Aiden stood in the enclosed underground area of the core zone, looking at the destroyed magic circle.

The damage was actually not serious, but the alchemy circle itself was quite intricate, and the slightest change could damage its integrity.

"You’re still using this outdated anti-magic circle," Abigail, who had come in with him, commented, "and it’s directly carved into the floor?"

"The more upscale prisons use mithril construction; our prison doesn’t have the budget for that," Aiden said with a furrowed brow. "But the several doors leading here are blast-proof, equipped with magic traps and mechanisms for resisting entry. Without a specialized key and an authorization token, it would be impossible to get in..."

"Yet when we came in, the doors were intact," Abigail said. "By the way, there wasn’t a single guard here."

Aiden’s face was grim as he had already sent people to check which prison guards were supposed to be on duty here.

"Can you fix it?" Aiden asked.

"I just used ’Restore’, and the divine words are still taking effect," Abigail waved her hand.

The blasted circle immediately began to repair itself as if time were reversing, but even as it returned to its original state, the mercury within remained stagnant, like a pool of deathly still water.

"The core component that sustains the circle has been stolen and taken outside the domain," Abigail quickly realized the reason.

The alchemy circle wasn’t simply created by carving grooves into the floor and then filling it with mercury and anti-magic stone; it also required four magical artifacts set around the circle, forming a device to convert consumed ores and magical creature materials into magic power to operate the circle. The person who had destroyed the circle had also devastated one of these devices and stolen the corresponding magical artifact.

Abigail’s mastery of "Restore" was primal, and her domain was not even large enough to cover the entire alchemy circle. She could not command the return of objects that had been removed from her domain.

"Warden, I’m afraid this is something you’ll have to do yourself," Abigail said.

"Using divine words here might just play right into that guy’s hands," Aiden said.

Aiden’s "Restore" divine word, once designated an object, could choose to directly "archive" it into a certain orderly state, effective even if the object’s missing material had been transferred outside the domain.

But his concern was that Mr. Bloodcoat might have deliberately caused this destruction precisely to deplete his divine words.

After using "Restore", the divine word would need a considerable cooldown period after its effect persisted for a while, and Mr. Bloodcoat might be planning to make a move at that time.

"Can I speak with Qiqimora and the others now?" Aiden asked.

"You can anytime; the Great Witch’s token is always active," Abigail replied.

"Lamia, Qiqimora, how are things at the cells?" Aiden picked up the Great Witch’s token and used it like a walkie-talkie.

"Rest easy, kiddo, your inmates are as docile as a bunch of sheep. Besides us, not a single person has left the prison on their own," Lamia’s voice came from the token.

"Really?" Aiden hadn’t expected the situation to be so easily contained; he was prepared for the possibility that several people had been killed by Lamia before the rest backed down.

"Then I’ll have them give you a couple of ’baa baa’ sounds," Lamia’s voice came through the other end of the token with a cruel laugh. Without waiting for Aiden’s consent, she called out to the prison cells nearby, "Come on, you give your warden a few cute sheep sounds."

In the cells of the core zone, the inmates fell dead silent upon hearing Lamia’s request.

"Call out," Lamia turned her neck ninety degrees with a tilt of her head, and grinned, revealing her full set of sharp teeth, "the little sheep that don’t behave will be eaten, you know."

The inmates promptly bristled with goosebumps, competing to mimic distorted sheep bleats, their voices mournful.

"The warden is too twisted," someone muttered.

"..." Listening to these tearful sounds on the other end, Aiden didn’t know quite how to react.

It seemed he had suffered an unwarranted blow to his reputation.

"Lamia seems to be enjoying herself," Abigail commented.

"Sadist," Aiden shook his head and then asked, "Is my subordinate, Veronica, there as well?"

"Yes, Warden, what should we do next?" Qiqimora’s voice chimed in this time.

"You guys just stand by there for now," Aiden replied.

Since the situation in the cells had already been brought under control, there was no need to rush to repair the barrier.

The key issue now wasn’t the status of the barrier, but how the barrier had been broken.

In fact, Aiden had already sensed the answer, a situation he had completely overlooked.

"Warden, the person has been brought over," a prison guard came over to salute Aiden.

The other guard who was led over stood behind him, shoulders hunched and trembling.

Aiden turned his gaze to the guard behind — he was the one previously in charge of guarding this spot, and during the attack in the sealed area below, he should have sounded the alarm.

"The mask," Aiden said.

The guard carefully removed his mask to show Aiden his face.

"Where did you go?" Aiden asked indifferently.

"I was assigned to watch the treasury on the surface," the guarding guard whispered in reply.

"Who ordered you to switch posts? I said everyone should stick to their own positions for the time being," Aiden said earnestly.

"It was... Deputy Warden Will who came and told me to switch. He first had Matthew adjust the strength of the barrier, then came himself to urge me, so I let them in. Deputy Warden Will then had Matthew and me switch posts," the guarding guard lowered his head, his face full of regret.

"Both of them together?" Aiden frowned.

"Yes."

After a long silence, Aiden nodded, "I see."

Will, Matthew... He recalled the appearances of his two subordinates in his mind.

They were already dead...

Compared to the guard before him, he now felt even more regret in his heart.

At the time the barrier was broken, he had actually realized that he might have been looking in the wrong direction.

All of the prisoners were locked in cells, and the new contract staff were stationed at their posts with no permission to leave, basically only the official guards could move around in the prison.

Mr. Bloodcloth indeed had adopted the method of impersonating the dead to infiltrate the prison, but he wasn’t pretending to be an undead prisoner; he was impersonating a prison guard who had been working there.

The wretch had investigated the prison and then assassinated the serving guards — to provide mutual cover and as insurance, he had killed two at once, transforming them into the dead under his control.

When Aiden realized Mr. Bloodcloth had turned himself into an undead, he had actually considered the possibility that Mr. Bloodcloth had killed and then manipulated the prison guards. But at the time, he quickly dismissed this possibility because of the visible differences between the dead and the living. If a dead person tried to act as a living person on duty and interact with colleagues and prisoners, the problem would quickly become apparent.

However, after the plague orchestrated by Mr. Bloodcloth broke out in Aiden’s prison, the situation changed. The masks worn by the guards made identity verification limited to a mere glimpse after removing the masks, making it possible for the dead to continue to pose as the living.

And now, Mr. Bloodcloth was still controlling those two dead men, brazenly moving about the prison.