That Woman

Hearing the shrill cry, the silver-haired official froze in her tracks, halting in the corridor. Her face was bloodless, her body trembling, and she couldn’t help but glance back at the other officials gathered by the palace entrance…

Yet, from behind, someone barked a harsh reprimand, “What are you staring at? Get inside, now! Do you want all of us to die alongside you!?”

The official, timid and cowering, looked at the corridor that was still forty or fifty paces from the inner chambers. Yet, she painstakingly shuffled forward, one step at a time. Within Du Chen’s Battle Soul, Beibei mumbled, “How pitiful! Daddy, the end of the corridor is so strange, Beibei can’t detect anything there!”

Andy, beside him, chimed in, “It’s filled with the scent of Dibola Flowers; Andy’s nose is useless here… *Sigh*, what a dream!”

Du Chen knitted his brow tightly, staring silently at the silver-white grand gate at the end of the corridor. Just then, a snow-white wolf emerged from behind the gate. It cast a sidelong glance at the official, who was delaying her advance, and spoke in the human tongue, its voice a frigid female tone, “You have displeased the Mistress!”

*Thud!* The official frantically dropped to her knees, kowtowing with desperate fervor as she pleaded, “Lady Sophia, I beg you, I beg you…”

Sophia? Du Chen’s gaze, along with that of the two children, fell upon Andy. Interesting. Was it a mere coincidence of names, or…

In the past, the Rebellious Dragon Constantine had killed his wife and betrayed his clan, all for a Frost Saint Wolf named Sophia! And Andy had even impersonated Sophia’s son for a period!

At that moment, a voice drifted from within the inner chambers. It was soft and pleasant to the ear, yet carried an icy, 'strangers-beware' aura. “Sophia, that is enough for today. Let her put down the petals and leave!”

The official, as if granted a great amnesty, set down the basket she held. After bowing deeply one last time, she fled in a panic. Du Chen, meanwhile, found himself utterly bewildered by the woman behind the Lionheart King. He had guided an unseen lotus-form projection of his Precious Lotus Scripture into that very basket, and a thought flashed through his mind: *Damn it, is the Lionheart King actually infatuated with a succubus-like Demoness!?*

The mother wolf, Sophia, carried the flower basket into the inner chambers. After a few steps, she arrived in a dimly lit room. Du Chen, clearly seeing the room’s furnishings, couldn’t help but gasp. *This was another mad scientist’s lair!*

The room was colossal, resembling a gigantic comprehensive Laboratory. Centered around a large basin, it was divided into three fan-shaped sub-zones. Du Chen recognized two of them: one was an alchemy experimentation zone, and another was a Primordial Military Branch research station, where he had once conducted research with Frinda. As for the third… Du Chen couldn't name it, but this particular zone looked like a charnel house, with its research tables and gallows adorned with severed limbs and broken bodies—all unmistakably human!

Standing by the central basin was a woman with a full head of white hair, clad in a silver-white long gown, her face obscured by a black iron mask. This woman was currently washing three naked, withered female corpses in the basin. From their hair and the scattered clothes nearby, it was clear these were the Moon-Gazing Terrace officials she had just ‘drained dry’!

Sophia approached the basin and, using her mouth, poured the petals from the basket into the water. She hesitated before speaking, “Mistress, you have already drained seven maids this month; we are running short on personnel…”

The woman didn’t even lift her head, replying in an icy tone, “Alonso has sent me twenty more maids. They are in box Number Four; go deal with them.” As she spoke, she glanced up at the alchemy zone. Sophia walked over and opened a large cage. Inside were indeed twenty unconscious young women. Sophia cast a cold gaze upon them, then dabbed some silvery-white powder onto her teeth before biting into the necks of these maids. Instantly, their hair turned silver-white—so, the silver-haired officials were all under her control!

Beibei, within the Battle Soul, pleaded, “Daddy, they’re so pitiful. Please save them!”

Du Chen watched everything unfold with a cold detachment, shaking his head. “Saving a few won’t save them all. We must first uncover her true nature and motives.” Rushing to rescue every injustice encountered was merely acting on impulse, the mark of a reckless fool who never considered the consequences!

Just then, the woman finished cleaning the three corpses and sent them to the 'charnel house' for dissection. She suddenly asked, “Sophia, has the Tear Source that Bonis promised to send arrived?”

Sophia looked troubled. “This… Mistress, Marshal Bonis said that the Tear Source is in Philip’s hands, the crystallization of Philip’s life’s work. He couldn't easily force Philip to relinquish it right away!”

The woman replied, displeased, “Couldn’t easily force Philip? Hmph, Sophia, tell Bonis for me: I have cooperated with you, Bonis, for a millennium, helping your Violet-Bloods overcome numerous hardships. It was I who paved the way for your Violet-Bloods to return to the Three Continents. So… am I not qualified to wield the Tear Source and become the third Commander of the Netherbeast Legion?” As she spoke, the eyes behind her iron mask glared sharply at Sophia. Du Chen noted that the woman’s eyes were a faint, silver-moon hue!

Sophia didn’t dare to breathe too deeply, prostrating herself with a troubled expression. “Understood, I will go urge him immediately…”

The woman cast a sidelong glance at Sophia. “What? Do you find this difficult, do you think you can’t accomplish this!?”

“Mistress…” Sophia gave a wry smile. “You know that while I pledge my loyalty to you until death, I am still, after all, Number Two of the Fiendkind’s Eminence Project, a subordinate personally groomed by Bonis. I truly don’t dare relay your words to the Marshal verbatim. Those words… are far too harsh!”

*Harsh, you say? But I quite like the sound of it,* Du Chen thought, rubbing his nose as he coolly observed the two. His mind was already sorting through the flood of valuable intelligence pouring in!

The woman snorted again. “Number Two, indeed. Yes, you, Sophia, were once ordered to infiltrate the Frost Saint Wolf Clan, and subsequently to control the Wolf Clan and the Dragon Clan—these two greatest allies of humanity during the War of Fallen Gods! Yet, you and Constantine concocted that scandalous new-marriage-night wife-murder, then eloped, causing Bonis’s plan to control the Dragon-Wolf Clans to fall apart completely. If I hadn’t saved you… Hmph!”

This woman was truly adept at the art of political machinations. First, she subtly reminded Sophia, “You only survived because of me. In your heart, you should prioritize me above all else, not defer to Bonis first!” Then, her expression softened into a pleasant smile. “You are Number Two, and I am Number One. By that reckoning, we are both still Bonis’s subordinates! If I dare to speak, what do you not dare to say!? Stop dilly-dallying, go now! You *must* get the Tear Source from Bonis!”

Sophia inwardly gave a bitter chuckle. *Yes, you are Number One, but you and Bonis are collaborators, whereas I am a genuine subordinate! Dare I relay your words directly to the Marshal’s face?* Still, she addressed the woman as ‘Mistress’ and didn’t dare overtly defy her. She nodded, then, with little conviction, said, “Sophia will go relay that to Marshal Bonis immediately!”

“Wait!” the woman called out, stopping her, then added, “Add this line as well—if you, Bonis, cannot deliver the Tear Source within a month, then my cooperation with you is nullified! Furthermore, I will use the entirety of my life’s research to aid the Red-Bloods in their war against the Fiendkind. Hmph, Philip’s Heaven’s Tears and Netherbeast technology are indeed ingenious, but my alchemy is no less brilliant than his!” The woman cast a confident glance around her Laboratory!

Du Chen hastily glanced at the woman who continued to dissect corpses, and at Sophia, who was leaving through the secret passages. His heart stirred. Sophia was going to Bonis to request the very object of his mission—the Tear Source…

“Dus, keep an eye on Sophia for me. I’ll stay here a little longer to observe!”

*I understand,* Du Chen thought. *So many things are clear now!*

This mother wolf truly was Constantine’s wife, that Frost Saint Wolf who, along with the Rebellious Dragon, had orchestrated the slaying of his bride on their wedding night. Yet, from what he just heard, Sophia had genuinely loved Constantine to the point of unwavering devotion, even abandoning the Fiendkind’s plans to elope with him… So, when Constantine’s wife suddenly disappeared back then, it was highly probable she had been captured by the Fiendkind for punishment. However, the woman behind the Lionheart King had protected Sophia and taken her on as an assistant!

And this woman was Number One of the Eminence Project. The Fiendkind’s recent resurgence into the mortal world was half due to their inherent strength, and half due to this woman’s covert coordination!

At this point, Andy, who had been pondering for a long while, asked, “Master, Andy has a dream, and that is to figure out who this woman truly is!”

Du Chen rubbed his nose. “Hard to say! She called them ‘you Violet-Bloods,’ which means she must be either human or an Aberrant Beast. Moreover, she’s someone who began cooperating with the Fiendkind a millennium ago, during the War of Fallen Gods! Furthermore…” Du Chen gestured towards the experimental equipment, “this woman is proficient in alchemy-based ‘Weapons Clandestine Circles’ and the Primordial Military Branch, and she also possesses a technique similar to Philip’s The Undead modification art—I suspect she wants the Tear Source for research! Damn it, with Snoopy gone, we can’t even begin to imagine a woman from the War of Fallen Gods era who fits all these criteria!”

Beibei added, “Daddy, this woman is so powerful! Beibei can’t even discern the level of her Spiritual Power.”

Du Chen nodded. Without even needing Spiritual Power to probe, Du Chen himself could tell that this woman’s battle qi level was exceedingly high, at least on par with Margaret, only slightly inferior to experts of his own caliber and Bonis!

*Damn it, Number One of the Fiendkind’s Eminence Project is hiding behind the Lionheart King, conducting some mysterious vivisection experiments. And these experiments definitely require Dibola Flowers to cleanse corpses, and perhaps even the Tear Source… Does the Lionheart King know about any of this?*

Du Chen observed the Laboratory for half a day. With his level of alchemy, he still couldn't comprehend the purpose of this woman's experiments. Half a day later, Dus reported that Sophia had already departed from the Reno Imperial Capital, and Du Chen himself couldn't glean any more valuable The Clues here. So, with a subtle shift of his Precious Lotus Scripture, he gently glided out of the Moon-Gazing Terrace. “Andy, use your nose and find Arthur’s location for me!”