In Backlund, the tarot reading in Leonard Mitchell's rented apartment ends, and Leonard returns to the real world.
He hesitated for a moment, then put his legs up on the coffee table and asked in a low voice, "Old man, have you seen the second 'Blasphemy Slab'?"
Immediately in his mind, the slightly aged voice of Palez Zoroaster echoed: "No, it was my great-grandfather who saw the second 'blasphemous tablet.'"
Then he asked, "Who brought this up?"
Leonard didn't answer the question, because at that moment only one thought was echoing in his mind: "There really are two 'Blasphemy Slabs'!"
After a few seconds, Leonard asked with a mixture of curiosity and anticipation, "Old man, do you know the Night's Watch potion recipe?"
"Naive!" Pales chuckled. "According to my great-grandfather, the situation was urgent, and opportunities were limited. The 'Blasphemy Slab' could vanish on its own at any moment, and every intelligent person knows it's best to master one complete extraordinary path first."
Leonard was somewhat surprised: "The 'Desecrating Slate' can teleport away on its own?"
"Of course, items at that level cannot be explained by terms like sealed artifacts or extraordinary items."
Then Leonard asked:
How was the "blasphemous slate" formed?
Palestine took a few seconds to ask in return:
What exactly are the issues discussed at the "pre-holiday meeting"?
Why does this kid always ask questions that are beyond his knowledge every time he comes back from a tarot gathering?
Leonard smiled and didn't continue the discussion. Instead, he asked, "You should know some history about the Quaternary Period, right?"
"The 'Black Emperor' Solomon was once resurrected? And the 'Blood Emperor'—"
"Wait a minute!" Pales said, "Let me guess, is this information released by that Odis Garr again?"
Leonard nodded: "Yes."
After a few seconds of pause, Pales said, "I am increasingly suspicious that the 'Lord of Mysteries' is the one from the Fourth Age."
"You may not know this, but back then, all four emperors were vying to cooperate with him, so I know many of his secrets. Unfortunately, because of the 'Goddess of the Night,' he wouldn't cooperate with the 'Emperor of the Underworld.'"
"For this reason, the 'Morse Ascetic Order' had a conflict with the Byron Empire that lasted for decades."
"Later, he chose to cooperate with 'Night Emperor' and Mr. 'Door,' both of whom benefited greatly."
Leonard was taken aback; he had never heard of such a history.
So he asked, "Who are you talking about?"
After a few seconds of silence, Pales said, "People have forgotten his name, but the knowledge he spread continues to influence the extraordinary world."
He is a "sage"!
In the Joewood district, in the rented house of Hugh Deercha and Fors Wall.
Hugh returned to the real world and came out of his room, just as Fors came out of his room as well.
Xiu breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I never imagined that the things I was investigating had such a big secret behind them."
At this point, she even suspected that her father's death might be related to this secret.
Fors didn't say anything, but went to the kitchen and made two cups of coffee. After giving Hugh one, she said, "To be honest, I don't recommend that you continue investigating."
Because it's too dangerous.
She paused for a moment and then said, "However, since Mr. Gar also seems to be secretly investigating this matter, and he is in Backlund, we can ask him for help immediately if we encounter any danger."
Hugh smiled and said, "That's what I think too."
Fors grinned, because Hugh had said yesterday that he should do this himself if he could.
Just then, the postman's voice rang out from outside: "Miss Deercha, a telegram!"
Hugh immediately put down his coffee and went to the door to sign for it.
Her informants, or members of the "Mysticism Research Society," would only contact her by telegram in extremely urgent situations.
After entering the room with the telegram, Hugh immediately looked at its contents: The Corpse Collector had reappeared on Black Hat Street.
Hugh's expression turned serious: "The 'leader' has another lead on the matter he's investigating."
Although she already knew that the "leader" was named Odis Garr, she still preferred to call him "leader".
The "corpse collectors" refers to the guys who previously collected the bodies of homeless people. Hugh had previously received intelligence that they had suspected the location of those guys' hideout in Matchbox Street.
Hugh went to investigate herself, but somehow she was exposed; the other side had already withdrawn from the area. They even left a taunting message at the scene, saying Hugh was too late.
The "leader" then gave further instructions, saying that they should stop investigating for now, let the other side lower their guard, and that they would definitely reappear after a while.
Just as the "leader" had predicted, their whereabouts were discovered again only a week later.
This time, Hugh did not immediately go to Black Hat Street, but instead wrote a letter to the "leader" and awaited instructions.
Embassy of Rembrandt in Ruhnn.
After Odis returned to the real world, she took out several fine parchment sheets and designed scrolls for the ascension ceremony of the "Little Sun".
Before the first scroll was even designed, I received Hugh's letter.
After thinking it over, he decided to go there himself.
So Odis returned to her room and changed into clothes that were easier to move in.
Then he made a prediction about his actions, but to his surprise, he only saw some blurry figures moving around.
In general, such situations occur either due to highly sophisticated interference or a lack of information, making it impossible to make detailed predictions about future actions.
Odis carefully sensed it with her spiritual senses and determined that it belonged to the latter category, with severely missing information.
This puzzled him. They had found clues about those people, so why was there still a serious lack of information?
He was a little uneasy, so he went to the "Knowledge Wilderness" to do "astrology" to determine that the next action was dangerous, but within an acceptable range. Only then did he use "earth escape" to arrive at Hugh and Fors's rented house.
Hugh and Fors had seen Mr. Gard "emerge" from the floor before, and they were not surprised at all.
Odis asked Hugh, "What exactly is the situation?"
"I'm not entirely sure either," Hugh said. "I just received a telegram, but I didn't ask about it immediately for fear of being discovered again."
Odis hummed in agreement: "Let's go ask together."
Hugh immediately said, "To 'Old Quinn's Bar' on Acorn Street."
Odis nodded, indicating that he understood. He drew the "Staff of Gus," preparing to use his power.
At this point, Fors asked, "Um—can I join your operation?"
She was just curious; what would those people need so many heads for?
Then Fors added, "I don't want any spoils or reward."
She knew very well that with the involvement of "hermits," safety should not be a problem; this was purely to satisfy her curiosity.
Odis did not refuse: "Alright, but you must follow my orders."
Fors immediately replied, "No problem."
So Odis used "Earth Escape" to bring Hugh and Fors to the vicinity of "Old Quinn's Bar". Odis used "Sound Transmission" to see Hugh enter the bar and hear her talking to others.
Hugh could hear Odis speaking outside the bar, and inside the bar, only she could hear it.
When Hugh entered the bar, Fors saw Odis raise his hand, and a cloud of colorful mist appeared in front of them. They then saw Hugh inside the bar and heard the sounds coming from inside.
Fors looked around at both sides of the street like a thief, only to find that no one had noticed them. It was as if the few passersby had not seen the scene unfolding on the street.
She then realized that only she and Mr. Gar could see the scene before her.
Finally, Fors couldn't help but exclaim: This is what a demigod is like!
Such extraordinary ability seemed incredible to her, even somewhat like a miracle.
While Fors was lost in thought, Hugh had already made contact with her informant, a man who looked somewhat haggard and had a full beard.
He briefly explained to Hugh how he discovered the body collectors; last night, one of the informant's friends got drunk and fell asleep on the street.
He was woken up by the police in the middle of the night. As he continued walking home cursing, he noticed several thin men coming towards him.
Because the person was neither a homeless person nor did they seem like a thief or robber, it caught the attention of the informant.
He then quietly followed behind and saw a similar scene that Hugh had seen before: they were holding the head of a homeless man's corpse, muttering something to themselves.
The informant's friend then followed them. The other party was very vigilant and was almost discovered once, but luckily the informant's friend pretended to be an alcoholic—in fact, he was an alcoholic—and managed to get away with it.
He eventually followed them to Black Hat Street and saw them enter a three-story building in the middle of the street. They didn't come out until dawn.
So the informant's friend told Hugh's informant about it, and the informant immediately sent a telegram to Hugh.
Odis said to Hugh, "It's been more than half a day now, and the other side may have already noticed. Alright, we'll investigate the rest ourselves."
Hugh paid the information fee and immediately went outside the bar.
Hugh said with a hint of helplessness, "These idiots have wasted a lot of time."
Odis was well aware of the informants in the eastern district of Backlund; this intelligence likely wasn't discovered by a so-called "friend of an informant."
Rather, this information may have been sold several times before reaching Hugh's informant.
Actually, this is already quite fast.
Odis used the ability of "Reappearance" again and arrived near Black Hat Street.
Odis then used invisibility, as well as magic to conceal his voice and whereabouts.
The three of them then quickly arrived at Black Hat Street. It was rush hour, and the dilapidated street was deserted.
Hugh pointed to the three-story building in the middle of the street: "That's it."
Odis opened his "Eye of Secrets" and indeed saw unusual fluctuations in the spiritual energy surrounding the house.
Then he made a prediction, and this time Odis saw a vivid scene: an iron frame connected by several thick black wires, with some rectangular equipment on top of the frame.
Odis paused for a moment: Isn't this a base station? The kind of base station used for network signals and cell phone signals!
This puzzled him; how could he be seeing images from the Common Era?
However, he quickly realized that this must be a symbolic image, and what he was about to face might be beyond his comprehension, which was why his prophecy showed such an image.
This made Odis even more interested in the upcoming actions, and he guessed that it was related to the "Hidden Sage's" previous arrangements.
But he doesn't know what the whole setup of the "Hidden Sage" is like.
However, Odis had a premonition that he would gain something from this operation.
When Odis last encountered the "intelligent agent," he used his research on that "mutated cable" to improve the control system of the "extraordinary puppet."
I wonder what surprise the "Hidden Sage" has prepared for Odis this time?
Lost in thought, Odis drew the "Staff of Gus" and said to Hugh and Fors, "Let's go."
The three of them entered Black Hat Street together, and suddenly the few pedestrians on the street paused for a moment.
One of the homeless men closest to them, rummaging through trash cans for food, looked at Odis and the others and said, "You can't escape that fate."
Odis was taken aback. He noticed that the other person's gaze was not directed at them, meaning that the other person had not actually seen them, but had obviously sensed them through some method.
So Odis simply stopped using the "silencing" magic and instead asked, "What fate?"
"Your destiny of merging," the homeless man smiled. "Ever since you came into this world, you have been destined to merge with the 'Hidden Sage.'"
Odis asked, "Why?"
The homeless man said, "Because you are him, and he is you."
Hugh and Fors were both stunned and looked at Odis together. Was there some unknown relationship between the "Hermit" and the "Hidden Sage"?
Odis was taken aback for a moment, but then he smiled and said, "You don't need to be so mysterious, because I know very well that I am who I am and he is who he is!"
Odis was certain of this; he had never felt any connection between himself and the "Hidden Sage," therefore he concluded that...
The other side is playing psychological warfare.
Then he laughed and said, "Let me guess, were you caught off guard again this time? And that's how I found out?"
The homeless man paused for a moment before saying, "The misfortune of 'night' is harder to escape than I imagined."
Odis smiled slightly, convinced that the other party was just being deliberately mysterious.
He continued forward, first using a spell to block the spiritual impact, and a small halo appeared above the heads of Odis, Hugh, and Fors.
This is to avoid being bombarded with "junk information" like last time.
However, a "side effect" of this witchcraft is that it reduces spiritual perception, making Odis's premonitions less sensitive.
However, the basic perception of danger remains unaffected.
Walking briskly toward the dilapidated building, Odis's "Gus Staff" shone with a dazzling light, which flew directly into the sky and scattered like fireworks.
What has been dispersed are actually solid "Garr runes" that shimmer with an illusory light.
They quickly arranged themselves in a certain order, and a large magic circle covering three streets was instantly formed.
This magic circle was developed by Odis over a period of time specifically to deal with "intelligent entities," and it can effectively prevent that "intelligent entity" from escaping again.
When he was still a "mystic," setting up this magic circle would have taken some time. But at Sequence 3, Odis could use his spirituality to quickly set up the circle and maintain it for a long time.
Because the power of this magic array originates from the "Wilderness of Knowledge," this makes the magic array's level extremely high.
After completing the formation, Odis passed the vagrant who had spoken earlier and summoned an "invisible servant" to scout ahead.
These preparations did not affect his speed; the three of them had already reached the middle section of Black Hat Street.
Just as they approached the building, Odis suddenly sensed: "Something's wrong with the spiritual energy around us."
Not only were the spiritual fluctuations wrong, but the images transmitted back by the "invisible servants" who had already entered the room were also incorrect.
The "invisible servant" saw a vast wilderness in the room, but the wilderness was somewhat distorted. One moment it was sunny, with the wind blowing through the grass and wildflowers everywhere. The next moment it turned into a dimly lit wasteland with strangely shaped rocks.
Hugh and Fors were taken aback; they didn't sense anything was wrong.
Odis stopped and said to the two ladies, "You shouldn't go in."
Although his intuition wasn't as sharp now, he could still sense that the building was extremely dangerous.
Hugh and Fors were somewhat disappointed, but they still obeyed Odis's orders and waited on the street outside.
Odis did not enter through the main entrance, but suddenly flew up and arrived on the second floor.
The situation on the second floor seemed normal; Odis saw normal corridors and normal rooms.
Odis checked the sealing artifact she was wearing one last time, then flew into it.
As soon as he flew in, Odis felt dizzy and disoriented. In the blink of an eye, he found himself in a magnificent palace.
Odis immediately opened his "Eye of Secrets," only to see pairs of eyes that were either indifferent or lifeless, and numb faces.
Then those eyes and faces disappeared, and the scene under the gaze of the "Eye of Secrets" was completely replaced by a magnificent palace.
Odis was visibly startled, and carefully observed his surroundings. He was in the hall of the palace, surrounded by delicious food, various drinks, and instruments from a band, along with the conductor's sheet music and baton.
The bright light from the gas lamps shone on the fine marble floor tiles, making the luxurious decor gleam under the light.
But there wasn't a single person, not a single mouse, not a single insect.
Odis stood there motionless, quickly recalling the entire process from when he entered Black Hat Street until now.
His ability to "analyze information" immediately reminded him of the homeless man he had spoken to. The "intelligent entity" seemed to have created a special "spiritual force field" throughout the entire block.
Once you enter this street, you will be affected by the "intelligent entity".
This is somewhat like a wireless signal transmitter; any device that enters the signal range can receive the signal.
Odis and Hugh's brains are like "devices" that can receive signals!
This led Odis into a dreamlike place without her realizing it. Of course, this dream was most likely not a change in the real world, but rather an influence on Odis's thinking.
This made him smile helplessly: he was so focused on preventing the other party from feeding him "junk information" that he hadn't expected them to have this kind of attack pattern.
The key is that this form is hard to guard against. After all, even a demigod's brain is constantly receiving spiritual signals from the spirit world and constantly using spirituality to feed back information to the spirit world.
Moreover, as a demigod, Odis received signals more frequently than Hugh and Fors.
However, breaking this deadlock isn't difficult. After all, Odis is now a "Master of Prophecy," and her spirit and mental form are already extremely powerful.
You can try to "compete in computing power" with the other party and forcefully break the deadlock.
You can also look for flaws in the illusion and launch targeted attacks.
If all else fails, you can use the "Knowledge Wilderness" as a way to get out of here.
However, it's hard to say whether one's consciousness, once separated from the body, will be taken advantage of by an "intelligent entity."
Try exploring this illusion first; you might find a clue to break the deadlock.
So Odis stepped forward, and the moment he did, melodious music began to play, and instantly people appeared in the hall, dancing gracefully and whispering among themselves with wine glasses in hand.
The band played their music earnestly, while waiters moved about among the crowd.
Odis felt as if she had suddenly entered a grand ball.
He suddenly laughed, and as he slowly made his way through the crowd, he said with a smile, "This feeling is quite wonderful."
Leaving the dance floor and arriving at the gate, Odis reached out and pushed it open. Outside was a tranquil courtyard under the night sky, with guards standing watch and patrolling. The stars shone brightly in the sky, and insects chirped in the grass.
Odis walked down the steps and into the courtyard, where he could even feel a cool breeze.
These details make this place incredibly realistic!
Odis couldn't help but frown, somewhat puzzled as to why the "intelligent entity" would place him in such an illusion.
As a demigod, even if the illusion were incredibly realistic, his mind would force him to clearly recognize that this was an illusion!
In other words, he couldn't possibly have sunk into such a place.
In particular, Odis herself disliked social gatherings like balls.
At that moment, the music in the ballroom suddenly stopped. Odis turned around sharply and found that the people in the hall had all become expressionless and their eyes were lifeless.
Each of them had a string hanging from the ceiling above their heads, and since no one was pulling on the string, they remained motionless.
Odis glanced at the ceiling, which was dark and he couldn't see anything there.
So Odis returned to the hall, and when he looked up again, he saw a cold eye.
Eyes in the darkness silently gaze upon those people who are like corpses, and upon Odysseus.
Suddenly, everyone in the hall sprang into action, pulling on their own threads and rushing towards Odis, trying to entangle themselves with them.
Odis's "Staff of Gus" glowed, and clusters of flames ignited from the ground. At the same time, he could confirm that all his own abilities and the abilities of the sealed artifacts were still usable here.
To Odis's surprise, those richly dressed people dodged all the flames with remarkable precision. In fact, to avoid the flames, many of them piled up like a human pyramid, reaching a height of five or six layers.
And so Odis saw this scene before him: richly dressed, noble people stood in layers upon layers on top of the others, coldly watching him.
This scene was both absurd and bizarre.
Odis donned the "Iron-Blooded Gauntlets," summoned fireballs, and bombarded the hall before him.
Surprisingly, those people performed acrobatic feats, completely dodging the fireballs with movements almost impossible for humans. They even used the shockwaves from the exploding fireballs to reach safe positions.
Odis thought to himself: This guy is playing "extreme computing" with me!
However, he still didn't understand what the "intelligent entity" was trying to do. He was also a demigod, and although the actions of these people in front of him were a bit exaggerated, they couldn't possibly harm him.
He suddenly wondered if they were going to trap him here and then do something to his own body.
Could the opponent also be a demigod? At least a Sequence 5, right? Otherwise, even if Odis's physique is one of the weaker demigods, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to injure him even after attacking him for an hour or two.
At this moment, those richly dressed people rushed in from all directions again, still trying to wrap the threads around Odis.
Odis gripped the "Iron Blood Gauntlets" tightly, and walls of fire appeared, forcing them back, just like before, without managing to harm any of them.
Odis looked up at the cold, indifferent eye on the dark ceiling of the room.
Then he unleashed a bolt of lightning at that eye.
The eye dodged aside and unleashed two walls of fire towards Odis!
At this moment, the people around him, dressed in luxurious clothes, unleashed fireballs at Odis.
Oddi immediately realized that the other party was observing his abilities. Any ability he had ever used could be imitated by the other party in this space using powerful computing power.
He immediately came up with a solution. Instead of backing down, he "reproduced" the ability of "Kuafu chasing the sun in a mad dash" and crashed the main hall down.
Just as Odis had predicted, a tall giant, so fast he left a trail of afterimages, rushed out of the hall. This was clearly another instance of the opponent mimicking Odis's abilities.
However, the giant was clearly out of control. After Odis dodged the impact, the giant then crashed into the ordinary people who were throwing fireballs at Odis at an extremely fast speed.
As it turned out, several of them were indeed knocked away by the giant. Odis smiled and said, "You think Kuafu's speed is so easy to control?"
He used this ability to test and found that the opponent's computing power had a limit.
Then just keep testing the other party's limits. Then Odis "re-enacted" the power of the "Banquet of Betrayal".
Before him appeared a young man emitting light, an old man with a long beard, and a middle-aged man whose body was wrapped in lightning, all of whom were devouring the humanoid figures of light and shadow.
The young man and the middle-aged man, who were devouring the light and shadow of humanity, suddenly stopped and turned to look at the richly dressed people, as if glaring at these ants who had discovered their secret.
Immediately afterwards, beams of light and bolts of lightning shot out from their bodies, and the entire space instantly transformed into a clear sky on one side and a dark cloud cover on the other.
The scorching sunlight baked the people, and the eerie lightning bolts fell one after another, bombarding them.
But they seemed to have superpowers; they could always quickly hide behind trees or buildings, avoiding the scorching sun.
It burst into white flames.
And they always managed to dodge the dense lightning, yet no one was injured.
However, Odis's ability to "reappear" was not over yet. He took a deep breath, and the three "Angel Kings" began to change.
The young man's hair turned golden, and the night sky suddenly turned into midday!
The middle-aged man was surrounded by lightning, his feet treading on ocean waves, and his every move seemed to emanate a terrifying power from a natural disaster.
Behind the seemingly unaffected old man, layers of white towers appeared, making his figure appear sacred and extraordinary.
Odis "promoted" these three "Kings of Angels," attempting to transform them into true gods!
It's not that Odis is more powerful than before, but rather that he realized a problem: the current environment should be based on the space of thought or imagination.
Oedis could have easily imagined it and then had the "intelligent entity" use its computing power to realize it for him.
Just as he predicted, the "upgrade" was indeed successful, and three true gods "reappeared".
In an instant, Odis found that all the sounds around him had disappeared, and the people who had been throwing fireballs just moments before seemed to have been put on pause, standing there motionless.
11
Black Hat Street at this time.
After Hugh and Fors saw Mr. Gard go up to the second floor, they stood there motionless.
They wanted to help, but were afraid of holding Mr. Gard back.
So they carefully observed the situation on the second floor, and whenever they sensed danger, they would quickly pray to Mr. Fool for help.
Just then, the doors of the houses on both sides of Black Hat Street seemed to be pushed open at the same time, and one by one, expressionless residents walked out.
They included the old and the young, men and women, but all of them were pale and very thin.
Hugh and Fors were taken aback. They hadn't heard any noise from the room and thought everyone had gone to work. They hadn't expected there to be so many people inside!
At this moment, these people walked towards the two women without saying a word, looking at them coldly, making the two women feel very uncomfortable.
Hugh and Fors knew very well that these people were being controlled in some way, and that if they were freed from that control, they would still be just ordinary people.
So Xiu used his power to intimidate those around him, making them afraid to approach for a moment.
Just then, Hugh and Fors saw a phantom light appear behind Odis on the second floor, followed by a phantom lightning bolt and a bronze eye.
At that moment, it seemed as if everyone around them had received some kind of order, and they all fainted on the ground in unison.