Chapter 464: Tracing Clues

Chapter 464: Tracing Clues

So many people chose to become Demon Sword Cultists for a reason. The abilities of the Magic Weapon Evil Gods were just too attractive. Even without active promotion or brainwashing… Not only Achille, but even the Sanctuary Church had worried about what would happen if others also used the Evil God Ritual to create Magic Weapon Evil Gods using Magic Arms?

Even if they could filter out those with insufficient abilities, forces like the Dark Church wouldn’t have so many problems. Fortunately, since the last magic weapon strength update in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, subsequent experiments conducted by the Sanctuary Church had all failed. It seemed the strength of the magic weapon had to reach a certain stage. The closer it was to the projection of the magic weapon’s true form, the higher the success rate. Below a certain standard, it would fail completely!

The quality of the magic weapons was too high. Up to now, no one had reached that level. Using Basic Magic Weapons to create Magic Weapon Evil Gods… Well, that was possible too, but was it meaningful?

Not at all. The Sanctuary Church had done exactly that, and succeeded. The resulting Magic Weapon Evil God had no special characteristics, and didn’t have much connection to the Basic Magic Weapon either. That type of magic weapon could only be used as material for the Evil God Ritual, making the summoned Magic Weapon Evil God lean towards the attributes of that magic weapon. For example, if a sword-type magic weapon was used, the summoned Magic Weapon Evil God would lean towards combat-oriented attributes.

For a staff, it would be a Spellcaster. This essentially reduced the randomness of the Evil God Ritual producing an evil god, making it more controllable. However, this wasn’t very useful…

As for Low-level Magic Weapons, they were similar to Basic Magic Weapons. They could determine some tendencies of the evil god, such as whether a combat-oriented evil god leaned towards the Fire Attribute, Dark Attribute, and so on. As for the odd Light Attribute ones… those existed too. The Sanctuary Church had even managed to create them. However, those Light Attribute evil gods, because their connection to the magic weapon wasn’t strong enough, were similar to real evil gods, rather than being as rational as a Magic Weapon Evil God like the Holy Spirit Hammer…

Well, that word seemed a bit odd to use for an evil god, but that was the reality. For Basic and Low-level Magic Weapons, even if others exploited them, the impact wouldn’t be significant. These two types of magic weapons merely gave the Evil God Ritual some advantages. What truly needed attention were the Advanced and Intermediate Magic Weapons.

The Sanctuary Church was now racing against time to have selected Magic Weapon Summoners continuously increase their familiarity with their magic weapons. The goal was to be ahead of everyone else in fully manifesting all the Magic Weapon Evil Gods, preventing other Dark Forces from creating extremely dangerous evil gods first. As for those evil gods that were manifested, the Sanctuary Church would directly control them. Not Seal them away, because Sealing them might make it uncertain whether new evil gods could be re-manifested using the magic weapons due to the Seal.

Supervision was the best option.

In any case, Achille, who had already started to be busy with his own matters, didn’t pay much attention to Zheng Yichen anymore. Saintess Deya, because the Sanctuary Church found the time, intended to deal with cults and other forces that were taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Undying Witch, and so she became active again. At least during this period, she wouldn’t be staying idle in Kaja.

Therefore, regarding Zheng Yichen’s departure, even if she wanted to pay attention, she didn’t have much time.

“Was this place robbed?” Zheng Yichen found Augusta’s Dragon Lair. This location wasn’t a secret. After all, he had lived here for a long time. Any resident here knew where Augusta’s lair was, they just wouldn’t go there casually.

After finding it, Zheng Yichen truly witnessed what ‘digging three feet into the ground’ meant. The entire lair was scraped clean, shinier than if a dog had licked it… Hmm, shiny. After searching around here, Zheng Yichen found no clues apart from seeing a few corpses burned by fire in several dug-out holes. He could only expand the search area.

At this point, Zheng Yichen took out a strange bug. This bug was given to him by Annie. It had an extremely strong sense of smell. As for how to use it, just use mental control. This bug’s sense of smell wasn’t physical, but a very special mana sense of smell. The Red Dragon’s mana aura was extremely intense. Even though this cave had been dug three feet deep and everything that could be taken was taken, the lingering traces of his aura still remained.

The long-nosed bug controlled by Zheng Yichen twitched its nose and pointed in a direction. Zheng Yichen himself searched in that direction. The place where Red Dragon Augusta had his incident wasn’t far from here. The bug tracked for a distance and then stopped. This little bug, which didn’t have much sense of self, trembled violently in Zheng Yichen’s hand. Its brown body rapidly turned ashen-gray during the tremors, quickly losing its life force and dying.

“…Huh!?” Anne didn’t say this thing was disposable. This situation made Zheng Yichen shift his attention directly, using his main body to communicate with Annie. From her, he learned the specific reason. The reason this thing died immediately wasn’t because its usage time was up. This thing was very durable and fed on mana auras. For it to die on its own like this, and without eating anything strange, the only possibility was that it inhaled a mana aura it couldn’t withstand.

“Use another one. Preserve it and send it to me before it dies.” Anne handed Zheng Yichen a new bug. Zheng Yichen used his Personal Space to let this bug absorb the mana aura there, then quickly transferred it over. Looking at the bug preserved by Magic, temporarily not dead, Annie took it in her hand.

The bug’s ashen-gray body became active again.

“The Undying Witch’s mana aura. You got lucky.”

“I… what? Really?” Zheng Yichen gave Annie a strange look. “The Undying Witch’s mana aura. Did she come back to life?”

“No. It should be a product of her remnants going out of control… or rather, something influenced by the Undying Witch’s power.” Annie said. Although that image was somewhat blurry, now that they had collected the Undying Witch’s mana aura, they could basically confirm she had a direct connection to the Undying Witch.

“She had nothing better to do than attack the Dragon Clan? Was she bored?” Zheng Yichen said, a bit confused. Red Dragon Augusta hadn’t offended the Undying Witch, had he? He was just a homebody dragon. There was no way he had any connection to the Undying Witch. So what exactly did he do to make a product of the Undying Witch’s remnants attack him, even getting ahead of Zheng Yichen himself?

That’s right, Zheng Yichen felt that even if the Undying Witch’s remnants were up to something, it probably related to him. But the one who suffered wasn’t him. Should he say congratulations, he was fine?

“No, I think it’s because that Red Dragon was also a dragon. Don’t forget, you are a dragon too. Also, all of the Undying Witch’s consciousness was imprisoned. Other parts wouldn’t randomly generate related consciousness. She wouldn’t allow that to happen either.” The Undying Witch was a master at playing with Souls. She absolutely would not allow the parts she separated to accidentally develop consciousness, or even memories, similar to her own. Especially the former; once consciousness appeared, it meant this newborn consciousness could possibly become completely independent.

The Undying Witch’s traits made it entirely possible for separated parts to develop such a situation. Therefore, she would only guard against it more strictly. Otherwise, if she accidentally created a bunch of beings that looked exactly like her, and they were all specially troublesome and hard to kill, just the internal conflict alone could last who knows how long. The Undying Witch wouldn’t want to see that happen either…

“Then what’s going on here?”

“No related consciousness would be generated, but derived ones were unavoidable. This part wouldn’t possess much of the Undying Witch’s true abilities and traits, nor would it have many of her memories. It was just an out-of-control product, incomplete. So, it would only have remnants. That was enough.” Annie explained. Zheng Yichen frowned and struggled for a long moment, then spread his claws: “Don’t understand.”

“…To summarize, some of her remnants might have had their original consciousness influenced by the Undying Witch. Now it became twisted and close to her, even developing related residual memories. Within these memories was an incomplete version of you.”

Because it was incomplete, some things were definitely misjudged.

“So you’re saying the person who acted wanted to come after me, but because the memories are incomplete, their understanding of me is limited to ‘dragon,’ and they can’t determine which one? Therefore, Augusta got unlucky?”

“His luck was just bad. As for the specifics, we need to find the other party to confirm.” Annie said, patting Zheng Yichen’s calf. “Alright, you go work hard to find them. It’s hard for them to find you.”

“Huh?” Zheng Yichen was stunned for a moment. After Annie’s analysis, Zheng Yichen indeed had the idea of acting as bait. Why did it seem this method wouldn’t work again?

Annie shook her head and explained: “The simplest way to find a dragon is through their Dragon’s Aura. Otherwise, you have no Dragon’s Aura. Even if you’re flying around in the sky, the other party might not be able to find you. Such a ‘Derivative Witch’ wouldn’t have very strong mental faculties unless you appeared directly within her line of sight. Better put aside the idea of using your main body as bait.”

Dragon’s Aura… Tsk, he really didn’t have that. Thinking about it, Zheng Yichen had a new idea: “What about this bug? If it could withstand the Undying Witch’s mana aura, could it track her too?”

Annie shook her head, then nodded. “It could track her. But how much of the Undying Witch’s mana aura do you think it can bear? For other witches, it could last a while. The Undying Witch’s mana aura itself could easily cause any creature it touches to die. This type of bug has very fragile Life Force. Otherwise, it wouldn’t die just from inhaling the aura.”

“If you’re thinking of some enhanced version, I don’t have that. Bugs like this are too weak; they can’t withstand any modification.” Annie seemed to see through Zheng Yichen’s thoughts and spoke first, cutting off his idea…