Sacred Heart Academy covered a vast area, housing both a middle school and high school section divided by a narrow inner lake. Even the middle school side was incredibly spacious, with beautiful, elegant buildings arranged cleverly. At its center lay a small flower garden.

At that moment, Rollroll, whom Lyu Xiaodao and Xiao Zhang were thinking about, lay flat at the garden's edge, wriggling forward on its belly. But its tail, swaying from time to time, always gave away its position at the worst moments.

Rollroll sprawled on the grass, its dog eyes fixed longingly on a patch in the garden's center. There grew a row of peculiar plants—rare species not native to this world. On one plant hung a golden fruit the size of a fist. Rollroll stared at it, drool dripping down.

Finally, Rollroll sneakily peeked its head up. Seeing the familiar old man asleep in a rocking chair, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, it shot up like lightning and dashed into the garden. In the blink of an eye, Rollroll stood before the golden fruit. It opened its mouth, bit off the fruit in one go, and then took off running.

The old man sensed something and jumped up from his chair. Turning his head, he saw the chaotic mess of flying grass and leaves in his garden, and Rollroll fleeing at full speed. His eyes bulged wide. "Damn it!! It's you again, you stinking dog, stealing my stuff!!"

The old man was fuming with rage. He hurried over to inspect his precious plants. To his horror, the not-yet-fully-ripe Golden Ridge Fruit was gone, leaving only a lonely branch. Rollroll had bitten off a large chunk in one go. Soon, intense Spirit Energy fluctuations erupted from the garden, followed by a furious roar.

Clearly, the powerful old man was furious beyond words because of Rollroll.

The old man had planned to use his power to grab Rollroll back. But remembering the principal's instructions, he forced down his anger. His wrinkles trembled uncontrollably as he clutched his chest, looking like he was about to have a heart attack. "No! This stinking dog—if it keeps ruining things, all the rare plants I transplanted from other worlds will be completely ruined! I need to talk to the principal again... But damn it, I set up a magic barrier around the garden! How did this dog sneak in?!"

Gnashing his teeth, the old man went to inspect the magic barrier around the garden. But after checking, his face turned incredulous. He found the barrier completely intact, yet its structure had been slightly adjusted. That tiny tweak allowed Rollroll to pass through freely without triggering it at all.

Instantly, the old man let out an incredulous shout: "Damn it! My magic barrier was actually cracked by a dog?!"

...

It was nearly half an hour later when Lyu Xiaodao and Xiao Zhang finally found Rollroll dozing off on a bench. The academy was so vast they had gotten dizzy searching. After asking many people, they followed Rollroll's elusive trail to locate it.

"...How can there be such intense Spirit Energy fluctuations?"

As Awakened individuals, Lyu Xiaodao and Xiao Zhang naturally sensed the Spirit Energy. Soon, under the bench where Rollroll lay, they found the source: a half-eaten golden fruit, emitting intense Spirit Energy fluctuations.

"Th-that thing... could it be a Golden Ridge Fruit?!"

Xiao Zhang's eyes widened. He stared at the fruit for a while before stammering, "I've seen this in the Overdeity's exchange list. It costs 2,500 points! It can improve an Awakened's Spirit Energy quality and even has a chance to trigger special transformations in their War Spirit. I always coveted it... I never thought I'd see the real thing like this!!!"

"Damn it! I'm worse off than a dog!!"

Xiao Zhang almost burst into tears seeing the tattered, dog-chewed Golden Ridge Fruit discarded on the ground. This fruit, which he had saved hard for but could never afford, was thrown away like trash. And judging by the Spirit Energy fluctuations, at least half of its energy hadn't been absorbed...!

Xiao Zhang felt an urge to pounce on it, pick up the Golden Ridge Fruit, and stuff it into his mouth...

Hearing Xiao Zhang, Lyu Xiaodao's mouth twitched. His heart ached in spasms. "Damn it! Something worth 2,500 points wasted by a dog!!"

Just as both felt they were living worse than dogs, Rollroll groggily opened its eyes. It lifted its head and looked at the two sneaky-looking figures. Seeing their mummy-like bandaged appearances, it wore a mocking expression, its eyes filled with thick contempt.

"Damn!"

Xiao Zhang felt mocked by Rollroll's expression. "Brother Xiaodao, I feel like this guy is laughing at us!"

"You're right. It is laughing at us," Lyu Xiaodao said, his face turning green. "But even if we know, what can we do? Can you beat it?"

"..." Xiao Zhang dejectedly lowered his head. Yeah, if they couldn't defeat this dog even together, they wouldn't have made this trip...

"Sometimes you have to swallow your pride," Lyu Xiaodao said.

Then, the two, who had already made up their minds, walked towards Rollroll...

...

"Looks like we're too late again."

In the Doctor's lab, after being cleared out by that creepy man earlier, it now welcomed several strangely dressed individuals. Their attire was completely different from Haven City's style, resembling more that of the Radiant Land.

"Gavin, can you still track that guy's trail?"

A woman in a red mage robe asked a frail man beside her. The man didn't speak but emitted Spirit Energy fluctuations. A Spirit Energy phantom manifested on him, causing beastly fur to sprout on his body and fangs to protrude from his mouth.

The man walked around the lab and stopped where the Doctor had been devoured. "This is where Shadow Serpent last used his Spirit Energy. He must have devoured someone again. But after that, he used a spatial technique and vanished from here."

"This guy escapes so quickly!"

Beside him, a tall armored man carrying a greatsword said irritably, "This guy has S-Class power, yet he only knows how to run. He has no warrior's honor at all."

"Jasmine, can you still use your detection magic?" asked the remaining man in the four-person team, who carried a longsword and shield.

"I can use it, but after devouring someone this time, his Spirit Energy signature changed. I need a stronger spell to detect him," the woman called Jasmine replied. "But according to our temporary access rules in Haven City, I can't use large-scale detection spells here. Otherwise, the Awakened Association will expel us."

"Damn it! Are we just going to let him go? He's a member of the Black Soul Organization! Isn't that also the Awakened Association's enemy?!"

The greatsword wielder said angrily, "We've chased him from the Holy Land across several cities. If the Awakened Association hadn't been hindering us, how could he have escaped our grasp?"

"It can't be helped," said the more composed knightly man. "After all, he's just a new member of the Black Soul Organization. We only learned his identity after it was exposed in the Holy Land. Without evidence, the Awakened Association won't cooperate. Besides, relations between the Holy Land and them have never been good. Them allowing us to move through the city and even pursue fugitives is already showing respect to the Holy Land."

"But at this rate, we'll never catch him!"

The greatsword wielder said angrily.

"No, Gaojiasuo, you're wrong. Even if we find him now, we might not subdue him. After all, he's the kind who escaped the Holy Land under the blockade of several elders," the knight said. "Our top priority now is to find the Divine Artifact he lost."

"Once we find the Divine Artifact, we can easily deal with Shadow Serpent."

"And I believe he's also searching for the Divine Artifact."

"We must find the Divine Artifact before him and use the seal given by the Holy Land to control and seal it."

The knight said.

"But without tracking magic, how can we find the Divine Artifact?" Gaojiasuo said. "Relying only on Cole's sense of smell, finding it in such a big city is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"No need to trouble ourselves," the female mage said. "Do you know what weapon Shadow Serpent stole from the Holy Land this time?"

"It's neither the world-destroying Demonic Sword nor the Demonic Spear that once pierced a god."

"But an artificial Divine Artifact with the power to destroy nations."

"The so-called Angel Puppet."

"—Elphis."

"And her familiar, the Timegap Frog."