The Stargate Council didn’t play tricks with the competition’s contents.

Or rather, such an important selection couldn’t tolerate any shortcuts.

Not long after the three candidates met each other for the first time near Rhine Lake, Miss Lucy, as the Stargate Council’s representative in the Borderland, brought the decisions of the Chairman and Glare Family head, summoning the three candidates to Old Days Manor near Rhine Lake.

Old Days Manor had experienced the previous incident and had been jointly cleared multiple times by Herbert and Pei’er.

However, they hadn’t found any clues about the killer who murdered Clark.

Although they had located the killer’s mental power characteristics through regression and mental power detection, this type of mental power was very rare.

Based solely on these mental power characteristics, they couldn’t match them to any known third-rank wizard.

It was either a third-rank wizard who lived in seclusion, or the other party had deliberately disguised their original mental power characteristics.

But the second method was extremely difficult—in Saul’s view, it was like getting a complete blood transfusion.

Due to the repeated entry and destruction by the two third-ranks, Old Days Manor had lost its original spatial overlapping power.

The interior was severely damaged.

Broken and magnificent scenes switched chaotically, eventually becoming like the old televisions Saul had seen—turning into black and white static.

In short, it looked even more like a haunted house than before.

Standing with Byron at the gate of Old Days Manor, Saul waited for Lucy and the others to appear.

He saw Byron staring at Old Days Manor in a daze and asked with concern, “Senior, will the residual pollution here affect you?”

Byron turned back, his expression clear and calm, “No. These past few days, there have been no signs of pollution recurring. I was just thinking about the secrets of space. Isn’t it said that only fourth-rank wizards can master the mysteries of space? How did Tower Master Gorsa manage to do all this when he was only second-rank?”

Ever since Byron had accidentally been polluted in his mental power during experiments at the wizard tower a few days ago, Saul had been traveling with Byron.

Since they hadn’t detected the cause of the pollution that affected Byron’s spiritual body afterward, to prevent others from being unable to treat pollution in time, Saul had brought Byron to Old Days Manor together.

“My master is after all a genius even within a large family that has fourth-rank wizards, and he should have had many extraordinary experiences back then.”

Saul truly admired Gorsa in this regard.

He had now accidentally obtained the method to open the Chaos Realm, had crossed space several times, and had even personally set up short-distance spatial teleportation formations, yet still didn’t know how to easily cross spatial dimensions like his master.

However, although he didn’t know how to traverse space, through their last conversation and what Master Gorsa had taken from him, Saul vaguely guessed what Gorsa wanted to do.

No wonder he looked down on both the Tribunal and Stargate Council in his words—he wanted to do something so crazy.

He just didn’t know if he would ultimately succeed.

Saul and Byron stood in place for a while, then saw a pumpkin carriage from a fairy tale gradually become visible from transparency.

The carriage slowly stopped before the two, the door automatically opened, and emerald green vines automatically wove into steps.

Wizard Corey, like a human doll, descended from the pumpkin carriage.

Her movements were still rigid like wood.

This time, perhaps because the selection was officially beginning, Corey and Saul didn’t greet each other, merely nodding to each other as polite acknowledgment.

After several more minutes, Luke’s flying shuttle descended from the sky.

Luke still jumped directly down from mid-air.

A first-rank wizard also followed beside him, but when he approached, Saul and Byron discovered that this first-rank wizard was actually still that dark-skinned wizard. Even the scar on his neck remained, messily sewn up with black fine thread, flesh tangled together, with some subcutaneous tissue still exposed outside, but seemingly no longer affecting the dark-skinned wizard’s movements.

His mouth shape was also somewhat wrinkled, as if it had once been twisted and then forcibly ironed flat.

“We meet again.” Luke’s face still only had a pair of eyes, but as he approached, he took out a bloody mouth from his pocket and placed it where the mouth should be.

However, it was carelessly attached, making the mouth somewhat crooked.

Seeing Saul notice the first-rank wizard behind him, Luke’s voice carried more pride.

“Kafka is my assistant, very useful. I’ve always been reluctant to truly let him die. So I had to expend some effort to revive him.”

The dark-skinned Kafka was Luke’s subordinate, so Saul couldn’t directly examine him with mental power.

But from Kafka’s wary look at Byron, he really might be the wizard who had been confused by Byron and then attacked Luke in chaos.

“Revival?” Corey walked over with rigid steps, unceremoniously approaching Kafka’s front, seemingly wanting to directly test the other party’s authenticity with her hands.

“Please feel free.” Luke seemed not to mind Corey’s direct probing, “It’s just a revival experiment, not particularly difficult.”

“He… is this mapping to Master Gorsa?” Saul heard it but wasn’t angry.

Gorsa’s revival experiments had stopped being secret during the wizard tower rebellion. It was normal for core personnel in these major forces to know about it.

Presumably Gorsa wouldn’t care about others’ evaluations either.

However, the aura around Corey suddenly turned cold.

She understood, and seemed to truly admire Gorsa.

But before the atmosphere could worsen, Miss Lucy had already emerged from Old Days Manor.

She was expressionless, looking much more coldly beautiful than when they had parted last time. She still wore an ornate, somewhat androgynous lady’s dress, with silk high heels that would only appear at court balls under her long trouser legs.

“The reason I asked you all here today is to announce the selection content for you as third-rank wizard candidates.”

Lucy didn’t waste words. She didn’t even politely greet the several people first.

“To become a third-rank in the Borderland, you must be more adaptable to the environment here than others. So the person among you with the strongest survival ability will receive support from the Stargate Council and Borderland to help you completely push open the door within your body.”

The mouth on Luke’s face began to twist and deform again, as if the temporarily installed organ couldn’t adapt to his face and would break down after some use.

“So it’s a test of survival ability? How about direct combat to the death?” His gaze swept between Saul and Corey in turn, “Whoever becomes the final victor can naturally become the next third-rank wizard.”

Saul’s eyes suddenly narrowed, hiding the amusement within, “Really?”

A non-threatening mental power wave slowly spread from Saul’s body.

Though it had no aggressive intent, it simultaneously made everyone present feel their backs go cold.

As if they were being watched by something terrifying.

The words Luke was about to say suddenly caught in his throat. Looking at Saul who had suddenly displayed his strength, his expression gradually became serious, and the muscles above his eyes slowly furrowed, as if encountering an opponent who needed careful handling.

Corey’s facial expression didn’t change, but she turned her head ninety degrees, one eye watching Saul and one watching Luke.

As if as soon as Miss Lucy said it was acceptable, the three would immediately begin a life-and-death duel without reservation until only one of the three could still stand.

But Lucy sneered coldly, “Are you a group of beasts who only know how to fight? True wizards compete with brains!”

(End of Chapter)