Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Trouble was brewing.

If it weren't for the daily ritual of setting keywords to regulate his emotions in front of the mirror upon waking—though the list had grown longer over just a few days—Lin's shirt would have been drenched in cold sweat as he followed his mentor to the ceremony room.

Moreover, even if he managed to force himself to stay calm, his left eye still throbbed painfully, with an invisible and intangible fragment slowly rotating within his eyeball, cutting through non-existent flesh and blood.

"Lin," Hui Cui, who seemed to sense something, asked with concern from behind him, "Are you okay?"

"My eye still hurts a bit," Lin didn't lie.

"Oh, right," Hugo turned around, his bright yellow cat-like eyes observing Lin through his glasses, "I forgot to ask, what happened to your eye?"

Lin: "..."

Both of them, one in front and one behind, fixed their gazes on him. Lin felt like he was under attack from two people who knew him well; even as a deity of evil, it wouldn't be shameful to collapse from weakness now.

He shouldn't have walked in the middle of the group, Lin reflected.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Lin's heart was stronger than he imagined. At this moment, he could even respond to his mentor calmly, "I performed a sacrifice the day before yesterday, and there seems to be a minor issue. It's been hurting, and I've seen a flesh doctor."

"You always draw the ritual array too roughly on your eyes. You can't keep using the cheapest ink for rituals," Hugo immediately began to nag, "Forget about other things, but for a ritual array drawn on your body, you should use better ink. You don't even have to buy it yourself; doesn't the Tribunal have better options?"

Lin pretended to disagree, muttering, "It's probably not the ink..."

"The ink definitely has an impact," Hugo asserted, "Master Shalong's 'Pens, Inks, Surfaces, and Ritual Success Rates' analyzed this..."

The conversation between the two ritualists instantly delved into technical territory, leaving Hui Cui, walking at the back, increasingly bewildered.

She watched Lin quicken his pace to catch up with Hugo, making it easier to discuss. His young face showed no signs of distress.

His gait was also smooth, and if not for Hui Cui's keen eyesight, she might not have noticed Lin clenching his teeth and the sudden twitch of his facial muscles.

This level of pain must be more than just a little.

Hui Cui recalled a certain email sent to her work terminal yesterday, which included several pages of a medical report.

Because Lin was involved in the "Conch" incident and became privy to high-level confidential information, his medical report was personally reviewed by the head of the Medical Department before being submitted to Hui Cui.

Both the head of the Medical Department and Lin's attending physician concluded that Lin's genetic condition was severe but showed no signs of worsening, with no additional symptoms beyond developmental issues.

Despite this, Lin's behavior suggested otherwise.

Perhaps giving Lin a few more days of rest would be better, but Spire City was no longer a safe place to seal the "Conch." Before the "Conch" could be secretly moved to the next sealing location, they needed to find the missing fragment.

In such circumstances, unless Lin was under an unbreakable powerful curse, unconscious, or near death, he would have to appear in the ceremony room even if he had just come out of surgery.

The Tribunal offered high salaries and benefits precisely so that when a judge was needed, they would step up, even at the cost of their lives.

But what Lin likely wanted was to live longer with those high salaries and benefits.

...I hope so too, Hui Cui thought, watching the backs of the two men ahead of her, and raised her hand to lightly press against her chest.

Feeling a slight chill on his back, Lin: "?"

Turning around, he saw the Chief Judge looking as usual, and Lin withdrew his gaze, puzzled.

They had arrived at the ceremony room.

Each district of the Tribunal Headquarters had a varying number of ceremony rooms on standby, ready for any urgent ritual needs.

The Second District, where the Ceremony Department was located, had the most ceremony rooms, but the largest one was in the First District.

This was Lin's first time here. This ceremony room was said to be the largest in Spire City, comparable only to the Guardian Hall beneath the city hall.

Upon entering, Lin felt that calling it a ceremony room was inadequate; it was more like a ceremony hall. The ceiling was at least six meters high, and the chandelier hanging from it was not an ordinary light fixture but a piece of alchemical equipment. It consisted of metal branches connected to a small yellow diamond at the center, surrounded by twelve egg-sized white crystals.

This alchemical device illuminated the entire ceremony hall with such brightness that no shadows were cast, even when someone entered. The cement floor, perfect for drawing, was spotlessly clean, saving the ritualists the necessary cleaning before drawing the ritual array.

"Really impressive," Hugo dropped his leather briefcase, identical to Lin's, at the door and looked around, sighing, "I've always wanted the principal to build one like this at the school, but he refused. Such a waste."

Lin had come directly from the cafeteria in the Fourth District, without even a briefcase or a secret book. So when Hugo squatted down to open his briefcase and started rummaging, Lin simply looked up at the alchemical chandelier, pondering its price.

"The cost is enough for a body reconstruction to eliminate genetic risks," Hui Cui said.

That would be between thirty thousand and forty thousand yuan, Lin thought, not embarrassed at all as he smiled at Hui Cui and walked over to Hugo to borrow a pen and ink.

"For enhancing the connection, it will definitely be a ritual from the Adhesive Craft domain," Hugo explained as if teaching Lin, handing him a cool glass jar and a brush, "We also need to specify the location of the fragment. Since the Chief Judge believes the fragment may be in the Headquarters, we'll start our search here. So, we need a complete map of the Headquarters..."

Hmm? How did they determine the fragment might be in the Headquarters?

Lin took the large map from the Chief Judge, hoping he hadn't revealed anything.

Dipping the brush into the glue pot, Lin applied glue to the back of the map to secure it to the ground, preventing it from moving during the ritual array drawing.

This mechanical action quickly cleared Lin's mind of distractions, allowing him to focus on weighing the few plans he had considered along the way.

Using the main body of the "Conch" to call the fragment was theoretically feasible. But if the ritual succeeded, Lin would face the Chief Judge's cold gun barrel at the end.

Perhaps he should pretend to be sick; after all, he couldn't hide the pain in his left eye.

Since a binary ritual method required two ritualists, and as the only two ritualists in the Headquarters who knew about the "Conch," the Tribunal wouldn't want to add another person to the loop, replacing him with another ritualist.

This way, he could delay things for a few hours to a day, during which he might think of a better solution.

However, with the precedent set by former Director Shuye, who feigned illness to avoid fieldwork, pretending to be sick at such a critical moment, even if he really was ill, would raise suspicions.

The second plan was to tamper with the ritual array, subtly deviating from the intended effect.

It was unfortunate that his mentor wasn't the kind of lazy teacher who would treat students' holiday assignments as scrap paper and neglect to check them. Even if she trusted Lin, given ample time, she would certainly inspect the half he had drawn, and might even have Lin check the half she had drawn.

Hugo's responsible attitude left no room for Lin to tamper with anything, and he lacked the confidence to do so without her noticing.

The third option was to let the ceremony proceed smoothly, even if the fragment in his left eye were discovered; he still had an explanation to defend himself.

He had shown signs of abnormal pain in his left eye since the fragment disappeared. Even now, the pain hadn't subsided, which was the truth.

Both the deputy judge and the flesh doctor had conducted examinations and found no fragment in his left eye. Could Lin really find it? He was just an innocent victim of this cursed fragment—

Ah, the term "victim" might not be understood in this world.

In any case, he only needed to conceal the fact that Lin could sense the fragment's call and hear the sound of the sea. Then he would be innocent.

He was innocent from the start! He had always intended to stay as far away from the fragment as possible; it was the fragment that sought him out!

The only problem with this plan was that it might attract the fragment, likely due to something special about him.

He was an evil deity, or rather, the "seed's longing," a secret that must never be revealed.

Even if it had to be exposed, it shouldn't happen here, where there was nowhere to run.

Would the court notice his issue? Without information, it was impossible to determine.

In summary, all three options had their risks.

But with all these risks, a decision had to be made.

Lin laid the map flat on the ground. During this process, Hugo, who was doing calculations in his notebook, waved him over and instructed in a teaching tone, "Look, we use the twin structure here..."

Lin nodded while listening, raising his hand to massage his left eye.

He knew this gesture would draw the attention of the chief judge, making his subsequent feigned illness more convincing.

First, Option One, then decide whether to proceed with Option Three based on the situation.

Lin made his decision, listened to his mentor's design, and then took the ink bottle and pen, heading to the left side of the map.

This drawing took more than two hours, resulting in two ritual arrays of different sizes, centered around the map, seemingly separate but actually nested at the edges.

Just like the relationship between the "conch" and the fragment.

After finishing, Hugo indeed requested to switch positions for inspection. Lin walked to the larger ritual array, using tools to measure angles and check for any errors or omissions.

By the time they finished, it was already ten o'clock at night.

"Almost done," Hugo stood up, massaging his waist. "At this hour, those who work during the day should be asleep."

The final point to note for the ritual was the corpse of the Dream God, which would only truly manifest during sleep.

Hugo moved to one side of the large ritual array, facing Lin, who stood beside the smaller array.

Hui Cui, who had left at some point, pushed open the door to the ritual hall and entered. Although he looked no different from when he left, Lin heard the increasingly loud sound of the sea.

The "conch" was with him.

Lin almost hallucinated, seeing white waves lapping at his toes buried in soft sand, walking on the sea, looking out at the beach, and the large and small shell fragments pushed ashore by the waves forming a shimmering ribbon along the coast.

The hallucination vanished after a second, and Hui Cui had already taken out the "conch" sealed in honey-colored resin from the hidden pocket of his coat.

It was a conch, only palm-sized, with a brownish-yellow exterior marked by fine net-like patterns, white edges, and a pink interior resembling a flower.

Its opening had several chips, and it seemed that the fragment tormenting Lin's left eye could perfectly fit into one of them.

Moreover, Lin felt that this conch was somewhat familiar.

Before Lin could examine it closely, Hui Cui gently tapped the resin covering the conch.

The resin cracked with a snap, and Lin didn't need to pretend; the intense pain had him lifting his hand to cover his eye.

"Hmm?" A pleasant voice Lin recognized suddenly appeared in the ritual hall, asking in confusion and anger, "What the hell is this place?"

Shock momentarily overshadowed the pain, and Lin, drenched in cold sweat, made no movement, only turning his eyes under the bandage and gauze to glance in the direction of the voice.

The blue-haired mermaid, said to have lived in that sea for over nine hundred years, appeared suddenly but did not catch the attention of the other two.

Barefoot and wearing a tattered white robe, he looked around the ritual hall and then saw Lin.

He looked at Lin, and Lin looked back.

"..."

"..."

The blue-haired mermaid instantly reacted, taking five quick steps backward, away from Lin.