"Li Wei."

The small, thin old man in the black robe called his name.

Li Wei looked surprised. "Senior, you know me?"

The black-robed old man chuckled. "Of course I do. I also know the other you."

Li Wei’s heart jolted. He quickly bowed in greeting.

"And you are, Senior?"

The black-robed old man said, "Haros. An old friend of Torresta’s."

"Greetings, Grand Mage Haros."

"No need for such formalities."

"You know her? Help me persuade her. Get her to be my apprentice so I can take her to the Elemental Tower."

Li Wei was a bit taken aback. He asked doubtfully, "Why are you so insistent on taking Lilia as your apprentice?"

Lilia wasn’t willing, and he certainly wasn’t going to force her.

He had to get to the bottom of this.

The black-robed old man said, "She’s a natural-born Shadow Mage."

Li Wei understood.

He turned to look at Lilia, who was hiding behind him.

Lilia quickly shook her head. "I’m not a Mage, and I don’t know any Magic."

The black-robed old man said with a warm smile, "That’s fine. If you don’t know, I can teach you."

Li Wei placed a hand on Lilia’s shoulder. "Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you. This will be good for you."

Haros said he knew Torresta, and he also clearly knew about his Armored Man persona.

Torresta hadn’t given him any kind of warning, either.

This meant everything he said was true.

Otherwise, Torresta would have sent Li Wei a telepathic message long ago.

At the very least, he could be trusted.

Li Wei said, "If you go with him, you won’t have to live a wanderer’s life anymore. You can have a stable life."

Hearing this, Haros just smiled without saying a word.

’A Shadow Mage, wanting a stable life?’

’In the Shadow World, maybe?’

Lilia looked up at Li Wei and asked, "Really?"

She was truly tired of the wandering life. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Her time in the Mage Tower, with food, drink, and a place to stay, had been a welcome change.

It was more comfortable than she could have imagined.

Lilia had never felt life could be so comfortable and relaxing.

Li Wei nodded. "Really."

Lilia was still hesitant. She thought staying in the Mage Tower was nice enough; there was no need for another change.

Li Wei looked at Haros and asked, "Lilia is a bit special. She has another personality inside her."

Haros nodded. "I know."

"That’s because her Power is too great for her original personality to handle, which gave rise to a second one."

Li Wei looked astonished.

’I can’t believe Haros’s insight is so sharp.’

Lilia probably hadn’t turned into Lilith at all recently.

Yet he could tell with just a glance.

Haros said, "I will help her balance the Power within her and resolve the effects of the second personality."

Lilia didn’t understand. She asked blankly, "What’s a second personality?"

Li Wei explained simply, "You know how you often pass out when you’re in danger, and then when you wake up, everything is safe again?"

"You can think of it like this: when you’re unconscious, another ’you’ is controlling your body. That other ’you’ is the second personality."

Hearing this, Lilia exclaimed in shock, "Ah! There’s another person in my body?"

Her face was full of confusion. She couldn’t understand why there was another person inside her.

She said weakly, "Am I pregnant?"

Li Wei: "..."

"Never mind. It’s fine if you don’t understand."

"You’ll understand it naturally when the time comes."

After Li Wei’s persuasion, Lilia lowered her guard around Haros.

After Haros gave her a sparkling Crystal, Lilia agreed to become his apprentice.

Watching Lilia hug the Crystal, her eyes shining like gold coins, Haros couldn’t help but shake his head.

He had a bad feeling about the days to come.

Lilia’s personality made him worry if she was truly suited to becoming a Shadow Mage.

Li Wei laughed. "Compared to Lilia, I think her other self, Lilith, is more suited to being a Shadow Mage."

Hearing this, a hint of anticipation appeared on Haros’s face.

"Mm, thanks."

After speaking to Li Wei, Haros turned to Lilia and called out, "Let’s go."

Lilia froze for a moment, then asked, "Go where?"

Haros didn’t answer.

His figure melted into shadow and vanished.

Lilia disappeared along with him.

Li Wei felt a faint but immense energy move into the distance.

Even when he tried to sense it carefully with his Spiritual Power, he could only detect an extremely faint Elemental Fluctuation.

It was more of an intuition.

Li Wei headed out of the city, hurrying to attend the Divine Worship Ceremony.

’Lilia has gone to the Elemental Tower, too. It feels like the future won’t be boring.’

Li Wei smiled to himself.

’I wonder if the High Level Knight Academy is far from the Elemental Tower?’

’I promised Reina I’d go find her. If it’s too far, it’ll be a problem.’

He arrived at Cyan Maple Slope.

Tens of thousands of people had already gathered here.

If the surrounding area hadn’t been cordoned off by the army, there would have been even more people.

Everyone was trying to push their way to the front.

It was as if just getting to the front would earn them the Divine Spirit’s blessing.

After Li Wei showed his Magic Badge, the soldiers didn’t stop him.

But he was blocked by the sea of people.

"Shadow Attendant, clear a path."

The Shadow Attendant walked ahead, forcing a path open.

"Hey, stop pushing!"

"Damn it, who stepped on my foot?"

"Stop shoving! My chest is getting crushed, WAAAH..."

After passing through the crowd, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

Up on the altar, the number of people dropped sharply.

Tens of thousands had gathered around the altar, but on the thousand-meter-wide altar itself, there was less than a tenth of that number.

Those who could ascend the altar were all Professionals or nobles.

At the very least, they held some kind of status.

Commoners were not qualified to set foot on the altar.

The higher one’s status, the higher the level of the altar one could access.

Maple City’s most powerful and influential people were all on the second tier of the altar.

On the third tier were only the City Lord Otz and the few Clerics presiding over the Divine Worship Ceremony.

Martin, Komas, Troska, Reina, Old John Bieber, Jonas Reinster, and others stood on the second tier of the altar.

These people were all pillars of Maple City.

They were either powerful Professionals or high-ranking nobles.

The people below, though unable to ascend to the second tier, were all still trying everything they could to get closer to the front.

Li Wei stood in an outer area of the altar, where it was empty and there were few people around.

He couldn’t be bothered to push his way to the front; as long as he could see what was happening on the altar, it was enough.

With his current eyesight, he could see the scene on the third tier clearly enough from this distance.

Li Wei glanced back at the people below.

From hundreds or even a thousand meters away, these onlookers couldn’t possibly see what was happening on the altar.

He didn’t know why they were still so enthusiastic.

BUZZ!

Li Wei’s expression sharpened, and he looked up toward the top of the altar.

The Divine Worship Ceremony was about to begin.

The offerings prepared for the Divine Spirit began to glow, converging at the center of the altar to form a pillar of light that shot straight into the sky.

It opened an advent channel connected to the Divine Realm.

"All hail the Black Church! The Holy Spirit descends! We shall live forever!"

BOOM!

A massive explosion erupted from within the crowd.

The casualties were devastating.

The pillar of light that reached for the sky was stained a bloody red.