Soon, under Red Spirit's guidance, the group arrived at an ice valley, right at the entrance.

"Look!"

The Psionics' pupils shrank as they watched a towering knight casually swing his lance, cutting a monster clean in half.

On the ice, various monster corpses were scattered everywhere—clearly all the knight's handiwork, showing just how badass he was.

Though this knight was smaller than Lord Red Spirit, compared to normal humans he was like a little giant—just the knight himself looked to be about ten feet tall.

His bone armor and mount were extremely similar to Lord Red Spirit's, except the color was pitch black with strange golden patterns carved into it.

"Caw!"

At Red Spirit's urging, the Psionics walked toward the ice valley entrance in an orderly fashion.

At the entrance, the Tulip Black Knight, having received its master's orders, didn't stop them, and the group successfully entered the valley.

Inside the valley, looking around, there was only one snow-white building standing tall. Around the white building,

Five imposing knights identical to the one at the entrance, and several tall sword guards stood like statues on guard, with threads of lightning crackling across their greatswords, radiating a fierce, murderous aura.

Could these be... Skeleton Warriors after another sublimation?!

During the Ember War, the sublimated Skeleton Warriors under Carlos had kicked serious ass. Many in this group had seen them firsthand, and thinking of Young Master Carlos's identity as a Death Herald, they had their suspicions.

As for Lord Red Spirit and the Black Knight at the entrance, they didn't dare think about sublimated Skeleton Warriors just yet.

Clank clank!

The two Silver Sword Orchid Guards standing at the snow-white building's entrance moved. With a creaking sound, they opened the door, and a figure slowly walked out.

Pointed pure white ears,

Deep emerald eyes,

A face as perfect as if carved by the gods, radiating a naturally enchanting and intoxicating aura.

His aloof yet noble temperament made the Psionics all look away and lower their gazes, not daring to meet his eyes directly.

"Welcome, everyone. Thanks for the long haul."

Carlos spoke, his emerald eyes sweeping over each Psionic. The first batch had a full hundred people.

His sister had truly gone all out—she'd actually managed to round up this many people.

"Greetings, Young Master Carlos!"

Everyone bowed respectfully, their attitudes reverent—not because of Carlos's noble status, but more because of the strength the Valois family had shown along the way.

"Caw!"

Red Spirit followed suit, dismounting and walking to the front of the group, also respectfully bowing to Carlos.

It had successfully wrapped up its mission and returned—and it was the first one!

Carlos naturally understood Red Spirit's thoughts. He patted the bone armor on Red Spirit's body and praised:

"Red Spirit, you did great!"

"Caw!"

The crimson flames swirling around Red Spirit danced with joy.

The Psionics all witnessed this scene, with many rubbing their eyes, thinking they were seeing things.

The mighty Controller Lord Red Spirit was actually bowing to the merely mid-tier Young Master Carlos?

Most ridiculous of all, Young Master Carlos spoke with a boss's tone, praising Lord Red Spirit, and Lord Red Spirit actually seemed happy about it?

In the Psionics' worldview, this was simply mind-blowing.

You had to understand—Controllers were already the upper crust of a city. Except for Ember City, in other city-states, they were figures at the very top of the food chain.

A mere noble title couldn't possibly make a Controller act this way—there was definitely something major going on here.

The Psionics couldn't help but bow even lower.

After the greetings ended, Sara and Yolanda stepped forward.

"Young Master Carlos, Grand Duke Iris..."

Carlos nodded slightly, then announced loudly:

"Everyone wait here for now. Sara, Yolanda, you two come inside."

No one objected. Even Lord Red Spirit hadn't spoken up—what would this group of Psionics dare to say?

The three turned and entered the snow-white building...

...

Inside and outside the house were like two different worlds—the interior warmed by fire stones was cozy as hell.

"Please, sit down."

Carlos gestured for the two women to take seats. There was no rush—they could talk slowly.

After sitting down, Yolanda very naturally began pouring tea, filling cups for all three of them without any awkwardness.

"Young Master Carlos, this is Grand Duke Iris's letter."

As she spoke, Yolanda produced a scroll of parchment and gently handed it to Carlos.

Carlos took it and, without avoiding the two women, began reading directly. His brow gradually furrowed.

Most of the letter was good news, with only one piece of bad news: the Shadow Twins had vanished.

While his sister had gone to Rock Sand City because of his business, Riley and Anna had disappeared in broad daylight.

No one had noticed anything, and there were no signs of a break-in.

Carlos mulled it over—there were two possibilities. Either the twins had been snatched by a Psionic with extremely strong stealth abilities, or they had taken off on their own.

Regardless of which possibility it was, it didn't really matter. Carlos worried that the twins might still fall and become Shadow Twins in the future, following their old path.

He had to find a way to track them down.

Carlos searched through the relevant intel in his mind. If they inevitably followed the original timeline's path, where might they pop up?

But in the original timeline, the Shadow Twins' first appearance was marked by the sacrifice of an entire kingdom getting wiped out—there was almost no intel from before that...

The two women waited quietly until Carlos put away the parchment.

Sara couldn't hold back:

"Young Master Carlos, Riley and Anna..."

Yolanda also cast an expectant look, her beautiful face showing signs of exhaustion.

Carlos paused for a moment, then said calmly:

"Don't sweat it. I'll send people to hunt for them later."

Carlos had several suspected locations in mind, including some dangerous environments that only his retainers could venture into—not something he could easily spill to others about for now.

Hearing this, both women's eyes lit up. Young Master Carlos really did have a way—much of their worry lifted.

"Speaking of which, having you two lead the team is quite a curveball."

He remembered that a few months ago, the two women had spiritual essence of less than 10 points, not even reaching the lowest tier. Now they'd actually reached mid-tier—truly surprising.

Sara smiled smugly. Surprised, huh?

"Young Master Carlos, Yolanda and I were famous hotshots back in the day too.

Without the Spirit-Devouring Mayflies holding us back, reaching mid-tier was a cakewalk.

Come to think of it, our advancement speed is about the same as yours.

Right, Yolanda?"

Yolanda looked away, her face slightly red. How could they compare to Young Master Carlos?

Though the two women had advanced in a short time, they'd actually burned through ten years of accumulated potential. Sara saying this was purely blowing smoke up her own ass.

"It was a spiritual enhancement ritual, wasn't it?"

After thinking briefly, Carlos nailed the gist of it.

There was no way they could have advanced through killing tons of monsters.

He remembered his sister mentioning that their souls were powerful, which would provide the foundation for spiritual enhancement rituals.

"The spiritual enhancement ritual did play a small part."

Sara defended herself without batting an eye.

The casual conversation was about wrapped up. Carlos took a sip of tea and said slowly:

"Going forward, your main job will be to lead them in building a castle."

"Building a castle?"

Sara and Yolanda were thrown for a loop. Building a castle in the danger-packed first dark mist layer was clearly way beyond what they'd expected.