Chapter 185

The night ten days later.

The underground secret chamber of Swan Castle.

Luosen summoned all mages of Fifth Ring or higher around him.

There were five.

They were respectively the Sixth Ring Steel Goddess Méi'ěr Qílìnnà, the Succubus Mother, the Fifth Ring Kao Queen, and the Arcane Soul Fújī Luólā who had just fled from Levinde.

Finally, the Levinde Eldest Princess, as a firsthand witness to the demon incident, was naturally also invited.

This Eldest Princess's full name is Mòlì Xīlā; she is the aunt of the current little king and also the younger sister of the previous generation's King Xīlā.

She currently possesses the power of Four-ring Peak.

It used to be considered strong, but after Luosen published his cultivation record, the Natural Alliance suddenly produced many Arcane Masters, instantly overshadowing her brilliance.

When everyone had gathered, Luosen suddenly realized that, aside from himself, they were all female mages.

This discovery made him sigh again: "Women have quite an advantage in the Linking Magic Ring."

But he also discovered that this advantage only appears in low and high rings; in the ultra-high rings of Ninth and Tenth Ring, the advantage seems to have disappeared.

Including Luosen himself, the known ultra-high-ring mages are the Radiant Empress and the Moon Goddess Duola, while the other four are all male.

After the women sat down on the round-ring leather chairs, Luosen once again took out the icy-blue power he had previously extracted.

Compared to ten days ago, this power has shrunk considerably, now less than one-third of its original amount.

It is not that Luosen is unwilling to feed it magic power, but rather its structure is collapsing uncontrollably.

Luosen guessed that, after leaving its controller, it cannot exist independently for long.

Just like human cells, they can survive a while after being separated, but if too much time passes, they die.

He told the women: "This is the strange power used by Lāfēng gé. It is very strong, able to seize control of low-ring magical power."

More precisely, it can seize power across three rings.

Considering its strength is Eleventh Ring, this means that mages below Eighth Ring, if they encounter it, will find their spells no longer obeying them.

"I carefully analyzed its strength and found it actually exceeds the Tenth Ring!"

As soon as he said this, all the women were greatly shocked.

The Eldest Princess Molly stood up immediately after sitting down: "Tenth Ring? How is that possible? Lāfēng gé himself said he only had Eighth Ring power!"

Luosen released his hold on this icy-blue power.

This icy-blue light cluster immediately floated in the air like a glowing down feather, and under gravity it descended at an extremely slow speed.

"You can feel it yourselves and know it is pure magical power."

The women all tried it and were instantly very surprised, because magical power cannot exist independently of the soul—this is common knowledge.

But this magical power before them overturned that common sense.

After everyone had tried it, Luosen said: "It's strong, right?"

"Yes, very strong, much stronger than me!"

The speaker was Nàifēi Luòníyǎ, who possesses Eighth Ring mid-stage magical power and is the highest besides Luosen.

The other mages also looked stunned, clearly never having seen such powerful magical power before.

Luosen then said: "It's also stronger than me."

"And my magical power."

He gazed over the women, no longer hiding his true magical achievement: "Already the ultimate of Tenth Ring."

For this, the Succubus Mother showed reverence, the Kao Queen looked suddenly enlightened, and the Goddess Méi'ěr Qílìyǎ displayed a proud expression, as if her own face was glowing.

The two women from Levinde, however, couldn't help but widen their eyes.

But these emotions flashed and vanished, because everyone immediately thought of an even more astonishing fact.

Fújī Luólā exclaimed in astonishment: "How could Lāfēng gé possess Eleventh Ring power?!"

This was also everyone's doubt.

Everyone turned to look at Luosen, waiting for this young genius mage to give an answer.

Luosen did not disappoint the women: "In the Huan Wai Xu Kong there exist demons; demons seem unable to enter the mortal realm, but they use various methods to lure mortals, serving as their agents in the mortal world."

"No one knows the demons' true purpose, nor where they come from."

"Now the only thing certain is that this power comes from a demon, and Lāfēng gé is falling to become the demon's mortal spokesperson."

Luosen's face grew solemn: "That is why I summoned you all for this brief meeting—to discuss how to defend against demonic power."

The Eldest Princess asked: "Duke, you said that day Lāfēng gé was a stand-in—what exactly is the situation?"

Luosen also did not hide it.

"It is a bloodline fusion substitution technique, to obtain a stand-in indistinguishable from real or fake."

"In other words, I did indeed kill Lāfēng gé, but not all of Lāfēng gé."

"In the Levinde royal palace, there still exists one, or even many, Lāfēng gé. And each has exactly the same bloodline."

"Lāfēng gé's stand-in is different from Luosen; Luosen is a puppet controlled by Laifu, an extension of his soul."

"Without Laifu's auxiliary control, Lāfēng gé's stand-in has two possible control methods."

"First, the stand-in lacks independent consciousness, like the Kao Queen, requiring the main body to constantly control it remotely."

"Second, the stand-in has independent consciousness, but is secretly controlled by the main body Lāfēng gé."

"According to Luosen's observation, it is likely the second method."

The women all stared at each other, feeling utterly incredulous.

The female demon Nefelonia recalled the situation at the cliff laboratory: "So, the one we encountered in the lab that day was also just one of the Lafengge?"

Luosen nodded: "Obviously that's the case, but the Lafengge back then obviously hadn't sunk as deep as it is now."

He turned his head to look at the two women from Levinde: "I believe you both can see that the Lafengge now is only one step away from madness."

Elder Princess Molly said resentfully: "No, he's already a madman!"

Luosen ignored the elder princess's emotional outburst and continued: "The current Lansege possesses eight-ring power and could at any moment rise to nine-ring, even Ten Rings."

"Against national might, this bit of personal power is nothing; a musket squad can handle it, and if not, cannons or high-powered explosive shells can always blow the opponent apart."

"But because he has mastered phase-shifting power and also received great power from demons beyond the rings, he has become the perfect assassin."

"What we need to discuss is how to defend against his assassination."

Saying this, he looked at Queen Kao: "Nana, Kao is close to Levinde and likely to become a demon infiltration target, so you must pay special attention to this."

The queen heard it, secretly startled, yet also secretly relieved.

Fortunately her true self is far in Weilan; if she were to encounter Lansege's assassination unknowingly, that would truly be terrifying.

Meanwhile, Luosen began distributing the phase confinement array blueprints.

"Once the phase confinement array is successfully set up, it can prohibit phase shifting."

"Such an array requires soul gems for assistance. The good news is that we in Weilan have plenty of soul gems."

He looked at Queen Kao: "Nana, setting up a large phase confinement array needs hundreds or thousands of soul gems, but don't worry, I'll send a batch to Kao." The queen immediately nodded: "I'll purchase them at market price for soul gems."

This is within her authority, and no one can object.

Rosen Ziran was also pleased, after all he could earn a large sum.

He continued: "After banning phase transmission, Lansege's threat drops by more than half."

"But he clearly gained much high-ring knowledge from the demons, excelling at disguise and stealth, so we still need a means to detect him."

"This is very difficult, but the demon power left over by accident gives us some opportunity."

Luosen pointed at the ice-blue demon power: "This is an extraordinary power, a terrifying weapon against mortals."

"But it is precisely this power that constitutes Lansege's greatest weakness."

"As long as we can detect him in advance, a fully armed ten-man musket squad can send him back to hell."

"The base attack strength of muskets is six-ring or above, and specially made muskets can reach eight-ring, nine-ring, even Ten Rings."

"If ten elite musketeers form a semicircle and fire together, even a great hero would die instantly; moreover, musketeers are very cheap."

"If ten aren't enough, we can simply use a hundred."

"For the royal family, it's hardly a burden."

After his analysis, the women present relaxed considerably, and their fear of Lansege weakened greatly.

Lartelis asked: "Then how do we detect this demonic power?"

Luosen gave a slight smile: "To be honest, it's hard; magic simply cannot detect it, at least none of the detection spells I know work."

Seeing the women all looking puzzled, he shifted his tone.

"But!"

He pulled a large handful of strange silver-white rings from his coat pocket, the inner layer silver-white metal, the outer layer coated with transparent crystal.

Strangely, these silver-white rings all emitted a faint purple glow.

When the rings moved away from the ice-blue demon power, the light dimmed; when they approached, it brightened.

"These are holy rings, operating without any magical power, using a very rare metallic element I call arcane holy gold."

"In fact it's ruthenium metal; this stuff is too reactive, exploding on contact with water."

Luosen therefore had to carefully wrap it in special glass.

"I discovered this metal by accident; for some still unclear reason, it is highly sensitive to demonic power, with a maximum detection range of one kilometer."

Luosen truly didn't know the reason; while researching, he simply held the naive notions that 'within seven steps of a venomous snake there must be an antidote' and 'all things mutually generate and overcome,' trying one random thing after another.

It was originally just a gamble, but he actually hit the mark.

"In other words, when a demon apostle appears within one kilometer, it will emit purple light."

"I also added a light-sensing array on the ring's surface; when it detects purple light, it converts a slight psychic force, letting the wearer feel the anomaly immediately."

Luosen distributed the rings one by one, waited for each woman to put one on, then asked: "Do you feel any psychic vibration?"

Queen Kao nodded: "I felt it, a kind of focusing sensation, quite special."

The other women also nodded.

Now that we have the confinement array and detection rings, everyone's fear of the demon apostle Lansege dropped significantly again.

It seems not so frightening after all.

Queen Kao said: "Duke, these holy rings are very important; they should be widely promoted."

Luosen nodded: "I will. I will equip the army with large numbers, leaving no hiding place for demon apostles."

"I will also export similar holy devices in large numbers, compressing the demon apostles' activity space as much as possible."

"Naturally, I will also send a large batch to Kao."

After losing their fear, the mages present turned their attention back to the ice-blue demon power.

Merikelina wondered: "It can exist stably on its own; why is that?"

This is everyone's question, and they all unconsciously looked toward Luosen.

"Had it been ten days ago, Luosen truly couldn't have answered, but after ten days of sleepless research, he had a preliminary conclusion."

"It is a precise soul dynamic self-sustaining structure."

After a pause, he explained: "Just like the Black Stone steam engine, as long as Black Stone keeps burning, it keeps running, until the Black Stone is exhausted."

"Demon power is similar; as long as its power source isn't depleted, it can persist for a long time."

While speaking, Luosen intently watched the demon power floating in the air.

"Although its master is extremely evil, the power itself is quite wonderful."

There was something Luosen didn't say aloud, but everyone present sensed it subconsciously.

In other words, if we could study its principle thoroughly, imitate it, improve it, then mortals might advance beyond the tenth ring into the eleventh ring.

Naifeiluoniya asked: "Duke, if one truly enters the eleventh law ring, do mortals become true gods, right?"

Her face showed a hint of worry; she was clearly worried that Luosen would thus fall into demonic path.

Rosen Ziran could clearly hear her implied meaning, shaking his head: "As far as I know, mortals are mortals; even if one breaks through the eleventh law ring, they remain mortals, merely stronger mortals."

There will certainly be some power that lower-ring mages lack, but they still have mortal weaknesses.

They need food, they need to excrete; if the head is cut off they will still die, and they still possess mortal emotions and desires.

For example, this demonic power tends to dissipate once separated from the main body, showing that the main body remains very important.

If a mortal ascends, the physical body that serves as the main body, especially the head that stores the soul, remains irreplaceable as well.

Of course, the exact situation will only be known after truly ascending.

Laerte Lisi asked: "How do you know so much?"

Luosen smiled: "Various spell experiments told me that."

Then he clapped his hands: "Everything that needed to be said has been said; demons are strong and must not be underestimated, but they are far from invincible. Everyone, stay vigilant and keep this with you!"

Clack~~

Luosen took the third-version fire god gun in hand; due to the disguise of the Transformation Technique, it looked like an exquisite ornamental staff.

This thing can judge gods and demons!

I specially designed the gun's structure to allow six consecutive judgments!

Some things Luosen didn't say, namely that demon apostles seem to possess an unusually strong divination ability.

It is precisely this ability that allows the Lafenge people in Levinde to still detect Weilan's situation.

This ability on the battlefield is extremely terrifying, equivalent to turning on a full-map cheat.

He has not yet found a way to counter this ability, but it is clear that this detection cannot be done at will, nor is it all-seeing.

Otherwise, the Lafenge could directly find the eldest princess, instead of searching everywhere for a long time.

But the exact details probably require a legendary mage to figure out.

(End of chapter)