After hearing Ah She's description, Li Ban understood that Priest Huangzhi's group must have a fiercely strict hierarchy—a place where rules absolutely trumped personal feelings.
But Li Ban had no intention of interfering.
In a harsh environment, a harsh regime was far more likely to survive than a benevolent one.
However, this ruthless style also meant that Priest Huangzhi had to have an ulterior motive for breaking precedent and allowing them into the Northern Base.
As long as that motive did not threaten his team's safety, Li Ban figured they could cooperate this once, provided they kept their guard up.
The two of them soon arrived at the machine room, where Nana was busy calibrating the equipment.
Her eyes lit up when she saw Li Ban.
The faulty machine at the abandoned base had nearly ruined Li Ban's Storage Card. Worried about a repeat disaster, Nana had already run several consecutive tests.
"Priest Ban, the Reader is fully operational. It is ready to use at any time."
This Reader was more than twice the size of the one in the abandoned base, and its performance was excellent.
Li Ban pulled out the Storage Card, then paused. "The rest of you step outside. Just Nana needs to stay."
Knowing that whatever Priest Ban needed to look at was important, Ah She and the other guard left the room without a word.
Nana's small face flushed with excitement, but she did not approach the screen, merely standing by the machine to guard against any other unexpected issues.
Li Ban inserted the card. Although the machine was massive, the operating interface was largely the same; after a moment of study, he successfully booted it up.
It was worthy of being the Northern Base they had traveled half a month to reach. This Reader operated without any abnormal noise.
However, even with such an advanced machine, it still ran for over ten minutes without successfully reading the data.
"Looks like this one cannot read it precisely either." Li Ban sighed, calling Nana over. "Nana, help me set it to a fuzzy read."
Already prepared, Nana nodded and hurried over to help Li Ban adjust the machine's settings.
Following that, the machine emitted a slight noise of high-speed operation.
Two minutes later, Li Ban finally saw a mess of garbled symbols appear on the screen, along with a small amount of Ring World text.
Aside from the content he had seen last time, Li Ban also saw a few new lines of text.
"—descended into a corpse in the River of Forgetfulness, and even taken to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda as a slave, but the corpse I descended into fortunately came with an element, and an excellent element at that: schizophrenia. At first I did not know what this innate element meant, until later—"
Li Ban's eyes went wide.
An excellent element, schizophrenia?
If the primary subject of "I" was the original Gu Yi, then he truly was extremely lucky.
But when Li Ban thought of Gu Yi's ultimate fate—that from then on, Gu Yi would disappear from the world—he felt that luck and misfortune were not always so absolute.
He continued looking down for recognizable text.
"—without any warning, without any reason, defying all scientific laws, all the galaxies began to disintegrate and collapse—"
"I must become a Wizard."
Only after these few lines of text was the content Li Ban had seen last time.
He once again saw the final sentence: "It is all fake."
Li Ban let out a long sigh, then put the Storage Card away again.
He did not dare delay at the Reader for too long, afraid that Du An would come looking for him.
After putting the Storage Card away, Li Ban leaned against the machine, pondering the information he had obtained this time.
Unfortunately, this part of the suicide note still did not explain how Gu Yi had crossed over to the Wizard World.
However, Li Ban finally knew why Gu Yi had been able to so easily split himself into Chen Dong and Du An later on.
And his reason for wanting to become a Wizard was likely tied to his description of the "galaxies collapsing."
As for Du An's betrayal, that was him giving up on saving the Ring World himself; yet in order to grow stronger, his desire to become a Wizard had not changed at all.
In fact, because he had already abandoned his original world and the sunk costs were too immense, Du An might be willing to do even more drastic things in order to become a Great Wizard.
"He has already become a Cloud Hidden Priest, and he even joined the eager Myriad Ancient Pagoda faction. If he continues slowly on this path, he should be able to become a Great Wizard."
"But Du An seems to be urgently searching for this suicide note. Could there be something important in it that he wants?"
Li Ban had not found anything related to spiritual rhinoceros or elements in the Storage Card; this was simply a card for storing information.
"It is a pity that it still cannot be completely read." Li Ban shook his head and asked the nervous Nana beside him, "Nana, do you have any way to read more of the content?"
"Then I will try adjusting it. It is possible some of the algorithms are outdated."
"I am counting on you."
Nana bit her lip and said earnestly, "I will definitely do my best!"
Leaving the task of improving the Reader to Nana, Li Ban exited the machine room and said to Ah She outside, "The team will probably be staying here for a while."
Ah She nodded. "Do not worry."
She lowered her voice. "We have passed down instructions according to what you said before, and there are not many people who know what you are doing in the first place. They are all trustworthy teammates."
Once the team was settled, Li Ban's attention returned to the Wizard World.
The next day, the convoy "escorting" the grand prince, Li Yuan, finally arrived at the Capital City.
It was the first time both Li Ban and Shi Ming had come to the Capital City.
In contrast, Cat Girl and Deng Jun had been here twice because of work.
However, even if they had been here, they had come and gone in a hurry, not spending much thought on admiring this political center of the Wizard World.
In their impression, the layout of the Capital City was simply a few degrees larger in height and breadth than other prosperous cities.
But the true core of the Capital City was its concentration of excellent resources and figures from all over.
Even a 5th-tier like Cat Girl could not be considered a strong figure among the Spirit Practitioners in the Capital City.
Li Ban and the others entered the city following the grand prince's convoy.
Because the grand prince was essentially returning under escort this time, no officials were arranged to welcome him, and the main street leading from the city gates to the Imperial Palace had even been cleared of commoners.
The number of people in the convoy had clearly not diminished, yet contrasted against the wide, extremely quiet streets, it inexplicably felt desolate.
Under the direct July sunlight, only the rumbling of carriage wheels could be heard.
Li Ban pushed open the carriage window and looked out. The tall gray city walls were left behind by the convoy, while the Glazed Tiles far ahead reflected the sunlight, dazzling the eyes.
Beside him, Ming Zhengxuan, who had already recovered his health, rode his horse closer and bowed to ask quietly, "Lord Priest?"
Ming Zhengxuan had taken the initiative to help Li Ban investigate the branch of the Eternal Trading Association, only to end up having a spell cast on him.
If Li Ban had not noticed the anomaly, he probably would have died of illness a few days later.
Originally, after making such a blunder, he should have been transferred away.
But considering that the person he investigated was a subordinate of a black-robed priest, it was understandable that an ordinary Spirit Practitioner could not resist, so Li Ban let him rest and return to duty afterward.
It could be considered saving this military officer's career.
"Do you know the convoy's itinerary from here?"
Priest Zhu Yao's mission was to escort the grand prince, Li Yuan, but Li Ban's was not. If they were heading straight into the Glazed Tiles ahead, then Li Ban might need to leave the convoy early.
Right now they were marching in the very center of the convoy, surrounded by guards holding banners and long spears.
Leaving would still require the surrounding troops to coordinate and make way.
Li Ban had not thought about this issue earlier, and Priest Zhu Yao did not seem to care either.
Only when watching the Imperial Palace getting closer and closer did it occur to him that it was time to leave.
"The convoy will proceed directly into the Imperial Palace next. Do you have other orders?"
Suddenly, Priest Zhu Yao appeared beside Li Ban, sitting opposite him and Cat Girl.
"Li Ban, you and the others should follow the convoy into the Imperial Palace first. Your companions can rest in the side hall; they will not need to participate in what comes next. As for you, I still need to take you to meet the priests of the Imperial Dynasty Faction."
Originally, when Priest Zhu Yao spoke with Li Ban about matters related to priests, she would never bring them up inside Li Ban's carriage.
Later, she discovered that Li Ban would actually tell his companions about priest matters as if he were telling stories.
Zhu Yao was left speechless.
Still, she could understand; after all, Li Ban was a lucky fellow who had suddenly picked up a Wizard Embryo Fragment.
He was not a Priest cultivated from childhood, nor was he a high-tier Spirit Practitioner who had painstakingly climbed to the 8th Tier or even the 9th Tier to autonomously nurture a Wizard Embryo Fragment.
Therefore, he still carried the lingering aura of the mortal world.
Priest Zhu Yao had no intention of forcibly changing his way of doing things.
Everyone's experiences were different, which also meant they would encounter different circumstances when cultivating their minds in the future.
It was a type of karma, a kind of destiny.
Hearing Priest Zhu Yao's arrangement, Li Ban nodded slowly. He said to Ming Zhengxuan, who was still guarding outside but whose body had gone completely stiff and immobile, "Then we will do as Priest Zhu Yao said. If I am not here later, help me arrange my friends' food and lodging."
Ming Zhengxuan stiffened his neck and gave a rigid nod. "No problem, Lord Priest. I will certainly accommodate your friends properly."
Li Ban closed the carriage window, and only then did Ming Zhengxuan outside sit up straight.
Inside the carriage, because Priest Zhu Yao had suddenly appeared, the atmosphere also became quiet.
Shi Ming shrank into the corner of the carriage without speaking.
Cat Girl stole a few glances at Priest Zhu Yao, but her gaze mostly fell on Li Ban.
After Li Ban finished speaking, Priest Zhu Yao finally said, "Li Ban, come back to my carriage with me for now. In a while when we enter the Imperial Palace, I will take you to meet a few more people so they do not slight you with poor etiquette if they run into you later."
"Hm?" Priest Zhu Yao stopped and looked forward, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Priest Chu Zhan has arrived."
She raised her hand and grabbed Li Ban's arm. "I will take you to meet him."
The two of them vanished from the carriage.
Cat Girl slowly curled up, chewing her fingernails as her eyes grew brighter and brighter.
"This is it—the world at the top."
Li Ban thought the relationship between Priest Zhu Yao of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda faction and Priest Chu Zhan of the Imperial Dynasty Faction would be relatively stiff.
After all, the grand prince, Li Yuan, had attacked the Tower Master of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda. They had put in the effort to capture Li Yuan, yet they had to send him over to the Imperial Dynasty's side.
But when he saw Priest Chu Zhan inside Priest Zhu Yao's carriage, he realized the relationship between them was not nearly as stiff as he had imagined.
Perhaps many things that seemed earth-shattering to ordinary people at the bottom were nothing more than trivial matters in the eyes of the Priests.
Priest Chu Zhan only appeared after Li Ban and Zhu Yao returned to her large carriage.
He looked to be in his forties, his hair neatly tied in a high topknot and capped with a jade crown, while his pitch-black beard was smooth and glossy, reaching down to his chest.
As soon as he appeared, he sat cross-legged by the low table and casually picked up Priest Zhu Yao's pitcher, pouring himself a cup of sweet, clear water.
"After this, Li Yuan's status as a prince will be abolished," Priest Chu Zhan said to Priest Zhu Yao, setting down his white porcelain cup.
However, his gaze fell upon Li Ban.