Chapter - 5922

In the past few days, despite Charlie diligently employing hand seals to gather reiki, he had refrained from provoking the ring.

Now that the situation was more or less resolved, Charlie felt a sense of relief as he prepared to return to Aurous Hill.

Even if the ring were to drain all his reiki, he could easily replenish it with a Cultivation Pill.

In fact, he even envisioned a playful match against the ring, seeing who could accumulate more chips and hold onto the last card.

Maria was fully supportive of Charlie's plan.

She had always believed that, despite Morvel Bazin’s numerous selfish motives and schemes, his request for her father and Morgana to assist the Han people stemmed from genuine sincerity, rather than deceit.

This indicated that the ring likely had other functions besides saving lives in critical situations.

While Charlie intended to travel back to Aurous Hill with Maria, Jack expressed his wish to remain for a while longer.

He told Charlie, "Mr. Wade, I'd like to stay in Northern Europe for a bit and continue training AI. There are some ideas I've been wanting to explore, and now feels like the perfect time for AI to give them a try. If successful, this could be very beneficial for us in the future."

Charlie recognized Jack's recent obsession with AI and nodded, saying, "If Inspector Lee wants to stay, then by all means. But what exactly do you have in mind for AI to achieve?"

Jack replied, "One of my preliminary ideas is to have AI delve deep into face recognition."

Charlie questioned, "Isn't that technology already quite advanced? It seems pretty accurate. Even if someone gains 20 pounds in a month and their mother doesn’t recognize them, face recognition technology can still identify them."

Jack chuckled, "That's true for distinguishing a single person, and it is indeed quite advanced. However, what I aim to do is enable AI to analyze and compare a person's appearance using this face recognition technology, thereby determining how similar individual A and individual B are visually."

"Similarity?" Charlie inquired, intrigued. "What would be the point of that?"

Jack explained, "Essentially, I want AI to examine the facial features of various familial relationships, such as siblings, parents and children, grandparents, and even more distant relatives, then analyze these connections to potentially derive a recognition method. For instance, if I suspect you may be involved in something, I could provide your image to AI, which would search for similar faces in its global database. It would help identify those who resemble you most closely, thereby revealing potential blood relatives. Although it may not be entirely accurate, it could certainly help narrow down many possible suspects."

He added, "Through the transfer of the Right Army Governor's Office to Spain, we currently have quite a few members from that office. We previously asked Miss Decker to help identify members of the Mirren family among them. This means we’ve gathered facial features from hundreds of Mirren family members. If AI can discern the potential genetic traits within those features, it might aid us in locating suspected Mirren family members worldwide."

Charlie was taken aback and remarked, "That sounds like a plausible approach."

Jack continued, "Finding a needle in a haystack is challenging. While we may not design something specifically to extract a needle from the ocean, we could create a large magnet to gather iron objects first and then search for the needle within that. This method simplifies the process compared to direct searching in the water."

"Exactly," Charlie nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Inspector Lee."

……

The following day, a business jet chartered by the Nordic royal family departed from the Norwegian capital, Oslo, heading straight for Aurous Hill, China.

Inside the spacious aircraft, aside from two crew members, only Charlie and Maria occupied the cabin.

While on the plane, Charlie received a text update from Wesley via satellite network.

Currently, several cargo ships carrying Duke Mining’s ex-soldiers, cavalry guards, and their families had successfully navigated the Strait of Gibraltar, which indicated they had completely escaped the Warriors Den's threats.

Given that the Strait of Gibraltar is merely separated from Syria by the Mediterranean Sea—with a flight distance exceeding 3,000 kilometers—they could reach the Dragon Temple's base in Syria within about a week.

Eager for Tara to arrive in Aurous Hill promptly in order to meet Zeba, Charlie asked Maria, "Miss Clark, do you have any means to get Tara into China? I mean, without leaving any entry or exit records, even using a false identity, and ensuring she isn't seen by anyone when entering the country."

Maria contemplated for a moment and replied, "We could have Wesley escort her to Syria first. Given the delicate nature of Dragon Temple's relationships with both the government army and the revolutionary army in Syria, they wouldn’t use official channels to bring anyone in. She could be taught martial arts techniques by the Dragon Temple's soldiers once she arrives. I’ll reach out to Keagan Myers to check if there are any planes recently flying from China to Syria on humanitarian missions. If there are, Tara could return with one of those flights, which would help ensure her entry without leaving any records, so no one sees her."

Charlie commended her: "That's an excellent idea. Please do follow up on that."

Maria then asked Charlie, "Do you feel confident you can neutralize the strange poison affecting Tara and Zeba before it spreads?"

Charlie shook his head, saying, "I currently don't have any leads. Morgana’s cultivation is exponentially more advanced than mine. The poison she left in the bodies of these cultivators resembles a formation that has built up reiki over time, and it obeys her commands alone. I’m unable to dismantle the formation to save their lives."

Maria nodded and cautioned, "Then Young Master, be wary of Zeba. Morgana has likely left a self-destruct formation in her Soul Palace. Given Morgana's ruthless nature, anyone who betrays her is certainly regarded as a thorn in her side, and the poison could trigger the destruction of the formation she established in the Soul Palace, potentially harming everyone around the traitor."

Charlie mused, "That's certainly a possibility."

At this point, he couldn’t help but sigh, adding, "What I find in the 'Apocalyptic Book' doesn’t grant me more power than Morgana. The information in a middle school textbook simply won’t suffice for college or even graduate-level strategies. To overcome Morgana, my best hope lies in uncovering the true potential of the ring."

Maria encouraged him, "Since there is a sign from heaven, and even Aurora can teach the cultivation hand seals to you, I believe you will undoubtedly uncover the true nature of the ring."

Charlie sighed again, "Lately, whenever I have a moment, I've been practicing the hand seals, and the reiki in my body has increased twofold compared to before."

Maria gasped, "Double? That means your current strength and cultivation have improved significantly."

Charlie shook his head, saying, "It’s odd; while I've accumulated reiki bit by bit and can indeed feel the increase, it seems disconnected from me. I haven’t managed to utilize that reiki to enhance my abilities. The reiki spent was all my own, not generated by the hand seals. It feels as if I had one million, and then acquired another million through separate means—however, that extra million feels stagnant, merely visible but not usable. Any expenditure should come from my original million."

Maria posed a question, "What if you use up all the 'one million'? Can the 'one million' then be utilized?"

Charlie replied, "We’ll have to wait until we land to find out. I hadn’t dared to test it casually before."

He then added, "To be honest, I’m apprehensive about being deceived. I genuinely fear that this could be some strange entity I've never encountered before..."