After the Dark Moon Era, the path for wizards to advance to fifth rank and travel to other worlds had been severed.

But even until the Lunar Calendar, the remaining fourth-rank wizards in the world hadn't given up searching for advancement methods.

The Tribunal pinned their hopes on the culprit—the Abyssal Eye.

The Stargate Council held onto the only stargate and refused to let go.

As an independent force, Sky City Lord Ophelia had been searching for ancient wizards' advancement methods. She believed that even if this world had changed, the paths that had once produced fifth-rank wizards wouldn't be completely cut off.

Through the efforts of all wizards in Sky City searching desperately and studying frantically, Ophelia had also obtained several suspected fifth-rank wizard advancement methods.

However, these methods either lacked important materials, appeared too dangerous with certain death, or lacked corresponding magical resources.

"Actually, sometimes I envy those ancient ignorant people's belief in deities. Do you know about Bichye?" After expressing many sentiments, Ophelia casually asked Saul.

"I've heard some things."

"Originally, Bichye's living sacrifices weren't the simple atrocities we imagine—they contained many magical principles, but now they've all been lost, leaving only a few small tricks and killings purely for venting."

Ophelia's neck slowly shortened, her head returning to the white porcelain bottle, spinning in place like a screw twice before slowly turning to face Saul and stopping.

"You hope I can help you contact Pei'er. Normally, I'd also very much want to connect with that Prismatic World you mentioned. But right now, the ancient wizard advancement path I've been pursuing finally has clues, so I can't spare the energy to help you temporarily."

"How long would you need to free up time?"

"Who can say for certain with magical experiments? Maybe a year, maybe a hundred years... I won't easily give up until I'm certain I can't continue."

Saul had considered that Ophelia might not help him. Although he had backup candidates, he wanted to try harder to persuade her.

"Is the Prismatic World's attraction less than that of a fifth-rank wizard to you?"

Ophelia chuckled. "If the Prismatic World is indeed as you describe, it could reach sixth-rank levels, but that also means powerful, dangerous, and irresistible. For me, a fifth-rank advancement plan is more practical."

Saul wanted to propose conditions, but saw his diary stir. He then swallowed the words he was about to say and drew a wisp of spirit body from his temple.

Ophelia watched Saul's movements, obviously still quite concerned about the conditions he was about to propose.

However, Saul pulled Pei'er, who had been in black page state, out from the diary.

The spirit body fell, writhed into shape, becoming a woman with two heads.

One head was Pei'er's appearance, looking up and glaring fiercely at Ophelia with a vicious expression.

The other head was Nerela, facing Ophelia for the first time and very uneasy, constantly seeking Saul with sidelong glances.

Saul indicated she needn't worry and to see what Pei'er would say.

Upon seeing Pei'er, Ophelia was somewhat surprised but also somewhat understanding.

"No wonder Saul found me so quickly. So you reminded him."

Pei'er snorted coldly. "So drop that pretentious act. Others might not know your situation, but don't I know?"

The other head, Nerela, hung low with her chin almost touching her chest.

Pei'er continued speaking, not caring about publicly exposing Ophelia's secrets. "If those ancient wizard advancement methods were really suitable for you, would you still directly sell me out to participate in stargate research?"

Pei'er gritted her teeth. "I never went to the stargate—they could only understand me through you. If you hadn't told the Stargate Council people all my information, how would they dare directly make that fool an experimental subject for exploring stargate coordinates?"

"She really is a fool." Ophelia said quietly. "I already told her not to separate her emotions when separating consciousness. Yet she still split off someone like you. Looking at it now, you already have quite independent consciousness. Even if Pei'er comes back, she probably can't reabsorb you."

"Even if she comes back, I'll devour her! With that brain of hers, how could she survive in this world?"

Pei'er puffed out her chest, seemingly wanting to step forward, but the body's control rights still belonged to Nerela. This second-rank small wizard didn't dare face Ophelia directly, her feet firmly planted in place.

Pei'er's movement failed, so she could only glare fiercely at Nerela. Fortunately, she remembered her mission for coming out.

"Anyway, you don't need to pretend in front of me. Even if you're really researching fifth-rank advancement methods, with so many clones studying, how could you possibly have no time to connect to the Prismatic World? Whatever conditions you have, state them quickly. If you're too slow, I'll have Saul go find Alick directly. His interest in the Prismatic World definitely won't be less than yours."

Ophelia wasn't angry. "You're right—I am quite interested in the Prismatic World, but I really am very busy right now."

She looked at Saul. "If you really want me to help you attempt connecting to the Prismatic World now, you need to accept a commission. Only if you take this commission can I spare some energy to help you communicate with the Prismatic World."

Saul nodded. "That can be considered a transaction. What specifically is it? Please tell me."

Ophelia suddenly lowered her voice. "Sky City recently lost a third-rank wizard... he drowned."

Drowned?

For some reason, Saul suddenly thought of the white porcelain kitten he'd seen on the airship.

Could that craft actually have such power, capable of killing even third-rank wizards?

Saul's expression didn't change. "Do you want me to investigate the cause of that third-rank wizard's death?"

"Not only that. He died while helping me research an ancient wizard advancement method. But he betrayed me."

Ophelia's voice showed no discernible anger about her subordinate's betrayal.

"The Bichye I mentioned to you were savage people who enjoyed killing and bloodshed in ancient times. The advancement method I found this time comes from what was called the Water God in ancient times."

Saul thought: An existence called the Water God? It seems Ophelia doesn't really acknowledge the Water God. Makes sense—in the Chaos Realm now, aren't I also called the Death Judge? If Noah were bolder, I'd be the Death God by now.

Ophelia either didn't notice Saul's wandering thoughts or didn't care if she did. She continued, "The dead third-rank wizard was named Crum. He was formerly a wizard from the Nephret Continent. After he came to seek refuge in Sky City, I didn't hold his origins against him and gave him several biographies related to the ancient Water God to research. Who knew he actually discovered traces of the ancient Water God."

"However, after discovering the Water God's remaining traces, he didn't report to me but instead found a room with six walls frozen in ice and secretly researched inside."

Pei'er suddenly burst into laughter, saying mercilessly, "Looks like your subordinate already found a way to avoid your surveillance. A frozen room with no liquid water, hahaha... mmph!"

Pei'er's laughter suddenly stopped because Nerela, at Saul's signal, directly covered her mouth with her hand.

Saul turned around. "Please continue."

(End of Chapter)