Chapter 193: The Disaster

Chapter 193: The Disaster

He finally prepared himself for the divination ritual to reach back into the Grey Fog of Mysteries.

He bought bread, candles, and necessary material from outside shops. Returning to his apartment, he found Mr. Barthendet locked the door of his privileged apartment and turned toward Mo Fei.

"What a coincidence to see you here, Mr. Sherlock."

Mo Fei only chuckled; maybe gentleman Barthendet had been too busy in his own trip to Ciradyl that he forgot that a young man was living in the nearest rented room. "Great things always make a day great, isn’t that right?"

Mr. Barthendet, however, rolled his mustache with a heavy rub and moved his hand toward his chin. "Indeed, it’s a farewell. I must return home, so be careful, Mr. Sherlock. I’ll take my leave now, my railway train comes late at night."

Mo Fei gave him a respectful nod, holding the paper bag that had materials. "Farewell."

After Barthendet was gone, he heaved a sigh of relief. ’Good, now that he is gone, I can finally focus on the ritual without any interference.’

Entering back into his rented room, he quietly laid the items in his bed, then turned toward the center. He grabbed a chalk and drew a circle, then put loaf bread pieces and lit the candles in four corners.

Suddenly, he realized that he didn’t have the book... he face-palmed and recalled that he had given back the book to Old Bai, which meant that he didn’t have the Divine prayer to call out the Primordial Perfect of Eternal Night.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Three knocks echoed throughout the silent room. At this time? It is nearly 5 AM, who would come at this time?

Just then the voice of Lionel followed from behind the door. "Sherlock, open the door."

Hearing that tone, Mo Fei hurriedly pulled a towel, cleaned the floor, took the pieces of bread away, and opened the door.

"Is that even a time for a mission?"

"It’s urgent." Lionel replied as the door opened. "There is an emergency, Sherlock."

"What?" Mo Fei asked, his sleep deprived state immediately caught Lionel’s attention.

"Mr. Sherlock, I thought you had gone to sleep after the talk with Captain?"

"I couldn’t sleep well, so what’s this emergency?"

Lionel: "The counterpart of the Church of the Great Mother had been found near the northern plains."

"And?"

"They are awakening artifacts all around the City of Yureshia. If that spiritual explosion continues, then people around the city will lose control, we need to move right now."

"But why are they doing it?"

The cold air of the corridor rushed past Lionel’s broad shoulders, carrying with it the unsettling chill of the oncoming dawn.

?Mo Fei stared at the Midnight Wings officer, his mind still reeling from the aborted ritual and the heavy revelation of his own origins. For a brief second, his fingers twitched instinctively toward the pocket where his revolver rested, as if physical metal could somehow anchor him against the cascading madness of the world.

?"The Church of the Great Mother’s radical faction doesn’t need a logical reason, Sherlock." Lionel answered, his voice dropping into an urgent timbre. Without waiting for any permission, he stepped directly into the dimly lit room, his dark coat sweeping past the chalk circle Mo Fei had hastily tried to smudge away with his boot. "They operate under the delusion of ’fleshly ascension.’ If those artifacts on the northern plains fully awaken, the spiritual contagion will ripple through the Ley lines straight into Yureshia’s water supply."

?Mo Fei exhaled slowly, forcing his exhausted brain to switch gears from cosmic identity crises to tactical survival. A spiritual explosion of that magnitude meant mass loss of control — hundreds of civilians mutating or turning into monsters overnight, and the local churches would respond with brutal, sweeping purges.

The most frightening part wasn’t that people would mutate, it was only the first step... if other churches of Orthodox Gods in World Seven found out that artifacts were awakening, then it could lead to a war between the dark part of the Orthodox churches. Meaning not just mutation of civilians but also a war that could even make the Demigods fight against each other... and if ’They’ fought, then it’d destroy everything around, including continents, causing a mass extinction.

?"How many teams have been mobilized?" Mo Fei asked, his tone snapping back into the composed, aloof persona of Midnight Moon Sherlock as he quickly grabbed his top hat from the bed and jammed it onto his head.

?"Just us and a squad of punitive judges from the Church of Judgment." Lionel replied, turning sharply on his heel toward the stairs. "Captain Benson is already at the perimeter. The carriages are waiting downstairs. Move, Sherlock. We don’t have time to pack spare charms anymore."

?As they hurried down the five, wooden stairs of the door, Mo Fei’s thoughts raced. The timing was too precise. First, Aiziq’s wife’s skull was stolen by an apostle of some unknown person; then, the memories of his true vessel status surfaced; and now, a major terrorist act by the Church of the Great Mother’s radicals on the northern plains.

’?Is someone orchestrating a synchronized play?’ He wondered, the shadow of the spectacle-wearing man flashing briefly behind his eyelids. Just the image of the pocket watch made his heart pound inside his chest hard.

?The damp morning mist of Ciradyl clung to their skin as they stepped out onto the cobblestone street. A vast black-hooded carriage stood waiting at the curb, its gas lamps hissing erratically with green-tinted flames — a clear sign that the surrounding spirituality was already fluctuating violently.

The influence of mid-grade artifacts was already reaching the streets of Ciradyl.

?Lionel yanked the carriage door open and motioned for Mo Fei to climb inside. "Hold on to your sanity, Sherlock." Lionel muttered as he climbed in right behind him and pulled the heavy iron door shut. "The northern plains are singing tonight, and the lyrics aren’t human. We will reach there by afternoon. Captain Benson, Miss Rose are already waiting near Yureshia with officials of our organization, but first we need to take Old Bai with us, he is the only one currently who has the knowledge to seal the Artifacts."

Old Bai... Mo Fei already knew that taking him in a dangerous place was already risky, but at the same time he knew that his experience could decide the outcomes.

All of that seemed too familiar... a war between two Ascenders of different organizations never ended with a good day. The memories of Jian Yue flashed before his eyes, and the same rage began to boil in his blood. The Curator of Flesh, even now, even after knowing that he was a transmigrator, those days weren’t useless. He still had the flames of revenge.

Fight between cults and churches... All of that were closely releted to his own history.