Chapter 64: Voices

Chapter 64: Voices

After hearing High Priest Nim’s answer, Klein carried the lantern and walked twenty to thirty steps to the right along the grayish-white fog.

Then he half-closed his eyes, as though sensing something. This made the Moon City Beyonders following behind and to the side not dare make a sound, afraid they would disturb the god’s envoy.

After four or five seconds, Klein extended his right hand and slowly grabbed at the air ahead.

A stone altar built from rough rocks fell out of nothingness into reality. Upon it were three candles made from grease, as well as seven or eight types of spiritual materials.

As a Sequence 4 demigod, Nim froze for a moment, seemingly unable to believe his eyes.

When he had seen Gehrman Sparrow take out the cane and treat his companions, he had only believed that the other party possessed a space-related ability, or had received the favor of Mr. Fool. But now, his judgment was completely overturned, because that altar, those candles, and those spiritual materials were all very familiar to him.

They were all things he had once used!

He can actually bring out things I once used? Is this power rooted in history? In time? Nim recalled the few remaining ancient books in Moon City and combined that knowledge with his own understanding of demigods, forming a preliminary guess.

At that moment, Klein turned back, looked at the High Priest, and said, “You may begin.”

Nim quietly inhaled. Under the gazes of Adal, Xin, Rus, and the others, he walked step by step to the altar and created a wall of spirituality.

After glancing at the symbols, labels, and patterns carved on the altar, and confirming there was no problem, he followed the procedure already engraved in his memory and skillfully conducted the ritual.

At the end, he lowered his head and recited in a deep voice:

“The eternal, unchanging fog;

“The barrier that solidifies space-time;

“The existence that encompasses all…”

Before the prayer had ended, Klein had already focused his attention on the grayish-white fog, hoping to hear voices coming from deep within.

For this, he had the many monster marionettes he secretly controlled, ones moving through the surrounding darkness, scatter outward. Every certain distance, he placed one, striving not to miss any suspicious trace.

But until the ritual ended, he detected no abnormality.

After waiting for a while longer, Klein turned his gaze toward Moon City’s High Priest Nim and said flatly, “Again.”

…

Backlund, Queens Borough, in the Hall family’s study.

After receiving permission, Audrey pushed open the door and walked inside. Her father, Earl Hall, and her elder brother, Hibbert, were discussing something.

“Oh, my dear, you don’t look very well.” Earl Hall turned his gaze toward the doorway.

Audrey did not rely on acting. With genuine effort, she gave a strained smile and said, “The Poverty Relief Foundation has a large shortage of food. I wanted to gather more, so I visited many nobles today, but they all told me they had no extra grain left. Even purchasing it with gold pounds was the same.”

When they said those words, those nobles had been in small parlors or special rooms used for afternoon tea. Before them were high-quality black tea and various exquisite desserts, and from time to time, they asked Audrey to comment on the culinary skill of their household dessert chefs.

Their servants had rosy complexions and light footsteps, making almost no sound to avoid disturbing the honored guest.

“With the current situation…” Earl Hall sighed after hearing that.

Audrey thought for a moment, then said seriously, “Father, I remember our family still has a considerable amount of food. May I buy part of it?”

“Audrey, you have already done too much. There is no need to go this far,” Hibbert Hall said with a slight frown, but Audrey merely looked at her father and did not respond to her brother’s words.

Earl Hall’s expression, which had relaxed somewhat when his daughter arrived, slowly grew solemn again.

“Audrey, the prerequisite for charity is that it must not affect the lives of yourself or your family. This is a principle I hope you will remember.”

Wearing a long dress of gold and white, Audrey first furrowed her brows slightly, then relaxed them. She sincerely said, “Father, the grain our family has stored is enough for everyone in this house to eat for an entire year, perhaps even longer. And in East Chester County, there is still a great deal of grain.”

Because Winter County had not completely fallen, the Feysac army invading through Midsea County had not attacked East Chester County. Meanwhile, at sea, the Feysac, Intis, and Feynapotter fleets were being suppressed by Loen’s ironclad fleets. They could only barely maneuver while protecting maritime supply routes.

Earl Hall looked into his daughter’s emerald eyes for several seconds. Suddenly, he sighed and smiled.

“Audrey, you truly have grown up. You have your own thoughts and admirable persistence.

“But none of us knows how long this war will continue, nor what the final result will be. We must reserve a great deal of food to respond to all that.

“I can accept having two fewer delicious dishes at every meal in order to help those in difficulty. But I do not wish for my table to become like those of the middle class described in the newspapers. That would make us completely lose the dignity of nobility, something every generation of our family has upheld.

“Do you understand what I mean? What I said just now was only an analogy. The essence of the matter is this: I value the survival and future of the family more. I value our identity and status. Only when those are not affected will I display my love and kindness.

“Audrey, perhaps what I am saying is cruel, but you have grown up. It is time you heard it. Everyone is selfish, only to different degrees. In my heart, the entire Hall family is more important than your mother and me, more important than you, more important than Hibbert and Alfred. Outside of those come first faith and close friends, then acquaintances, and last of all, the people across Backlund who need relief.

“If the former categories are not affected, I do not mind helping them. But unfortunately, I must now consider more things.”

At this point, Earl Hall shook his head self-mockingly.

“I am sorry to let you know your father is such a selfish man.”

As Audrey listened attentively to her father, her expression first changed slightly, then settled and vanished. By the end, she showed no additional emotion at all.

After a moment of silence, she asked again, “…But we have already obtained far, far more than we ourselves need. Can we not divide even a portion of it?”

Hibbert Hall interjected somewhat angrily, “Why should we divide things we worked hard to obtain and give them to others?

“This is produced by our lands, pastures, and forests. This is what we purchased with gold pounds. And our money and assets are things inherited by the family, things Father earned through precise judgment and great boldness, things accumulated generation after generation.

“We do charity and help others as an additional display of kindness, not because we are obligated to. Do you understand?”

Earl Hall nodded.

“Hibbert is broadly correct. That is also my view.”

Audrey pressed her lips together and slowly nodded.

“I understand…”

Earl Hall withdrew his gaze and said to Hibbert, “The stored food must be guarded well. If the result of the war truly becomes irreversible, try contacting those Intis fellows and show them our sincerity.

“The battlefield has lasted so long. They have also lost many people. Many fields have been abandoned, and city prices have soared. They will certainly have strong needs for grain, for pastures, and for forests. Combined with my shares in Intis’s Suchit Bank, and partial equity in Bavat Bank and Backlund Bank, it should be enough to buy them over. Heh, at a time like this, only after satisfying demands in this area can kinship be discussed.”

Intis and Loen had frequent marriages. Many nobles were related to one another, especially believers of Steam.

“Father, are you considering surrender?” Hibbert asked in astonishment.

Earl Hall nodded gently and sighed again.

“With the situation as it is, how could I not consider it?

“When that time comes, you will be the new Earl Hall.”

Hibbert’s heart immediately thudded, and he was also rather puzzled.

“Father, what about you?”

Earl Hall answered with a bitter smile, “Your mother and I are both devout believers, and we hold certain positions in the Church. If Loen falls and the Church collapses, and we are still unwilling to step away from the stage, the outcome will not be pleasant.”

At this point, he comforted his eldest son.

“As long as the Hall family remains, as long as the title remains, and as long as the core assets do not suffer major losses, our old age will not be too miserable. After you convert to Steam, remember to prepare a secret prayer room for us at home.”

As the two spoke, Audrey, wearing her gold-and-white dress, stood quietly at the doorway, watching and listening quietly. Her emerald eyes were like gemstones.

…

After attempt after attempt, and once the altar projection vanished, Moon City’s High Priest Nim deliberated and said to Gehrman Sparrow, who carried the strange lantern, “It seems today will not work. We can try again tomorrow. At most, it will not take longer than two months.”

At that moment, Klein’s mind was instead filled with another question:

Could it be that using a historical projection to cut corners is why the ritual cannot succeed?

He deeply reflected on himself and decided to listen to Moon City’s High Priest. He would try again tomorrow, and when the time came, he would certainly have the other party bring real materials.

He was just about to nod when faint, almost nonexistent voices suddenly sounded by his ears.

The voices came from deep within the grayish-white fog, layered upon one another, vague, indistinct, and extraordinarily blurred.

It worked? This ritual really has an effect; the delay is just too high… Joy rose in Klein’s heart. He immediately raised his right hand and pressed it slightly downward, signaling for Moon City’s Beyonders not to speak.

Then he held his breath, restrained his thoughts, and began listening with full concentration.

The voices echoing within the grayish-white fog seemed to come from multiple different people. They wove together, at times interfering with one another and canceling one another out, and at times overlapping to create resonance.

Gradually, those voices became a little clearer in Klein’s ears, especially during moments of resonance.

It seemed to be a language he knew. It seemed to be countless people jointly chanting a name.

That name was:

“Fusheng Xuanhuang Tianzun.”