The dark tide blowing from the Dark Continent still hadn't receded. The imperial capital's sky remained covered with dark clouds.

The good news was the days of heavy rain had finally stopped. Thanks to the imperial capital's underground sewer system that was comparable to another dimension, the city hadn't been submerged.

9 Michelin Avenue. The doorbell rang. The twin maids opened the door and joyfully welcomed back their Master David.

Strangely, the young master was pushing a wheelchair...

"Hello, I'm Dorothy. We met yesterday." Dorothy pulled back her hood and smiled at the twins.

Zoe seemed to recognize that head of crystalline white hair. No helping it—it was just too distinctive. "It's you... your legs..."

"Let's talk inside. Yui, help Miss Dorothy prepare a bedroom. Don't touch that iron box under the wheelchair—put it somewhere Miss Dorothy can reach."

David took off his coat and handed Dorothy over to the maids.

His face looked somewhat gloomy, not for any other reason—that evil spirit had started murmuring again.

"More young, beautiful bodies..."

"Ah... that intoxicating scent..."

"Really want to cut them open... smell the fragrance inside their bodies..."

David's hand trembled. His body stiffly backed up two steps as he quickly turned and went upstairs.

The sisters exchanged glances, feeling somewhat strange: Master David's temperament seemed to have changed again after returning this time. He'd been pretty sunny before, but now he'd become frightening again.

Those black eyes looked like they wanted to eat people.

...

Damn evil spirit, constantly stirring up the malice in his heart.

After closing the door and taking a deep breath with his eyes closed, David gradually calmed down. Looked like before completely eliminating that Malevolent Emissary, he needed to keep some distance from the maids.

Sigh, things had clearly been easier before, but now he couldn't...

David shook his head and walked to the desk, discovering a thick stack of parchment on it.

"Is this the Shattered Scripture that high priest transcribed?"

After casually flipping through it, he found he couldn't understand it at all. David thought for a moment, then opened the door and called Zoe upstairs.

"Young master, what can I do for you?"

"Mm, don't come closer. Stand far away... Right, just stand by the door."

David leaned in the shadows of the room's corner. This looked very strange to Zoe.

The young master was deliberately keeping his distance from them, but that unrestrained gaze still had its usual intensity...

"Something's wrong with my body. It's best not to get close to me for a while. It'll be dangerous."

He explained briefly, then pointed at that stack of parchment on the desk and asked softly, "About that, do you have anything you want to tell me?"

Zoe's breath caught. Her neck moved somewhat stiffly as she shook her head.

She seemed to want to put on an expression of not understanding, but her acting was really quite clumsy.

David said playfully, "Your supernatural path should be related to these things, right? If you don't tell me, how can I help you continue advancing?"

The maid suddenly widened her eyes. Her azure pupils trembled a bit. Even from far away, you could hear her "thump thump" heartbeat.

"Why would the young master ask this... could he know?"

Zoe nervously pondered how to answer, when she heard David continue:

"This is just my speculation. These things are copies of the 'Shattered Scripture.' The content is similar to that scroll with the Fool Angel ritual. You said you gained knowledge enlightenment after advancing—maybe it's related to this scripture... If you haven't seen it, go ahead and study it."

David's words left Zoe somewhat confused. She just saw the young master spreading his hands toward the desk, seemingly waiting for her to take away that Shattered Scripture fragment they'd already decoded.

The maid swallowed and carefully walked to the desk to pick up the fragment, then silently nodded.

David laughed silently again.

Watching the little maid retreat like a quail, he found it amusing—he seemed to have fallen in love with the feeling of teasing these two sisters. Really quite fun.

Mmm... if it weren't for that damn evil spirit, he'd definitely get closer to observe the maid's startled little face and listen to her rabbit-like rapid breathing.

But now wasn't the time to play...

David sighed, changed clothes, and prepared to go out to the Church.

Since he'd already advanced to second-tier, naturally he should report in, and see if there were any methods to quickly complete the ritual power fusion and prepare for the third-tier ritual.

After some time pondering, David discovered he couldn't use the Limb Grafting Ritual to directly absorb all the ritual divine power this time.

Part of the power had been devoured by the Malevolent Emissary. The divine power wasn't complete and couldn't trigger the Limb Grafting Ritual.

So this time he had to use the most primitive method—continuously using the Rending Demon Claw to digest all the goddess's blessing and complete the ritual power fusion.

"Gotta find something to sharpen my claws on..."

...

Downstairs, for convenience, the maids had prepared a first-floor guest room for Dorothy.

In the room, Yui looked somewhat shocked at the girl's empty lower half, covering her lips. Her gaze toward the girl became pitying and sympathetic.

"You don't need to look at me like that..." Dorothy took the maid's hand. "My legs are in that box. You can open it and see..."

Yui didn't touch the box. She just gently hugged the girl, her eyes somewhat red.

She didn't ask why Dorothy had lost her legs, didn't ask any questions. She just silently helped the girl change clothes and dressed her up.

Soon, a girl as pretty as a porcelain doll appeared in the mirror—white hair, red pupils, her thin frame making her look very small and pitiable.

But Dorothy wanted to open that box. She didn't want to be a "porcelain doll." She wanted to stand up...

"If it's not necessary... it's better not to put them on. I know it'll be very painful..." David appeared outside the door, calmly looking at the girl in the wheelchair.

Dorothy's hand froze, then slowly withdrew.

"Rest well. I'm going out for a bit."

"Master..."

"Just call me David from now on." He turned his head.

"Master David... I want to help you with something..."

David shook his head. "You just need to rest. I'll have that alchemical master find a solution for you..."

Julius had said Dorothy's blood had been modified and become very special. Normal medical methods no longer applied to her body. Those legs could let her stand, but brought enormous burden to her body. Yet without the legs' energy supply, she couldn't survive either.

This was a painful cycle. To free the girl from this pain, Julius said he needed to research for a while.

"But I want to become your messenger, to keep running for you..."

David shook his head and left in silence.

How unscrupulous would he have to be to use such a pretty girl as a messenger? If he really needed a "messenger," he'd rather find a dopey pigeon—the transforming kind.

...

A few days after returning to the imperial capital, an opportunity to "sharpen claws" appeared for David.

This day, when he walked into the cathedral as usual, he discovered more hunters than normal outside the door leading to the Order's workshop.

They didn't seem to be Order hunters.

After walking around a bit, David heard about some things.

"...An evil god disaster broke out in the slums. Quite a few twisted flesh monsters appeared, hundreds died, even more injured. A certain factory was even swallowed by flesh..."

David frowned, making connections elsewhere in his mind: those Shattered Church guys had started making moves.

He vaguely remembered the "grand plan" Efnathis had mentioned to him. Clearing out heretics in the slums was part of that plan.

Now it looked like this "clearing" method was borrowing hunters' hands... Really sneaky.

Perfect—he could also stretch his muscles doing this.

But when he walked toward Fernandes's office, he was blocked in the corridor by a group of hunters.

The leader wore gray clothes with a feather-decorated hunter's hat. His face looked ashen but his presence was very strong.

He glanced at David's hunter badge and said coldly, "Second-tier hunters aren't qualified to participate in our hunt."

David tilted his head. "I just wanted to see if there's anything I could help with..."

"Do I need your help?" The gray-clothed hunter glared at him and said coldly, "What are you? A mid-tier Order hunter—you think we need your help?"

In the gray-clothed hunter's eyes, Order hunters were all trash. This guy who popped up out of nowhere was trash among trash...

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