I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"Damn it." He said, his face dark, "After this is all over, I still need to get my body back."

"Pfft! You really don't have any?"

"Shut up."

"What's wrong? Why do you need to shut up?"

Just as Duke and Cecil were chatting, a loud voice suddenly rang out, and at the same time a dark shadow appeared out of nowhere behind them, not only obscuring the light but also startling them.

Duke and Cecil turned around abruptly and saw that it was Norton who had returned.

"Hi." Norton, who just looked like a big, goofy guy, waved to Duke and Norton, then said with a grin, "I'm back. Looks like you guys are ready."

Duke noticed some blood on him, but he didn't ask any questions, simply nodding: "Ready."

Cecil, standing nearby, sniffed the air and detected a faint smell of blood on Norton. She narrowed her eyes, her ease vanished, picked up the coffin she had placed beside her, put on the comical mask, and whispered, "Ready."

As for the mechanical dragon goblet, after Duke and his companion left the auction (or rather, after their reunion with Norton), it fell into complete silence, never making a sound or moving again, looking just like an ordinary mechanical doll.

So Cecil roughly stuffed it into the coffin.

“Okay.” Norton’s booming voice was like thunder. He nodded, then stomped his foot heavily. “Let’s go.”

Before he finished speaking, the ground beneath his feet cracked, and then with a loud roar, the three of them simultaneously sank into the collapsing ground, falling deeper into the "underground" of the floating city.

Chapter 192 The Actor's Self-Cultivation

Deeper underground within the floating city, amidst the gaps between numerous magical machines, in a space barely large enough for one person, sat a round table. Five people—three men and two women—were seated around it. An empty chair awaited its occupant at the head of the table.

"When will the boss be back?"

"This incident has caused such a big stir, she probably needs to lay low for a while."

"I'm afraid so. I heard that the floating city authorities even deployed Fei... yes, that Fei, to try and capture Sister! This time, even Sister will probably suffer serious injuries if she tries to escape, right?"

"Pah! Can't you say something auspicious!"

The conversation among the five seemed somewhat melancholic, largely because their leader, the true soul of the Tarpai Aphani, Talia, was not present. Although in Talia's heart the Tarpai Aphani were merely useful tools she had arbitrarily created to achieve her ideals, tools she could discard at any time if necessary, it was not so for the other members of the Tarpai—their leader had clearly been striving for everyone and for everyone's ideals.

It's fair to say that without Talia, it's questionable whether the Tarpai Aphas would even exist today.

"What if the leader gets captured by the floating city?"

"What are you hesitating for, Second Brother? Of course, it's time to grab your weapons and storm the floating city!"

"Aren't you loyal enough to your master?!"

"Are you two crazy? Can't you use your brains? Are your brains made of muscles?"

As the five people were talking, two or three of them even stood up excitedly, pointing fingers and shouting insults at each other, looking like they were about to fight. But at that moment, a huge roar came from above.

The five people subconsciously looked up, and then saw the magical mechanical structure above them begin to shake violently, followed by a loud explosion that shattered it.

"ah--"

A moment of chaos erupted, accompanied by screams. Then, the five of them felt something slam heavily onto the round table in front of them... not just one, but three, with very slight intervals between the three heavy blows.

The rough-looking man who had just been called the second oldest among the five coughed, raised his hand and used magic to dispel the smoke from the landing with a simple spell. Then he was the first to see Norton.

"Mr. Norton?!"

When he saw the two-meter-tall humanoid monster, his expression changed instantly, and he pulled out his staff as if facing a formidable enemy... But at that moment, he noticed the other two people following Norton.

The second brother's gaze swept quickly over Cecil, who was wearing a mask, before settling on Duke, who was dressed in a black robe. He sensed a familiar soul fluctuation emanating from Duke. The second brother hesitated before speaking, "Big Sister?"

"it's me."

The five members of the Tapao mute group suddenly became excited and rushed forward, calling out similar but different titles. The five of them had five different ways of addressing each other. Some were more normal, such as "Boss," "Ms. Talia," and "Big Sister," while others were more unusual, such as "Sister" and "Master."

Wow, they're playing pretty big games.

Duke watched as the adorable little girl called him "master," and his lips twitched slightly. He could only manage a weak cough and waved to the mute people who were crowding around him, signaling them not to come closer.

Then, he jumped down from the round table, which had been reduced to ruins, and, based on the fragments of Talia's remaining memories, naturally sat down in the main seat left by the five people. Only then did he finally have time to examine the five mute people in front of him.

These "cultists" weren't dressed as gloomy and terrifying as Duke had imagined. On the contrary, they looked perfectly normal, like ordinary passersby in the floating city, or even more fashionable and well-dressed passersby. The uniformly handsome men and beautiful women made Duke suspect that Talia's criteria for selecting cadres had become similar to the floating city's criteria for recruiting witches—simply put, those who weren't good-looking were not accepted.

Based on vague fragments of memory, Duke managed to barely recognize the person.

The second oldest, known as "Big Sister," is a handsome man with somewhat effeminate features; the third oldest is a beautiful woman known as "Big Sister"; the fourth oldest is a rugged man known as "Big Boss"; the fifth oldest, known as "Ms. Talia," is a boy in a small suit; and the sixth oldest, known as "Master," is the lowest in status and seniority among them. She is wearing a gothic-style dress and a witch's hat, and is currently peeking timidly at Duke.

The beautiful woman stared at Duke's face from the very beginning and asked directly, "Big sister, why are you in a man's body this time?"

Duke glanced at her: "Don't you think this man is handsome?"

"Indeed... I understand. Big sister is back to give us sisters some fun, right?"

"???"

Duke, speechless after being shoved in the face by a car wheel, patted his head and then looked at everyone with a slightly serious expression. He then looked at Norton, who was standing to the side. Following his gaze, the five members of the Tower faction also turned their attention to Norton. The fourth member of the Tower faction immediately questioned, "Mr. Norton, why are you here?"

Having his "boss" by his side seemed to give him courage, and he even dared to directly provoke Norton.

"Don't you have any clue why I'm here?" Norton sneered, a chilling killing intent emanating from him, pressing down on everyone present. Even Duke and Cecil were not spared, all enveloped by his aura. "What you did to the Tree of Life faction some time ago, I don't need to say more, do I?"

Duke looked at Norton expressionlessly, and Cecil, standing behind him, also looked at Norton in the same way.

For a moment, the three of them faced off in front of five Ta Faction cadres.

Although he was also under pressure from Norton, a legendary high-level professional, he still did not show the slightest change in emotion—after all, he was using a prosthetic body at the moment. If necessary, Duke could completely disconnect his soul from the prosthetic body's face. No matter how badly his soul was suppressed by the aura, the prosthetic body's face would remain poker-faced and would not change in the slightest.

Cecil has even less to worry about. She's practically a legend now, and she wouldn't back down even in a real hand-to-hand fight with Norton. How could she possibly back down in the face of mere intimidation?

Thus, in the eyes of the five Tower Faction cadres, their leader Talia was currently confronting their enemy Norton, and the mysterious helper brought by their leader was not faltering in the face of Norton, clearly stronger than them.

When the building collapsed that day, there was someone tall nearby holding it up, so they didn't have to worry.

Clearly, none of the five people suspected that the other three had already conspired and were currently putting on an act.

Chapter 193 I can tell, you all possess extraordinary skills

"I don't need to elaborate on what you did to the Tree of Life faction some time ago, do I?"

While putting on a show of confronting Norton, Duke secretly observed the expressions of the five Tarf faction cadres. When Norton uttered the words "Tree of Life," their expressions subtly changed. Clearly, even if they didn't do it, they at least knew what had happened.

To be honest, Duke had no idea what had happened.

Regarding why Norton brought Duke along to impersonate Talia and storm the gathering of the Talia faction leaders, he said, "I wanted to investigate something." But what exactly that was, Duke had never heard Norton say, and only now did he realize that Norton was a member of the "Tree of Life" faction of the mute.

This is a very mysterious faction among the mute. At least Duke only found scattered, unwritten memories in Talia's fragmented memories, similar to Norton's own situation in Talia's fragmented memories.

The mysterious Norton belongs to the mysterious Tree of Life faction, the Mute Ones, making them a perfect match.

Only then did Duke finally learn what had happened from Norton:

"A few days ago, during Talia's operation, you were the ones who attacked our Tree of Life, killed my nephew, and dumped his body in the wilderness. That was you, wasn't it?" Norton narrowed his eyes and said with a cold smile, "Stop making excuses. Otherwise, why didn't you help Talia back then, forcing her to seek help from the Common Heart Faction?"

Duke raised an eyebrow.

Norton's words reminded him of why, apart from Talia, no one from the Tower faction participated in their previous battle against the Tower faction. After all, she even used Megan as a price to trick the only legend of the Common Heart faction into dying, yet she never saw these five Tower faction cadres in front of her.

Having the fragments of Talia's memories, he was certain that her instructions to them were to launch a terrorist attack to create chaos, but in fact, they did not take any action—the floating city authorities had not detected their terrorist activities at all.

Duke learned about this from Guangbao. Before Cecil "disappeared," she had, on Duke's instructions, used her connections to find out what happened that day, and the source was guaranteed to be reliable (she asked Carol directly).

He quickly finished and returned, glancing around at everyone present with a casual smile, and asked with a light laugh, "Have you all betrayed me?"

"No!" "How could that be!" "Master, don't you believe me anymore?"

Duke's question was met with fierce rebuttals. It was clear that these people were at least loyal to Talia, if not utterly devoted, and they wouldn't betray her without a reason.

"So, you're saying you were the ones who did the Tree of Life thing?"

This time, none of the five people uttered a sound.

Duke thought for a moment and looked at Xiao Liu.

The cute girl wearing the witch's hat noticed Duke's gaze and subconsciously looked around. When she realized that Duke was watching her, she was somewhat apprehensive and quickly said, "Master, you know me. I never do anything that you haven't ordered me to do... Every order you give is the reason for my existence."

Duke frowned, sensing something was amiss. His gaze lingered on her witch's hat for a moment before shifting to Xiao Wu.

“Ms. Talia, you know me.” The boy who was caught in Duke’s gaze was not as panicked as Xiao Liu. He bowed slightly and said very calmly, “Given my habits, Mr. Norton would not be unable to recognize me—everyone I kill, whether they are an eight-hundred-year-old or a three-year-old child, I will disembowel them and destroy their internal organs… This is common knowledge in the industry.”

Duke frowned and turned to look at the fourth brother.

“Boss, you know me. If it were me, Mr. Norton’s nephew wouldn’t have left a body.” The fourth brother, who looked like a cheerful uncle, laughed, revealing his white teeth, and said something chilling: “I’d be too busy having a good meal to waste food.”

Duke swallowed hard, then looked at the next person.

“Sister, you know me.” The beautiful woman stared rudely at Duke’s face and body, swallowed hard, and after a long while, continued to chuckle and say, “I never do such wasteful things as killing. If I did, Mr. Norton’s nephew would still be living in the human ranch I run, being drained of his energy by the succubi I raise.”

Duke's gaze swept quickly past her and landed on the last person present.

"Don't look at me! Big sister, you know me." The second sister, who looked a bit effeminate, quickly shook her head: "I'm not good at fighting, but at swindling and cheating... You can ask me to traffic children, sell drugs, and cheat people until their families are ruined, those are my specialties, but asking me to compete with other mute factions, hey, I can't do that."

It seemed that the Tree of Life incident was not committed by these five people, as none of them could provide an alibi. However, after each of them gave their reasons, Norton lowered his imposing manner and murderous aura—they all knew that Mr. Norton had the ability to detect lies, and naturally could tell that none of them were lying.

This matter may be somewhat related to them, but they certainly didn't do it.

As Norton withdrew his imposing manner, the five Tatler executives immediately relaxed and even began joking and teasing each other, which gave Duke a sense of absurdity.

He stared blankly at the five of them, finding it hard to believe that such people existed in the world. They not only felt no remorse for the evil they had done, but had even become so accustomed to it that they didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

From a certain perspective, Talia, with her morbid obsession, is not as repulsive as these five guys. At least she has her own stance and principles, and Duke can at least understand what she is doing... unlike now, where he doesn't even understand them.

He forcibly suppressed his murderous intent and said coldly:

“I can tell from your voices that you all possess extraordinary skills.”

"Big sister, you don't need to praise me..."

"Boom-"

A loud thud interrupted the second brother's self-praise, and everyone's eyes immediately turned to the source of the noise—the coffin that had been slammed onto the wreckage of the round table.

So, everyone instinctively looked at the person who had made the loud noise.

Cecil ripped off her mask, staring blankly at the five people before her, and said softly:

"Sorry, Duke."

Then, she pulled the enraged silver dragon from the coffin and shoved the staff into the mouth of the nearest fourth brother, before chanting menacingly:

"The Sword of Judgment".