When the name Philip Noah came up in the conversation,
Annan almost immediately realized that Delicious Wind Goose was likely going to achieve something significant.
Delicious Wind Goose had no knowledge of the situation in Nata County, let alone what a demon was... He didn’t even know about the existence of the path to ruin.
He was also unaware of the tense state of the Noah royal household and would not have heard the name Prince Philip.
That was probably also the reason that bald man had chosen him as a partner.
——Because Delicious Wind Goose knew nothing.
It was nearly impossible to fool these crafty old hands with acting.
There were indeed many flaws in Delicious Wind Goose’s statements. Due to his lack of common knowledge, he didn’t realize it himself.
The priests of the Silver Baron didn’t need any escort.
It’s true that priests didn’t have professional levels, but that did not mean they were incapable of protecting themselves.
Even without considering priests like Louis who were nearly 1.9 meters tall, weighed more than two hundred kilos, and did jogging and push-ups every morning to exercise...
The other priests also wouldn’t lack one or two bodyguards.
The essence of the Holy Light Marks is a proof for purifying nightmares, as well as a special kind of "prestige currency" bestowed by the deities to their followers.
And naturally, what it could purchase was not limited to Divine Arts.
They could also buy some permanent or long-term passively effective abilities. Coupled with the occasional Curse Bindings obtained while purifying nightmares... Although they weren’t as powerful as wizards, they had no worries about self-defense.
An example would be Brother-in-bread.
The first time Annan saw him, he still didn’t know the principle or Divine Art behind Bishop Daryl’s technique, which appeared suddenly before Annan and disappeared just as quickly, or how to break free from it.
He remembered that when Bishop Daryl first appeared, it was as if he had directly pulled them into a personal barrier realm—The cold breeze before the heavy rain and the passersby on the streets were completely invisible.
Only Annan and the players were able to see him.
If such Divine Arts were used for assassination... the number of guards would be useless no matter how many there were.
And Divine Arts like Eternal Youth and the Resonating Object were the kind of single-fee Divine Arts that could be purchased with just one mark.
It wasn’t because their effects were weak—the ability to instantly erase minor injuries, significantly accelerate the healing of serious wounds, and to turn silver coins into bullets for ranged attacks, none of which were feeble.
Actually, it was a kind of welfare.
With just three Holy Light Marks, one could obtain basic self-defense and working abilities.
It was like those practical skills at the very front of the skill tree that could easily be filled and stayed useful until the late game.
The three Holy Light Marks of the Silver Knight on Annan were essentially Annan’s saved money. After all, if Holy Light Marks were not spent and just carried on oneself, they could also be actively activated to enhance the effects of Divine Arts... Being a resource type that "could lay eggs if saved," it didn’t count as a loss.
As for the "Tragic Writer’s" Holy Light Mark, Annan was recently researching and planning to see what Divine Arts he could purchase.
After all, he was not a true believer in the Tragic Writer.
If he purified nightmares in the future, he would not continue to receive His Holy Light Marks. So it was better to spend it now and purchase a practical one-fee Divine Art to bolster his combat power in nightmares.
But the Divine Arts of the Tragic Writer were too niche and ornate... It turned out that some short-term buffs were more practical.
Annan was also hesitating about which one to buy.
Now, having seen the information provided by Delicious Wind Goose, he finally made up his mind and chose a temporary blessing he had picked out earlier:
[Blessing: Foresight of Murder (Minor): Targets who will be murdered within the next half hour are marked red within sight (this blessing is valid for one year)]
And like those from the Silver Knight, Annan saw blessings like +3 to constitution, skin hardening, constant Detect Poisons...
If they were indeed veteran priests, how could they possibly need a mercenary escort?
Aside from those two embarrassing player-priest rookies, the other veteran priests were probably much stronger than a novice Transcendent like Delicious Wind Goose.
——Yet that bald man didn’t expose Delicious Wind Goose’s lie, but immediately agreed to cooperate with him instead.
Generally speaking, would you engage in such dangerous cooperation after discovering that someone had told a major lie? Especially since Delicious Wind Goose was not an old friend, and they had known each other for only an hour.
...Unless he simply didn’t care who the Delicious Wind Goose was, or what he was going to do in the Royal Capital.
He just wanted to capture a Transcendent who wasn’t sensitive to this information.
"Still not cautious enough, Old Goose..."
Was it really so easy to obtain an item of golden quality?
Turning a devil into a potion—this wasn’t something an ordinary transformation Wizard could do.
A devil, after all, was transformed from a Transcendent, not a "crystal," "flame," "metal," or any other more pure substance, nor some elemental life form.
Before this, Annan only knew of one thing that could refine a Transcendent into a potion.
—The Philosopher’s Stone of the Hermes School.
It was also an item of gold quality.
But a Philosopher’s Stone of perfect quality was known as a divine object, the "ultimate essence of elements."
If it was mass-producing silver-grade Transcendents, it might still be considered an item of gold quality.
Mass-producing potions from devils... It obviously didn’t quite match up.
So there was only one possibility left.
It wasn’t a gold "consumable."
It was a gold "poison" or a gold "ritual material."
From the fact that "devil’s blood" could be poured directly into mead without being destroyed, it was evident... that bald man was already very skilled at creating this kind of "poisoned wine."
The Delicious Wind Goose had overlooked a problem here.
He said that he had always been the supplier of devil’s blood.
So... where had the previous devil’s blood gone?
Who was the person delivering devil’s blood to Philip before?
Why did it fall to a stranger to do this task?
Annan didn’t ponder over it by himself.
As soon as he sensed something was amiss, he immediately went to find Kafney.
Of all the people he could contact, she was the one most likely to know about this.
As expected, Kafney did know about it:
"...Devil’s blood." Kafney’s expression was a bit complicated: "I do know about it, but how did you hear about this...?"
"I got this information from the Delicious Wind Goose," Annan said.
So Annan simply summarized what he had seen through the live broadcast to Kafney, only changing the broadcast into a more understandable contract.
"I see..." Kafney thought for a moment and nodded lightly.
She said to Annan in a low voice, "That kind of mead, mixed with devil’s blood, has been regularly purchased by Prince Philip. Apart from being used a few times, the rest was made into some kind of ritual material. As for that material... you have actually seen it before."
"I have seen it...?" Annan was a bit surprised.
...Could it be at that banquet?
Kafney gave a light hum of affirmation and said, "You saw it the time you came to Noah.
"I don’t know if you remember... Prince Philip, he was always eating sugar."