Sia subtly withdrew her hand, taking a small sip of coffee from her cup.
After a moment of silence, she answered the previous question:
"That's not something a normal little girl like me could have known back then, but I think he must have offended too many people, and at the same time, his digestion of the potion couldn't keep up. He wasn't a qualified Hunter."
"The Hunter's Sequence 8 is called 'Provoker'. They're not very strong, but they're annoying enough to make people hate them."
"When a group of Provokers, or former Provokers, gather together, conflicts are always inevitable."
The Prophet Clone's right index finger tapped lightly on the coffee cup he was holding, and he said leisurely:
"The Iron-Blooded Knight's advancement ritual requires forming a team of at least thirty people, with deep camaraderie and sufficient tacit agreement."
"Hunters who have gone through the Provoker stage will always provoke others with a few nasty words. This ritual is unusually difficult for them."
"Forming a team? What's the principle behind this ritual?"
Sia didn't care why the Prophet Clone knew about the Iron-Blooded Knight's advancement ritual; instead, she curiously asked about its principle.
Leyton shrugged and said:
"I don't know. I don't know any Hunters at that level."
Sia nodded slightly, no longer continuing the topic. She casually took out a small dagger from her waist and cut an incision in the palm of her right hand. Blood dripped into the coffee in front of her.
After staining the entire cup of coffee red, she put the dagger back, and a blue-white glow swirled in her eyes.
Points of faint green light continually floated from the palm of her right hand, carrying a rich life aura, rapidly healing the wound on her hand.
After doing all this, she casually pushed the stained red coffee in front of the Prophet Clone and said:
"Since you're tracking her, you should be able to use my blood as a medium to find her location, right?"
The Prophet Clone nodded, his tone a bit helpless:
"Yes, I can, but why did you drip it into the coffee?"
"Are there any other cups here?" Sia said calmly, without even lifting her eyelids.
"Compared to a Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom member, you're more like an Adventurer."
The Prophet Clone sighed softly, leaning back against the chair, and at the same time reached out to take the stained red coffee in front of him.
His eyes immediately became covered with a layer of silver-white, becoming deep and calm, losing their focus.
Relying on the mystical connection between Sia's blood and Elena Sauron, a scene quickly emerged in his mind.
It was a ghost ship floating on the sea, somewhat ancient in appearance and dark in color, like a sunken ship that had been submerged in seawater for a long time. On its raised sails, there was a distorted tentacled sea monster pattern.
The scene shifted again, and he saw a robust man. His face, neck, and exposed arms all had scale-like patterns, like the hidden illusory scales of a Beyonder under a Sailor's skin. He had no beard on his chin but grew green fleshy tendrils about ten centimeters long, like the tentacles of a marine creature.
His eyes were deep blue, he wore a black tricorn pirate hat, and was draped in a loose, dark brown overcoat, seemingly intentionally concealing his physical features.
The scene shifted again, arriving in a dimly lit room, like a collection room specifically for valuable items. On the widest wall of the room hung a magnificent golden mirror, clearly in the Intis style.
The floating scene in his mind abruptly stopped, and the Prophet Clone's eyes became clear again.
"You've advanced to Prophet? When? No wonder you dared to chase her."
Sia seemed to have recovered from the Prophet Clone's previous display, asking with surprise in her voice, but quickly regained her composure.
Her words made Phoenix frown, his gaze full of scrutiny falling on the Prophet Clone, and he asked, full of doubt:
"Aren't you a Mysticologist?"
"We are all the same person, just different identities that have been separated."
The Prophet Clone explained with a light chuckle.
"An ordinary clone wouldn't even change its own pathway. Let's just consider it your little secret, as long as you haven't been turned into a Marionette."
Sia merely sighed faintly with a calm tone, then quickly moved past the question with her next sentence. She paused slightly before continuing:
"What did you prophesy just now?"
Leyton tilted his head back slightly, recalling the images that had flashed through his mind, and said with a subtle hint of teasing in his voice:
"Deep Sea Admiral's Newins, and a mirror placed on that ghost ship, a very magnificent mirror made of gold."
"Your father... er, mother? Or mom? Anyway, she most likely hid in that mirror. The Demoness of Unaging is skilled in resurrection and rebirth, so that's probably a backup plan she prepared for herself."
"As for why it appeared on Deep Sea Admiral's ship, perhaps he's one of her lovers, or perhaps that mirror was just intercepted by him."
Sia showed no obvious change in emotion, only chuckling and saying:
"That was a long time ago. I've long since had no connection with her, or with the Sauron Family. I've even forgotten her former name."
"Of course, I'm still very happy to send her to the Underworld."
Phoenix's eyes flickered slightly. Being more introverted, he was particularly sensitive to emotional changes.
Leyton sat back in his chair with a relaxed posture, offering no comment.
Sometimes, the calmer the demeanor, the stronger the inner emotions. It seems her time in the Sauron Family was not easy, and a large part of that was due to her father. This shouldn't be enough to make them enemies; were there other reasons?
In Impath City, inside a hotel named Soyana.
Leyton sat by the window in a sofa seat, holding several pieces of parchment torn from Groselle's Travels. On the round table in front of him was also the Worm of Time he had previously obtained from Flora Jacob.
On his shoulder, a Cyber Hand arm moved flexibly. Each joint of the arm had a strange eyeball, and in the palm of its hand was a fleshy eye without eyelashes. It looked at the materials on the round table with a thoughtful expression, occasionally shaking its palm, as if shaking its head.
Inside Leyton's mind, the Cyber Hand's voice echoed with little confidence:
"The level of these materials is too high; my ability is insufficient to forge them into perfect mystical items."
Leyton nodded, not caring much, and said with a light chuckle:
"It's fine, just control them so their negative effects aren't too outrageous. It would be best if they had living characteristics; inanimate objects are hard to deal with, but living things will know how to restrain themselves."
"Then I'll try my best."
The Cyber Hand replied with little confidence.
It directly extended its hand downwards, grabbing a piece of parchment from Leyton's hand. Its mechanical fingers tapped rhythmically on the parchment, and each spot it tapped would reveal a grayish-white strange symbol. They connected to each other, forming a dense, intricate web.
In Leyton's vision, blurry light and shadows emerged from the parchment, like suspended droplets of water in mid-air, reflecting different human faces.
The subconscious and collective subconscious within Groselle's travels?
"That's right, every page here contains parts of the book world and the mind world."
"However, I can only extract these subconsciousnesses. The book world and the mind world within it will inevitably be damaged. Their existence far exceeds the limits of my ability; it's not something a common Machinery Specialist like me can operate."
The Cyber Hand flexibly extracted the subconscious from each piece of parchment while answering Leyton's questions.