Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

The next day, at the potion workshop.

When Adele put on the deep purple wizard's robe, the time-marked emblem embroidered on the collar felt a little prickly to the touch.

I don't know if the embroidery thread was really that stiff, or if it was just her own perception.

She paced back and forth in the front hall twice, the silver thread on her cuffs almost frayed from her twisting.

Old Finn handed her the pass and gave her another look.

"Miss, your breathing is heavier than usual."

"Really? It's probably because... I haven't seen my father in a long time."

Adele took the token, the cold metal edge digging into her fingertip, and paused for half a second before putting it into her ring.

She turned to Ian, who was coming down the stairs, and said this.

"Today we're going to visit the clan chief. You... will come with me, as a guest elder."

A quack perched on Ian's shoulder, its black feathers gleaming with a dark blue hue in the morning light.

He nodded and didn't ask any further questions.

The chieftain's bedroom is in the west wing of the castle, with vines climbing all over the gray stone walls, the leaves of which are engraved with glowing runes.

Twelve guards stood on either side of the gate, the family crest on their armor gleaming cold in the sun.

The captain of the guard verified the token, poured magic into it, and a faint golden time-mark shadow appeared on the surface of the token, which swayed for three seconds before dissipating.

"Go ahead." The captain stepped aside to make way, his eyes glancing at Ian.

"As a guest, stay at least three steps away from Miss Edel."

Adele pursed her lips and stepped into the corridor first.

Ian followed three steps behind her, his boots making no sound on the dark red carpet.

Every ten steps along the walls on both sides, a warning crystal was embedded, its pale blue ripples swaying slightly as they moved.

There was a smell of old parchment mixed with dried herbs in the air, and the smell of herbs became stronger the further you went in.

After passing through the third oak door engraved with runes, Edel slowed her pace.

She stopped in front of a black metal door and pressed her hand against the palm print groove on the door.

Magic flowed from her palms, dark red light seeped through the cracks in the door, and the sound of gears turning came from underground.

The door opened.

The bedroom was very dark, with thick curtains completely blocking the windows.

Two crystal chandeliers hung in the corner, casting a pale light that barely illuminated the outline of the room.

Besides the smell of herbs, there was also a faint, almost imperceptible odor of decay in the room.

Like rotting flesh in damp mud.

The person lying on the bed was emaciated, with sunken cheeks and skin that was so white it was almost translucent.

However, the lines of his eyebrows, eyes, and nose bridge show a resemblance of about 70% to Adele.

A thin blanket embroidered with silver thread was draped over her chest, and she could barely breathe.

Adele sat down on the edge of the bed, moving very quietly.

She reached out and took her father's hand, which was sticking out from under the blanket.

His palms were icy cold, and his thin, bony bones were painful to the touch.

She held on for a while before letting go, and then tucked the edges of the blanket back in.

"Father." She spoke in a low voice, as if afraid of waking something.

"I passed the test. Three-headed, level two monsters, two minutes."

The person in bed didn't react.

Adele continued, her tone steady, her fingers unconsciously digging into the edge of the sheet.

"My older brothers tried to sabotage things, but I won. Now some people in the family are starting to switch sides... My fifth sister has also come to our side."

She paused for a moment, her gaze falling on her father's tightly closed eyelids.

"I will definitely win."

She spoke slowly, enunciating each word clearly: "You'll have to wait until that day."

Ian stood in the shadows three steps away, seemingly lost in thought.

The spiritual energy had been transformed into the finest thread, silently protruding from between the eyebrows.

Slowly, I crept closer to the body on the bed...

Ian's breath hitched the moment he touched the Titus Just skin.

This body was wrapped in at least seven layers of protective magic arrays with different attributes.

Layer upon layer, as dense as a spider web.

He manipulated the spiritual threads, slowly drilling into the finest cracks of the magic array, like water seeping into a crack in a stone.

The instant it enters the body.

The panel in Ian's head jolted violently.

A line of dark red text appeared on the edge of my field of vision.

"Abyssal aura pollution source detected, pollution level: level four, current status: incubation period, not activated."

Ian's pupils contracted, and he tried his best to keep his breathing steady, not even noticing Gaga on his shoulder.

"The abyss... what a surprise!"

He manipulated his mental energy and continued to cautiously probe deeper.

The spiritual threads passed through the withered meridians and shrunken organs, reaching the outer edge of the spiritual sea.

This place, which should have been teeming with magic, is now deathly still, like a frozen lake.

A layer of grayish-white sealing energy condensed on the surface of the lake, cracked with countless fissures.

Ian's eyes flickered, unsure whether he should continue.

"If it were any other aura, I really wouldn't dare to continue investigating, but the Abyss..."

He used his mental energy to select a crack and drilled into it.

black.

Pure, viscous, and suffocating black.

Ian's mental threads moved slowly forward inside, like groping their way through the mud of the night.

After touching it for an unknown amount of time, a faint light finally appeared ahead.

That was the last light at the core of the soul.

Something seemed to be entangled around the faint light.

A jet-black energy tendril, its surface covered with tiny, fleshy bumps.

It is slowly wriggling, and with each movement, it draws a wisp of light from the core of the soul.

At the same time, it exuded an extremely faint smell of decay. At this moment, the smell permeated almost every corner of the mind's sea, gradually dyeing this place the color of an abyss.

Cold, decaying, chaotic...

Ian's mental threads stopped at a safe distance and perceived an extremely terrifying truth.

The tip of this abyss tentacle did not pierce in from the outside.

Instead, it grows from the core of the soul...

It's like a seed sprouting in your blood.

"I'm afraid that long ago... someone planted the seeds of the abyss in the soul of Titus Just."

Now that the seed has taken root, it's just waiting for the right time to completely devour this body and turn it into a puppet of the abyss.

Ian carefully withdrew his mental threads; the whole process took less than three seconds.

As he looked up, Adele had just finished speaking her last sentence and was quickly wiping the corner of her eye with the back of her hand.

It was a little damp there, but it went away quickly.

"Ian." She turned her head, her voice trembling with a barely perceptible tension.

"Can you... discern anything?"

Ian shook his head, all the possibilities flashing through his mind.

First, he cannot reveal the existence of the panel, a secret even Gaga doesn't know about.

Direct purification? With his current early-stage level two strength, even with the panel secretly helping him, the success rate is less than 10%.

Moreover, it would definitely alert the person who cast the curse, and might even trigger a backlash from the abyss, directly shredding Titu's soul.

"Perhaps it will reach the late stage of level two, or wait until [Frost Ray] breaks through its limits again?"

When that time comes, the "entropy change domain" will be strengthened again, and we should have a good chance of success.

We need to help Edel win the inheritance and secure the family resources first in order to buy time.

"Your father is out of immediate danger," Ian said slowly.

"But his coma... doesn't seem to be a typical bloodline curse."

Adele's pupils suddenly contracted.

His fingers, gripping the sheets, clenched tightly. "You mean..."

"You should have suspected it long ago; someone is indeed trying to harm him."

Ian lowered his voice to a very low level, "And this person is within your family, and you have the authority to frequently contact him."

Adele shuddered, her face turning deathly pale.

Countless faces flashed through his mind: Edmund's gloom, Edwin's hypocritical smile, and his third brother Adrian's insatiable grin.

And then there are those old monsters on the elders' council who almost never leave their homes...

Only direct descendants and core elders of the family can touch the father's bloodline.

Each one could be the murderer.

She took a deep breath, her chest heaving noticeably, before calming down after a while.

"Let's go." She stood up, her back ramrod straight. "We can't stay here too long."

The road out of the palace seemed exceptionally long.

The captain of the guard glanced at Ian again, this time with a scrutinizing look.

Adele walked down the corridor without looking to either side, her pace a little faster than when she came.

She only slowed her pace after crossing the last security line and stepping into the courtyard outside the castle.

A large patch of silver star grass was planted in the yard, its silvery-white leaves shimmering slightly in the sunlight.

In the distance, apprentices hurried by, whispering about their latest lessons.

Adele stopped by the flowerbed, her back to Ian.

"Is there any hope for my father?" Her voice was so soft it was almost carried away by the wind.

"Maybe," Ian said ambiguously.

"Even if I could, my strength is too low, and you would need to win the right of succession."

Idel didn't turn around.

She stared at a silver star grass in front of her, watching the morning dew that had condensed on the edges of its silvery leaves slowly slide down and drip into the soil.

Then she nodded emphatically, a large gesture, as if trying to convince herself.

"I will win."

On their way back, the two walked silently through the streets outside the family castle.

Shops on both sides of the street opened one after another, and the aroma of freshly baked bread wafted from the breakfast stalls. Several early-rising vendors were unloading their goods.

As they walked past the third intersection, Ian suddenly spoke.

"Before your father's accident, did he come into contact with any unusual people? Or go to any unusual places?"

Adele paused.

She turned her head to the side, her eyelashes casting a small shadow in the morning light.

From this angle, Ian could see the bloodshot in her eyes; she probably didn't sleep well last night.

"I don't remember much else. I rarely had contact with my father. It seems like it was a few years ago..."

She frowned and thought for a moment, her fingers unconsciously tracing the surface of the dimensional ring.

"He went to the family's secret vault once, saying he wanted to check something left behind by the ancestor, and stayed there for two whole days."

She paused for a moment, "After that, his condition started to go wrong. At first, he was just occasionally tired, but later he gradually became mentally confused, until about half a year ago... he completely fell into a coma."

Family secret vault.

Ian kept the name in his heart.

The cuckoo on his shoulder seemed to sense something and gently pecked his ear.

"Ian," Adele suddenly called out to him, her voice tinged with hesitation.

"Um?"

She turned her head and looked towards the end of the street, as if chatting casually.

"You... I've noticed you spend most of your time cultivating and refining medicine. Doesn't it get boring?"

After asking the question, she casually tidied her hair, which had been ruffled by the wind.

Ian thought for a moment and said, "No, I'm fine with Gaga with me."

He puffed out his chest smugly and made a gurgling sound.

Adele was silent for two seconds, then a faint smile curved her lips.

"I see."

She spoke softly, then quickened her pace, walking half a step ahead of Ian.

"Then hurry back, we still need to screen new distributors today."

Her silhouette stretched long in the morning light, her deep purple wizard robes swaying gently with each step.

Her silhouette stretched long in the morning light, her deep purple wizard robes swaying gently with each step.

Ian watched her retreating figure, and Gaga tilted her head to the side, her pupils reflecting Ian's calm profile.

"Ian, Adele's acting really strange today!"

As Ian walked, he said, "Is it strange? I don't see it. I guess I'm just in a bad mood."

"I'm the smartest raven, I have a feeling... she still has something to say."

"That's your imagination."