Chapter 430: Bunny Express, Guaranteed Delivery

Reckton narrowed his eyes slightly, then rose from his seat, walked over to Klein, and waved a hand before his eyes, saying:

"Still haven't come back to your senses?"

Klein glanced at Reckton expressionlessly, his voice flat as he said:

"I saw a patch of grayish-white mist. My intuition tells me they are the same thing as the gray mist here."

"The essence of this gray mist is the Fog of History. You also saw a tributary of the River of Eternal Darkness?"

Reckton briefly explained, then curiously asked about what Klein had divined.

"That was the River of Eternal Darkness? Something like the Sefirah Castle?"

"I also sensed the power of slumber at the time. This should belong to the Sleepless pathway grasped by the Goddess of the Night. Is this the fundamental reason for the existence of adjacent pathways? That at a higher level, they belong to the same system?"

Though Klein phrased it as a question, his tone was thoroughly certain.

"That's essentially it." Reckton gave a slight nod.

"And what is the Fog of History?" Having gotten the answer he wanted, Klein turned to asking about the Fog of History.

"Uh—" Reckton pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said:

"I don't really understand it either. This falls under the authority of History. You'll understand once you become a Scholar of Antiquity."

Klein nodded gently, then raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Light instantly rose around them, forming into a floating image in midair — what he had seen in the dream divination.

The image lasted less than half a minute before ending. Klein turned his head to look at Reckton, who had already returned to his seat, and asked curiously:

"Why are you so concerned about this period of history? Is it important?"

Reckton chuckled and said:

"An occultist can draw power from the occult knowledge they have mastered to create magic or sorcery."

As he spoke, he reached forward and dragged out an unreal black river from the void — its source invisible, its destination unknown, as if a segment of river water had been intercepted from thin air.

The river water appeared pitch-black, as though it would devour even light. Anything washed by the river water would irrepressibly march toward its end — even Death itself!

The unreal black river had only appeared for an instant before Reckton made it vanish, because anything involving the River of Eternal Darkness was somewhat taxing even for him as a Sequence 3 demigod when using this mystical reproduction.

"The River of Eternal Darkness!" Klein stood straight up from the high-backed chair, staring in disbelief at where the black river had just appeared. The portion of the palace it had touched already had a massive gap torn into it.

With a slight shift of his thoughts, this section of the palace immediately returned to its original state, as though unchanged since antiquity.

Reckton shook his head and offered a slightly disappointed explanation:

"It was fake — not even a true phantom."

"Otherwise this palace would have vanished just now, vanished completely. Even through the Fog of History, it could not have been restored."

Klein nodded gently, rubbing his temples with some weariness as he said:

"Let's stop here for today. A battle took place not long ago, and my spirituality can barely hold out anymore."

As his words fell, deep crimson light instantly rose around them and vanished just as quickly. The ancient palace above the gray mist fell quiet once more, without a single figure remaining.

Konston City, Intersea County. Inside a three-story red building.

Lawrence drew the curtains of his study shut and began setting up a ritual on the floor to summon a spirit world creature.

After placing candles, essential oils, and other items, he used herbal powder to draw an All-Seeing Eye pattern on the floorboards, then placed the letter he had received the previous night on top of it.

After setting up the ritual, he reached out and gently pinched a candle's wick. A dim yellow flame swiftly leapt up. Repeating the motion to light the other two candles, he dripped two drops of essential oil and hydrosol into the flames. The candle flames instantly flickered, and the fragrance of herbs filled the entire room.

Lawrence took a slight step back and softly chanted in ancient Hermes:

"I;"

"I summon in my name;"

"Spirit that wanders amid illusion, friendly creature that can be communicated with, collaborator of transactions, rabbit-shaped spirit favored by knowledge."

As the incantation was spoken aloud, the dim yellow candle flames instantly took on a layer of brass color. A howling wind swept through the room in an instant, swirling up the herbal powder on the floor and casting it into the brass-colored flames, making the flickering fire instantly surge and expand, twisting in midair into a passage that connected to the spirit world.

As the passage formed, a dull-looking, semi-transparent rabbit emerged from within it. It was wearing a small gray-blue vest, and on the left chest was drawn a rabbit pattern with bright eyes.

Its blank gaze swept around the room, then settled on Lawrence. After studying him carefully for a moment, this Knowledge Rabbit slowly nodded, then reached a paw into its own semi-transparent body and pulled out a grayish-brown parchment and a white quill.

It unfolded the parchment and held it out before Lawrence, its voice as flat as an emotionless phonograph:

"Please confirm and sign."

Lawrence took the parchment from the Knowledge Rabbit with a puzzled expression and found it was a notarized certificate, witnessed by the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. He skimmed through its contents:

"Lawrence Nord purchases Prak Eggers's collected Aberrant Evil Eye at a price of 4,500 gold pounds. Prak Eggers must guarantee the material is genuine and effective.

The transaction is witnessed by the God of Knowledge and Wisdom and executed by the Knowledge Rabbit. As the coordinator of the transaction, the Knowledge Rabbit may receive four percent of the transaction amount as remuneration, borne equally by Lawrence Nord and Prak Eggers at two percent each."

Drawn on the parchment was the sacred emblem of Knowledge and Wisdom, composed of an open book and an All-Seeing Eye. Along the edges of the paper were scattered magical sigils and symbolic signs representing contract and order, interwoven with one another to form a ring of strange patterns.

Lawrence quickly finished reading all the contents of the notarized certificate. Confirming there were no issues, he reached out and took the quill from the Knowledge Rabbit and wrote his name at the bottom of the parchment, beside Prak Eggers's signature.

As he put pen to paper, the notarized certificate in his hand instantly turned a brilliant gold, dazzling as the noonday sun.

This state lasted only an instant before the notarized certificate dissolved into scattered flecks of light. An invisible power simultaneously descended upon Lawrence, the Knowledge Rabbit, and Prak.

After the notarized certificate took effect, the Knowledge Rabbit once again reached into its semi-transparent body and pulled out an iron box about the size of an adult's palm, handing it to Lawrence.

After taking it, Lawrence directly dispelled the Wall of Spirituality sealing the iron box, opened it, and glanced at the material inside.

He then produced a crystal ball he had prepared in advance and performed a simple divination on the material, then smiled and nodded to the Knowledge Rabbit, saying:

"No problems."

The Knowledge Rabbit gave a somewhat dazed and not-quite-proper bow in Lawrence's direction, then turned and ducked back into the spirit world passage opened by the ritual.

As the Knowledge Rabbit turned, Lawrence finally noticed that the back of its small vest also bore several peculiar symbols — the kind of special symbols found in Roselle's diary, arranged neatly in a column of eight characters:

"Bunny Express, guaranteed delivery."

This was the unique script invented by Emperor Roselle! Lawrence was only mildly puzzled; seeing that the other party had already returned to the spirit world, he let the matter drop.

Emperor Roselle held a very high status both in the real world and in the field of occultism. Printing some of the text and symbols he had invented onto certain things was not particularly uncommon.

Lawrence looked at the vanished spirit world passage and the candle flames that had returned to normal, and sighed in a calm voice:

"The materials are finally gathered. The four coordinates, far apart from one another deep within the spirit world, were also set up two days ago. I can finally set about the advancement to Traveler."

"After that comes the secret mage; when that time arrives, I will be able to chant the honored name of my ancestors."

He muttered softly for a while, then gathered the magical ingredients on his hands, quickly restored the room to its original state, and began to prepare the traveler's magic potion.

Soon, a bottle of potion so transparent it seemed almost illusory appeared in his hand; within the potion, faint blue specks drifted, wonderfully tracing out one illusory 'door' symbol after another.

Gazing at the potion in his hand, Laurence felt his spirit almost leaping with joy; even without divination he could be sure his potion was fine, but the habit left from his days as an astrologer made him place his hand once more on the crystal ball beside the table.

Moments later, a flash of brilliant azure light flickered within the clear crystal ball; his divination received a response—the potion was effective!

He let out a long sigh, walked to the chair by the desk and sat down, leaned back against the chairback, closed his eyes to calm himself, and then began to pray as he had done before:

"The Fool not of this age, the Mysterious Ruler above the Grey Mist, the King of Yellow and Black who governs good fortune."

"I pray to you, I pray for your protection."

His prayer was quickly answered as a thick grey mist welled up in his vision, soon filling his entire field of view; within the depths of the mist, a vague figure with a vast, lofty aura leaned there calmly.

Laurence felt the being glance at him, as if casually casting a look, devoid of any emotion or will, yet possessing an unimaginable, indescribable majesty.

Before he could regain his composure, crimson light surged from the grey mist like a tide, condensing in midair into a tall angel clad in armor and bearing twelve pairs of black wings.

The angel flew out of that grey mist and, in an instant, stood before him; its wings layered down behind it, enveloping him and granting him a blessing.

In the span of a single breath, everything around him vanished in an instant—both the thick grey mist and the tall, distant‑aura angel—disappearing as if they had never been.

"No matter how many times I witness this scene, I still feel shocked."

"An angel appears before my eyes so easily; even at the height of the Abraham family's prosperity, its members could never so readily behold those noble angels."

Laurence muttered two sentences, half sigh, half reflection.

He quickly gathered his emotions, adjusted his state to optimal through meditation, and then gulped down the traveler's magic potion in one go.

The moment the potion entered his mouth, his body absorbed it—it never even reached his throat.

Laurence's spirit suddenly grew hazy; he felt himself endlessly rising, his consciousness breaking through the limits of his body to enter the spirit realm.

Five or six minutes later, Laurence, leaning back in his chair, suddenly opened his eyes; brilliant light flashed in his pupils, as if reflecting countless things.

Moments later, the radiance in his eyes gradually faded, the turbulent spirit on his body calmed considerably, even the wrinkles on his face seemed to soften a little, making him appear more energetic and youthful.

His silhouette, leaning on the chair, abruptly turned transparent and vanished, then reappeared on the other side of the room, vanished again, and reappeared once more.

In just a few breaths, his silhouette had appeared once in every room of this three‑story small building.

Finally, his silhouette froze beside the fireplace in the dining room; gazing at the dancing crimson flames within, an illusory book appeared before his eyes and its pages flipped rapidly.

(End of chapter)