Chapter 19: Klein’s Plan

Chapter 19: Klein’s Plan

The flickering crimson light brought a little warmth to Klein’s heart. It gave him the feeling that he was not so alone after all—that there were still people who remembered him.

When those illusory, overlapping prayers had grown clearer, more real, more clamorous, and more chaotic, Klein had already discovered that Sefirah Castle was calling to him. The resonance between them was constantly strengthening.

By the time every member of the Tarot Club had completed their prayer, Klein even vaguely felt that he could enter Sefirah Castle at any moment, that his consciousness was about to manifest there. Yet there had always been a layer of obstruction he could not break through.

That problem was finally resolved after he completely digested the Scholar of Yore potion.

And it was precisely because of this that he had been able to seize the opportunity, returning to Sefirah Castle before Amon broke through the obstruction of Bradell, God of Honor.

“In the short span of two days, every Tarot Club member actually prayed once. Normally, it shouldn’t have been that coincidental… Some of them were reasonable, while others were probably influenced by the Goddess, Will, and others… My luck is sufficient, so naturally there would be good ‘developments’…” After carefully thinking it over, Klein noticed the parts that were not entirely reasonable. But all of them could be explained, and there was no need to care too much.

Slightly adjusting his sitting posture, Klein’s gaze gradually turned deep.

Although from the moment he saw the door of light and the “cocoons,” he had already felt that he might never be able to return “home,” when he truly confirmed this point and discovered that this world was his hometown, he still felt as though hope had been completely shattered, as though dawn had been swallowed by darkness.

“Using ‘The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era’ as an honorific name back then may have been a revelation from spiritual intuition… In the deepest part of my heart, perhaps I had faintly noticed it… Right, I remember that I ‘transmigrated’ while asleep. Why was the me hanging inside the cocoon wearing a T-shirt and casual pants?” Klein frowned slightly and cast his gaze toward the grayish-white fog beneath Sefirah Castle.

While searching for the reason among the light fragments in the fog of history, he also worked hard to recall every detail of that night.

Finally, Klein found the corresponding historical fragment:

Zhou Mingrui, wearing a T-shirt and casual pants, had arranged the Luck Enhancement Ritual before dinner, taken four steps counterclockwise, and recited incantations such as “The Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.”

In Klein’s memory, nothing had happened at the time, but the scene within the historical fragment was not like that!

After Zhou Mingrui completed the four steps and finished the ritual, his entire face turned pale with a swish, and his eyes became much more vacant.

Next, he rather stiffly ate dinner, read, watched shows, and browsed on his phone, as though completing a preset program.

In the end, Zhou Mingrui arrived before the washbasin, looked at his dull-eyed self in the mirror, and woodenly brushed his teeth, washed his face, and went to bed.

During this process, he never changed out of the T-shirt and casual pants he had worn outside. He simply pulled the blanket over himself and closed his eyes.

Before long, intense light and violent shaking ended the corresponding historical fragment.

Klein could not help raising a hand to rub his forehead. He laughed self-mockingly.

“So, after the Luck Enhancement Ritual, there wasn’t any change and everything was normal only according to my own perception. In reality, I had already undergone an abnormal change…”

In the past, Klein would certainly have found the truth of this matter horrifying and frightening in retrospect. But over all this time, he had already suffered far, far too many shocks. Just now, his entire worldview had nearly collapsed. Such a “minor matter” could no longer stir too intense a ripple in him.

However, after discovering this and combining it with the fact that the Emperor’s “transmigration” had resulted from buying a silver plate that carried a mysticism flavor, as well as the fact that inside one transparent cocoon above the door of light, the suspended spirit body had actually still carried a phone, Klein rapidly formed several guesses regarding what had happened back then:

“It should be that the owner of Sefirah Castle influenced reality and transmitted objects such as the Luck Enhancement Ritual, the mysterious silver plate, and the mutated phone. Anyone who obtained them and performed the corresponding actions would, at a certain moment, be pulled above the gray fog and suspended at that door of light…

“This was a random selection. It did not point to any specific target. I also don’t know whether I should call myself lucky or unlucky.

“However, why name it ‘Summary of Secret Qin-Han Esoteric Arts’? Was that made up at random by the human who was influenced, or was it really passed down from the Qin and Han dynasties?

“It’s not impossible. If that prophecy about the stars returning to their positions is real and corresponds to the original Creator, then He has always been sleeping at the core of the earth, since an age more ancient than ancient. And legends say that Sefirah Castle evolved from certain parts of His body… This isn’t a shelter or a life-support capsule…

“That Original One is waiting to awaken and destroy the world on one hand, while persistently and subtly influencing reality and making arrangements such as transmitting rituals on the other. Isn’t that a bit contradictory?

“That prophecy was definitely also made by a human influenced by Him…”

Klein extended his right hand and lightly tapped the edge of the mottled long table, falling into a temporarily unsolvable dilemma.

Very quickly, he remembered a sentence and several matters.

The sentence was:

“All that separates will converge, and all that converges will separate.”

And those matters were:

The ancient Sun God, Amon and Adam’s father, had deliberately separated His own negative personality from Himself.

Beyonders who approached the underground or encountered certain contaminations would gradually produce a brand-new self within their bodies.

After going to the moon, Emperor Roselle’s personality had unconsciously shifted to a certain extent.

The twenty-two Beyonder pathways contained many contradictions with one another, such as Demoness and Hunter.

“Perhaps the Original Creator Himself is a contradictory aggregate and can only alleviate it through sleep…” Klein formed a certain guess, but he had no way to verify it.

He could not even be certain whether the Original One who would awaken when the stars returned to their positions in the prophecy from his “previous life” was the same Creator who, according to the mythological legends of the present era, had split into all things.

This required more clues and more evidence to confirm. It could not rely solely on his own conjectures and imagination.

“I’m not a Visionary.” Klein mocked himself, then cast his gaze upward. There was a nearly gray void above, with grayish-white cloud-like vapors drifting through parts of it. “There are still many, many things that need confirmation. For example, whether the so-called Chernobyl was a shelter transformed by humans before or after the awakening of the Original One. For example, whether the characteristics of the twenty-two Beyonder pathways truly all originate from that Original One. For example, whether the current positions of the stars are normal or abnormal, and whether the apocalypse of 1368 means the stars will once again return to their correct positions. For example, the origin of the first Blasphemy Slate. For example, what exactly exists upon the moon…”

At this point, Klein’s tapping finger suddenly paused. He spoke in a low voice:

“For example, whether the homeland of the elves, the legendary Western Continent, still exists, and why no one can go there…”

What answered Klein’s question was a long silence. He slowly leaned backward, supporting his arms on the armrests.

Several minutes passed. Klein closed his eyes briefly and formed a thought, or perhaps a decision:

After successfully reviving, he planned to remain in the Forsaken Land of the Gods for a period of time and search for answers to some of his questions.

Just as Emperor Roselle had once said, many answers lay in the Forsaken Land of the Gods. The Blasphemer Amon had wandered here for more than a thousand years, exploring history that surpassed the First Epoch.

Furthermore, if one kept walking east within the Forsaken Land of the Gods, perhaps one might reach the legendary Western Continent… Klein cast his gaze beyond the ancient palace, looking toward a distant end he could not see.

For him, staying in the Forsaken Land of the Gods for some time was also a strategy. At the very least, it would draw Amon’s attention, making Him unnecessary to mobilize His avatars in the outside world to search for Gehrman Sparrow in Loen and Backlund. That would bring tremendous danger to the people Klein knew and cared about.

“Fortunately, those Amon avatars that realized I was soft-hearted were already cleared away, and the corresponding information also failed to be passed on because of the existence of concealment… If not for that, Amon might directly use Benson, Melissa, Leonard, Miss Justice, and the others’ lives to threaten me. The result would be unimaginable… Heh, the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck finally showed some use… Whew, even if I wanted to leave the Forsaken Land of the Gods, I currently have no way to do so. That would require forcefully breaking through the place where Dark Angel sleeps…” Klein shook his head and smiled. He felt that even if he could revive next, he would still face crisis after crisis.

An Ancient Scholar being tracked by a King of Angels—no matter how one looked at it, he would not last for long!

Most importantly, the Evernight Goddess was currently still digesting the Uniqueness of the Death pathway. The power She could seep into the Forsaken Land of the Gods was limited. Once Amon, the Angel of Time who held the authority of Error, took proper precautions, repeating what happened today would be almost impossible.

“On one hand, I need to seek other possible aid. After I successfully revive, I’ll try using marionettes to recite the honorific names of the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, to see whether They have any way to descend a portion of Their power into the Forsaken Land of the Gods. They divided and consumed the ancient Sun God back then, so They definitely won’t wish to see Amon obtain Sefirah Castle…

“On the other hand, since the Scholar of Yore potion has been completely digested, I have to consider becoming a Miracle Invoker. As long as I have angelic status and become a complete mythical creature, my situation will be relatively much better. At the very least, when facing Amon’s true body, I won’t be unable to withstand even a single wave of ravings…” Klein decided that once his spirit body recovered, he would use a medium to peer at the terrifying cluster of worms inside the Nation of Evernight on the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range and obtain the corresponding knowledge of Miracle Invoker.

That was most likely the half-Fool of the Antigonus family!

After considering his future arrangements, Klein looked around and responded to the crimson stars one after another:

“Today’s Tarot Gathering will proceed as usual.”

He wanted to see whether Madam Hermit, Mr. Hanged Man, and the others could provide inspiration that would allow him to revive far away from Amon.

Of course, a clever excuse would be necessary, and Klein had already thought of one.

After he completed the responses, the space above the gray fog became exceptionally quiet again. Klein sat in The Fool’s seat, with nowhere to go for the time being.

After a period of silence, he leaned slightly forward and supported his head with his right hand, gazing straight ahead.

On the mottled long table, dishes of delicious food, rich in fragrance and color, and delicate candles appeared one after another. The surrounding high-backed chairs became closer in style to the current age.

Figures manifested one by one. Some were loud-voiced, middle-aged to elderly men whose black hair had already begun to show silver strands. Some were East Asian women with short hair reaching their ears, nearly fifty years old. Some were young people enjoying fine food while playing on their phones. Some were giggling young girls who never stopped joking around…

After them, new figures outlined themselves one after another: Dunn, with his high hairline and deep gray eyes, and Daly, wearing blue eyeshadow and blush…

With smiles on their faces, they gathered above the grayish-white fog around the warm long table where candlelight flickered. They conversed happily, occasionally commenting on the food.

Klein maintained the same expression and posture as before, cheek propped against his hand, silently watching this scene for a long, long time without moving at all.