Lord of the Mysteries

There was only a single candle that illuminated the room. The atmosphere in the living room was so silent that it was as if everything had frozen.

A few seconds later, the suspected Apothecary finally muttered, “Why don’t you leave an address? That way, I can get something out of your body.”

He looks like he’s cursing me, but he’s actually persuading me otherwise… Klein pretended not to understand and said to Black Snake, “I don’t have any chance of survival if I don’t gamble. There’ll be that sliver of hope if I gamble on it.

“I won’t sit back and wait for death.”

Hearing this, Eye of Wisdom, who was about to say something, shut his mouth because he couldn’t offer any other hope.

“I really admire your character!” Black Snake laughed.

“I also admire you. In the past, I had quite a few friends who had such characters. Now, I visit their tombstones every year and place a bunch of flowers there,” the suspected Apothecary mused in a mocking but actually persuasive manner.

He didn’t care that Black Snake was a better fighter than he was. He said whatever he wanted to.

Mr. Apothecary must have suffered because of his temper… Klein was secretly grateful.

He handed the iron cigarette case containing the Hunter Beyonder characteristic to the attendant who brought it to Eye of Wisdom.

The old gentleman counted out 400 pounds in cash from the suitcase beside him and got the attendant to pass it on to Black Snake.

Black Snake casually took a glance and said, “I believe in Mr. Eye of Wisdom.”

He took out a small wooden box, bent down, and placed it on the ground. He pushed the box so that the object slid to Klein without going through the attendant.

The moment Klein’s fingers touched the surface of the box, he heard faint illusory sounds and immediately felt a strong sense of dizziness.

For him, this wasn’t something he couldn’t handle. It wasn’t even comparable to the illusory voices of Justice and company when they pray to him.

After sitting up straight again, Klein carefully opened the wooden box and saw a “ear” inside!

The ears looked real, except that the skin was dark and there were a few green areas where it had rotted.

“How do I use it?” Klein asked.

Black Snake casually replied, “Grasping it without gloves is the same as using it. Heh, you’d better go home and try it when you’re alone.”

Klein didn’t ask any further questions. He closed the box and put it into his pocket. He deliberately smiled bitterly and said, “This makes me dizzy.”

After a short moment of silence, the suspected Apothecary suddenly shouted, “I want to buy Spring of the Elves marrow crystals, who has it?”

As his voice echoed in the air, no one answered.

The Apothecary smacked his lips and mumbled, “Seriously, there’s no answer every time this is asked.”

“Maybe you could book a cruise to Sonia Island,” Eye of Wisdom quipped.

The Spring of the Elves was also known as the Sonia Golden Springs, and one could tell from its name where it came from. The Spring of the Elves was a commonly seen liquid and was an object with rich spirituality. However, the marrow crystals were considered Beyonder ingredients and not easily purchasable.

After that, there were a few failed transactions at the gathering. Eye of Wisdom clapped his hands and said, “Let’s end it here today. According to the convention, we leave one by one, each separated by three minutes.”

Leaving one by one… Each separated by three minutes… This is to prevent the Gathering members from being tailed and robbed? When Klein received the signal from Eye of Wisdom, he stood up and, guided by the attendant, left the activity room, and went to the door.

He took off his hooded robe and handed it back to the attendant before following the path in his memories back to the back door of the Bravehearts Bar. He then removed his iron mask and walked through the kitchen to see Kaspars standing outside the card room, over the barking of dogs and clamoring of people.

“I’m delighted that you could come back.” The red-nosed elder heaved a sigh of relief, the nasty wounds on his face seemingly trembling.

Klein leaned over and said in a low voice, “Are there such gatherings in the future?”

“It seems like you didn’t get what you wanted. Holy Lord of Storms, I don’t think you should continue wasting your time.” Kaspars scanned this customer he felt worried for. “Maybe it’ll take a few days. I don’t know the details. Let’s see if you can make it in time.”

Klein nodded and asked, “Is Maric here?”

“You’re still trying to convince him? No, it will only anger him!” Kaspars warned him in a deep voice. “He’s in the card room behind you.”

No, I’m not going to convince him. I’m trying to stay as far away from him as possible so that his zombies won’t go into mutiny… Klein touched Azik’s copper whistle in his pocket.

“I understand.”

He left the Bravehearts Bar at once, went to the one-bedroom apartment in East Borough to relieve himself before returning to Minsk Street.

Inside the card room, Maric had gone all-in and confidently flipped open his cards.

He had three Kings and a pair of Nines, and the zombie opposite him had a pair of Sixes and an Eight.

Suddenly, the zombie took the initiative to reveal its hidden cards, a pair of Sixes!

This round, it won with four Sixes!

The pale Maric sat there blankly and immediately felt all the surrounding zombies coldly staring at him.

A few minutes later, he staggered out the card room on shaky feet and almost collapsed at the door while his usual entourage of subordinates inside the room fell to the ground.

“Don’t let anyone in before dawn,” Maric ordered in a hoarse voice as he looked at the stunned Kaspars.

He took out a white handkerchief and wiped the corner of his mouth. The handkerchief was quickly dyed with a dark blue tint with some redness.

After receiving Kaspars’s acknowledgment, Maric found a chair to sit and asked for a barrel of Southville beer. He stared blankly as he drank.

…

At 15 Minsk Street, Klein followed his usual routine of washing up and returning to his room before he drew the curtains.

After waiting for over ten minutes and confirming that there were no specks of spirituality around, he started to summon himself. He responded to himself and brought the wooden box containing the black ear into the mysterious space above the gray fog.

The illusory crimson stars didn’t twinkle at all as Klein sat at the seat of honor of the long ancient table and opened the wooden box.

This time, he didn’t hear any murmurs or feel dizzy. The boundless gray fog seemed to isolate all external sounds.

Klein let out a sigh of relief. He was now much more confident with his impending attempt and much more confident about his own safety.

With a thought, he blocked his own hearing and performed a few experiments to confirm the effects.

That’s right… Klein nodded in satisfaction, reached out, and grabbed the black ear with signs of rot.

He felt its coldness and slipperiness, but he didn’t hear the voice of the great being that was described by Black Snake.

Completely isolated? This won’t do… It’s impossible to use it alone… Klein muttered to himself, puzzled as he thought of the methods he could use to stimulate an effect.

After a dozen or so seconds, he conjured a pen and paper, intending to emulate the process he used to spy on the Eternal Blazing Sun previously.

That time, I looked directly at the Eternal Blazing Sun through the use of divine blood. This time, I’m only using the remains left behind by a Listener, so it definitely isn’t that dangerous… Klein wrote down a divination statement without any hesitation:

“The origin of this item.”

He took a breath, held the black ear, and leaned back as he recited the divination statement.

After reciting it seven times, his eyes darkened as he entered a deep slumber.

In this blurry, shattered, and gray world, Klein saw a man struggling on the ground. He rolled, screamed, and his eyes bulged out. His body swelled like a balloon, and countless hairs on his body turned black and long.

Soon after, an extremely evil and foul voice rang in Klein’s ears, waking him up instantly.

It was different from the ravings and howling that came from the mysterious space above the gray fog. This sound was more penetrating, more purposeful, and more active!

Klein covered his ears and isolated any fallout, but the same voice echoed in his head.

He saw his vessels and veins bulge out as if they had become thick squirming venomous snakes.

Bang!

His blood vessels burst, and his veins broke off from his body, spreading out into slippery tentacles filled with sinister patterns. The gray fog slightly swayed, making the giant’s palace look like it was about to corrode.

Unlike the incident with the Eternal Blazing Sun, Klein still retained his sanity and didn’t roll over on the ground. He gripped the handrail tightly and endured the pain.

After a few seconds, the slightly swaying gray fog regained its calm, and the evil voice that echoed in Klein’s mind completely died down.

One “tentacle” after another fell to the ground, and his wounds began to rapidly heal.

Interacting with deities is truly a dangerous matter, regardless of the method… Thankfully, I didn’t face the True Creator directly this time. If not, I’ll have remnants of madness and signs of losing control and would affect my body in the real world…Klein weakly leaned back into his chair and silently mocked himself.

This process was within his expectations, and it didn’t go out of his control.

The only thing that surprised him was that the True Creator appeared to be slightly stronger than the Eternal Blazing Sun…

Just as Klein’s thoughts were about to wander off, he saw the black ear in his palm suddenly crumbled, turning into tiny specks of black light.

It has become a pure Beyonder characteristic? Amidst his confusion, he saw through the corner of his eyes that the sinister-patterned tentacles were still twitching on the ground. They were the aspects of madness and loss of control that had been stripped from his body.

These tentacles gradually turned transparent and were about to disappear.

A flash of brilliance came to Klein’s mind. He scattered the tiny black light specks in his palm at those slippery tentacles.

An illusionary black gas rose up and turned into a sky that constantly streaked with lightning. The background was extremely dense and gloomy.

All of this quickly disappeared from Klein’s eyes. On the surface of the iron-black charm on the ground were many symbols, magic labels, sinister patterns, and twisted path numbers.

Klein bent down and picked it up, with the feeling that what was sealed inside were howling maniacs.

With the help of his divination techniques, he was able to barely decipher the use of this charm from its revelation. It was to let the opponent hear a terrifying roar, infecting them with madness. As for the final result, it depended on the target’s ability to resist such attacks. If the target was strong, then they might benefit from it, but the price was becoming a devout believer of the True Creator, and if he was weak, he would collapse on the spot, dying amidst tragic cries.

I’ll call it Language of Foulness… Klein muttered and set an incantation to activate it.