I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

and so.

"Let's be realistic. If we don't cooperate with Zi Yuan, but instead cooperate with you... what kind of return can 'Dawn' offer us?" Duke said calmly. "Although Zi Yuan is utterly useless, she at least represents the most ruthless sheriff among the three major forces of the Floating City. And what about you? You just heard what we want. Cecil, do you really think that the intelligence network of a mere rebel organization can be compared to a sheriff?"

Of course not.

Duke understood, and Cecil understood too.

Little Cecil pursed his lips.

She began to consider whether she should tell her brother Duke her biggest secret in exchange for Duke's cooperation with Amber. Both her reason and her emotions told her that as long as she told Duke about Cecil, he would not hesitate to abandon Purple Iris and cooperate with "Dawn".

Rationally speaking, Duke's care and concern for Cecil is obvious. If he were told that Cecil's sister had joined Dawn, Duke could at least sit at the negotiating table and talk to them directly.

On an emotional level, little Cecil also developed a fondness for her brother Duke and sister Amber because of the stories Guangbao told her, and she very much hoped that they would reunite with her sister Cecil soon.

But for some reason, a certain intuition prevented Cecil from revealing the secret. Her sixth sense told her that if she told Duke, something terrible would happen.

...Where does this sixth sense come from?

Little Cecil hugged his head in distress.

Of course, Duke had no idea what Cecil was agonizing over. If he had known what she was struggling with, he would have immediately told her—stop worrying about it. It's not like I can't figure out that the sister you're talking about is their family's Guangbao.

Seeing Cecil's conflicted expression, Duke smiled faintly. He had created this enclosed space for their conversation precisely to hear what secrets she held. He had been prepared for her to be stubborn and refuse to admit it, but to his surprise, she directly and frankly revealed her identity.

Once that initial step is taken, everything else becomes much easier.

Duke certainly hadn't given up on cooperating with Ziyuan, but he could cooperate with both the sheriff and "Dawn," couldn't he? After all, what he needed was intelligence, and if he wanted the most complete intelligence possible, he would naturally have to find a way to operate in both the legal and illegal worlds. Ideally, he would cooperate with the major forces in the floating city at the same time, watching them fight each other to the death, while he sat back and enjoyed the benefits, successfully obtaining clues about the Little Prince.

Duke kept Nona, a member of one of the four major families, in this way—if he had to communicate with a Cavendish, the fresh-faced Nona would be more pleasing to the eye than a rough-around-the-edges like Norton or Noel.

"How about this, Cecil, you make some contact and we'll meet with your 'Dawn' leader to have a chat, okay?"

Upon hearing Duke's suggestion, Cecil Jr. nodded quickly and happily agreed to Duke's request:

"Great, I'll contact them right away."

Then, little Cecil heard him casually say the next sentence: "By the way, the sister you mentioned... is also named Cecil, right? You should have heard about her experiences from her and know our relationship with her."

Cecil Jr. was stunned for a moment.

She was about to nod in agreement, but in that instant, a strong sixth sense told her something was wrong. Little Cecil opened her mouth, wanting to deny Duke's words, but then stammered, not knowing what to say... Just as Little Cecil was struggling with this, an anomaly occurred.

A phantom figure appeared out of thin air in front of Duke.

Everyone present was stunned, especially Duke and Amber. The former used his omnipotent trickery to set up a "soundproof" spell and a "keep away" psychological suggestion nearby, while the latter used spatial magic to anchor the area. Theoretically, no one should be able to break into this ordinary roadside enclosed space.

But the phantom still appeared out of thin air.

She looked like a cute and young girl, with bright blonde hair like the sun and eyes as blue as jewels, making Duke feel like he was seeing things when he saw her.

Duke felt he knew her, yet not completely. He recalled a similarly radiant and petite figure, only this time a little boy… Only now did Duke belatedly remember that he had once completed a witch game called "The Little Prince" and had seen the Little Prince in person.

She and the Little Prince are not the same person, but they are remarkably similar.

Duke understood; she was the Little Prince from a parallel universe.

The little prince reached out and gently patted Duke's belly.

Then, excruciating pain and dizziness struck simultaneously.

Chapter 368 There is no rule or mechanism that I cannot manipulate.

Excruciating pain and dizziness struck at the same time.

It was only then that Duke realized what had happened. The phantom of the "Little Prince" gently patted his stomach, and then he took off.

That's right, what seemed like a light slap actually sent him flying, and Duke felt a sharp pain, clearly indicating that the slap had injured his internal organs... Fortunately, his body is now a divine body, so even if his internal organs are injured, he can quickly recover on his own.

Compared to physical harm, the psychological damage of being slapped into the air by a little girl might be more severe.

Duke, who had taken off from Wuhu, didn't fly for long before crashing into an obstacle again—the ceiling of the floating city's underground world. Night City's underground world was far more luxurious and tidy than their floating city's, but it still had a ceiling.

Duke, who had been hit hard by the ceiling, landed freely again with a grimace. At that moment, Amber finally reacted. She appeared beside Duke in an instant, grabbed his waist, and then teleported with him back to the ground.

And the phantom of the "Little Prince" also disappeared.

“She disappeared after she slapped me,” Amber explained, then frowned. “What is she?”

“Don’t ask… cough! Don’t ask me, I don’t know either.” Duke coughed up a clot of blood, rolled his eyes in exasperation, and said irritably, “You should ask Cecil.”

"Which Cecil?"

"Two Cecils!" Duke turned to look at the bewildered Cecil Jr. "What's going on?"

"I...I don't know either. Who is she? Why did she suddenly appear and hit you, Brother Duke?"

The little girl's confused expression told Duke that she really didn't know what the little prince's phantom was or why it suddenly appeared and slapped him away the moment he asked about Guangbao.

Duke rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He took out a potion from his inventory and swallowed it. Eve's potions were effective, but they were already running out. Duke carefully bit off half of the potion and then put the other half back.

“I think her appearance is somewhat similar to Guangbao’s.” Duke sighed. “Amber, do you know that you can’t casually talk about the mute in the Floating City?”

"That's why we set up the code phrase 'silence is golden,' I heard you and Cecil mention it."

Seeing that Duke was almost slapped to death, the seductive elf completely disregarded the ongoing cold war and seamlessly integrated into the discussion.

“That’s right, that’s it. And the feeling that phantom just now gave me… is very similar to the divine punishment of the mute.” Duke frowned. “Of course, it’s not real divine punishment; its attack doesn’t have the force of divine punishment, but the nature is very similar. So the question is, what exactly triggered this mechanism?”

Lost in thought, Duke pinched his chin and waved for Amber, Cecil, and Nona to step back. The latter two obediently took two steps back, but Amber pouted and remained standing next to Duke without moving an inch.

Duke glanced at her, his lips twitching slightly, unsure whether he should laugh or be angry.

Given that the Cold War had essentially ended, Duke decided not to make a fool of himself and read out his guesses:

Cecil.

Little Cecil poked his head out: "Huh? Why did you call me?"

“I didn’t call you!” Duke glared at her fiercely, confirming that Cecil alone wasn’t the key word. “Our Cecil? Cecil from a parallel world? My dear Cecil?”

Amber's eyes suddenly sharpened: "Hmm?!"

"Ahem! I was just saying, don't get too carried away or excited." Duke coughed, then said more seriously, "And don't start fantasizing about a threesome, thank you."

"What's wrong with thinking about it? It's not illegal." When the slutty elf was unhappy, her little mouth would often pout so much that it could hold a clothes hanger. She complained, "I not only want to have a threesome with Cecil, but I also want to have one with you, me, and Annie! To be honest, Annie's figure is more in line with my sex... Waaah."

“Speak softly. Little Cecil is right here. You’ve already corrupted one Cecil; don’t corrupt the second one.”

Duke quickly reached out and covered Amber's mouth, and reprimanded the guy with a head full of yellow rubbish for destroying the flowers of the floating city.

However, since they had important things to do, the two only argued for a short while.

Duke had previously summoned the phantom of the Little Prince and said, "By the way, the sister you mentioned... is also called Cecil, right? You should have heard about her experiences from her and know our relationship with her."

He could easily repeat the sentence to see if it would summon the phantom of the Little Prince, but given how painful it was for the Little Prince's phantom to hit people, he wanted to first deconstruct the truly useful parts of the sentence to avoid having to spend more effort and suffer more beatings later in order to confirm it.

Duke thought for a moment, then said to Cecil:

"Cecil, your sister is Cecil from a parallel universe, right?"

The moment those words were spoken, the phantom of the Little Prince reappeared before Duke, this time slapping him across the face. If that slap landed squarely, it wouldn't be a problem that half a potion could solve; he might even have to say goodbye to his unparalleled good looks, boasting a Charisma rating of 25.

At this critical moment, Duke, who had prepared in advance, stepped back, and a double who looked exactly like him appeared in the same spot, taking the brunt of the powerful slap.

But Duke's mouth hadn't stopped:

"Cecil, have you ever met Cecil?"

So, in the instant before the previous phantom of the Little Prince disappeared, the second phantom of the Little Prince appeared. This time, Amber reacted and used teleportation to take him away from the Little Prince's fatal blow.

Duke, who was being held by Amber, thought for a moment and then recited two more lines:

"Monica and Monica are fighting."

"Xiao Hei fell in love with Xiao Hei at first sight."

Both of these were confirmed by Duke during the system's cutscene. Their original bodies were in the floating city, and their parallel world counterparts were also in the floating city. Moreover, they clearly saw each other during the cutscene... Simply seeing each other might not trigger the Little Prince's phantom's descent mechanism, but Duke felt that as long as anyone mentioned the exact same two people meeting, she would mechanically unleash "divine punishment."

Just like the mute who are condemned to divine punishment and instantly kill those who lose when the word "mute" is mentioned, they are all brainless... well, they are all left with only instinct and no ability to think rationally.

Duke's guess was clearly correct.

Then, two more little princes appeared before Duke, chasing after him and beating him. Their faces even held a hint of anger, but they were utterly helpless against Duke, who was a master of all-powerful trickery and had Amber as his tool.

Even Cecil, who witnessed this scene, couldn't help but comment:

"Duke is disgusting."

"Are you going to curse again?"

Chapter 369 Playing the Emotional Card

Duke has figured out the trigger mechanism for the Little Prince's phantom: whenever the speaker mentions the meeting of the same person in different parallel worlds, the Little Prince's phantom will reappear in front of them.

However, according to Cecil the Younger, if they actually met, it wouldn't trigger the Little Prince's phantom. I don't know what the principle behind this is—it's probably similar to the divine punishment for the mute, something that works sometimes and doesn't work at all.

After figuring out the trigger mechanism of the Little Prince's phantom, Duke breathed a sigh of relief and stopped teasing the Little Prince. He had been under a lot of pressure, fearing that he wouldn't be able to bring the Little Prince back to the floating city in time, and that something unexpected might happen to the floating city because of the explosion of the Tree of Life.

Although top-tier professionals like Carol and Eve were in the floating city, Duke still had doubts about whether they could truly protect it from its own self-destruction. All he could do was follow Carol's instructions and bring the little prince back.

Duke finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the phantom of the Little Prince with his own eyes.

That's great, at least we can confirm that the Little Prince is indeed in the floating city.

“Little Cecil, didn’t you say you were going to take us to see your ‘Dawn’ leader?” Duke looked at Cecil, casually pulling a table from his pocket. On it lay a seven-tiered cake and some cutlery, but instead of using the cutlery, he took out the Mute Dagger (Ida: ? Is this how you use my body?) and cut a small piece from the cake, placing it on a small plate. “Start making contact now. I hope to see him right now.”

Although the girls present heard Duke's words, their attention was clearly not on what he said, but rather on his hands as he cut the cake. Cecil and Nona remained silent, while Amber asked directly, "What are you doing?"

“Just to be safe,” Duke smiled at her, then handed the cake on the small plate to Nona. “Eat it.”

Nona: "?"

Nona glanced at the cake on the small plate in Duke's hand, then at the seven-tiered, gorgeous wedding cake, and couldn't help but swallow hard. This multi-tiered cake, decorated with berries, looked incredibly delicious. The sweet aroma of cream and fruit had already filled Nona's nose, and her saliva told her that this cake must be very tasty.

But often, free things are the most expensive, and beautiful things are always tainted! Especially this cake that looks so delicious, which Duke handed her... He definitely has ulterior motives!!!

Damn it, what kind of scheme is this lowly commoner plotting?!

"I...can I not eat it?" Nona gave an awkward smile and asked politely, "I think such a nice cake should be given to Miss Amber and Cecil first."

"If I tell you to eat, then you eat."

Duke smiled slightly, a smile that seemed very approachable, but in Nona's eyes, it sent chills down her spine. She swallowed hard, reluctantly taking the small plate of cake, then, with her eyes closed and a death-defying resolve, opened her mouth and wolfed down the small piece in two gulps. After savoring it for a moment, she uttered her only comment: