Chapter 272: What the Hell, That's My Fucking Horse!

After all, things like magic, Familiars, monsters, magic golems, and Magic Arrays were all tangible phenomena that could be seen and touched.

Or rather, they were all concepts that could be physically materialized.

But a divination with a one hundred percent success rate? That was truly too magical to fathom.

"I've got it!"

"You've got it?" the other eleven asked in unison.

As soon as they heard Esmeralda had successfully completed her divination, everyone who had been pretending not to care on the sidelines immediately gathered around, echoing her words like a practiced comedy duo.

"It's on a bald man."

"A bald man?"

"He's wearing leather armor."

"His weapon is a long saber."

"A long saber!"

"His name is Xia Siqing."

"Xia Siqing?"

"His hairline is very high, styled in a side part, and he has a ponytail sticking straight up from the back of his head."

"Wait a minute!!!"

Everyone had been listening attentively to the intelligence regarding the whereabouts of the blood, but the Wheel of Fortune suddenly dropped a line that almost gave them an aneurysm.

Thus, the group immediately called for the Wheel of Fortune to halt.

"Didn't you say he was bald? How does he have a high hairline, a side part, and a skyward ponytail?"

The Star voiced the burning question that had left everyone thoroughly confused.

Under the intense scrutiny of twelve pairs of eyes, the Wheel of Fortune leisurely packed up the Crystal Ball and other items on the table.

Only after finishing did she calmly utter a single word.

"Wig."

"..."

The Wheel of Fortune's deadpan delivery nearly caused the highly focused group of twelve to stumble over in exasperation.

Oh, okay, so that was how they were playing this.

A wig, of all things.

Why the hell would someone living in a magical fantasy world wear a toupee?

"Since we know who has the main prize, should we save that guy for last?"

Lan Qingyou suggested.

"No problem."

Everyone agreed to Lan Qingyou's proposal.

"Which direction are the enemies?"

Lan Qingyou glanced around the room, which had two doors facing each other perfectly, and turned to ask the Empress.

The Empress pointed a finger with a flair reminiscent of a cartoon cat. In an instant, under Frena's astonished gaze, Lan Qingyou kicked into third gear and blasted out of the house like a wisp of smoke.

Seeing this, the rest of the group let out weird battle cries and followed closely behind her.

They looked exactly like a pack of hunters heading out for a hunt, especially with the fierce gleam shining in their eyes.

"Is... is this going to be okay?"

The Lovers, Frena, did not follow them outside. Just like the Empress, Jiang Lan, she was a non-combatant with zero fighting capability.

No... realistically speaking, she wasn't entirely defenseless; otherwise, she would never have managed to escape the relentless pursuit of the 505 Formation.

It was just that, at this moment, she was effectively reduced to zero combat power.

Knowing her limits, she wisely chose not to tag along. Joining the fray would only force the others to protect her, dragging down their overall fighting strength.

"It should be fine. I haven't seen them fight either, but given their levels, taking down the members of the 505 Formation shouldn't be an issue,"

Jiang Lan said with a reassuring smile.

She had a pretty good measure of the people in Tarot Manor. Setting aside everything else, just their combined research achievements alone were more than enough to handle a few enemies. In fact, if all eleven of them swarmed together, taking down an elite dungeon boss would be a walk in the park.

Boom!

The moment Jiang Lan's voice faded, a deafening explosion erupted outside, followed immediately by the ground trembling violently beneath their feet.

"An... earthquake?"

"I don't think so?"

The two women exchanged bewildered glances, completely in the dark about what had just transpired.

Deciding to find out, they hurriedly ran outside to take a look.

Jiang Lan's Shelter was quite ordinary, resembling a simple rowhouse made of several wooden cabins lined up side by side.

Outside the front door of the rowhouse lay the Empress's farm, while the back door led to the area where Lan Qingyou and the others had charged out.

The massive explosion had come precisely from that direction.

However, when the two ran outside, they were astonished to find that everyone who had rushed out earlier—with the sole exception of Lan Qingyou—was standing frozen at the door, expressions of sheer shock plastered across their faces.

Meanwhile, in the distance, a massive mushroom cloud was rising into the sky.

"This..."

Jiang Lan turned her head in utter dismay, asking Chu Yuan, who looked equally dumbfounded.

"Don't look at me. The Tower did that."

"Since when did she have such destructive power?"

Jiang Lan was dumbstruck.

While she knew Lan Qingyou was incredibly formidable, wasn't her true strength supposed to lie in her army of magic golems?

How could a single person's attack resemble a literal nuclear explosion?

"I have no idea. I just saw the Tower fly up into the sky, drop a Stone down, and then this happened."

The Star, Ruan Qingyi, muttered from the side.

"..."

"If we calculate based on gravity and acceleration..."

Justice, Riesling, clamped a cigar between his teeth and furrowed his brow, preparing to say something entirely out of character for his rough-and-tumble image. However, he was abruptly cut off by the Sun, Ingrid, who was standing right beside him.

"Spare us the math. None of us will understand your technical jargon anyway. Put it in terms we can all grasp."

"...It's considerably weaker than an atomic bomb, but vastly more destructive than a conventional explosive. Does that make sense?"

Choked by Ingrid's bluntness, Riesling replied with a sulky tone.

"Loud and clear."

Gu Xiaobei raised her hand, effectively shutting Riesling up.

Just like that, the group stood rooted to the spot. They waited until the dust and smoke finally cleared before they could make out exactly what had happened on the battlefield.

Actually, no. They didn't even need to see it to know the outcome.

How many people could possibly survive in one piece after getting crushed by a Stone plunging from the heavens like a meteor?

"Damn, since when did the Tower get so violent?"

"There's absolutely zero aesthetic appeal to this. It completely lacks her previous elegant composure."

"Hey, it's not like she ever labeled herself as elegant or composed."

"You're missing the point. She totally switched up her style. If I didn't know the Tower's Spirit was so incredibly strong, I'd seriously suspect she got possessed."

"Possessed? Like one of those tropes? Transmigration: Possessing the Origin Witch at the Start?"

"Haha, you've got a funny way with words."

"Huh? Someone is still standing over there!"

The Moon, Shang Chuan, squinted and pointed at a black silhouette emerging from the dissipating dust in the distance, instantly shattering the lighthearted atmosphere.

"You've got to be kidding me, right?"

The joking group snapped their heads around to look, and sure enough, they spotted a dark figure.

"There really is someone there. And judging by the proportions, they don't look like they're just standing."

"Are they on a freaking horseback?"

"What! How arrogant can you be?"

"A skyward ponytail, leather armor, and a long saber. That's him, no mistake! He's the guy from the divination!"

When the dust completely settled and the crowd got a clear view of the shadowy figure's attire and appearance, everyone gasped in astonishment.

But amidst the chorus of gasps, a distinct, entirely different kind of scream rang out.

"Holy crap, that's my fucking horse!!!"

It was the enraged roar of the Lovers, Frena.

Thanks to that singular outburst, she successfully drew every single pair of eyes toward her.

"I used to breed monsters! That specific horse is a first-generation Western-Eyed Long-Eared Steed. It took me half a year to crossbreed it from a Western-Eyed Barbarian and a Long-Eared Motu. Not only does it have a powerful skeletal and muscular build, but it's exceptionally healthy and absolutely gorgeous!"