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Aaron nodded calmly; just moments after disembarking from the gangway, the "Devil's Button" had already transmitted several faint malicious intentions.
The malicious intentions originated from within the passing traffic, all from indigenous people of the colonial area; they would often glance in Aaron's direction, seemingly confirming something before quickly departing.
Even though he had been at sea recently, without landing for supplies or intelligence, the ship's built-in telegraph room had continuously received intelligence from the Northern and Southern Continents.
Among the most sensational news was not the hunting of the "Admiral of Blood" but the emergence of a new Pirate King.
This was a mysterious powerhouse who called himself the "King of the Blood Moon," and he, accompanied by a Sequence 5 Wraith, absorbed the fleet that originally belonged to the "Admiral of Blood."
What was most astonishing was that this newly emerged Pirate King actually used some pirates as bait to slaughter the Loen Navy, which was besieging the remaining forces of the Rose School of Thought at sea.
Had Admiral Amyrius not arrived in time, the entire fleet would have been wiped out, and even with the use of a Sealed Artifact, this Pirate King could not be captured.
Such a crazy act instantly solidified his identity as a Pirate King; the bounty for the "King of the Blood Moon" in Loen soared to 150,000 pounds, even surpassing the 100,000 pounds for the "King of the Undying" Agathos.
Unlike external speculation, Aaron had already received accurate intelligence from Admiral Amyrius.
The so-called "King of the Blood Moon" was an ancient Shaman King of the Rose School of Thought named Tavari, who controlled a ghost ship and additionally possessed a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact.
Even with the aid of the Imperative that weakened mystery and strengthened reality, Admiral Amyrius could do nothing to him and could only let him leave, unable to wait for the arrival of the Pirate King.
Although he didn't know what the Rose School of Thought was thinking by sending a Shaman King to replace the Admiral of Blood, combining it with the previous reminder from "Orange Light" Hilarion, Aaron felt it was better to be cautious.
Even if he was confident in dealing with a surprise attack from the Rose School of Thought, he would certainly expose more of his trump cards, and without sufficient self-interest, it wasn't worth it.
Under Aaron's arrangement, the group slowly drove by carriage towards the Church of Evernight in Gulain City.
Under the cover of night, except for Aaron and Bayer Baile, the others disguised themselves as church followers and left in batches, taking a steam train directly to Lloyd City in the central Paz River Valley.
Faintly illusory colorful blocks emerged, and Aaron, with Evelynna perched on his shoulder looking around, and the tall, burly Bayer Baile following behind him, stepped out of the Spirit World.
The Mysterious Ring on his finger flickered faintly, and Aaron felt the speed of his spiritual power consumption, frowning slightly, and asked Bayer Baile, who was looking around at the environment:
"How is it? Do you recognize where this is?"
Hearing Aaron's question, Bayer Baile thought for a moment, then replied with a confident tone:
"Your Highness, this should be Tetnik City, southeast of Gulain City, less than 200 kilometers from Saint Annes."
Saint Annes is the capital of the East Tucker family's colonial area in the Southern Continent, named in memory of a Demigod who sacrificed himself more than 100 years ago during the East Tucker family's struggle for colonies after the opening of new sea routes.
The family's colonial territory extends from the easternmost part of the Paz River Valley to the vast ancient forest of East Balam, bordering the Feysac Empire, which occupies the eastern coast of East Balam.
After hearing his personal guard captain's words, Aaron breathed a sigh of relief; fortunately, they hadn't deviated from the route.
Because the essence of the Death Mask is a Demigod-level Undying Beyonder characteristic, and even mixed with some of the Death Consul's power, even if it is sealed, there is still a great risk in using it in the Southern Continent.
This place is not like the Northern Continent; the Numinous Episcopate's influence is enormous, and Aaron did not want to encounter a Numinous Episcopate Saint one day when using the Death Mask to enter the Spirit World.
The Mystical Item made from the Traveler Beyonder characteristic had not yet been obtained, so Aaron had to use the Spirit World Shuttle recorded by the Mysterious Ring; although it avoided the potential trouble that the Convergence of Beyonder characteristics might bring, it also caused a lot of inconvenience.
For example, the recorded Spirit World Shuttle was much inferior to the original, not only in teleportation distance but also in teleportation accuracy, forcing Aaron to use it in conjunction with a divination pendant's divination to determine direction when shuttling through the Spirit World.
"Hmm, at most two more shuttles should get us there…"
After silently calculating the distance and confirming the direction, Aaron, with one person and one cat, once again activated the Spirit World Shuttle.
-----------------
Loen, East Chester County, Hall Family Castle.
As March approached, the tail of winter had quietly slipped away, and all things were reviving.
Audrey led Susie, who already had the physique of an adult hound, strolling in the manor's backyard, humming a tune while taking the "People's Daily" she had specially ordered from her personal maid, Annie.
Suddenly, she exclaimed, and seeing Annie look over nervously, Audrey lightly covered her lips and waved her hand, indicating that she was fine.
Susie's spiritual eyes showed confusion and bewilderment as she watched Audrey, who was holding the newspaper and walking quickly towards the castle, barked once, picked up the small ball on the ground, and wagged her tail as she caught up.
Audrey quickly arrived at her room, spread the "People's Daily" on her desk, and read it with sparkling eyes.
Unlike previous issues, this issue of the newspaper had a blood-red title on both the front and back pages.
"Shock! The 'Admiral of Blood,' famous throughout the Five Seas and a headache for navies worldwide, was killed by Aaron Weil!"
"Loen Navy Suffers Crushing Defeat, Fifth Pirate King Born!"
Limited by communication methods and costs, the two pieces of news, which had already been widely spread at sea, only reached Backlund and East Chester County more than a week later.
Audrey carefully read this issue of the newspaper, both shocked that the Loen Sonia Navy would be defeated by a group of pirates and unusually yearning for Aaron's actions.
"Pirate Admiral, Pirate King…"
Audrey gently folded it, yearning even more for the Beyonder world, took out stationery and ink from the drawer, and pondered writing a letter, inquiring about Aaron's adventures during this period, and expressing her curiosity at the end of the text.
Picking up the freshly dried letter, Audrey read it twice from beginning to end to confirm it was correct, then summoned the information according to the ritual Aaron had taught her before.
A slightly cold wind blew through the room, and as the candlelight flickered, Astolfo's figure slowly emerged under Audrey's mixed expression of surprise and bewilderment.
Watching this "strange creature," completely different from the previous messenger's image, take her letter, Audrey somewhat unconfidently suspected that she had made a mistake in the ritual.
Just as Audrey was still hesitating, seeing this strange humanoid creature nod slightly to her before disappearing into the candlelight, the question on her lips suddenly stopped.
"Maybe Aaron's messenger evolved; don't those folk tales have such plots?"
Just as Audrey was lost in thought, a "Woof, woof, woof" sound came from outside the laboratory, and Audrey immediately frowned.
She quickly extinguished the candle on the table, put it away with various spiritual materials, and then turned around and walked to the door.
"Susie, who's here?" Audrey distorted the doorknob, asking the golden retriever sitting at the door.
The golden retriever Susie wagged her tail, looking pleased, and following her gaze, Audrey saw her personal maid Annie appear in the nearby corridor.
-----------------
East Balam, Saint Annes, a secluded alley unnoticed by anyone, Aaron was the first to step out of the Door of the Spirit World.
Perhaps it was the blessing of Will Auceptin; the subsequent teleports occurred without incident, and the two people and one cat arrived smoothly at Saint Annes.
The main purpose of coming here was to retrieve his Mystical Item made from the Traveler Beyonder characteristic, and to see if there were any supplementary ingredients needed by a Demon Hunter, and incidentally to visit the family's Demigod, Joseph Weil, who had been stationed here for a long time and whom he hadn't seen.
Thanks to his superb makeup skills, no one recognized him as the famous Lord Aaron this time, but he did attract the attention of the street police.
This was unavoidable, as Bayer Baile's exaggerated physique could not be concealed by makeup.
To Aaron's surprise, this officer, who was clearly an indigenous person of the Southern Continent, spoke fluent Loenese and even had a slight East Tucker County accent.
But unlike other indigenous police officers in the Loen colonial area of the Southern Continent, even when he saw Aaron's standard Loenese appearance, he showed no flattery, handling matters officially and unceremoniously.
After successfully passing the interrogation, Aaron got into a carriage, and the sights he saw along the way surprised him even more; here, there was no obvious class distinction between indigenous people and Loenese.
Noticing Aaron's surprise, Bayer Baile, who had to curl up to fit in the carriage, explained in a muffled voice:
"In the hundred years of occupation here, the family has built nearly a hundred schools, teaching the local indigenous people Loenese and Loen culture."
"The family has invested in all industries in Saint Annes and even the entire family colonial territory."
"Furthermore, a committee has been specifically established under the city lord's mansion, inviting local indigenous nobles to serve as members, jointly promoting the prosperity and stability of the entire colonial territory."
Cultural colonization?
This term instantly popped into Aaron's mind: weakening the indigenous people's awareness of the Southern Continent, identifying with the culture spread by the East Tucker family, and reducing the hatred accumulated from violent colonization.
The only drawback was the longer time cycle; the effect would only truly manifest after a generation of colonized people passed away, and more than 150 years was enough to accomplish all of this.
Aaron's mind quickly recalled what his father had told him when he left Osel:
Establish unique systems or Imperatives, truly implement them for a period, leave an imprint in the minds of the populace, and accumulate enough feedback.
Then, write the implemented system or Imperative that received feedback in spiritually rich blood on paper, and ignite it while consuming the Imperative Mage potion; this is the auxiliary ritual for advancing to Imperative Mage.
The feedback brought by the established system or Imperative could be positive or negative, and these would all affect the advancement.
Gusman Weil was not clear about the specific effects, only telling Aaron to ask Joseph Weil when he achieved Sequence 5 and began preparing for the Sequence 4 advancement ritual.
Looking at the orderly scene around him, Aaron speculated that this might be a lingering effect brought about by the advancement of one of the family's Imperative Mages.
As Aaron pondered, the carriage stopped at the city lord's mansion, which was ancient in style yet solemn and majestic.
After verifying his identity, Aaron was invited to the backyard and saw Harland Rooney, whom he hadn't seen for several months; seeing his deep dark circles, Aaron cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly.
Before he could ask, Harland Rooney proactively took out a total of five boxes, one large and four small, and explained to Aaron, who looked puzzled:
"Lord Your Highness, the Mystical Item made by the Traveler has been completed according to your requirements, but due to some issues with it, it cannot be transmitted to you by messenger for the time being, so I must trouble you to make a trip."
He then pointed to the largest box, which contained a badge inlaid with transparent, almost illusory crystals:
"I call it the 'Traveler's Badge,' and it has two abilities."
"The first is the Traveler's Door, which allows the user to perform Spirit World Shuttle that can sense the outside world and self-locate."
"Beyonders of different Sequences, due to the varying strength of their spiritual bodies, can withstand different teleportation times, and the effect and distance of the Spirit World Shuttle also vary significantly; the specific effects still need Your Highness to try them yourself."
"The second is Record, but to meet the requirement of minimizing negative effects, it can only record one Demigod-level ability, and the effect is only 70% of the original, allowing only one use of Demigod-level power per day."
Aaron nodded with great satisfaction; he was not lacking in offensive means now, and what he needed most was that Traveler's Door; he was not very concerned about the limited ability of the Scribe.
Then, with interest, he pointed to the other four small boxes and asked:
"What are its negative effects? And what are in these four boxes?"
Harland Rooney took out the four conical objects emitting strong spiritual fluctuations and explained:
"Its negative effect is that prolonged use or wearing has a certain probability of uncontrollably starting Spirit World wandering, and you might even get lost in the depths of the Spirit World."
Seeing Aaron's somewhat strange expression, he quickly explained:
"That's also why I didn't have the messenger deliver it to you through the Spirit World."
"However, I have come up with a solution: you only need to place these four items in four completely different, widely spaced locations in the depths of the Spirit World, using them as special coordinates."
"When encountering its negative effect, no matter where you wander, you can instantly return to any of those four special coordinates."
"Moreover, this negative effect will appear at most once a month."
Aaron pondered, picking up the "Traveler's Badge," and secretly thought:
"This is equivalent to a directional teleportation array; the negative effect isn't unacceptable. At worst, I'll just divine every day."
"If I encounter danger, it might even have a miraculous effect. I'll have Astolfo place the beacons in safe positions in the depths of the Spirit World later."
Aaron first put away the items, planning to divine and confirm later to see if there were any other overlooked abilities or negative effects; this was an experience he had gained from the "Devil's Button."
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