Baron Cullen

Karen followed Lamont out of the room and sat down in the hall.

Although he has now successfully advanced to the second-tier warrior level and has a certain ability to protect himself.

But he still couldn't let his guard down in the face of the hidden dangers.

Especially the person behind the scenes whom Jacob had previously mentioned, Bastian Jim, a priest of the Church of Saint Cyrus.

However, he doesn't yet have any evidence to accuse the other party, so he doesn't want to reveal this clue so quickly.

After considering this, he asked tactfully, "Vice Commander, I benefited greatly from your previous inquiry about the various noble families in the city."

But the recent human organ trafficking case and today's Knights incident make me feel that the waters of the City of No Breath are deeper than I imagined.

Therefore, I would like to inquire with you about the various factions in the city and their important figures.

"Are you worried that the Knights might harm you?" Lamont thought Karen was worried about what happened at the Knights today. "Don't worry about that. The city lord's mansion has intervened. Kevin isn't stupid. He'll probably quiet down for a while."

"As for the other forces in the city..." He raised his thick eyebrows and smiled, "They are nothing more than our warband, the Mage Guild, and the Order Keepers."

On the surface, the major powers each perform their duties and cooperate with each other. Although friction is inevitable, at least the other two powers are not as shameless as the Knights.

Karen listened attentively.

After Lamont finished speaking, he added, seemingly casually, "And what about the church?"

I feel that the church has always been detached from the major powers.

Besides Bishop Albert, who else in the church is considered influential?

He very naturally steered the conversation toward the church.

The reason is quite clever: the Church has never been considered one of the major powers in Breathless City.

Lamont stroked his stubble and said thoughtfully, "Hmm... the Church is indeed quite special, after all, they are not under the jurisdiction of the Empire, but are directly controlled by the Imperial Papacy."

As for the Church of St. Celeste in our city, Bishop Albert naturally holds the highest position, and is known for his fairness and considerable strength.

He also had several priests under him, who were in charge of specific internal church affairs.

But now that you mention it…”

He seemed to be recalling something before slowly saying, "I remember one of the priests was named Bastian Jim, who was mainly responsible for liaising with the nobles and merchants in the city."

This guy has close ties with many nobles, such as the Baal family, which seems to be among them.

Although the downfall of the Baal family has nothing to do with your Waller family, given Bastian's personality, he might feel that your Waller family is blocking his path to wealth.

Upon hearing this, Karen's heart stirred slightly.

If what Lamont said is true, that Bastian and the Barr family had close business ties, and that the latter were purged after their plot to frame the Waller family was exposed.

In this way, Bastian lost an important business partner, which naturally affected his source of income.

In addition, the previous case of solving the human organ trafficking case led to the destruction of the underground exchange, which undoubtedly cut off another cash cow for Bastian.

At this moment, he finally understood why Jacob had said he had completely offended Bastian.

Thinking of this, a barely perceptible gloom flashed in Karen's eyes.

He gathered his thoughts and continued, "Vice Commander, do you know anything about the strength of this priest, Lord Bastian Jim?"

Lamont thought for a moment and continued, "You also know that only those who can join the church have an extraordinary profession, so he is naturally a divine servant, and his strength should be at the third level."

Although he wasn't particularly strong, he had been able to sit comfortably in the position of priest for many years because the affairs he was responsible for within the church did not involve combat.

However, I've heard he has a difficult personality to deal with. If you encounter him or any of his men in the future, try to avoid them; there's no need to cause trouble.

Lamont's words were very straightforward.

He was unclear about what Karen was specifically suspecting.

But based on his understanding of Bastian and the Waller family's recent misfortunes, he gave what was arguably the most reasonable warning.

He did not directly connect Bastian with the previous artifact swapping incident, since there were currently no obvious clues linking them.

However, his description only intensified Karen's apprehension towards Bastian.

"A third-tier divine servant, but with a difficult personality and complicated relationships..."

Karen silently noted down these key details, then stood up, bowed to Lamont, and said with a smile, "I understand. Thank you for the reminder, Vice Commander."

I'll be careful and try not to cause any trouble for the warband.

He knew that this was probably all the information he could get about Bastian from Lamont.

After all, the connection between the warband and the church was not deep to begin with, and the number of times they cooperated was pitifully small.

Continuing to ask further questions will only arouse unnecessary suspicion.

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Even if it's a priest from the church, they'd better think twice before messing with our brothers in the battle group!" Lamont smiled and nodded, then continued, "Alright, you've just advanced to the second rank. Go back and consolidate your realm."

In any case, strength is the only true measure of success.

"As long as you're strong enough, those snobbish guys won't dare to mess with you."

Karen nodded, bid farewell to Lamont, and turned to leave the chapter's encampment.

But instead of going home, he headed towards the Mage Association.

Upon arriving at the Mage Association, he went directly to see the Vice President, Brandon Rhea.

Brandon was not surprised by Cullen's arrival and received him in the same academically-filled study as before.

"Baron Karen, congratulations on your further improvement in strength." He smiled, his gaze sweeping over Karen with a hint of barely perceptible inquiry.

He could sense that Karen's aura was much stronger than before, clearly indicating that he had made progress in his warrior skills.

Although he didn't understand the warrior profession, he knew that achieving such a terrifying rate of advancement in any extraordinary profession was something that ordinary extraordinary individuals couldn't do.

"Vice President Brandon, you flatter me." Karen got straight to the point, maintaining a noble tone. "I've come to the association to learn more about vampires and the forces that might be colluding with them."

His main purpose in saying that was not actually to understand vampires.

After all, that's still a long way off for him right now.

His main intention was to use this topic as a starting point to gradually extract information about Bastian from the other party.

Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you better deal with potential crises.

Upon hearing this, Brandon's expression turned serious.

He pondered for a moment and said, "I didn't expect you to be so interested in vampires. The association has indeed been stepping up its investigation recently."

The previous appearance of blood magic is enough to show that the vampires were not completely wiped out a hundred years ago, but rather lay dormant for the past hundred years.

Now that it has reappeared before the world, it must have some ulterior motive.

However, their actions are clandestine, making it difficult to trace clues, and the association has not yet found any valuable leads.

He paused, as if he had thought of something, and continued, "However, recently, while the association was sorting through some ancient books, it discovered several fourth-order spells that are suspected to be blood magic."

Several mages in the association who are skilled in ancient magic are attempting to decipher it, but progress is slow.

The operational pathways and energy structures of those spells were extremely bizarre and complex, vastly different from modern magic systems.

Just then, there was a rapid knocking on the door outside the study.

After receiving permission, a middle-aged monk hurriedly entered, his face filled with disappointment and resentment.

"Vice President! We...we're stuck again!" the middle-aged mage said regretfully. "In the operational path of that fourth-tier spell, the third and seventh nodes have consistently failed to maintain stability. Forcibly transferring extraordinary elements will only cause the entire spell model to collapse!"

Upon hearing this, Brandon frowned, a hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes.

He looked at Karen and smiled helplessly: "You see, that's how it is. These ancient secret techniques, especially the high-level ones, are extremely difficult to analyze."

"Possibly a fourth-tier blood magic?" Karen's heart skipped a beat.

This seemed like an opportunity for him to inquire about clues from the Buddhist Association.

Thinking of this, he politely said, "Vice President Brandon, may I go and observe? Perhaps I can offer some limited assistance."