"Shh~Shh~Shh~"

In a dimly lit room, Rosen sat at a whetstone, concentrating on sharpening a spell-breaking dagger made of hardened krypton gold.

Five meters to the right of his body stood a large rune rack with a young woman tied to it.

The woman was completely naked, with her forehead, neck, wrists, waist, thighs, and ankles all covered with a layer of restraining chains connected by magical runes, in the shape of a "big" character, firmly fixed to the frame.

Despite her beautiful face and graceful figure, Rosen didn't even look at her, and was only concentrating on sharpening the krypton gold dagger.

"This dagger of mine is not only sharp, but also very delicate, and its ability to break spells is almost perfect. It can ignore the shielding of magic power and accurately make you experience the greatest degree of pain."

"But I really don't like torture, so I hope you will tell me your origins on your own initiative."

The woman on the rack did not feel the slightest bit of fear, but instead had a faint smile on her face.

"Go ahead and torture me. It's just a life."

"But remember, no matter how you torture me today, someone will tie you to the rack and torture you in the same way in the future!"

His expression was indifferent and his tone was calm, as if he was a saint who had seen through life and death and was completely enlightened.

This kind of person is the most difficult to deal with. There is almost no way to pry open her mouth.

Normally, if you catch this kind of person, the only way to deal with him is to kill him quietly.

But Rosen was very interested in the magic used by this woman and was also very curious about her origins.

Even if I have to kill him in the end, I will do so only after trying every possible means and failing.

He continued to concentrate on sharpening the knife.

"So, your goal is to kill me. And Druitan's mercenary mission just happened to coincide with your goal."

"Even if there was no mission, you would still find a way to kill me, right?"

The woman closed her eyes and said nothing, looking as if she was letting herself be dealt with.

Rosen was not disappointed and continued: "You come from the abyss, right?"

The woman still didn't say anything, but her body tensed slightly. The amplitude was so small that Rosen didn't notice it, but of course it didn't escape Lai Fu's observation.

This is enough to prove that he guessed right.

He continued, "I heard that there are three great abysses in this world. They used to be called Endless Power, Eternal Life, and Glorious Glory."

"Where are you from?"

There was no reaction, but Rosen didn't need her to take the initiative to respond. Her body's instinctive stress response was enough.

Lai Fu's observations showed that after the names of the three abysses appeared one after another, its reaction to the word "glory" was slightly unique.

So he tried again.

"Endless power?"

"Eternal life?"

"Glorious glory?"

The result was still the same, so Rosen confirmed: "I see, you are from Glorious Glory."

The woman finally couldn't hold it anymore: "Wrong, I come from infinite power!"

"You're lying."

Rosen's voice was calmer than boiled water. He continued sharpening the knife and said, "Glorious glory is a lost reputation. Now, more people like to call it a nightmare place."

The above information was obtained bit by bit by Rosen through mobilizing national forces and based on the clues provided by Adela.

In addition, the Starry Sky Observation Bureau has also calculated the approximate orbits of the three major abysses based on observation results.

Why is it estimated? Because the three abysses are almost completely invisible to light, magic power, and even magic rings, and ordinary sky survey mirrors cannot see them at all.

In other words, the abyss hardly exchanges information with the outside world and exists almost completely independently, except for the effect of 'gravity'.

By using the tiny disturbances caused by their gravity on the movement of other planes of the world, the observation wizard was able to calculate the approximate orbits of the three abysses.

However, that’s all we know for now. If I say more, I’ll be exposed.

But this information successfully pried open the woman's mouth.

She opened her eyes and stared at Rosen with a pair of strange dark golden eyes: "How do you know these things?"

Rosen smiled: "I won't tell you."

Although the news about the abyss has been revealed, it does not mean that he cannot continue to extract secrets from the woman.

"I have carefully examined your body. It is true that you do not have any soul. However, your magic power is organized in a very strange way that does not even conform to the basic laws of magic."

"There is a mysterious force that is restraining the magic power in your body."

"I guess you are an elemental projection of a being in the abyss. This restraining power should come from your projection, right?"

Without the other party's answer, Rosen had already confirmed this from the stress response.

He continued: "According to my research, projection is a very strange technique."

"No matter how you project, you can only get a part of the structure of the main body. And after the projection is successful, the projector is a relatively independent existence, and there is almost no connection between it and the main body."

"But every life is an extremely complex polyhedron."

"So, a great demon could be projected as a saint. A great monarch's cowardice could be projected and he would become a coward."

"I can roughly guess that, apart from your determination to kill me, as well as some necessary magical powers and common sense of the world, you may not know more about the abyss than I do."

The subconscious stress reaction told Rosen that he guessed right again.

The same reaction also told Rosen that there was a crack in the other party's defense.

He immediately seized the opportunity.

"So, tell me your name, Assassin."

"Lily."

Rosen raised his hand and scooped up some clean water to clean the sharpening powder on the dagger: "Well, Miss Lily, I have to tell you some unfortunate news."

"I discovered that the mysterious power in your body that is used to restrain your magic power also serves as a countdown. As time passes, the power will gradually dissipate."

"After about half a year, the power will completely dissipate. Once your magic power loses its restraint, it will also be lost instantly. And your life will end."

"So, your essence is just a killing tool created by a certain being in the abyss."

"I know."

Lily said, "As a tool, assassinating you is the meaning of my existence."

Rosen chuckled: "Hatred without reason is like a house without a foundation. It is difficult to last."

"You and I are complete strangers. Your assassination is meaningless."

Lily laughed coldly: "Not everything in the world needs meaning. It's enough as long as I know what I want to do."

"You're right." Rosen nodded in agreement.

"This mysterious power is the shackles that control you. If someone can help you unlock these shackles, wouldn't you want to continue living?"

A trace of sadness appeared on Lily's usually cold face.

"The projection of my true self is an irresistible great existence."

"Her will is the meaning of my existence. My personal thoughts are not important at all."

Rosen immediately said: "I have a way to free you from the shackles and allow your life to continue."

Lily frowned: "I don't believe that my original body is irresistible."

Rosen interrupted her: "This thought of yours is another shackle that is deeply rooted in your soul. Its purpose is to prevent you from betraying, not because of the fact that it exists."

"Because logically, if your true form is truly irresistible, then she should come and kill me herself, and I would have absolutely no power to fight back."

"But that's not the case. So your true form may be a strong one, but you are still a long way from being irresistible."

"I think it's highly likely that she doesn't even have the ability to leave the abyss."

Lily's face showed an expression of collapsed faith, and her fluctuating magic power also showed that her emotions were in a state of turmoil.

Rosen didn't rush and just waited patiently.

"I want to study this projection technique in depth, and you are clearly a perfect specimen."

"During this process, I will do my best to save your life and find a way to give you a complete soul, so that you can completely break free from the control of the projection body and become a truly independent individual."

"Studying projection? Do you also want to create loyal and miserable puppets?"

As she spoke, the female assassin had a hint of sarcasm on her face.

Rosen shook his head: "No, I have no interest in making a real puppet."

"As the emperor of the empire, I have countless loyal warriors. There is no need for me to use such an inefficient and unreliable spell to obtain assistants."

Without waiting for Lily to ask, he continued: "I am very interested in all unknown spells, and I also have a better way to use Elemental Projection."

"But I cannot tell you what it is specifically."

In his opinion, since elemental projection can project complex life forms, it can definitely project simple magical creations.

So this is a new and very powerful manufacturing spell.

Therefore, he was very interested in elemental projection and attached great importance to it.

Lily naturally didn't know what Rosen was thinking. She was silent for a long time: "You said you wanted me to stay alive. Aren't you afraid that I will continue to carry out the assassination order of the main body?"

Rosen shook his head: "Obviously, your original body greatly underestimated my strength, resulting in the power she gave you being far insufficient. Even if you insist on assassinating me, it is far from threatening my life."

"Just like a rabbit can hardly threaten the life of a lion no matter how hard it tries."

Lily sneered disdainfully: "You are so confident!"

"If you can really recast my soul, then you are not a mortal, but a true god."

Rosen didn't bother to say anything more. He stood up and walked to Lily, pressing the hardened krypton gold dagger that had been polished to a translucent state against the elemental projection's chest.

"I'm not a very patient person and I don't like to listen to nonsense."

"Either you nod your head to agree to the deal, or you shake your head to refuse."

Lily lowered her eyes and looked at the sharp blade, knowing that if she shook her head, the other party would end her life.

She certainly didn't want to die, nor did she want to continue to carry out this assassination order that had no logical support, so after a few minutes of silence, she nodded and agreed: "I choose the deal."

“A very wise choice.”

Rosen's dagger gently poked Lily's body a few times, breaking most of the binding runes that bound her body, leaving only a circle of runes around her neck.

"Crash~~"

He threw over a set of exquisite clothes and said, "Put it on, and then you will be my lab assistant."

Lily did as she was told and said as she put on her clothes: "I still have a very strong belief in my mind, which is to assassinate you, but reason tells me that the assassination is unlikely to succeed."

"But if you show me enough vulnerabilities, then my reason may not be able to resist the push of this belief."

"I understand, but believe me, I'll dispel that belief pretty quickly."

"I don't think you can do that."

"We'll see."

Using the life tree branch, he could change the microscopic structure of anyone's body as long as he wanted. And for an elemental life, any firm belief would definitely correspond to a stable elemental structure.

As long as you find the structure with this element and eliminate it, the belief will disappear.

Of course, for mortals, this is extremely difficult, almost an impossible task.

Because the brain structure is extremely complex, trying to find a set of connections that represent a specific meaning among a vast sea of ​​neural connections like an endless sea of ​​stars is like looking for a needle in a haystack, which is enough to exhaust a mortal's life.

But this kind of tedious and repetitive tasks are Lai Fu's strong point, so as long as Rosen wants to and is willing to invest computing power and time, he can really find the elemental entity corresponding to his belief.

Of course, doing so is very costly and requires the other party to actively cooperate, so he will patiently persuade them to surrender.

Soon, Lily put on her dress.

The skirt is made of azure silk, simple but exquisite. After putting it on, the female assassin turns into a young and beautiful college student.

It was obvious that she was very satisfied with the new clothes: "My real body wants me to know as little information as possible that I shouldn't know, but it's difficult to control the projection perfectly, and it always leaks some information that shouldn't be projected."

Rosen nodded in understanding: "Just as I expected. So, what information did she leak?"

"There are three."

"First, the three abyssal planes have the same ancestor and are the result of the continuous expansion of the same civilization, and eternal life is the birthplace."

"It's ironic that what was once eternal life is now called the abyss of death, and it is also the most terrifying abyss."

"Second, in the former glorious land, which is now the nightmare abyss, there is an extremely terrifying master named 'Antowanji', also known as the Originator of Nightmare."

"Third, the reason why the abyss is closed is that the greatest generation of ancestors, at their greatest moment, arranged a strategy to prevent the crisis from spreading."

The first two were fine, the third was a little strange, but Rosen understood it immediately.

"So, the beings in the abyss tried every means to regain their freedom."

Lily nodded: "Logically speaking, this should be the case."

Rosen sighed: "Interesting."

After the two men came out of the torture room, Zhuo Ya, who was waiting for news, came up to them and asked with concern, "Did you find out anything?"

Rosen nodded. "I got some strange information, but not much. I'll tell you in detail later."

He added, "By the way, Dritan was seriously injured this time. I'm afraid he won't have time to care about the Elven Empire in the mortal world. We can take this opportunity to increase the intensity of our attack on the Dragon Islands."

Zhuoya smiled and said, "I was just about to do that."

She saw Lily following her out again and was immediately confused: "What's going on?"

This time Rosen did not hide anything and explained it briefly using telepathic language. Finally, he said, "For unknown reasons, someone has been targeting me."

If what Adela said was true, then he could roughly understand the reason for the assassination, which was to curb the advancement of the new civilization.

Of course, it is also possible that the information Adela gave was wrong, in which case the reason for the stabbing would be completely unclear.

After all, he was the emperor of a country and his behavior was rather erratic, so there must have been countless people who wanted to assassinate him.

All he can do is try his best to improve his strength.

He asked in return: "Did you get any information out of other legendary mercenaries?"

Zhuoya nodded: "Most of them are not important. But there is a piece of news that has little to do with us, but it is shocking."

She handed Rosen a transcript: "It's about Nawat."

"Navat was split into three countries. The Glorious Republic, founded by the original Sassmar faction, began to plan to reunify Navat."

"They used all means possible and did many things that went against their bottom line, pushing the Sky Republic and the Sante Empire together, creating an extremely fierce confrontation."

"Under such circumstances, the Republic of Glory completely abandoned the Nahuat tradition and began to openly cooperate with the void life."

Rosen sighed softly: "I didn't expect that the Republic of Glory would finally abandon Glory."

"I'm afraid that it won't be long before we receive a letter for help from the Sky Republic."

The Republic of Glory is very much like a military empire from another world, it is extremely aggressive and will stop at nothing to achieve its goals.

Based on his understanding of the Sky Republic and the Sant Empire, even if the two put aside their prejudices and worked closely together, there is a high probability that they will not be a match for the former.

Zhuo Ya whispered, "If I ask for help, will you help me?"

"Of course we will help."

Rosen nodded without hesitation and added, "Of course."

The battle between mortals and gods and demons is essentially the confrontation between mortals and the abyss.

If Navat completely falls and becomes a hunting ground for gods and demons, their plane will definitely be the next one.

Since there must be a battle with the abyss, it is best to set up the battlefield outside the home.

"However, this does not affect our wedding."

(End of this chapter)