Chapter 192: Comrade Ancient Sun God, Care for a Vodka?

As expected, under a chaotic battle among the angels, the secret mausoleum on this side also collapsed.

Nine mausoleums, not one can be missing. Now George III's apotheosis ceremony has failed. The dream of an eternal emperor of the mortal world, the ambition for hegemony and dominion—all have become useless things, just like these ruins.

Miss Kelaien felt that the spirituality borrowed from the past for the last time was about to run dry.

"Alright, how do we run next?"

This actually needed no thought. Miss Kelaien immediately ran toward the historical gap, intending to flee into the ancient history before the unknown First Epoch.

The historical projections could still hold on for a while. Strange, when did my spirituality become this abundant? Miss Kelaien was somewhat puzzled. Compared to his Sequence 4 self, it was really far too much.

Miss Kelaien was sprinting at full speed within the historical gap when a vortex composed of countless transparent worms suddenly appeared ahead. The vortex extended slippery, transparent tentacles outward in all directions.

Zaratul's true body has been waiting for me here all along?!

Miss Kelaien felt as though he had been mentally prepared for this scene; he wasn't as panicked as he'd imagined. He immediately canceled the historical projections from the outside and took out the Grotesque Travel Notes he had prepared in advance.

A "Diviner" who doesn't prepare a performance isn't a good "Clown."

Those slippery, transparent tentacles patterned with markings lunged at Miss Kelaien, passing through layer upon layer of history to reach Miss Kelaien's location, as if to embrace the fruits of victory.

And at this moment, Miss Kelaien had already smeared a streak of fresh blood onto the Grotesque Travel Notes. With a whoosh, Miss Kelaien vanished from history.

The next moment, Miss Kelaien arrived at the fantasy world within the book—a wondrous realm created by the Dragon of Imagination.

He didn't pause to try resting. He continued to pull a marionette, "Hevin Ramis," from history—a demigod of the Spectator pathway who had gone mad and become his marionette.

Every second counted. Before Zaratul could enter this book, Miss Kelaien manipulated Hevin Ramis, having him use his demigod power to lead Miss Kelaien to the Sea of Collective Subconscious.

It didn't take too long. He passed through the countless lights and shadows within the Sea of Collective Subconscious and entered the Hall of Miracles within the "City of Miracles," Levishid.

His inner thoughts echoed within the city hall, mingled with the sound of his footsteps.

After a moment, Miss Kelaien began trying again and again. After more than twenty failures, he dragged a somewhat dim classical quill pen out from history.

0-008

He would devote himself here to weaving the future's development, writing the story's trajectory, so as to make Zaratul and Amon's reasonable attempts to capture him fail, and best of all, make them fight each other.

Just as Miss Kelaien was about to write, the quill pen in his hand vanished. After a brief moment of confusion, he suddenly discovered a figure sitting on a prayer seat that had appeared at some unknown time.

He looked like a devout believer, wearing a simple white robe, a pale-gold beard covering the lower half of his face, hands clasped together before a silver crucifix pendant on his chest, his expression warm and serene.

The leader of the Twilight Hermit Order, Adam.

"George III's apotheosis failed. Loen and Feysac are now in full-scale war."

"."

"Do you accept such an ending?"

Upon hearing this, Miss Kelaien fell silent, then said with difficulty: "I accept it."

A moment later

"You may go." Along with Adam's plain words, Miss Kelaien was repelled and sent flying backward out of the book, arriving outside of history. Adam had not done things to the absolute extreme.

He looked toward history and saw the Grotesque Travel Notes, wrapped by tentacles, tremble slightly and vanish into thin air.

Miss Kelaien had no time to feel heartache and immediately began a new round of fleeing.

Adam manipulated the Grotesque Travel Notes, his gaze shifting away from the giant dragon on the mural, about to depart from the Sea of Subconscious.

Just then, His eyes moved slightly. The light passing through the stained glass within the hall actually began to converge in one direction, and these rays of light formed a human figure.

The ancient, spacious hall vanished. In its place was a modern hall surrounded by red curtains on all sides. This hall had no dome; looking upward revealed a sky densely packed with dark clouds.

Gradually, the clouds above the hall parted to form a void in the shape of a sickle and hammer. Golden radiance poured down like rain from the void, illuminating the central area of the hall.

A melodious, pleasant sound of a zither arose. Adam looked toward where the sound came from. Feathers of light slowly drifted down, and a man wearing an old-era black-gray military overcoat was playing a piece on a piano, his slender fingers dancing across the black and white keys.

As he played, six wings of light formed from red radiance faintly appeared behind his back.

That piece of music—He had heard it once in the distant past.

"Katyusha"

Adam fell into brief contemplation. He surveyed this hall styled after the Soviet era, swept his gaze over those decorations, and glanced again at the man in the overcoat playing the piece.

He found a seat and sat down, only to discover a book with a red cover placed on the circular long table before the seat. Adam picked up this book and revealed a faint smile, flipping through the pages while quietly listening to the man's performance.

Piece after piece was presented. The final one performed was "The Sacred War."

When the performance ended, the feathers of light gradually faded.

The man in the center of the hall closed the piano lid, took out a classical quill pen from his overcoat pocket, and spoke:

"The pen of Azathoth is about to touch the Grotesque Travel Notes. The Dragon of Imagination will awaken in the form of an Angel King and contend with you over the Chaos Sea."

"Because of the Dragon of Imagination, once the divine war begins, you will have no opportunity to take the potion and advance to Sequence 0."

"Therefore, before the apocalypse arrives, you may not be able to return to your complete state. The Old One is hopeless."

Having said this, he held 0-008 before his eyes and observed it for a moment, revealing a gentle smile, and continued:

"Comrade Ancient Sun God, the Fool asked me to pass along a message to you."

"Do you accept such an ending?"

Adam's gaze lingered for a few seconds on the "96° Life Water" placed on the piano. His warm smile unchanged, he said unhurriedly:

"If this is my fate, I certainly accept it. But I will attempt to resist. On this point, there is no difference between gods and men."

"I know of your existence, but I did not expect that what the Lord of the Mysteries drew in was this kind of variable."

"It seems the Lord of the Mysteries knows things beyond my expectations. The possibility that it comes from himself is not great."

"He modified his own subconscious, forgot some memories. What now dominates the body is a virtual personality."

Adam quickly analyzed the present situation thoroughly and drew conclusions from various details.

Su Lin smiled and placed the quill pen on the piano.

"Care for a bottle?" A historical projection stepped out from the side, holding a plate of Salla white meat, mashed potatoes, and red sausage in his left hand, and a bottle of "Stoli Vodka" in the other.

Adam glanced at these things with slight surprise. They were neither illusory nor things conjured from imagination—they actually existed. The red sausage even still had its outer packaging half peeled off.

"Certainly." He smiled and nodded.

"Would you mind telling me?" Su Lin's historical projection uncorked the bottle and poured the white liquid into a square-mouthed glass: "How many characters have you imagined in Backlund?"

"Not that many, roughly around a hundred." Adam set the glass beneath his nose and gave it a gentle sniff. He did not drink, only showing a touch of nostalgia. Even if one could imagine the very same thing, the meaning was not the same, and the feeling was not the same. "Including that female server."

"That's why I didn't find the Beyonder characteristic left behind by Makaro." Su Lin continued: "But she possessed flesh and blood, which struck me as rather odd."

According to the laws of the indestructibility and conservation of Beyonder characteristics, a Beyonder's life must, upon its end, precipitate out a Beyonder characteristic.

And unlike George III, the waitress under True Sight still possessed flesh and blood — that was the very point that had kept Su Lin from noticing anything amiss at first, until he finally caught it in the end.

"She had long since died, the moment she ingested the Beyonder characteristic I had imagined. But following the Beyonder characteristic she took, I made a few edits to the script of her life."

Adam did not hide it either, candidly laying out everything. Those clear, childlike eyes held no other emotion.

"So the Beyonder materials her ex-boyfriend bought on the black market were materials you imagined." Su Lin let out a laugh. Sellers of fakes care nothing for status — it really does prove that old saying: who says a forgery can't rival the genuine article? So long as you can't tell the difference, it's the genuine article.

Still, the more one thinks about it, the more chilling it gets. Imagined people are one thing — they themselves don't know they're imagined lives — but there will always be some way to spot the anomaly.

The descendants of these people are real lives; no flaw can be detected. But Adam, as he is now, is not yet powerful enough to affect the real descendants born of imagined lives.

By manufacturing low-sequence Beyonder characteristics — or rather, by mixing imagined Beyonder materials into a potion and infusing them into a real human body — and through the three Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics and the Uniqueness of the Spectator pathway, Adam can affect those Beyonders who have ingested the relevant potion.

He has always been there in the streets and alleys of Backlund, even within the military and the Church, quietly watching Miss Kelaien.

"And what is your purpose?" Adam asked Su Lin. Though they were not on familiar terms, the back-and-forth between them carried a decent atmosphere, and both sides quickly arrived at the critical part.

"If I said I noticed your faith wavering a little, so I came to take a look, would you believe me?" Su Lin's historical projection served the two of them another plate of dark bread with a side of pickled cucumbers.

Adam shook his head, picked up a slice of raw pork coated in spices between his fingers and stuffed it into his mouth. Only after chewing and swallowing did he say with a smile:

"But you and I both know this is all the inevitable outcome. Fate has already laid down the foreshadowing."

Su Lin nodded and said: "So, just as Miss Kelaien said, every single one of your actions lands precisely on his bottom line without ever crossing it."

Adam quickly pieced together some key information from the barely perceptible details of Su Lin's words, his gaze and his movements. They still treated the attitude of the Lord of Mysteries as the focal point.

And the Lord of Mysteries did not intend to stop him directly.

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly:

"You share something in common with Amon."

"Let me put it another way — what is the Lord of Mysteries' attitude?"

A little like Amon? In what way?

Su Lin put on a monocle. Under Adam's genial gaze, he pulled a historical projection of Miss Kelaien out of history, then took out a Worm of Spirit left behind by Miss Kelaien and placed it into the projection.

Soon, that historical projection's eyes gained a spark of life. The corner of his mouth curved into a faint smile, but upon seeing the monocle over Su Lin's eye, that smile stiffened for a moment.

He swiftly swept his gaze around the surroundings, and his smile gradually froze.

"One price, six Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts." Miss Kelaien got straight to the point: "With one additional condition — for three months, you may not exchange any information with Amon."

"We will not interfere with your apotheosis ritual in any way. Abandon the resurrection of the Dragon of Imagination."

Adam was silent for a moment, then said: "I can only produce one."

Truly broke — Bernadette has three. Miss Kelaien, for once, allowed himself a smug little thought, but it was only normal; the Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts of the major orthodox Churches were also only around eight.

Bernadette is too rich — no, Roselle is too rich. Next time we meet I should have him provide me some paid services.

Of course, that certainly wouldn't include His cross or that cathedral.

"May I choose that cross?" Su Lin asked Adam, eyes slightly greedy.

"."

Miss Kelaien froze for a beat. You just lead with a royal flush — is that really appropriate?

Adam glanced at the sky and said to Su Lin: "Comrade, aren't you supposed to be a materialist?"

"That doesn't stop me from appraising the several-hundred-meter-tall cross in your hands with a materialist's eye for architecture." Su Lin replied: "My college major was civil engineering."

Miss Kelaien's eyes slowly went wide. What on earth happened while my main body was away? What are these two even talking about?

"Not yet." Adam offered a smile: "I can give it to you later."

He looked at Miss Kelaien and said again: "When do I give you the remaining four?"

A loss! Miss Kelaien thought to himself. This receivable — who knows how long it'll be dragged out. The five Sealed Artifacts he could have gotten his hands on in the short term have become four.

"Hand them to him first." Miss Kelaien gestured at Su Lin beside him. He was afraid Adam might have planted foreshadowing among those Sealed Artifacts, so passing them to Su Lin first was the best choice.

Some Sealed Artifacts even carry contamination from the cosmos — even handing them to Zhongli would carry some danger.

Su Lin? Excessive worry is a disrespect to the cheat-coded bro.

Su Lin clearly hadn't guessed what Miss Kelaien meant; he only wanted to know what effects those Sealed Artifacts had, so he could test them once he got his hands on them.

Before long, this Worm of Spirit of Miss Kelaien's gradually began to lose its sanity. Its mystical connection with the main body had been completely severed.

Looks like the main body has already been caught by Amon. What happens next is no longer my business.

The current main body is dominated by the virtual personality. After the Mind Island was modified, under subconscious suggestion he will ignore the existence of the chat group within his field of vision.

In other words, even if the chat group's notifications read "99+", he can hold himself back from tapping them open — because he simply can't see them!

This is a clever application of psychological stealth.

At the same time, he stripped off the memory seal from after he obtained the chat group, letting Su Lin modify most of the memories — including the memories of Zhongli and the others.

The main body now caught by Amon is pretty much the same as the self described in the original work.

He nodded at Su Lin. The historical projection's eyes returned to their blank, wooden look. A translucent worm dropped out of the historical projection and weakly curled itself into a ball.

Alright, kitty-worm needs its rest.

Su Lin picked up the translucent worm and put it into his bag. The hall gradually faded and vanished, leaving behind only a divine kingdom half night and half dawn. Slowly, that divine kingdom too began to fade.

Su Lin had overlaid his own divine kingdom atop the "Groselle's Travels." Now was the time to lift it.

"See you next time, comrade."

No two updates today. Good night, Makabaka…

End of chapter