Chapter 742: Blockage
The eastern coast of the main island of Plitvice, Tivian.
At this moment, Tivian is welcoming an unprecedented event. After nearly three years of intensive and meticulous preparations, the Tivian World Expo is finally opening.
In the early morning, the streets of Tivian were bustling with activity. The festive atmosphere had been warming up for several days and finally reached its climax. People went out early to see the bands playing cheerful music and parading on the main roads of the city, as well as many impromptu street performances behind the bands. Tourists from all over the world and Tivian locals stopped on both sides of the street sidewalks to watch carefully, and followed the parades to their respective venues.
Due to the grandness of the celebration, there are many spectators who want to participate, so the Royal Government has set up many exhibition halls throughout the city, each of which corresponds to a conference hall, and most people will watch different openings at the conference halls. Although each of these conference halls is grand enough, the main conference hall is the largest, the largest, and the most luxurious, which corresponds to the most important core exhibition hall of this expo, the Crystal Palace.
In an area located in the eastern suburbs of Prit, there was originally a large wasteland with bushes, but now it has been transformed into a surprisingly large square. In three years, countless people have gathered here to level the large wasteland, lay clean boulders on the floor, build tall stone pillars and complex fountains, neat greenery, and lifelike sculptures...
Various exquisite "works" were carefully planned on the wide exhibition area, and the most outstanding "works" were in the core. The towering glass building, constructed by countless steel bars and glass pieces, was like a church. The crystal "palace" was standing in the middle and back of the square, reflecting the glow under the morning sun. It could be seen from a very far distance. No matter who came near it, he would be attracted by this extremely strange building in this era at first sight.
The Crystal Palace, a building specially built for this grand event, was completed earlier this year. It has been standing here waiting for a long time. Now it is finally time for it to perform its duties. What is presented in front of this palace is a grand scene with huge crowds of people.
At this time, in the wide area of the square in front of the Crystal Palace, there was a huge venue temporarily built of wood. This venue was arranged in the form of a theater, with a semicircular and dozens of huge viewing seats arranged upward in a stepped manner.
This temporary wooden viewing seat occupies almost half of the square, with a length and width of more than 100 meters. In the center of its semicircular shape is a temporary stage built with a steel frame. Behind the stage, which is also the location where the semicircular auditorium opens, is a long row of VIP seats that are also temporary and beautifully decorated. This row of VIP seats has exquisite chairs, independent compartments and sunshades. People sitting on them will undoubtedly be more comfortable than those sitting in the semicircular auditorium. Behind the VIP seats is the Crystal Palace. At this moment, its door is still closed, guarded by solemn guards, and it will be officially opened after the king makes a declaration.
At this moment, the vast auditorium in the square was already a noisy scene with huge crowds of people. Not only were the tens of thousands of seats full, but a large number of citizens also gathered outside the temporary auditorium. They tried their best to find something to climb up and look at the situation inside the venue. Some of them wanted to sneak in but were caught by the heavily guarded guards. The audience inside the venue was also talking enthusiastically, and the whole venue was slowly waiting in anticipation.
"There are so many people... I've attended so many banquets and celebrations, but this is the first time I've seen such a grand occasion..."
In a corner of the VIP seats, a girl in an elegant plain dress, with her golden hair tied up and a top hat tilted on her head, looked at the scene in front of her and couldn't help but sigh. Then, after glancing at the many noble members and representatives from various countries who were also on the other side of the VIP seats, she continued to speak with a hint of loneliness in her eyes.
"It's a pity that Uncle Barrett can't see such a scene. I remember he was looking forward to what Tivian would look like at the Expo..."
The girl said this with some sadness, and at this time, an old servant beside the girl spoke in response.
"Your Highness Isabel, there is no need to be too sad. Although the Duke's passing is a huge loss to the royal family and it is a pity, we should be more optimistic and look forward during this time of celebration. Otherwise, it would be a waste of your Majesty's hard work in preparation."
The servant answered the royal girl like this, and the girl called Princess Isabel thought about it and answered with a slightly cheered-up look.
"Ned, you're right... For the past three years, my father has focused all his energy on this grand event... This is the only task he has been concerned about for the past three years. Although there are many things I still don't understand... But no matter what, we must now respond with a more positive attitude."
As she whispered, Isabel turned her head and looked at the main seat in the center of the VIP seats. The throne that belonged to the king was still empty at this moment. At the same time, there was another vacant main seat not far away. It belonged to the representative of the church, Archbishop Pritt, who was also a respected figure and had not arrived at the scene yet.
At this time, in front of the king's seat, there was a bearded man standing guard. He was wearing a high-level guard uniform that was very retro, which was different from the normal Pritt military uniform. He put his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, and was alert to the situation on the field with a solemn expression, as if he wanted to take in everything that was happening on the scene.
"Captain Morogu has arrived... Hasn't my father come yet? Brother Harold is nowhere to be seen either..." Isabel said this while looking at the scene on the other side of the throne, and the servants beside her responded immediately.
“So far, no one has seen His Majesty. As before, he has always avoided direct contact with all officials and nobles… He only let the captain of the guard convey the message indirectly. From today on, no one has seen His Majesty.
"As for His Highness Harold... He is also the director of the Security Bureau. He should have some more secretive and important security duties to perform today. It is normal not to meet him for the time being."
"Is that so?" Listening to her servant's words, Isabella couldn't help but show a trace of disappointment in her eyes. Since Charles IV's personality changed drastically three years ago, she hasn't spoken a single word to her father. Even though she was once a beloved princess, she couldn't get close to the king. She wanted to take advantage of today to see if she could talk to her father a few more times, but now it seems that there is little hope.
"I hope...after today, my father will be able to come..."
Isabel prayed like this in her heart, and at this moment, she suddenly felt a slight strange feeling. She suddenly turned her head and looked in the direction of the audience, as if she wanted to find something among the thousands of crowded audiences, but after looking for a few times and it seemed that she really couldn't find anything, she slowly gave up.
…
At the main venue, in the bustling audience seats, on a viewing platform with an excellent view, Dorothy, wearing a gray top, a high-waisted black skirt, silk shoes, a tulle hat, and with her hair tied up, was sitting here, looking at the people in the VIP seats in the distance. After focusing her eyes on Princess Isabel for a few seconds, she retracted her eyes and looked elsewhere.
"Oh... there are really so many people. I've seen a lot of performances before, but never seen so many people. Today I've broadened my horizons..." Nephnis, who was sitting next to Dorothy, wearing a plain long skirt and high-heeled sandals, with bare arms and gold ornaments on her body, couldn't help but sigh as she spoke while looking at the scene in front of her. As she spoke, a hint of helplessness appeared in her expression.
"I've waited for three years and finally this day has come. After all, I am a Tivian... I always looked forward to this expo, but I didn't expect it to be related to some evil cult conspiracy. I don't know how it will end... I hope it won't be too bad..." Grabbing her head, Neveu spoke softly in Northern Black with a little helplessness, while Dorothy beside her responded slowly.
"Based on the status quo of the forces involved, I think the chances of a successful conclusion are really slim. All in all, we should do our best now and try to minimize the impact if possible..."
Dorothy responded to Neveu beside her, and Neveu glanced around and spoke to Dorothy again.
"Because I know that this main venue may be risky... so I have tried to get many of my classmates to leave the venue. There are so many people here... I don't know how those evil cults will intervene in the end..."
Neveu said this, and Dorothy began to think after listening to her words.
"For now, I have only cracked part of Yajian and Kuromu's plan. I have already found out their plan to use the souvenirs to spread the ritual mark. I just don't know what other plans they have..."
Dorothy thought this to herself, and then her thoughts went back to the time she had been in the carriage with the little fox and her black cat grandfather yesterday.
…
“This is…”
"Do you recognize this sign?"
Sitting in her seat in the carriage, Dorothy held an umbrella with a damp and faded surface in her hand. She looked at the strange mark on it and asked the black cat in front of her who seemed to know something. The black cat was silent for a while and then answered directly.
"This is a symbol developed by the Black Dream Hunters based on moth worship. It is a symbol used in the Black Dream Hunters' rituals... How did it appear on this?"
"Can you tell me what kind of ceremony is it that uses this symbol?" Dorothy continued to ask the black cat, and the black cat paused briefly before answering.
"This symbol can be used in many rituals. It has a certain versatility and can be effective in a variety of rituals. Generally speaking, it is used to amplify the influence of the ritual, especially the range of influence..."
"Sphere of influence?" Dorothy's expression couldn't help but slightly condense after hearing the black cat's words. Then she looked out of the car window and saw all kinds of expo souvenirs filling the streets. She looked at the expo logos on the souvenirs.
"If symbols like this are spread all over the city, then when Black Dream performs the ritual, will it be possible to extend the influence of the ritual to the entire Tivian?"
Dorothy asked the black cat seriously, and the black cat nodded in response.
"This symbol is a sign of receiving the power of the main ritual. It won't have any extraordinary reaction at ordinary times. It will only take effect after the ritual is started and you remember to infuse spirituality into it.
"If you want to use it to expand the scope of the ritual to the entire city, you need to place this symbol at a high density in various places throughout the city. Although this symbol has no spiritual traces when it is not activated, its shape itself is extremely strange to mortals. If it is placed everywhere, it will definitely attract attention. If there are such things in every street and alley, not only the Beyonders, but also ordinary mortals and ordinary policemen will feel strange. So they should... wait..."
As he spoke, the black cat realized that something was wrong. He then looked at the street scene outside, then looked at the symbol dissolved by water on the umbrella in Dorothy's hand, and continued.
"Those guys... wouldn't they hide their symbols on the logos of these souvenirs? So many souvenirs on the street must be..."
The black cat made a horrifying conclusion, and Dorothy responded in a deep voice.
"We can now experiment..."
Dorothy asked her corpse-coachman to stop the carriage on the street, and then asked him to pick up several different souvenirs from the street for Dorothy to experiment with.
All of these souvenirs have the logo of the Expo. This complex logo initially retained its original shape after being washed with water, but after only a short while it began to show signs of fading. However, not all colors faded. There was a grayish-yellow color that remained after being washed with water, forming the symbol of "moth".
After seeing the results of the experiment, Salia and Black Cat couldn't help but widen their eyes slightly.
"Grandpa... these souvenirs all have this kind of symbol on them! The logo on the souvenir is just an illusion. The real thing will be exposed once it is washed!" Looking at the souvenirs in front of her, Salia said in a slightly higher tone, while the black cat next to her continued to speak in a serious and deep voice.
"Most of the pigments or dyes on this emblem are made of materials that are easy to fade. Only the color of the symbol is not faded. These faded colors and the color of the symbol together form the emblem, which is equivalent to integrating the symbol of the 'moth' into the emblem to make it inconspicuous. As long as it is washed with water, the other colors that cover it will fade and the symbol of the 'moth' will appear... Did these guys think of this method to spread the ritual symbol?"
The Black Cat said this, and Dorothy now fully understood the specific reason for the whole incident.
One of Bajian and Heimeng's plans is to use the large number of souvenirs distributed at the expo to spread their ritual symbols throughout the city of Tivia. After careful design, they provide special dyes and pigments to the factories that produce these souvenirs, making the souvenirs produce souvenirs that fade when exposed to water. After they are distributed throughout the city in the near future, they just need to wait for a heavy rain to make half of the souvenirs fade, and they will be able to spread the occult symbols to every street and alley in the city without making a sound.
During this process, Bajian and Heimeng only need to do a little bit of manipulation on the supply end of the goods, replacing normal pigments and dyes with their special ones, and they do not need to participate in the logistics...production...and distribution process. This is also the reason why Adele couldn't find anything when she tried to check the factories and logistics companies before, because there were no people from Bajian and Heimeng operating in these links, so she couldn't find anything at all.
However, not sending one's own people to manage the manufacturing and logistics links can certainly reduce the risk of one's own personnel being discovered, but other accidents will also occur. For example, the two thieves in the warehouse company were really ordinary thieves. They stole the special dyes of Eight Pointed Black Dream that were supposed to resist dyes, which were supposed to be sent to the souvenir factory, and replaced them with the workshop that was supposed to manufacture mid-to-high-end clothing, causing quality problems for a famous clothing brand in Tivian, and the clothes were easy to fade.
If this problem happened to a normal clothing brand, it would be fine, but this brand was a famous brand that Adele would also take a look at. Once the quality problem appeared, the impact would be huge. Bajian had many undercover agents and people who were corrupted by them in Tivian's upper class circle. Among those who knew about the brand problem and even bought the brand clothes, there might be Bajian people. After these people reported it, the senior management of Bajian saw that the dye that was supposed to be used on souvenirs appeared on this irrelevant clothing. They would definitely find a way to investigate if something was wrong. Investigate whether this was the result of the intervention of other extraordinary forces.
Later, they found out from public channels that two thieves had replaced the dyes supplied to the brand-name workshop, but they were still worried whether the two thieves were really ordinary people, so they mobilized another undercover in Tivian, Greg, to investigate. In their opinion, Greg's public identity was a hunter in the Security Bureau, which could allow the ordinary police to cooperate with him to interrogate the two thieves who had been caught, and they could also use the resources of the Security Bureau to investigate possible extraordinary traces. To investigate this possible situation, they didn't need to send out their big undercover Harold, so Greg was just the right person.
But what Bajian didn't expect was that Greg was not only an undercover agent, but also a double undercover agent. They asked Greg to investigate the actions of the two thieves, which directly made Dorothy pay attention to this case. Now they have basically figured out the whole situation by following the clues.
"So... if they want all these symbols to work, what Yajian and Heimeng are waiting for is a timely heavy rain?" Dorothy whispered, touching her chin. Now she knew where the first direction she should focus on defense was...
…
Arriving at the main venue of the opening ceremony of the Expo, Dorothy was covering her eyes with her hands, looking at the cloudless blue sky, and couldn't help thinking in her heart.
"According to the divination before, the only direction where a large amount of rain clouds and water vapor will enter Tivian today is off the eastern coast. The Eight Points should erode the Plitt Beyonder who was originally there to intercept the rain clouds, and let him release the rain clouds. The only one on my side who can stop such a large-scale rain cloud is Anna..."
Dorothy thought so. Anna, the armed spirit, was the only Storm Pass force above the Red Formation level that she could control. Only the Storm Pass of the Red Formation level could stop the water vapor rain clouds of this scale to change the weather on a large scale. Now Anna had set off. Dorothy gave her the task of trying her best to stop the rain clouds from entering Tivian to ensure the sunny weather here.
When they learned about the conspiracy of Bajian and Black Dream Souvenirs, those souvenirs had been released on a large scale, and it was impossible for Dorothy's limited manpower to collect them in a short period of time. Now they could only stop the large-scale manifestation of these ritual symbols by stopping the rain, and this task could only be done by Anna. And it would not be easy, because the official Beyonder of Plitt who was corrupted by the Spider Queen was basically certain to be a Red Adult.
Annacai had been on the journey not long ago. Dorothy probably asked her to keep a close eye on Yuyun until she was released. It would probably take some time for her to officially start fighting against the corrupted Wang family members. Based on Dorothy's guess about Bajian's arrangement, she would probably have to wait until some time after the opening ceremony officially began.
'With Anna here... the problem of sex should be solved temporarily, but the question is, is the plan of Yajian and Heimeng just a large-scale ritual with symbols? Even after the original ritual failed, there should be other backup plans.
"For example, that Black Cat Grandpa warned me about... the dream world raid..."
…
"Dream world raid?" In the carriage the day before, Dorothy listened to the black cat's hint and couldn't help but ask curiously, and the black cat continued to explain.
"That's right. Even if you find a way to hinder their ritual, you must also be careful that they use the dream world to carry out some direct and tough measures." The black cat responded to Dorothy's words, and after a slight pause, he continued with a serious expression.
"Tivian is the seat of the Archbishop of the Church of Radiance. There are high-ranking officials monitoring the entire city. In theory, any Beyonder above the Red Formation level will be discovered if they are active in the city of Tivian.
“So, if the Beyonders above Red Formation in the Eight-Pointed Nest and the Black Dream Hunter Group want to achieve some kind of surprise attack effect, they will use the Dream World as a springboard to intervene.
"That guy Gu Mian can turn a person into a dream and bring them into the dream world. Then he lets the person enter someone else's dream cocoon and wait. When the time is right, he will put the chosen person to sleep and sacrifice him/her. He will then turn the person and the dream cocoon into a door connecting the real world and the dream world. The ambushers of Bajian and Heimeng can pass through this door, bypass the alert of the Level Vigilance, and directly appear at the key position in the center of the venue to carry out a highly efficient surprise attack..."
The black cat sat in front of Dorothy, wagging its tail and telling her its guess with a focused look. After listening to him, Dorothy thought for a while and then asked again.
"This is your guess... Can you confirm that they would choose this method to enter the venue?"
"From their perspective, there is no other way to bypass the rank supervision so efficiently except this method. According to what you said before, most of the official high-level officials of the entire Pritt may have already fallen, but they have to do it secretly because the king himself and the church are not under their control. If they want to win quickly, they must consider ways to bypass the rank supervision. The inner world transfer is one way. There is no inner world in this world that is more suitable for this trick than the dream world, which is the closest to the present world..."
The black cat continued to talk to Dorothy like this, and his tone clearly revealed the emotion of "trust me!" After Dorothy heard it, she felt that it made sense.
On the day of the opening ceremony of the Expo, the church strengthened the detection of high-level vision. Not only would the original range be much larger than before, but even the sky and sea, which were weak areas, would be equipped with "sentinels" for guard. After all, they had suffered a loss from the werewolf's long jump last time.
It is obvious that Yat-tsun and Kurome have a certain degree of suspicion towards Charles IV himself, and they probably don't think that he is an opponent that can be easily defeated. On the day of the opening ceremony, Archbishop Pritt will also be beside Charles IV, and the effect of a direct attack on him will definitely not be as high as that of a high-level surprise attack, so the credibility of Black Cat's words is quite high.
"So... where do you think they will hide the 'door'?" At this time, Dorothy continued to ask the black cat, and the black cat continued to answer attentively.
"On that day, anyone alive today could be one of them. Among the nobles and ordinary people, there could be their assassins mixed in. Even some ordinary people could be transformed into 'Gates' by Gumian without knowing it.
"In short, by tomorrow, there will be more than just one 'door' in the venue, and not just the Eight-Pointed Deadly Soldiers, but also the masses who are completely unaware of the situation. With my current abilities, I'm afraid I won't be able to identify them one by one."
The black cat said this seriously, and Dorothy also showed a serious look after hearing what the black cat said.
…
Now in the auditorium of the main venue of the Expo, Dorothy looked at the large number of audiences and guests in front of her, and couldn't help but think in her heart.
"According to what the Black Cat Grandpa said... there are an unknown number of 'doors' among so many people. Now Hei Meng and Yajian should be waiting for it to rain, and when the Hei Meng ritual is held, they will rush out of the 'doors' together and control the scene. This possibility is very high...
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