Angel lacks the qualifications to represent the Barbarian Cave in a cooperation with the Wise Sovereign. Even if he had the qualifications, he would still be cautious. Naraku City, the Naraku Incident, the person Naraku, and all the experiments made with the Snake Coil Cone here, all indicate that the waters here run deep, and one must tread carefully.
Given the current predicament of the Barbarian Cave, facing threats from both Eternal Night City and Xinnai Land, coupled with handling the arrival of Peach Heart Theater, from Lord Reine’s perspective, it’s very likely he would reject the Wise Sovereign.
Naraku City holds secrets and interests. However, Naraku City has not risen for ten thousand years; any benefits are remnants of the past.
The crises faced by the Barbarian Cave also involve benefits, but these are tangible benefits. So, Angel has a clear understanding of the choices.
He speculated that since the Wise Sovereign could not succeed with him, it was likely he would propose a similar cooperation to the Black Earl. However, Angel did not expect the Black Earl to agree to cooperate with the Wise Sovereign.
Can’t the Black Earl see how deep the waters of Naraku City are?
Or is it that the Black Earl still remembers the past ties from ten thousand years ago?
Angel looked at the Black Earl in confusion, and the Black Earl seemed to understand what Angel wanted to ask, and said lightly, "He offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse."
What is meant by "a deal I couldn’t refuse"?
The crowd pondered for a long time but couldn’t figure out what kind of offer from the Wise Sovereign could make the Black Earl unable to refuse. The Black Earl had no intention of revealing this so-called offer either, merely telling Angel, "It has nothing to do with the Qingkong Poetry Room, nor does it concern this operation."
The Black Earl meant to assure Angel that his cooperation with the Wise Sovereign involved no underhanded deals and would not affect their current exploration.
However, what concerned Angel was not an underhanded deal, but simply the curiosity of why the Black Earl chose to cooperate with the Wise Sovereign.
Unfortunately, the Black Earl seemed disinclined to explain.
The Black Earl’s sudden interjection piqued everyone’s interest, but his immediate silence left them itching to know more but too embarrassed to inquire further. This resulted in a mutually agreed-upon silence once again filling the air.
However, the silence was soon broken.
This time, it wasn’t Dox who broke the silence, but... the Black Earl.
"I think I smell something unusual," Black Earl’s tone carried hesitation.
An unusual smell? Upon hearing the Black Earl’s words, everyone began inhaling deeply, but no one detected any scent.
Dox even used the Sandworm Flavor Seeking Technique but couldn’t detect any scent either.
The Sandworm Flavor Seeking Technique is similar to the Pig Nose Technique and Dog Nose Technique, mainly achieving keen olfactory sense through the transplantation of transcendent organs. Sandworms largely rely on scent to find food, so transplanting their olfactory organs is no worse, perhaps even better, than the Pig Nose Technique or Dog Nose Technique.
Angel hadn’t learned any spell techniques to enhance his sense of smell. Tricks he had, but they weren’t effective; so he directly summoned Speedy, letting it sense scents through the movement of air.
Yet Speedy also detected nothing unusual.
No one could detect a smell, but no one believed the Black Earl was lying. The only explanation was that the scent might be far away, and only the Black Earl’s exceptionally sharp nose could detect it.
"Could it be your crows mouth, and there’s actually a smelly sewer passage ahead?!" Vay turned to Dox.
Dox had just remarked how luckily there was no bad smell before the Black Earl mentioned a scent. What else could this be but a crows mouth?
While Dox was thinking of how to retort, the Black Earl shook his head, "According to my classification of scents, this isn’t an unpleasant smell. For some Witches, it might even be fragrant."
Scents, much like food tastes, are subjective. However, with Witches’ keen sense of smell, generally, what mortals deem fragrant, Witches might not find pleasant.
Moreover, fragrance often originates from pollutants or obscure substances, making Witches even more sensitive to scents.
Generally, what Witches consider as fragrance is typically an aroma crafted by Alchemists. The impurities are eliminated, leaving a unique scent mixed with Shulomon’s flavor.
The Black Earl’s sense of smell is undoubtedly far sharper than that of typical Witches; even he considered it potentially fragrant.
This narrows down the possibilities to a very small range.
"Could that woman have taken action herself?" Dox asked in a low voice.
The woman Dox referred to was undoubtedly Adanis. According to the Wise Sovereign, he had recently begun researching Fragrance Studies, and the previously mentioned beauty-loving Ghosteye Witch—experimental subject No. 6163—was one of his test objects for fragrances.
Studying fragrances serves two purposes for the Wise Sovereign: a supplement to Potionology and to meet Adanis’s needs.
At some unknown point, Adanis developed a deep appreciation for fragrances, so the Wise Sovereign studied various fragrances to provide them to her.
Therefore, upon hearing that the scent was certified by the Black Earl, Dox immediately thought of fragrances, naturally linking them to Adanis.
"Probably not," Angel said hesitantly.
Based on the information from the Wise Sovereign, Adanis had significant weaknesses in reality, so if she wanted to deal with them, she wouldn’t take the initiative to come to the real world.
The Wise Sovereign reminded Angel that Adanis was most likely setting up a trap, intending to lure them unknowingly into the mirror world through schemes.
For others, this might pose a problem, but for a Witch like Angel, who understands the mirror world and can discern the differences between it and reality, falling into such a trap is unlikely.
Although Dox speculated that Adanis might personally target them, Angel personally thought it was improbable. But the scent detected by the Black Earl was indeed undeniable, leaving Angel somewhat uncertain.
"This fragrance isn’t quite like the ones I’ve encountered before," the Black Earl pondered for a moment, "Let’s keep moving forward. It shouldn’t be long before you’ll notice the scent."
Yet, the Black Earl overestimated his companions’ sense of smell... or rather, underestimated just how ridiculously sharp his own was.
They continued walking for nearly five more minutes without detecting any scent. In contrast, the Black Earl’s frown deepened, as the smell had become quite clear to him.
But the clearer the scent, the more perplexed the Black Earl became.
As a nasal Avatar, the types of scents he can distinguish are as numerous as the stars, almost every scent he encountered could be memorized in the "scent library".
In the Black Earl’s scent library, the fragrances he identified are very few, and the basic fragrances come from perfumes concocted by Wizards. Others are unanimously considered unpleasant or bad odors.
But this time, his sense of smell told him that this was a fragrance. However, it was completely different from ordinary perfumes.
It was more like a natural fragrance.
Natural fragrances, though rare, do exist in the Black Earl’s scent library. Some Transcendent plants emit pure and clean scents, which also smell fragrant to the Black Earl.