Chapter 309 - 305: The Archives Management Office and the "Abductor Plan

Chapter 309: Chapter 305: The Archives Management Office and the "Abductor Plan

The Noeman Clan’s old house was, without a doubt, chosen as the site for the Dawn Association’s first branch Secret Realm in De Yi Country.

The Red Demoness, with her increasingly exquisite Secret Realm Weaving techniques, would use this building as an anchor to envelop the entirety of Tulip Road within the Secret Realm.

No one could have imagined that an entirely different world was about to be born, layered just beyond the space of a neighborhood where ordinary people went about their daily lives.

「Three days after arriving in De Yi Country.」

Inside the Noeman Clan’s vast, empty great hall, an ocean-blue radiance shimmered across the floor. A massive Secret Realm Array covered the space of several hundred square meters.

A red-haired figure, floating as gracefully as a celestial being, stood at the array’s center, exuding a peculiar and persistent charm that was a mixture of demonic allure and sacred aura.

The entire Noeman family’s old house was now under a vast Magic Net.

Wherever the Red Demoness’s gaze fell, countless Magic Silk Threads intertwined and multiplied.

It was as if she were weaving an invisible, transparent Cloak of Magic Power. Starting from the Secret Realm Array inside, the effect spread to the walls, which rippled like luminous water, climbing ever higher and intertwining to envelop every inch of the building.

With a wave of the Red Demoness’s finger, the Engravings on the walls—previously hidden beneath layers of paint and dust—were revealed as the grime and dirt dissipated, seeing the light of day once more.

Two generations of the Noeman Clan—both the elderly father who remembered seeing these Engravings as a child and his three children who were seeing them for the first time—felt the same sense of shock and emotion.

"The Red Demoness’s Secret Realm Weaving is truly divine!"

Brown exclaimed with sincere admiration. His Magic Manipulation Ability was respectable, but he was far more skilled in combat. Combined with the Talent Ability he’d awakened as an Evolver, Red Demon Brown had already made a name for himself within the Dawn Association.

"It’s a lost cause for me, but Shadow, you can definitely do it!"

Holy Spirit, standing to the side, watched the Red Demoness’s process of weaving the Secret Realm with rapt attention. He was clearly deep in thought and study, paying no mind to Brown at all.

Qin Xiaoxia had the Red Demoness bring Holy Spirit along for the primary purpose of having him learn the art of Secret Realm Weaving. After all, out of all the Magic Controllers in the Dawn Association, Holy Spirit showed the most promise for mastering this knowledge.

His Magic Manipulation Ability, inherited from a Puppet Demon Spirit, and his innate talent for manipulating Magic Silk Threads were the ideal prerequisites for learning Secret Realm Weaving.

If Holy Spirit could master Secret Realm Weaving, the Dawn Association would have another "weaver" in its ranks.

Before their eyes, the blue membrane of light rose higher and higher, finally converging and sealing itself at the top of the building, signaling that the weaving of the Secret Realm’s main body was complete.

The Red Demoness dusted off her hands, though there was nothing on them, and looked at Holy Spirit with a smile.

"Did you get all that?"

"Not really."

The young man answered honestly after a moment of reflection.

"Heh, don’t worry. You’ll get it after watching a few more times. He’s already chosen this place as the new central Archives Management Office, so there will be plenty of Sub-Secret Realms to create. You can take your time learning."

At this, the Red Demoness touched a finger to her lips and spoke in a low murmur only Brown and Holy Spirit could hear.

"But if you still can’t learn after all that, I’ll have to beat you senseless just to make myself feel better!"

Brown was speechless.

So was Holy Spirit.

Shadow had a feeling that, given how the bright blue aura around the Red Demoness had just flashed black, she probably wasn’t joking.

"Next up is the expansion!"

With that, the Red Demoness crossed her slender hands, gathering Magic Power in her palms before abruptly thrusting them outward.

BOOM—

Inside the Secret Realm, everyone who was conscious felt as if they were standing in ocean waves. Their bodies swayed involuntarily, and a peculiar sense of weightlessness washed over them.

At that moment, the blue membrane of the Secret Realm was like a bubble being frantically inflated from within, and it expanded outward with sudden, incredible speed.

FWOOSH—

In less than two seconds, the entire length of Tulip Road, including its old-fashioned square and the surrounding green spaces, was completely enveloped by the Secret Realm.

Simultaneously, above the doorframe of every room in the building, words appeared, seeming to flicker into existence with the brightness of fresh scorch marks under the influence of the Secret Realm’s power.

Elf Category Records, Conventional Demon File, Demonization Category Files, Demonization Category Records, Yin Ghost Category Records... Natural Malicious Phenomena, Unsolved Mystery Conjectures, Super Magical Materials, Magic Potion Sequence Research, Basic Law Understanding, Understanding of Order Laws... Secret Realm Weaving, Weaver’s Basic Explanation, Weather Influence Technique, Magic Pattern Learning Application, Techniques and Technique Arrays Explained... Dark Realm File, Corpse Shadow Qipero File, Magson’s Annotation File, Shadow Realm File, Fragment Realm Basic File...

Name after name materialized, dazzling the onlookers and impressing upon them the profound depth of the Association’s resources.

Once the simple Sub-Secret Realms were established, opening any of these doors would lead to the respective research area and its administrator.

After receiving authorization and exiting the room, the world outside would transform, containing all the files for that specific archive. To return to the Main Secret Realm and choose a different archive, one had to go back into the room they’d just left.

The Noeman family’s ancestral home must have served as some sort of classified records office for the Dawn Association countless years ago; from the center of the great hall, one could look up and see the labels above each door.

Having finished, the Red Demoness let out a soft sigh, opened the main door, and stepped out of the building. Brown, Holy Spirit, and the members of the Noeman Clan followed her.

The neighborhood had originally been a sparsely populated, dilapidated area of old houses, but there were still a few residents and some old-fashioned shops.

But now, everything was silent. As far as the eye could see, every house stood empty. Not a single person was in sight.

"The Main Secret Realm is complete," she explained. "The other houses on the street can be used within the Secret Realm, but if their real-world counterparts collapse, these will collapse too. Only the Archives Management Office building is fully protected by the Secret Realm."

"Ah, well. So many rooms... back to work."

Even though creating these derivative Sub-Secret Realms wasn’t as intricate as crafting the holistic ones on Dawn Silent Moon Island, the sheer number of categorized and spare rooms still made the process incredibly tedious.

"I’d better put in for a bonus..."

the Red Demoness muttered, then realized a bonus was probably useless to her anyway.

’No, wait, it is useful. At the very least, I can make him give me a massage!’

...

The very person the Red Demoness was muttering about was, at that moment, in the Crafted Secret Realm on Dawn Silent Moon Island.

DANG. DANG. DANG...

A Silver Hammer swung with the fury of a tempest. In South Wind’s other hand, a small Metal Ingot, held in place by Secret Realm Power, was slowly changing color and form.

The Silver Hammer was forged from pure Magic Steel, Engraved with a Technique Array, and inlaid with a Magic Energy Crystal, allowing it to autonomously channel Secret Realm Power.

Despite being a great hammer, it was capable of performing work with microscopic precision, shaping the metal with the tiniest of adjustments.

After more than a thousand strikes, the storm of blows ceased.

Through the Secret Realm’s intervention, the metal sliver—now glowing golden-yellow and radiating intense heat—was plunged into a nearby pool of water.

SIZZLE...

A massive plume of steam billowed up, formed into a pillar by the Secret Realm’s power before dissipating high in the air.

With a crook of his finger, a golden-yellow, slightly arched metal scale, a little larger than an olive, flew out of the water.

Its shape was nearly perfect, its smooth luster hinting at a deep, profound quality.

Qin Xiaoxia, who was standing nearby, reached out and caught it. The still-scorching scale felt heavy in his palm.

"It’s a shame. Still not quite right."

He sighed in resignation.

South Wind and his team had mostly solved the quality issues with infusing Magic Steel into alloys, but their efficiency was still abysmal.

However, the forging of pure Magic Steel armaments had hit a bottleneck.

It was a strange sensation. Qin Xiaoxia was by no means a master smith, but as he held the scale, he could just feel that something was missing, though he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

South Wind set his Silver Hammer aside and looked at the scale with a similarly regretful expression.

He was well aware of his own shortcomings. Even with the aid of Secret Realm Power, all he was doing was changing the pure Magic Steel’s shape, molding it like clay. He couldn’t figure out how to awaken the true properties of Magic Steel; he simply didn’t have the right technique.

When Magic Steel was infused into alloys from Earth, its main property was fusion, which enhanced the original metal’s durability and even triggered some unique effects. Yet progress with pure Magic Steel was abysmal. Besides looking nice, it had no special properties and was even less remarkable than the mixed alloys.

"South Wind, have you tried forging different types of Magic Steel together to create a pure Magic Steel Alloy?"

Qin Xiaoxia asked.

Both South Wind and Gu Hao, who was standing beside him, subconsciously touched their right arms.

"We thought of it... but our method must have been wrong. The price of our attempts was six broken arms."

Seeing Master Sage’s confused expression, Gu Hao elaborated.

"The various types of Magic Steel are nearly impossible to melt; the most we can do is soften them slightly. We can only try to hammer them together, but combining different types of Magic Steel produces a violent rejection reaction..."

"Whew. Okay, I get it. For now, just focus on forging the alloy armaments infused with Magic Steel. I’ll figure something else out for the pure Magic Steel."

"Your will be done!" "Your will be done!"

The simple yet solemn Dawn salute—a hand clasped over the heart—made Qin Xiaoxia smile to himself as he watched.

’After spending so much time around the Silent Knight Order, even South Wind and the others had grown fond of such formalities. Baru’s disciplinary training has been remarkably effective,’ he thought.

Apparently, that air of mysterious gravitas was contagious.

After returning the salute, he left the Secret Realm and vanished.

He reappeared at the lighthouse of the island castle, gazing out at the vast, azure expanse of the sea.

"Looks like it’s time for Hama Pi to go home."

Capturing those two special Dream Lizards had been an unexpected boon for this part of the plan.

’Right, time to initiate the Abduction Plan! No, no, I mean... the Akenis Redemption Plan!’

PS: First Chapter for Wednesday.