91: Chapter 29 Infiltration

On the third day after the black sail ship docked, the lead-gray morning fog of Backlund shrouded the entire Old Industrial District. Lu Li completed his final round of comprehensive reconnaissance on the perimeter of the abandoned Textile Factory.

He took out a standard-issue charm from the Secret Order. Among the batch of spatial perception charms, he selected the one with the longest detection range and the most restrained spiritual fluctuations, sticking it flat against the mottled, blackened red brick outer wall of the abandoned boiler room opposite the Textile Factory.

The pale silver runes on the surface of the charm instantly faded into the wall, completely isolating any outward spiritual radiation so it would not be detected by the warning magic arrays within the factory area.

After doing this, he lowered his body, followed the maintenance passage of the rusted metal drainage pipe on the outer wall, and silently circled around to the blind spot at the rear of the factory area.

The fragment of the worm of time in his waist pouch was emitting a steady, warm, low-frequency pulse, the rhythm calm and unruffled.

This was the safest signal. There was no turbid resonance unique to the bloodline of the Antigonus Family in the vicinity; the Aurora Order had not yet realized that this hidden factory stronghold had long been targeted.

Over the past seven days, this old-fashioned Textile Factory, which had been abandoned for decades and had long since been cut off from water and electricity, had received five batches of sealed wooden crates transported from the Storm Cape docks.

All corners of the wooden crates were branded with a uniform black storm anchor mark, which was identical to the cargo crate marks seized at the secret warehouse in the River Bay District previously; they shared the same source.

According to the internal freight list obtained through an inside contact Abraham had planted at the ocean shipping company: the main contents of the wooden crates were special tidal dust from the Sea of Wraith and fragments of backup spatial runes, supplemented by a small amount of silver-patterned sealing implements and spiritual restraint chains—all supplies specifically for building a large-scale secret ritual array.

Lu Li crouched behind the coal-dusted windowsill on the second floor of the boiler room, raised his brass-coated telescope, adjusted the focus, and looked toward the main production factory building a hundred meters away.

Most of the factory's dome was broken, allowing daylight to slant in, illuminating the giant ritual array spread across the floor.

The scale of this array was more than double that of the one in the River Bay District warehouse, with intricate and interwoven lines, filled with spatial imprint runes exclusive to the Apprentice Pathway.

In the center of the array, a three-legged bronze incense burner burned quietly. The tidal dust from the Sea of Wraith turned into thick, dark red flames. The flames were flameless and windless, dead silent and steady, slowly diffusing a cold, salty, deep-sea spiritual aura outward.

On the periphery of the array, six low-Sequence Beyonders wrapped in coarse cloth cloaks worked in coordination, pale cyan spirituality flowing from their fingertips as they constantly calibrated the rune nodes and corrected the offset of the array lines.

Directly above the center of the array, a figure in a deep blue cloak stood motionless; it was the Aurora Order messenger who had appeared at the Dock District several times and was responsible for setting up the runes.

He held a dark green diamond-shaped rune fragment in his palm, with a ghostly green halo flowing inside, synchronizing with the frequency of the dark red flames in the incense burner, resonating with a rhythmic rise and fall of light and dark.

Behind the messenger stood a more burly and tall figure. Wearing the same deep blue standard-issue Aurora Order cloak, the hood was pulled very low, revealing a middle-aged face with rough jawlines and a dull complexion.

This person's palms were empty, holding no runes. Slung diagonally at his waist was a ritual dagger with dark patterns. On its dark brown scabbard, densely engraved with orthodox blood sacrifice runes of the Aurora Order, the lines were soaked with dried and blackened spiritual bloodstains, exuding a heavy aura of ferocity.

Lu Li's eyes narrowed slightly as he recognized the person's identity.

Malcolm, the front-line commander of the Aurora Order in the Backlund urban area, Sequence 6 "Notary".

This person's file was clearly documented: during the Tingen catastrophe, he was under the command of Megose, specializing in the operation and maintenance of the stronghold's blood altars and the calibration of ritual compliance. He was well-versed in the loopholes of various blood sacrifice arrays and methods to evade church detection. Before the sun flame charm detonated and destroyed the Tingen stronghold, he sensed the crisis in advance and successfully evacuated, making him one of the very few high-level executors to escape.

He was only transferred from Storm Cape to Backlund last week to preside over the ritual.

Lu Li slowly moved the telescope down, his gaze locking onto the blood sacrifice altar in the innermost circle of the array.

A young man wearing the gray work uniform of the freight company was pinned to the center of the altar, silver-plated spiritual chains piercing his shoulder blades.

The young man's chest still had a faint rise and fall, and shallow breathing escaped from his nose and mouth, but the spiritual light around his body was dim and thin; his spiritual origin had been almost completely suppressed by the array.

Scattered on the altar floor were four empty brass holy water bottles, with traces of potent sedative spiritual potions remaining on the bottle walls—the Aurora Order deliberately preserved his vital signs while only sealing his consciousness, allowing him to maintain an active spiritual circuit to fit the requirements of the ritual sacrifice.

A standard, controllable living sacrifice, prepared specifically to activate the core spatial rune of the array.

Lu Li put away the telescope, leaned against the cold, coal-dusted wall, and held a charcoal pencil with his fingertips. In his leather notebook, he precisely outlined the array's path, warning points, personnel positioning, and ability characteristics, annotating them one by one: six low-Sequence Apprentices assisting the array, one Apprentice messenger, Sequence 6 Notary Malcolm, and one living Beyonder sacrifice.

With a Notary personally presiding, it was sufficient proof that this ritual was definitely not a probing exercise. The Aurora Order had a clear goal: to complete the final debugging of the backup spatial rune power supply system within a short period.

The tidal dust provided the basic energy for the array, while the living Beyonder's spiritual circuit served as the trigger for the array's center.

Following this deduction, the conclusion was clear: the Aurora Order needed a steady stream of controllable and compatible living sacrifices. Dock temporary workers, wandering refugees in the industrial district, and unattached, scattered low-level Beyonders in the black market were all their hunting targets.

After writing the last line of notes, Lu Li closed his notebook and returned along the maintenance passage of the drainage pipe, keeping his Marauder Pathway spirituality completely restrained throughout, avoiding the three simple spiritual warnings on the perimeter of the factory area, and silently withdrew from the industrial district.

When he returned to his rented apartment in the River Bay District, the sunset had sunk behind the buildings, and twilight covered the streets and alleys.

He changed out of his coat, which was covered in coal dust and stained with the smell of low-quality machine oil from the industrial district, ate half a piece of wheat-scented white bread baked by Old Kohler's daughter, locked the doors and windows, set up simple concealment runes, and turned to head to the Water Pump Street black market.

The door and windows of Abraham's grocery store were half-closed, and the room was filled with the unique, bitter, herbal scent of Spirit World dust from the Southern Continent.

The silver-haired shopkeeper was looking down, checking the inventory ledger. After hearing Lu Li's complete reconnaissance report, his fingertips paused on the ledger page, and he flipped to the encrypted notes page, pulled out a yellowed note, and handed it over.

"Malcolm, Sequence 6 Notary, front-line person-in-charge of the Aurora Order in Backlund. Before the Tingen catastrophe, he specialized in the operation and maintenance of the black sail ship blood sacrifice altar. After the catastrophe, he laid low overseas, and one week ago, he was officially transferred to Backlund to coordinate the ritual. All the messengers under his command are low-Sequence Beyonders of the Apprentice Pathway, specializing in opening micro-spatial rifts, stealthy infiltration, and spiritual detection. The three pre-buried runes you cleared at the docks previously were all the work of these messengers."

Lu Li rubbed the surface of the note with his fingertips and asked in a deep voice: "How long until the ritual array is fully debugged?"

"Conservatively estimated, seven days." Abraham's tone was calm but hid a sense of gravity, "The shortage of sacrifices is far outpacing the progress of the array. Yesterday, around the Old Industrial District, another temporary freight worker went missing, and the trail of the disappearance points directly to the Textile Factory. Malcolm is well aware that the spirituality of ordinary mortals is insufficient to activate the core rune; he will definitely turn his target to the Water Pump Street black market to hunt for low-level Beyonders of Sequence 7 and above. You must pass this intelligence as soon as possible to someone who can mobilize personnel and has the capability to suppress them."

Lu Li folded the note, put it into his inner pocket, turned and left Water Pump Street, and headed straight to the Sherlock Detective Agency on Mingde Street.

The warm yellow gas lamp was lit in the room. Sherlock had just sealed the last private commission report, pressing a wax seal onto the opening of the leather envelope. Seeing him push the door open and enter, he didn't indulge in unnecessary pleasantries; he lifted the ceramic teapot and calmly poured two cups of warm black tea.

"Malcolm, direct commander of the black sail ship from Storm Cape, Sequence 6 Notary, general person-in-charge of the Aurora Order in Backlund. A large-scale spatial ritual array has been set up in the abandoned Textile Factory, using living Beyonders as sacrifices. The array will be completed within seven days."

Lu Li pushed Abraham's note to the center of the table and clearly restated the intelligence, "All messengers under his command are of the Apprentice Pathway, skilled in spatial stealth and rift traversal. In the past week, a total of three temporary freight workers have gone missing at the docks, all taken to the Textile Factory for sacrifice. The core rune of the array requires high-level Beyonder spirituality to activate. The next step for the other party will definitely be to infiltrate the Water Pump Street black market to hunt for targets."

Sherlock's expression was calm; he did not ask about the source of the intelligence. This was the tacit understanding they had established in their interactions.

He read the note word for word, then reached into the drawer to take out a small fragment of a thermal insulation rune that had fallen off the jiaowei sealing box, embedding it into the interlayer lines of a specially made hollow paper figure.

A pale blue, gentle spiritual barrier instantly enveloped the paper figure. The paper figure slowly spun on the table a few times; the barrier was stable and restrained, with no leakage of spiritual fluctuations whatsoever.

This was the result of his repeated debugging and improvements over the last month. The improved paper figure could isolate all spiritual detection and spatial scanning below Sequence 5 for a short period.

"The time Malcolm was transferred to Backlund was exactly one week before we cleared the rune fragments at the docks." Sherlock tapped his fingertips on the table, clearly reviewing the entire layout with logical precision.

"Long before we intercepted the first batch of runes and interrupted the first round of blood sacrifice pulses, he had already completed the entire layout. Living Beyonder sacrifice was never a temporary remedial plan; it was the original core process of the ritual. The tidal dust was just substitute energy to supplement the basic power supply after the blood sacrifice pulse was broken, but the core spatial rune of the array must rely on a complete, living Beyonder spiritual circuit to activate. On the day the array is completed, he will select a high-level sacrifice of Sequence 7 or above to complete the final activation, targeting high-level rogue Beyonders in the black market."

As he finished speaking, he lifted his hand to refill Lu Li's black tea.

Lu Li picked up the porcelain cup, took a sip of the mellow tea, then reached into his waist pouch, took out the translucent, crystalline fragment of the worm of time, and placed it gently on the mahogany table.

The worm's body shimmered with a slow, flowing light: "The other party has not yet realized our existence, and there are three weeks until the next full moon ritual. Since he needs a high-level sacrifice, we will deliver one to his doorstep. I will have Abraham spread false intelligence in the black market: there is a lone Sequence 7: Swindler in the Dock District, with no affiliated forces, whose strength is unpredictable, and who specializes in high-reward, high-risk secret commissions. The bait is me."

"As long as Malcolm is tempted, the Apprentice messengers under his command will definitely take the initiative to contact and hunt. We will set up an ambush in advance at the intersection node of the underground pipe network southwest of the docks. That pipe network alley is narrow and enclosed, and the spatial medium is solidified; the Apprentice Pathway cannot deploy large-scale spatial rifts, which will severely limit their abilities."

Sherlock nodded slightly, picked up his pen to note down the deployment in his notebook, and calmly added the follow-up plan: "The trap needs sealing implements and binding charms as a fallback. I will go to the Mandated Punishers outpost of the church in the River Bay District to apply for a batch of holy water sealing tokens and spiritual binding chains. I will use the excuse of reinforcing the warehouse seals as previously filed by Old Eye, claiming that Apprentice Beyonders at the docks are frequently scanning the old warehouses, necessitating a bulk reinforcement of the spiritual locks. For this type of auxiliary security application, the Mandated Punishers won't delve into the reasons, and the approval will be very fast."

The gas lamp flickered, casting the two men's shadows onto the wall. A counter-hunting plan targeting the Aurora Order messengers and the Notary Malcolm was thus finalized.