Chapter 172: Analysis

Chapter 172: Analysis

An Artisan is suspected to be controlled by a cult or hidden organization, and you are still thinking of asking the Hermit for help? Go straight to the World! Who knows which sea the Future is drifting on at the moment, or how long it would take to get there, while the World can Teleport!

After hearing the Hanged Man’s prayer, Klein’s first instinct was to refute the request in his mind, believing it would delay timing and cause unnecessary losses.

He then calmed down and believed that with Mr. Hanged Man’s prudence, caution, experience, and efficiency, he would not make such a simple mistake. Since the other party believed asking the Hermit for help was better than having the World deal with the problem, there had to be a corresponding reason.

In other words, Mr. Hanged Man judged that the matter was not yet so urgent that immediate action was needed. He even wanted to observe more and find more clues, confirming more details… And since Madam Hermit had proactively proposed helping, that meant she believed her recent area of activity overlapped to a certain extent with Mr. Hanged Man’s. If a problem truly arose, she could rush over as quickly as possible… Or perhaps she also has an ability similar to Teleportation? But that possibility is extremely low…

Klein’s finger lightly tapped the edge of the mottled long table. He felt he should still trust Mr. Hanged Man’s experience.

Of course, another reason was that the other party had not described what exactly he had discovered or what seemed suspicious, leaving Klein unable to infer or divine the truth of the matter.

As his thoughts turned, Klein cast the Hanged Man’s prayer image into the crimson star symbolizing the Hermit.

He was waiting for Admiral of Stars to respond when he suddenly saw the star representing the Sun begin to contract and expand, sending out layers of prayer.

Has the City of Silver’s exploration of the former Chief’s mausoleum produced preliminary results?

Klein made a guess and extended his spirituality over.

As he expected, little Sun described in full everything that had happened after the three elders of the six-member council opened the former Chief’s mausoleum. This included encountering the spirits of dead family members, crossing an illusory black river that hid countless strange creatures, facing the former Chief—whose body had grown white feathers in an incomplete mythical creature form—and the Shepherd Lovia separating a shadow that attempted to pounce toward the illusory thin tubes extending from the former Chief’s body, only for Colin Iliad to use the Fate Stealer charm to temporarily swap his own fate with the former Chief’s, thereby changing the result.

Illusory black thin tubes… Body covered in white feathers stained with pale-yellow grease… This sounds very familiar… Right, aren’t these the main features of some of the images I saw when I divined the abnormality of Azik’s copper whistle? And the reason the former Chief built a mausoleum was because he wanted to switch to the Death pathway’s Sequence 3, Ferryman…

As Klein listened, his mind spun swiftly, placing together everything he could connect and considering what conclusion might be drawn.

Very quickly, he formed a bold guess:

The mutation of the City of Silver’s former Chief was connected, to a certain extent, to the Numinous Episcopate’s artificial Death project!

Although this conclusion sounded unbelievable and very hard to accept—because the City of Silver was located in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, completely isolated from the outside world. Only through a certain connection between the Giant King’s Court and the ruins of the divine battle could one enter and leave. Even the seven gods could not find it or penetrate it with their power. Yet the similarity among many traits, combined with Shepherd Elder Lovia’s behavior during this operation, made Klein, who was sensitive to coincidences, eliminate several other possibilities. He had no choice but to seriously consider that two matters which seemed to have no intersection might perhaps point toward the same thing.

Starting from the images he had seen in divination, and from his experience when summoning the failed product of the artificial Death project—white down growing from the pores on the back of his hand—then verifying them against the experiences of the three elders of the City of Silver’s six-member council, Klein preliminarily suspected that the Numinous Episcopate’s attempt had perhaps already achieved phased success to a certain extent.

Through a series of sacrificial rituals and modifications of their own high-Sequence powerhouses, they were influencing Death’s remains in reverse, causing the more abstract, more illusory, and more representative of divine authority “Uniqueness” to gradually develop a little muddled instinct. They had caused something that had only been a totem, only been a concept, to initially come alive!

Thus, this thing, which still had no intelligence and could not yet be called an “artificial Death,” began assimilating with the entire ritual and, filled with yearning, exerted influence upon lower-Sequence Beyonders of the same pathway.

Once certain conditions were reached, the thing hidden deep in the black fog could extend out illusory black tubes, establish a connection with the target, absorb his power, and transform his body.

And this method perhaps involved the Underworld and certain specialties of Death’s domain, allowing it to bypass the power isolating the Forsaken Land of the Gods and effectively touch the living beings inside!

“So, the shadow separated by Shepherd Elder Lovia came from the True Creator’s bestowal. Its purpose was to follow the illusory black tubes on the former Chief’s body and contaminate Death’s remains in reverse? Perhaps this was how the Mother Tree of Desire replaced the Chained God and seized the corresponding authority in the first place…

“Fortunately, the current Chief of the City of Silver is very clear-headed. He knew beforehand to seek help from the hidden existence behind little Sun and used the Fate Stealer charm to cleverly sabotage the True Creator’s scheme…

“Mm. One of the City of Silver’s two powerful sealed artifacts seems to excel at purification. It restrained the shadow capable of corrupting Death’s remains…

“Heh. It seems this Fool is going to be marked down by the True Creator again. Of course, standing at the front is Amon. After all, that Worm of Time was contributed by Him…”

Through little Sun’s description and his own inferences, Klein vaguely grasped the hidden struggle within the City of Silver’s exploration.

At the same time, he felt he could preliminarily describe the Shepherd Elder’s mental state:

To Lovia, the illusory black thin tubes capable of connecting to the outside world were without question the key for the City of Silver to escape the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Therefore, she was extremely certain about her own actions and showed not the slightest regret. She would only believe that the Chief was the one who had destroyed their hope.

Someone doing bad things is not that frightening. The truly frightening thing is when that person does the wrong thing they believe is right, with the mindset of a martyr…

Klein could not help sighing inwardly.

As for why little Sun knew so clearly about what had happened inside the mausoleum, Klein could think of the reason with his toes. It must have been Chief Colin Iliad telling him in a casual conversational tone.

At that moment, the Sun Derrick had already reached the part where the three elders recovered a strange sealed artifact—the combination of the Beyonder characteristic left behind by the former Chief and his skull.

“The former Chief was on the Giant pathway from Sequence 9 Warrior to Sequence 4 Demon Hunter. The Ferryman potion he consumed corresponded to Sequence 3 of the Death pathway. The Beyonder characteristic formed by mixing the two will definitely be more strange and changeable than one from a single pathway. Add to that the influence exerted by the artificial Death, and the final sealed artifact will absolutely be powerful. Of course, its negative effects are likely just as strong…

“Mm. The illusory black river and various strange creatures described earlier most likely correspond to the Underworld. It resembles the scene I saw in the Berserk Sea and the effect produced by Miss Sharron’s mystical item…”

As Klein casually thought, he heard little Sun end the topic of the exploration and turn to mention a kind of monster called a Shapeshifter.

After the Sun Derrick finished speaking, even Klein himself felt that the Shapeshifter was very likely the Bizarro Bane.

He hurriedly summoned a gold coin from the pile of miscellaneous items and quickly performed a divination, confirming his judgment.

“With little Sun’s current strength, there is no way he can go to that city-state ruin to hunt. I can only wait a little longer, until the Chief once again prays to the Fool, or seeks help through little Sun… In any case, it is not urgent. I still have not found a Spirit World Plunderer…”

Klein nodded almost imperceptibly.

After earnestly requesting that Mr. Fool pass the corresponding information to Mr. World, the Sun Derrick added that he already had enough merit points. Soon, he would be able to exchange for the Sequence 5 vampire Beyonder characteristic and complete the three-way transaction previously settled, so Mr. Moon could prepare himself.

…

Rorsted Archipelago waters, aboard the slowly sailing Future.

After thanking Mr. Fool, Admiral of Stars Cattleya pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose, opened the captain’s cabin window, and shouted to everyone, “Turn course. We are heading to Bayam.”

After giving the order, this pirate admiral slightly curled the corner of her lips, pleased that she finally had the chance to establish long-term contact with an Artisan.

But at that moment, an inexplicable question came to her mind:

If he could easily obtain an Artisan’s help, would Frank Lee—who had been unable to obtain the Sequence 5 potion formula for a long time—try making that Druid Beyonder characteristic into an item, so that he could more quickly advance certain stalled experiments?

That would not be a good thing…

Cattleya subconsciously lifted a hand and pinched her forehead.

…

On the passenger liner, Klein, having finished dealing with matters, focused on enjoying his journey.

Because of the abnormal weather change in the Berserk Sea earlier, the passenger liner he was on chose a farther, more winding, but also safer route. That evening, it docked at a harbor called Harman.

Klein did not leave the ship. He found a seat by the window in the upper-class restaurant and began having dinner.

While waiting for his food, he casually looked out the window, appreciating the local night view.

Suddenly, he discovered a suspicious figure carrying luggage and preparing to board the ship.

The reason Klein considered the man suspicious was that he not only wore a black coat and a tall top hat, hiding the features of his body, but also wrapped a scarf around his face in layer after layer, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed.

And those eyes had been fixed on the ground the entire time, preventing anyone from seeing their exact appearance.