Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

The meeting was dismissed.

Under Mercer's guidance, Du Wei was taken to the room prepared for him.

Many buildings were located on Lake Heart Island.

Yet the Vanity Sect chose only to operate within the square-shaped buildings.

The fourth floor served as the council room.

The third and second floors were closed off, having nothing but the stairways.

As for the ground floor hall...

It was the entrance one came through.

All members of the Vanity Sect, perhaps influenced by the Church, preferred to dwell in the damp and cool underground.

Like moles, these people always seemed to favor burrowing into the ground.

However, unlike the Church and the Dusk Bell Church,

the Vanity Sect's basement always contained only thirteen rooms.

When Mercer led Du Wei to the door of the room and pushed it open, a layer of dust covered everything in sight.

"Ahem, Your Excellency the Duke, please make do for tonight. Someone will come to clean up tomorrow," Mercer said with embarrassment.

He added, "However, tomorrow you're likely to go with Brand to retrieve that mask, and after that, you probably won't stay here much longer."

Du Wei didn't seem to mind and nodded directly, "Let's leave it at that for now. I'm quite tired and need to rest."

In reality, he needed to sort out his thoughts.

He realized that things were different from his plans, and many areas needed adjustments.

Hearing this, Mercer simply excused himself, "If that's the case, then I won't disturb your rest. Good night."

Du Wei grunted in acknowledgment, without further conversation.

This attitude could be seen as quite arrogant.

But Mercer found it completely normal instead.

After all, in their eyes, as the once-great man who let the hunters discover the path to stealing a Demon God's power, it would be odd for His Excellency the Duke not to display pride.

After he left,

Du Wei's eyes turned colder.

He turned to look at the dark corridor, his gaze sweeping over it as though detecting something, then finally entered the room and firmly closed the door.

...

In the dark corridor,

all was very quiet.

After a good while,

suddenly, there was a faint sound of the wind blowing, but it disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if something had been hiding there.

...

Inside the room.

Click...

A red flame lit up in the darkness, illuminating Du Wei's surroundings.

The room's furnishings were very simple, consisting of a bed, a chair, and a stone table with a kerosene lamp on it.

Honestly,

Du Wei didn't quite like such an environment; he was a bit of a clean freak.

So, he said, "Shadow..."

Immediately, Shadow emerged from his shadow, with bloodshot eyes, tilting its head, looking blankly at Du Wei.

With its intelligence, it couldn't understand why its master had called it.

The next second,

Du Wei commanded, "Envelope."

The envelope, which had been confined in his pocket for quite a while, flew out directly, hovering in front of Du Wei.

[Oh my God, the Envelope can finally get some air. Not seeing your voice and smile, Master, the Envelope feels like depression is setting in.]

[Great Master, even though it has only been a day since I've heard your teachings, as the saying goes, a day feels like a year. Rounding up, it's been a year since the Envelope last saw you.]

[Wuwuwu...it's the Envelope that's crying.]

Line after line of unscrupulous and bottomless text emerged on the paper.

Du Wei saw this,

and felt a bit nauseated, but his attitude towards the Envelope had somewhat improved. Thus, he spoke in an even tone, "Take Shadow and clean up the room. I'm expecting a visitor soon."

[Ah? A visitor? You actually have a visitor? Shouldn't it be an enemy?]

Du Wei said coldly, "If I tell you to do something, just do it."

His voice carried displeasure.

And the Envelope immediately dared not to talk back anymore.

[Yes, yes, yes, as you command, Master. Whatever you ask of the Envelope, the Envelope shall do. Even if you bid me to ascend to the heavens to pluck the moon for you, Envelope would not utter a word of refusal.]

In fact, it tended to be quite talkative.

But after a smart move, it floated above Brother Shadow's head, treating him like a mount.

[Brother Shadow, did you hear Master's words? Clean the room with me. Watching you behave like an idiot day after day, I'm ashamed on your behalf.]

Brother Shadow silently began cleaning.

This, however, only made the Envelope more inflated with pride.

[What difference does it make how capable a mere shadow is? The Envelope will always be the Master's confidant. You still have to listen to me. Remember to call me Brother Envelope from now on, you got that?]

Of course, Brother Shadow would not respond to the Envelope.

It couldn't speak, so it just worked obediently under the Envelope's direction, and began to clean the room.

The only one left was Du Wei.

He lit the kerosene lamp and stood in front of the table, reaching out to touch the mask on his face.

The people he found suspicious at the moment.

Were essentially Gascogne and Brand.

One showed malice towards him, and the other showed goodwill.

Malice cannot be concealed.

Goodwill, not necessarily.

Hmm...

He felt there was a problem with both of them.

However, as to who was the one who wanted to marry Alex, he currently had no leads.

The people of the Vanity Sect were just too good at hiding.

"Perhaps I could try both."

Du Wei told himself this in his mind.

Since both were behaving abnormally, he might as well drive both lines forward.

He would start with Brand.

If the other party wanted to retrieve the mask with him, he would take the opportunity to probe him.

Then there was Ryan Hamel.

The Vanity Sect seemed to value him highly, even to the point of being cautious.

Could it be that Ryan's past life was so troublesome that even the Vanity Sect felt it to be thorny?

"If that's the case, I wonder if Ryan could recover his memories from his previous life, whether he could become my most powerful ally."

Du Wei was well aware of his current predicament.

He was struggling alone, with no one to help him.

This was indeed exhausting, and his own abilities were limited. He urgently needed some external assistance, from any side.

Just as he was thinking...

Suddenly...

Knock, knock, knock...

Knock, knock, knock...

The sound of knocking arose.

Brother Shadow, who had just finished cleaning the room, abruptly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes staring directly at the door.

The malice in those eyes was not concealed in the slightest.

It was incredibly sensitive to the knocking...

Du Wei then turned around and beckoned to Brother Shadow.

In an instant, Brother Shadow, along with the Envelope, stood behind Du Wei, sank down, and morphed into his shadow.

The Envelope quietly slipped into his pocket.

All of this happened in a flash.

Du Wei pulled out a chair and sat down, his tone detached as he said, "Come in, Mr. Brand."

Creak.

The sound of the door opening.

Brand walked in, his tone puzzled, "Your Excellency the Duke, how did you know it was me?"