“Good evening, Troupe Leader. I was hoping to borrow your Alchemy Pavilion.”

Wu Wang rubbed his head and got up from the floor. He patted the dust from his clothes and surveyed the Dilapidated Opera Building.

The building hadn’t collapsed. Everything just now must have been a memory the Troupe Leader wanted me to see, he thought.

He just didn’t know why it had triggered a reaction from the Abyss God’s Mark. It made him suspect that the events of that night were also connected to the Abyss God’s corruption.

It was just like the 【Fight Back to School】 instance. That tragedy was set in motion the moment Principal Wang turned on the radio, filling the air with the Abyss God’s aura. This Opera God’s Righteous Garden was probably no exception.

He just hadn’t pinpointed the source of the corruption yet.

“The Alchemy Pavilion?” the Troupe Leader asked, walking in with a frown. “Are you planning to demonstrate your so-called ‘Human Refining’ technique?”

He had a feeling that some kind of change had occurred in the Dilapidated Opera Building. The place, which he visited almost every day and knew like the back of his hand, inexplicably felt unfamiliar.

But he shook his head, pushing the unsettling feeling to the back of his mind.

The Troupe Leader looked at the guard behind him.

“Perfect. I was also ordered by the Prince to bring Li Ling to you. He wants to see what this so-called Human Refining is all about.”

With that, he strode forward and skillfully opened the entrance to the Alchemy Pavilion’s secret room. He showed no concern for Li Ling, apparently unworried that the guard would report the existence of the room to the Prince.

Evidently, he had complete trust in the Prince. Yet it was this very trust that deepened Wu Wang’s curiosity about what had happened that night.

How could two people whose statuses were as different as clouds and mud end up in their current relationship?

The three of them re-entered the Alchemy Pavilion.

As Wu Wang looked at the familiar medicine cauldron, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

Without waiting for the Troupe Leader to ask, he began taking herbs from the surrounding walls and grinding them on his own. The Troupe Leader sat to the side, observing Wu Wang’s actions just as before.

Before long, Wu Wang had finished gathering the necessary ingredients.

The Troupe Leader’s expression once again turned strange. He realized that the ingredients Wu Wang had chosen were all highly toxic substances. There were even many poisonous insects whose toxins he had never found a way to neutralize, despite his years of studying medicine.

Among them were also several drugs that stimulated the senses.

Put together, the concoction didn’t look like something a person could consume. It seemed more like a set of tools for biochemical torture.

He frowned.

“Do you really know what you’re doing?”

He then added, “The Prince was very satisfied with your performance today. It’s been a long time since he praised someone like that. The last person he praised was when he performed opposite me… Forget it, let’s not talk about the past.”

“In short,” the Troupe Leader warned, “don’t let the Prince’s praise for you turn into your death sentence tomorrow.”

His meaning was obvious. If Wu Wang had merely boasted to the Prince and this Human Refining Method turned out to be a joke, the Troupe Leader wouldn’t be able to protect him.

“Relax, my Human Refining Method is, how shall I put it, the re-re-re-real deal~”

Wu Wang cheerfully tossed the ingredients into the cauldron and began to brew them.

This time, refining the medicine didn’t take long. After all, it didn’t need to be as meticulous as the tribute he had prepared for the Prince earlier.

This concoction only needed to have one effect.

It had to be highly toxic.

“Here, drink this.”

Wu Wang ladled a bowl of black, viscous liquid from the cauldron and handed it to Li Ling. The guard took it and swallowed it in one gulp without hesitation.

The Troupe Leader, watching from the side, frowned deeply. Can he even survive this?

Given the toxicity of those ingredients, he really couldn’t understand what Wu Wang was trying to do.

Just then, Wu Wang pointed at the cauldron.

“Jump in!”

Li Ling’s face was ashen as he trembled and walked toward the massive pot. It was obvious the medicine in his stomach was starting to take effect.

The pain from the poison was immense, but the sensory-amplifying drugs mixed within it doubled his agony. He wished he could just die.

Seeing this, Wu Wang rolled up his sleeves and carefully went over to support him.

After the man stepped into the cauldron, Wu Wang secretly used 【Shadow Interchange Technique】 to retrieve a strange seed. He attached it to the cauldron in a blind spot, hidden from the Troupe Leader’s view.

Holding cinnabar in his hand, he began to theatrically inscribe a strange formation pattern on the cauldron. A modern otaku would have recognized it instantly. It was the magic circle from the anime Cardcaptor Sakura, the only magical girl anime his second sister had ever forced him to watch.

He was also muttering incantations, speaking words the Troupe Leader couldn’t understand.

“abandon… abandon…”

“Miska Muska… Miska Muska!”

To the Troupe Leader, Wu Wang’s performance looked like a chaotic Spirit Jumping Ritual. He didn’t understand it, but he was impressed, his confusion mixed with curiosity.

In reality, Wu Wang was just silently watching the progress of the 【Tree of Sighs】 seed on his panel.

【Absorbing Power from Suffering, The Twisted】

“Hey! Li Ling!” Wu Wang suddenly shouted at the cauldron. “Hold on! You are the Prince’s most trusted guard! Why else would such an arduous task be given to you? You can do it!”

In response, a muffled roar came from within the cauldron, as if Li Ling was cheering himself on.

A new line of text appeared on the panel in Wu Wang’s eyes.

【Absorbing Power from Hope】

Yes, he had no doubt about the loyalty of these guards to the Prince. And it was precisely this loyalty and hope that gave Wu Wang the chance to accomplish his goal.

【Tree of Sighs (Legendary). A creation woven from the powers of several great beings, capable of growing by absorbing the surrounding 【Suffering】, 【The Twisted】, and 【Hope】 as energy.】

The key point was the seed’s second special effect.

【Special Effect 2. Can use negative emotions to create 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 for the user to command.】

A single emotion could create a 【Twisted Resentful Spirit】, but Wu Wang worried its strength would be insufficient. He needed a spirit refined from all three energies simultaneously to serve as a backup plan.

【Suffering】 and 【The Twisted】 were simple enough.

The highly toxic medicine he had refined was inflicting 【Suffering】 on Li Ling. As for 【The Twisted】, he had already shown the guard the Red Vertical Pupil on his wrist while helping him into the cauldron.

Logically, the most difficult part should have been making a person feel hope in the process of a painful death.

Fortunately, the guard’s loyalty did not disappoint. He wanted to live for the Prince.

And thus, 【Hope】 was born.

Unfortunately, this was destined to be a vain hope.

A cold glint flashed through Wu Wang’s eyes. Besides learning about the past, he was also preparing another plan. He would kill the Prince’s guards one by one under the pretext of Human Refining.

Then, he would replace them with the 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 created by the 【Tree of Sighs】.

When the time came, he would claim this was the successful result of his Human Refining. He would have the 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 connect with the Prince’s mind, making the Prince their temporary user.

This would make the Prince think he had obtained a great treasure and send his other guards to be refined as well.

Afterward, when the Prince dispatched these refined “guards” on night patrols, Wu Wang could ignore them and continue his exploration. He could even use these “guards” to get clues about other players.

After all, he was the true wielder of the 【Tree of Sighs】.

He could snatch back control from the Prince at any time.

This was a silent mutiny.

This was his scheme to clear the instance by taking an unconventional path.

A scheme from the 【Insidious Schemer】…