Chapter 89: Mental Imprint

Chapter 89: Mental Imprint

Xio remained dazed for more than ten seconds before she remembered to respond. Looking at the man in the golden mask, she nodded.

“Alright. I will pay attention—pay attention to the people Viscount Stratford comes into contact with.”

The man in the golden mask did not seem to notice her brief distraction. He changed the subject and said, “There is one more mission. The Evernight Church’s Red Gloves are investigating matters related to the Numinous Episcopate. If you obtain any relevant intelligence, contact me immediately.”

Xio gave an “mm,” still unable to break free from the emotion stirred up just now.

The man in the golden mask stayed silent for several seconds, then considered his words and said, “Are you interested in directly joining MI9?

“You can continue maintaining your current identity and remain active in the East Borough.”

Xio froze for two seconds. Her mouth opened slightly, but she could not make a decision at once.

The man in the golden mask did not require her to answer immediately. With a smile, he said, “There is no need to rush. Tell me your answer after you truly become an Interrogator.”

With that, he retreated step by step, merging into the shadows at the other end of the alley.

…

That same night, Klein once again woke from a dream.

The mental mark he had arranged in the sewers beneath Böklund Street had been triggered!

Who else is not sleeping in the middle of the night… Hazel is no longer afraid of being possessed by a Wraith?

Klein helplessly sighed, took the iron cigarette case wrapped in a wall of spirituality from beneath his pillow, and walked onto the balcony, where the curtains were tightly shut.

The Wraith Senor swiftly jumped to the surface of a gas streetlamp enclosed by metal bars, then passed through a manhole cover and plunged deep into the sewers.

Before long, through his marionette’s eyes, Klein saw Hazel in a civilian dress.

The young lady was warily heading toward her destination. Her left hand unconsciously lifted to touch the necklace hanging at her chest, one set with seven emerald stones, while her right palm tightly gripped a charm made of gold.

Although the charm had yet to be activated, it gave off a warm sensation like sunlight, along with the freshness of morning dew.

Seeing this, Klein abruptly remembered something he had encountered during his early morning walk:

Hazel had risen early and wandered through her family’s garden!

At that time, was she collecting materials for making a charm in the Sun domain? Morning dew?

Klein made that uncertain guess and found it rather strange, because not only was Hazel semi-illiterate in the field of mysticism and ignorant of much common sense, she was also a believer of the Evernight Goddess.

For a Beyonder like that to pray to the Eternal Blazing Sun would basically receive no response. Even if a special, low-probability event occurred, it should be punishment!

“Because she has not gone to the sewers for excavation and searching for too long, the Beyonder guiding her through dreams has grown anxious. So, through a dream, they performed reverse indoctrination and taught her how to create a charm from the Sun domain? Mm. The corresponding pathway starts with Marauder, and at the high level, Amon is also known as the Blasphemer. Does that mean that once this pathway reaches a certain Sequence, it gains the ability to disguise itself as believers of other deities, bypass safeguards, steal responses, and create all kinds of charms? This does fit their usual performance rather well…”

Through the Wraith Senor’s vision, Klein watched Hazel walk step by step toward the depths of the sewers.

According to his spiritual intuition, although that charm in the Sun domain targeted Wraiths, it was still far from enough to truly threaten a Sequence 5. At most, it could cause a certain amount of damage. After all, Hazel could not obtain materials of too high a level.

However, Klein did not have his Wraith possess her again. He feared startling the Beyonder who was influencing Hazel through dreams. After tomorrow’s Tarot Gathering ended, he should be able to obtain a low-level item from the Marauder pathway and conduct the corresponding investigation. Before that, maintaining “normality” was the best choice.

Of course, the premise was that he felt certain Hazel could not dig out anything major in a mere day or two, and that he had ample time to prepare.

As a Seer, he had many ways to confirm that. The simplest was to go above the gray fog.

Withdrawing his marionette, Klein took four steps counterclockwise and arrived inside the ancient palace supported by stone pillars. There, he manifested pen and paper and wrote the corresponding divination statement:

“Over the next three days, a major incident will happen on Böklund Street.”

Using his citrine pendant, Klein obtained a negative revelation. In other words, within three days, Böklund Street would not suffer any major accidental impact.

As for the possibility that Hazel truly dug out something that affected only him personally and counted as a minor matter for Böklund Street, Klein did not care. If it was a minor matter, it meant it would not interfere with his subsequent plan. He had no firm conviction that he had to stop it.

He had already reminded Hazel through suggestion at the ball. If she had not understood, or if she did not take it seriously, that was her problem. Klein would not carry any psychological burden because of it.

Returning to the real world, he waited nearly forty-five minutes, until Hazel came out and nothing underground changed, before lying back down on the bed and quickly falling asleep through meditation.

…

Monday afternoon, three o’clock sharp.

One crimson beam after another rose on both sides of the bronze long table, appearing before the eyes of the Fool Klein, the Sun Derrick, and the World Gehrman Sparrow.

Justice Audrey was still in a rather good mood. She saluted the figure shrouded in gray fog.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~”

Klein nodded with a smile, responding to this young lady who always made others feel brighter.

At the same time, Audrey’s gaze swept past and discovered that beside Mr. Fool’s hand, there was one more card!

A new Card of Blasphemy? I wonder which pathway it belongs to… I truly hope it is the Spectator pathway…

Audrey’s heart stirred. Then she turned and exchanged greetings with the other members.

Once everything settled, she spoke before the Hermit Cattleya could, looking toward the seat of honor at the mottled long table.

“Honorable Mr. Fool, I have collected three pages of Roselle’s diary.”

These pages had actually been obtained by the Loen Antiquities Collection and Preservation Foundation, but as its founder and principal sponsor, she had very easily gotten an opportunity to copy them.

Audrey felt extremely proud of this, increasingly believing that establishing such a foundation had been a wise decision. Unfortunately, to avoid exposing her identity, she had no way to share this matter with the other members of the Tarot Club.

“Very good.” Klein nodded with a smile, signaling Miss Justice that she could manifest the diary pages.

At that moment, the Hermit Cattleya did not cut in, seemingly having obtained no new Roselle diary pages.

The Queen of Mysteries has not replied to her for the time being? Or has her attention been placed elsewhere?

Thoughtfully, Klein watched Miss Justice reproduce those three diary pages and let them leap into his palm.

With a single glance, the corner of Klein’s mouth nearly twitched, because he had once again encountered Roselle’s familiar hunting-romance records.

Compared with the carefully selected, highly informative diary pages from the Queen of Mysteries, Bernadette, the portions obtained by the other members were often not that important. Their contents leaned more toward Roselle’s daily life. The three pages provided by Miss Justice were exactly such a case. Klein casually flipped through them and discovered that only one entry was worth reading closely. As for the others, they either recorded his affairs with certain young ladies or madams, mocked certain people who relied on status rather than intelligence to survive, or even expressed longing for Demonesses after hearing certain alluring rumors.

Very soon, Klein focused his attention on the most valuable entry:

“…According to some materials obtained from the Church, mental patchworks truly exist.

“After high-Sequence experts die, the Beyonder characteristics they leave behind all retain their own mental imprints. These are very strong and very resilient. Relying on time alone, perhaps even hundreds or thousands of years would not fully erase them.

“When such a Beyonder characteristic combines with surrounding materials and forms a mystical item, it must be used by someone whose mind is sufficiently similar. Otherwise, the negative effects will be unimaginably severe. And when this Beyonder characteristic is preserved and becomes a main ingredient for a potion, the one who consumes it must likewise have a similar spirit body in order to withstand it. Otherwise, failure is highly likely.

“In the field of mysticism, failure to advance often equals losing control or death. Only a very small number of lucky people can be soothed and maintained in a delicate state. However, I hear that certain special sealed artifacts can draw out the unfused Beyonder characteristic, reassemble it, and make the failed advancer equivalent to never having consumed the potion, merely suffering a storm on the mental level. But from my speculation, there should still be some residual genetic mutations. The materials mention that most failed advancers who survived through similar methods develop terminal illnesses within the following five years.

“Therefore, consuming a ‘potion’ similar to one’s own spirit body can effectively lower the difficulty of advancement, but one will also be influenced by the mental imprint left behind within it, unknowingly developing split personalities and other conditions, gradually transforming into a mental patchwork. It is as if that original high-Sequence expert has revived inside them—revived…

“Thinking carefully about it, that really is a little terrifying… However, the Church told me there are two or three methods that can remove the high-Sequence mental imprint inside a Beyonder characteristic. As for what they are, they did not say. It seems not that easy. No wonder the Sauron family likes descendants who resemble their ancestors, calling it talent. Heh, talent. I have to say, I feel a little sorry for Florent.”

Mental patchwork… high-Sequence mental imprint… That sounds a little frightening… So high-Sequence potions also have this kind of problem. Mm, the Church should have ways to resolve it. They lack neither angels nor Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts. They can shatter the Beyonder characteristic and reassemble it, thereby completing purification… Those ancient families are not necessarily the same. They might no longer have angels protecting them. They may hold one or two Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts, but they are not so easy to use. And different Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts should have different effects; they may not necessarily be suited to this kind of matter…

Klein’s thoughts turned. He made the diary in his hand disappear directly, then looked toward Miss Justice and asked with a gentle laugh, “What would you like in exchange?”

Audrey was waiting for potion materials and currently lacked nothing else. Therefore, without question, she prioritized satisfying her curiosity.

“Honorable Mr. Fool, is the new card beside Your hand a Card of Blasphemy? Which one is it?”