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*****
"It's digested already? That was faster than I expected!"
Lying in his crib back at home, George discovered that the potion within his body had already finished digesting. He had only just converted a marionette and had been 'acting' for less than an hour.
On second thought, it made sense. After all, the marionette he had converted was a powerhouse at the level of Sequence 5. Furthermore, he had operated from behind the scenes to orchestrate the assassination of Duke Negan, neutralized a swathe of Sequence 5 and Sequence 6 guards, and successfully escaped the pursuit of a Sequence 4 Demigod.
Most importantly, he had never been exposed. Everyone believed that the deed was done by the marionette he controlled, rather than the Marionettist pulling the strings. The entire process perfectly aligned with the acting principles of a Marionettist, so the digestion was naturally swift.
Consider this: if a normal Sequence 5 Marionette Master tried to assassinate Duke Negan single-handedly, they likely would have perished long ago. Even Jason's original assassination plan required multifaceted cooperation from a mysterious figure to stand any chance of success. In the process of acting and digesting a potion, the more danger involved and the more powerful the participants, the better the digestion effect.
If one were to merely convert a Sequence 9 target that posed zero threat and then controlled that marionette to perform a simple puppet show, the digestion would be agonizingly slow. Even if the performance were flawless, it might take eight or ten years to fully digest the potion.
The following day, everything appeared normal on the surface. However, the news of Duke Negan's assassination spread like wildfire throughout Backlund, causing a massive sensation. As a Duke of the Kingdom, the leader of the conservative faction, and a representative figure of the Church of Storms, the fact that someone had broken into his manor and killed him was absolutely scandalous.
Of course, the official reports claimed that the assassin had been killed on the spot rather than escaping. As for the identity of the killer, it was naturally pinned on the notorious lunatics of the Aurora Order. Usually, in matters like this where the real culprit couldn't be found, the blame was tossed onto the Aurora Order's head. The main reason was that the Aurora Order never bothered to deny it; in fact, to spread the glory and power of their True Creator, they often claimed responsibility for things they didn't even do.
The marionette, Jason, continued his life as a banker with his usual rhythm, showing no flaws. The mysterious figure did not appear immediately to deliver the reward. Clearly, the sudden and violent manner in which Jason had dispatched Duke Negan had taken the mysterious contact by surprise as well. The mysterious person and the organization behind them would likely need to verify a few things before contacting him again. George wasn't in a hurry; it was only a matter of time.
That evening, George arrived at the Backlund Bridge, located in the George District—an area often referred to as the slums. This was the place where he and Bernadette had agreed to meet the previous day.
In the dead of night, the bridge was shrouded in silence. No one was walking about at this hour, and even the soldiers guarding the bridge were nodding off. Sensing George's arrival, lush green pea vines began to descend from the sky, weaving themselves into a ladder made of vegetation. Seeing this, George stepped onto the ladder and calmly climbed to the top of the vines.
"Let's begin."
Bernadette, dressed in her female pirate attire, had been waiting for some time. She wasted no words on pleasantries and immediately entered into a spiritual contract with George. Given Bernadette's strength and the fact that her specific Sequence pathway excelled in mysticism, George would find it impossible to violate the contract unless he were a true god.
George completed the contract naturally. He had no intention of deceiving Bernadette anyway, and besides, such contracts had little actual effect on him. However, the process of signing the contract gave him a clearer understanding of the mystical knowledge of this world. The knowledge he had siphoned from the Hidden Sage was, after all, just raw data; it would take time to fully digest and integrate it. Having a Sequence 3 Sage pathway expert personally demonstrate such concepts naturally accelerated his digestion of that knowledge.
"Here are all the diary pages I have collected."
Once the contract was finalized, Bernadette felt at ease and handed a thick stack of diary pages to George.
"Do you want me to read them all aloud to you?" George asked with a smile as he took the pages.
Bernadette remained silent for a moment before replying, "No need. Read them yourself. After you're finished, just tell me the critical clues."
She was truly afraid that if she heard her father's diaries read aloud and learned of the absurd things he had done in his youth, she might be too angry to continue searching for clues.
George nodded, and the diary pages in his hand immediately began to flip at an incredible speed. Within a few seconds, all the content within the diaries had been etched into his mind.
"Roselle went to the Red Moon. It seems he was corrupted there, which led to the drastic change in his personality in his later years," George began, summarizing the contents. "He realized this himself, which is why he sought to forcibly jump to the Black Emperor Sequence, hoping to use the Black Emperor's ability of resurrection to strip away the pollution. Therefore, it is indeed possible that he is still alive. As for why he hasn't returned yet, something must have gone wrong."
George paused before continuing his summary. "Also, there are clues regarding the location of his final mausoleum. It was built on that nameless island he discovered during his maritime explorations—the same island where Edwards, William, and Poly died. The specific coordinates of the island aren't in the diary, but you can start by investigating the descendants of Edwards, Benjamin Abraham, and the three deceased men."
"I knew it... I knew something was wrong."
After hearing George's analysis, Bernadette's eyes grew slightly moist. She knew that her father—the man she admired most, the man who had created countless miracles—could not have suddenly become so cold and heartless without reason.
"Thank you."
After bowing to George in gratitude, Bernadette hesitated for a moment before saying, "If I find the location of that island, I would like to ask for your help. I will pay you accordingly."
As a Sage pathway expert with prophetic tendencies, she could vaguely sense the danger surrounding that nameless island. Even though she was already a Sequence 3, going there alone would likely result in a near-death experience. The "turning point" she saw was the man standing before her. She couldn't prophesy his future, but her intuition told her that as long as she brought this man along, the danger would be significantly diminished.
Fearing George might refuse, she produced the payment upfront. "It is called the Magic Wishing Lamp. It is a Sealed Artifact my father left for me. It is extremely powerful and can grant any ten wishes of its holder. It can even help you become a true god. However, it is equally dangerous because the fulfillment of a wish often comes in a twisted form. For instance, if you wish to become a true god, it might summon an evil god to fuse with you; you would become a part of that evil god, which technically counts as becoming a god. But as long as you don't make a third wish—and provided the first two wishes are reasonable and framed with certain linguistic tricks—you can avoid the worst of the danger."
The Magic Wishing Lamp was the most powerful Sealed Artifact Bernadette had ever seen. But compared to finding and saving her father, it was a small price to pay.
(End of Chapter)