Who hid My Corpse!

Isaiah stopped, but didn't turn around; instead, he asked Mina with his back facing her, "What is it?"

Mina's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

She could feel Isaiah's naked coldness towards her.

But... why? Did she do something wrong?

Mina suppressed her unease and heart palpitations, and cautiously asked, "Tonight... what exactly happened?"

"Are you asking me?"

"The student is asking the teacher."

"Oh, I thought you knew."

"The student... doesn't know." Mina said, uneasy, "The student has always been following your instructions, not understanding what she did wrong, please enlighten me."

"Following my instructions, huh." Isaiah said lightly, "So that's how it is."

"... Teacher?"

Isaiah waved his hand, dismissing the other Star Relic Mages, leaving only himself and Mina.

Afterwards, he slowly spoke, "Let's be straightforward, Mina, what kind of offer did that Tongue give you that made my most beloved student betray me?"

Mina's eyes widened instantly, her voice trembling, "Teacher... how could I possibly betray you?"

"If you didn't betray me, then why did you come over tonight?" Isaiah finally turned around, gazing coldly at Mina, "You surely didn't get the time wrong?"

"Tonight was an accident; because the Holy Sound Player acted a day early, alarming the target, we could only follow suit."

"Why didn't you report the accident?"

"I, I reported it."

"Oh?" Isaiah squinted slightly, "You reported it? How, in a dream?"

"Certainly not." Mina panicked, "I reported it using the Star Map."

"If that's the case, why not open the Star Map and take a look?"

Mina hurriedly opened the Star Map, eager to prove herself. But she quickly discovered that the last message she transmitted to Isaiah was a guess about Rocky being the Thumb, after which there was nothing but blankness.

"No, this, how could this be!" Mina hadn't expected this outcome at all, "I clearly reported to you, just last night, I, I, I..."

Faced with ironclad evidence, Mina's voice grew smaller, her expression increasingly frantic.

During this time, Isaiah continually gazed at his proud student; if Mina had truly harbored other thoughts, had lied, she wouldn't escape his Right Eye.

However, Mina showed no abnormalities, Isaiah could confirm she was telling the truth.

Given this, Isaiah had no reason to continue probing Mina, and straightforwardly said, "Tell me everything that happened from last night to now... all of it."

"Yes!"

Mina could sense Isaiah no longer doubted her, but there was no time to relax. She hurriedly recounted all the actions from last night in Delar Town to arriving at the scene, not daring to omit even a minor detail.

After Isaiah finished listening, he roughly grasped the situation, and then whispered, "That there was the Tongue."

"... Teacher?" Mina couldn't understand what Isaiah meant.

"All of us have stepped into the trap laid by the Tongue."

Isaiah took a deep breath to relieve the negative emotions in his heart. Since obtaining this eye, he had never suffered losses in any aspect; no matter who stood before him was akin to dancing naked, no calculation, no conspiracy could escape his eye.

But now, he had stepped right into someone else's snare.

He recalled saying to Lair during their previous battle, "The Rule I possess is superior to yours," and felt an even greater sense of unspeakable defeat.

"The Tongue's Rule guided all this." Isaiah said slowly, "The Holy Sound Player, and you, were all influenced by him."

"I... was influenced by him?"

"Haven't you realized it yet? What you just told me didn't quite add up." Isaiah said coldly, "You clearly explained everything well, even noticing details like Rocky's habit of secretly giving a thumbs-up now and then, yet you gave such a vague account of reporting to me."

Mina's mouth gradually opened wider.

"Because it is an event that never occurred, it is false memories implanted into your head." Isaiah said, "So just like those Holy Sound Players, you've unknowingly been dominated!"

Mina broke out into a cold sweat, and upon understanding all this, she directly knelt before Isaiah.

"I'm sorry, teacher... it's all my fault!" Mina gritted her teeth, "Please punish me!"

Isaiah looked at his proud student, if it were before, he might educate her a bit, but witnessing the Tongue's power firsthand, and even falling into the trap himself, he had no reason to blame Mina anymore.

"Rise." Isaiah said, "The past holds no meaning, the future is what matters."

Mina pursed her lips and stood up, then she asked in confusion, "According to your statement, if the person imposing influence on us is the Tongue, then who is the one we've been tracking, the guy alongside the Taboo Scholar? And tonight, the one you fought... is it the Tongue himself?"

"The person I fought tonight was a Black Merchant named Lair... the one who posed as Contract Land's envoy and appeared at the door, his alias at the time was Lairs." Isaiah said slowly, "He used the Rule of the Tongue against me, and precisely because I personally experienced that kind of domination, I understood the situation on your side."

Mina naturally remembered Lair, "So, it seems, he was the Tongue himself, did you kill him?"

"Certainly." Isaiah said, "I even obtained his Corpse Blocks."

Obtained the Tongue's Corpse Blocks?

Mina was shocked.

Doesn't that mean Teacher Isaiah now has four Corpse Blocks?

Yet four Corpse Blocks aren't handed over; isn't that somewhat...

Mina was about to ask when she saw Isaiah open his palm, revealing a broken middle finger, and couldn't help but be stunned.

How could it be... a middle finger?

Seconds later, an indescribable fear surged from the soles of Mina's feet straight to her brain, her hairs standing on end.

"This, this..." Mina couldn't even speak.

"Just this one finger, I can confirm it's the real deal." Isaiah said blandly.

Looking at the finger before her, Mina's breathing became unusually heavy, countless doubts surged up along with fear like an entangled and knotted thread.

"Hand Eye, Tongue..." she struggled to speak, "Are they one person?"

"I don't know." Beneath Isaiah's calm tone seemed to churn a myriad of emotions, "Too much information is unknown; are they really one person, or has one already killed the other, I can't be sure. The only certainty is, the whole Taoyuan Village is a scheme woven by him or them."

Mina looked at Isaiah, "Even you can't see through it?"

"If I could see through it, I wouldn't have ended up in this situation." Isaiah said, "Have you never considered why he would leave this finger for me?"

Mina, guided by Isaiah, thought briefly, and just from that brief thought, her face turned pale.

"It's... a setup." Mina whispered, "With this, everyone will believe you killed the Tongue, and already possess three Corpse Blocks."

"Yes, that's his goal."

"Then can you hand over this finger?" Mina asked, "Tell everything to Contract Land, let them punish him?"

"You think Contract Land will believe me?" Isaiah said, "Who saw me only obtain this finger?"

This... indeed, no one saw.

When they arrived at the scene, everything was already over.

Which means, when Isaiah killed Lair and picked up this finger, he had already fallen into the trap.

Mina remained undeterred, "But the Tongue originally didn't have a finger, and after receiving the Tongue's Rule, you picked up the finger..."

Mina couldn't finish, because she realized one critical issue.

"Looks like you've thought it through." Isaiah whispered, "'The Tongue and Hand Eye are not one person' is information within Taoyuan Village, but not held by Contract Land."

"In the information held by Contract Land, specifically the intelligence provided by Rhein, there are neither the Tongue nor Hand Eye, but only one person, named Ulu."

"And why did Contract Land convene? Because Rhein believes Ulu likely possesses four Corpse Blocks, including the finger and tongue."

"Meaning, once it's confirmed I killed Ulu, in the eyes of Contract Land..." Isaiah looked at Mina and said each word with emphasis, "Right now, I already possess those four Corpse Blocks."

"Do you know what this means?"