Chapter 273: Ascending to Heaven

"Karl, have someone look into this Claude Antel from Macon as soon as possible. What's his deal?"

Dwight Payton strode into his assistant's office in the Nathan's Gate office building: "I want to know everything about him within thirty-six hours."

"Claude Antel... I think I've heard that name before."

Karl looked puzzled and flipped through the documents on his desk.

But before he could find anything, Dwight Payton had already answered: "He's one of the top four in this year's high school individual cold weapon fighting competition in Macon. Major institutions predict he's likely to win the championship and will encounter Amo in the upcoming Georgia state individual competition. Not long ago, someone specifically mentioned this name to me, telling me to watch out for him."

However, Dwight's attention was drawn to another stack of A4 paper on Karl's desk: "What's this? A comic?"

"Those are drafts returned from the comic publisher. Amo drew a comic and asked me to submit it for him. He hopes to get the attention of major publishing house editors through our Nathan Group's channels."

Karl shrugged: "But unfortunately, I contacted several publishers for him, and all failed."

"The drafts didn't meet their requirements?"

"Not exactly. A few were willing to publish, but their terms were harsh, and Amo is proud. He'd rather not publish than work for those publishers. That's right—if he accepted their conditions, he'd just be their hired artist. Given Amo's future status, it's unnecessary, isn't it? I think those publishers are probably regretting it now. They probably didn't expect Amo to become so popular. Two of them have asked me to contact Amo to renegotiate, but he can't be bothered to respond."

Dwight Payton listened while flipping through the pages, and his expression gradually turned curious: "Very good! I think those editors either didn't seriously read his drafts or should be fired."

Karl was taken aback: "Mr. Payton, you think highly of this comic? I find it enjoyable, but I also think the publishers' opinions are valid—the plot is too shallow and straightforward, lacking depth."

"Bullshit! Comics, except for political cartoons in newspapers, are all meant for teenagers. What depth do they need? Don't forget, at least twelve percent of Americans can't read a newspaper."

Dwight snorted, then reached out to Karl: "Give me a file folder."

Karl naturally complied, but he was puzzled: "Mr. Payton, are you taking this home to collect?"

"I'm attending a party tonight. The president of Ferguson Cultural Media Company will be there. He should be someone who knows quality. Taking a small publishing company to a media group worth 1.2 billion gold shields—he's very capable."

Dwight Payton smiled as he stuffed the stack of drafts into the folder: "Of course, if Amo has completely lost interest in this, that's another matter. But I think he's short on money. Karl, this has nothing to do with you. What you need to focus on now is Claude Antel—"

Dwight tapped the desk with his finger: "Find out about him as soon as possible, understand? He's probably another obstacle our opponents are setting up for our lucky prince. I want to know how they plan to court death this time. Amo is already invincible at the high school level."

...

On Thursday afternoon, in an unmanned warehouse on Anfac Street in eastern Atlanta, Samson Brut, Li Tailai, the Colinson brothers, Eliza Targaryen, and a woman named Isadora Wicks each occupied a corner of a heptagram-shaped magic array.

In the center of the magic array stood Hazel, clad in armor.

This property belonged to Li Chunchu's offshore companies, covering 137,400 square meters, including seven high-standard large warehouses and a seven-story office building. Until yesterday, these assets were managed by a storage company.

Li Mochen guessed this was a plot of land the original owner's father had prepared for the Sunrise Company's real estate development. After Samson and the others inspected it, they thought it could serve as one of their fortress bases.

Fortunately, it was less than 90 meters from Building 34 on Anfac Street. This meant that once Li Mochen purchased the spatial rift leading to the dark world, he could use this warehouse complex to provide strong security for that side.

So in the following period, Li Mochen would invest 17 million gold shields here. Ostensibly for expanding the warehouses, but in reality, he would build a semi-military fortress as a base for his private army. He would even invest some funds to buy up some buildings between here and Building 34 on Anfac Street.

Now, one of the warehouses had been completely cleared out by Li Mochen as the ritual site for seizing the power of the Calamity Flame Apostle. Just for this magic array and the corresponding items, Li Mochen spent a full five million gold shields.

Since the Red Sparrow Club wasn't open yet, and Li Mochen couldn't wait, he spent some extra money.

At this moment, Li Mochen and Major Thompson Adams were carefully examining the newly completed magic array.

In both East and West, 7 is considered a magical number. The Creator made man in 6 days and rested on the 7th; humans have 7 deadly sins; the Book of Revelation has 7 seals, 7 lampstands, 7 trumpets, and so on.

However, the heptagram is difficult to draw accurately because it is "uneven yet perfectly stable unity." In occultism, it is considered a more complex star shape with greater power.

Thus, a magic array based on the heptagram is exceptionally complex and hard to draw, but once completed, it becomes very stable.

"Lady Natural Punisher, do you think the boss can succeed?"

Howard Eisenhower stood at the corner with his gun, watching the center of the warehouse from afar. He and Dayneen Stacy had been called by Li Mochen to act as guardians, in case of accidents.

"Theoretically, yes."

Dayneen's eyes emitted a silver glow: "Major Adams is only a ninth-level mage as a兼职, with limited skill in magic arrays. But our boss is knowledgeable, though I can see he's still a bit inexperienced in arranging magic arrays. However, he has sharp eyes that can accurately grasp the essence of the mystical. This magic array is fine. The only possible accident is the mental erosion from the Calamity Flame Apostle on the host, but the items our boss has prepared are interesting. I think he has precautions in place."

At that moment, she was looking at the silver pills held by Samson Brut and the others.

Everyone in the heptagram array, except Hazel, had one of these pills. They emitted a faint spiritual light with a strange magical rhythm.

"So, these guys can ascend to heaven in one step?"

Howard Eisenhower showed a look of envy and jealousy: "How enviable. Over the years, how much money have I spent and how many dangers have I faced to advance my profession? And now they can have it just like that."