I Bound Myself to a Destructive Witch
Chapter 646 - 646: 614. Evil Cultist

The four spiral staircases leading to the second floor were all guarded by military officers.

Fully armed.

Furthermore, Xia Feng discovered that his "Eye of Decompilation" actually couldn't penetrate the walls of the second floor, only revealing a mosaic-like blur.

It seemed that the second floor was protected by an incredibly powerful barrier that could block all prying eyes and spatial methods.

Xia Feng retracted his gaze and casually took a glass of red wine from a waiter's tray before walking deeper into the great hall.

"Did you hear that Princess Freya was kidnapped by an evil cultist named Xia Feng the day before yesterday? Is that true?"

The banquet was rife with gossip, and whether it was the laughing gentlemen or the small circles of noblewomen, everyone was very curious about the events of the previous day.

"It's indeed true, but Mr. Dongjun didn't give that foolish cultist any chance to act wildly. He directly dispatched a warship and rescued Lady Freya. Heh~, I heard that because of this incident, Lady Freya has finally warmed up to Mr. Dongjun."

"Oh? So the classic hero-rescuing-the-beauty still works, eh? Even the princess falls for it."

"You don't know the half of it. Rumor has it that the cultist was once one of Lady Freya's students in Area 51, who has always been secretly and wildly obsessed with her. He even once stole and wore Lady Freya's discarded stockings - utterly perverted! After gaining the assistance of the Evil God, he became even more lustful and committed this abominable act!"

Xia Feng's footsteps paused, and the corner of his eye twitched as he continued walking forward.

"Indeed, it seems that those from the rural areas of Area 51 are just revolting."

"Wait a minute! Surely that cultist didn't defile Lady Freya, right...?"

"Nonsense! Of course, she wasn't. But I heard that even on his deathbed, that cultist Xia Feng was still drooling over Lady Freya. Lady Freya has been shutting herself away these past few days, probably disgusted to no end."

"!", Xia Feng stopped in his tracks again. Honestly, were these noble figures so idle that they spent all day spreading gossip and rumors?

"I seem to recall the name Xia Feng. Wasn't he claimed to be that... what's-its-name... the Eternal Day Saint Child a few months ago?"

"That I'm not sure about, but every year there are people who falsely claim to be the Eternal Day Saint Child, swindling and cheating. It's not unusual."

"Right..."

The murmur of conversation faded into a drone as Xia Feng stopped listening, threading his way through the groups of people until he sat down on a secluded sofa.

He brought the glass of red wine to his nose, sniffed it, and frowned before setting it down. True, he still didn't like this stuff.

While swirling the wine glass, Xia Feng continued to scan the surroundings with his Eye of Decompilation, observing the identities of the attendees at the banquet.

Among them, the most eye-catching was the man in silver armor sitting boldly in the very center of the grand hall on an elegant sofa.

The man had a saintly white VII-shaped mark engraved on his forehead, and a silver helm covered his nose. However, the mouth of the helm was a terrifying shark's tooth grin that reached ear to ear.

Judging by his armor and the mark on his forehead, he was unmistakably an Apocalypse Knight.

Miss Mu had collected appearance information on several Apocalypse Knights, and having seen them, Xia Feng also recognized this man.

—Apocalypse·Shi Qi.

Shi Qi seemed to be very hungry, as he bit into the apple in his hand with his shark teeth, his scarlet eyes sparkling with a bloodied gleam. He even crunched the apple core and gulped it down in one go.

At a rate of one every three seconds, the two-meter-high mountain of apples in front of him quickly diminished by almost half.

In the grand hall, whether it was the gentlemen, noblewomen, or military officers, everyone kept their distance from this area, even fearing to glance in the direction of Shi Qi.

Around Shi Qi, a radius of ten meters was eerily empty and quiet.

To avoid drawing attention, Xia Feng refrained from looking any longer at this individual and quickly moved his gaze away.

But then he saw someone he hadn't expected to encounter.

Dipus.

The son of the Pope had disguised himself as the scion of a powerful family, donning a tailcoat and conversing warmly with several noblewomen.

The ladies, dressed in regal fashion, were all quite fetching, and seemed to lose some laugh lines at their eyes, their faces glowing with pleasure from Dipus's witty banter.

Sensing a prying gaze, Dipus turned his head to look in Xia Feng's direction, but it was only a glance before he turned his attention away without much concern.

Xia Feng's disguise was the Bronze Mask, far superior to the Pope's son's efforts, so he had no fear of his true identity being discerned.

What puzzled Xia Feng, though, was why the Pope's son was here and why he had purposely come in disguise.

The Black Moon Court also located within the 15 major districts, so invitations to Lord Yeli Dong's birthday celebration should have been sent to the Black Moon Court.

Logically speaking, if the Pope's son wanted to come, he could have entered openly and aboveboard.

But given the current situation...

Xia Feng thoughtfully pondered. Suddenly, he remembered copying the Absolute Rebirth Subspiritual Artifact from Yeli Kong on his way to the 15 major districts.

Yeli Kong's intentions then were not only to enslave him and make him, with his Dragon God Bloodline, a slave to Lord Yeli Dong.

Yeli Kong also wanted to kill the two Black Moon Saintesses to prevent their return to the Black Moon Court.

Xia Feng had guessed at the time that someone within the Black Moon Court wanted to harm the two Saintesses and, unable to act openly, had contracted Lord Yeli Dong to dispatch his men to do the deed.

But now it seemed quite likely that there was no cooperative relationship between Lord Yeli Dong and the Black Moon Court, but rather an adversarial one!

So, what was the cause of this hostility between the two powers?

As he pondered this question, Xia Feng recalled last night's Lantern Festival, when Dipus had appeared at the Heavenly Lantern Pavilion in an attempt to seize the King's Order...

Upon this recollection, he mostly understood that it was the Sumeru Throne that had set Lord Yeli Dong and the Black Moon Court at odds.

Within the Black Moon Court, there must be someone of high status and great power who had also obtained a seat entitled to contend for the Sumeru Throne.

Xia Feng looked again toward the young man with the gentle smile in the distance, Dipus, who was most likely one of the nine.

Thus, the internal strife in the Black Moon Court and the assassination attempt on the Black Moon Saintesses by Lord Yeli Dong might well be related to the struggle for the Sumeru Throne.

Clearing his thoughts, Xia Feng nodded to himself reflectively, realizing that from the moment Wei Shutong had adopted him, he had become tied to the Sumeru Throne.

And after copying a Spiritual Artifact with a 'Life Imprint' and entering the Life Roulette Space, he fully plunged into this turmoil.

In the midst of his contemplation, however, Xia Feng suddenly froze, his gaze falling on a middle-aged man in the corner, who was sitting alone in a booth, leisurely sipping wine and bearing a disguised face.

His disguise, comparable to Dipus's, was easily seen through by Xia Feng.

Beneath that false mask was a face Xia Feng was all too familiar with.

Wei Shutong!

"Old Wei, what's he doing here?" Xia Feng wondered with internal surprise, for since fleeing from zone 51, he had not seen Old Wei again.

Both of them had been accused of being the Garden's culprits and had separately fled for their lives, and Xia Feng hadn't expected to encounter him again at Lord Yeli Dong's birthday banquet.

Seeing Old Wei, Xia Feng remembered what the veteran Li Zaisi had told him in White Emperor City.

More than twenty years ago... the only one who had successfully been sent out of the White Emperor City's restricted area by the soldiers was Lord Wei Zhong's son, Wei Shutong.

Old Wei coming to this Sky Fortress now—could it be that he intended to take advantage of the birthday banquet to assassinate Lord Yeli Dong?

Xia Feng's thoughts turned grim, he contemplated for a brief moment, and then stood up.

Just as he was about to head towards Old Wei, the Apocalypse Knight in the center of the hall, who had been voraciously devouring apples, suddenly turned his head, his chilling gaze fixing on him.

He was locked firmly onto Xia Feng.