This wasn't the first time Alicia had been on the fifth floor, so without hesitation, she went to the second door on the right.
"Finally, here, huh? I thought you forgot about greeting Master."
These words came from her brother after opening the door. He had been waiting for her since the start of the day and received reports she was fooling around before coming here. It was nothing special for her to be late, but he found it hard to accept that it was to entertain 'that man'.
Alicia easily saw the reason behind her brother's scowl, but she smiled and took a seat across from him in the wide, open room. This was the office granted to Alex's master, and while it was huge, because of the personality of the one using it, there were few decorations besides books, scrolls and array materials. Seeing that the ebony chair behind the marble desk was empty, Alicia asked where the master of the room was. With a click of his tongue, her brother replied that he was in a meeting.
He then tried to dig for information about what happened while she was with Shui, but Alicia moved her gaze and ignored him. Naturally, this made him upset, but he knew he wouldn't be able to win in a verbal battle against this cunning sister of his.
Elsewhere, Shui was at an antique store, picking up the information he requested from Artisan Palace. Putting together what they had with what Alicia had given him, Shui more or less understood the situation.
'I could just kill him, but I can't be sure that the aftereffects won't affect Emily. Fortunately, his moves are limited while she's in Paraj, so with Dull Harmony in her hands, there shouldn't be a problem. Still, I should prepare some countermeasures.'
After understanding the situation, Shui felt much more relaxed and asked the Paraj branch manager about the auction that would be held at night.
"Ah, yes, we have an invitation to that auction, but we weren't planning on attending. Would you like the invitation, Sir Protector?"
"No, you could say I have my own invite. I'm more interested in information along the lines of who's organising it and what sort of protections they'll have in place for guests and the auction items."
The branch manager paused for a moment as he processed the implications of Shui's request, but he soon moved on.
"Yes, Sir Protector. We still haven't figured out the true identity of the organisers, but we have strong reasons to suspect that they have ties to the city's upper management. Although they can't expect public support, it wouldn't be an issue for them to accidentally overhear the location of any targets inside the city. On the surface, the auction is protected by a late Sky Realm expert, but there might be a hidden Master behind him. Additionally, all items on stage are bound to a sealing array that prevents them from being taken off stage without the consent of the sealing array's user.
"Sounds like they're prepared for trouble. What about the guests? Are they expected to fend for themselves?"
"It depends. For personal issues, it's encouraged not to bring trouble into the auction and to resolve them with one's own power. For matters that affect the auction as well, judgement will be swift and merciless. There was a time that a so-called 'master thief' attempted to steal an item on stage, but he was struck by a bolt of lightning and reduced to ash on the spot."
"I see. Then..."
While Shui discussed with the Paraj branch manager of Artisan Palace, Emily had returned to the inn she was staying at while in the city. It was certainly a downgrade from Myriad Flower Lodge, but it was still popular among vagrant array masters. As a tier 3 array master, Emily could aim for a better inn, but she planned to here at least until the preliminary stage of the Alterna Array Master Minor Ranking was over.
As soon as she returned, she went to her room and prepared to refine Dull Harmony. Adrian had offered to protect her during the refinement, but Emily insisted she would be fine and she didn't want to bother him.
The first thing she did was relax her restraints and allow her spiritual sense to touch the scepter. Once more, she felt a deeper connection with the natural world, but she could keep her wits this time. Her cultivation wasn't strong enough to completely refine the artifact, so Emily aimed for a basic refinement instead. This required her to wipe a drop of blood on it.
Emily used her fingernail to make a small cut on her right thumb and then pressed it against the scepter. Immediately, she felt her consciousness being pulled deeper into the artifact with no way to resist. Knowledge and insights flowed into her mind faster than she could process and reshape her body. Emily could tell that she was growing at a rapid pace, but she was afraid of what might happen if she let this happen unimpeded, so she tried her best to slow down the rate at which she absorbed the insights. The rush of knowledge made her realise the true level of Dull Harmony, but she didn't have time to ponder on this.
On the bed of the room she had rented, Emily's forehead dripped with sweat as she attempted to complete the refinement. It was difficult, but she could tell that the scepter had no harmful intent and was actually gently supporting her, so she would be fine as long as she wasn't careless.
While Emily was concentrating, a silent figure approached her window. Without a sound, the supposedly locked window was opened, and the figure slipped into her room. Unaware of the sudden danger she was, Emily's eyes remained closed as the protection array she had around her bed failed to activate for some reason. With no obstacles to hinder him, the figure stretched out his hand towards her. The rest should have been a simple affair, but there was a surprise waiting for him.
The moment his fingertips were within a foot of Emily, Dull Harmony followed its duty of protecting its soon-to-be master.
'Fire to Earth.'
Suddenly, the artifact released a gentle light that quickly stole the intruder's vitality. Without a chance to resist, the figure became gaunt to the point of being nothing but skin and bones before crashing to the ground.
It took less than a second for the scepter to devour his life. Leaving no trace of battle behind, this assassin died all too easily. Only a couple of hours later, when Emily finished superficially refining the artifact, did she notice his corpse and scream in fear and surprise.
When the assassin triggered Dull Harmony's automatic self-defence mechanism, Shui sensed it. He didn't add a spying feature to it because he thought that would be too overprotective, but as the creator of Dull Harmony, he could detect any changes to its conditions before Emily finished refining it once they were in the same general area. If he was selling one of his artifacts, he would have cut this connection, but there was obviously no reason to be rash in this case.
Naturally, Shui had faith in the artifact he crafted, but its automatic self-defence mechanism wasn't perfect, so Shui rushed towards the source of the signal after leaving the antique store. He concealed himself and went to the window of the room Emily was in. Fortunately, there was only one corpse in the room, and it didn't belong to Emily. There were also faint traces of an accomplice messing with the window and the array around Emily, but it was obvious who they belonged to.
"I didn't think he would put her in danger like this, but I was too optimistic. Alia, I want to set up a protection array for her without disturbing the natural laws. Do you have any ideas?"
Given that she was still refining Dull Harmony, Shui didn't want to interfere with the process.
"I'll leave a wisp of myself here. She's absorbing the innate insights of Dull Harmony so there's no way of creating an array without affecting the natural laws around her."
"Thanks. I didn't expect you to be so helpful."
"Hmph, this is just an after-sale service. It would be a disgrace to have an artifact forged with my aid leave a bad impression on the user."
Once Alia threw a small ember into the room that hovered above Emily, the two closed the window and left the area.