In the western region of Addus, atop a clock tower in Karnak, the ancient former king of Addus, Rachman, was communicating through Nephthys’s body with Dorothy’s corpse marionette. From Rachman’s mouth, Dorothy learned the truth behind the royal sacrificial ritual of the Baruch royal family that had been passed down for centuries. Because of the unique ability of his Beyonder path, Soulblood Knight, Rachman was able to bestow Crimson-rank power to his descendants through the bond of bloodline. In order to allow the Baruch royal family to permanently harness his power to stabilize the nation, Rachman even went so far as to imprison his own soul within the royal mausoleum, presiding over every ritual. With this ritual, each successive Baruch king no longer had to painstakingly cultivate their successor through the normal paths of advancement—they only needed to reach White Ash rank and undergo the ritual. No effort was needed to exhaustively train and develop a qualified heir. Though called a "trial," Rachman’s ritual did not actually test the successor’s qualities as a Beyonder, but rather their qualifications to be king. During the ritual, Rachman would test the successor from various aspects—morality, learning, strategy, leadership, and more. If the successor passed, Rachman would grant them his power, reclaiming it only upon their death through a "returning" ritual. Rachman believed that if he was to provide the power to rule, his descendants must excel in every other quality as well. In the eyes of the public, Rachman ruled Addus for fifty years. After that, he served behind the scenes, supporting the visible monarchs for another two hundred and fifty years. These kings during his hidden support were known as the "former listed kings" alongside Rachman himself. In the royal lineage records of Addus, all of these kings were counted as part of the first generation, until Rachman’s death four hundred years ago, at which point the second generation Baruch king officially took the throne. The royal forging system designed by Rachman initially ran smoothly. Each king he selected was an outstanding ruler. Under the governance of generation after generation of high-quality monarchs, ancient Addus reached its peak, rapidly growing wealthy and becoming one of the great powers of North Ufiga. However, with prosperity came corruption. After Rachman stopped directly managing Addus, various hidden dangers began to surface. Amid constant palace conspiracies and material decadence, the quality of the Baruch royal bloodline declined rapidly. Each generation grew increasingly unfit for Rachman’s trials. More and more candidates had to be evaluated just to find one qualified heir. During the fourth generation’s ritual, none of the White Ash–rank members of the royal family qualified, forcing them to break precedent by allowing a Black Earth–rank member to take the trial. Only after selecting a candidate did they concentrate resources to raise him to White Ash so he could formally inherit Rachman’s power. This phenomenon reached its peak during the sixth generation. At that royal ritual, nearly the entire direct line of the Baruch royal family failed—no one from White Ash to Apprentice rank passed Rachman’s soul trial. After this, the palace priests and succession officials pleaded with Rachman to lower the standards, to let at least one candidate pass. But Rachman remained firm, refusing to compromise, declaring bluntly that if the direct line was unqualified, then another branch should be selected until a suitable king was found. Rachman’s unyielding stance terrified the Baruch direct line, which had held onto the Addus throne for nearly a century and built vast webs of power and wealth. Fearing the loss of the throne—and all they had accumulated—they undertook a bold and treacherous action. During the sixth-generation ritual, members of the Baruch direct line deceived Rachman. While his soul slumbered within the coffin, they enacted a blasphemous ritual—source unknown, possibly acquired from a cult—and through the sacrificial blood of kin, they bound and controlled Rachman’s soul. The same bloodline that Rachman had used to grant the throne now became the medium by which his descendants defiled and enslaved his spirit. Thus, Rachman, in rage, was forcibly controlled by his own descendants. Under duress, he was made to acknowledge a previously unqualified heir as king. Lihhan, the sixth Baruch king, was crowned. From then on, each Baruch king was chosen directly from the first in line of succession. Rachman’s soul, bound by the "Blood Shackles" ritual, was forced to recognize monarch after monarch he deemed unworthy. The royal sacrificial ritual became a mere formality, and the Baruch dynasty swiftly declined—until it was overthrown by Shadi and the Savior’s Advent Sect in their revolution. “To safeguard the royal line through blood, only to be betrayed by that same blood… now that’s a tragedy if I’ve ever heard one…” Atop the clock tower, after hearing Rachman’s account, Dorothy sighed through her corpse marionette, to which Rachman replied with a sigh of his own. “I only established the royal sacrificial ritual because I didn’t trust my bloodline… and now it’s clear… human hearts change more profoundly than I ever imagined. Just six generations… and it came to this shameful state. Maybe it would’ve been better had I not lingered in the living world… had I passed on to the Netherworld sooner. If that were the case, Baruch’s rot could have been more easily uprooted. It’s my lingering power that kept it decaying so long… how disgraceful…” So saying, Rachman turned his gaze toward the corpse marionette beside him. “But fortunately, the decay didn’t last forever. Thanks to you all—and the unyielding resistance on this land—Baruch has finally come to an end. And I have found my release… In the name of Addus, I thank you… strangers.” With that, Rachman bowed using Nephthys’s body, performing a traditional Addusian gesture of gratitude. Dorothy smiled in return. “No need for thanks. We just got what we wanted. We came to your mausoleum to rob it, and now that we’ve got what we came for and you—the tomb’s master—don’t seem to mind, we’re already more than satisfied…” Dorothy said this as she had the corpse marionette pull out the Goblet of Nether Guidance from its clothes and play with it briefly. Upon seeing the Goblet, Rahman smiled faintly and added. “The Goblet of Nether Guidance… the most precious treasure I acquired through years of warfare. It’s said to bear the blessing of the King of the Underworld. I hope you use it wisely—and not for anything that harms Addus… thieves.” “Don’t worry about that.” Dorothy replied casually. She then had the marionette put the goblet away and addressed Rachman again. “Alright, it’s time for us to be going. Your Majesty Rachman, will you begin your journey to travel across Addus now?” “No… not just yet. Over these centuries, dozens of rituals have deeply damaged my soul. What I need first is a place where I can restore my spirit. Once I’ve recovered enough, only then will I travel through Addus. My tomb has been opened and desecrated—it’s no longer suitable for rest.” Hearing this, Dorothy paused to think, then turned the corpse marionette to look at a nearby floating elder spirit. “Elder Shaman Uta, is there anywhere in your lands suitable for soul recovery?” She had the marionette speak in Spirit Glyph Language. At the time, Uta’s spirit was studying soul fragments recovered from Rachman’s mausoleum—pieces from the shattered spirits of the two wild spirits. Upon hearing Dorothy’s question, he paused his study and replied. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺 “In our land, there are many high-quality forest spiritfields. As long as the guardian there gives permission, you may rest freely.” He was referring, of course, to the wild spirits of the New Continent. After hearing Uta’s answer, Dorothy once again had the corpse marionette turn to Rachman and said in North Ufigan. “If you’re looking for spiritfields suitable for soul restoration… I’ve got some great places in mind.” … Dorothy then introduced the spiritfields of the New Continent to Rachman’s soul. After listening to her explanation, Rachman half-believingly agreed. After that, Rachman’s soul separated from Nephthys’s body and was successfully summoned by Uta to the New Continent. Uta, after bidding farewell to Dorothy, took the shattered spirit fragments of Chabakunka’s wild spirits back to the Tupa Tribe’s encampment. Once all the spirits had been sent off, Dorothy also recovered her corpse marionette and left Karnak together with Nephthys, returning to Dorsa. Because there was no rush on the return journey, Dorothy chose not to expend spirituality by flying the whole way on the magnetic carpet. Instead, she opted for a slow camel ride. By the time they returned to Dorsa, the sun had long since set and the city was in the middle of the night. Upon returning, Dorothy and Nephthys temporarily parted ways and returned to their respective residences to rest properly. After such a busy and intense day, Dorothy finally had time to tally up the gains and losses of this latest round of action. Seated at her desk under the moonlight, Dorothy took out her magic box and began inventorying her belongings. The first thing to acknowledge was that this trip to Dorsa and Karnak had come at a considerable cost—especially in terms of spirituality. Starting with Chalice spirituality: when dealing with the Nether Coffin Order scout in Dorsa, Dorothy used Devouring Sigil on her corpse marionette, spending 2 points of Chalice. Later, in the mausoleum of King Rachman, she again used Devouring Sigil on herself to grab Nephthys when storming the sepulcher—this cost another 1 point. Total: 3 points of Chalice. Then Stone—this one bled heavily. Due to the high-frequency use of lightning and magnetic abilities, Dorothy consumed quite a bit. The twenty-something kilometers of magnetically flying herself and Nephthys to Rahman’s tomb cost about 4 points. Inside the tomb, she maneuvered for a long time using magnetism to tangle with Chabakunka, and even detonated bombs with it, costing another point. During the battle with Chabakunka, direct use of arc lightning burned 3 more points. In total: 8 points of Stone. As for Lantern and Shadow: Shadow unexpectedly wasn’t used at all, while Lantern only saw 1 point used—during the negotiation with Rachman, when she performed a self-divination to show sincerity. Separately, when Pritt had his big brother use up the “Revelation” charge in the golden scepter for a ritual, they used two Lantern storage items—those came out of Gregor’s own pocket. Dorothy planned to reimburse about 600 pounds for that. Though Dorothy herself hadn’t used much Silence, Nephthys had. Especially because of the frequent summoning of Soulwhisker recently, a lot of "cat food" had been spent. Nephthys’s Silence reserves were running dangerously low. Dorothy made a mental note to reimburse her about 800 pounds for that, since Nephthys had summoned Soulwhisker for her work lately. As for gains—things were rather meager this time. Apart from the main objective—the Goblet of Nether Guidance—everything else was mostly salvaged from Mohn. On this Nether Coffin Order member, Dorothy only found a few basic Silence sigils for exorcism and sealing, plus two new sigils called Soul Speech Sigils, which allowed non-Silence Beyonders to temporarily understand and speak soul speech. Aside from those, Mohn only had some spirit-sealing bone fragments usable only by himself and a bit of Falano currency, which Dorothy converted to roughly 300 pounds. Summarizing her current spirituality was at 17 points of Chalice, 4 points of Stone, 9 points of Shadow, 14 points of Lantern, 26 points of Silence, and 50 points of Revelation. After accounting for the planned reimbursements, she had about 1300 pounds in cash remaining. Clearly, both her cash and spiritual reserves had taken a major hit. The main reason was that this operation yielded no new mystical texts, meaning no spirituality replenishment. Moreover, Rachman’s mausoleum had already been emptied by the Savior’s Advent Sect and the Nether Coffin Order before Dorothy even arrived. Only the Goblet of Nether Guidance remained to maintain the ritual. Dorothy had originally planned to loot relics to sell, but that plan had fallen through. The only valuable items left in Rachman’s mausoleum were the massive Netherfrost Stones—too big and heavy for her to carry. “Sigh… Looks like I’ll have to find a way to restock spirituality again…” Looking at her depleted reserves and dwindling cash, Dorothy couldn’t help but sigh. She needed to replenish essential types like Stone immediately—this was her main auxiliary, powering mobility and offense—but funds were limited. For now, she could only hope Beverly would finish sorting and liquidating Mazarr’s assets quickly. Her top priority was to convert part of those assets into cash to alleviate her spiritual resource crisis. After finishing the inventory, Dorothy packed up her magic box and prepared for sleep. She planned to rest well before setting out once more for Kankdal. Lying in bed, she began recalling the three-word Dragon Shout she’d used that day. Compared to her lightning abilities, those devastating Dragon Shouts had no cost, aside from a long cooldown. That was truly amazing. “Perhaps… this is the charm of ‘Earth Bone magic’—by resonating with the Earth Bones, one simply commands the world through speech, causing it to obey by language alone, without needing to exert extra energy…” “But then… if Dragon Shouts work without cost in this world, what exactly are the ‘Earth Bones’ of this world?” With such thoughts drifting through her mind, Dorothy fell asleep.