"Crash~"

Late at night, in the woodshed of the manor, Rosen poured a bucket of cold well water on the prisoner's head.

"Ahem~ Ahem~"

The prisoner woke up.

This is a young man under thirty years old, with a well-proportioned and strong body and a tenacious gaze.

To be on the safe side, his clothes were naturally taken off and his body was carefully checked to make sure that he was not carrying any lethal hidden weapons.

Of course, this was not done by Rosen, but by a chef named 'Lask' in the manor.

The technique was somewhat rough, but the inspection was very thorough.

Rosen looked at the prisoner tied to the wooden frame from several meters away, holding the sword of annihilation in one hand, ready to prevent the other from committing suicide at any time.

"name?"

He was silent and looked at Rosen with an indifferent look, as if he had seen through life and death.

In the past, Rosen would never have been able to get anything out of the situation without using some special means.

But now, he has a better idea.

Rosen stared at the target and activated the time spell "Insight into the Past" that he had just learned.

As the spell was cast, Rosen saw overlapping phantoms appear on the man's body and various sounds appeared in his ears.

At the same time, Rosen's internal strength was also greatly consumed, but it didn't matter because he carried one kilogram of solar essence with him.

As the spell worked, he saw the man tied to the wooden frame fall off the frame and move backwards.

Because it is something that happened in the past, the image of this man and the area within about 3 meters around him is very concentrated and clear.

Rosen felt like he was watching a movie played in reverse.

This man also mastered time magic. He quickly sensed Rosen's movements and guessed his intentions.

The fluctuations of time magic suddenly appeared on his body and began to interfere with Rosen's insight.

At the same time, Rosen felt that the image in front of his eyes became blurred, as if a layer of white gauze was covered in front of the "movie".

Even Lai Fu would find it difficult to recover 100% from such interference.

After thinking about it, Rosen was not in a hurry to move forward, but waited patiently at the current time point.

Time passed minute by minute, and after about five minutes, the interference disappeared.

The reason is simple: the prisoner's strength is exhausted.

Rosen then continued to look forward.

He saw the captives return to the tree, then fall down from the tree, and then retreat all the way back to a remote valley, where he found an unknown armed group, which were the forty knights from before.

Afterwards, the mysterious man retreated from the valley and all the way to the town of Lyon, and then to a brothel called "Fragrant" in the town.

He then retreated into the basement of the brothel and met with a mysterious masked man.

The mysterious masked man said: "This is the mission this time."

And give the captive a scroll.

The prisoner glanced at the contents of the scroll, and Rosen naturally saw it as well. He saw the words "Merchant Rosen" written on it, and then an "x" was drawn on it.

Seeing this, it is obvious that this prisoner is just a knife in the hands of some big shot.

Who is this 'big shot'?

Rosen turned his attention to the masked mysterious man and followed him to trace back time again.

This is an extremely difficult spellcasting technique called 'Tracing the Origin'.

Theoretically speaking, as long as the time talent is strong enough and the power is strong enough, one can teleport back to the past of everyone in the world.

But theory is just theory. When it comes to actual implementation, ten jumps is already Rosen's limit, and that's only because of Lai Fu's help.

If you use Lilin, you can only warp three times.

His eyes could see through the past as he followed the masked mysterious man and watched him continue to retreat.

The masked man retreated to the second floor of the brothel, took off his covering, and revealed his identity as a prostitute.

She turned and joined a carnival.

While they were reveling, a black crow flew in from the window with a bamboo tube tied to its leg.

Obviously, the prostitute is just a mouthpiece.

"You are really cautious."

Rosen had to perform a second "tracing jump" and turn his target to Black Crow.

Following the black crow all the way, they soon flew out of Lyon Town and entered the backyard of a manor on the outskirts of the town.

There is a large flock of black crows in the backyard.

The fact is that the message came from another black crow.

Obviously, this is just a message transit station.

So, Rosen made a third jump to trace the source and continued flying with another black crow.

They kept flying and flying, and soon, there was the fourth, fifth, and even sixth jump back to the source.

At this time, Rosen had already understood that the ultimate mastermind behind the scenes must also be a master of time magic.

He deliberately went around in circles to prevent his opponents from tracing his source.

It was not until the seventh tracing jump that Rosen's sight followed the black crow back to the backyard of a manor in the eastern suburbs of Lyon Town.

Entering the manor, his eyes followed the servant who delivered the message from the backyard to the front hall, and then up the stairs to the door of the study on the second floor.

The study door was open, but one could not see what was inside. A scroll was stuffed through the crack in the door, and a gentle middle-aged male voice was heard.

'Ade, send this message out.'

Tracing back to this point, it is impossible to proceed to the next step of the jump because there is no entity to jump to in the image.

If you want to know what's going on behind the study, you have to go to the manor in person and conduct a field investigation.

But Rosen has only traced the source seven times so far, and he can continue to trace it three more times.

"I just don't believe that you can hide in the study room forever."

Rosen thought for a moment and continued to follow the messenger servant.

After he went downstairs, he moved his target to the maid who was cleaning the living room, and then waited patiently.

Also according to the theory of tracing origins, as long as the power is sufficient, one can trace back to the origin of the world.

But human power has its limits. Given Rosen's current situation, he can only go back 48 hours at most.

Tilarin, even only 6 hours.

If it were her, she would have lost him long ago, but Rosen still had more than a day to spare, so he waited patiently.

Of course, because it is tracing back to the source, there is no need to wait for a one-to-one time, and it can be significantly "fast-forwarded".

I waited in reverse time for about '4 hours'.

During this time, through the conversations between the maids, we learned that the name of the manor owner was 'Sir Orland', who owned farms and mines and was a well-known figure in Lyon town.

"Crack~"

The door to the study opened.

A middle-aged man with a white face and no beard walked out of the study.

The maid immediately bowed to him and called him "Master".

Rosen used the mirror hanging on the courtyard wall to take a look at the other person's appearance, and immediately stopped tracing the source.

This is naturally a little trick taught by Tilarilin, which is to prevent disturbing the opponent's thread of time and let the opponent notice it.

Because every time spellcaster is extremely sensitive, especially to those threads of time that concern their own destiny; even the slightest tremor may alarm the other party.

After retracting his gaze, Rosen looked at the captive in front of him and asked: "Who do you serve?"

"I have no idea."

Rosen believed that this was the truth, because the mastermind behind the scenes was so cautious that he would never reveal his identity to the tools on the front line.

This guy is just a bounty mercenary.

Then he asked again: "Where does your strength come from?"

The prisoner said nothing.

Rosen smiled and said, "I don't think you need to hide this. This matter has nothing to do with you being the mastermind behind the scenes, right?"

"It is well known that I am an honest businessman who likes fair dealings."

"My deal is, if you tell me the source of your power, I will not only heal your wounds, but also set you free."

These words made the prisoner look slightly shocked.

Obviously, he was tempted.

Rosen continued: "Well, don't hesitate, tell me sooner so you can suffer less."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and flicked it towards the other person's body, releasing a natural healing spell on the wound on his left leg.

The wound on his thigh healed instantly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This directly convinced the other party.

After taking a deep breath, he spoke.

"I used to be a demon hunter in the church. Because I couldn't stand the corruption and depravity within the church, I left the church and became a free demon hunter."

"Since I was a child, I have been practicing according to the method provided by the church. In the church, this practice is called Sun Meditation."

Rosen immediately asked: "How do you meditate specifically?"

"It's actually very simple. Just imagine a great, bright, and eternal sun god in your mind. The name of this sun god is Oletus."

These words made Rosen's heart move slightly.

The captive didn't notice, and he continued: "Through meditation day after day, for as short as 10 years or as long as a lifetime, there will be a lucky person who will receive a response from the Sun God and be granted divine power."

"The ratio of lucky ones is not high. In 10 years of meditation, only one out of 10 warriors can receive God's favor."

Rosen nodded: "Since you have left the church, why do you still have divine power?"

"The Sun God only looks at whether one's faith is pure. My faith in the Sun God has never been stained by dust, and my hands have never been stained with the blood of ordinary people."

“In contrast, most clergy in the church have long forgotten their sacred duties and have become pawns of secular power.”

Rosen was a little confused: "In this case, won't the Sun God punish those with impure beliefs?"

He felt that this 'sun god' was very irresponsible.

The prisoner also had a puzzled look on his face, but he gave a self-comforting explanation.

“God is forgiving.”

Rosen nodded to show that he understood, raised his hand and flicked the wound on his body a few times, healing the injury.

"I am a businessman, not a devil."

“I never force anyone to trade with me, and I never hide traps in a trade.”

“Now, I am fulfilling my promise.”

Using magic, he untied the young captive's bonds: "You are free."

The young captive showed a trace of disbelief: "Are you really going to let me go?"

"What else? If I really wanted to kill you, why would I go through so much trouble?"

That's true.

The young captive looked at Rosen seriously and said, "My name is Leno, the Demon Hunter Leno."

"I owe you my life, so I won't accept any bounty commissions related to you."

"Thanks. I'll remember that."

Rosen nodded, turned and walked out of the woodshed, and said loudly to the manor guard at the door: "Let him leave safely."

Returning to Tiralilin, the latter asked: "Dear, have you found the real culprit behind this?"

"We have found a heavyweight figure, but whether he is the real murderer needs further confirmation."

It can be felt that this demiplane has existed for too long, and information exchange is very backward, so countless unknown secrets and conflicts of interest have arisen.

"What are you going to do, honey?"

Rosen raised his hand and cast a few third-level spells on Tiralilin: "Just stay in the manor and wait for me. I'll go check it out now."

He never gives his opponents a chance to breathe.

(End of this chapter)