Otherworldly Affairs Office

As everyone's gaze in the room focused on him, Luan Baotian, a middle-aged man whose hair was thinning and was gravitating towards a Mediterranean hairline, smoothed his sparse hair and stared at the pendant in Yu Zhongmin's hand, candidly saying: "I don't know."

Yu Zhongmin was clearly dissatisfied with this answer, and he lightly drummed the table with his right hand clenched in a fist and questioned: "Isn't this item from the Magic Realm?"

"It is from the Magic Realm. My colleagues and several leaders have basically confirmed this by measuring the energy contained within. However, Magic Department has never seen this thing in previous years' task records, and even the intelligence department's collected books from the Magic Realm don't contain a description matching this pendant. But according to Hu Ke's account of the situation encountered during the task, our advisor from the Magic Realm did propose another theory about a similar item."

"Oh! Tell me about it!"

"According to the advisor's speculation, this item is not something an ordinary mage from the Magic Realm would possess. Its characteristics are somewhat akin to a Magic Crystal Puppet Stone used by some aristocratic families to forcibly enhance the strength of their subordinates at critical moments. However, the energy contained within this pendant is higher, and the engraving technique integrates a very ancient and lost Magic Array."

Saying this, Luan Baotian moved forward and placed the file on the office desk, took a magnifying glass from his pocket, handed it to Yu Zhongmin, and stood behind him pointing to some patterns on the demon pendant. Yu Zhongmin took the magnifying glass and examined it closely, indeed noticing some unremarkable, chaotic, and mixed patterns, and under Luan Baotian's guidance, changing the viewing angle would form a bizarre array pattern. Putting aside the significance of these arrays, the mere engraving of such complex and intricate patterns on such a small pendant is truly a masterpiece.

Luan Baotian said softly from the side: "If it were only like this, the magic advisor would directly classify this as an alchemical treasure passed down from a long time ago by a certain aristocratic family. But the strange thing is with Song Mingyuan, who was captured, his internal essence was clearly investigated and found to be from Daoist Realm, yet he could use this alchemical product containing Magic Realm energy, which was unheard of before."

"Old Gu, what are your thoughts on this item?" After hearing Luan Baotian's explanation, Yu Zhongmin put down the magnifying glass and fiddled with the demon pendant in his hand, looking at the silent Gu and Mei and asked.

Gu Shenghui didn't respond but shifted his position and indicated: "Let's let Old Luan finish first, then we can summarize. Old Luan, is there anything peculiar about the array?"

Upon hearing Gu Shenghui's question, Luan Baotian returned to the office desk and picked up the file from before, taking out a stack of photos and spread them out on the desk: "Uh, this array is clearly not something from our world, nor is it any medieval black magic recorded in the notebook. We found similar incidents in past archives from the Republic and records and notifications from various European and American countries." Saying this, he pulled out five photos and handed them to Yu Minzhong.

As the photos were passed around between several leaders for viewing, Luan Baotian continued: "Since the establishment of our investigation, my predecessors have been paying attention to such incidents. Based on our understanding of the Magic Realm and information provided by consultants, this kind of technique is from the ancient Blood Race, commonly referred to as vampires in our present reality, relying on sacrificing human bodies to the Demon God and absorbing ordinary people's blood and bodily essence to achieve restoring and enhancing their strength through evil secret techniques."

At this point, Luan Baotian paused, his face looking somewhat grim, and as Yu Zhongmin handed the photos to Gu Shenghui, without looking up, he said: "Why aren't you continuing? Keep explaining."

Luan Baotian hesitated for a moment before revealing his greatest concern: "The more serious issue is that this is just the most basic array. If these deductions are correct, then the spell caster wants to continue restoring their strength and will gradually activate the subsequent sacrificial arrays, which would exponentially increase the number of people to be sacrificed."

"Didn't we already catch Song Mingyuan? From what you said, he wasn't the one who set up the array then, right? He killed under someone's control? Old Mei, how did the interrogation results from your side turn out?" After questioning Luan Baotian, Yu Zhongmin turned to Mei Simiao, who was in charge of interrogation, and asked.

Upon hearing this, Mei Simiao stood up and handed the file in her hands to Yu Zhongmin, saying: "To claim he was controlled by someone to kill is to absolve him of guilt. Through the investigation of several inquisitors on his memory, the murders were indeed according to his own will and weren't influenced by external interference. But what's interesting is his memory after committing the murders."

"Oh!" Yu Zhongmin casually responded as he flipped through the interrogation records.

"In his memory after committing the murders, he himself changed into a different set of clothes and relied on his ability to escape from the school and went to a nearby internet café. Until the next morning, when he planned to carry out his cross-boundary plan, he firmly believed in this memory. However, under Elder Zuo and several inquisitors' scrutiny, it was uncovered that this memory had been tampered with. He was controlled to perform a series of heinous actions like dismemberment and setting up arrays, which were done while under someone else's control."

"Moreover, it was precisely the isolation array set up by the person controlling him that prevented his surrounding classmates from noticing any trace of the horrific incident happening in the dormitory next door."

After listening to Mei Simiao's account, Yu Zhongmin put down the file in his hand, and despite knowing there was little hope, he still asked with a trial mentality: "Is there any image of the manipulator found in his memory?"

As expected, Mei Simiao regretfully shook her head: "No! The other party cleverly hid themselves with very deft means, making it impossible for us to detect their true face. The only thing confirmed is that the person ultimately benefitting from the results of this array is not Song Mingyuan but the mysterious manipulator behind the scenes. The heart area markings sent from the Public Security Department also indirectly confirmed this point."

"So you're saying there really is a magic leaker from the Magic Realm, still a member of the Blood Race. But if I recall correctly, in the records I reviewed previously, didn't it say after the collaboration between the Church, Mage Guild, and Witch Guild for a three-time purge, the Blood Race along with many other evil dark forces were wiped out? Is there any clue from Song Mingyuan's memory about when and where he acquired this item?" Bearing the headache of a potential maniac continuing their spree resulting in larger casualties, Yu Zhongmin couldn't help but ask, picking up the demon pendant from the table.

In response to the question, Luan Baotian was the first to answer: "That's the official statement provided by the Magic Realm. Indeed, these dark forces no longer boast their former glory and have become pariahs hunted by all. However, the camel dying bigger than a horse means some powerful families did survive the purge and successfully went into hiding. From recent intelligence transmitted from the Magic Realm, it appears these individuals are becoming increasingly restless and plotting something. The three major organizations of the Magic Realm have somewhat sensed this and have taken countermeasures to a certain extent, causing a rather tense situation in various principalities."