96: Chapter 34 The Invitation to the Secret Order

After breaking through to Sequence 7: Swindler of the Marauder Pathway and stably digesting the potion for several days, Lu Li received a special letter in his private mailbox at the River Bay District black market.

The letter was forwarded through Old Eye's second-hand bookstore on Water Pump Street. There was no sender's signature. The parchment envelope was sealed with an embossed black snake emblem—the snake's body coiled into a closed loop, with tiny triangular patterns embedded in its pupils. It was the exclusive mark of the Secret Order, extremely difficult to forge and almost impossible to replicate.

Upon opening the envelope, the letter was revealed to be on rough, vintage fourth epoch hemp paper. The handwriting on it was sharp and cold, the strokes decisive, the endings clean without any unnecessary hooks—it perfectly matched the handwriting on the note Vera had left at the pier warehouse to inform him about the details of the debt ruins.

The text in the letter was extremely minimalist, without any polite pleasantries, stating the core information directly:

"The Secret Order has completed a comprehensive origin verification and reached a final conclusion: the Antigonus Ruins underground seal is permanently closed."

"When organization members were recovering the spiritual imprints of the debt contract replicas, they detected a brand-new weak point between the Spirit World and reality, located deep underground in the abandoned quarry in the northern suburbs of Backlund."

"There remains a small sacrificial platform built during the early fourth epoch, when the Antigonus Family was at its peak. The seal rune system on the platform is of the same origin and quality as the underground debt ruins, but it was built earlier and is smaller in scale—it is the experimental prototype of the first-generation seal base."

"The Secret Order will form a special investigation team to verify the status of the platform seal on-site, and specially invites Lu Li, codenamed 'Traveler', to accompany them as an independent third-party investigator."

"As an equivalent reward, Lu Li may unconditionally and preferentially consult all fourth epoch handwritten documents and stone inscription rubbings related to the northern suburb sacrificial platform and the first-generation seal system in their collection."

Lu Li rubbed his fingertips over the rough texture of the letter, read it twice, then slowly folded it and put it away.

The Secret Order has always believed in equivalent exchange, never overdrawing favors, and never giving away information for free.

Previously, in the black market, he had deliberately concealed the Secret Order mark on the snake-patterned ore to help Vera avoid church inspections; in the library basement, he had seen through her Apprentice Pathway identity but chose to remain silent, preserving the Secret Order's dark line infiltrating official institutions.

For these two favors, the Secret Order did not fob him off with money or Beyonder materials, but instead reciprocated with information about a highly valuable spatial node associated with the Antigonus original seal, and also included access to their document archives.

This transaction was clean and fair, and it tangibly raised the credibility of the independent Beyonder 'Traveler' in the Backlund underground circle.

The entire process involved no affiliation with any faction; it was purely his own accumulation of credit.

The next morning, mist shrouded Water Pump Street, and the unique scent of old paper mixed with moldy, damp wood drifted through the alleys.

Old Eye was hunched over, crouching in the mezzanine of the top bookshelf, sorting through newly acquired second-hand ancient books one by one. His copper-rimmed reading glasses slid down to the tip of his nose, and he looked up when he heard footsteps.

Lu Li handed over the letter with the snake emblem. The old man raised his hand to take off his glasses, wiped the lenses unhurriedly with the corner of his dark linen garment, a flash of realization passing through his aged eyes.

Having mixed in the Backlund underground intelligence circle for decades, he understood the Secret Order's survival logic far better than Lu Li: always diversify chips, always keep a backup plan, and never pin all hope on a single conclusion or a single faction.

"They have chosen you to be the neutral arbiter."

Old Eye put his glasses back on, tapped the table with his fingertips, and said in a firm, calm tone, revealing the inner power struggle.

"Regarding the closing of the ruins' seal, the Secret Order has long been divided. The conservative faction believes that the Snake of Fate's remnant soul dissipated along with the destruction of the contract replicas, meaning the seal is permanently secure and there is no need to waste resources on further investigation; the radical faction is convinced that the first-generation seal has a backdoor, and that the ruins' results alone are inconclusive—a source platform must be found to corroborate it."

"The inspection of the northern suburb quarry is the final verification of the two factions' struggle. They need an outsider who is completely detached from the Secret Order factions, the church, and the Tarot Club, someone with strong capabilities and a clean reputation, to witness the results and prevent any possibility of internal data tampering or forged rune records. And you are the most suitable candidate."

At this point, Old Eye looked up at Lu Li: "After this matter, the name 'Traveler' will have significantly improved access in the fields of underground commissions, Beyonder material allocation, and Secret Order document borrowing."

Lu Li nodded slightly and then asked about the dangers of the underground sacrificial platform.

Old Eye pulled open the rusty wooden drawer of his desk and took out a yellowed, wrinkled old military map.

He pointed his fingertip at a blackened area on the edge of the northern suburbs and warned in a deep voice: "The quarry surface is not dangerous; the fatal hidden dangers are all at the stone wall sacrificial platform."

"The Antigonus Family's seal runes possess an inertial persistence characteristic, like an old clock wound to the maximum. Even if they lose their core power supply, they will continue to operate autonomously for months or even years by relying on the site's spirituality. The platform retains fragments of the first-generation seal base, which have accumulated vengeful spirit remnants over years of operation, mixed with twisted fate spirituality, making them extremely corrosive."

"You must prepare enough holy water for purification and carry high-level spatial perception charms. The mass-produced charms circulating in the black market have thin spirituality and are not enough to penetrate the platform's seal barrier. Bring all the charm fragments you previously exchanged from the Secret Order; those are specially crafted items adapted to the Antigonus spatial patterns."

After bidding farewell to Old Eye, Lu Li took a detour to the detective agency on Mingde Street.

The afternoon sun shone through the street-facing glass window onto the files stacked on the desk. Sherlock, dressed in a simple black suit, was sealing and binding the final civil commission report, while a recently delivered Royal Mail telegram lay flat on the corner of the desk.

"Leonard has completed his Red Gloves specialized training and will arrive in Backlund soon to assist the headquarters in tracking the trail of Ince Zangwill." Sherlock casually locked the telegram into a drawer, looked up at Lu Li, and said in a flat tone.

"I only replied as a private detective and did not mention any Beyonder-related information. Has there been any unusual movement in the underground circle recently?"

Lu Li did not hide anything and straightforwardly recounted all the information about the Secret Order's invitation letter and the northern suburb sacrificial platform.

Sherlock tapped his fingertips on the desk, his mind instantly linking to the investigation details of the previous old book swap case: back then, he had used his Seer ability to analyze the dust at the crime scene, and the spiritual structure of the particles was completely of the same origin as the fragments of the debt ruins' seal base.

"The first-generation experimental platform's rune records are far more valuable than the later mass-produced contract replicas." Sherlock's eyes darkened slightly, instantly seeing through the Secret Order's intentions. "The factions are deadlocked and the conclusions are in doubt, so they need a third party to set the tone. When are you leaving?"

"The day after tomorrow morning."

"Leave the precise coordinates." Sherlock took out a notepad and pushed it in front of him, his tone firm. "The platform connects to the Spirit World, and there are too many variables. If you encounter high-level vengeful spirits or seal backlash, directly activate the paper figurine messenger, and I will come to assist at any time."

On the day of departure, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, the abandoned quarry in the northern suburbs was shrouded in gray-white morning mist. The rock walls were exposed and mottled, the ground was covered with weathered gravel, and the air was filled with a heavy smell of earth and the aura of decaying spirituality.

At the entrance of the quarry, the Secret Order's investigation team had already assembled.

Vera stood at the head of the team, having shed her usual sharp skirt for a wear-resistant, dark gray canvas work jacket. A leather tool belt was tied around her waist, and the canvas bag on her back was bulging, filled with cut and separated spatial perception charm fragments.

The morning light fell on her profile, her brows and eyes cool and calm, the spiritual fluctuations of her Apprentice Pathway restrained to an extremely shallow level, almost imperceptible.

Two people accompanied her, with clearly defined roles.

One was a veteran literature researcher over fifty, with thick, bottle-bottom copper-rimmed lens glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. His fingertips were covered in thin calluses from years of copying stone inscriptions. He carried a sealed lead document box, the body of which was engraved with protective runes to isolate spiritual interference.

The other wore a navy blue matte cloak, with a square, steady face and spiritual energy restrained without a trace; he was a Sequence 5: Mysticism Magister of the Secret Order, specializing in seal array stabilization and suppressing Spirit World vengeful spirits.

When Vera saw Lu Li arrive, she had no unnecessary pleasantries or faction probing. She nodded slightly to signal, her speech concise and clear, finalizing the division of labor: "The route leads directly to the underground platform with no branching paths. Researcher Elliott is responsible for in-situ rubbings and deciphering the Hermes seal runes. Mentor Karen has full authority over the seal array's stability and clearing wandering vengeful spirits. As for the two of us, we will use spatial charms for a full-area scan to verify the seal activity of the platform's core crystal."

"Agreed."

Lu Li responded, took a black-bottomed, silver-patterned Secret Order standard charm from the leather pouch at his waist, attached it to the lens of his brass telescope, and gently injected his spirituality. The charm instantly lit up with fine silver light, and he then stepped forward to follow the team, walking slowly deep underground along the abandoned ore transport ramp.

The ramp was deep and damp, with dark black moss clinging to the rock walls on both sides. The deeper they went, the more intense the twisted fate-type spirituality became, faintly carrying whispers that made one irritable and palpitating.

About ten minutes later, the team arrived at the very core of the quarry.

On a flat, artificially excavated stone wall, a circular stone sacrificial platform with a diameter of three meters was embedded. The surface was covered with intertwined Hermes ancient scripts, paired with the spiral inscription symbols unique to the Antigonus Family. The patterns were complex and precise, of the same origin as the debt ruins' contract rune system, but with a completely different purpose.

The ruins' runes were for debt repayment and fate-binding contracts; the platform runes here recorded the entire calibration parameters for the first-generation seal base's power supply circuit and the trajectory of Spirit World energy diversion.

In the very center of the platform was embedded a fist-sized dark green crystal core, which was the energy core of the first-generation seal.

The spirituality inside the crystal core alternated between bright and dark, the rhythm slow and sluggish. Each time it lit up and dimmed, the interval lasted more than ten seconds, its vitality weak.

Scattered around the platform were a large number of exploded stone brick fragments, the runes remaining on the brick surfaces still circulating by inertia, floating with a thin, fleeting layer of dark silver spiritual shimmer.

Vera stepped forward, half-crouched at the edge of the platform, and suspended her fair palm over the central crystal core.

Invisible, transparent spatial tentacles spread out from her fingertips, as fine as strands of hair, drilling into the micro-rune array on the crystal core's surface for an immersive perception of the internal spiritual structure. A moment later, she retracted her tentacles and gave her judgment in a low voice:

"The power supply circuit is still running, but the spiritual peak is only one-tenth of its prime. The crystal core's original structure is intact; it has just lost the external power supply from the Snake of Fate's remnant soul and has entered a passive, inert dormant state, rather than being damaged or rendered ineffective."

As her voice fell, Lu Li immediately activated his exclusive information analysis ability as a Cryptologist.

A pale golden spiritual vision unfolded. All the intertwined runes on the platform automatically peeled away and deconstructed, splitting into hundreds of independent power supply circuit modules, each with a clearly discernible spiritual decay rate.

Massive amounts of data were rapidly deduced, fitted, and spliced in his mind, quickly generating a complete lifespan decay map.

He looked levelly at the crystal core and gave his final conclusion in a firm tone:

"In six months at most, all of the platform's power supply circuits will completely hibernate and solidify. The debt liquidation is complete, the Snake of Fate's remnant soul has completely dissipated from the world, and no power can ever activate this set of first-generation seal runes again. The seal will never restart on its own."

On the other side, Researcher Elliott had just finished making rubbings of the last line of stone-carved runes. He closed his waterproof leather notebook, took off his heavy glasses to wipe the lenses, and said with much emotion: "In over forty years of practice, this is the most complete first-generation seal calibration record I have ever seen. Combined with the previous spiritual data from the contract replicas, the two chains of evidence are completely closed, sufficient to refute the radical faction's conjectures and finalize the conclusion."

The inspection went smoothly without any twists and turns. That evening, the team evacuated the quarry along the original route and disbanded on the spot.

At night, in his apartment in the River Bay District, under the warm yellow gas lamp, Lu Li picked up his pen to organize the inspection report, detailing the hibernation patterns of the sacrificial platform circuits, seal activity data, and the Secret Order's on-site verification conclusions.

The divergence and power struggle between the two factions of the Secret Order would reach a conclusion in a few days or weeks at most; this storm surrounding the Antigonus Ruins was temporarily unrelated to him.

But this underground trip had a significance far beyond being a third-party witness.

He had completely glimpsed the underlying logic, power supply principles, and rune architecture of the fourth epoch Antigonus Family seal system, and his Cryptologist ability to analyze fate seals and spatial patterns had been tangibly tempered.

Every subsequent Sequence advancement in the Marauder Pathway could not bypass the three core elements of fate, space, and origin seals. This underground harvest had already become an indispensable foundation for his subsequent advancement.