Sixth Ring Wizard

The lower deck was pitch black, and Lunxis descended, relying on the light shining through from the door to roughly discern the situation.

He recalled for a moment and moved towards the inside; the small wooden box was right there, he remembered very clearly.

Lunxis came to this inconspicuous corner where there were still several small boxes stacked, seemingly ordinary cargo.

However, the most important small wooden box was missing.

Lunxis vividly remembered that during the cargo handling, the small wooden box was placed here. How did it suddenly vanish?

"Where did it go... where did it go..."

Lunxis rummaged through the pile of cargo, tossing things around, yet he couldn't even find a shadow of the small wooden box.

"Where did it go! Where did it go!"

As Lunxis's frustration grew, his body began showing bulging veins, as if he was about to explode the next second.

"Are you looking for this?" A young man's voice came from behind, and Lunxis turned to see a young man holding a small wooden box.

Upon spotting the small wooden box, Lunxis charged forward without saying a word, intending to kill Herag and retrieve the box.

"Dark Imprisonment." Magic power surged around Herag, and the next second, Lunxis's entire body was immobilized, unable to move.

Immediately, Herag appeared behind Lunxis, grabbed his head with both hands, and twisted it gently, causing Lunxis to collapse weakly.

But that wasn't the end; Herag quickly pierced two fingers into Lunxis's chest, extracting a slender red worm from inside.

With a forceful pinch from his two fingers, the red worm was killed.

Now Lunxis was completely dead.

Herag dragged Lunxis's corpse to the entrance and tossed it out, knowing someone would soon find it and investigate.

The iron lock on the door had already been broken and would be discovered sooner or later.

After dealing with this uninvited guest, Herag returned to his large wooden crate to stay.

Nearing sunrise, Lunxis's body was discovered by patrol personnel who arrived at the lower deck.

The unusual situation was quickly reported upwards, and soon, people came to the lower deck to check the cargo, finding nothing missing.

However, how Lunxis died and who killed him remained unclear.

Moreover, the lock at the door was evidently broken by human force, but no one knew who did it, and certainly not Lunxis.

Lunxis was merely an ordinary laborer, incapable of breaking such a massive iron lock.

After analyzing the situation, airship management concluded that the person who broke the lock was likely the same one who killed Lunxis.

Yet, the purpose of this person remained unknown, having broken the lock but not stolen any cargo, appearing quite strange.

After the investigation yielded no discoveries, the matter was slowly set aside, and a stronger iron lock was installed at the entrance.

Herag stayed inside the crate, holding a wooden carving.

The wooden box had been returned, except the carving inside was replaced with a magic potion root.

While people inspected the cargo on board, Herag concealed his presence, even holding his breath to avoid exposing himself.

They couldn't possibly open every crate to check, especially those containing keel bones which couldn't be opened.

These crates were specially constrained, only accessible by someone with the key.

Moreover, with such restrictions, the crates could not be stored inside a space ring.

This prevented easy theft by storing them inside a space ring, reducing the theft difficulty significantly.

Valuable items generally had these constraints added to ensure their safety.

Initially, Herag had hoped to catch an Abyssal Cultist using this wooden box after disembarking from the airship, but the antagonist appeared on the airship itself.

This left him with no choice but to resolve the issue right there.

Herag glanced at the wooden carving, realizing it was of no use now, and decisively crushed the demon worm inside.

...

Below the airship.

An old man and two young men watched the airship fade away in despair, having exhausted almost all their magic power, yet the witch array failed to progress to the second step.

The airship had flown away as if nothing had happened.

"What the hell is Lunxis doing!" the young man cursed.

The old man frowned: "Someone must've obstructed our plan, perhaps those wizards discovered us. If they did, Lunxis is of no use."

The secrecy was paramount to their plan; if discovered, stopping them would be easy.

But if not discovered, the plan would proceed smoothly without a sound.

"Sir, what should we do now?" the young man asked.

The old man glanced at the departing airship and whispered: "Let's return. Failure is normal; what we aim to do is not easily accomplished. Franz took pains for many years, and eventually failed too. Let's go, there will be more opportunities in the future."

Inside the airship, Herag continued silent meditation, compressing his liquid spiritual power.

Beside him, the red worm inside the carving remained perfectly still, daring not make a move.

Unbeknownst to Herag, he had unwittingly thwarted an Abyssal Cultist operation yet again.

Several days later.

Herag took out a map, comparing it to the flight route map drawn by Shenlan in his mind.

The airship flew along the edges of major cities in the Land of Dawn, avoiding the polluted areas.

The flight paths were close to city peripheries, never venturing high over polluted regions.

The polluted territory was populated with powerful demons, who might find overhead noise and become aggressive.

What followed was an uneventful month-and-a-half journey aboard the airship, during which Herag consistently compressed the liquid spiritual power in his mind.

Signs of progress were visible; his liquid spiritual power has shrunk slightly within his mind, just enough to barely notice.

Despite taking such a long time, having such minimal progress felt slow.

However, Herag felt very satisfied, knowing this pace was quite fast.

No wizard at the liquidation stage could compress spiritual power as swiftly as he, seeing clear progress within mere months.

Herag adjusted his state through meditation, not to keep compressing spiritual power but to prep for what was coming.

The airship neared Silver Beach City and was about to enter Serlandir territory.

Herag could distinctly feel the airship's speed gradually decreasing, its altitude lowering until finally coming to a complete stop.

On the second deck above, Royce took out a Talisman Stone. Upon entering Serlandir territory, communication could be restored and used normally.

He observed the Talisman Stone's glow and was somewhat surprised upon receiving Sam's message.

Royce hadn't expected this shipment to also carry a person, and Sam only informed him of this now.