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Join the ServerThe carriage came to a sudden halt at the side entrance of the Leo City Public Library.
Before the dust kicked up by the wheels could even settle, Klein had already pushed the door open.
Lia jumped out of the carriage, the soles of her shoes making a crisp clicking sound against the stone pavement.
The library doors were tightly shut.
Beneath the porch, two magical lamps emitted a dim yellow glow, yet they could not pierce the deep darkness within.
“Why is there no one here?”
Lia asked, glancing at the locked iron gate.
“Naturally, it is currently after closing hours according to the law.”
Klein walked to the gate, raised his hand, and gave a light tap in the empty air.
The high-grade steel padlock, strong enough to trap large magical beasts, made a soft clicking sound as the internal springs and pins snapped open automatically.
The iron gate slid inward, emitting a heavy grinding sound.
The two of them stepped into the library’s front courtyard.
The surroundings were silent, lacking even the chirping of insects.
It was excessively quiet here, as if the ambient sounds were being deliberately suppressed by some force.
Lia pulled out the underground pipe network map she had copied from the archives and quickly compared it to the building before her.
“The main structure of the library is in a rectangular ‘well’ shape, with an atrium in the center.”
She pointed to the lines on the drawing.
“The main underground drainage pipe passes through here, then branches off directly beneath the atrium.”
Klein stood beside Lia, his gaze falling upon the walls of the library’s main building.
His blue eyes reflected the flow of mana invisible to the naked eye.
In his vision, the entire library was enveloped in a massive but faint energy field.
Those energy lines were disorganized, appearing like naturally dissipating mana.
“A very clever disguise.”
After observing for a long time, Klein offered a comment.
“How so?”
Lia tucked away the drawing.
“They have embedded the anomalous fluctuations into the frequency of the building’s own defensive array.”
Klein stepped toward the main building’s entrance.
“Public places like libraries are bound to have arrays set up for daily use; they have perfectly integrated their own array’s fluctuations into them.”
“It’s like hiding a drop of water in the ocean. If I weren’t specifically looking for it, even I might have been fooled.”
Lia followed him.
“It seems we’ve found the right place.”
The main doors were likewise opened effortlessly by Klein.
The scent of books and paper wafted toward them.
The hall was empty, with light spilling through the high stained-glass windows, casting mottled patches of color across the floor.
Lia stood in the center of the hall, scanning her surroundings.
“The control hub needs to process signals from every Resonance Tower in the city.”
She began her analysis.
“This requires an extreme amount of calculation and energy throughput; spatially speaking, it cannot be hidden in a corner.”
She raised her head, looking toward the very center of the hall’s dome.
A massive crystal chandelier hung there.
“Could it be up there?”
“No.”
Klein dismissed her guess.
He walked over to a pillar at the side of the hall and reached out to pat the stone surface.
“The mana flow here is directed downward.”
Lia walked over, crouched down, and tapped the floor with her hand.
A solid echo.
“Is there a basement?”
“According to the blueprints, beneath this is the foundation.”
Lia stood up, her brow furrowing.
“The maps show there is no space down there. If it was excavated later, it would be impossible not to damage the load-bearing structure of the foundation.”
She spread the structural map out on the circulation desk.
The tip of her pen moved quickly across the paper.
She drew three circles on the map representing the locations of the three known towers.
The ripples from the three circles converged at the center of the drawing.
“Here.”
Lia’s finger pointed to a spot at the back of the hall.
“It looks like the administrator’s office.”
Klein glanced at the location on the map.
“Let’s go see.”
The two crossed the hall and arrived at the administrator’s office located in the rear, pushing open the ajar door to enter.
the room was not very large and was cluttered with various books and sundries; several desks bearing the marks of time stood before the window.
Lia entered the room, her gaze sweeping through the cluttered items.
There were no signs of anything abnormal here.
“Was I wrong?”
Lia began to doubt herself.
She walked to a desk and picked up a ledger.
Ordinary paper, ordinary ink.
Klein leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed, watching Lia search the room.
He knew exactly where the item was.
Although the energy node was hidden, it could not escape his targeted perception.
However, he did not speak.
He watched Lia use the map to calculate positions in the room, watched her lie on the floor to listen for sounds, and watched her take down wall paintings to inspect the walls behind them.
It was quite interesting.
If the students back at the academy encountered such a problem, their first reaction would be to use detection magic.
If the detection magic didn’t react, they would be at a total loss.
But Lia was different.
She seemed to be gathering information through observation to perform her analysis.
“Something is wrong.”
Lia straightened her body and brushed the dust from her hands.
“The spatial dimensions here are incorrect.”
She walked to the eastern wall of the room, spreading her arms to measure the width, then went to the corridor outside to measure the corresponding wall length.
“The inside is forty centimeters shorter than the outside.”
She pointed at the wall.
“Visual deception combined with spatial folding; this wall definitely has a hidden layer.”
The corner of Klein’s mouth curled imperceptibly.
“Since there is a hidden layer, then open it.”
Lia took a step back.
“But this is a load-bearing wall; a violent demolition would bring the building down.”
She stepped forward, pressed her palm against the wall, and closed her eyes.
Her spiritual power extended from her palm, probing into the interior of the wall.
The texture of the bricks, the gaps in the mortar, and…
A strange sensation.
That wasn’t stone; it was metal.
“Found it.”
Lia opened her eyes.
“There is a mechanical transmission device embedded inside the wall.”
Her fingers searched the wall surface, finally stopping on an unremarkable brick.
Lia pressed down hard with her finger.
Click.
A light sound rang out.
The entire wall receded slowly, then slid to the side.
It revealed a narrow, downward-leading staircase.
The stairs seemed bottomless, with a faint, dark-red glow shimmering in the darkness.
An oppressive aura surged up from below.
Lia turned to look at Klein, a hint of smugness in her eyes.
“How about that? Am I impressive or what?”
Klein straightened up and walked to her side.
“Let’s go.”
He took the lead down the stairs.
Lia followed behind him.
As they went deeper, the air grew colder, and the oppressive aura intensified.
There were no lights on the walls; only that dark-red glow guided their way.
After descending an unknown number of steps, the view finally opened up.
This was a massive, circular underground space.
It was located deep directly beneath the library hall.
In the center of the space stood a tall, black metal tower.
The tower was only three meters high, its surface carved with dense runes.
Those runes were slowly writhing, emitting a dark-red halo as if they were breathing.
At the top of the tower hovered a red crystal the size of a fist.
Inside the crystal, countless tiny filaments of light drifted about, connecting to certain locations in the void.
“Is this the control hub?”
Lia walked to the metal tower, looking up at the crystal.
“It feels to me… like it’s calibrating a frequency.”
She pointed at the light filaments inside the crystal.
“The vibration frequency of these filaments seems to be converging. Once they are fully synchronized, the resonance horror will officially begin.”
Klein stood three paces behind her, his gaze scanning the surrounding darkness.
Lia walked a circle around the metal tower.
“Its energy source is the leylines; cutting off the leylines isn’t realistic. The fastest way is to destroy the structure of the core crystal.”
She extended her hand, a cluster of white magical radiance condensing in her palm.
It was the glow of Element Decomposition.
“As long as I break its internal balance, it will disintegrate on its own.”
Lia’s hand slowly approached the red crystal.
Klein did not stop her.
However, his attention was not on the tower, but on a certain shadow within the space.
Just as Lia’s hand was less than ten centimeters from the crystal—
“If I were you, I wouldn’t touch that.”
An aged voice rang out abruptly in the space.
Lia’s hand froze in mid-air.
Klein turned around, looking toward a patch of shadow on the left.
“Come out.”
The shadow distorted slightly.
An old man wearing a deep red robe stepped out.
He was very old, his face covered in wrinkles, his hair sparse and white, and his back somewhat hunched.
He leaned on a withered wooden staff, with a clouded, eye-shaped gemstone embedded at its tip.
The old man looked at Klein, and there was no cloudiness in his eyes; instead, they burned with a heart-stopping, fanatical light.
“Klein.”
The old man called out his name.
His voice was raspy, like sandpaper rubbing together.
“I knew that useless fool couldn’t stop you.”
Klein remained expressionless.
“Who are you?”
“A dying man.”
The old man coughed twice and slowly walked to a stop ten meters away from them. His gaze swept over Lia before fixing on Klein.
“You may call me ‘Commander,’ or you may call me… ‘The Gravedigger’.”
Lia slowly withdrew her hand and turned around, standing slightly behind Klein.
Her gaze fell upon the badge on the old man’s chest.
Eighth Circle.
‘Dammit, since when did I become a jinx?’
Lia’s fingers lightly brushed against her ring, ready to pull out a scroll at any moment.
“You intend to stop us?”
Klein asked.
“Stop you?”
The old man began to laugh, his voice dry and piercing.
“No, no, no.”
He shook his head.
“I am saving you.”
The old man raised a withered finger and pointed to the metal tower behind Lia.
“That is not merely a control hub.”
“It is also connected to the resentment buried beneath this land for centuries.”
“If it is forcibly destroyed, the accumulated energy will erupt instantly.”
The old man looked at Lia.
“Little girl, your calculations are indeed good. But you missed one variable.”
“What?”
Lia asked.
“The weight of a soul.”
The old man grinned, revealing a set of broken teeth.
“This city was always a massive grave. We only want to dig up what’s inside.”
“For Weber’s theories?”
Lia stared at him.
“Weber?”
The old man snorted with disdain.
“What did that madman know? He only saw the separation of flesh and spirit, but he failed to see the value of the soul itself.”
He raised his staff and slammed it heavily against the ground.
Thump.
An invisible ripple spread out from the staff as the center.
The air in the entire underground space instantly became viscous.
Lia felt her breathing hitch, as if a giant boulder were pressing against her chest.
This was the inherent pressure of a high-level mage.
“Klein. Kneel.”
The old man looked at Klein, his gaze turning fanatical.
“You are also a seeker of truth. You should be able to see how magnificent this research is.”
“Once the ‘Harvest’ is complete, we can break the boundary between life and death and touch the realm of the gods.”
“We don’t need you to join us; only to watch from the sidelines.”
“After it is finished, all research data will be presented to you with both hands.”
Klein looked at him as if looking at a clown.
“You talk too much.”
He raised his hand.
Blue magic converged at his fingertips, and the surrounding space began to emit faint cracking sounds.
The old man’s expression darkened.
“It seems negotiations have failed.”
He raised his staff, and the eye gemstone at the tip snapped open, shooting out a crimson light.
“Stubborn and recalcitrant!”
“In that case, stay here and serve as the first sacrifice.”
“The soul of an Eighth-Circle mage will surely make our harvest even more… satisfying!”
The light exploded.
Countless red threads shot out from the void, weaving into a massive net that descended toward the two of them.
It was pure spiritual manifestation.
Every thread was laced with a soul-corroding poison.
Should even a single strand touch one’s soul, it would rot instantly.
Just as Lia was about to grab a scroll, her field of vision went dark.
Klein stood before her.
He gave a simple wave of his hand.
Tear!
That seemingly indestructible red net was shredded like a rag by an invisible blade, dissipating into a sky full of red light.
“Eighth Circle?”
Klein looked at the old man, his tone carrying a hint of mockery.
“Is your Eighth Circle just trash piled up by time?”
The old man took a step back.
“You…”
“Lia.”
Klein called out without looking back.
Lia responded.
“Go dismantle that tower.”
“Don’t worry, I can take ten of his kind.”
Klein stepped toward the old man.
With every step, his aura surged higher.
The entire underground space trembled beneath his pressure.
Lia glanced at the old man, then at Klein’s back.
“Alright.”
She turned and rushed toward the metal tower.
Seeing this, the old man tried to swing his staff to intercept her.
“Don’t even think about it!”
Several black shadow bolts appeared out of thin air, shooting toward Lia’s back.
Pop!
All the shadow bolts exploded in mid-air.
An icy-blue mirror stood in the path of the projectiles.
Klein stood by the mirror, looking coldly at the old man.
“Your opponent is me.”
He raised his hand, his palm closing into a phantom grip.
“Space Imprisonment.”
The space around the old man solidified instantly, like a transparent box trapping him within.
The old man let out an angry roar, his staff erupting with blinding light as he attempted to break the imprisonment.
Lia did not look back at the battle behind her.
She rushed to the metal tower and pressed her hands against its surface.
Her mind rapidly analyzed the magic array based on the energy paths.
“Energy flow… resonance nodes…”
“Found it.”
“Unfortunately, its energy source is the leylines; a forced destruction would cause an energy feedback explosion.”
“This core crystal actually has a defensive array specifically targeting souls as well; if any object with a soul touches it, it will erupt with world-destroying power.”
“However, that won’t stop me.”
Lia let out a cold sneer and released Element Decomposition on the base.
Her hands emitted a strange light; under its brilliance, the metal base began to soften and dissolve rapidly.
The floating red crystal lost its stable magnetic support and began to tremble violently.
The light filaments snapped.
An alarm-like humming sound echoed through the entire underground space.
The old man trapped in the spatial box let out a piercing howl.
“Stop! You will ruin everything!”
Lia remained deaf to his cries.
Realizing her mana consumption was slightly exceeding expectations, she pulled an enchanted dagger from her ring and stabbed it ruthlessly into the connection point of the base, which had already been decomposed into a fragile state.
Crack.
A crisp snapping sound.
The floating red crystal lost its magnetic support and fell to the ground, shattering into a floor full of powder.
In that instant—
All the red light vanished.
The oppressive atmosphere dissipated along with it.
The runes on the metal tower dimmed, turning it into a pile of scrap metal.
“No!!!”
The old man trapped in the spatial box let out a despairing, blood-curdling shriek.
“My research! My miracle!”
Lia took a breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
She turned around.
The battle behind her had just ended.
The old man lay slumped on the ground, his staff broken in two.
Klein stood before him, looking down with his clothes not even ruffled.
“You settled it?”
Lia asked.
“Mm.”
Klein turned his head, looking at the red crystal powder on the floor.
“Dismantled it quite quickly.”
“Well, I am exceptionally gifted.”
Lia shrugged and walked over to the old man.
The old man wasn’t dead; he was only gasping for air, his gaze vacant.
“Why…”
He looked at Lia, muttering to himself.
“Why was there no explosion…”
“Because I didn’t touch the crystal at all.”
Lia crouched down, looking into the old man’s eyes.
“You thought those little hidden arrangements of yours could fool me?”
She pointed to her own head.
“I am a professional mage.”
The old man’s eyes widened, a rattling sound coming from his throat, before his head lolled to the side and he lost consciousness completely.
Klein glanced at the man on the floor.
“Take him back?”
“No need.”
Lia stood up and patted her hands.
“The control hub is destroyed; their plan has failed.”
“And besides…”
She looked toward the staircase leading to the surface.
From above came the sound of disorganized footsteps and the clanking of armor.
“It seems our Lord City Lord has arrived.”
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, The Phantom of the Library is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : The Phantom of the Library
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂
Ch 123 and this one is exactly the same?
Hey I’m so sorry for the issue, actually the CN site skipped the chapter number 116 and went straight from 115 to 117, so I messed up the chapter orders and put 123 twice. The issue is fixed now. Happy Reading!!