Chapter 38: The Importance of Thinking

Chapter 38: The Importance of Thinking

When entering the Black Emperor’s mausoleum, Bernadette had vaguely “seen” a black shadow. Yet after leaving her information-flow state and reassembling her body from pure, complex knowledge, she sensed nothing at all. It seemed as though what she had just experienced had been an illusion.

The Queen of Mysteries did not hurry deeper into the mausoleum. She remained where she was and cautiously examined the surrounding situation.

There was no need to use any Mystery Prying ability. Everything here was clearly presented before her eyes.

The interior of the Black Emperor’s mausoleum was completely empty. Aside from the deep-black walls and the central platform, there was nothing.

Upon the platform stood a chair that seemed prepared for a giant. It looked as though it were made of iron as a whole, and its surface was engraved with complex, twisted, strange patterns. The top of its backrest extended upward into the shape of a crown.

At that moment, no figure occupied that heavy, enormous chair. It seemed to be waiting for its emperor to return.

Bernadette had just been about to test taking a step closer to the platform when she suddenly discovered that her body could not move at all. It was as though invisible shackles had firmly bound her in place.

Immediately afterward, pair after pair of illusory, holy white wings naturally unfolded behind her, as if passively resisting something.

The next second, white feathers fell one after another from those angelic wings. In midair, they grew deformed, thin, furry limbs, while the gaps layered between the feathers opened in succession, seemingly becoming countless eyes.

The mutated feathers then let out clear laughter, making giggling sounds echo through the mausoleum.

They had all come alive, becoming miniature “feather people.”

This made Bernadette spontaneously remember some fairy tales her father had told. In those stories, tiny sprites no larger than a thumb often appeared.

The thought flashed through her mind. Then Bernadette felt her right eye begin to itch.

The eyelashes of that eye grew rapidly, becoming one tiny arm after another. They braced against her face, straining as if to pull out the eyeball.

“I saw it! I saw it!” The blood vessels in Bernadette’s right eye bulged, and it spoke on its own in a childish, cheerful voice, as though it had gained its own intelligence and consciousness.

This, too, was a kind of “rebirth.”

Almost at the same time, Bernadette’s left ear abruptly drooped down, covering her ear canal.

“I don’t want to hear! I don’t want to hear!” that ear shouted in a slightly sharp voice.

Had Bernadette not used spirituality to perceive the situation, she would definitely have thought that a little girl had appeared beside her and was covering her ears while stomping and screaming.

Before she was given any chance to catch her breath, the Sage’s Forehead Ornament in the center of her forehead took the initiative to detach from her body and float into midair.

Across the surface of the vertical eye made of individual “diamonds,” countless cold glints flashed in an instant, as though one miniature eye after another had grown there.

And inside every single eye, Bernadette’s figure was reflected.

The Sage’s Forehead Ornament had also gained a certain living characteristic.

Just as this Grade 0 Sealed Artifact was about to awaken and bring some form of influence upon its target, a pale, slender, illusory hand reached out and grasped it.

The Sage’s Forehead Ornament’s living characteristic swiftly faded, as though it had entered the end of its life.

That hand, clearly feminine and carrying an icy paleness, came from behind Bernadette. At some unknown time, a figure with only an upper body had emerged there.

This figure grew from Bernadette’s back. It was mostly transparent, rather illusory.

She wore the same clothing as Bernadette, the same feathered tricorn hat, and her eyes were blue like projections of…