The campus of Ikerite Academy—
the quiet forest paths were like shimmering emeralds, with the autumn sun filtering through the gaps in the leaves, casting painterly patterns across the stone-paved road.
Walking along the road that led toward the Institute of Magitek, Huperion suddenly stopped.
Her amber eyes were filled with disbelief, as if doubting whether Lan Qi was still of sound mind.
Her fingers clutched tightly at the corner of Lan Qi’s clothes, as though afraid he would leap off a cliff at any moment.
“W-what do you mean, going to visit a Cardinal of the Resurrection Church?!”
Huperion darted her gaze nervously around, then yanked Lan Qi to the side of the forest path and lowered her voice.
This academy.
No.
This world has never had a lunatic student who would go so far as to try visiting a Cardinal of the Resurrection Church!!And even taking ten thousand steps back—
The assignment ‘Seek the Stone Tablet Bearer’ was never designed by Ikerite Academy to be some suicidal, death-level trial!
Huperion knew some people might be crazy.
But Lan Qi? He was truly crazy. If he said it, he’d do it.
She didn’t dare go herself, yet she also didn’t dare let Lan Qi go cause trouble alone!
“I really think we could go big with this. Look—the information blockade between the Northern and Southern Continents works to our advantage. If we disguise ourselves, assume new identities, cross the sea to the Northern Continent, and slip into the Extinction branch of the Resurrection Church…”
Lan Qi leaned in close, whispering conspiratorially to Huperion.
“Once there, we can slowly make use of our strengths to climb the ranks inside the church. Eventually, we’d get the chance to meet the Extinction Cardinal, Askson.”
The more he spoke, the more animated he became, as if he could barely restrain himself from diving into this plan on the spot.
“And think about it, Huperion—since our Alliance allows people to observe Stone Tablets, what if the Resurrection Church also lets its followers observe the Cardinal’s tablet?!”
Huperion was stunned silent.
She stood frozen for a long while, before finally pressing her palm to her forehead and shaking her head.
She honestly didn’t know if spending too much time with Lan Qi had corrupted her, pulling her off track… or if maybe his words really were feasible. Because she found herself thinking—compared to that night at the Demon Academy, this plan didn’t even seem that dangerous!
Between the Northern and Southern Continents lay the cursed seas of Yuyì, a deadly aftershock of a failed ninth-tier Shadow World experiment. The cataclysm had scarred the oceans, creating storms of chaotic magic that still, after a thousand years, refused to fade.
On those waters, magic was twisted into uselessness, and communication between continents was impossible. News could only travel via great merchant vessels or powerhouse cultivators daring to cross.
So, if they went north, they’d basically become two unknown newcomers who appeared out of thin air.
If they could somehow capture a Resurrection cultist from the Southern Continent and extract identity information, they might even sneak into the Northern Church under a legitimate guise!
“…Lan Qi, are you sure this is the topic you want to choose?”
Huperion swallowed nervously, staring at him.
“If you agree, then yes—I want to choose it.”
Lan Qi nodded, his eyes clear and unshakable.
“……”
Huperion bit her lower lip, dread gnawing at her.
What worried her wasn’t the danger of infiltrating the Resurrection Church. Because Lan Qi himself was
the danger.What worried her wasn’t the Alliance mistaking them for enemies, either. People in the Alliance already suspected them anyway.
No—the thing that truly terrified her was this: based on experience, the moment Lan Qi was thrown into lawless territory, he would adapt at breakneck speed, grasping things normal people could never even comprehend, and evolve into something terrifying.
She was afraid that once he slipped into the Resurrection Church, he’d “accidentally” climb all the way into the high ranks!
If that happened, the two of them would become infamous villains across the Northern Continent. By the time they returned south, their names would be too stained to ever clear.
Yet as she looked into Lan Qi’s eyes now—
She knew that even if she refused, he’d still find a way to run off and seek out the Extinction Cardinal on his own.
And she absolutely couldn’t let him go unsupervised.
“…There’s just no dealing with you. Fine—I’ll go with you. So what’s your plan?”
Huperion sighed, helpless expression on her face, but at last gave in.
She knew Lan Qi must have some outrageous scheme brewing.
“Think about it, Huperion—you know as well as I do. As long as we can nab a Resurrection cultist from the South, we can assume their identity and blend into the Northern branch much more easily.”
Lan Qi’s voice turned serious.
“…Yeah, I thought of that too. But where do you expect us to catch one?”
Huperion frowned gravely.
Defeating those eerie cultists was already hard enough. Catching one alive and interrogating them? Nearly impossible.
Even if they succeeded, the law was strict: civilians couldn’t interrogate cultists.
Because in history, there had been cases of people engaging too deeply with cultists and ending up unknowingly corrupted themselves.
So the Kingdom required that all captured cultists be handed directly to authorities—for everyone’s safety.
“Huperion, listen. Our academy must have a Resurrection Church spy inside. Otherwise, they couldn’t have ambushed us in the Shadow World so precisely.”
Lan Qi’s tone grew heavy.
It was something that had been gnawing at him since that incident.
He knew from last time: their “coincidental” encounter with a cultist targeting Huperion wasn’t chance. Someone within the academy had been feeding information, quietly observing them from a distance.
When they went to the sealed Gate of the Void, that spy had relayed everything to the cultists. They coordinated, entering the Shadow World at the same time as them, ensuring a high probability of crossing paths—so they could hunt Huperion down inside.
“You want to capture that spy and interrogate them, don’t you?”
Huperion felt her heart tighten.
She had never once sensed being watched. But as Lan Qi said—there must be someone leaking information from within the academy.
“…Not yet. Even my teacher couldn’t find that spy.”
Lan Qi shook his head, helpless.
He had once—half as a joke, half serious—mentioned to Thalia that “the academy might have a Resurrection assassin targeting me and Huperion.”
He hadn’t expected much, but Thalia, surprisingly, had casually agreed to investigate.
Yet even with her strength, after secretly monitoring Lan Qi and Huperion for a while, she found nothing.
That left only one answer—
The spy had flawlessly blended in as an ordinary student. Using the simplest, most foolproof method: ordinary day-to-day observation. Watching them naturally, leaving behind no trace.
That way, there would be no evidence, no opportunity to set traps or bait them out.
And every time Lan Qi and Huperion entered a Shadow World, information would continue leaking to the cult.
Hearing his reasoning, Huperion’s anxiety was strangely tempered by a sense of relief.
Where she felt helpless against an invisible watcher, Lan Qi had already anticipated it, with countermeasures ready in his mind.
This feeling of having someone reliable to lean on—she had only felt it when her father was still alive.
“…Next time, I’ll have to visit your teacher in person to thank her properly.”
Huperion said softly, gratitude in her voice. But then she hesitated—
“Although… if my presence would upset her, maybe you should just thank her for me instead…”
She was curious about what kind of powerful figure could manage a student like Lan Qi.
But thinking it over, she realized—not everyone was as tolerant of demons as Lan Qi was.
For a demon like her, hated by humans, showing up uninvited might only earn his teacher’s displeasure.