Chapter 976: The Puzzling Chosen

"The Church bribes the Great Witch of the 【Witch Council】 to find a relatively real source for the magical materials obtained by the students of St. Byrons?"

Ignoring the so-called "reward" issue, Xia De summarized the current situation:

"This at least counts as one-fifth of the ticket for the Chosen. Is the Council not interested in obtaining control of this thing?"

The 【Sage's Glow Stone】 can only transfer ownership once and cannot be forcibly deprived or obtained through intimidation or deception.

"Currently, only the Five Gods Church knows that the second glow stone is in your hands. I haven't told other Great Witches that you have a glow stone in your hand."

Miss Galina was very satisfied to see the expression on Xia De's face:

"I won't actively involve you in matters related to the Chosen, and you exposing this glow stone probably isn't because you want to trade with us."

She waved her hand and lowered her head to deal with the food on the dinner plate:

"Just now I went to a meeting, and the Speaker mentioned that she wanted to buy their poetry fragments from the 【Apna Library】."

"The 【Apna Library】 has sold those materials more than once, and I know of at least twice. If you need them, I will write the materials for you."

Xia De had seen those materials when he was picking up goods for Old John. The only valuable thing was that this Chosen ritual needed to be held on the water.

"What we want is the carrier itself. After all, that is the relic of the Witch Emperor."

Miss Galina said, signaling Tifa to continue pouring wine for her. Her right hand slid a few times, letting the dinner knife cut the food on the dinner plate by itself, while she pressed her neck with her right hand:

"You don't need to worry about Wednesday's events. Except for the Church and the Prophecy Society, no one knows that you have the 【Sage's Glow Stone】 in your hand. Just wait for them to make an offer. However, Sylvia should have heard about this from Margaret Anjou. I will tell her to keep this matter secret. She... appreciates you very much and will definitely be willing to keep this secret."

Xia De nodded, and the witch asked again:

"Have you never thought about keeping this glow stone? It can increase your wisdom and give you extraordinary talent. Even if it is not a material for the Chosen ritual, this is also an extremely valuable item."

"No, no, wisdom cannot be obtained through external objects. 'A wise man never gives power directly; a wise man only gives guidance'."

Xia De said very affirmatively.

"Who said this?"

"An ancient god I met in the 5th Era 5177."

The hand of Miss Galina holding the wine glass shook, and Xia De looked down at the box beside his hand:

"Speaking of which, has the Council been able to determine the candidate for the fourth Chosen?"

"New news has come from St. Byrons, confirming that this Chosen is still a male. It's really amazing, four Chosen, and three of them are male... There must be a Chosen near the location where those 'Keepers' appeared. The Church is comparing the guest list of the Lake View Manor banquet with the people around the locations of abnormal phenomena in the past few days, which also includes the guests of little Princess Lei Qianya's salon. Of course, the Church will definitely not suspect you."

She said with a smile, and Xia De thought for a while:

"Actually, there is no need to suspect me. Luweiya has said that anyone could be the Chosen, only I cannot be."

Miss Galina glanced at Xia De and thought of the purple-eyed girl:

"What do you want to do this time? I am quite interested in your actions. Your actions in the first three times were so successful, it's impossible that you won't do anything this time, right?"

"Only after confirming who the Chosen is will we have a specific action plan. Now we are just waiting for news, and trying to collect glow stones by the way."

"How could the Chosen be found so easily? Except for Iruna who was discovered by the Church in advance, Ivan Darkness clearly came to Tobesk City, but was only discovered to be the Chosen after arriving at Cold Water Port; Joey Barton was even more excessive, living under the Church's nose for so many years, and only jumped out to say he wanted to resurrect his lover before the Battle of Midhillburg. The Church didn't even know who he was at first."

The witch grabbed her dinner knife again:

"Probably this Chosen will also jump out from nowhere, and then be bumped into by you for strange reasons, and finally fight with you for strange reasons."

The witch's golden eyes looked at Xia De.

"Iruna didn't fight with me at that time."

Xia De retorted, and Miss Galina smiled and raised her glass to Xia De:

"But I have one thing I want to ask you. After 【Jack the Phantom Thief】 was caught by you, was the thing he gave you really that box of jewelry and diamonds?"

"Of course not, that box of jewelry was brought by me from Huntington. 【Jack the Phantom Thief】 let me choose one from three relics, but I wanted the letters he stole from my friend Xiao Miya, and let him return the relics stolen from Iruna's squad."

Xia De told the truth, and then saw the witch show a strange smile:

"I just said that when the Church found me through Larus III, why was Iruna in such a good mood. As for Xiao Miya... if I remember correctly, the Miss Xiao Miya you mentioned is that beautiful blonde, blue-eyed writer who once, together with Princess Lei Qianya, with you..."

"Cough, cough."

Tifa coughed in time, preventing the Duchess from saying indecent sentences.

Xia De cut a small piece of beef from his dinner plate and sent it to the plate in front of Little Mia. The cat sniffed the smell excitedly. To prevent the witch from continuing to tease, Xia De opened the jewelry box and pushed it to Miss Galina:

"Do you want to pick one?"

"Princess Lei Qianya was still at the Yodel Palace this morning, asking me if you had woken up. She rarely takes the initiative to talk to me, detective, you have means."

While the witch was speaking, slender fingers picked out a small brooch inlaid with diamonds from the box.

She casually placed the brooch on the tabletop, and then shook her wine glass at Xia De:

"Remember to make more red wine before leaving tomorrow. After drinking your red wine, other wines almost have no taste."

"Is it that exaggerated?"

Xia De didn't quite believe it.

"That's because you don't know how to taste wine."

The Duchess said regretfully, winking at Xia De:

"Wine tasting is a necessary skill for nobles, you can't not know this. In the future, when you have time, you still have many things to learn from me. It's not good to know nothing."

Xia De originally thought Miss Galina would also mention the "two dangerous existences that descended on St. Deran Square", but on Friday morning, when he saw Luweiya at the Prophecy Society, Xia De knew that all the contents of 【Brave's Game】 were only known to the Church.

At that time, only the Ringed Shushi of the Church and the three princesses watched the game completely. The Church imposed strict confidentiality restrictions. Even though the Prophecy Society knew that Xia De had the 【Sage's Glow Stone】 in his hand, they did not reveal the matter of the "dangerous existences".

Fortunately, before 【Jack the Phantom Thief】 left, he had already informed the Church that the "dangerous existences" had also left, otherwise St. Deran Square would definitely have been monitored for several months.

"This is it, I couldn't let you look at it carefully on Wednesday night."

In the divination room on the second floor of the Prophecy Society, Xia De handed the blue teardrop-shaped crystal to Luweiya. He sat with his back to the window, and outside was the falling snow. It was such heavy snow when he woke up on Thursday evening, and by now on Friday, the snow was still very heavy.

Little Mia stood on the windowsill, her tail raised, staring at the falling snow outside with wide eyes. This scene made the cat very surprised.

"One of the five 【Sage's Glow Stones】."

Luweiya's purple eyes looked at the stone that had turned into a gray petrified state in her hand:

"Now Iruna has one, and you have one here. But this is not necessarily all the glow stones. The Church may not have investigated the locations of all the Keepers."

"Yes, although we only know of two so far, maybe tomorrow the real Chosen will have obtained five glow stones and held the ritual."

Xia De nodded:

"Still haven't found the Chosen? There is no clue on the witch's side either. The Church's progress should be faster than ours. They know the other party is a man, but I'm afraid they haven't been able to find out the other party's specific identity."

Luweiya returned the glow stone to Xia De:

"The glow stone in Iruna's hand is the first and only glow stone on the surface. The Chosen ritual has officially started at this step. The power of the three major colleges has been allowed to enter Tobesk directly. Probably next week, the professors of the colleges will arrive. Before that, I'm afraid we have no other way to determine the identity of the Chosen."

She sighed slightly:

"The 【Ringed Shushi】 definitely has clues we don't know. Miss Pavo's clone lost her trace after taking Iruna's 【Sun Gun】 head-on on Wednesday night. Now that I think about it, she didn't personally join the 【Dice Story Collection】 on Wednesday night, but let the professor of the 【Ringed Shushi】 participate, probably to confirm some things. I want to make an irresponsible guess, this lady is wiser than we thought."

"But you have already determined that she is at least not the first candidate."

"Yes, she is indeed not the first candidate, but it is very likely that she is ranked behind."

Speaking of this, Luweiya showed a smile again:

"In short, although the accident on Wednesday night was sudden, you and Iruna cooperated well. Two of the five glow stones are in our hands. If it is determined that the fourth Chosen can cooperate, then this Chosen must have something to ask of us... The advantage is with us."

"This is probably just the best result, and the Church will not let me, an ordinary person, hold this stone all the time."

Xia De pointed to the beautiful crystal, and then turned in his chair to look at the cat at the window.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier. This snow was the heaviest snow in Tobesk so far this winter, and the temperature would probably drop rapidly in the next few days.

"The Church will send a representative to talk to you in a while. Have you really decided not to hand over the glow stone to the Academy? That is a Sage-level relic."

Sage-level relics would not circulate on the market, and the black market would definitely not be able to find them. The Sage-level relics in Xia De's hands were only 【God's Gift Box】 and 【Aikenola Knowledge Arrow】. Besides that, among the friends around him, he only clearly knew that Princess Lei Qianya's red earrings 【Saint's Curse-Breaking Stone】 were Sage-level, and the Red Butterfly pendant 【True Red Butterfly】 was Sage-level.

【God's Gift Box】 crossed a complete time key mission, and accompanied Iruna to break into the underground ruins, kill the Silver-Eyed One, and complete the Chosen ritual mission before it was obtained; 【True Red Butterfly】 experienced the long story of the Red Butterfly Twins, and after the God's Wine Party, Xia De solved the twins' problems perfectly in this era, and the pendant came to his hands; even the easiest Sage-level relic to obtain, 【Aikenola Knowledge Arrow】, was related to a series of cases more than ten years ago.

Therefore, Sage-level relics were also quite tempting to Xia De, but he still shook his head slightly:

"I want to use this stone to make some trades and exchange for more valuable and safer items."

【Sage's Glow Stone】 can only be traded once. After agreeing to the trade with the Church, this glow stone will still be stored in Xia De's hands, and when the Church needs it, it will be transferred to someone else by him. Therefore, agreeing to the Church's trade does not mean the disappearance of the dominant power, but it means Xia De can get some things that are usually not available.

【What exactly do you want is written directly on your face.】

Xia De touched his face, and then he and Luweiya saw Little Mia in front of the glass window making a gesture of patting the glass with her little paws. The cat couldn't wait to touch the snow outside. Although Xia De could also control the snowfall, the city turning silver-white in the natural environment was still very fresh for Little Mia, who was probably born in the spring of 1853.

Xia De and Luweiya both showed smiles. Such a peaceful morning made life look much calmer than it appeared on the surface.

————Side note————

PS: There must be Sage-level relics on the witch and Sister Daifulin, but they haven't appeared in the text for the time being. And generally speaking, few Sage-level relics have no side effects, so in this chapter, Xia De only thought of the gift box, the arrow, and Princess Lei Qianya's curse-breaking stone. These three are the few Sage-level relics that can be carried with you without causing your own loss of control and large-scale pollution. ===== CHAPTER 977 =====