Chapter 54

Chapter Fifty-Four: Countermeasure

In the dim secret room, Buck and Colif, core members of the Crimson Eucharist, focused intently in front of the table, illuminated by candlelight. Buck was seriously conducting a divination.

The city map of Igewent was neatly placed within a magical array drawn according to the standards of “Lamp” and “Enlightenment,” and above this map, a white crystal hung by a chain, swinging back and forth.

“I want to know the current location of the person who killed Burton Veil today.”

Holding the end of the swinging crystal pendant, Buck declared his divination and gazed intently at the oscillating crystal, both he and Colif fixated on the trajectory it traced above the map.

“So this is pendulum divination…the most practical method for locating someone. This swinging pendulum will ultimately be pulled by an invisible mystical force, pointing to the target’s location…”

Watching the scene, Colif murmured, having some understanding of mysticism as an extraordinary being; he had heard of pendulum divination but had never seen it in practice.

Due to the rarity of the spirituality of “Enlightenment,” divination rituals were indeed quite rare, and most lower-tier extraordinary beings had only heard of them, never witnessed them, let alone conducted one themselves.

At this moment, both Buck and Colif were experiencing such a mysterious and rare ritual for the first time, their eyes glued to the swinging crystal, eagerly awaiting the moment it would stop and point to the target’s location.

One second, two seconds, three seconds…time slowly passed, yet the crystal pendulum showed no signs of stopping. As the swinging motion became less pronounced, the atmosphere in the air gradually grew tense.

Finally, the crystal pendulum completely ceased swinging, becoming fully vertical above the map under the force of gravity.

“This…has it stopped? Is this pointing to where those people are hiding?” Colif asked in surprise, feeling that the pendulum’s behavior seemed no different from an ordinary pendulum.

The crystal pendulum appeared not to be influenced by any mysterious force, simply hanging vertically above the map as a normal phenomenon. This was very different from what Buck and Colif had anticipated. Was this the result of their divination?

“Well…theoretically…the position the pendulum is pointing to should be where those people are…” Buck observed the place indicated by the vertical pendulum, frowning and speaking in a low voice, while Colif hesitantly chimed in.

“So…those people’s hiding place is on Iron Mud River?”

“Yeah…maybe. It’s possible that their base is on some ship; if the base is on a ship, it can be easily relocated. Heh…not a bad idea.”

Buck continued to speak seriously, while Colif blinked a couple of times before confirming the location the pendulum pointed to on the map and spoke again.

“No, Buck, the Iron Mud River at that location seems to be a mudflat with no water. A ship can’t stop there…”

“Maybe they built something in the mudflat? Or there’s something beneath it? Anyway…since the pendulum pointed to this spot, we can’t ignore it…”

Buck expressed his strange feelings while speaking. Deep down, he felt that this pendulum looked like it was simply hanging naturally, showing no signs of any mystical force at work. But what if…what if the divination target’s location happened to be right here? What if the area indicated by the pendulum was the same as this vertical point? There could be a probabilistic element, couldn’t there?

Although this naturally vertical pendulum resembled an ordinary pendulum, showing no signs of mystical interference, what if the location determined by the divination could indeed make the pendulum point vertically to the map? Then it would be justified in displaying that way, wouldn’t it?

Neither Buck nor Colif believed that the precious divination ritual conducted by their esteemed mentor, which consumed valuable spirituality, would fail. Therefore, this seemingly natural vertical indication should indeed be the result of their divination, even if it was a mudflat.

This was a result achieved using precious spirituality, and even though it appeared suspicious, they had to take it seriously, didn’t they?

“Colif, gather enough people. We’re going to check this location right now…”

Saying this, Buck placed the pendulum crystal on the table and quickly walked towards the exit of the secret room, with Colif following closely behind.

“Got it. We have to check it out after all…”

Following Buck, Colif quickly left the secret room.

A few hours later.

The door of the secret room was abruptly pushed open again, as a grim-faced Buck walked inside silently, his pant legs covered in mud. Behind him, Colif hurried in with wide eyes, full of anger, and covered in mud, as if he had fallen into the mud.

The two of them, clearly having returned empty-handed, walked briskly to the desk, with Colif muttering as he walked.

“The pendulum…the pendulum…what a joke! It didn’t point to anything! Just pointed me into the mud!”

While saying this, the angry Colif grabbed the pendulum crystal from the table and hurled it aside in frustration. The crystal bounced off the table and accidentally struck a lime glass bottle placed nearby, toppling it over. The lime spilled out, creating a pile on the table, with the powder splattering into Colif and Buck’s faces. Colif started coughing while Buck silently wiped his face.

“We underestimated them. I never expected they actually had counter-divination methods.”

While brushing the powder off his face, Buck spoke coldly. Despite not showing much on his face, his eyes were already filled with rage.

“Cough, cough…What did you say, Buck? Counter-divination? Our divination was countered?”

Coughing, Colif spoke to Buck in astonishment, while Buck coldly nodded.

“Yes, the mentor said…that in this world, there exists both divination and counter-divination. As long as one can gather the corresponding spirituality and conduct rituals, divination can also be countered…and this spirituality certainly includes the precious ‘Enlightenment.'”

“Heh…I underestimated them. I didn’t expect they could get their hands on the rare ‘Enlightenment’ spirituality. Their foundation is deeper than I thought…”

Buck spoke seriously, arms crossed behind his back, while Colif, now puzzled, asked again.

“So, what should we do now? If we can’t find those guys’ location, we can’t talk about retaliation!”

Listening to Colif’s words, Buck took a deep breath and then replied slowly.

“I’ll go speak with Bill again, and find a way to meet the mentor. If I still can’t meet him, then I’ll have to seek him in my dreams…”

…

At night, in the apartment building located on the side of Nanyang Flower Road.

‘Information retrieval has been blocked…’

Lying on the sofa, feeling the reduction of her accumulated spirituality and the enhancement of the system, Dorothy let out a sigh of relief. She still felt a bit unease about almost being found out by an inexplicable method.

‘Phew…finally done with it. I almost got divined upon inexplicably. In this bizarre world, I need to be more careful…’

Dorothy thought to herself, and after this event, aside from her reflections, she was more curious.

‘This world actually has such methods of gathering information from afar? Interesting. According to the system’s hints, this divination method also utilizes spirituality, needing ‘Lamp’ and ‘Enlightenment.’ Since I am an extraordinary being of ‘Enlightenment’ and have no shortage of it, if I could obtain more ‘Lamp’ in the future, could I also conduct divination? If I could, I could efficiently gather intelligence!’

‘And the properties of various spiritualities are quite intriguing. ‘Lamp’ implies insight…while ‘Shadow’ can block ‘Lamp’s insight. Combined with the property of that Veil Ring, ‘Shadow’ seems to involve hiding and concealing, making it the opposite of ‘Lamp’…

‘And then there’s that ‘Silence’…it can actually delete information. What would happen if information is deleted? What is the specific meaning of ‘Silence’ spirituality?’

Considering these questions, Dorothy suddenly felt that her understanding of this world and mysticism was still far from sufficient.

“It seems I need to find Audric to consult more often in the future…but, well…” Dorothy murmured, then furrowed her brows and pulled out her wallet, which she had only recently filled.

“But I wonder if my tuition is still enough?”