As he walked into the Kai family mansion, Azrael could clearly see that the house had been rebuilt. Some places were in rough shape—the kind of shoddy construction that would make any contractor refuse payment after seeing the finished product.
But Azrael figured out the reason in an instant. When Sword Lake first appeared, the association had obviously carried out a brutal suppression. The suppression process wasn't a dinner party and naturally involved blood and fire. It was only natural that the original Kai family mansion had burned down completely.
"So they're not all poor ghosts," Azrael thought, touching his chin. However, since he was there, Azrael reminded himself of the four-character truth: Leave no stone unturned.
Passing through the main hall of the front yard, Azrael came to the backyard. Since there weren't many Kai family members left, the backyard wasn't particularly large. He spotted the house where the father and son had lived at a glance. Compared with other buildings showing Syrian war damage, the two rooms in the middle were more refined, though only slightly.
Shaking his head to dismiss his wandering thoughts, Azrael pushed open the middle door. The room's furniture was complete, but there were no other items besides the basic pieces. This furniture had obviously been remade later. Not to mention the gold and silver treasures Azrael had imagined.
"Ah," Azrael sighed, his voice echoing in the silent room.
Looking carefully for hiding spots, he walked slowly to the bed, sat on it, and began thinking about what Kai-Myun had just said. As he pondered, his knuckles gently tapped the bed, making a crisp "tap, tap, tap" sound.
"The water in this world is deeper than I thought."
Although Kai-Myun hadn't provided much information, there was a saying: The fewer words, the bigger the problem.
"Sword Master, Four Evil Gods." Azrael muttered the two names that Kai-Myun had mentioned.
These were obviously big shots, still far beyond his current reach. There was also the culprit who had caused Kai-Myun to self-destruct.
Combined with the information Kai-Myun had given him, it was clear that the advent of secret realms was controlled by an invisible hand.
Thinking of this, Azrael remembered some information he had obtained earlier. First, when he'd first entered the Black Flag secret realm, he'd seen the ridiculously large sea chart on the ship. The Black Flag secret realm obviously only accounted for part of the chart. He remembered Grey telling him to treat it as the imagination of demons.
However, according to the information he had obtained, these secret realms were in the same world. "Were these secret realms in the same world before? Or are there connections between secret realms?" Azrael silently inferred.
Then, Master Lucian of Golden Credit said that the Crimson Oath Society wanted Velkairos to be chaotic. The most intuitive manifestation of chaos was population reduction.
Azrael remembered the textbook stating that the more uninhabited a place was, the easier it was to produce a secret realm. He now knew that the advent of secret realms was controlled by someone—or some demon—behind the scenes.
A bold idea formed in his heart:
Could the Crimson Oath Society be planning to summon a great secret realm in Velkairos? But can secret realms really be guided by humans? What good would it do for them to summon a secret realm?"
He had never heard of any related cases.
Azrael buried his guess deep in his heart and breathed a sigh of relief. "Anyway, I'm now lurking in the Crimson Oath Society. If they're planning something big, there will definitely be signs of trouble."
If the Crimson Oath Society were really going to make such a big move, it would be impossible for there to be no movement at all. If not for the possibility of being assigned to kill innocent people, Azrael wouldn't want to leave the society. After all, there were rewards to be won, and he could gather information in secret.
Azrael was about to get up when he suddenly discovered something.
"Yoriichi, please cut this bed open."
With a bright flash, Tsugikuni Yoriichi's blade split the wooden bed in two, revealing its hollow interior.
"It's really there," Azrael muttered to himself.
He had just noticed that the sound of him knocking on the bed board was slightly off. If it were solid wood, it wouldn't have made a crisp sound but rather a dull one. That's why he'd asked Yoriichi to cut the bed open.
"What is this?" Azrael walked over to the bed, bent down, and picked up a book.
He casually flipped it open, revealing dense characters he didn't recognize. He remembered that humans and demons on Earth could communicate without obstacles because of some unknown rule. They could naturally understand each other's words, but they didn't use the same language.
So Azrael wasn't surprised to see unfamiliar words in the book.
After turning a few pages, Azrael formed a guess. "This can't be a diary."
After all, the format of the book looked familiar to him.
[Date: xxxx Content: xxxxxxx]
"But which normal person would write a diary?" Azrael thought to himself. "Oh, wait. He's not a normal person. He's a demon."
But, since he couldn't read the text, this was just his guess.
Shaking his head, Azrael tucked the diary into his jacket. He couldn't read it now, but maybe he would have a chance to understand it in the future.
After searching the main house, Azrael went to search the other rooms. Unfortunately, no other demons had the habit of writing diaries.
"Time to go."
After summoning Pidgeot, Azrael prepared to leave the secret realm. After all, the mission of this trip had been completed, and the association stipulated that he could only visit one demon gathering place. The Kai family, which Azrael had chosen, was already the richest.
Had Kai-Myun not self-destructed, he would have earned two or three million this time.
Since there were no flying monsters in the Sword Lake secret realm, there was naturally no aerial surveillance in the air.
"Can you go higher?" For safety's sake, though, Azrael touched Pidgeot's head and whispered, "Fly forward while increasing altitude. Don't let people see that you're flying high on purpose."
With a soft cry, Pidgeot flew higher and higher until the hazy clouds obscured Azrael's figure.
"Almost done. Thank you, Pidgeot."
The next moment, Azrael used the Breathless Orb and summoned Mark 3.
"JARVIS, please record the text content of this book."
JARVIS was the name Azrael had given to Mark 3's artificial intelligence. He needed to record the book's contents.
The book would have to be handed in. After all, there were surveillance cameras inside and outside the Kai family's house. This was why he'd flown high before summoning Mark 3.
He didn't use his phone to photograph it because he was afraid the association might format his phone after he handed it in. To be on the safe side, it was better to let Mark 3 scan the book.
After a while, the scan finished. After dismissing Mark 3, Azrael rode Pidgeot and flew back the way he'd come.