Chapter 187: The Growth of a “Novice”

Chapter 187: The Growth of a “Novice”

Inside a sturdy, lightless room, Derrick Berg, who had been pretending to be unconscious, abruptly rolled over and sprang to his feet.

His Hurricane Axe had already been taken away for inspection, and every pocket in his clothes had been emptied, leaving not a single item behind.

Derrick drew in a breath and calmly swept his gaze around the room.

All at once, two tiny suns lit up within his eyes, allowing every object in the room to enter his vision one by one.

The furnishings here consisted only of a table and two chairs. Apart from that, there was only a stone floor carved with strange patterns.

On the table lay half a used candle. It was standard equipment in every room of the City of Silver, because if darkness lingered too long, monsters truly could appear without warning.

Derrick hesitated no further. He sat down and reached out to pick up that half candle.

Immediately afterward, he pulled and snapped it apart, splitting it into three sections: one section made up three-quarters of the original candle, while the other two shared the remaining quarter.

After Derrick’s adjustments, the wicks of all three pieces were exposed.

Snap!

He rubbed his fingers together, producing a golden flame, and lit the three candles.

The two candles placed at the top represented Mr. Fool. The remaining one symbolized Derrick himself.

After completing these preparations, Derrick did not follow the normal procedure of burning herbal powders or dripping in essential oils. Instead, he leaned back and recited the Fool’s honorific name in a very low voice, swiftly entering a meditative state.

Again and again, he repeated the prayer. It was monotonous and repetitive, as though he were constantly hypnotizing himself.

With the help of meditation, Derrick entered a bizarre state in which his mind slept while his spirituality dispersed outward. He felt both muddled and strangely awake, his spirit continuously drifting upward, higher and higher.

This was precisely “artificial sleepwalking.”

And Derrick, having obtained Mr. Fool’s permission, was able to simplify some of the unnecessary steps.

…

Above the gray fog, inside the towering ancient palace.

The Fool, Klein, was toying with the All-Black Eye when he suddenly saw the crimson star representing Little Sun swell with radiance, condensing into a humanoid phantom. At the same time, a small portion of the mysterious space’s power was pried into motion.

Seeing this, he quietly let out a breath of relief, because it meant Little Sun had already completed the relatively more dangerous preliminary matters. Only the final “wrap-up” remained.

Klein did not delay. He immediately set down the All-Black Eye and picked up the Black Emperor card.

His level and status rose in an instant, causing the power that had been stirred above the gray fog to submit one after another.

Then he grabbed a paper figurine, flicked his wrist, and threw it out—toward the crimson star corresponding to the Sun.

The paper figurine merged with the flowing, waterlike power and rapidly expanded into a colossal angel with twelve pairs—twenty-four in total—of pitch-black wings.

The “angel” passed through the crimson light and overlapped with Little Sun’s phantom.

Then it burned soundlessly, turning to ash in less than a second.

At this point, Klein could no longer influence the situation in the City of Silver. As for whether his “angel substitute” could help Little Sun smoothly pass the questioning and investigation to come, he had no absolute confidence. He could only sigh inwardly.

“Once I’ve done what I should and tried what I could, all that’s left is to wait for fate’s arrangement. I hope it’s a good outcome…”

…

In a haze, Derrick saw an angel descend before him with the momentum of a presence capable of covering the firmament. Its twelve pairs of black wings wrapped around him layer after layer.

He abruptly woke. Before his eyes, three candle flames burned silently.

After sincerely thanking Mr. Fool, Derrick ended the ritual and extinguished the two candles that together had made up only a quarter of the original.

Then he pulled them up and produced a golden, clear flame in his palm.

Drip. Drip. The two candles quickly melted, their “tears” continuously falling—some landing upon the remaining candle’s body, others pooling around it.

Once the wicks had completely burned away, only a single candle remained on the table. It was a little shorter than it had been, but not conspicuously so, as though it had merely burned a little longer.

After dealing with the remaining traces, Derrick extinguished the final dim yellow flame.

He sat upright in silence, staring blankly ahead. For a long time, he made no movement at all.

He worried that the Six-Member Council would not react quickly enough, allowing the members of that exploration team to use the “mushrooms” and “Doom fruits” to contaminate even more residents of the City of Silver.

He feared that the Chief and the others might find other clues elsewhere, rendering his preparations useless.

He hated those outsiders hidden in the depths of the darkness, always carrying such intense malice—Amon among them, and the Fallen Creator among them as well.

He felt guilt because he had avoided that exploration, yet had not warned Dark and the others, allowing them to become corrupted monsters.

He suffered because, with his own hands, he had eliminated a classmate who could be considered a friend.

Although Derrick had not seen Dark’s final fate with his own eyes, he believed that after mutating into such a state, the other party was already equivalent to dead.

Amid complicated, chaotic emotions, Derrick lost track of how long he had waited. At some point, he lit the candle again.

At last, he heard the seal being undone and the door opening.

Turning his head, he saw by the dim candlelight a woman in a black dress walk in. Her hair was tied into a long braid that hung down to her back.

“Madam Aiflor,” Derrick called out instinctively.

Aiflor had delicate features, though a few wrinkles had already appeared at the corners of her eyes. She nodded with a smile in response to Derrick, then sat lightly across from him.

“Is there anything you wish to say?” she asked gently.

Derrick instinctively raised his head and looked over. Suddenly, he discovered that her eyes had at some point turned into pale-golden vertical pupils.

His thoughts instantly grew hazy. Derrick seemed to enter a sleepwalking state.

Aiflor adjusted the candle flame, letting the dim yellow color fall fully upon the young man’s face.

Her pale-golden vertical pupils grew increasingly indifferent, like an emotionless Spectator.

Suddenly, rings of faint radiance appeared within those pale-golden vertical pupils, as if forming a whirlpool, constructing a maze.

Muddled and dazed, Derrick felt himself floating, suspended amid endless darkness and countless vivid colors.

Just then, he abruptly woke, feeling that the sleepwalking state had been cleverly taken over by something else.

He saw the inexplicably wavering dim candle flame. He saw Aiflor seated across from him, her eyes pale-gold and vertical.

From the shadowed corner walked out the gray-haired Chief Elder, Colin Iliad.

After nodding to the Chief, Aiflor asked Derrick softly, “What have you done during this period of time?”

Derrick kept the teachings firmly in mind and maintained the same state as before.

“I don’t know. I’ve been very muddled, like I was dreaming. Only occasionally was I awake…”

As he answered, two complex dark-green symbols appeared in Demon Hunter Colin’s eyes.

Aiflor continued asking, “Do you know that you and Dark Regence came into conflict?”

“I only remember that I was fighting him… I think I saw a man hanging upside down on a cross. I saw a man wearing a pointed soft hat and crystal glasses. Yes, I saw him in the dungeon before… He spoke. He smiled as he spoke…” Derrick narrated the story he had spent a long time fabricating.

Aiflor glanced at the Chief and pressed, “What did he say?”

“I can’t remember clearly. I can only recall a little… He smiled and said, Fallen Creator, True Creator… Shepherd…” Derrick nearly failed to control the excitement within his heart.

He had taken such an enormous risk precisely to tell the Chief the name “Fallen Creator” and the fact that the “Shepherd” was suspicious.

“Fallen Creator… True Creator… That matches the contents of the murals at the bottom of the temple.” Colin nodded gently, frowning as he muttered, “Shepherd…”

“What happened after that?” Aiflor’s voice was unusually gentle.

Derrick answered “muddledly,” “After that, they collided with each other. There was a lot of light—very bright light. Then I woke up and kept coughing…”

The dark-green symbols in Colin’s eyes never faded. He signaled for Aiflor to ask about certain details.

Derrick answered selectively. For matters he had long considered, he followed the script. For anything outside its scope, he pushed it onto Amon, saying that he could not remember.

Finally, Aiflor asked, “Where did that axe of yours come from? Where did your Sun pathway potion formula come from?”

“The axe was bought in the underground market. That person covered his face, so I could only tell that he was male… The Sun pathway potion formula was left behind by my parents. They discovered it during an exploration…” Derrick said without the slightest guilty conscience.

These were long-existing points of doubt. When the Hanged Man had guessed the questions, he had considered them inevitable, so he had made Derrick rehearse again and again how to respond.

Although the underground market in the City of Silver was semi-public, there were likewise people who, for various reasons, tried to conceal their identities. This provided Derrick with the best explanation.

After listening attentively, Aiflor turned her head to Demon Hunter Colin and said, “He is not lying. It is impossible for him to lie. I borrowed the power of the Glory Crown.”

Colin nodded.

“In this state, he also shows no traces of evil, depravity, or corruption.”

Discovering such things was the specialty of Demon Hunters.

And as a high-sequence occupation, the greatest strength of Demon Hunters was that they could conceal their actions and intentions, preventing targets capable of sensing danger in advance from noticing.

Thus, every Demon Hunter was the bane of demons.

After thinking for a while, Colin rose and left the room. He spoke toward the shadow in the corner outside.

“Let Derrick leave later. For now, we will consider him to have no problem.

“But continue monitoring him in secret for some time. If Amon can create two avatars, he might be able to create a third.”

“Yes, Your Excellency Chief,” the shadow replied respectfully.

By the time Derrick “woke,” the interrogation room was already empty. Only a message was left behind, saying that he could leave freely.

He quietly let out a breath of relief and walked outside, while his mind replayed Mr. Hanged Man’s warning:

“You cannot relax just because of this. You cannot become careless. The secret observation will definitely continue for some time. Otherwise, your Chief would be unqualified!”

Mm. I can’t recite Mr. Fool’s honorific name for the next while… Derrick muttered soundlessly as he followed the spiral staircase downward.

As he walked, he suddenly saw a familiar figure. It was Elder Lovia the Shepherd, wearing a black robe patterned in purple, her appearance beautiful and dignified.

Lovia’s pale-gray eyes swept over Derrick, and a gentle smile appeared on her face.

…

After returning to her own room, Lovia walked expressionlessly to her desk and spread out a sheet of leather paper.

She pinched the index finger of her right hand with her left palm and, with a snap, tore the finger off. Yet no blood dripped at all, as if it had all been drawn to the surface.

Holding the severed finger, Lovia drew a complex symbol upon the paper. It was composed of half an “Eyeless Eye,” which symbolized concealment, and half a “Twisted Line,” which symbolized change.

After carefully examining it, Lovia wrapped the severed finger with the paper, placed it into her mouth, bit down with crisp cracks, and swallowed everything.

On her right hand, now left with only four fingers, flesh and blood suddenly wriggled at the wound, swiftly growing into a new index finger—a slightly pale one.

Lovia lowered her head, looked at her palm, and softly uttered a single word.

“Fool?”