In the early morning, the royal capital of Elosia awoke from its slumber.
Jie Ming donned a simple mercenary outfit and stepped out of his residence alone.
Sunlight pierced through the thin mist, casting golden flecks across the neatly arranged rooftops. The laughter of children, the calls of vendors, and the clatter of hooves wove together into a lively symphony.
Gazing at the vibrant scene before him, Jie Ming let out a sigh. “Well… finally, no more sitting around like a fool over there…”
The past few days had been far from pleasant for Jie Ming. Under the deliberate guidance of the three delegation leaders, every negotiation session ended in heated arguments.
On particularly bad days, things escalated into group brawls.
The dwarves, who seemed perpetually drunk during talks, grew exceptionally spirited when it came to fighting—more zealous than even the beastmen.
Though Jie Ming was merely an observer, he’d been caught in the crossfire several times. At first, he restrained himself to maintain his image, but eventually, he lost patience and sent anyone who came at him reeling with bruised faces and swollen noses.
Surprisingly, this approach proved effective.
In the end, even King Ottolek III couldn’t stand watching anymore. He feared that if Jie Ming kept pummeling the delegates, there’d be no one left to represent them. So, he hurriedly relieved Jie Ming of his observer duties.This allowed Jie Ming to breathe a sigh of relief.
And so, today, he finally had the chance to properly explore the royal capital.
As he walked through the streets, Jie Ming couldn’t help but ponder the issue of the three foreign delegation leaders.
“It’s strange. What are those three really after? Preventing the alliance of civilizations? No, no one could be that foolish.”
Indeed, though the negotiations seemed to be going poorly, everyone, including Jie Ming, knew that humanity would eventually reconcile with the beastmen. The reunification of the races was only a matter of time.
As was widely known, under normal circumstances, relations between nations were tied to interests, with personal emotions having little sway.
This held true even in this otherworld. However, compared to typical interest-based relations, another factor influenced interstate dynamics in the Elosia plane: the gods.
Strictly speaking, the will of the gods could be considered part of national interests—and a particularly high-priority one at that.
With the gods’ will bearing down, the reunification of these nations was inevitable.
Most crucially, both the native gods of the Elosia plane and the wizards desired the formation of this allied army.
After all, the most effective way to weaken a plane’s origin was to slaughter large numbers of its native beings. Only by having the natives of the Elosia plane unite and wage endless wars could the wizards achieve their goals more efficiently.
The wizards’ earlier retreat from their offensive was even a deliberate move to give the Elosia plane’s natives some breathing room, ensuring they didn’t grow too desperate and self-destruct.
Yet, unexpectedly, the nobles of this world were so short-sighted that the brief lull in the wizards’ attacks led them to scheme behind the scenes, ultimately causing the collapse of the Elosia plane’s native alliance.
Thus, Jie Ming couldn’t fathom the intentions of the three delegation leaders. Whether they were apostles of the gods or spies disguised by the wizards, they should be doing their utmost to facilitate this alliance.
“Forget it. Whatever those guys are planning, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my actions, it’s fine.”
Shaking his head, Jie Ming set aside these thoughts and began his true objective for the day.
On the surface, he strolled leisurely, but in reality, his senses were fully open, attuned to every pulse of the royal capital.
As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could clearly sense the pervasive aura of mortal desires permeating this vast city.
The aura here was far more immense and complex than it had been in Golden Harbor, almost overwhelming him with its intensity.
The joy of the populace, the greed of merchants, the loyalty of guards, the arrogance of nobles, the despair of beggars… various emotions flowed like streams, converging into the seal within his dantian, causing it to glow with even greater brilliance.
He could feel that his absorption of this mortal aura had reached an unprecedented speed in this city.
“Is this the power of a civilization’s heartland?” Jie Ming mused inwardly.
The mortal aura here was so abundant that it almost left him dazzled.
Suddenly, his brow twitched.
He casually turned into a quiet alley with few passersby, where only a handful of ordinary residences stood.
At the alley’s end, beside an ancient stone well, a few withered trees entwined with vines exuded an eerie air.
Jie Ming approached the well, seemingly inspecting its walls nonchalantly, but his spiritual sense instantly spread out, delving underground.
He detected something unusual.
Beneath the well’s walls, hidden under mottled moss and soil, faint ripples of energy spread outward.
These were not the sacred runes or mundane magical arrays common to the Elosia plane. Their structure was unique, containing a power system that transcended this world.
“These are… traces of a runic array?” Jie Ming’s heart jolted, though his expression remained unchanged.
The runes were arranged with extreme subtlety. Without his advanced knowledge of runic studies and keen perception, he would never have noticed them.
He observed further without drawing attention, his mind swirling with questions.
“It’s almost certain these belong to the wizard civilization’s runic system—not something from the Elosia plane.”
The runes’ energy was faint, likely just an inconspicuous node of a larger array.
Without alerting anyone, he quietly left the alley and resumed his “stroll.”
With this discovery, he began deliberately extending his senses to every corner of the capital, focusing on seemingly inconsequential places with faint energy fluctuations.
As he pondered, a commotion erupted from the street ahead.
“It’s the Sage’s disciple!”
“Lord Reis! Lord Reis is here!”
Jie Ming looked up to see a crowd of residents surrounding a lean man dressed in a scholar’s robe.
The man was smiling warmly, greeting the people around him with a humble and refined demeanor.
“Lord Reis, I heard you advised His Majesty in the palace yesterday. Thank you for your hard work!” a middle-aged woman said with a grateful smile, handing him a basket of fresh fruit.
Reis accepted it graciously, saying softly, “This is my duty as a subject of the kingdom. No need for thanks.”
In the crowd, a ragged child tripped, scraping their knee and bursting into tears.
Reis immediately stepped forward and crouched down.
He extended a hand, and a faint, gentle light emanated from his fingertip, touching the child’s wound.
The injury healed visibly, the pain vanishing, and the child broke into a smile.
“There, there, little one. Be careful next time,” Reis said gently, patting the child’s head with genuine care that earned even more praise from the onlookers.
“Lord Reis is so kind!”
“With the Sage and Lord Reis, our kingdom will surely triumph!”
“Yes, he always offers the best advice to His Majesty. With Lord Reis, we have hope!”
From a distance, Jie Ming observed everything, silently evaluating in his mind:
“Tch… such an outdated method of winning hearts. And those shills’ performances are way too stiff—utterly subpar!”
“But… the Sage’s disciple, huh?”
The so-called Sage was a unique figure in the Elosia plane.
Not only was he immensely powerful, but he also possessed great wisdom and charisma.
It was no exaggeration to say that during the initial wizard invasion, the Sage single-handedly facilitated the formation of the first Elosia plane alliance.
The Sage’s origins were well-documented, even turned into operas that were performed repeatedly.
He was undeniably a capable native, not a wizard spy.
But this Sage’s disciple was somewhat peculiar.
Jie Ming recalled the intelligence he’d overheard at a banquet: this disciple, Reis, always managed to offer “visionary” suggestions at critical moments, guiding the king and ministers in their decisions. Some even claimed he could foresee the future, pointing the kingdom toward the right path.
Yet, beyond that, there was little information about him. It was only known that the Sage had recently announced he had taken a disciple, causing quite a stir at the time.
Seeing him in person now, Jie Ming’s suspicions deepened.
It wasn’t the crude heart-winning tactics—such methods were standard among high-ranking figures. What truly surprised Jie Ming was the faint sense of threat he felt from the man.
“What the hell? Has this world secretly updated its version without me noticing? How is it that some random guy I meet can pose a threat to me? Aren’t I supposed to be a genius?”
Noticing that Reis hadn’t spotted him, Jie Ming slowly slipped out of the crowd and headed toward another part of the market.
Soon, beneath an abandoned warehouse in an ancient market, he discovered similar runic traces.
Then, in the backyard of a secluded temple and beside a forgotten drainage ditch… these runes were scattered across the capital, seemingly connected, all vaguely pointing toward a central hub.
Jie Ming’s mind raced, piecing together a rough outline of these scattered runic points in his head.
The array they formed was vast and interconnected, seemingly designed for some form of large-scale energy conduction or conversion.
As night fell, Jie Ming returned to his residence.
He entered a secret chamber cloaked in illusion, gazing at the rough sketch of the capital’s underground runic network spread across the table, his eyes glinting with a profound light.
With his knowledge, Jie Ming quickly deduced that their arrangement seemed to guide or converge some kind of energy, subtly directed toward the capital’s most faith-filled area—the cathedral district.