10: Chapter 10 Blood of the Same Origin

The afternoon Dunn Smith went to confront Ince Zangwill, Tingen City was hit by a rare downpour for this season.

Rain poured down from the lead-gray sky, smashing onto the paved road of Zoutland Street, the splashing water glinting with a cold silver light under the streetlamps.

The windows of the conference room on the third floor of Blackthorn Security Company rattled under the pelting rain, the window frames swaying slightly in the wind and rain, emitting an old, creaking sound.

Lu Li sat in a chair in the corner of the conference room, a half-opened Nighthawks patrol log spread across his knees.

His gaze wandered over the handwritten case descriptions, but his mind was occupied entirely with something else.

Dunn Smith had been gone for nearly three hours.

He had gone to confront Ince Zangwill alone, without bringing any team members, on the grounds that "internal inquiries need to be kept to a minimum circle of knowledge."

Old Neil had insisted on going, but was stopped by Dunn Smith with an extremely simple yet irrefutable reason—if even you are not guarding the Chanis Gate, we would truly be defenseless.

So, at this moment, Old Neil was guarding the sealing maintenance room on the perimeter of the Chanis Gate, holding the spirit body resistance formula Lu Li had given him, with the complete blueprint of the Chanis Gate seal structure spread out before him.

Dunn Smith was laying out the evidence before Ince Zangwill, conducting the most dangerous negotiation using his own experience and judgment.

And Lu Li—a Sequence 9: Marauder—sat in the conference room flipping through a patrol log, his knuckles unconsciously tapping the armrest of the chair in turns.

Waiting.

Waiting is the most grueling thing.

When the conference room door was pushed open, he instinctively looked up.

It was Daly Simone who entered.

She was carrying two steaming cups of black tea, a small slice of lemon perched on the rim, the aroma of the tea permeating the damp air with a hint of citrus freshness.

Seeing Lu Li's dazed expression, the corners of her mouth curved slightly as she handed him one of the cups and sat down in the chair opposite him with the other.

"Don't be so nervous, newbie. The Captain has handled this kind of thing before. Although he looks low-key, a Sequence 7: Nightmare understands the mind far better than you imagine."

"I hope so."

Lu Li took the black tea and took a sip.

The warmth of the liquid rolling down his throat slightly dispelled the cold, bloated feeling in his stomach, which he couldn't tell if it was from nervousness or worry. "However, the Captain isn't facing a simple enemy this time. A comrade he has dealt with for fifteen years requires more vigilance than an enemy."

"That's true."

Daly Simone put away the small smile she had used to comfort him, held the teacup between her hands, and looked down at the swirling tea leaves in the cup, falling silent for a moment.

The only sounds in the conference room were the rain and the occasional clanking of the radiator.

She remained silent for a long time, so long that Lu Li thought she wouldn't talk about it anymore.

Then she suddenly spoke, her tone as calm as if she were reading an old, archived file.

"Before Ince Zangwill joined the Nighthawks, he was once a tutor for the Hoy Family."

This sentence was like a very fine silver needle, precisely piercing a nerve ending in Lu Li's mind that had been searching for a connection point.

"The Hoy Family?"

Lu Li set the teacup on his knees, trying to make his voice sound like he was just asking casually, "The local noble with the largest collection of Fourth Epoch antiques?"

"Yes. The Hoy Family sponsored Ince before he left the clergy; they funded his completion of all theological courses at the Saint Selena Cathedral, and even paid for all his equipment during his apprenticeship when he first joined the Nighthawks. Later, when he stayed in the Tingen squad, his connection with the Hoy Family was ostensibly severed, but—"

Daly Simone lowered her head to take a sip of tea, using a subtle, unconscious glance toward the door to mask what she was about to say next.

"But when I went to the archives to investigate something else a few days ago, I happened to flip through the church logs related to the Hoy Family. Ince attends the Hoy Family's annual memorial every year. Not as a church representative, but as a private friend."

The Hoy Family. Annual memorial. Private friend.

These fragments pieced together rapidly in Lu Li's mind, forming a picture that made his stomach tighten violently.

The last break-in at the Hoy Family's secret chamber—those stolen letters from the Antigonus period, ritual formulas, silver sacrificial vessels—the Hoy Family was on the list of victims Old Neil had listed at the meeting, Ince's other sponsoring family.

Lu Li suddenly realized that if Ince had provided intelligence to the theft gang, or even personally participated in some of the thefts, then the information he had accumulated as a senior member of the Nighthawks for the past fifteen years was more than sufficient.

He knew the storage location of every Sealed Artifact, knew the shift schedule for every patrol, and knew which corner of the secret chamber was the least noticeable.

More importantly, if this collusion didn't start after he became a Nighthawk—if from the very beginning, Ince Zangwill wasn't just bought by cultists, but had his own agenda—

Then all clues pointed in the same direction.

At the Hoy Family's annual memorial, those seemingly harmless antique displays, those secret chamber collections that only core family members could access, likely contained things even more deadly than any Antigonus notebook.

"What are you thinking about?"

Daly Simone's voice pulled Lu Li back from his train of thought.

She tilted her head to look at him, her eyes holding that light between curiosity and scrutiny, a professional habit peculiar to those who had been with the Nighthawks for a long time—habitually analyzing everyone's silence.

"I'm wondering when the Hoy Family's annual memorial is being held this year."

"The first full Moon of November. Which is—"

Her pupils suddenly contracted, and the cup stopped halfway to her lips, "Four days from now."

The Antigonus Family takes the Moon as its symbol.

The Spirit Descent Ritual is performed on the night of the full Moon, when the success rate is the highest.

"If they have a complete blood source, the runes in those warehouses on Iron Cross Street don't need to wait for all twelve to be in place before acting. The Spirit World tide on the night of the full Moon is enough for the already placed runes to override the missing ones."

Daly Simone placed the teacup on the table, the porcelain making a soft sound as it collided with the tabletop.

"I must go warn the Captain—regardless of the outcome of the inquiry, the timeline for this matter is more urgent than we anticipated."

"I'll go with you."

Lu Li closed the patrol log and stood up from the chair.

At the same time, he suddenly felt something cold deep in his pocket vibrate slightly.

It was like someone skipping a stone across the surface of the water from the other side of the river.

The fragment of the worm of time.

Lu Li fished the fragment out of his pocket.

The dark light on its surface was flickering weakly in a slow, rhythmic, breathing pace.

This wasn't contamination; it was resonance.

A subtle reaction produced when a Pathway characteristic originating from the Lord of the Mysteries was activated by another power of the same source.

Someone nearby carrying the mark of the Antigonus Family was releasing power.

And the only person near the Nighthawks headquarters who could carry such a mark was one person—Ince Zangwill.

Lu Li hurried downstairs, with Daly Simone following closely behind.

She caught up to him in the stairwell and asked in a hushed voice, "Did you sense something?"

"Hard to say."

Lu Li pushed open the iron door leading to the basement, his footsteps echoing urgently in the stone corridor leading to the Chanis Gate.

In the sealing maintenance room on the perimeter of the Chanis Gate, Old Neil had already stood up from his chair.

On the seal structure diagram in front of him, three warning runes of different colors lit up—pale blue, dark red, and deep purple.

The three lights lighting up simultaneously meant that the pressure on the seal was approaching the critical point the structure could withstand.

"Did you feel it?" Old Neil asked without turning his head.

"I felt it. Ince is making his move."

Old Neil took a deep breath, folded the formula Lu Li had given him and put it in his pocket, then took the specially made Sealed Artifact staff from the wall.

At the tip of the staff was embedded a thumb-sized dark crystal, inside which swirling, ever-changing black smoke rolled.

His hand was steady, but the moment he gripped the staff, the white, protruding knuckles exposed that his self-control had been pushed to its absolute limit.

"Since he wants to open the Chanis Gate," Old Neil tapped the staff on the ground, the three warning runes on the seal structure diagram extinguishing for an instant before lighting up again, "then let him try. This gate, I have guarded for fifteen years. Not him for fifteen years, but me."

There was no anger in that absolute calm.

Lu Li could hear the weight of an old man finally confirming his worst suspicions and taking up the burden with professional instinct.

Just then, a burst of hurried footsteps came from the other end of the corridor.

It wasn't Dunn Smith.

The footsteps were too light and too fast, the rhythm carrying a sense of caution unfamiliar with the layout of this corridor.

Lu Li and Daly Simone turned simultaneously toward the direction the sound was coming from.

The person flashed out from the corner of the corridor, with a slender figure, black hair dampened by rain sticking to his forehead, and deep brown eyes that were exceptionally bright in the dim corridor light.

He was wearing the standard dark gray trench coat of the Nighthawks, but it was clearly just put on—the cuffs were still a bit stiff, the collar wasn't fully turned down, and his entire demeanor exuded a scholarly air that was incongruous with the danger level of the mission.

The moment he saw Lu Li and Daly Simone, his footsteps paused, and he quickly made a brief self-introduction in Hermes.

"I am Klein Moretti. Captain Dunn Smith approved my application to join the team, and he asked me to first familiarize myself with the internal passages of the Nighthawks headquarters—"

Then he saw the direction of the Chanis Gate.

The three warning runes that had lit up simultaneously on the main console of the maintenance room were still flickering on and off.

The air was permeated with an ancient and cold Spirit World pressure seeping out from inside the seal, like the scent of rotting wood compressed for hundreds of years being released all at once.

The corner of Klein Moretti's eye twitched very slightly; he did not step back, nor did he ask what was happening here.

"You've come at just the right time."

Daly Simone spoke quickly, her tone twice as fast as when she usually spoke to newcomers, "Ince Zangwill has betrayed us and is attempting to forcibly open the Chanis Gate from the inside. The Captain went to confront him, but we estimate that he is already in danger. Since you are a newly joined Nighthawk—"

"I will assist in guarding this gate."

Klein Moretti interrupted her, his voice not loud, but unexpectedly composed.

He tilted his head to look at the crystal with rolling dark mist on Old Neil's staff, his right hand instinctively pressing against his chest, as if feeling whether something was still stored there.

His movement was very slight, so slight that only someone like Lu Li, who had a special focus on the Seer Pathway, would notice.

Lu Li thought to himself, the future Fool, having just joined the team, should not have many trump cards yet.

But he was already standing here, not retreating.

Old Neil glanced at Klein Moretti, then turned to Lu Li.

"That night at the Textile Factory, that lookout—you said his eyes didn't look like those of an ordinary cultist; now that I think about it, that was a tracking technique involving bloodline sensing. He wasn't waiting for a handover ceremony; he was waiting for the 'Blood of the Same Source' extracted at the Hoy Family's annual memorial to be delivered to Tingen. Four days from now, on the night of the full Moon, they will have sufficient direct Antigonus bloodline on hand to serve as a medium for the Spirit Descent Ritual."

He paused and gestured at Lu Li with his chin.

"So from now on, you don't need to stay up late helping me flip through files anymore. Since you were able to force that lookout to retreat at the Textile Factory last time, it shows that your judgment and reaction ability have already exceeded the average for Sequence 9. Follow Klein Moretti, guard the outer corridor, and do not let anyone who is not a Nighthawk pass. If someone really comes, prioritize forcing them back; do not fight head-on."

A dull thud suddenly came from the other end of the corridor.

The gas lamps in the entire corridor flickered simultaneously.

The seal deep inside the Chanis Gate emitted a low hum, like some kind of huge bell being struck deep underground.

The low-frequency vibration traveled along every brick and stone of the masonry wall, making one's tooth roots feel faintly numb.

Ince Zangwill had already started touching the seal.

Klein Moretti's voice sounded on Lu Li's right, his tone still unexpectedly steady, but his knuckles gripping his cuffs had already started to turn white: "If the seal breaks, what will happen?"

"Behind the Chanis Gate, it is not just the Snake of Fate that is sealed."

Lu Li said truthfully, his hands clenching into fists inside his raincoat pockets.

The fragment of the worm of time in his palm was still vibrating, the frequency getting faster and faster, like a heartbeat accelerating.

"The worst-case scenario is that an Outer Deity will have a gap torn from the inside in the heart of Tingen."

Klein Moretti was silent for a moment, then said something that completely changed Lu Li's impression of him.

"Then don't let it break."

He wasn't trembling.

His voice wasn't loud, but it was as steady as tightening a mooring line on a dock.

Then he took off his soaked coat and took out a small package wrapped in oil paper from the inside pocket—it was the remnant page of the Antigonus notebook, the one he had voluntarily handed over before joining the team.

The sealing inscription on the remnant page emitted an extremely faint silver fluorescence in the dim light of the corridor, as if activated by the dense Spirit World pressure surrounding them.

The thudding at the end of the corridor became more and more frequent.

The bell sounds stopped, but the three warning runes were still flickering.

Lu Li unclenched his fists, took out the still-vibrating fragment of the worm of time, and placed it in his palm.

In this resonance of the Pathway belonging to the Lord of the Mysteries, there was no need to say everything tonight to build trust between them.

Four days from now, on the night of the full Moon, the Hoy Family's annual memorial would become the first watershed of the Tingen catastrophe.

And the young Seer standing before him, at that time just a newly joined Nighthawk, was already learning to stabilize the first brick of this battle in the way peculiar to his Pathway.