The Sorcerer's Handbook

"As long as the glory of our ancestors can be restored, no sacrifice is too great!

"You were all going to become undead eventually anyway. Better to be used as my nourishment.

"Don't blame me. Your deaths are for a greater cause. If you must hate someone, hate Rusty Crow. He was the one who sold me this ritual. I will avenge you in the future by killing him."

Watching Juventus slaughter his own relatives in the projection like a madman, everyone instinctively distanced themselves from him. Even Cliose subtly raised her gun, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Just like in Annan's case, the Gospel skipped the gruesome details of Juventus' ritual, jumping directly to the aftermath.

In the projection, Juventus sat inside a bizarre, blood-patterned magic circle, surrounded by a ring of corpses belonging to members of the Kessriel clan. He had severed all of them at the waist, leaving their upper bodies outside the circle with hands clasped in prayer, while their lower bodies knelt neatly inside. Not a single drop of blood remained in the desiccated corpses. Every ounce of it had been drawn into Juventus' forehead, condensing into a sharp, rhombus-shaped blood sigil.

A strange light flashed in Juventus' eyes. "Fate... I have seen it... Everything will inevitably head toward its end."

[Juventus Kessriel receives the reward: Blood Sigil.]

Blood Sigil

- Activating the sigil requires 100 milliliters of blood from the Kessriel line. Once activated, the effect lasts for ten minutes, during which the sorcerer's cognitive ability is increased by 15%.

The projection faded, but its aftershock lingered.

The Mercury youth called out, "Kessriel."

Choosing his words with extreme caution, he said, "This is your family's internal matter, and I will not comment on it. However, you are no longer in a position to represent the Kessriel family, so you cannot take part in the distribution of spoils. That said, on behalf of the Mercury family, I guarantee that all intelligence we obtain will still be shared with you."

This was a carefully calculated move. The future rankings had explicitly exposed Juventus' crimes, and the Mercury youth would be wasting an opportunity if he didn't use this chance to push him out. However, he still needed Juventus' combat strength, so he left him with just enough dignity to keep him on their side as a deterrent against the Senheiser family.

Juventus let out a faint laugh. "Heh. I don't agree. Go ask the Kessriel family leader himself. He still have faith in me."

"How confident," Quinna said coldly, raising an eyebrow. "If a traitor who slaughtered his own kin appeared in the Senheiser family, I would turn him into fireworks myself. Or are you truly confident you can convince your family that the Schemer Rankings are just Gospel slander?"

"No. I am certain this is my future," Juventus replied. "I truly admire Ancestor Kross. If given the chance, I would spare no cost to seize his Fate Class inheritance... Even without any outside threats forcing my hand, I would do it just to break into the Sacred Realm and climb toward the ranks of Legend. After all, I am already out of options."

When Juventus said "out of options," the Sacred Realm sorcerers all fell silent. They were all seasoned veterans of the Sacred Realm, frequent visitors of the Distant Sky Domain, and celebrated geniuses in the mortal world. Yet the anxiety of being "out of options" still gnawed at them constantly.

Whether it was Quinna's devotion to family, Aina's focus on her career, or Cliose's obsession with the rankings, every Sacred Realm sorcerer had their anchor. They were all prodigies in their own right, which made it even harder for them to accept the limits of their talent. They were like birds that believed they were free, only to realize they had merely been living inside a larger cage.

Juventus' claim that he would commit such madness for power was instantly believed. They themselves might not do it, not because they lacked the capability, but because they still held onto things in life more important than strength.

"But the truly dangerous one in the Schemer Ranking is not me," Juventus said, his voice dropping. "Beyond one plot lies another."

Everyone paused, eyes darting back down as the Schemer Rankings updated in real time.

[Schemer Ranking No. 8: Morgan's Cognitive Fusion Ritual]

Synopsis: Morgan Dawn was a Mind Class Legendary sorcerer renowned for affection-based Miracles. During his lifetime, all beings, including men, women, children, and even fellow Legends, could not help but fall for him. To inherit Morgan's power, on April 10, 1678, Joel Hopkin activated the Cognitive Fusion Ritual. He sacrificed a male and a female Sacred Realm sorcerer, alongside a hundred men and a hundred women of varying ages.

Culprit: Joel Hopkin.

"Joel Hopkin is a Two-Winged sorcerer from Modora," the Mercury youth said, his expression turning grave. "He is a highly talented individual, considered a prime seed for the Sacred Realm. It is not at all surprising that he achieved it within ten years."

However, no one was listening to the Mercury youth's intelligence anymore. All eyes were fixed on the eerie implications of the next ranking.

[Schemer Ranking No.7: Napoli's Compassion Purification Ritual]

Napoli Deger was once a Truth Class Legendary sorcerer, known as the closest being to an Angel among Legends. To inherit Napoli's power, on April 10, 1678, Jeremy Deger destroyed a Deep Abyss seal, triggering a full-scale abyssal outbreak and unleashing monsters from the deep layers of the abyss to ravage the city, thereby activating the Compassion Purification Ritual.

Culprit: Jeremy Deger.

[Schemer Ranking No. 3: Colentina's Glory Forging Ritual]

Synopsis: The ancestor of the Mercury family, Colentina Mercury, controlled a Divine Spirit with a mortal body. His immense power persisted across generations and refused to dissipate, which is why every descendant of the Mercury bloodline inherits an affinity to the Shadow Class. However, this power comes with a dual vulnerability, leaving them with an acute sensitivity to light and a fragile lifespan.

To inherit Colentina's power, on April 10, 1678, Rein Mercury dragged an entire city into the shadows, sacrificing 7,853,454 lives to activate the Glory Forging Ritual.

Culprit: Rein Mercury

Noticing the collective gaze shift toward the Sacred Realm sorcerer skilled in shadow magic, Ashe didn't even need to ask to know he was Rein.

Compared to Sacred Realm sorcerers who casually slaughtered their entire bloodlines or sacrificed whole cities, Annan, who had merely massacred a banquet of guests, suddenly looked almost innocent and harmless.

However, more than the looming crimes of Rein, Juventus, or even Annan, everyone's focus had now shifted entirely to the deeper revelations of the Schemer Ranking.

Juventus couldn't help but ask aloud, "Who exactly is Rusty Crow? Why does it seem like every single one of these rituals originates from him?"

Across all the projections shown so far, the masterminds executing the plots were different, but they were all bound together by a single name, and that was Rusty Crow.

The Crown Descent, the Wisdom Reclamation, the Cognitive Fusion... all of these rituals, each demanding an exorbitant cost and steeped in absolute cruelty, traced back to him.

Annan and the others might be the ones pulling the strings in the physical world, but they were merely the consumers. The one supplying the knowledge of these rituals, Rusty Crow, was the true font of evil, the ultimate calamity lurking behind everything.

What's more, the eight rituals that had appeared so far were all set to occur on the same day, April 10, 1678.

That could not be a coincidence. Yet it was equally impossible for all these individuals to have coordinated such a massive, synchronized event; at the very least, Annan would never have any connection with the likes of them.

Even more bizarrely, the fact that a future ranking would reveal such precise, rigid timing felt entirely unnatural. This was not a past record. Why would a prophecy of future events restrict its own flexibility so drastically?

"Ashe," Purple Moth suddenly leaned close, her voice a hushed whisper, "have you noticed... all eight schemes, despite being incomplete, are fundamentally related to resurrection?"

Ashe's expression turned serious. "Mmhmm. And?"

"And nothing. But don't you think I'm incredibly smart?"

Ashe raised a finger and lightly flicked Annan's nose. "If you were as small as Lys, I might pat your head. But you're a bit too old for that... So instead, I'll generously allow you to hug me once."

Annan responded by furiously punching him in the waist. Clearly, the Lady was in a good mood. Because the crowd's attention had shifted toward the ranking and the mystery surrounding Rusty Crow, the immediate pressure on their group had lessened significantly. If Quinna remained firm, they might actually be able to return to Vanmura together. Of course, escaping Quinna's grasp afterward would likely be impossible this time...

At that exact moment, the ranking updated once more. A familiar name manifested in the air.

[Schemer Ranking No. 2: Everton's Fundamental Condensation Ritual]

Description:

Everton Belldet, ancestor of the Belldet family, was a Five-Winged sorcerer and a Pseudo-God Angel who once commanded multiple Divine Spirits. To seize control over her ancestor, on April 10, 1678, Evelyn Belldet burned the mental energy of all those under her control to activate the Fundamental Condensation Ritual.

Culprit: Evelyn Belldet

A collective, silent gasp rippled through the crowd. Damn it!

Eyes filled with newfound awe turned toward Evelyn. This was by far the most ambitious move they had seen yet. Evelyn wasn't trying to revive or inherit her ancestor; she was directly attempting to enslave him.

Only the Belldet family would dare attempt something so audacious. After all, while other families' ancestors had long since returned to the Virtual World, Belldet's undead Angel still lingered within a sealed tomb. Since their inherited art was the art of control itself, every prerequisite was already perfectly in place. To leave their own ancestor uncontrolled would almost feel like wasting fate's perfect arrangement.

In the distance, Evelyn had been calmly watching the spectacle unfold. She frowned slightly, not expecting her family's long-standing, classified plan to be exposed so openly.

Indeed, this was not her idea alone. Generations ago, perhaps as far back as the era of Everton's son, the Belldet family had already been plotting how to dominate this undead Angel. However, because there was never any immediate threat, the plan had remained entirely theoretical, left unexecuted due to its many unavoidable flaws. Evelyn herself had never seriously considered putting it into practice.

Yet, looking at the projection now, she instantly understood how elegantly Rusty Crow's ritual had been constructed. By burning a massive reserve of her own mental energy, she could warp reality itself and create a physical vessel out of nothing. Then, she could utilize a bloodline ritual to summon a fragment of the undead Angel's consciousness and imprison it within that newly formed shell. Because every single cell of that body would be under Evelyn's direct command, it would become a perfect cage, allowing her to indirectly achieve absolute domination over the Angel itself.

For the first time, Evelyn felt a spark of genuine temptation, a sudden urge to try it immediately.

However, a question still consumed everyone's minds. Rusty Crow... who exactly is he?

Very soon, the Book of Gospel would give them their answer.

[Schemer Ranking No. 1: Ashe's Kingdom Revival Ritual]

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