Mystery: The Stranger

Chapter 26 The Demon Family

The three days passed in the blink of an eye.

The agreed deadline had long passed, but no messenger from Count Cullen had come to deliver a message.

Snow sat behind his desk in his study, his fingertips lightly tapping the edge of the solid wood table. He already knew what was going on—the more deliberately he didn't send anyone to deliver the message, the more it meant that the matter he was entrusted with was anything but simple.

as predicted.

Before long, a slight spiritual ripple appeared in the air, and the blue jellyfish, Dulum, quietly emerged from the void. Its transparent body shimmered with a lustrous blue light, and a slender tentacle carrying a series of sealed envelopes gently landed on the desk.

The envelope was sealed with neat and solemn patterns, surrounded by a faint but powerful force of order, a unique mark of the Tamara family.

Snow looked up and glanced at Saratas, who was lazily perched on his shoulder, dozing with his eyes half-closed. His tone was casual and playful: "Guess what, dear Earl Karen, is planning to send us to kill someone, or to set a fire?"

"Why can't you kill people and set fires at the same time?"

Saratas instantly perked up, her eyes gleaming with barely concealed restless eagerness. She wasn't genuinely interested in working for Count Karen; she was simply bored and had been itching to cause trouble for a while.

She craves the souls of more living beings, enjoys spreading despair and pain, and for her, boredom and tranquility are the greatest enemies. Watching Snow idle is more painful than her own swallowing of holy light.

That's really bad.

Snow chuckled softly, his fingertips lightly flicking the seal, which easily opened the envelope. The seemingly formidable seal on the side of order had no intention of protecting him, the recipient, and it opened on its own without any hindrance.

The letter was written in crisp, cold handwriting, and was unsigned, yet it was unmistakably from Karen Tamara. The content was equally direct and concise—eliminate Viscount Grey in the east.

The envelope also contained a dark gold, diamond-shaped talisman, shimmering with a heavy, majestic light of order. Snow held it between his fingers, gently toying with it, understanding its meaning.

There is no universally accepted name for this thing, but he knows that in the Fifth Era, it would be called the Ninth Law.

Moreover, it was by no means the low-end version that Admiral Emilius gave to Klein to make a show of himself. This was a high-level talisman that a genuine demigod had painstakingly crafted by hand. Its power was condensed and pure, and it was specifically for him to use to counterbalance that Sequence 5 Viscount Grey.

Snow raised an eyebrow and instantly understood the crux of the matter.

Count Cullen not only wanted him to eliminate dissidents, but also specially sent him a demigod talisman as a backup, clearly indicating that he wanted him to act cleanly and efficiently, preferably wiping out all the extraordinary forces in Viscount Grey's territory without leaving any future troubles.

This wasn't just assigning him a task; it was clearly forcing him to submit a genuine pledge of allegiance.

They've already pledged allegiance verbally and signed a contract, so why are they still so rigid?

How exactly do the people of this world cope with the troubles caused by an excess of extraordinary characteristics?

Snow looked down at the baron's gloves on his hands, looking somewhat troubled.

Once Viscount Grey is eliminated, the extraordinary attribute of the Lawyer Path Sequence 5 on his person will inevitably fall into my hands.

But he already has a baron's glove, so should he make a viscount's glove as well? To match it?

However, the repetition of abilities doubles the negative effects, which is clearly inappropriate.

He's starting to think he's a god, able to eat whatever he wants, and his main goal is to avoid wasting food.

"If that woman needs it, just give her the trait," Xalatas casually suggested. "We can take this opportunity to exchange for a lunar pathway seal. We'll be needing a guiding force to venture into the astral plane in the future."

"That's a good idea."

Snow glanced at the letter; it only outlined the task but didn't set a specific deadline.

He casually tossed the letter aside. Since no deadline was specified, it meant he wasn't in a hurry and would leave it for later.

Snow propped his head up with his hand, his tone tinged with regret: "What a terrible era. We missed the time when the second Profane Tablet was born. We knew 'nothing' about the potion recipes for the Abyss Path, and could only rely on hunting down existing superhumans to steal their properties."

After saying that, he slowly got up and walked towards the basement.

He wasn't in a hurry to carry out Karen's mission. Instead, he planned to go into the abyss to hunt and devour a suitable Sequence 5 Desire Apostle, thus completing his own advancement.

Snow wasn't in a hurry to advance because he felt that a Sequence 6 demon would be more acceptable to the Tamara family's demigods, since a Sequence 6 demon was incapable of challenging a demigod, while a powerful Sequence 5 demon, with the right sealing artifact, could put up a fight against a demigod.

He originally wanted to appear harmless, but Count Cullen didn't believe he was Sequence 6 at all, which was awkward and made it unnecessary to suppress his level.

"You have a solution?"

Saratas instantly became interested and followed closely behind him.

Even in the Abyss, finding a wild Sequence 5 is actually quite difficult. Reality isn't like a game; to reach Sequence 5 in a place like the Abyss, no demon would stay in one place and actively seek out its coordinates for you to farm.

This is also why Snow only harvested a bunch of low-to-medium sequence characteristics in his previous sweeps of the Abyss.

Wild Sequence 5s are really hard to find... No matter what era they're in, a Sequence 5 is already a significant figure. Even going back to the Second Age, they would be worthy to serve as a servant to an Old God like the Elf King, far from being just some random nobody.

"Hmm, I have a way," Snow replied calmly.

"What method?" Saratas asked curiously. The only way she could think of was divination and deduction, but neither of them were good at prophetic abilities, and trying to peek into the abyss from across the spirit world was completely unreliable, no different from guessing from a different channel.

Normal divination is related to the power of the spirit world. Using the power of the spirit world to divine about an unfamiliar abyss seems unreliable no matter how you look at it.

"It's very simple."

Snow pushed open the heavy stone door to the basement. It was dark, damp, deep, and quiet, perfect for setting up a fixed teleportation ritual to the abyss. "We won't look for wild Sequence 5s without a background. We'll just hunt down Sequence 5s from the Belial or Andrerad families."

Upon hearing this, Xalatas froze, his figure hovering in mid-air trembling slightly.

Snow ignored her shock and began setting up the ceremony on his own.

This time he was extra cautious, taking out the Blade of the Dark Kingdom as the core medium of the ritual, and using spiritual power to envelop the entire basement, setting up layers of security barriers that could conceal, counter divination, counter deduction, and counter tracking.

He had no choice; there was really no way. He wasn't good at divination. Of course, he could learn and become proficient, but the methods didn't match, which meant he didn't have the necessary permissions, making it very difficult. Under these circumstances, it was very difficult to find a Sequence 5 with the same methods in a short period of time.

He doesn't have his own tarot club, so he can't ask others to help him find tarot cards; he has to develop his own tarot deck independently.

Fortunately, there are always more solutions than problems.

Similarly, wild, unconnected, nighttime pathways to Sequence 5 spirit witches are very difficult to find.

But if you take a walk around the important churches of the Church of the Night, you're bound to find something suitable.

Similarly, the Demonic Path, Sequence 5 Apostle of Desire, is really hard to find, mainly because Snow has no background.

However, the Belial family and the Andrerad family, two demon families with angels, have their Sequence 5 members easier to find. These families, supported by the Grand Duke of the Abyss, have fixed territories in the Abyss and also undertake some order management functions.

All you have to do is sneak up there, take out a Sequence 5, and then run away.

"Are you out of your mind?!"

When Xalatas came to his senses, he saw Snow still diligently setting up various anti-divination, anti-prophecy, and anti-tracking spells and couldn't help but let out a sharp sound, like scratching glass with fingernails, which was extremely unpleasant to hear. Snow could only cover his ears while continuing to inscribe arcane runes.

He did want to inscribe the native mystical runes, but his level was too low. He didn't understand the advanced runes at all and had no time to accumulate knowledge. He could only use the arcane runes of Azeroth as a substitute. After all, runes were just auxiliary. The real main force for anti-tracing still had to rely on the high status of the Black Empire's Blade itself.

The high-ranking slot of the transmigrator is empty, but the high-ranking slot of the Dark Priest artifact is real.

Seeing that Snow completely ignored him and continued to slowly set up the ritual array, Xalatas became increasingly angry. The malevolent aura around him stirred up, directly affecting the Void Demon essence within Snow's body.

An uncontrollable malice surged within Snow, whose figure became slightly ethereal, transforming into a void demon form resembling a creature from the spirit world, its cold and dark aura permeating the entire basement.

"If you go and ambush a demon from the Abyss Grand Duke's family when you advance to Sequence 5, who will you ambush when you advance to Sequence 4?"

Xalatas was almost driven mad by Snow; how could a demon be so short-sighted?