Hearing their conversation, the Shadow Attendant quickly hid.

The wooden planks covering the entrance to the hole were opened.

Two people emerged from the hole in the ground.

One was dressed in common clothes, with a reserved expression. He looked like an ordinary citizen of Maple City.

The other, though also plainly dressed, wore an unmistakable look of arrogance.

One glance was all it took for Li Wei to know this person was definitely a member of the nobility.

You could see that same expression on the faces of many nobles.

’Why would a noble be in a place like this?’

Li Wei was puzzled.

So far, there was no evidence to suggest the two were Black Cultists.

The man hiding in the distance saw Li Wei standing motionless at the door and grew anxious.

He glanced around, hesitant.

But the thought of the money he was about to receive erased his hesitation. He hurried over to Li Wei’s side.

"Master Mage, why aren’t you going in?"

"There’s someone outside!"

The noble inside the room was instantly on alert.

"Quick, go check outside."

CREAK.

The main door opened, and the commoner poked his head out. He looked around but saw no one.

"Sir, there’s no one outside."

"Prepare to move. This location has been compromised," the noble said without hesitation.

"But... how are we supposed to move?"

"Don’t worry about that. You’re responsible for bringing back today’s things. Leave the rest to me."

"Alright, go on. Don’t come back here. We’ll meet at the old place."

The noble sent his subordinate away and returned to the room.

He paced back and forth near the hole’s entrance a few times before making up his mind.

By this time, the Shadow Attendant had taken advantage of their departure to slip into the hole.

Through the Shadow Attendant, Li Wei saw the scene inside.

’Oho! I’ve caught a big one!’

The underground area had been hollowed out. Countless livestock carcasses lay within, their blood drained and their bodies desiccated.

The floor, walls, and ceiling were all covered in bizarre symbols painted with blood.

Clearly, this was no ordinary Evil God Cultist.

Otherwise, he couldn’t have pulled off a ritual of this scale.

The noble returned to the cavern.

He took something from inside his clothes and crushed it.

Above ground, the man who was walking down the road to buy more livestock suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest.

His vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Ah!"

The people around him screamed.

"What’s wrong with you? Wake up!"

Li Wei had been following the man. Seeing him fall, he hurried closer to investigate.

"The Master Mage is here! Everyone make way!"

The man following behind Li Wei shouted loudly.

Hearing this, the crowd parted to make a path.

A smug look appeared on the man’s face.

’This feeling of riding on someone else’s coattails is amazing.’

Li Wei examined the body and confirmed the man was dead.

The noble had used an Extraordinary Power to kill the man, silencing him for good.

But he would never know that an eye was watching his every move.

The noble stared at the Ritual Array before him.

"What a pity! I was so close to succeeding."

The nobleman took out a small knife and sliced open his palm.

Blood dripped into the crucial blood spring of the Ritual Array.

DRIP!

The Ritual Array slowly lit up with a red glow.

The entire cavern was illuminated by the red light.

A black shadow within it appeared particularly conspicuous.

The nobleman’s face turned ugly as he stared at the Shadow Attendant. He hadn’t expected something else to be here.

He took a deep breath and slammed a fist into his chest.

THUD!

His heart jolted violently.

The surrounding red light swarmed into his body like bees returning to their hive.

The nobleman picked up the sword from the ground, the one used to slaughter the livestock.

His eyes blazed with a crimson light.

He swung the sword at the Shadow Attendant.

"Die!"

BANG!

Li Wei blasted the main door open with a Small Fireball Technique.

The Shadow Attendant emerged from the room, dragging the injured nobleman.

Li Wei looked at him, somewhat speechless.

Seeing such a grand evil ritual, he had thought the man was some big shot.

It turned out he was just an ordinary noble desperate to obtain Extraordinary Power.

Still, he wouldn’t be able to shake the label of an Evil God Cultist.

"Where did you get the Blood Sacrifice Ceremony?" Li Wei asked.

The nobleman hung his head in despair. He never imagined that even after gaining Power, he wouldn’t be able to defeat a Mage’s servant.

In a single exchange, his sword was broken by the Shadow Attendant, and he was gravely wounded.

If not for the strange Power within him keeping him alive, a normal person would have already died from his current injuries.

The Shadow Attendant hadn’t realized its opponent was so weak.

It had used a Shadow Claw directly.

The attack had shattered the Iron Sword and nearly sliced the man into four pieces.

Thankfully, it had stopped in time, or Li Wei would have only found a corpse.

The noble said nothing. Li Wei had the Shadow Attendant take him to a room.

The Shadow Attendant stood guard at the door.

Li Wei lit a stick of hypnotic incense and placed it beside the nobleman.

Before long, the nobleman fell into a deep sleep.

"Great Dream Traveling Skill."

Entering the nobleman’s Dream Bubble, Li Wei consciously guided the evolution of his dream.

He helped him recall the original events.

With a little guidance, the man’s subconscious began to remember the full story of how he obtained the Blood Sacrifice Ceremony.

Once, he had been a disdained member of a minor noble family.

Unable to become an Extraordinary Professional, he was bullied by other family members.

In common terms, a good-for-nothing.

Later, he met someone.

This person claimed they could help him obtain Extraordinary Power.

The ability he used to kill his subordinate was the first Extraordinary Power he acquired—Heart-Picking.

It allowed him to take someone’s heart while allowing them to function normally without it.

By holding their heart in his hand, he held the power to kill them at any moment.

He used this method to force many people to do his bidding.

Gradually, the nobles around him no longer dared to look down on him.

But the man wanted even greater Power.

So, he sought out the person who had given him the Extraordinary Power.

That person gave him a Blood Sacrifice Ceremony.

As long as he completed the Blood Sacrifice, he could obtain even greater Power.

The man had hesitated. He knew the Blood Sacrifice Ceremony was an evil ritual.

Once used, he would be branded an Evil God Cultist.

But driven by his thirst for Power and his desire to change his destiny, he chose this path, knowing full well it was wrong.

Among the two to three hundred thousand people in Maple City, there were only two to three thousand true Extraordinary Professionals.

About one in a hundred.

Although that couldn’t compare to the one-in-ten-thousand odds of becoming a Mage.

But it still showed that becoming an Extraordinary Professional was not so easy.

The descendants of nobles who failed to become Extraordinary Professionals were a dime a dozen.

Reina’s uncle, Monis, had also become the vice president of the Xinghuo Literature Society because he couldn’t become an Extraordinary Professional.

Otherwise, as a member of the Golden Shield Clan, who would willingly become the vice president of some literary society?

It wasn’t as if the literary society was that profitable.

Before Li Wei arrived, the society’s annual earnings were less than twenty Gold Coins.

For a commoner, that was a lot of money.

But for a noble—let alone a member of one of Maple City’s most prominent noble families—that amount of money was nothing at all.

Some people chose to accept their fate as ordinary individuals.

Others, unwilling to accept their fate, ultimately walked down the wrong path.

Li Wei withdrew from the dream.

He had seen who gave the man the Blood Sacrifice Ceremony.

When he saw the person’s true face, Li Wei was quite surprised.

He knew that person.