Many people began to be hired by the White Heart mining company, some went searching for a proper location to open a food manufacturing factory, while others were sent out to examine the growth of dirt-infused algae in the vicinity as well as any natural accumulation grounds of black horn rocks.
These collected data would eventually be gathered in 'Negary's' hand, which would grant him some preliminary information.
'Negary' analyzed this crude data, then singled out the clues within it to finally discover that there were unnatural veins of vitality in various locations throughout the city.
The pathways of any entities who had manifested their pathway would subconsciously radiate information into their surroundings, including Negary's pathway after over half of it had been manifested.
And since vitality was involved, it must be the Life Bearer, one of the seven Gods. Naturally, it could also be another one of the seven Gods, Eulogy of Ocean Depths, but this entity's appearance was always accompanied by the disgusting salty and fishy stench of the ocean. This was a part of that entity's essence, which they would not and could not easily conceal.
God's Offering Day was approaching soon, at which point the Source Energy 'fruit' of this world would become ripe. Just as humanity had always competed for beneficial resources, these so-called Gods were also preparing themselves to compete for this resource that benefited them.
According to the information that Dim Silence provided, there was a high possibility that the seven Gods came from the same greater world in which the Gods had business relationships with each other. This was why they had formed this loose alliance to divide benefits among themselves, and the Moon Tree was nothing but their high-quality farm.
In the past, the Moon Tree world had relied on its mobile characteristic and the Elf race's aid to rapidly grow. If they had been allowed to continue growing this way, the Moon Tree world might have been able to break through its limits and become a greater world, which the elves called a Bed Realm.
Very regretfully, this process did not last very long before the seven Gods had invaded and took it over. Although the Moon Tree world was still far from being a greater world, it had already surpassed other regular Sand Realms; the rate that Source Energy accumulated in this world was much higher than normal Sand Realms, making it an exceptional farm.
The reason why the power level of this world did not appear to be very high was due to the seven Gods taking 90% of the world's authorities for themselves, all of which had been completely closed off. The only faucet left for Source Energy to escape through were the authorities held by the cursed Elven Gods of the past, which occasionally seeped out and caused regular people to undergo Evil Soul awakening.
The competition for this high-quality farm had always continued among the seven Gods. Their battles, both openly and in the shadows, had already become commonplace, one of which was how Negary received help from Eternal Heat to finally establish a foothold. So from a public standpoint, Negary stood on the side of Eternal Heat.
Eternal Heat was originally one of the most powerful entities among the seven Gods, the only two capable of matching him in battle were Life Bearer and Concealed Demise. However, the pathway of Concealed Demise was very different from Eternal Heat and the rest, while they were powerful, their rationality was frequently absent. For this reason, most of the seven Gods were wary of Concealed Demise but didn't fear them.
So from a logical standpoint and preliminary clues, the one who caused the Great Magus' change was most likely the entity worshipped by the Half Life Church, Life Bearer.
〖 So Stim Allenz has taken Life Bearer's side? 〗
'Negary' pondered this possibility. The Great Magus only managed to settle in the Moon Tree world by taking advantage of the unusual equilibrium among the seven Gods. As soon as he took one of their sides, there was a very real possibility of him being crushed by the collapsed equilibrium.
〖 In that case, my circumstances aren't exactly stable either 〗
'Negary' thought as he sat in his office. His appearance in this world had already broken its previous equilibrium, but so what? The various open and hidden schemes against him would only continue, the only way for them to stop would be to create a new equilibrium. This was why he had actively leapt into the fray as soon as the Great Magus' invitation arrived, attempting to shift the new equilibrium to his favor as much as possible.
〖 The other probing should also be arriving soon 〗
'Negary' thought to himself. This probing wasn't referring to the probing of others towards him, but rather the Hermit Order's probing towards the Academic City.
Sure enough, in the same afternoon, a violent incident occurred in the Academic City. A Mystic attacked one of the institutions, causing the deaths of three professors and over ten students, as well as injuring numerous others.
Even while sitting in his office at the city outskirts, 'Negary' still managed to hear the commotion.
〖 This sort of commotion, so it was those two members huh? I hope they won't disappoint me 〗
Negary recalled a certain experiment in the past. At the time, during his research of the Error property and the power of Impurity, one of his flashes of inspiration resulted in an idea, which ended up creating a pair of test subjects.
…
At this time, a pair of short-haired blond female Mystics with near-identical appearances were swiftly moving through the streets of the Academic City. The two of them stopped at the exact same time, their twin telepathy had allowed their senses to be in complete sync.
The older sister Lucy, whose bangs naturally deviated to the left, waved her hand and shot out a spike that contained an ominous power without hesitation. The sharp spike instantly broke through the disguise of a man who wore a mage robe and had formed a transparent shield of mana to protect himself. The spike directly shattered upon contact with the shield.
However, before the mage could say anything, the younger sister Wendy, whose bangs naturally deviated to the right, tucked the hair on her right behind her ear. An invisible force fluctuated throughout the air, causing the broken fragments of the spikes to explode. Everything within a 5-meter radius of each fragment was instantly vaporized.
The shockwaves kicked up intense wind, causing the twin sisters' blond hair to flutter. Meanwhile, the mage had also been scattered into every bit of their surroundings following the wind; he was very evenly distributed too, because he had been broken down as much as possible.
The twin sisters did not stop there, their powers instantly erupted from their bodies to stir up the traces in their surroundings and prevented divination-type magic from tracking them.
However, they were one step too slow.
The manhole cover in a small street was violently blown open from below. A putrid hand covered in foul dirty water reached out from below and grabbed onto the ledge, the hand's skin looked like it was constantly writhing, but with a closer look, one would notice the chilling truth.
The entire hand was made from tiny maggots, thousands of them formed this single hand, all of them still continuously exuding their mucus as they moved, a few of the maggots even fell down with the hand's pulling motion.
「 You won't get away! 」
A low, horrifying voice resounded from the sewers below, followed by the maggot hand exerting force to pull its plump white body out from the sewers.
It was mostly humanoid and made up of numerous maggots the same way the hand was, every movement of the body caused a large number of maggots to fall from it, and wherever he passed, he left a trail of mucus that exuded an unforgettable putrid stench.
This was also what the twin sisters had discovered today. During their violent 'search' of this institution, they discovered clues of unusual magical activities, which they had understood from previous investigations to have only appeared after the Dean made a trip to the Grand Library.
As members of the Hermit Order, their goal for coming to the Academic City was naturally to complete the mission that Negary had posted. Their reward for investigating the Academic City's abnormalities would be Negary's help.
As Negary's test subjects, they naturally held great power, but their transaction with Negary had already ended, as in accordance with prior agreements, how their powers grew from that point on would have nothing to do with Negary. Throughout these years, they had obtained considerable benefits using these powers, but due to some issues, their bodies had gradually accumulated some hidden dangers, which desperately required Negary's aid to resolve.
