On the night before the execution, a man could be seen covertly making his way into the Valley of Mist which had been the site of much attention in the past few days.
Although the location was still surrounded by multiple spies from different forces, it seemed as if this man had eyes all around the Valley, which enabled him to find a spot which no other party was watching at the moment.
After entering the Valley successfully, the man pulled back his hood to reveal an aged face with a scraggly beard and a long nose.
This was Daneel, and if he had been told a few hours ago that he would be making his way into the most booby-trapped location in the entirety of the continent, he would have scoffed at the notion.
Yet, right now he found himself asking the system to keep a close eye on his surroundings in order to warn him in case he was going to step into any trap.
His reason behind coming here went back to the meeting he had had with the Eldest Prince a few hours ago.
After entering the room in which the Prince had been being held, Daneel had said something which made Kellor who stood beside him gasp with surprise.
"Stop breathing".
Yet, the thing that happened next shocked Kellor even more.
The Eldest Prince, who had sworn an oath to follow every order of Daneel's is no matter what it was, managed to ignore this statement after an expression of struggle came on his face.
Unlike Daneel who had already seen his master circumvent his oath with the Church to give him information, Kellor had never even had the thought that an oath-taker could defy orders in this way.
In fact, even Daneel had been unaware about this before the notification about the strange condition of the Vice Sect Master's body has sounded in his head.
[Technique: "Two minds, one body" analyzed. Using a combination of elementary particles, a recently deceased person's head is grafted onto the chest of an individual. This head's link with the body allows it to share consciousness with the host. As an oath binds consciousness, orders given through the oath can be ignored to a certain degree especially when they threaten the life of the body which both consciousnesses inhabit. Along with this, heightened danger awareness, battle effectiveness and temporarily increased training speed are the advantages if the second consciousness can be effectively controlled by the host. Further analysis needed for development of technique.]
After listening to the notification, Daneel had gone blank for a few seconds. This was definitely the most unique technique that he had ever seen since coming to this continent.
In fact, it definitely belonged to a branch of magic which he had never even heard about even though he had absorbed so much knowledge from all the books in Lanthanor.
Deciding to put it aside for now to handle the other pressing matters, he had asked if the Eldest Prince also had a similar condition as the Vice Sect Master's.
After all, it was quite obvious that because he was bound so tightly by the oath he had given to Daneel, the Eldest Prince would choose to cultivate this technique if he got the chance.
After finding out that it was true, Daneel had come to the room and given this order to test out the effectiveness of this technique.
Unlike the face on the Vice Sect Master's chest which had been trying to get out, the one on the eldest prince was more subdued as if it was in the last stages of completely assimilating into its host.
As the system had said, the circumvention was only most effective when orders which threaten the life of the host were given. Yet, when questions about the secrets of the Sect he had spent so much time in were asked, he had no choice but to give the answers.
As a force which had existed since many centuries, the Withering Leaf Sect had tremendous reserves of techniques whose physical copies were apparently still inside the headquarters.
In their hurry, only the backups made in parchments had been extracted, as it would be too tedious of a job to try and take away all the originals which occupied rows and rows of bookshelves.
Apparently, even the legendary spell technique of the Withering Leaf Sect was still in the headquarters, because it was rumored that it was something that was stored along with the heart of the formation which defended the sect headquarters.
Just like in the case when the Ex-King's father had passed away leaving the formation of the Palace of Lanthanor ownerless, the Sect Formation was apparently also vulnerable right now.
Of course, many countermeasures had been put in place so that no enemy would even get the notion of trying to invade when there was temporarily no one inside.
After all, the sect did intend to go back as soon as they found a way to resolve the situation with the mosquitoes.
Daneel's eyes had widened when he realized that this was the perfect time to try and infiltrate the sect.
But what about the formations and the traps?
The answer for this came in part due to the notification which had sounded in his mind when he had been drinking with his father the night before.
[Achievement Unlocked: Psyche of a World Dominator-1
Psyche of a World Dominator-1 : Through your experiences, you have managed to shed your naivety to understand that mercy to one's enemies means cruelty towards one's own people. By realizing this, you have matured and now have a mindset more befitting that of a future World Dominator. Congratulations!
5000 EXP awarded.]
Thinking that EXP was really like sand which kept slipping through his fingers every time he managed to grasp some, Daneel had grudgingly bought the tool which was needed if he even wanted to consider the plan of infiltrating the Withering Leaf Sect's headquarters.
[Hidden Object Detection-1: Allows the host to detect formations and trinkets which are hidden. Detection is required for Phenomena Analysis Module to analyze any hidden objects.]
Indeed, so far, the Phenomena Analysis Module had only been able to analyze whatever was in his vicinity in the cases when it wasn't purposefully hidden from him.
Yet, in the Valley of Mist, all the traps would definitely be so covert that he wouldn't even be able to complain before dying from any one of them.
After all, the Sect had depended on these traps to defend itself from even personages who were at the Warrior level, which was evidenced by the fact that many Warriors had also gone missing inside the Valley in the past few decades.
After entering the Valley, Daneel finally understood why they were so confident that they would never lose a fight inside.
Almost each and every step that he took had a risk associated with it that would have led to his demise if it hadn't been for the system letting him know exactly how to circumvent and traverse the Valley Floor in order to be safe.
According to the system, this unique path which allowed one to safely pass through shifted every hour.
Thus, feeling thankful that he hadn't taken chances, Daneel smoothly reached the Headquarters of the Sect before being awed by its natural majesty.
It was as if the entire structure which composed of courtyards and lavish buildings had grown along with the forest which it was located in.
In fact, if it weren't for the system disabling the formation around it which made it appear as a set of dilapidated buildings, Daneel would never have been able to see this grandeur which was hidden to all except the Sect Members.
Entering the Sect, he made his way according to the Eldest Prince's grudging instructions to the reach the room which held the techniques of the Sect.
His eyes gleaming due to the many leather-bound books neatly arranged in rows of bookshelves in front of him which each represented a chance to grow in power, Daneel completely became absorbed in the task of devouring them all.
While he was taking each book out mechanically to let the system analyze them, he thought back to the problem that had been raised by Kellor a few hours before.
With all the recent spending, the government was apparently already in a deficit of 5 Million Gold Lans.
Besides, because of having to use all the remaining Ker Gems to kill the members of the Sect by driving the mosquitoes into a frenzy, Daneel had no more resources to speed up his training.
Right now, money was a necessity for Lanthanor without which it might come to a disastrous halt.
As he was thinking along these lines, a specific technique which he was currently absorbing into the system caught his eye, making him drop the tome and take a step back in disbelief.