Chapter 297: Investigation

Helag first dealt with the defensive structure of the wizard array, cutting off its connection to the other parts to prevent the defense mechanism from being triggered by accident.

Next, he severed the link between the magical lock and the array, ensuring that even if someone smashed the lock, the array wouldn’t activate.

However, Helag didn’t rush to open the lock. To be thorough, he continued breaking down the array.

The core of the array had several key functions: defense, surveillance, detection, and self-destruction.

These were the most troublesome to deal with, but Helag patiently dismantled each sub-function, rendering the array ineffective.

In Helag’s perception, the process felt somewhat lengthy.

It took him about half an hour to fully break the array.

With a soft click, the magical lock automatically unlocked.

Helag gently pushed the door open, and everything seemed normal—no traps or alarms.

Breaking a wizard array required extreme patience and precision. There was no room for error.

Helag’s extensive experience in potion-making had long since trained him to be calm and steady under pressure.

“Well done!” Pruis patted Helag on the shoulder, praising him.

Pruis entered the room first, with Helag following closely behind.

The room was sparsely furnished, with nothing but a table and a wooden sculpture.

On the table was a large wooden sculpture, the only one left. The smaller ones had all been given to Luchi.

This larger sculpture was one that Max used for worshiping the god. Judging by the carving marks, it hadn’t been made recently—it had been there for some time.

Pruis picked up the large wooden sculpture, examined it briefly, and then stored it away for further study.

The two of them searched the room thoroughly, but found nothing else of value.

Helag even used Deep Blue to scan the environment multiple times, but no additional clues were uncovered.

It seemed that Max had been cautious, leaving nothing behind except for the large sculpture.

The more detailed information would have to wait until Max’s soul was interrogated.

Once Pruis confirmed that there was nothing else of importance in the attic, he ordered his subordinates to conduct a thorough search of the entire three-story building.

Every item in the house would be cataloged and examined using various methods.

The wizard organization of the Land of Dawn was extremely meticulous when dealing with Abyssal cultists. They wouldn’t leave anything unchecked.

After giving his instructions, Pruis hurried back to city hall to begin interrogating Max.

Helag stayed behind at Max’s residence to assist with the search and inventory of all the items.

***

Three days later.

In his office at city hall, Pruis handed Helag a document and said, “Helag, you’ve done quite well this time. Based on the final assessment, you’ve earned 260 contribution points.”

“That much? Looks like I really got lucky—just went out for a drink and stumbled upon this,” Helag laughed.

Over the past three days, Pruis and his team had rigorously interrogated Max’s soul and Luchi, uncovering a wealth of information.

They were shocked by what they found.

In addition to the wooden sculptures Luchi had distributed through beggars, many of the sculptures sold in Max’s woodcarving shop contained small creatures from the Abyss Plane.

These included insects, beetles, and other similar creatures.

While these Abyssal creatures didn’t have the power to directly turn ordinary people into Abyssal cultists, they subtly amplified people’s desires.

Greed, lust, hunger for power—most people harbored some form of desire.

Max’s sculptures were designed to magnify these desires.

Once someone’s desires reached a certain threshold, the dark gods of the Abyss Plane would attempt to make contact, seducing and corrupting them.

In most cases, ordinary people couldn’t resist such temptations and would eventually become Abyssal cultists.

Like Luchi, they would start serving the dark gods, sinking deeper and deeper into their influence.

Capturing Max and Luchi had been relatively easy for Pruis and his team. Neither of them had much power, so it didn’t take much effort to subdue them.

The real challenge lay in the aftermath.

According to the information gathered during the interrogation, Max had been creating sculptures with Abyssal creatures for the past two years.

Over that time, countless sculptures had been sold, many of which had spread beyond Seranthiel to various parts of the Land of Dawn.

During the interrogation, Pruis also discovered that Max was far from simple.

It seemed that Max had anticipated being captured one day, so he had erased many key memories.

In Max’s mind, only mundane, everyday memories remained.

Any time the interrogation touched on critical information, there was nothing but a blank space—completely inaccessible.

This led Pruis to suspect that Max was just a small player in a much larger scheme.

There had to be bigger forces behind him.

Otherwise, Max wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to erase his memories.

The fact that someone had the power to help Max erase his memories indicated that whoever was behind him was no ordinary figure.

Pruis felt a headache coming on. Just recovering the sculptures would be a monumental task.

There were no records of transactions in Max’s shop, and he hadn’t kept any sales logs.

The only option now was to issue a public notice, informing everyone that Max’s sculptures were dangerous and that anyone who had one should immediately turn it in to the city halls of Seranthiel’s various cities.

However, the response to the notice was underwhelming. Only a handful of people turned in their sculptures.

Most of the returned sculptures had been recently acquired and hadn’t yet had much of an effect on their owners. These people hadn’t become Abyssal cultists.

But the number of sculptures turned in was pitifully small compared to the number Max had sold over the past two years.

In the seemingly peaceful city, who knew how many people had been influenced by Max’s sculptures and turned into Abyssal cultists?

Pruis had been overwhelmed with work recently, instructing his subordinates to use every method available to track down anyone who had purchased a sculpture from Max.

If they found someone who hadn’t turned in their sculpture, that person would be thoroughly investigated.

This was an enormous task, and even the wizards were feeling stretched thin.

The sheer number of people involved, combined with the fact that many of the sculptures had been given away or traded, made the investigation incredibly complex, requiring vast amounts of manpower, resources, and time.