Shang had to wait for about three minutes for the Inquisitor to arrive. During that time, Shang collected all the valuables and stored them inside his world. By now, Shang only needed about one second for a roundtrip to his world and back, making it easier to store stuff but still impossible to use during battle.
The Inquisitor was a grey-haired woman who looked to be in her early thirties. Of course, the appearances of powerful Mages and warriors were deceiving. She was probably nearly a hundred years old.
Shang showed the emblem he had received from Duke Whirlwind to her, and she nodded. Then, she glanced at the man on the ground and the Ice Adept waiting beside Shang.
"She's the Cleaner that surrendered," Shang said, gesturing to the Ice Adept.
"He's the suspected traitor from Duke Mithril's side."
The Inquisitor looked at the Ice Adept. "Approach," she commanded.
The Ice Adept walked forward with fear on her face.
"By surrendering and consenting to a Mind Read, you get the opportunity to turn your life around," the Inquisitor stated neutrally. "Ten years of working for Duke Whirlwind will not only be beneficial to you, but you will also make powerful connections."
"The path of a Cleaner allows you to reach the True Mage Realm very quickly, but the Cleaning Service doesn't have the necessary connections and resources to cultivate a powerful True Mage."
What the Inquisitor said sounded good, but the Ice Adept knew that it couldn't be that easy. After all, she would probably be sent to the most dangerous regions, which were outside Duke Whirlwind's territory.
She would probably end up in the frontlines.
There was over a 70% chance of her death over the next decade.
Sadly, she had no other option.
It was already too late.
"I consent," she said.
The Inquisitor nodded and put her hand on the Ice Adept's head. "Don't resist."
The Ice Adept closed her eyes.
After that, the Ice Adept stopped moving as the Inquisitor moved through her memories.
It took a couple of minutes for her to finish, but eventually, both of them opened their eyes again.
"We have gained some valuable insight into the workings of the Cleaning Service," the Inquisitor said.
The Ice Adept didn't answer.
After that, the Inquisitor stepped over to the unconscious commander and put her hand on his cracked head.
But this time, she stopped looking after only three seconds and turned to Shang. "There is no barrier," she said.
Shang's eyes widened in shock.
No barrier?!
That couldn't be!
A barrier was a Magic Circle that hid certain memories from being read. It was very expensive and difficult to get through these barriers, and it even became impossible if a High Mage created these barriers personally.
Usually, Duke Mithril's traitors all had powerful barriers in their minds that required millions of gold to unlock. This increased the cost by so much that Duke Whirlwind couldn't afford to unlock every single one, and he had to decide which ones he wanted to access.
Even more, none of these people had absolute confirmation that it was Duke Mithril pulling the strings. Nearly all of them only received orders from one of their superiors, who got orders from their superiors, and they only knew that someone inside the Volcano Wyrm Zone was giving these orders.
However, they never knew who it was specifically.
The fact that the commander didn't have a barrier basically meant that he wasn't a traitor.
"That can't be," Shang said. "He attacked me as soon as he got the chance. She can confirm the event." Shang pointed at the Ice Adept.
"I know," the Inquisitor said. "I read her memories. I saw it. But that doesn't change the fact that he does not have a barrier inside his mind."
"However," the Inquisitor continued. "Barrier or not, he has tried to kill a soldier under him without going through the proper channels and without a valid reason. Even if he doesn't work for the enemy, he still counts as a traitor."
After that, the Inquisitor put her hand on the commander's head again and began to read his memories.
After around ten minutes, she was done. This warrior obviously had more memories to go through than the Ice Adept.
"So?" Shang asked, looking at the Inquisitor.
"Desperation and greed," the Inquisitor said.
Shang remained silent, looking at the Inquisitor.
"He had grand dreams about becoming as powerful as the Dean of the Warrior's Academy. Sadly, his progress slowed down a lot after reaching the Commander Stage. In his mind, the reason for that was his lack of wealth and resources."
"For that reason, he accepted several missions from the military and has been working for us for around ten years. He made a bit of progress, but nothing too amazing. In his mind, the reason was still his lack of resources. As long as he got better resources, he would ascend and become truly powerful."
"And when he saw you, he realized that his chance had arrived," the Inquisitor said to Shang. "There are several open bounties for someone named Zero posted in Duke Mithril's territories and in underground territories inside our territory."
"His plan was to attack you on your way back, take your head, and flee to Duke Mithril's territory to gain the reward."
Shang thought about this for a bit. 'So, he isn't actually directly a traitor, but he would have become one. In a sense, he is a traitor in training. I could also compare him to a Pest Cat baby.'
"How much gold am I worth?" Shang asked.
The Ice Adept also looked with interest at the Inquisitor.
"20 million gold," the Inquisitor answered.
"What?!" both Shang and the Ice Adept shouted in shock.
Shang looked with surprise at the angered Ice Adept.
"I would have only gotten four million gold!" she shouted in anger.
'That means that the full price is about five million gold since the Cleaning Service also takes a fee,' Shang thought. 'Good that I can now put a number to the gold I made the Wilburys lose.'
"20 million is a lot," Shang said.
The Inquisitor nodded. "20 million is the total net worth of an average Mid True Mage. A Focus with two Amplifiers costs around 15 million, and the remaining five million are for everything else."
Shang knew that Amplifiers were the circlets that floated around the Foci. A Focus with two Amplifiers only became more common amongst Mid True Mages, but a couple of extremely talented and powerful True Mages also got them earlier.
'I severely doubt that the Wilburys would be willing to create a bounty of 20 million gold. The baroness, the more powerful of the two, is at the Early True Mage Realm, and she isn't one of those supremely talented True Mages. All of her belongings probably only reach around ten to fifteen million gold, which would include all her equipment, her house, and her resources.'
'Her husband probably also has a couple of million, but he probably has less than her. Maybe, if they absolutely sold everything they owned and walked over to the Cleaning Service naked, they might be able to scrape that together, but I severely doubt that they would do that.'
'They probably spent around 500 thousand on the first Cleaner and another five million on the second one. That should be all of their liquid funds.'
'Which means that I am safe from them from now on. After all, I doubt that they are willing to sell their house and equipment to hire a True Mage Cleaner.'
Then, Shang furrowed his brows.
'But those 20 million gold are worrisome. I can only think of two people with that kind of money that have a reason to deal with me.'
'Duke Mithril and Jera Orvis, One's father.'
Shang scratched his chin in thought. 'The bounty is set for Zero, not Shang. However, that doesn't mean that they don't know that I'm Zero.'
'Back then, they still had no idea who Zero was, but new information has come to light that allowed them to connect my two identities.'
'The meeting with King Skythunder.'
'Back then, I defeated that one officer while being two levels below him, which should be impossible. But with the unveiling of the Procedure, it became possible, leaving only five candidates.'
'The five that had been in front of King Skythunder.'
Shang frowned. 'And I am by far the best fit for Zero.'
Shang sighed. 'Great. I got rid of the Wilburys, and now I got Duke Mithril on my ass.'
