41: Chapter 41 Before the War

It was the morning of the last Tuesday in November when Lu Li placed the briefing—compiled from all the materials he had brought back from Backlund—onto Dunn's desk.

The briefing was thin, consisting of only four pages.

The first page was a summary of Abraham's purchase records, listing the complete inventory of materials the client had ordered via paper cranes over the past four months.

The second page contained a rubbing of the silver snake emblem pendant and Old Neil's preliminary analysis of the encrypted information.

The third page was a summary of Old Eye's testimony regarding the transaction between Roselle and the Snake of Fate.

The fourth page was an assessment conclusion written by Lu Li himself—he suggested that the Tingen squad conduct a comprehensive inspection of all known Antigonus-related sealing nodes in the near future, to prevent the client from reactivating the backup rune after The Dark Channel incident.

Dunn flipped through it page by page from start to finish, not skipping a single line.

Outside the window, the sky over Tingen was gray, and the cold wind of late November snuck in through the window cracks, rustling the documents on the desk.

He closed the briefing, leaned back in his chair, and remained silent for a moment.

"This client—he has the Antigonus Family's snake emblem token in his hands, has the money to hire Abraham for purchases, and has the channels to obtain Emperor Roselle's self-created text encryption technique. Yet, from beginning to end, he has never appeared in person. Is he afraid of being recognized, or is he afraid of being tracked?"

"Perhaps both."

Lu Li sat in the chair opposite the desk, hands crossed on his knees. "Old Neil analyzed the spirituality imprint on the paper crane and confirmed it came from a Beyonder of at least Sequence 7. However, the imprint itself has undergone multiple layers of encryption, making it impossible to directly identify the specific person. Anyone capable of mastering this encryption technique has either received specialized training from the church archives or is a core member of some ancient, secret organization."

Dunn placed the briefing back on the desk, tapping the purchase list on the first page with his fingertips.

"He accelerated the purchase of potion materials before The Dark Channel incident and suddenly stopped afterward. The timing matches perfectly. If his purchases were in preparation for the Spirit Descent Ritual, he should have stopped immediately after the ritual failed. But he left a note saying 'Suspend purchases, wait for notification'—this phrasing doesn't sound like giving up; it sounds more like waiting for a new opportunity."

"The new opportunity is the next fluctuation in sealing pressure. Although the outer seal of Chanis Gate has stabilized, the mold's root system is still dormant. As long as there is another spiritual pulse, the root system will reactivate. And the Antigonus bloodline imprint inside the silver snake key has not been completely eliminated yet. The key is still in the Potion Room's safe."

Dunn was silent for a few seconds, then locked the briefing in a drawer, stood up, and took his dark gray trench coat from the coat rack.

"Assemble the whole team. Invite Old Neil over as well."

The meeting was held in the second-floor conference room. There were not many attendees, but they were all the core members the Tingen squad could currently mobilize.

Dunn sat at the head of the long table, with Old Neil on his left, Klein on his right, and Leonard and Daly opposite him. Rozanne was responsible for taking notes; her typewriter had been moved to the end of the conference table, with a dust cover over the keyboard.

Dunn distributed the summary of Lu Li's briefing to everyone present.

Old Neil had already read the full version, so he focused his attention on observing the reactions of the others.

Leonard flipped from the first page to the fourth twice as fast as he usually did when reading patrol reports, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter.

Daly traced the names of the materials on the purchase list line by line with her fingertips, her lips moving silently; she was clearly memorizing the patterns of these material combinations in her own way.

Klein was not in a hurry to turn the page. He carefully read every page from start to finish, then picked up the rubbing of the snake emblem pendant to examine it against the gas lamp.

The spacing of the Hermes script on the rubbing was uneven, and under the transmitted light, one could vaguely make out several positions where the spacing had been intentionally widened. His finger paused on the edge of the rubbing.

"I've seen this encryption method in the fourth epoch literature research materials at the university library."

"A short passage in Emperor Roselle's late-life diary used a similar typesetting encryption method, embedding a second layer of information by fine-tuning the letter spacing."

"The research materials say this technique can be traced back to the court documents during the peak of the Antigonus Family—their scribes would use this method when copying important contracts to embed the contract's hidden clauses into the main text. Only those holding the corresponding decryption key could read the content of the hidden clauses."

He placed the rubbing back on the table and looked at Lu Li. "Those old archives that Old Eye told you about regarding the transaction between Roselle and the Snake of Fate—if they exist—were very likely written using this encryption method."

"This is the Antigonus Family's own encryption technique; no one in the church archives can directly understand it. The reason Roselle was able to reach a deal with the Snake of Fate back then wasn't just because he was bold. He likely discovered how to crack this encryption method during some archaeological excavation, then used it to read the hidden clauses buried in an old contract, and took the initiative to find the Snake of Fate to negotiate terms."

Old Neil thumped his staff on the floor and took over the conversation.

"So, the enemy we are facing now has a significant advantage in terms of intelligence."

"Although his Sequence isn't too high, he holds the Antigonus Family's token and encryption technique in his hands, making him clearer on the true operation of the Spirit Descent Ritual than we are."

"He knows where the weakness in the main seal of Chanis Gate is, knows the activation conditions for the backup rune, knows where the other half of the snake emblem token is hidden—and he very likely even knows why the jiaowei was transferred to Backlund."

"The transfer of the jiaowei to Backlund was a decision by the church headquarters, not because of anyone's behind-the-scenes manipulation," Dunn said, frowning.

"Perhaps not manipulation, but very likely taking advantage of the situation."

"When the jiaowei was in Tingen, it was one of the auxiliary heat sources for the outer seal of Chanis Gate. It didn't contribute much to the stability of the seal, but with it present, the temperature fluctuations at the sealing nodes were much smoother. After it was transferred away, the temperature fluctuation magnitude at the third sealing node of the Chanis Gate's outer seal expanded to twice what it was before. No one noticed this change at the time the jiaowei was transferred because the sealing pressure itself did not increase significantly. But if the client knew in advance that the jiaowei would be transferred, he could incorporate the timing of the jiaowei's transfer into his plan—activating the backup rune at the node where the sealing temperature fluctuation is greatest would result in a higher success rate."

The conference room was silent for a long time.

Finally, Dunn broke the silence and began to list, item by item, on the blackboard the tasks that needed to be completed immediately: the entire team's leave is canceled, and they are to enter the highest state of alert immediately;

the intelligence group is to conduct a new round of cross-comparison on all known Antigonus-related sealing nodes, with a focus on re-verifying purified anchor points and backup runes;

the Potion Room is to prepare a reserve of spiritual resistance potions and concentrated holy water in advance, ensuring they can be deployed at any time; Leonard is responsible for re-checking whether every root system in the mold-cleared sections of Iron Cross Street has entered a dormant state, with Lu Li assisting.

After the task assignments were completed, Dunn looked at everyone one by one.

"We don't know which node he will target. We also don't know how many cards he still holds in his hand. But the fact that he has been able to scheme in the dark for so long shows that he has accumulated enough patience. Starting tonight, everyone is to remain at headquarters, rotating shifts."

After the meeting adjourned, the atmosphere in the Potion Room was much quieter than at the other end of the corridor.

Old Neil took the silver snake key out of the safe and placed it on a lead tray.

The surface of the key was very quiet, the snake-shaped relief was motionless, and the garnet was not hot.

Lu Li sat opposite the workbench, his copy of the Backlund briefing, which was almost worn out from being flipped through, resting on his knees.

Old Neil looked at Lu Li. "The encryption information on that snake emblem pendant you brought back from Backlund points to the jiaowei. The jiaowei is in the warehouse of the Backlund diocese headquarters. If the client knew before The Dark Channel incident that the jiaowei would be transferred, how did he know in advance? The proposal for the jiaowei's transfer was only brought up at an internal church meeting after Ince's defection; the records in the written documents were not leaked."

Lu Li thought for a moment. "Perhaps he didn't know through written documents. Perhaps the jiaowei itself is a trigger condition."

"The encrypted information on the snake emblem pendant points to the jiaowei, not because the jiaowei is the target, but because the jiaowei is a marker. The transfer of the jiaowei away from Tingen meant that the magnitude of temperature fluctuations at the outer seal of Chanis Gate expanded—this fluctuation is a signal to everyone holding a snake emblem token. They don't need written documents, nor do they need intelligence leaks; they only need to perceive the change in the sealing temperature at the same time the jiaowei is transferred, and they naturally know the time has come."

Old Neil did not answer; he just pressed his hand on the key's handle, set his enamel cup on the workbench, and looked toward the bell tower of Saint Selena Cathedral outside the window.

The night descended quickly.

The gas lamp at the end of the corridor was dimmed to half brightness, and the shadows on the walls were stretched long and thin in the dimness.

Lu Li leaned against the wall outside the Potion Room, arms crossed, staring at the patterns on the stone bricks opposite him. Klein walked over carrying a pot of freshly brewed black tea and handed him a cup.

"I plan to make another trip to Backlund for the jiaowei. Although the client has suspended purchases, he still has the snake emblem token in his hand. The other half of the token is very likely still in his hands."

Klein leaned against the opposite wall, holding his teacup. "What do you think he will do next?"

"Wait. Just like us right now. But waiting itself is an action—whoever finds the other half of the token first will be the one to grasp the full content of the debt. Time is on his side, and it is also on ours." Lu Li said, blowing the steam off the rim of his cup.

Klein was silent for a while.

From the stairwell came the sound of footsteps as Leonard finished his patrol and came to change shifts, along with the slight clatter of Daly closing her umbrella at the door of the archives.

He took a sip of tea and shifted his gaze from Lu Li toward the tightly closed Chanis Gate at the end of the corridor.

"Then don't let him find it first," he said.