedition team members didn’t object to it. Soon, they set up a simple camp by the riverside amidst a series of rocks.

At the extreme end of the camp, there was a huge boulder providing them with shelter so there weren’t any worries about rain. A bonfire was burning with all kinds of strange creature carcasses piled to the side. From time to time, they would be thrown in as timber. Colin, Lovia, and company sat around the fire, eating the rations they had brought and the monster corpses that had been proven to not cause serious harm.

As the fat sizzled from the roasting, Chief Colin Iliad from the six-member council looked at Derrick Berg and said, “We shall inspect the camp first. We’ll switch when they’re done with their meals.”

If this were any other time, Derrick wouldn’t have thought otherwise. But now, the first thought that came to mind was: The Chief wishes to speak to me in private...

“Alright.” Derrick stuffed the remaining piece of meat into his mouth and lifted the Thunder God’s Roar at his side.

The piece of meat was clearly already ready, but it still presented a ghastly green color.

After coming to the dark edge of the camp, Demon Hunter Colin said in a deep voice, his tone unchanging, “Nois City is more sinister and dangerous than I expected. I’m wondering if you have any views on what we should do next?”

I know nothing about this place. I’m also lacking in experience. Why is Chief asking for my views? Derrick was instantly taken aback, wishing to raise his left hand to scratch the back of his head.

He then recalled the few times he had spoken with the Chief while they were in the City of Silver. He recalled Mr. Hanged Man’s analysis of the hidden context in their conversations as he suddenly realized something.

Chief is giving me a hint!

He’s trying to tell me that Nois City is more sinister and dangerous than he expected. The difficulty of hunting a Shapeshifter far exceeds his expectations. He’s wondering if there’s a possibility of changing the target?

He wishes for me to pray to Mr. Fool and receive a revelation so as to get “His” views?

Hmm... Mr. World really is a wise person. Along the way, he had already told me of a method to hunt the Bizarro Bane in a relatively easy manner. It’s by getting its blood. Hmm, with the present situation, it seems like his plan is feasible!

As his thoughts raced, Derrick replied earnestly, “Yes, Your Excellency. I have some suggestions.”

Colin Iliad silently heaved a sigh of relief, holding back the more direct speech he had prepared as he nodded gently.

“Go ahead.”

“Since Nois City has changed, it will be very risky for us to enter. Perhaps we can consider luring the Shapeshifter out.” Derrick didn’t directly regurgitate The World Gehrman Sparrow’s method, but he did make some modifications based on the present situation.

Colin didn’t directly reject it, and said rather seriously, “Then how should we lure the Shapeshifter?”

Derrick didn’t hesitate to say, “I have an item that is extremely enticing to Shapeshifters. As long as it’s placed at the boundary of Nois City, or even further, it will lure a Shapeshifter out.”

The grizzled Colin wasn’t surprised by his words. He amiably nodded and said, “What’s the item?”

He long knew that Derrick Berg had secretly held a bestowment ritual at night during his guard duty shift.

Furthermore, if he hadn’t kept the truth under cover, it was impossible for Derrick to keep it from Lovia, Lovia, and Gonlun.

Derrick didn’t know what its name or description was. He immediately took out an iron-black box which was completely different from the City of Silver’s style before removing the wall of spirituality.

Following that, he didn’t lower his head. Instead, he turned his head and opened the box solely using his sense of touch.

Inside the box was a palm-sized human-shaped object. A cursory glance allowed one to see the transparent liquid filling the inside. From time to time, it bubbled, emanating a black glow. Upon scrutinizing it, there appeared to be maggots circling around the object.

This was the true soul body of the Spirit World Plunderer which Klein had previously obtained!

He believed that, for the Bizarro Bane, this Beyonder ingredient had an unparalleled allure. This wasn’t simply a result of the law of Beyonder characteristic convergence, but it was also because once the Bizarro Bane obtained it, it could turn into a complete Bizarro Sorcerer. It would break through all kinds of limitations and receive a fundamental improvement in its life’s natural order, truly becoming a demigod!

Therefore, to make the hunting of the Bizarro Bane simpler and clearer, without wasting any time, Klein took the risk of losing the true soul body of the Spirit World Plunderer by lending it to Little Sun.

Colin Iliad looked at it carefully for a few seconds before retracting his gaze.

“It’s likely to be effective.

“Close the box and stop adding a wall of spirituality to it. Just bring it around with you. Let’s see if they will be attracted to our camp.”

“They?” Derrick subconsciously asked.

Colin, with a few old scars on his face, revealed a smile.

“Do you think there’s only one Shapeshifter in Nois City?

“If this item’s level was lacking, I would even be worried that it might attract more terrifying monsters.”

Derrick wore a look of shame as he scratched the back of his head. Following the Chief’s instructions, he closed the iron-black square box’s lid, stuffing it into a concealed pocket in his clothes.

In the patrol that followed, he kept a high level of vigilance, but no Shapeshifter attacked.

After a while, Lovia, Legere, and Gonlun took over their mission as Derrick sat back beside the warm

fire.

At that moment, he heard cawing as seven to eight red-eyed ravens flew over and spiraled in midair.

This brought about an indescribable sense of horror. Colin Iliad drew his sword and looked up.

Suddenly, his heart stirred as he quickly cast his gaze to Derrick Berg.

On both sides of the bonfire, two brownish-yellow-haired youths who had childlike looks and were nearly 1.9 meters tall were staring at each blankly.

Colin’s eyes narrowed as he immediately shouted, “Illuminate!”

One of the youths was taken aback. After a moment of enlightenment, pure, warm sunlight was emitted from his body.

With a whoosh, an incomplete shadow swept past as Colin’s sword sliced through the fake Derrick.

It was a shadow, a blurry, transparent shadow!

At the same time, a red-eyed raven fell from the sky. Its body swelled up, turning into a pitch-black shadow.

Above this shadow shimmered a transparent, ghostly-blue single eye. Around the eye were similar eyes but smaller.

Shapeshifter!

A Shapeshifter that could disguise itself as ravens!

Just as this pitch-black shadow landed, Derrick’s mind turned numb as he could hardly move, as though he was being petrified. All he could do was watch the enemy pounce at him.

Pa!

The Shapeshifter slammed into an invisible wall and failed to take a further step.

Beside the bonfire, Colin Iliad stabbed the sword in his hand into the ground and drew the other sword on his back.

The surrounding area lit up, and like the legendary dawn, it descended upon this abandoned land. Infinite beams of light reminiscent of dawn erupted, turning into an illusory ocean. It devoured the pitch-black shadows along with all the ravens from the bottom up.

At the entrance of the camp, an illusory knight in silver armor, standing more than five meters tall, appeared behind Shepherd Lovia.

The knight’s eyes burned with dark red flames as they instantly locked onto a spot.

He suddenly opened up his stride and appeared hundreds of meters away in a flash.

Beams of sharp silver light shot out, dicing all the objects around into tiny, neat pieces, including all the different monsters hiding there. It included the Shapeshifter that had used some ability to escape the Demon Hunter’s lethal strike.

The monster hadn’t died as it switched its true body once again, but the pure, bright light of dawn descended once again, completely drowning a huge area.

After the light of dawn turned faint, Colin Iliad in his brown coat appeared with two swords in hand. He calmly watched as points of light gathered above the ground which was covered with cracks. Black-red blood which had mostly evaporated was slowly dispersed.

Success! As Derrick reeled in delight, he hurriedly sealed the black square box with a wall of spirituality.

Colin immediately stabbed the two swords into the ground, took out three metal bottles that had been emptied of their potions, and filled them with the blood on the ground.

While waiting for the ingredient to take form, he said to Lovia and company with his usual expression, “I have a use for the ingredients left by the Shapeshifter. I wish to directly make an exchange for them.”

In the City of Silver, there were typically two ways to handle the spoils from such expeditions. First, it was to bring it back and give it to the city and exchange it for the corresponding contribution points. The distribution depended on the amount of effort put in during the expedition. Second, if it wasn’t something especially important, and if it had caught the fancy of a member of the expedition, they could directly make an exchange for it with equivalent items or contribution points.

“I have no objections,” Legere and Gonlun answered in unison.

Lovia didn’t say a word as a form of tacit consent.

After the illusory silver-armored knight returned, she turned her head and looked towards the bonfire where Derrick Berg was with a deadpan expression.

In East Balam, in the temporary office for the Red Gloves.

Soest surveyed the area and said to all the team members, “Her Excellency, Goddess’s Eye, has ordered us to investigate the sale of Hunter pathway ingredients in the local and surrounding cities, as well as any disappearances or deaths of Beyonders of the same pathway.

“She agrees with Daly’s guess, and she suspects from the death of the Intis spies that it’s an evil spirit of the Hunter pathway.

“Of course, we mustn’t ignore any abnormalities since it’s only one possibility.

“There’s also another thing. We only need to do the gathering of information and to ignore everything else. We will not delve deeper into the investigations. It’s an order by Her Excellency, Goddess’s Eye!

“Got that?”

“Yes!” Cindy and company replied.

Soest looked at Leonard and Daly before retracting his gaze and said heavily, “Move out!”