Chapter 682: The Fugen Dog

Lun Na De originally thought Pa Lie Si would skip or brush off his question, but he didn't expect the other side to actually tell him the "incorrect" god‑ascending ceremony.

After a brief astonishment, he asked with some doubt, "Replace someone else's god‑ascending ceremony? Just thinking about it is strange, evil, and how could that be simple?"

Pa Lie Si let out a chuckle, his tone tinged with sighs and schadenfreude as he said:

"No need to launch a war that sweeps the whole world, no need to challenge a true deity with a non‑god body, and no need to fool time or fate; all that's required is to wait for someone who will shake the throne of gods to appear. Isn't that simple?"

"In a sense, this ceremony that only requires waiting for the right moment is the simplest, yet sometimes it is the hardest because it is so uncontrollable."

"Look at the Xiao Cha La Tu of the Secret Cultivation Society; he spent several hundred years just to ascend to Sequence 1. After finally succeeding, he was easily sealed by the Black Night, and once the influence was removed, the Black Night now uses him as a tool to restrict A Meng."

"If one does not become a true god of Sequence 0, even if they are an angel of Sequence 1, they often can only fall to being a pawn of the gods, helplessly toyed with and schemed against."

As the old man spoke more about these matters, Lun Na De sighed inwardly and, filled with doubt, asked:

"You've been avoiding A Meng all this time, right? How do you know so much?"

Pa Lie Si let out a cold snort, his tone flat, and said, "With my insight and experience, once you grasp some key information, it's easy to make associations and conjectures."

"Did you already forget the sequence called 'Decryptor Scholar' that the little fellow from the Jacob family mentioned? Reconstructing the truth from clues and foreseeing developments is a basic competence of every high‑sequence 'Thief.'"

After a two‑second silence, Pa Lie Si suddenly sighed:

"Sometimes, even I have to admire the Black Night's wisdom and audacity; when it is inconvenient for a deity to intervene directly in reality, it still dares to make so many arrangements and lure so many people to Bei Ke Lan De."

"I wonder how many arrangements and schemes the Hidden Mother has made in secret, and with how many beings she has reached covert agreements."

"What does that mean? What does it mean that it's inconvenient to intervene in reality?" Lun Na De asked, puzzled and eager.

Pa Lie Si's tone suddenly became rather leisurely: "You should pray to your goddess or the Fool for answers, rather than ask a lonely, helpless old man like me."

He paused, then added, "But that may not be a bad thing for your goddess."

Deep in the spirit realm, near where gray‑white mist drifted faintly, several silhouettes silently took shape.

Ke Lai En scanned the surroundings, then fixed his gaze on the gray‑white mist ahead; his intuition told him that this mist and the ones above the gray fog were the same, the same kind of thing. What exactly are these mists? "When you ascend to Ancient Scholar, you'll know the answer."

Lei Ke Dun muttered softly beside Ke Lai En, and, meeting his puzzled stare, chuckled:

"I can easily guess the thoughts that surface in your mind; this is an instinct that appears after ascending to Sage. Having mastered vast knowledge and information, you can't help but build mental models of the people and events you know and simulate various possible developments."

"You can think of it this way: after ascending to Sage, the extraordinary ones on this path become a humanoid, ultra‑precise, high‑intensity computer, constantly calculating and simulating all sorts of information and knowledge."

Ke Lai En nodded, ceased the topic, moved his body forward a bit to get closer to the silently flowing gray‑white mist, took a black iron square metal box from his coat pocket, lifted the spiritual barrier on it, and opened it.

A scent with secret, eerie overtones wafted out.

Moments later, the quietly flowing gray mist ahead stirred; a canine creature, its body cloaked in short black fur, dark‑red flames burning in its eye sockets, and a mouth that stretched to the back of its head, emerged from the mist.

Its body gave an unreal, hazy impression, yet seemed to belong to something concrete, appearing extremely discordant.

A Zi Ke looked at the creature emerging from the gray mist and said calmly, "That is the Fugen Dog. Even in the Fourth Epoch when the gods roamed the earth, they rarely appear in human sight; even when they do, only a few special sequences allow extraordinary beings to successfully capture them." Under the gaze of Lei Ke Dun and the others, the Fugen Dog seemed completely unalert and approached.

It circled Ke Lai En several times, sniffed him, glanced at the flocculent heart of the Mist Demon Wolf placed inside the opened metal box, then turned and left.

"Leaving? I haven't even made a trade request yet," Ke Lai En said, looking puzzled at the Fugen Dog's vanishing silhouette in the gray mist, his mind full of question marks.

He turned his head toward Lei Ke Dun behind him, as if saying, "You didn't say that before!"

About half a minute later, the quietly flowing gray mist changed again; two Fugen Dogs sprinted out of the mist, each missing one eye that had burned dark‑red flame.

"I hadn't said anything yet, and they already understood my need—that's so thoughtful! If all the beings on this path were this considerate, it'd be wonderful."

After a brief inner sigh, Ke Lai En took the two eyes handed over by the Mist Demon Wolf, then handed out the flocculent heart of the Mist Demon Wolf from the iron box, saying, "This is the reward, but there is only one. You may divide it as you wish to decide who becomes the Sequence 3 Ancient Scholar."

The two one‑eyed Fugen Dogs exchanged a glance; in their dark‑red flaming eyes appeared a human‑like excitement. Courteously, they circled Ke Lai En twice, nudged his garment with their heads, and even licked his hand.

Aside from appearance, they truly resembled the puppies I once raised, he thought with a sigh. Ke Lai En gave the flocculent heart of the Mist Demon Wolf to one of the Fugen Dogs, waved his hand at them, indicating they could leave.

The two Fugen Dogs, each missing an eye, swiftly carried the Mist Demon Wolf's flocculent heart back into the gray mist.

When their silhouettes vanished completely, Ke Lai En finally spoke hesitantly:

"Might they fight over that Mist Demon Wolf's flocculent heart, or clash with other Fugen Dogs?"

Lei Ke Dun pondered and said:

"Normally they would, but since they've been tainted with your aura, the other Fugen Dogs will most likely accept this."

Ke Lai En nodded, no longer questioning, placed the pair of eyes contributed by the Fugen Dogs into the iron box and stored them, then sighed lightly:

"My Trick Mage Elixir is just one step away from allowing me to begin ascending to Sequence 3," Ke Lai En said. Lei Ke Dun smiled and replied:

"You can seek out someone who knows A Meng well and has a hostile relationship with him, and place a single‑lens eyepiece before him or it. Of course, don't actually wear it, or you'd truly become A Meng."

"I feel you're subtly mocking Pa Lie Si Soroasde, daring to tease the old man attached to Lun Na De. My secret idol must have made Ke Lai En roll his eyes in his mind; if Mr. A Zi Ke hadn't been there, he would have loudly complained."

Bei Ke Lan De—after obtaining the Fugen Dog's eyes, Ke Lai En returned to the metropolis. He didn't go straight to his own residence; instead, he first went to the place where Lun Na De lived.

He looked up at the hazy sky, let out a long sigh, and whispered to the air beside him, "Give me some secrecy, and if Pa Lie Si truly loses his temper, help you and me to block him."

"Ha, I thought you'd steadfastly refuse, poor old man, always remembered and persecuted by others."

Lei Ke Dun's voice echoed around out of nowhere; he didn't manifest his true body in Bei Ke Lan De, but used secret arts to split off part of his own information, forming a temporary avatar that attached to Ke Lai En, providing the necessary protection per his request.

This was a request Ke Lai En made temporarily after learning that Pa Lie Si had obtained a 'Fate Trojan Horse' and his state had already stabilized at Sequence 2.

(End of chapter)