Chapter 891: Night of the Blood Moon, Time of the Lantern-Lighting

Qian Chen looked at the small pocket watch in his hand.

The high-ranking transcendents of the Original Sin Sect had specifically utilized the entire Wisdom Clock relic to craft these keys for this purpose.

The blood-red gemstones, the size of a watch needle tip, were all products of the fusion between the power of the Twelve Hours and Original Sin. They were likely some sort of experimental item from the Original Sin Sect, but in Qian Chen's eyes, they were somewhat beneath notice!

The Original Sin path might be able to accommodate a sliver of the Hours' power.

But Qian Chen knew, after all, that the Hours were these top-tier spirit treasures themselves, representing individual Dao Fruits of the Perfection level. The essence of a Dao Fruit was exclusionary; only a true Great Dao could fully accommodate these mutually conflicting Dao Fruits.

The Original Sin path was merely a branch opened up by the Creation Cauldron within the Creation Dao Fruit. Perhaps it could, by virtue of the Creation Dao Fruit's status, be tainted by a sliver of the Hours' power.

But it was absolutely impossible for it to accommodate them.

Therefore, for storing the spirituality of the Hours on the surface, it was best to use gemstones and symbols representing one of their facets, such as the black pearl for the Corpse, the diamond for the Lantern, and the ruby for the Cup.

"Turn the key to the correct position..."

The pocket watch in Qian Chen's hand was adjusted to 12:10:55—the sacred moment of the Lantern, the Cup, and the Vortex.

He let the pocket watch dangle from his hand, facing the Wisdom Zhong Lou. The swinging watch suddenly began to tick-tock. Within the brief five seconds before the second hand returned to zero, Qian Chen fell backward, his entire body tumbling into his own shadow.

The correct time—12:10:55.

The correct location—where the Wisdom Clock and the moonlight formed a straight line.

The correct direction—falling backward.

This was the method to enter the Tower's Shadow. Gable watched, wide-eyed, as Qian Chen fell into the shadow, sinking into it as if submerging beneath a water surface, leaving behind only an empty black cloak that drifted down.

One key could only allow one person to enter.

Gable had no objections to Qian Chen taking his family's most important secret treasure to sneak into the Original Sin Sect's most important ruins.

Instead, the silver lantern in Elijah's hand trembled uneasily twice.

They were hiding in a house opposite the Wisdom Tower, a place Gable had specifically rented long-term to enter the Tower's Reflection, which had also caused the Gable family's finances to be strained for a long time.

Just then, the shadow they were standing on suddenly turned into liquid. Quinn's face revealed terror, and he sank down all at once.

Elijah almost screamed in fright, following closely behind.

Gable, on the contrary, showed a look of determination and actively sank into it.

By the time their bodies were twisted like noodles into long strips and stuffed into a hole the size of a mouse burrow, winding and turning, they finally rushed out and stood upon the ground.

They all collapsed, retching toward the ground...

Gable was the first to barely lift his head. A tower identical to the Wisdom Zhong Lou stood on a black plain, with ghost fires and white afterimages drifting around it. Qian Chen stood before them, looking back at them.

"This is the intersection of the Spirit Realm, the Abyss, and the present world, the place where wandering souls linger, the boundary between life and death—what occultism calls the Crossroads!"

Elijah was slightly startled and immediately said, "I know some Gypsy witches take mandrake wine at crossroads to walk here in hallucinations, and I also know that Voodoo seems to worship a deity symbolizing this place, whom they call Maman Brigitte."

Qian Chen gazed at the violently distorted clock face of the clock tower before him; it looked like a Picasso painting, mixed with Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and a touch of the Spirit Realm's wild distortion.

That was the Tower's Reflection distorted by the powers of the True Realm and the Spirit Realm. During the Original Sin Sect's heyday, this was the place where the Spirit Realm and the True Realm overlapped. They walked into it, their spirituality walking in a tower in the Spirit Realm, while their bodies, having drunk the blood of Original Sin, walked in the True Realm, kept as one by the Balancer.

The Balancer was the Original Sin Sect's research into the overlap and unity of the Spirit Realm and the True Realm, and their balance.

It was also the secret to transforming into a Complete Person.

But in Qian Chen's view, he had already demonstrated the so-called balance of the Spirit Realm and the True Realm; that was the World Mirror he had created together with Kunlun.

And the *Book of Seven Lanterns* was borne by the World Mirror.

Therefore, restoring balance here was only a matter of a single thought for Qian Chen. But Qian Chen was not interested in anything the Original Sin Sect had hidden in the tower. This thing called Original Sin might well be a pit the Creation Cauldron had dug for itself.

How could Qian Chen condescend to accept any item inside?

Even the Original Sin Sect's exploration of the Original Sin path and its fundamental doctrines had been replaced by Qian Chen with the *Book of Color and Light*.

It was equivalent to evolving from a sect that maintained balance between the Lantern Father and the Cup Mother into a sect where the Lantern Father and the Mysterious Lord were one, accompanied by the Mirror Master and the Cup Mother, primarily worshipping the Lantern Father and the Mysterious Lord, with the Cup Mother and the Mirror Master as secondary deities.

The *Book of Seven Lanterns* in Qian Chen's hand slowly flew up and instantly plunged into the distorted clock. A seven-colored lantern flame ignited from the oil lamp behind it.

In just an instant, seven cracks pierced the glass face of the clock dial, splitting and shattering it. In the space like mirror shards, each presented a different background color.

The shards gradually spread until they pierced the entire high tower.

They even extended toward where they were...

Watching the space refracting different angles and colors, intricately intertwined before them, Gable and the others showed expressions of horror. He extended his cane and lightly touched the crack that looked like a shattered mirror.

In an instant, the cane was intersected by the crack across two spaces.

The entire world was like a shattered mirror, with mirror shards pieced together from different angles in a three-dimensional space. Shining upon it, it was as if it had been cut into different "parts."

And this world was a "mirror" shattered on a three-dimensional level.

In time, in the illusory possibilities projected by the Spirit Realm, and in the reality honed in the True Realm, it was a "mirror" cut into pieces and then pieced back together.

No one knew which mirror shard was in the "True Realm" and which was in the "Spirit Realm," and any point in the present world had different dimensions in time, space, and the Spirit Realm. This was a shattered mirror pieced together in at least seven dimensions.

And the *Book of Seven Lanterns* was hidden at the core of the entire secret ritual.

Just looking at the strictness of its defense and the difficulty of retrieving it.

Qian Chen was simply not laying out the *Book of Seven Lanterns*; he was hiding the *Book of Seven Lanterns* in a place no one could ever reach. Even if the Original Sin Sect were resurrected to its heyday, they would be unable to retrieve the seven-colored lantern inside the Wisdom Clock from their own headquarters.

On the entire black plain of the Crossroads opened up by relying on the Wisdom Zhong Lou, besides the Cubist-style clock tower formed by the pieces of Wisdom Clock Towers from different periods and different worlds, intertwined by the True and Spirit realms, and the chaotic time and space of the Abyss and the Spirit Realm...

There was only one small building from the Camelot Victorian era.

This was the place Gable called the Entrance...

They pushed open the thick wooden door and walked into this small building that seemed to have stayed in the previous epoch. Qian Chen and the others sat around an oak round table, on which were messily piled some old maps of Kafas City and documents from the City Hall.

Gable blushed and swept them aside, saying, "These were all collected by me from various channels in the past, just to find other remnants of the Original Sin Sect."

Qian Chen looked at some of the red dots he had marked, tapped the tabletop with his index finger, and asked, "Are these places where the Original Sin Sect was once active?"

Gable nodded slightly and said, "The Original Sin Sect took root in Kafas City for too long and had too many traces of activity. Many places here have already been demolished and repurposed. Some of the remaining ones have been converted into public facilities—I've been to see them, and there are no longer any traces of the Original Sin Sect—or they have been occupied by other transcendent organizations..."

Qian Chen looked at the map and indeed found red dots on several churches.

Gable blushed and lowered his head, saying, "The Holy Church in Kafas City was once occupied by the Original Sin Sect. It can be said that all ancient churches have traces of the Original Sin Sect at specific moments..."

"The Holy Church knows the Original Sin Sect better than you do. Could they not find what you could find in hundreds or nearly a thousand years?" Qian Chen was indifferent. "I dare say the place where the Original Sin Sect is best preserved in the world is not here, but in the Holy City. In the Inquisition or some hidden monastery..."

Qian Chen looked at the public buildings Gable had investigated, such as auditoriums, fountains, plazas, and libraries.

"With your discernment, what could you investigate?" Qian Chen re-marked the addresses that had been checked, but focused on checking the locations occupied by other transcendent organizations, marking all those related to the "Blood Cup."

"Starting tomorrow, kill your way through these addresses..."

Qian Chen pointed at the map: "Organizations of the Blood Cup path, don't let a single one live; organizations of the neutral path, let them live at our discretion; organizations related to the Holy Church, let them live selectively... Hmm! Time is tight, the task is heavy. Fortunately, most of them are small, mysterious organizations. I'll set a KPI for you... Each of you, kill five transcendents of the Blood Cup path for me every day!"

"As a team, we must wipe out at least three transcendent organizations that dare to occupy our Original Sin Sect's ruins in one night!"

Qian Chen ignored Quinn and Elijah's wide eyes, just clapped his hands and said, "Now, Gable... you distribute the tasks."

Gable's eyes were fanatical, and he said with high spirits, "Yes, Sect Master!"

Qian Chen sketched casually on the map, using those transcendent societies as nodes, vaguely connecting other places as well. Finally, he drew a tree on the map of the entire Kafas City.

A lush tree, with branches and leaves converging toward Miskatonic University from all directions of Kafas City, like a dense canopy, while the massive college buildings and roads of Miskatonic University were like the roots of the great tree.

The canopy and root system extended a spiritual path along a road from the direction where the moon rises to the direction where it sets.

And the Wisdom Zhong Lou was at the central node of this trunk and road.

"Gable..."

Qian Chen gave an order, and Gable immediately lifted his head and said, "Sect Master, I am here!"

"Tomorrow, go buy an osmanthus tree and plant it in the small courtyard. You used a fake identity when you rented that house outside, right?"

Gable replied, "Yes, Sect Master!"

"Then, the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, there are twelve days left from now. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, enjoying the moon and drinking wine, I have a premonition that it will surely be a night of the Blood Moon! Before that, let's let the entire Kafas City know of our arrival first!" ===== CHAPTER 892 =====