As for what happened next, Xia De didn't need to be involved. His mission was to get Steve Ivent, who was carrying the Ring of Metamorphosis, out of here, away from normal surveillance posts, and away from the crowded mansion.
The departing maid would guide him to where he needed to go, and Miss Tifa Servett would be waiting for him there.
Of course, Ivent couldn't be killed yet, to avoid alarming the Cultists. The maid naturally had a way to replace the real ring with a fake one and make Ivent temporarily forget what he had experienced. As for the specific method used, that was something Miss Jialinna needed to worry about, and it had nothing to do with Xia De.
The plan went smoothly. Xia De only needed to wait for the signal, then meet the maid in the mansion's courtyard, and he could leave openly.
As he breathed a sigh of relief, he began to worry about another big adventure coming up.
He walked without stopping to the innermost part of the dining room, spent a large sum of pounds he got from the maid, and took possession of the two items he had purchased. It would take some time for the maid to deal with Steve Ivent, and during this period, Xia De had best find a safe place to wait patiently.
The lesson from Lakeview Manor made Xia De understand that wandering around would greatly increase the probability of encountering bad luck. Especially since tonight was another summoning ritual, he had to be even more careful.
He couldn't stay in the auction hall in the dining room. When Ivent returned later, he might think of something if he saw Xia De again.
“The third floor is definitely out, and there seem to be many important figures on the second floor. The courtyard is also out, as that reminds me of Lakeview Manor. So, I still need to go to the first floor.”
Thinking this, he took the two priceless auction items he had bought and headed to the first floor. The banquet still offered buffet-style service, and Xia De didn't take any food from there, to avoid accidentally eating strange things.
But he still stood by the food-laden table for a while, pretending to be curious about the fruit salad on the table:
“Is there anything wrong with this food?”
He asked the woman's voice in his mind curiously.
“At this distance, I don't sense any problems.”
So, pretending to be casual, he wiped his finger across a dark liquid stain that had appeared on the tablecloth at some point.
“Now?”
“There's a very slight strange sensation, but I can't discern what tricks were played with the food.”
“So that's how it is.”
Standing alone in a corner would make him seem strange. So, he looked around on the first floor and eventually joined a group of people watching others play rhode cards.
Unexpectedly, he didn't encounter any acquaintances he could easily talk to this time. Xia De just stood silently in the crowd. As for the special rhode cards the two playing parties possessed, he didn't care at all; he just wanted to leave as soon as possible.
There weren't many rhode cards enthusiasts at this banquet, and most of them came for the two extremely expensive special cards auctioned at the end. Xia De standing there didn't seem out of place, and those who came to watch and then left also didn't seem out of place.
Therefore, when a strange middle-aged man walked up to Xia De and watched the ongoing card game with him, Xia De didn't pay too much attention.
But the voice in his ear truly startled him:
“Don't move your eyes; look straight ahead.”
“What?”
“Don't change your expression too much either.”
Xia De squinted at the card game, a little surprised in his heart:
“What happened? Did the Evil God descend early? Quickly burn the divinity, I…”
“It's not that serious. There's a High-Ring Sorcerer next to you.”
“Oh, just a Ring術士.”
He breathed a sigh of relief, his peripheral vision catching the middle-aged man beside him. He was wearing a black formal suit like Xia De, but he was slightly taller than Xia De, with a medium build, neither fat nor thin.
Because he couldn't observe him directly, Xia De couldn't see more details. It was only when the voice in his mind reminded him that he suddenly realized there was a very unique aura about this stranger.
The so-called aura is actually difficult to define, but when Xia De noticed him, that strange feeling surged into his heart, as if a huge mountain stood beside him. But overall, he just felt that the other party was very powerful, and he didn't sense any strange aura.
This led him to the conclusion:
“Thirteen Ring Sorcerer?”
“It should be.”
There were only a few Thirteen Ring Sorcerers in the entire material world, and the one beside him should be Mr. Hogg Lundell, the “Great Sword of the Sun” from the Sun Church.
Xia De had never met this gentleman, but the other party might know him. When Xia De was shot last Wednesday afternoon, this gentleman was standing a few hundred steps behind him, and it was highly possible he had seen the photo in the news afterward.
“You can sense that the other party is a High-Ring Sorcerer, so can the other me sense that I am a Ring術士?”
From Xia De's basic lessons, this should be impossible, but he still asked.
“Don't worry, as long as you don't use a spell or Miracle near him, he will definitely not sense us.”
He didn't know if the other party's appearance beside him was a coincidence or intentional, but thinking that he hadn't done anything bad, Xia De wasn't overly nervous.
So, neither of them spoke, but instead focused on the ongoing card game. During this time, Xia De idly thought that the Miracle copied by the witch's copy paper he had swallowed was the other party's famous Miracle.
Thinking of this, he glanced at the other party again. The middle-aged man's sharp yet warm aura made Xia De thoughtful. He probably understood what kind of Miracle he would gain.
It wasn't until one of the players in the match, somewhat annoyed, revealed Moon 7, losing 22 points to 18 points, temporarily ending the match, that Xia De sighed, then turned and left, while Mr. Lundell continued to watch the game.
“It seems he wasn't intentionally keeping an eye on me.”
Xia De didn't want to get involved with anyone here. After successfully leaving the Thirteen Ring Sorcerer's side, he thought about finding a cooler place to stay.
Although the auction was only held on the second floor, the rooms on the first floor were also open to guests. The Earl's youngest son had taken out some of the family's collection and borrowed some from friends, arranging them like an exhibition. It was publicly claimed to showcase the family's wealth and incidentally give some value to the high ticket prices.
Xia De's idea was to find a less crowded room to calm down, but as he walked down the corridor, looking at the portraits hanging on the walls, a respectable middle-aged gentleman with a wine glass walked out of a room ahead. Both of them were startled:
“Psychologist Schneider?”
“Xia De?”
The person who walked out of the room on one side of the corridor was indeed the blue-eyed middle-aged Psychologist. He looked at Xia De in surprise, and Xia De was even more surprised.
“Come with me!”
After realizing what was happening, Xia De, without explanation, pulled the Psychologist's hand and walked to the window at the end of the corridor. Outside the window was the mansion's courtyard in the night.
Confirming that there was no one outside the window and no one in the corridor behind them was paying attention, Xia De lowered his voice and urgently asked:
“Psychologist, why are you here?”