Tivian North Suburbs, outside the East Gate of King’s Campus, Green Shade Town.
In the drizzling rain of Green Shade Town, the dim glow of streetlights illuminates the night. The chilly streets are empty, and the houses on either side have long since turned off their lights. However, a faint light still shines through the window of No. 17.
Inside the living room of No. 17, Dorothy, dressed in her pajamas, sits on the sofa. The crackling fire in the nearby fireplace drives away the cold, maintaining a comfortable temperature in the room.
In front of Dorothy is a wooden coffee table, scattered with numerous slips of paper. These slips are neatly printed with machine-type text, and Dorothy is carefully examining each one by the light of the fire.
These slips are all recent telegrams exchanged between Dorothy and the Nether Coffin Order. Over the past few days, Dorothy has been negotiating with the Nether Coffin Order regarding Black Hoof and a group of wild spirits. After much back-and-forth, they have finally reached a mutually acceptable agreement. The numerous slips of paper are the result of this intense exchange of telegrams.
Although the deal has been struck, Dorothy hasn’t immediately destroyed these telegrams. Instead, she is meticulously analyzing the text, trying to glean more information about the Nether Coffin Order and better understand their intentions.
“The person sending these telegrams seems quite angry about my bait-and-switch. They’ve repeatedly called me a thief. The people I’m dealing with in the Nether Coffin Order... might be the same ones who hunted Black Hoof. I wonder if my actions have messed up their mission.”
Dorothy thinks to herself. Hunting wild spirits in the New Continent, based on Kapak’s description of their strength and status... those who undertake such missions are likely Black Earth or White Ash-rank Beyonders, mid-level leaders in large organizations. Only Red Completion-rank leaders would be mobilized for major tasks.
“If the other party is at most White Ash-rank... then I should still be able to handle them…”
Dorothy continues to ponder, then shifts her attention to the terms of the deal. “These guys specifically insist on an in-person transaction, refusing any form of mail delivery. They claim it’s to inspect the goods on-site, but there’s probably more to it than that... No matter what, meeting them directly gives them a chance to probe me up close. That’s a big risk. They might be planning to double-cross me…”
Dorothy thinks this over. She had a heated debate with the Nether Coffin Order about how to conduct the transaction. Dorothy wanted to use mail, while the other side insisted on a face-to-face meeting in Dankt. After much arguing, Dorothy agreed to the in-person meeting but managed to move the location to Tivian.
Clearly, Dankt is a major stronghold for the Nether Coffin Order, where their influence is immense. Dorothy would never go there. In contrast, Tivian is familiar territory for her.
“Although I successfully moved the meeting to Tivian... this face-to-face transaction still puts me at a disadvantage. After all, I can’t match their raw strength. Without being able to use marionettes, this kind of contact is still very risky.”
“What a shame... With these guys, it’s too hard to use marionettes to impersonate people…”
Dorothy continues to think. The other party demanded that only real people could attend the transaction, with no marionettes or Shadow-path items to evade detection. For Dorothy, who is used to handling everything through marionettes, this is a tricky requirement.
Facing Silence-path Beyonders, Dorothy’s marionettes are difficult to conceal. The reason is simple: Silence-path Beyonders can sense souls. Dorothy learned this from her conversations with Kapak and Nephthys.
In the eyes of a Silence-path Beyonder, no matter how lifelike Dorothy’s corpse marionettes are, they can’t fool them. The marionettes are dead, soulless corpses, and Silence-path Beyonders can’t sense a soul in them.
Of course, Dorothy also has the option of using living marionettes for the transaction. But the problem is that the other party will undoubtedly bring Illuminating Beacons for detection. If the living marionettes are scanned by the beacons, the active spiritual traces on them will be exposed, revealing them as marionettes.
Dorothy could also use the Concealment Ring to remotely apply an anti-detection effect to the living marionettes, allowing them to evade the Illuminating Beacons.
But this creates another problem. Silence-path Beyonders have soul perception. If Dorothy uses the Concealment Ring on the living marionettes, any mystical detection or perception targeting them will fail, including the soul perception of Silence-path Beyonders.
If the soul perception is blocked by Shadow, the Silence-path Beyonders won’t be able to sense the person’s soul. But all living beings have souls, so the absence of a soul would be suspicious.
In other words, if Dorothy uses living marionettes for the transaction, she’ll be discovered by the Illuminating Beacons if she doesn’t use the Concealment Ring, and by soul perception if she does. If living marionettes are this problematic, ordinary soulless corpse marionettes are even worse.
In summary, if Dorothy wants to conduct a face-to-face transaction with the Nether Coffin Order, she’ll need to send a living person from her side.
“Sigh... This is quite troublesome...”
Dorothy mutters to herself, leaning back on the sofa. She then picks up a document from the coffee table and examines it.
This is a certificate issued by the port, along with a contract signed with Marx. Earlier today, Dorothy used a marionette to take this contract to Tivian Port and take possession of the recently arrived “tobacco” shipment. After paying a hefty “service fee” to customs, Dorothy’s marionette finally managed to transport the goods out of the port.
Now, the wild spirit Black Hoof and its subordinate spirits are in Dorothy’s possession, stored in a warehouse in the Tivian suburbs. For Dorothy, the goods are secured, and all that’s left is to proceed with the transaction.
The time she agreed on with the Nether Coffin Order is three days from now. Dorothy’s top priority now is to find a suitable candidate to represent her. Given Dorothy’s current abilities, she is far more effective working behind the scenes. Without that, her overall strength would be halved.
“So... who should I ask?”
Leaning back on the sofa, Dorothy begins to consider her options.
“Among the people I’m closely connected to, Adèle, a White Ash-rank Beyonder, is undoubtedly the strongest. But her celebrity status makes her too conspicuous. Even with a disguise, there’s a risk she’ll be recognized. Moreover, she represents Crimson Heart and is primarily opposed to the Wolf Blood Society. Dragging her into this would mean pitting her against the Nether Coffin Order, and she might not agree to that. She’d be willing to help me against the Wolf Blood Society, but asking her to make another enemy might be too much. After all, we’re just collaborators.”
“As for Vania... she’s the person I trust the most right now. If I ask her to represent me, she’ll definitely agree. But is Vania really suited to face the Nether Coffin Order? These guys who use spirits have some pretty weird methods. If something goes wrong, can Vania, with her focus on healing and biological destruction, handle it?”
“As for my brother... let’s not even consider him. He’s just finished accumulating his auxiliary spirituality and is busy with his final promotion. Until he completes his promotion and officially takes up his post, his movements are restricted. There’s no way he can come…”
Leaning back on the sofa, Dorothy ponders carefully, considering who to ask. In Dorothy’s view, the Nether Coffin Order’s abilities are highly unpredictable. Even with a well-planned meeting, there’s always the risk of something going wrong. Therefore, the choice of representative must be made carefully.
Staring at the flickering flames in the fireplace, Dorothy’s thoughts race. After a while, she comes to a decision.
“That’s right... maybe she’s a good choice...”
Dorothy claps her hands lightly and then picks up the Magic Box from the coffee table. Opening it, she takes out her Literary Sea Logbook.
…
Also in Tivian North Suburbs, Royal Crown University, King’s Campus.
The campus is enveloped in the quiet darkness of late night. The only lights visible are the faint glows from dormitory windows.
In one of the girls’ dorm rooms, Nephthys, dressed in her pajamas, sits at her desk, intently reading a book. Her roommate is sound asleep in her bed, snoring softly.
Nephthys is focused on the thin book in front of her. It’s more of a booklet than a book, with yellowed pages and worn edges. The pages are filled with dense Pritt Common text, and some sections include hastily drawn sketches of strange objects. Both the text and the drawings are handwritten. As she looks at the familiar handwriting, a sense of nostalgia washes over her.
“This is... my grandfather’s notebook from his youth?”
Nephthys murmurs softly, her voice filled with emotion. The notebook in front of her was written by none other than her grandfather, Davis Boyle.
After the incident at the Boyle family mansion in East Tivian, Nephthys, with Dorothy’s help, successfully became a Beyonder—a Silence-path Apprentice.
The Boyle family’s wealth was built on the grave-robbing exploits of Davis Boyle in his early years. Davis was a Beyonder, but after retiring, he deliberately chose not to pass on his Beyonder legacy. When Nephthys stepped into the mysticism world, Davis’s former servant and the current butler of the Boyle family decided to give her Davis’s early notebooks on the Beyonder paths. The butler personally retrieved them from the family’s old villa.
Now, these notebooks have finally been delivered to Nephthys. The one she’s reading today is the first of them. After reading the first few pages, Nephthys begins to uncover the hidden past of her grandfather.
Strictly speaking, this notebook doesn’t contain organized mystical knowledge like Nust’s writings. Instead, it documents Davis’s early adventures in North Ufiga, including his exploration of the mysticism world. By reading this notebook, Nephthys is essentially reliving her grandfather’s early experiences.
From the notebook, Nephthys learns that her grandfather didn’t come to North Ufiga by choice. He fled there to escape trouble after offending a noble in Pritt. When he first arrived, he was just an ordinary man, doing whatever he could to survive. Eventually, he was drawn to North Ufiga’s most thriving industry—grave robbing—and joined a local treasure-hunting society. It was here that he first encountered the mysticism world.
In Davis’s notes, he describes a group of legendary treasure hunters in North Ufiga who were said to be part ghost, part human. They could see and communicate with spirits, possessed great strength and stamina, and were skilled at navigating the dangers of tombs. They were multilingual, skilled with various weapons, and seemed capable of anything.
As a newcomer to the treasure-hunting world, Davis was quickly fascinated by these rumors. After a few adventures, he finally witnessed the source of these legends.
These treasure hunters could not only communicate with spirits but also harness them by allowing the spirits to possess their bodies. In doing so, they could master the skills the spirits had known in life.
These treasure hunters weren’t afraid of being possessed by spirits; instead, they used possession to control the spirits and make them serve their purposes. By allowing their bodies to host the spirits of the dead, they gave these spirits a living vessel and recreated the skills they had known in life. In his notebook, Davis referred to these legendary treasure hunters as “Soulbinders”, and their path of using their bodies to control spirits as the Possession Path”.
In the early pages of Davis’s notebook, Nephthys can see how deeply her grandfather admired these extraordinary abilities. After becoming a treasure hunter, he was determined to become one of these legendary, mystical-powered figures.
At her desk, Nephthys reads her grandfather’s story with great care. After each section, she closes her eyes and silently prays to Aka, asking for help in dispelling the cognitive poison. Finally, after one such prayer, she feels a wave of exhaustion and lets out a sigh.
“I never knew Grandfather had such a past... The Possession Path, Soulbinders... Is this the Beyonder path he walked back then?”
Nephthys thinks to herself. After her recent diligent studies, she now has a general understanding of the mysticism world and Beyonder. She knows that Beyonder paths are formed by combinations of spiritualities.
“A path that uses the body as a vessel to contain spirits? According to what Miss Dorothy said, spiritualities related to the body are mostly Chalice. So, the Possession Path Grandpa walked was a path that primarily uses Silence with Chalice as a secondary spirituality? If I want to follow Grandpa’s path, I’ll need to accumulate Chalice spirituality as a secondary.”
“In the Rose Cross Order, we can obtain spirituality by praying to Aka with the corresponding mystical texts. I wonder if Miss Dorothy has any Chalice-related texts?”
Nephthys thinks this over. Clearly, continuing to read this notebook will reveal the methods for advancing as a Soulbinder. As long as she has enough spirituality, she can advance to the second stage of the Beyonder—Black Earth rank.
Sitting at her desk, Nephthys ponders. She wants to ask Dorothy about the mystical texts, but considering how late it is, she decides to wait until tomorrow.
“Forget it, it’s too late to bother Miss Dorothy now. I’ll sleep first.”
Nephthys closes the notebook and prepares to get up and go to bed. Just then, a strange sensation comes from a mark on her left side.
“This is...”
Touching her left side, Nephthys’s eyes widen slightly. She quickly sits back down, opens a drawer, and pulls out a book. After flipping through it for a while, she finds a blank page where familiar handwriting is slowly appearing.
“Hey, Senior Nephthys, are you free the afternoon three days from now?”