Be quiet... wait for the storm to pass. This was the final instruction Gregor, still operating under the alias "Adelin", received from the Eight-Spired Nest two days after the Duke’s assassination. In this directive, the Eight-Spired Nest ordered Gregor to cease all active espionage activities and switch to passive silence to withstand the high-pressure investigation by the Pritt Kingdom government. The Duke’s assassination had shaken the upper echelons of Pritt, including the King himself. Shortly after the incident, they joined forces with the Church to launch a rigorous manhunt targeting all Eight-Spired Nest members in Tivian. Originally, the Eight-Spired Nest was just one of many evil secret societies that the Serenity Bureau had to deal with in the capital. Their primary criminal activities included... illegal societies spreading mystical knowledge... worship of evil gods... kidnapping for the purpose of creating slaves... and espionage against the Serenity Bureau, among others... These crimes had led the Serenity Bureau to classify the Eight-Spired Nest as a high-threat target, alongside several other societies. However, after the Duke’s assassination, the threat level of the Eight-Spired Nest was not only elevated to the highest by the Serenity Bureau, but their information was also presented at an important royal council attended by the King and the Archbishop. During this royal council, the entire upper echelons of the Pritt Kingdom unanimously agreed that the Eight-Spired Nest was the most serious threat to the kingdom and must be dealt with severely by mobilizing all available forces. Thus, the enemy of the Eight-Spired Nest shifted from the Serenity Bureau to the entire Pritt Kingdom, with the Church providing full support. Starting from the third day after the assassination of Duke Barrett, a massive task force led by the Pritt Serenity Bureau, with participation from the Pritt Army, the Pritt Royal Navy, the Pritt Royal Guards, the Church’s Holy Knights, and other forces, began a sweeping operation to eradicate the Eight-Spired Nest’s influence from Tivian in one fell swoop. With the full cooperation of numerous Lantern-path Beyonders from the Church, countless joint search teams swept through Tivian. In just over a week, more than eighty secret society hideouts across Tivian were raided and dismantled. Among these, only six or seven were confirmed to belong to the Eight-Spired Nest, while the vast majority belonged to other societies. This extremely harsh crackdown affected almost all secret societies in Tivian. With a large number of society members arrested and numerous hideouts destroyed, all secret organizations in Tivian were forced to suspend their activities, and everyone lay low in fear. The actions of the Eight-Spired Nest had a profound impact on the entire mysticism world of Tivian. Even the Wolf Blood Society, in their letter to Vania, advised her to act cautiously in the near future. Their already weakened forces in Tivian suffered further losses in this wave of crackdowns, losing several hideouts. When Dorothy visited her neighbors, she overheard an automaton complaining that the government and Church’s activities had significantly reduced mystic activities in Tivian, causing their business to plummet. Due to the large-scale official crackdown, many non-cult societies were also affected. Some relatively law-abiding Beyonders and Beyonder researchers were unjustly thrown into prison. The Serenity Bureau’s Beyonder prison was already overcrowded, and Gregor was working overtime every day on various arrest operations. On the other hand, Adèle’s Crimson Heart, due to its Church background, was largely unaffected and even saw an increase in influence as it provided shelter to some Beyonders fleeing the chaos. In short, because of the Eight-Spired Nest, the entire mysticism world of Tivian was thrown into turmoil. The secret of the Eight-Spired Nest’s assassination of a Pritt noble spread quickly through the mysticism world, and many societies that suffered losses in this crackdown harbored resentment toward the Eight-Spired Nest. The Eight-Spired Nest, having anticipated this outcome, had already begun their evacuation plan. Their main forces in Tivian withdrew before the crackdown even began, and the hideouts they lost in the crackdown were not of significant importance. For over a week, Dorothy rested at home while keeping herself informed of the major events in the city through various intelligence channels such as Adèle, Misha, Gregor, Vania, and Beverly. After learning about the upheaval caused by the assassination, Dorothy couldn’t help but feel that her decisions had, for the first time, caused such a significant ripple in this world. “Clearly, the Eight-Spired Nest anticipated the Pritt government’s reaction after Barrett’s assassination, which is why they specifically designed the plan to frame the New Continent natives. However, due to my behind-the-scenes manipulations, the indigenous people abandoned their original revenge plans, causing the Eight-Spired Nest to succeed in the assassination but also expose themselves.” “Imagine if the Eight-Spired Nest’s plan had fully succeeded. This large-scale crackdown in Tivian would not exist. Instead, Pritt would be conscripting troops for the New Continent, where the Pritt expeditionary forces would wage war against numerous native tribes.” “Now, the Eight-Spired Nest’s plan to frame the indigenous people has failed. They have no choice but to strategically retreat under Pritt’s wrath, even withdrawing from Tivian.” “This will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the Eight-Spired Nest’s long-term plans. However, judging from the fact that they still went ahead with the assassination after realizing the framing plan had failed, it seems that in their eyes, as long as Duke Barrett’s research is halted and their core secrets remain hidden, they can endure this suppression. Perhaps in their view, as long as their core secrets are not exposed, they still have a chance to turn the tide.” “Whatever the Eight-Spired Nest’s core secret is, given the current situation, they will definitely lie low for a while. The entire mystic circle of Tivian will not see any waves from the Eight-Spired Nest for some time.” Sitting by the fireplace in her villa in Green Shade Town, Dorothy, dressed in a thick nightgown, analyzed the intelligence she had gathered over the past week while pondering these thoughts. As she thought, she raised her hand and examined it with a serious gaze. “The Eight-Spired Nest poses no immediate threat to Pritt... but for me, the potential threat cannot be ignored.” "I never expected that the Priest of Fangs’s derivative would leave such a backdoor..." Looking at her hand, Dorothy murmured to herself. At this moment... she could feel an extremely faint spiritual thread connected to her, extending to a distant and blurry endpoint. Dorothy currently had a spiritual thread connected to her, but the problem was that she wasn’t controlling any corpse marionettes or living marionettes at the moment. This spiritual thread was connected to one of Dorothy’s discarded bird-shaped corpse marionettes—the very one she had sent to investigate Barrett’s mansion on New Year’s Eve! That night, as the bird marionette was returning with the Shadow emblem, it was discovered and swatted down by the pursuing Priest of Fangs. At the time, Dorothy had felt the spiritual thread connecting her to the bird marionette snap, so she assumed the marionette had been completely destroyed and didn’t bother with it afterward. However, the reality was not as Dorothy had thought. Just this morning, over a week after New Year’s Eve, Dorothy sensed a faint, almost imperceptible spiritual thread connected to her. Upon further investigation, she was shocked to discover that the thread was linked to the bird marionette she had assumed was destroyed! This discovery immediately alarmed Dorothy. She then checked the state of the spiritual thread and found it to be highly unusual. The thread was extremely weak, so weak that Dorothy could barely sense it unless she focused intently. Moreover, its strength fluctuated, sometimes strong, sometimes weak, and at its weakest, she could hardly feel it at all. Faced with such a fragile thread, Dorothy couldn’t even attempt to control or transmit through it. She couldn’t even determine the general direction of the linked target. After pondering this phenomenon for a long time, Dorothy began to search for an explanation. After much thought, she came up with a few possibilities. In Dorothy’s view, her bird marionette must have been tampered with. The only one who could have done this was the Priest of Fangs, who had the ability to use blood to corrode marionettes and their spiritual threads, preventing Dorothy from severing the connection. When the Priest of Fangs attacked the bird marionette with his claws, he must have injected enough of his blood into the marionette to corrode the spiritual thread connected to it. Dorothy deduced that after the bird marionette was attacked and severely damaged from the fall, the spiritual thread should have automatically severed. However, due to the Priest of Fangs’s blood corroding the marionette and forcibly maintaining the connection, the thread was not completely severed, leaving a faint link. The Priest of Fangs’s blood-based marionette corrosion had two effects: one was to prevent Dorothy from controlling the marionette, and the other was to prevent her from actively severing the spiritual thread. If the Priest of Fangs absorbed the marionette, he could trace the thread back to Dorothy. Dorothy had two ways to sever a spiritual thread: one was to actively sever it herself, and the other was for the thread to automatically sever if the marionette was severely damaged. The bird marionette’s situation fell into the latter category. However, the damage from being smashed into a pulp from a fall was not as thorough as, say, Dorothy using a lightning strike to char a body to ashes. Using lightning to electrocute a living being into charcoal completely evaporated the Chalice within, but being smashed into a pulp still left remnants of Chalice. Thus, after the bird marionette was smashed into a pulp, the Priest of Fangs’s power remained within it, stubbornly maintaining a faint, incomplete spiritual thread. This thread was so weak that even Dorothy herself thought it had been severed. This incomplete thread was likely being sustained by the Chalice spirituality the Priest of Fangs had injected into the bird marionette. The Priest of Fangs had absorbed all of Dorothy’s marionettes in the mansion, leaving only this bird marionette behind. In a sense, this was his insurance. At that time, the Eight-Spired Nest assassins, on their way back, must have retrieved the smashed bird marionette. After taking it back, they likely attempted to use some form of Chalice ability to reinforce the spiritual thread, hoping to use this connection to locate Dorothy’s true body. The fluctuating state of the spiritual thread Dorothy had just sensed was likely the result of the Eight-Spired Nest’s experiments. With the incomplete spiritual thread on the bird marionette, it was impossible to locate Dorothy. Therefore, they were trying to reinforce the thread to make Dorothy traceable again. Once the thread was reinforced, Dorothy would be able to sense its presence once more. “This is bad... I still have an incomplete spiritual thread in their hands, and they’re trying to use it to locate me... Although the thread is currently far too weak to allow for any tracing, there’s no guarantee that their experiments won’t make a breakthrough in the future, allowing them to trace me again…” “Even if the thread were reinforced to the point where they could trace me, I could still use damage transfer to counter it. But since they’ve already seen my transfer abilities, they’ll undoubtedly come up with countermeasures.” “In short, while this incomplete spiritual thread poses no immediate threat and cannot be used to trace me, it is a hidden danger that could potentially cause major problems in the future.” “So... this thread must be severed!” Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy thought seriously. Currently, this incomplete spiritual thread was being sustained by the Eight-Spired Nest’s active infusion of spirituality. They undoubtedly intended to use it against her in the future, so she couldn’t leave this hidden danger unchecked. It had to be dealt with immediately! “So... what method can I use to sever this corroded, incomplete spiritual thread?” Rubbing her chin, Dorothy pondered deeply. After thinking for a while, she came up with an idea. "Perhaps... enough distance could forcibly sever this thread..." Dorothy murmured to herself. That’s right, the method she thought of was to run far enough away—far enough to sever the thread! A Marionettist’s ability to control corpse marionettes with spiritual threads has a distance limit. For an ordinary Corpse Marionette Ring, the limit is three kilometers. After simulating a Marionettist, Dorothy’s range increased to ten kilometers, and now, after simulating a Threadweaver Shaman, it’s twenty kilometers. Although the range can be extended by paying additional spirituality, there is still a limit. The length of a spiritual thread is finite! While it might seem that Dorothy’s living marionettes have no distance limit, this is not actually the case. Dorothy’s ability to control living marionettes is inherently limited, but this limit is extended by the information channel. Yes, the original Marionettist’s ability cannot control living marionettes without distance limitations. The maximum length of the spiritual thread connecting to a living marionette is the same as that for ordinary corpse marionettes. The reason Dorothy can control living marionettes across oceans and continents is due to the system—the system’s information channel extends the control range of living marionettes! In the past, Dorothy was also puzzled as to why her Marionettist ability had a distance limit for ordinary corpse marionettes but no limit for living marionettes. It wasn’t until she simulated a Threadweaver Shaman and gained a deeper understanding of spiritual threads that she understood the principle. Dorothy’s living marionette control targets are either people connected to her through the information channel or are near someone connected to the channel. Long ago, Dorothy’s spiritual threads, unbeknownst to her, extended their range through the information channel. Each information channel allows a spiritual thread to extend indefinitely. Since only truly living targets with souls can establish an information channel with Dorothy through prayer, essentially dead corpse marionettes cannot establish an information channel with her. Therefore, the control range of ordinary corpse marionettes is still limited by the length of the spiritual thread, while living marionettes, which can utilize the information channel, have no such limit. The spiritual thread, extended infinitely through the information channel to the linked target, can also influence the surrounding area with the target as the origin. In the past, Dorothy attributed the unlimited control range of living marionettes to the marionette mark. But now, it seems that while the marionette mark is still necessary, without the system’s information channel, the control range of living marionettes would be no different from that of ordinary corpse marionettes. Essentially, the system is just that powerful. Therefore, according to Dorothy’s understanding of spiritual thread theory, without the system’s assistance, the control range of spiritual threads is limited. Thus, as long as she runs far enough away, putting enough distance between herself and the bird marionette’s remains, she can forcibly sever the thread. "It seems... I’ll have to take a trip after the New Year..." Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy murmured as she looked at the world map on the wall. ======================= Author’s Note: Well, it seems another volume’s worth of content is done. Next, Dorothy will temporarily bid farewell to Tivian and travel to other places. As I mentioned before, I’ll take this opportunity to take a break for the New Year and organize the plot. The break will likely be two or three days, depending on the situation. I’ll return as soon as possible. Anyway~ Today is New Year’s Eve. Wishing everyone a happy New Year and all the best!