Theron looked down at the spear and then smiled. It seemed as though he had put all his deductions and realizations in a separate slot in his mind. Right at that moment, he was a teenage boy with a happy smile on his face because he had just gotten himself the most powerful treasure he had ever seen.

He reached forward, his palm grasping the irregularly patterned body of the spear. Veins bulged along his arm and he pressed upward.

Chi.

The spear was ripped out of the ground much to Matriarch Macie's surprise. Maybe in her opinion, Theron wouldn't be strong enough even to pull it out.

"Hey, senior sister. I'm going to need that Elemental Mancer treasure refinement technique you talked about before." Theron's smile grew brighter.

This game, he would happily play it. It would just give him more reason to kill.

Theron returned to his Immortal Cave with a plan in mind. He didn't plan on leaving for at least a month, a period that would be his longest time of secluded cultivation, well… ever.

Rarely did Theron have time to himself. Back in the Imperial Academy, he had had his own training room, but he still had to get up to go to classes, and he also had the missions of the Assassin's Guild to worry about as well.

There were classes and instructional periods here in the Sect as well, but Theron chose to forego them. Even if they had been mandatory—which they weren't—Matriarch Macie had just given every disciple in the Sect free rein to break all the rules as they saw fit.

And Theron felt like he had more than enough of a foothold to step forward as he saw fit now.

Not only did he have the necessary methods, but he also had the library as well. If he could combine the two, using science to understand the basic underlying principles of Dark Mana more, before he then moved on to comprehending it in practice, then he would be able to make quite a bit of headway.

He would have four main approaches to how he handled this seclusion.

The first would be the library. The second would be the carving knife. The third would be the techniques he had gained. And the fourth would be the study of his Echoes.

The world would think him a true Dark Mancer when he stepped out of here, but he had a feeling that he would become an even more powerful Water Mancer than that.

Lyra stood nervously in the Patriarch's quarters. Or, maybe this could be considered the Matriarch's quarters now, though she seemed to not have cared to change a single thing.

Matriarch Macie just stood in the not-too-far-off distance, being separated from her by what must have been barely five meters or so. However, with the way her back faced the Third Core Disciple, it felt as though she was a world away.

"You are close with Theron?" Matriarch Macie finally said.

Lyra blinked. "I… I only met him today, I…"

"You are the one who taught him [Shadow Step], [Shadow Extend], and [Shadow Flush]?"

Lyra's gaze flickered. "I… I do not think so. We only just stepped out of the technique tower, I didn't get a chance to teach him anything. It felt like he was just playing with me. I think he learned them before already."

Matriarch Macie paused for a long while before shaking her head.

"No. He learned them today."

Lyra's pupils constricted into pinholes. That was impossible. She had watched Theron open those books for the first time. He only read them in the time it took to walk to the counter, check out, and then walk out. How much time could that have possibly been? A single minute? At most?

"The talents orbs assessed him as a Celestial Resonance talent."

To these words, Lyra didn't even know how to react. Blackmaul being a Lower Arcane Talent was already a once-in-a-generation sort of shock.

Of course, to Matriarch Macie, this wasn't the first Celestial talent she had seen, but the second. It was just that the Sect had kept Sadie a secret, especially due to the Dark Spirit's involvement.

While it seemed as though the Sect had simply ignored the Dark Spirit after it left Sadie's body, this was far from the case. It was instead because of the Patriarch's strict orders that they left it alone.

They practically worshipped the Dark Spirit like a god, and they also knew enough to know that if a Dark Spirit was enraged, even a Dome of Heaven Mancer would die without a corpse—especially on a planet like this one where Dark Mana was so abundant.

The fact that one of their disciples had become a host to it was a closely guarded secret that only a few were aware of.

"The Sect cannot afford to lose him and it's better that he remain happy. Do you understand what I mean?" Matriarch Macie said calmly.

Lyra's pupils constricted and she found herself shivering from head to toe.

"Master, this…"

Macie looked back for the first time. There was a wash of pressure over Lyra's form.

"I'm aware that you come from quite a powerful Clan, a Clan that could probably wipe what remains of this Sect off the map, is that right? Do you think that will save you?"

Lyra's heart shook.

A madwoman.

This was no Grand Elder or Matriarch with the best interests of the Sect at heart. It was like she had already been consumed by whatever Heart Demon bloomed from Sadie's death.

She was entirely unscrupulous in her actions, and even if it meant the death of everyone in the Sect, she didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"If he wants to bed you, let him. If he wants to embarrass you, let him. If he wants to put it in places you never dreamed even in your sweetest fantasies, let him. You are almost ten years his elder. If you cannot control this little boy, you have no use and can simply die here."

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