At dawn, the Royal Capital of Elorcia awoke from its slumber.

Jeming changed into a simple mercenary's everyday clothes and walked out of the mansion alone.

Sunlight pierced through the thin mist, casting golden patches of light on the densely packed houses. The sounds of children's laughter, vendors' shouts, and horses' hoofbeats intertwined into a symphony full of vitality.

Looking at the lively scene before him, Jeming couldn't help but sigh, "Ah... finally, I don't have to act foolish over there anymore..."

The past few days hadn't been easy for Jeming. Under the deliberate guidance of the three mission leaders, the negotiations typically ended in arguments every day.

Occasionally, when luck was bad, things would escalate to brawls.

The dwarfs seemed drunk during negotiations, yet when it came to fighting, their spirits were even more intense than the beastmen's.

Even Jeming, sitting in the audience, was caught up in it several times. Initially, he held back to maintain his image, but later couldn't resist, responding to anyone who approached with a flurry of punches, leaving them with bruised faces.

Surprisingly, this turned out to be quite effective.

Eventually, even King Ottokar III couldn't stand it. Fearing that if Jeming continued fighting, there would be no delegate left to represent them, he quickly stopped Jeming from attending further sessions.

This also made Jeming breathe a sigh of relief.

So today, Jeming finally had the time to properly explore the Royal City.

Walking down the streets, Jeming couldn't help but ponder the issues surrounding the three leaders of the alien race delegation.

"It's really strange, what are those three people's real objectives? To prevent an alliance between several civilizations? No, no one would be that foolish."

Indeed, despite the negotiations currently facing significant obstacles, everyone, including Jeming, knew well that humans would eventually reconcile with the beastmen, and reunification among the various races was only a matter of time.

As is commonly known, in normal circumstances, relations between nations are tied to interests, with individual emotions seldom having a significant impact.

This remains true even in the Otherworld. However, apart from ordinary interest, there's an additional factor influencing relations between countries within the Elorcia Plane: the Divine Spirit.

Strictly speaking, the will of the Divine Spirit can also be considered part of national interest, and is of extremely high priority.

With the Divine Spirit's will exerting pressure, the reconsolidation of these nations is inevitable.

Most importantly, regardless of whether it is the indigenous gods of the Elorcia Plane or the wizards, both sides actually hope to form an allied army.

After all, the best way to weaken the Plane Origin is through large-scale slaughter of the lifeforms birthed by the plane. Only the constant warfare initiated by a united front from the indigenous people of the Elorcia Plane allows wizards to accomplish their goals more efficiently.

Even the wizards' temporary retreat in their previous advances was to give the indigenous people of the Elorcia Plane some breathing room, ensuring they didn't become overly anxious and desperate.

But unexpectedly, the nobles of this world were so shortsighted that just a brief pause in aggression led to scheming under the radar, eventually causing the collapse of the Elorcia Plane's indigenous alliance.

Jeming could not comprehend the intentions of the three mission leaders, for whether they were apostles of the Divine Spirit or wizards disguised as spies, they should have been striving to facilitate this allied army.

"Forget it, whatever those guys want to do, as long as it doesn't affect my own actions, that's fine."

Shaking his head and dismissing these thoughts, Jeming began his real mission for the day.

Outwardly, he was leisurely walking, but in reality, he was fully sensing every pulse of the Royal Capital.

As a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Stage, he could distinctly perceive the Red Dust Qi that permeated this vast city.

Here, the Red Dust Qi was much grander and more complex than during his time in Golden Harbor, reaching a level that left him almost overwhelmed.

The citizens' joy, merchants' greed, guards' loyalty, nobles' arrogance, beggars' despair... All kinds of emotions, like countless streams, poured into the talisman in his dantian, causing it to radiate an even more brilliant light.

He could feel that his speed of absorbing Red Dust Qi had reached unprecedented levels within this city.

"Is this the power of the heart of civilization?" Jeming pondered to himself.

The abundance of Red Dust Qi here was so overwhelming, it even left him feeling a bit dazed.

Suddenly, Jeming's eyebrow twitched.

He casually turned into a secluded alleyway where passersby were scarce, with only a few ordinary residences.

At the alley's end, next to an ancient stone well, a few vine-entwined dead trees appeared particularly eerie.

Jeming approached the well and seemingly nonchalantly leaned in to inspect the well's wall, but in truth, his spiritual power instantly expanded deep underground.

He detected a slight anomaly.

Beneath the well wall, hidden under moss and dirt, faint ripples of energy spread out like waves.

These were neither common Holy Runes nor mundane magic arrays of the Elorcia Plane; their structure was unique, embodying a power system that transcended this world.

"Are these... traces of a Rune Array?" Jeming's heart jumped with surprise, though his expression remained unchanged.

These runes were arranged extremely discreetly, and if not for his superior knowledge in Rune Science and sharp senses, detection would have been impossible.

He quietly observed again, with doubts arising in his heart.

"Basically, it can be confirmed that this should be a Rune system of the Wizard Civilization, definitely not something from the Elorcia Plane."

The energy of these runes is weak, and it should just be an inconspicuous node of a large-scale array.

Without alerting anyone, he quietly left the alley and continued his "stroll."

However, after his earlier discovery, he began to deliberately extend his perception to every corner of the Royal Capital, especially focusing on those seemingly inconspicuous places with slight energy fluctuations.

As he was thinking, a commotion arose in the street ahead.

"It's the Sage's disciple!"

"Lord Rees! Lord Rees is here!"

Jeming looked up and saw a group of residents surrounding a slim-faced man dressed in a scholar's robe.

The man was smiling and greeting the surrounding residents with a humble and elegant smile.

"Lord Rees, we heard you were counseling His Majesty in the Royal Palace yesterday. It must have been hard on you!" A middle-aged woman handed him a basket of fresh fruit with a grateful smile.

Rees gently accepted it and softly said, "It is my duty as a citizen of the Kingdom. There's no need for formalities."

In the crowd, a shabbily dressed child accidentally fell and scraped his knee, crying loudly.

Seeing this, Rees immediately stepped forward and squatted down.

He extended his hand, and a gentle, soft light emitted from his fingertips, gently landing on the child's wound.

The child's wound healed visibly, the pain disappearing, and the child broke into a smile.

"Alright, little one, be more careful next time." Rees gently patted the child's head, and the sincere care made the surrounding people praise him even more.

"Lord Rees is truly kind!"

"With the Sage and Lord Rees, our Kingdom will surely triumph!"

"Yes, he always gives the best advice to His Majesty. With Lord Rees, we have hope!"

Jeming stood not far away, taking in everything, silently evaluating in his heart:

"Tsk tsk... These old-fashioned tactics to win people over are too outdated, and the performances of those stooges around are too stiff, subpar, totally subpar!"

"However... a Sage's disciple, huh?"

The so-called Sage is a rather special existence on the Elorcia Plane.

The person not only possesses great strength but also immense wisdom and charisma.

It is no exaggeration to say that when the Wizards invaded, the first allied army of the Elorcia Plane was formed single-handedly by the Sage.

The Sage's background is quite clear, and people have even turned his life story into an opera, performed over and over again.

One can only say that he truly is a capable indigenous figure, not a Wizard spy.

But regarding this Sage's disciple, there is something a bit odd.

He recalled the intel about Rees he heard at the banquet: This Sage's disciple always manages to propose "visionary" advice at critical moments, guiding the King and ministers in their decisions. Some even say he can foresee the future, pointing the Kingdom in the right direction.

But aside from that, there's almost no other information about him. It was only recently that the Sage suddenly announced that he had a disciple, which caused quite a stir at the time.

Seeing it for himself now, Jeming's heart was filled with even more doubts.

It's not that these crude tactics to win people over are uncommon among high-level figures, but what truly surprised Jeming was the faint sense of threat he felt from him.

"Damn it, did this world secretly update its version without me knowing? How can anyone I randomly encounter have the strength to threaten me? Aren't I supposed to be a genius?"

Seeing that he hadn't been noticed by the other party, Jeming slowly withdrew from the crowd and walked towards another direction of the market.

Soon, under an old abandoned warehouse in another part of the market, he once again discovered similar rune traces.

Then it was a secluded courtyard behind a Divine Hall, next to a forgotten drainage ditch... These runes were scattered throughout the Royal Capital, seemingly connected in some way, collectively pointing towards a vague center.

Jeming's mind raced as he began to sketch out a rough outline of these scattered rune points in his mind.

The array composed of these runes was huge and interconnected, and its purpose seemed to be for some kind of large-scale energy transmission or conversion.

As night fell once more, Jeming returned to his residence.

He entered the chamber shrouded in illusion techniques, looking at the rough draft of the Royal Capital's underground rune network on the table, his eyes flickering with deep light.

Relying on his knowledge, Jeming quickly deduced that their arrangement seemed to be guiding or converging some energy, all subtly pointing towards the area with the most faith in the Royal Capital—the Church District.

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