611 Plan of Exploration

On April 11, in the conference room of the Highest Council…

The sixteen members, including seven grand arcanists, had already been seated, when Lucien just came in wearing his double-breasted suit. He apologized, "Sorry that I'm late."

"It doesn't matter. Last night was your wedding night. It's perfectly normal to be late." Klaus, the Alchemy Master, said jokingly, "We all understand it."

Hearing his joke, the other people either smiled kindly or showed no emotional change, except for Hathaway who stared at Lucien coldly as if she were blaming him.

Scratching his chin in embarrassment, Lucien specifically explained it for his 'mother-in-law'. "The wound on Natasha's abdomen was corrupted by the power of time. It will take her at least half a month even if she treats herself well. However, she couldn't forget her last attack to execute Kritonia and try to grasp the feeling of burning and melting her will, belief, spirits and bloodline. Fearing that her wounds worsened, I could only try to cooperate with her while stopping her from making drastic movements. She didn't fall asleep from exhaustion until a few minutes ago."

So, I'm definitely not late for the reason you imagine. However, when we were excited discussing and simulating the attack, she expressed her 'gratitude' in other ways.

Hathaway's eyes became gentle. Douglas simply chuckled and said, "There's no need to explain your personal business to us. We are having an emergency meeting today mainly to discuss what happened yesterday. The Original Fire, a night watcher of the Church, was able to invite the legendary spectres of the World of Souls. It makes me wonder whether or not the Church is asking for the cooperation of the World of Souls."

"The South Church, which is determined to purge the undead creatures, is cooperating with the World of Souls? Was it the Original Fire's personal action? He's a legendary sorcerer from the Magic Empire. Perhaps he had a deep understanding about the World of Souls." Hathaway analyzed another possibility.

Solemnly and loudly, Fernando said, "Whatever it is, we have to accelerate the exploration in the World of Souls! Those skeletons and bodies don't seem satisfied with the World of Souls and intend to touch the main material world, instead of calming down after the mysterious existence of the World of Souls fell asleep like we imagined in the past. Therefore, we cannot react effectively without figuring out their details."

When they discussed, Vicente, the Lord of the Undead, remained silent. Dark red fire bounced in his eyes, as if he did not care about the things in the World of Souls.

Brook said in a low voice, "It's true that we need to accelerate our exploration, but we have no idea what dangers are hiding behind the Furnace of Souls. We have to press forward prudently. It must be noted that almost ten ancient legendary sorcerers went missing there. Although none of them were peak, most of them were level three. They were the pillars of the Magic Empire and not weak at all."

After the Congus incident, Lucien wrote the issues about Maskelyne into a report and submitted it to the Congress, allowing them to know the reason why the legendary sorcerers went missing and how the Grand Cross really collapsed.

"Yes. The goal that I set for now is to explore until the Furnace of Souls without pressing any deeper. After we investigate the Furnace of Souls and the peripheral area, we will return. Then, we will clear the unintelligent undead creatures and make a plan for our second adventure to press deeper." Douglas said rationally and calmly, but he was so confident as if the strong spectres were mere common skeletons.

"But there are almost ten legendary spectres like the Lich King apart from the unintelligent legendary spectres. They are not so easy to deal with. It will be a total war." After a long silence, Vicente began to talk.

Hearing them discuss quietly, Lucien thought for a moment and suddenly raised his hands. "There's something that I'd like to say."

"What is it?" Fernando looked at him with his red eyes. What other secrets was he hiding?

Lucien brought out the Sun's Corona that he didn't submit earlier. "I found an item of divine power left by Maskelyne in the Grand Cross."

"An item of divine power?" Asked Oliver and Erica in surprise. The Saint Truth hadn't surfaced yet when Maskelyne went missing. Where on earth did he get the item?

Not wasting time to say what he had already said, Lucien went to the topic. "Mr. Maskelyne called it a magic item."

"What?" This time, even Douglas, Brook, Hathaway, Hellen and Davey were shocked.

"I have reason to believe that it is related to the rise of the Saint Truth." After so many things, and after witnessing the pope's improvement on the divine powers, Lucien was finally able to talk about his suspicion honestly and confidently. "Perhaps it has something to do with the speculation I mentioned in the report of the changes of Ell's godhood."

It came from the adjusted amalgamation of many people's feeble spiritual power!

"Well…" After a brief silence, Brook took out a white handkerchief to wipe his forehead. "But the projection of Mountain Paradise is real, and so are the angels. The king of angels is in the Holy City right now. Also, we cannot find a way to perform divine powers. We can't even create a divine item without godhood."

"That's why further exploration is needed. At the bottom level of 'Sun's Corona', Mr. Maskelyne has hidden the patterns of the coordinate changes of a certain place in the deepest part of the World of Souls. That's probably the area where they went missing in the end. There's perhaps an answer to everything." Said Lucien solemnly before he shared the pattern of the changing coordinates.

The World of Souls was too dangerous for him to explore on his own. He had to count on the Congress. In that case, hiding important intelligence would only increase the risk of the adventure that could've been avoided.

After reading the pattern of the coordinates, all the members of the Highest Council fell silent, deep in thought.

Lucien, on the other hand, went on. "There's something else I also need to say."

"What is it?" Fernando glared at Lucien. How many more secrets did the guy have?

"In the beginning, Rhine was not trapped by Prince Dracula; rather, he conspired with Sard to deal with Tiphotidis, the Master of Argent and the Ice Duke, because he wanted to explore the secrets of the World of Souls, only to be betrayed by Sard during the exploration. That was why he was trapped there." Lucien corrected certain false intelligence that he had given to protect himself earlier.

Fernando snorted, as if he had guessed it. Hathaway slightly nodded, finally understanding why Sard chose to cooperate with them at the beginning. "What secret is it?"

The fire bouncing in the eye sockets of the Lord of the Undead suddenly grew intense.

"According to the Silver-eyed Count, the secrets to real immortality lie in the deepest part of the World of Souls, secrets that even the God of Silver Moon seek after!" Lucien finally told the secret that he had concealed for a long time. Now that he was a legendary sorcerer himself with a comprehensive combat ability in the level two, he was no longer a weakling at the mercy of any random enemy. He was now capable of sharing the secret!

The news was so shocking that, except for the Lord of the Undead who was even grimmer, the members of the Highest Council barely showed any response. They evaluated the accuracy of the message first.

"…The Lord of Hell's actions indirectly proved the importance of the secret in the World of Souls." Lucien mentioned the plan that the Lord of Hell had previously. "I am not certain of this piece of information, either. I'm only reminding you that anything may happen after we surpass the Furnace of Souls. Perhaps, we will be faced with the God of Silver Moon and the Lord of Hell in person."

"If that's true, they will be happy to see our exploration and even offer help. If they were willing to take the risk, they would have entered it a long time ago." After he was back to himself, Douglas smiled, not as excited about the mysteries of immortality as when he saw the general theory of relativity for the first time.

As for the other people, even the sorcerers like Hathaway and Hellen who barely had any facial expression revealed certain excitement. They were also breathing fast.

As he spoke, Douglas looked at the Lord of the Undead. "Vicente, did you know the secret?"

His eyes were clear and gentle, but Vicente was silent for a long time before he finally said, "I inferred that there was such a secret from Adol's memories. Then, I discovered a relic in Viken based many other memories and clues and confirmed the deduction."

The moment he said that, Fernando gazed at him with his red eyes.

"That's all the more reason why we should explore the place. It's possible that the 'truth' of this world is hidden there." Douglas tapped the table, not blaming Vicente for keeping the information to himself early. "Based on the intelligence from the advance base in the World of Souls earlier, we have learnt that there are approximately ten real legendary spectres and forty unintelligent legendary spectres in the area outside of the Furnace of Souls. It means that we have to mobilize more than eight legends in order to press deeper."

Brook nodded his head. "If two top legends lead the team every time, another four helpers will be enough. That's within what we can bear."

If too many legendary sorcerers were mobilized, the alternate dimensions and the kingdoms would be too weakly defended, which would give the enemies an opportunity to attack.

"Alright. Fernando and I will lead the first adventure, assisted by another four legendary sorcerers. The second adventure will be led by Brook and Hathaway, also followed by four legendary sorcerers. We will explore deeper in turns but do not surpass the limit each time, so that we can press forward steadily until we reach the destination that Lucien described earlier." Douglas expressed his opinion and turned to Lucien. "Lucien, although it has been less than one year since you advanced, you are now already a grand arcanist and a legendary sorcerer, and you need to shoulder your responsibilities. Of course, you have the right to refuse it."

Lucien took a long breath. "I would like to join the first adventure."

The destination of the first adventure was the Furnace of Souls. As could be confirmed by the exploration of Maskelyne and his partners as well as Adol's memories, the dangers of the journey were still under control. It wouldn't be as mysterious and dangerous as the rest of the quest. Also, his primary target right now was to take a look at the Furnace of Souls and to touch the enigmas of the soul in order to unveil the differences between the two worlds he lived in.

Also, in such a way, there would be no need for him to participate in the second, the third and the fourth adventure. By the time the fifth adventure began, he would probably in level two or level three of legendary, considering that it would already be super effective if such adventures could be carried out once every year, not to mention that the trophies of every adventure had to be digested before the next adventure began.

When that moment came, his plan was to explore the area far behind the Furnace of Souls and find Maskelyne.

Lucien vaguely had the feeling that the answers to everything would be revealed there.