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"Heh, today's harvest is quite good!"
After a pause, Amon spoke in ancient Feysac, a phrase forcibly translated: "This kind of thing seems to have a specific saying to describe it, called 'the gift of nature'."
"That guy is indeed very interesting, but unfortunately, that Betrayal Dragon is watching too closely, and my avatars cannot frequently appear by his side."
Amon's expression curled into a strange smile, as if he recalled something amusing.
He stood up somewhat lazily, waved his hand gently, and then, as if by magic, produced a palm-sized circular ring made of mercury, inscribed with strange, mystical symbols representing fate and destiny.
"...Predetermined fate, destiny, the ring… it seems someone wants to join the Great Serpent's cat-and-mouse game."
"The Seven Deities are a bit useless. The barrier left by the Primal still exists, yet they can't stop those guys from the Cosmos from infiltrating power into this world."
As he spoke, Amon raised a hand and pinched the monocle over his right eye, and the mercury ring in his right hand instantly vanished.
Then he turned his gaze to the frog corpse at his feet. Time around it seemed to accelerate several times. In the blink of an eye, the swirling, converging gray-white light particles were all absorbed into the frog's corpse.
As the last speck of silvery-white light disappeared, the frog's corpse finally revealed its current appearance:
A dark green frog Puppet, its body covered in strange, distorted tree-like patterns. Its mouth was tightly stitched shut with shiny, silvery metallic wires, and its two hands were pressed firmly over its exaggerated large eyes, as if it were afraid of something and dared not open them to look.
Amon raised an eyebrow slightly, then bent down and picked up the Puppet from the ground.
He casually examined the frog Puppet in his hand for a moment, then chuckled, pulling at the corner of his mouth, and said:
"An interesting thing, very suitable for that game called 'Red Light, Green Light'."
As he spoke, his figure distorted and blurred for a moment. When it became clear again, he had transformed into a black crow flapping its wings and flying towards the window. Its right eye had a distinctive white eye ring.
As the crow left, the light in the room suddenly brightened, as if much of the dust in the air had vanished. The crimson moonlight shone into the room through the glassless window, casting a deep red veil over everything within.
In the central part of the Paz River Valley, on the dead silent river surface, thick shadows surged like water, sweeping the headless knight, now only a rust-covered armor, to the riverbank.
Specks of deep red, greenish-blue, brass, and pale light continuously peeled off the headless knight's armor like layers of rust, gathering into luminous clusters on the surrounding ground.
The next moment, an invisible light, formed by complex knowledge, suddenly emerged, rapidly contracting and re-forming Bernadette's figure.
Bernadette's gaze swept over the headless knight and the clusters of Beyonder characteristic scattered around him, then she directly withdrew her gaze and looked forward.
Shining starlight poured out from the Spirit World Depths, gathering around to construct numerous dark blue gates covered with various Concealment symbols.
A dark blue light flashed, and Leyton and Pulak's figures then appeared here.
"Long time no see, Lady Bernadette!"
"Thank you very much for your help just now."
Leyton chuckled and nodded to Bernadette in greeting, thanking her for her assistance earlier.
"Queen Mystic of the Five Seas? You've already advanced to Angel? Tonight's events will surely attract the attention of the major Churches, and news of your advancement to Angel might spread throughout the Five Seas by tomorrow."
Pulak looked at Bernadette with some surprise. He had not expected that the lady who had acted just now was Queen Mystic of the Five Seas, and she had clearly already advanced to Angel, becoming a true existence at the peak of this world.
"This has no impact. The news of my advancement could not have been concealed for long anyway."
Bernadette responded softly, then turned her head to look at Leyton, her gaze slightly solemn, and said in an exceptionally calm voice:
"I received the letter, and also that 'Demoness' card."
She deliberately emphasized the word "Demoness," staring unblinkingly at Leyton, as if trying to discern if he had intentionally given her that Card of Blasphemy.
The only wheel of fortune card she possessed was the only one of the twenty-two blasphemy cards that had no character image. Before this, she did not know that the face of each Card of Blasphemy was an image of her father in a different disguise. Unexpectedly seeing Emperor Roselle on the Demoness Card made her feel somewhat complex.
After a moment of pause, she continued to speak:
"Originally, I did not intend to come, but not long ago I received some kind of revelation and a prophecy."
"I am very curious why the Hidden Sage would actively influence Beyonders of this pathway. He usually has little presence, except when knowledge pursues people."
"So, did you gain anything?" Leyton tried his best to control his expression, asking in a calm, collected, and slightly curious tone.
Bernadette calmly gazed at Leyton, then shifted her gaze to the Crimson Moon high in the sky, saying leisurely:
"Yes, and no."
"Ever since becoming an Angel, I have always been able to feel the Hidden Sage's changes, those Concealment, subtle changes. When I understood these changes, what I gained was even more confusion."
Her words paused slightly, then she continued:
"Just now, through some subtle changes, I detected some movements in the Astral World. The Seven Deities are far less united than the major Churches portray, and of course, they are not that hostile to each other. They are tolerant and restrained, like a delicate game of chess, maintaining a subtle and fragile balance."
"Tonight's events should be deeply related to you, right? But the subsequent developments clearly exceeded your expectations, especially those things that rushed out of the mutated 'Summoning Gate' at the end."
"What do you know about it?"
As she spoke, Bernadette slightly raised her left hand, a transparent amber shimmering with brilliant points of light quietly floated in her palm. At the center of the amber, gray-black mist continuously flowed. It was like order, yet also like shadow, indescribable and indefinable.
Uncertain Mist?… Upon seeing the object in Bernadette's palm, a name uncontrollably popped into Leyton's mind.
"It feels very similar to the Genie. With the knowledge you've displayed, you should have some understanding of the wishing lamp, even if this knowledge is considered Concealment."
"Perhaps this is the privilege of those favored by 'knowledge'."
Bernadette murmured to herself as if in reflection, but her gaze did not linger on Leyton, as if she didn't care about his reaction; she had already formed her own conjectures about this.
After a brief silence, Leyton curved his lips, ready to answer Bernadette's question, but before he could speak, he heard Bernadette suddenly change the subject:
"You deliberately gave me that Demoness Card, didn't you? Why? Is it related to the Primordial Demoness? Or is it simply… hmm… a mischievous prank?"
"My father used to have this habit too, before he became unfamiliar…"
"You two have many commonalities. Is this his, or rather, your common secret?"
"…" Leyton swallowed the words he was about to say, not knowing what expression to use to face Bernadette's question.
I feel like she's investigated a lot of things recently. I thought she would be eager to find the Original Island where Roselle's last mausoleum is located.
Bernadette withdrew her distant gaze, looking at Leyton with a playful and inquisitive expression, and said:
"You seem to prefer that I find the answers to these questions myself, or wait until the appropriate time to ask him directly?"
"It's more appropriate for him to tell you these things himself. Although I don't mind telling you, if I really did, your old father would probably crawl out of his grave in a fit of rage and beat me up!"
Leyton chuckled, responding in a joking tone, then he turned his gaze to the gray-black mist sealed within the transparent amber in Bernadette's hand.
"Heh." Feeling Leyton's gaze, Bernadette chuckled softly. Around them, cold, indifferent eyes formed from starlight emerged from the air. They were large and small, dense and numerous, forming a brilliant yet eerie sea of stars.
The deep red moonlight instantly dimmed, and the previously gentle cold wind also vanished. Dim, profound mist permeated the surroundings, appearing exceptionally quiet and serene, like a frozen scene.
Leyton gazed around with a solemn expression, realizing that all connections of this space to the Astral World, the Spirit World, and even reality had been severed.
This level of Hiddenness… she must have analyzed High-Sequence Beyonder abilities of the Spectator pathway. He sighed inwardly, then turned his head to look at the object in Bernadette's hand, saying in a deep voice:
"It comes from the Cosmos. It should be the power belonging to the Uncertain Mist, which is the remaining part of the Genie."
"Those streams of light that rushed out of the Summoning Gate should all be powers projected into this world by Outer Deities from the Cosmos. They are different from the existing twenty-two Divine Pathways, so they should be relatively easy to identify."
"My intuition tells me that they haven't been completely intercepted. If possible, please help keep an eye out for unusual powers and events afterwards. If these guys are allowed to run rampant, the destined apocalypse might arrive earlier."
"Understood." Bernadette nodded gently in response.
The brilliant and indifferent eyes around them suddenly retracted. The previously dim deep red moonlight became clear again, and the halted cold wind resumed blowing.
"Are you two done talking?" Pulak looked at Leyton and Bernadette, who had reappeared, and asked with a light chuckle, not at all bothered by having been isolated just moments before.
Leyton turned his head and nodded slightly to Pulak, then looked back at Bernadette, only to see her eyes become extremely deep and vast, clearly losing focus.
Prophecy? An active prophecy? Or did she sense something?
As thoughts flickered, he heard Bernadette's calm voice:
"Change will begin here. Light and shadow will shroud the Northern and Southern continents. This is a transformation of an era, history inscribed in the future!"
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