"How did it go?"
"Fairly smoothly. Also, there are indeed traces of a vessel of the Dark Side of the Universe appearing in Fort Saga."
After dealing with Whistlek Bernstein, the Extraordinary of the Loen military, Tang arranged for Angele, the Traveler marionette, to come and record his extraordinary ability to manipulate spirit threads, and to stay by Whistlek Bernstein's side without revealing any abnormalities.
He had toured Fort Saga and indeed found many problems.
After arriving at the meeting point agreed upon with Owen, Tang roughly summarized what he had seen through Euclid's space.
"The atmosphere on the border is already inclined to be heavy. I believe the situation is the same on the Intis and Feysac sides."
"And Sequence Five of the Abyss pathway is called Apostle of Desire," Owen said in a deep voice.
"That's right." Tang nodded, picked up the glass on the table, and looked at the foamy wine inside. "Once you reach Sequence Four, all previous extraordinary abilities will undergo a certain degree of qualitative change."
For example, his Sequence. Once he reached Sequence Four Trickmaster, not to mention the extraordinary ability to manipulate marionettes, after advancing to Sequence Four, the extraordinary powers possessed by a Sequence Seven Magician, the illusions created, could even deceive demigods of the same Sequence.
None of the Extraordinary individuals who stepped into the realm of demigod-human were easy to deal with, especially one supported by the evil god of the Dark Side of the Universe.
There was a Devil marionette of Sequence Four of the Abyss pathway in the Never-Ending Theater. Tang had also gained some understanding of the high-Sequence extraordinary abilities of this pathway before setting off.
Sequence Four of the Abyss pathway, the potion name was Devil.
This was both the devil of the body and the devil of the heart. Inheriting the extraordinary powers of the Sequence Five Apostle of Desire, devils were cold-blooded, cunning, cruel, and sharp. While their physical strength was greatly enhanced, they were more convenient and secretive than Apostles of Desire, able to detonate the enemy's emotions, reduce their thinking ability, destroy rationality, and bring about loss of control through voice, expression, and actions.
And emotions and desires were in abundance in this place.
"Someone is stirring things up. Recently, the friction between Loen, Intis, and Feysac has shown a trend of escalating. The demigod of the Loen military should have also noticed something and is currently not in Fort Saga, probably investigating the cause."
"I'll go out of the city tonight and try to find that Devil."
"Alright, be careful."
In the afternoon, Tang used another Traveler marionette to go to Backlund. He knocked on the doors of the three major churches and threw the already pre-processed举报信, with three layers of divination interference from the System, Euclid's space, and the Never-Ending Theater, into their respective church cathedrals.
After all, these were the three major righteous god churches, backed by true gods. Tang didn't plan to expose himself under the churches' noses for the time being.
Staying in Euclid's space, after confirming that the clergy of the three major churches had received the letters, Tang then left.
'Host, Host, um, there's been a little problem...'
When returning to Fort Saga, Tang heard his System's stammering voice.
"What happened?"
Tang asked casually.
'It's just that, that pole had a bit of a problem.'
Pole? The Sun Scepter?
Tang frowned. After he had finished playing with it earlier, he had the System feed the Ocean Singer to the Sun Scepter to enhance the effect of the black sunlight.
Logically, this shouldn't have caused any problems. After all, the System had eaten a portion of the extraordinary characteristics of a Sequence Four Alchemist and could itself be considered a demigod-level extraordinary item. Moreover, the System's Knowledge Wilderness had a very high Sequence. Backed by the Knowledge Wilderness, what problems could arise from just adding the potion of an Ocean Singer?
"Did the sun rise?"
No, he didn't feel anything.
'Well, it's not that serious...'
The System wiggled uncomfortably.
Tang suspected, "System, you wouldn't have done something you shouldn't have, would you?"
'Of course not!'
Tang simply took out the Sun Scepter from his space to see how much trouble his System could cause him.
It wouldn't be that this thing started praising—
'Praise the System, praise the System—'
Tang: ??
Tang's eyes glazed over for a moment, then he looked at the Sun Scepter in his hand in disbelief.
Wait, what did he just hear?
What was this thing praising?
'Praise the System, praise the System, praise the System—'
'Oh dear, it's just too naughty~' The System seized the time to run away with its bucket, afraid that its host would catch it and question it.
Tang listened to the strange praise for a few minutes and spat out a few words, "I was careless."
He could guess that if he stuffed an Ocean Singer into it, this thing might start singing. As for whether it would praise the sun or the Chaos Sea, he would decide how to deal with this magical item depending on the situation.
What he didn't expect was that this thing was praising the System for him?
'Actually, it wasn't called that at first.'
"Did you lick it?"
System: 'Host, you're being so mean.'
Not denying was admitting.
Tang glanced at the pitiful Sun Scepter. The praise wasn't melodious like an Ocean Singer's at all, but more like the timid and shrinking sound under high pressure, like a bullied little wife.
Okay, he could only say, "The circle of your extraordinary items is really messed up."
System: 'Uh, this, uh, this, uh, this.'
Confirming that the fusion was good, Tang checked the remaining uses of the Sun Scepter again.
With the incorporation of an Ocean Singer potion, the previously few remaining uses of the Sun Scepter had increased from single digits to double digits.
"Because it's more stable than before."
The imbalance of the Sun Scepter's extraordinary characteristics was what had caused it to be able to stir up the fluctuations of the Chaos Sea.
Remaining uses before the second 'sun rises', 13 times.
Orkney Highlands, on the banks of the Alexi River.
This place was very close to the Hornaches Mountains. The turbid river flowing down from the Hornaches wound through the silent wilderness, heading towards the distant rugged terrain.
This was an important water source distribution area in the Orkney Highlands. Normally, many animals would stop here to drink water, and the riverbank was lush and verdant, full of vitality everywhere.
But now, the river water was no longer clear, dyed dark red by the corpses lying around. Flies buzzed over the corpses, but dared not approach the river that had become one with the blood.
Some of them wore armor, some were just civilians, there were merchants, and old people and children from who knew where, or perhaps just the natives. Their deaths were gruesome, their bodies deliberately arranged in strange ways, their hollow eyes looking at the sky, their exposed skin covered with ritual symbols, eerie and depraved.
That was a ritual to sacrifice to demons.
(End of this chapter)