864 Center of the Vortex

Quartier 14, within the botanical garden, there stood a wooden cabin belonging to the caretaker.

Lumian had prepared this safe house before heading to Morora. He hadn't rented it; instead, he used money to persuade the garden caretaker to vacate the place whenever needed and to pretend he still lived there.

Franca glanced at the lush trees surrounding them, then turned her gaze back to Ludwig, who was sitting at a small wooden table, munching on a donut. She asked with a playful smile, "How about I give you some homework?"

Ludwig looked up quickly, eyeing Franca warily and instinctively scooting back.

Franca laughed immediately, muttering to herself, I feeI an Angel's pain, and my Affliction potion has digested a bit more!

"Why are you bullying a child?" Jenna asked, amused by the scene.

"What child?" Franca explained with a grin, "I had suspected that making Ludwig experience the pain of studying and doing homework might help me digest the potion, but I didn't try it for fear of ruining Lumian's 'training' and making Ludwig want to run away from home. Now, with the vortex possibly approaching, I need to digest as much as I can. Besides, it's not like Ludwig will bond with us that quickly anyway."

Ludwig's brown eyes clearly conveyed one message as he looked at Franca: You Demoness!

Jenna thought carefully and realized Franca's reasoning made sense. Once Lumian completed his advancement and she herself reached the stage of the Demoness of Affliction, this could be one of the ways to digest the potion.

Ludwig's gaze flicked between Franca and Jenna before he spoke in a determined tone, "I will do my best to build rapport with you all!"

"Not bad," Lumian clapped his hands, then said to Franca and Jenna, "You two have the potential to be Conspirers. Now Ludwig doesn't mind teaming up with you."

I didn't expect it to turn out this way... Franca looked around, sensing that Lugano and Anthony's gazes seemed to say, "Look, you've driven the kid to this point."

Lumian tossed a chocolate coin to Ludwig and asked thoughtfully, "After eating that Chef's stomach, you should have recalled quite a bit of knowledge, right?"

Ludwig quickly unwrapped the chocolate and answered honestly, "Yes!"

This training is quite effective... Franca was a little surprised and looked at Lumian with admiration.

Lumian pulled up a chair and asked in a coaxing tone, "Do you know anything about the Broker pathway? What do they mean by 'vortex'?"

Busy with training Ludwig and giving him tasks, Lumian had nearly overlooked that Ludwig was an Angel from beyond the barrier and might know something about the Broker pathway.

After learning about Project Vortex, Lumian had asked Ludwig a similar question before going to Morora, but Ludwig had shaken his head, saying he had no recollection. Now, he had recovered some memories and was much more obedient.

Chewing on the chocolate, Ludwig fell into deep thought.

After a few seconds, he said uncertainly, "It seems to involve more complex transactions, with multiple traders, not just one-on-one deals."

As he spoke, Ludwig took a stack of bread slices from the side and laid them out on the table, representing different traders.

He then pointed to the bread slices and said, "Transactions can occur between any of these groups, or there can be three-way, four-way, or even more parties involved. Connecting the corresponding lines creates a web or a vortex, involving many people."

Lumian understood Ludwig's meaning and pondered, "It seems the transaction between the Mother Tree of Desire and the Great Mother is just one part of the vortex. So where is the center of the vortex?"

...

In the square district, outside a villa where several members of the Rose School of Thought's indulgence faction lived.

Angoulme de Frangois and a group of Purifiers had arrived nearby.

For this mission, he had borrowed a Sealed Artifact from the Inquisition in the market district-his preferred Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, the Sword of the Sun, which was now embedded in the spine of a gray-white humanoid mechanical creation.

Angoulme looked up at the sky, where white clouds floated and the sun wasn't too intense. He glanced around and said, "Squad A, enter with me. Squad B, ambush underground. Squad C, go to the back door..."

After instructing his team, he spread his arms slightly and said, "Saint Vieve and Saint Plessy are watching us. We will surely be victorious! Praise the Sun!"

"Praise the Sun!" every Purifier responded.

Once the squads were in position, Angoulme, wearing a brown wool coat, moved from stillness to motion and charged towards the villa, with the gray-white humanoid mechanical creation following closely.

For this mission, which might involve a demigod from the Rose School of Thought, Angoulme was not too worried. The Archbishop of Trier, Saint Plessy, and the Guardian Angel of Trier, Saint Vive, were not just watching but were also nearby, ready to purify the evil. The main goal was to force the bloody members of the Rose School of Thought out of hiding. If necessary, They could destroy the entire villa, purifying both the Beyonders and the ordinary people who worshiped evil gods together.

Although Angoulme believed that some of the ordinary people might still have a chance to be saved-some might not be deeply devoted to the Mother Tree of Desire-their rescue depended on ensuring the safety of his team.

As the captain, his primary responsibility was to his subordinates!

Angoulme was the first to rush through the garden and reach the front door of the villa.

Just then, he saw a white, thin mist rising inside, twisting and turning to form faces of agony that seemed almost real on the glass windows and walls.

Angoulme stopped and prepared to summon Light of Holiness to purify the mist.

Suddenly, deep within the thin white mist, in a room on the second floor of the villa, crimson moonlight began to glow.

It quickly outlined a stiff, sluggish, twisted, and blurry figure.

For some reason, upon seeing the crimson figure, Angoulme and his team felt a sense of awe at an ultimate beauty.

They gazed obsessively at the crimson figure slowly approaching the window, completely forgetting their mission.

They heard the cries of babies in their ears.

Along with the cries came a sinister, genderless voice: "You're just in time."

...

In the depths of a primitive island, where the trees suddenly disappeared.

Relying on the help of someone to circumvent her father's "ban," Queen Mystic Bernadette once again saw the black mausoleum built into the hollowed-out mountain.

Most of the mausoleum was part of the mountain itself, with some artificial traces. There were no weeds or vines on its surface. It stood over a hundred meters tall, majestic and grand.

This was where Bernadette's father, the former Emperor of the Intis Empire, Roselle Gustav, who had created an era, lay in eternal rest.

Engraved on the mausoleum's surface were the Civil Code established and promulgated by Roselle, along with his new social customs and inventions.

In his later years, Roselle had forcefully switched from the Mystery Pryer pathway to the Lawyer pathway, attempting to become the Black Emperor of Sequence 0, but had perished during the apotheosis ritual.

This was an intentional outcome because he had suffered severe, hidden corruption after visiting the moon in his later years. He considered using the Black Emperor's characteristics of eternal tombs and undying order to escape the corruption.

However, after his death, the Beyonder characteristics belonging to the Mystery Pryer and Savant pathways would completely separate, and if he were to be resurrected, only the pure Black Emperor characteristics would be summoned back to his body, preventing him from becoming a half-mad entity like the Blood Emperor of the Fourth Epoch who had forcibly switched pathways.

Unfortunately, despite completing the Black Emperor ritual and gaining the rank of a true god, Roselle found that the hidden corruption could not be escaped even in death.

It kept regenerating.

Thus, Roselle, neither fully dead nor truly alive, sealed himself to prevent being completely altered by the corruption.

Bernadette had visited this Black Emperor mausoleum once before, using the abilities of a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact and Mr. Fool's help to further seal and protect her father.

She came today to use the method of multiple corruptions entangling each other to achieve balance, hoping to free her father from his current state and revive him. Afterward, she could wait for Mr. Fool to awaken and perform the best seal on the corruption. This way, even if it wasn't Mr. Fool who awakened but rather The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings, her father could barely maintain himself through his own balance.

For this, she was willing to push some gray transactions. She had also prepared extensively based on her foresight to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

This time, Bernadette encountered no obstacles or attacks like before and smoothly reached her father's mausoleum.

This confirmed one of the traders the Broker Perle had roped in.

And this trade might involve more than two parties!

"You can now perform the ritual to let the desired corruption enter the mausoleum," Overseer Perle said with a smile to Queen Mystic Bernadette. "But I need the Magic Wishing Lamp as a medium."

0-05, the Magic Wishing Lamp!

Bernadette replied calmly, "That wasn't part of the deal."

Perle sighed with a smile.

"It would make the ritual simpler and more effective.

"But it's okay. The trade you facilitated to bring me here has pleased my master, and I have received a new boon. I can try to complete the ritual on my own with the corresponding items."

As she spoke, Perle spread her arms, her body gradually turning into white mist.

The mist expanded, slowly rotating to form a vortex.