It had been half a month since Zhao Qingsnow returned to the Twelfth District.

Perhaps it was because reinforcements had arrived. Or perhaps the unrest along the border had eased. Either way, the Twelfth District had entered a peaceful period of steady development.

With everyone’s efforts, everything was flourishing.

Blade lay back in a chair, a troubled look in her eyes.

These past two weeks had been far too peaceful. The soldiers in silver armor hadn’t appeared again. Neither the Order Keepers nor the Seekers had made another move.

It almost seemed as if they had decided to leave the Twelfth District alone.

But Blade didn’t believe those people were that kind.

Their silence had lasted far too long. They had to be preparing something big.

Rouge Rabbit had done Blade a huge favor.

Among the reinforcements they brought was a man named Kapus. He had apparently been the leader of a border mercenary organization.

He had been ambushed by a Magic Maiden and his own younger brother. As he lay dying, a mixed-blood named Lin found him and brought him back to Rouge Rabbit.

With Rouge Rabbit’s emergency treatment and care, Kapus managed to survive.

To repay them, he agreed to their terms and came to reinforce the Twelfth District.

Of course, he had his own motives as well.

He had heard that a group of men in silver armor had recently appeared along the Twelfth District’s border. They were highly trained, yet most of them had no official identities.

Kapus would gladly swear on his chest that, beyond the borders, there was only one organization capable of training soldiers like that.

His own mercenary organization.

He wanted to see what his foolish younger brother was up to.

Actually, in Kapus’s heart, that man had stopped being his brother long ago.

It had happened the moment his brother drove a blade into his chest.

Cooperation. Revenge. Reclaiming the throne of the mercenaries.

Those were Kapus’s reasons for coming to the Twelfth District.

As a mercenary, Kapus didn’t hide much from his employer.

Mercenaries needed a code of honor. Otherwise, no one would dare hire them. They would be left drinking the bitter wind in this godforsaken land beyond the borders.

Before Kapus became a mercenary, he had met an older mercenary.

That man had concealed information from his employer. The employer died under mysterious circumstances the very next day, and afterward, no one dared hire him.

In the end, he died in the wilderness.

Some said he starved to death. Others said Monsters had eaten him.

No one had even collected his corpse.

It wasn’t a pleasant end.

And, incidentally, that man had been no saint.

Someone had once told Kapus that whenever his employer was a woman or a man, the fellow would often sneak into the employer’s master bedroom during missions.

Every time he came out, his face was glowing.

No one knew where he got that kind of talent.

Kapus then told Yin Tianchen and Blade his suspicions about the identities of the silver-armored soldiers.

Combining that information with everything else, Blade’s informants quickly located an abandoned warehouse outside the Twelfth District’s border.

That was where a deserter had disappeared for the last time.

Most likely, it was the mercenaries’ temporary base.

Blade didn’t trust her informant to remain there.

So she ordered the informant to withdraw from the area.

If the mercenary organization had a Magic Maiden supporting it, then they would have at least one Cantata Two, right?

“A temporary base, huh…”

It was the same problem as before.

Without knowing how many enemies there were or how strong they were, Blade could only prepare for the worst.

She wanted to make complete preparations.

But if she did that, she wouldn’t have enough manpower.

Blade could only have Kapus lead Rouge Rabbit’s reinforcements in secretly establishing a defensive line along the border.

With Moon Owl’s spatial magic, the construction wouldn’t attract too much attention.

Just then, Blade’s phone rang.

“Is that Hao Wenqian? …Got it.”

Half a month ago, she had ordered a gravestone.

It was engraved with the name Night Frost.

But Blade knew that Night Frost’s original name had been Lingchen Yao. To match her gender, the name had been changed to Ling Shuang.

Hao Wenqian and Grandma Dean didn’t know what had happened to Night Frost.

After struggling with it for nearly half an hour, Blade decided to use Night Frost’s original name.

Lingchen Yao.

“So you called me here for this?” Qianchun said. “She wouldn’t die that easily.”

Qianchun didn’t believe Night Frost was dead.

In her eyes, Night Frost had escaped death again and again. She had created miracle after miracle.

Qianchun firmly believed that Night Frost wouldn’t die inside a spatial rift.

“But death can be that simple,” Blade said. “Life is fragile.”

She paused for a moment.

“But if you believe she’s alive, then let her be alive. That may not be a bad thing.”

Blade had originally planned to erect a simple gravestone for Night Frost.

But these past two weeks had been far too peaceful.

To force that mercenary organization to reveal a flaw, Blade needed to play a few tricks.

Following the principle of making full use of everything, the ceremony for Night Frost’s gravestone became something less than simple.

Chen Xiaoyin, Qiu Sheng, and Qianchun—the three Cantata Twos—were gathered together with the ordinary people connected to Night Frost.

Amid sorrowful music, they sent off “Night Frost’s departed soul.”

“Brother Chenyao, he…”

Hao Wenqian lay in Qianchun’s arms, crying like a broken faucet.

She didn’t believe Night Frost was dead either.

But in her understanding, if a gravestone had been erected, then that person had to be dead.

Qianchun gently stroked Hao Wenqian’s head.

This foolish child was still as innocent as ever.

Grandma Dean sat quietly beside Night Frost’s gravestone with her eyes closed.

She didn’t say a word.

Seeing her like that, the children from the orphanage who had known Night Frost also fell silent.

“Hey, Qianchun,” Chen Xiaoyin whispered. “Do you think this is real?”

As Night Frost’s older sister, Chen Xiaoyin cared about her more than anyone.

She came up from behind, patted Qianchun on the shoulder, and spoke softly into her ear.

“Fake.”

Qianchun shook her head.

Night Frost had once promised that she would come back alive.

She would do so before finding the truth.

“I hope so.”

Chen Xiaoyin had heard some rumors.

But no matter how she looked at it, this funeral had been arranged far too suddenly.

She had asked Blade whether it was real, but Blade hadn’t given her a definite answer.

Now that she had heard Qianchun’s reply, she felt somewhat reassured.

Really, how could Night Frost possibly be defeated by a few minor setbacks?

Blade quietly left the scene.

Qianchun noticed everything.

That woman was definitely going to make some moves of her own.

Qianchun looked at Hao Wenqian in her arms, then called Chen Xiaoyin over and asked her to take care of the girl.

After that, she quietly followed behind Blade.

“You said you sensed a fluctuation from a Chapter Three?” Blade asked over the phone. “Are you sure? …Then this is a very big fish.”

There was no need to guess who was on the other end.

Only Moon Owl, who was also a Chapter Three, could sense that faint trace of Chapter Three Mana within the range of her abilities.

“That mercenary group has made a move,” Blade said. “Their target is the Eastern District. Their intelligence network is pretty good.”

After hearing this, Qianchun understood Blade’s little scheme.

Blade had spread rumors that a funeral was being held.

That drew Chen Xiaoyin, who guarded the Eastern District, and Qianchun, the representative of Aklatia stationed in the outskirts, away from their posts.

Then she deliberately weakened the defenses along the border.

All to lure the snake from its hole.

And the snake had indeed come out.

After assigning the missions, Blade turned around.

At some point, Qianchun had appeared behind her.

“Is this your plan?”

“I came up with it on the spot,” Blade replied. “But the results aren’t bad.”

“The mercenaries are heading toward the Twelfth District’s center through the gap. They’ve turned the border upside down over the past few months without finding anything.”

“So naturally, their next target is the central region.”

A hint of curiosity rose in Qianchun’s heart.

“What are they looking for?”

“A pancreas, I think.”

Blade frowned slightly.

“I searched through every record in the Twelfth District, but I couldn’t find the slightest clue.”

“Only those Seekers and Order Keepers probably know what that thing really is—or who it came from.”

Qianchun had learned about the pancreas from Night Frost.

When Night Frost had carried out that mission, she had seen it the moment she emerged from the Abyss of Man.

Beneath that pitch-black abyss was a living pancreas.

“They’re truly beyond despicable.”

Had that wave of Monsters really appeared by chance?

Why had it struck the territory of the “Old” faction with such precision?

Because of the Monster tide, the Sixth District had openly deployed heavy weapons.

They claimed it was to kill the Monsters.

Put bluntly, it was an attempt to cleanse the surface of the Twelfth District.

Even after reducing the Twelfth District to a wasteland, they still hadn’t found what they wanted.

So they brought in mercenaries.

They mobilized Magic Maidens from various districts.

Yet, even now, they hadn’t gained the slightest result.

“That pancreas is hidden beyond the Gate,” Blade said. “Opening the Gate requires a Key.”

“The Twelfth District has no Key. It’s never even had a Gate.”

“Now that I think about it, that really is strange. Is that thing truly so difficult to find?”

“Or perhaps someone hid the Gate in the Twelfth District…”

Blade furrowed her brows again.

“Just like that Key.”

Back then, the Old Woman had fled to District Twenty One because she had obtained the Key.

It was said that Night Frost’s father had placed a Formation on the Key in that temple, making it nearly impossible for anyone to sense.

What if someone had also hidden the so-called Gate with a Formation?

That possibility was very high.

“They must have some way to detect it,” Blade said. “Since there’s no Gate along the border, it must be in the city center.”

“Normally speaking, that would be the obvious answer…”

There would be no result from speculating alone.

If they could capture a few silver-armored mercenaries—or the Magic Maiden behind them—they might be able to sort everything out.

With that thought, Blade stepped into a spatial passage.

Qianchun followed her.

She wanted to see the truth behind all this as well.

At the border.

With no one blocking their path, the silver-armored mercenaries charged toward the city center under the orders of the delicate-looking man.

Their silver armor reflected the glaring sunlight.

The group stood out sharply beneath the open sky.

Kapus and the reinforcements were already hidden in a nearby trench, waiting for the silver-armored mercenaries and the delicate-looking man to arrive.

Meanwhile, inside Aklatia’s research base, the modified combat personnel were waiting for Qianchun’s command.

Once the enemy crossed into Aklatia’s territory and engaged Kapus’s forces, Aklatia’s combat personnel would ambush the mercenaries from behind.

Together with Kapus’s group, they would trap the enemy between two forces.

Qiu Sheng and Chen Xiaoyin hid inside a nearby spatial passage.

Their opponent was the Magic Maiden.

Moon Owl also focused her mind.

She had sensed a trace of Chapter Three Mana.

That was no laughing matter.

Of course, another little guest was hiding inside a different spatial passage.

It had taken her a long time to wheedle and pester Moon Owl and Blade into agreeing.

“This time…” Future said.

“It’s my turn to reach Chapter Three.”