Swamp Forest City.
The next day, Ivan returned to the residence arranged by the City Lord and, through the responses of the rapid wood silkworms hidden in the wood, he knew that six people had visited his bedroom last night, two of whom were wearing apprentice robes.
“What about you, got any news?”
“Left the city? Leaving the city is good.”
Two more rapid wood silkworms informed him of something through their movements, the people who had come to the residence last night had left Swamp Forest City.
Last night he not only sought to avoid the limelight, but he also left behind several rapid wood silkworms to monitor every move within the residence. The rapid wood silkworms were adept at hiding their presence, making it not difficult to avoid detection by the intruders.
In fact, when he learned the Insect Breath-concealing Skill, he had followed the rapid wood silkworms and learned a few tricks. He realized that the rapid wood silkworms were indeed very capable of hiding their presence.
Ivan paced back and forth in the room, and after a while, he made a decision, “Since they’re not coming back, I’ll go take a look myself.”
Not to steam a bun without a fight, they all excluded him from their plans. It was impossible for him not to have his own thoughts about it.
Once he found the key item by himself, he would see what they had to say then. Experience tales at empire
He took out the box from yesterday and extracted a trail of a special aura from the magic stone. As he recited the spell, a palm-sized tracking butterfly formed. The butterfly was striped, half black and half colorless.
The butterfly flew out of the house, fluttering and hovering in the yard, hesitating to choose a direction.
Seeing this, Ivan carefully analyzed the situation. It was the first time he had encountered such a phenomenon.
“It seems that the place being tracked has some interference, affecting the judgement of the Tracking Technique.” After having thought it through, he directed the tracking butterfly towards the City Lord’s Manor. Combining all the current circumstances, it was highly likely that the City Lord’s Manor was hiding something fishy.
The City Lord’s Manor was located in South City, operated by the Albe family for hundreds of years, an estate weathered by time, occupying a large area of South City.
“Lord Ivan, do you have any instructions?”
Simmons and his son appeared before Ivan immediately, this time with only two trusted aides.
To the current sight of the butterfly, the two of them were not surprised, as far as they knew, a sorcerer apprentice could always cast various spells, summoning all kinds of magicalized wild beasts.
Ivan said, “I am looking for clues and would like to look around your manor. Is that convenient?”
“Convenient, very convenient, you can go anywhere you like.” Betrayal by a trusted aide left a considerable shadow on him. Simmons was only too happy for him to look around, hoping he could help find the traitor, “Do you need me to summon some people?”
“No need.”
Ivan thought for a moment and declined.
He was not afraid of being attacked by guards; it was just bothersome.
The tracking butterfly fluttered its wings leisurely, and others followed behind eagerly. Simmons kept introducing his estate to Ivan, pointing out the training grounds, the gardens, and so on.
Reaching a certain place, the tracking butterfly suddenly trembled and began to flutter its wings rapidly, accelerating toward one side.
“What’s in front of us?”
“That’s the stable.”
The others’ expressions perked up as they closely followed the tracking butterfly, moving toward the stable.
At that moment, Ivan, walking at the forefront, sensed something, “Watch out for arrows!”
Simmons and his son felt a jolt in their hearts.
As expected, as soon as he finished speaking, they heard the sound of arrows cutting through the air, and sharp arrows headed straight towards their group.
“Damn it!” Simmons cursed under his breath as he drew his weapon. He recognized a familiar figure, his second son Matthew, who was leading the other archers in a sneak attack.
He thought many would fall for the trap, but he hadn’t expected it to include his own son.
Facing such an attack, Simmons and his men defended themselves with swords, retreating while fighting back with their considerable strength and for a while, they were suppressed by the oncoming barrage of arrows.
In contrast, Ivan, with his extraordinary speed and reflexes, deflected approaching arrows with his Longsword as they got close, making it seem so effortless.
He waved his hand forcefully, releasing a large number of rapid wood moths that darted toward the direction the arrows came from.
Seeing this, Simmons opened his mouth but ultimately didn’t utter the plea for mercy he had wanted to say.
The rapid wood silkworm once again displayed its fierce side, and soon only wails of agony remained from the other side.
Simmons instructed his eldest son Nelsey, “Go check on that good-for-nothing brother of yours. If he’s not dead, throw him in the prison.”
The tracking butterfly flew into the stable yard, with Ivan and Simmons’s men following not far behind, watching as it transformed into a streak of light and entered the ground beneath one of the stables, disappearing from sight.
This change caused the horses in the stable to make restless noises.
“What are you waiting for?” he snapped. “Move the horses out of the way and clean up the inside.”
Simmons ordered the stable hands to get moving, while Ivan stood by leisurely.
Several attendants clumsily cleaned out the stable and pryed open the tiles on the ground to reveal a hidden iron plate. Lifting the iron plate revealed a basement, and under Simmons’s command, a guard descended into the basement using the wooden ladder.
“My lord, there’s something strange down here,” the guard called out.
“Bring it up,” Simmons ordered.
“Wait, don’t touch anything rashly,” Ivan cautioned. “Be careful not to lose your mind to confusion.”
Ivan stopped their reckless actions.
The basement, located beneath the stable, was filled with an odd smell, but Ivan paid it no mind as he descended to the floor; there, he found a regularly shaped stone pier adorned with lines of rune lines.
Atop the stone pier sat a basin-sized disc made of stone, which gave Ivan an inexplicably familiar sensation. Faintly visible were more rune lines on the disc, surrounded by numerous magic stones, with a sparkling Crystal Ball at the center.
Inside the Crystal Ball, strands of black and gray mists drifted and circulated.
“What is this? Such a malicious aura,” he remarked.
He reached out only to retract his hand quickly, as he could feel an evil resentment emanating from the Crystal Ball.
The object before him was undoubtedly the core of a simple runes sorcery array, most likely the instigator behind the madness spreading among the city’s inhabitants. The magic stones spreading out from the disc were the mediums, their method of manipulation unknown.
Faced with such an unknown sorcery array, he dared not act rashly but instead stood back to observe more carefully.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered several special magic stones nestled directly under the Crystal Ball, different in both color and quality from low-grade magic stones; they were clearly three rare mid-grade magic stones.
Using mid-grade magic stones as materials indicated that the person behind the scenes was more capable than he had anticipated.
While he was observing, he felt a movement in his pocket; it turned out that Gina was contacting him through the Secret Method Seal. After activating it, he heard Gina’s voice. She was close to arriving at Swamp Forest City, so he shared with her his discoveries and location.
“Where’s Ivan?”
“Lord Ivan is in the basement below,” the guard replied.
Heidi and her two companions soon arrived at the manor and were led to the stable yard.
Hearing the commotion, Ivan looked up and saw Heidi descending the wooden stairs. Once the three of them reached the bottom, their gaze was immediately drawn to the object in the center.
“Tell me, what’s the situation?” Heidi asked.
“It starts with yesterday—see for yourself. Below the disc, there are mid-grade magic stones. They must be an important medium,” Ivan explained.
Heidi bent down and peered over, noticing the presence of the three mid-grade magic stones.
Instantly, her expression became very animated. Mid-grade magic stones were rare and seldom reached the hands of apprentices. Their use to construct this rudimentary runes sorcery array, coupled with the unique material of the disc, gave her a foreboding feeling.