Chapter 126 Special Attention from the Hidden Sage

Bernadette took the Beyonder characteristic which resembled a cluster of stars, then remarked in her usual impassive tone, “I didn’t expect the target of the Moses Ascetic Order to be you.”

“Neither did I,” Odis admitted truthfully.

Fortunately, this was Backlund, where the Moses Ascetic Order dared not gather too much force; otherwise, if they deployed even one more Demigod, Bernadette, who had arrived a step late, might not have been able to save him.

Bernadette thought for a moment before asking, “What are your plans?”

“Remaining in Backlund and seek the protection of the local official Beyonders.” Odis replied.

After learning that he had drawn the gaze of the Hidden Sage, he realized that leaving Backlund now would be a terrible idea.

“You could go to La Cha Island,” Bernadette offered, “There, I can provide you with sufficient protection.”

Using the properties of the Fog Sea, she had kept La Cha Island concealed remarkably well; so much so that the Moses Ascetic Order had never managed to locate it.

Aelia was taken aback by the offer. It was the first time she had ever heard the Queen Mystic take the initiative to invite someone to La Cha Island.

Odis took a deep breath before saying, “Please allow me to think it over.”

Remaining in Backlund would make further advancement difficult. After all, any breakthrough would immediately be detected by the God of Steam and Machinery, and as he continued to advance, the surveillance over him would only grow tighter.

Furthermore, the Church of Steam would very likely bar him from advancing to Demigod directly.

Yet if he left Backlund before reaching the Demigod level and happened to catch the eye of the Hidden Sage again, escaping the clutches of the Moses Ascetic Order would prove exceptionally difficult.

Bernadette gave a nod, “Very well.” She added, “For the foreseeable future, I will have an Invisible Servant keep constant watch over the herbal shop and your residence. If you face another attack, simply call for help.”

“Thank you.” After expressing his gratitude, Odis followed up, “Did the Machinery Hivemind personnel watching me notice any anomalies here?”

“No,” Bernadette replied, “I verified just now. The person monitoring you today was swapped from the previous Sequence 7 to a Sequence 8. He was caught up in Alvis’s Hallucination and still believes everything here is normal. This Hallucination is difficult to detect and virtually leaves no trace after the fact.”

Odis considered this for a moment, then asked, “Could I ask you to make them see a fire breaking out in my courtyard?”

“Hmm.” Bernadette nodded without probing for his reasoning.

With that, her figure turned illusory, and the barrier severing the Spirit World from reality vanished alongside her.

At the exact same time, the skeleton out on the street dissipated without a trace.

The chiming bells of carriages and the chatter of pedestrians gradually returned, restoring the road outside to an ordinary, bustling thoroughfare.

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~Backlund Bridge District~

At the docks where the official Beyonders’ trap was set, the operation of the Rose School of Thought effectively collapsed as Archbishops Anthony Stevenson and Horamick Haydn steadily gained the upper hand.

The Demigod from the Rose School of Thought found it baffling as well. According to the intelligence they had received, the church hadn’t taken the matter seriously enough and had only used the local Red Gloves and Nighthawks to set the ambush.

The involvement of the Machinery Hivemind was wholly unexpected. Still, bewildered as they were, now that the battle had already begun, they still had to make one final push.

The two Demigods abruptly stopped caring about the two Archbishops’ attacks and charged at the stone together. Their reckless move immediately left them gravely injured, but it also allowed them to close the distance to the stone.

Right as they were about to seize it, however, the Dark Sacred Emblem atop the warehouse released a terrifying power!

This power plunged an area spanning over a dozen kilometers into a dreadful tranquility. Then the stone vanished into thin air right before the eyes of the two Rose School of Thought Demigods.

The pair spun on their heels and fled almost instantaneously, but the Puppet was half a step too slow.

His entire left arm, left shoulder, and a portion of his left chest accompanied the stone into a Concealed state. The wound was eerily clean, leaving his functioning lung clearly visible.

The divine power invoked through the Dark Sacred Emblem was the true core of this trap.

Naturally, this was not the Evernight Goddess directly descending with Her power; it was more akin to a potent Ritualistic Magic that fell under the purview of an automated response from Her.

Had it truly been the Evernight Goddess bestowing Her power directly, the two Demigods would have likely vanished on the spot.

The Disciple of Silence and the Puppet made no further effort and immediately fled for their lives.

In the midst of their retreat, the Disciple of Silence threw out an ugly wooden puppet. The moment it left his hand, it morphed into the appearance of a normal person and frantically lunged at Anthony and Horamick.

In the end, the two Archbishops failed to detain the Rose School of Thought Demigods, but they managed to seize the puppet; a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact equivalent to Sequence 4.

After the battle ended, the stone reappeared in the center of the warehouse, as though it had never left…

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~Unit 51 Henry Street, Gale’s Herbal Shop~

After Queen Mystic departed, Odis turned to Aelia and said, “Let’s conclude our transaction quickly. The reinforcements my assistant went to find should be arriving in less than twenty minutes.”

With that, he led Aelia to the backyard, passed through the courtyard, which had been reduced to a charred mess, then they entered the lounge, where he handed her the box containing ten Flamebolts.

Following a brief inspection, Aelia handed the money to Odis. The latter counted it to be exactly 2,000 pounds!

With the payment settled and the goods delivered, Odis noticed they still had a little time left. So he glanced at Aelia, who was packing the box into a cloth bag, and asked, “Do you know any way to alleviate the process of impartation during Knowledge Pursuit?”

“Keep yourself in good condition,” Aelia answered, “Starting from Sequence 7, you can actually begin to comprehend parts of that knowledge. As long as you are in good condition, there’s really no need to resist it so fiercely. Occasionally, one could even glean some useful knowledge from it.” Then she sighed, “However, things change at Sequence 5. Both the frequency and intensity will increase.”

That was why she had been hesitant to advance to Sequence 5 even though she had accumulated enough merits…

Odis continued along this topic, “Right after advancing, how did you endure the impact caused by the whispers of the Hidden Sage? Was it hard to endure?”

Aelia thought for a moment before replying, “It was only a few murmurs. As long as your condition isn’t too terrible, it shouldn’t affect you much.”

“Just a few murmurs?”

“That’s right.” then Aelia asked in return, “Did you hear something else besides those whispers?”

Odis hesitated briefly before smiling wryly, “It might be that my condition wasn’t very good when I advanced, so those murmurs felt pretty disruptive.”

He realized that the Hidden Sage might have given him special attention, and those long speeches were likely meant for him alone.

Aelia did not pursue the topic further. After saying her farewell, she left in a hurry…

Odis returned to the front shop, waiting for the Machinery Hivemind while thinking back on the day’s events. About ten minutes later, reinforcements finally arrived.

As Odis had guessed, only one Sequence 8 and one Sequence 9 showed up. The main force had all been deployed to the docks…

He had already prepared a lie, so he told the agents that Bernie had suddenly come to the shop again today. Wanting the Machinery Hivemind to track the man, Odis had stalled him in the shop while sending Kain to call for help.

Unexpectedly, Bernie, who possessed bizarre powers, suddenly launched an attack. Forced to defend himself, Odis had no choice but to use the array in the backyard to burn the aggressor to death, and the charred remains were still back there.

The Machinery Hivemind agents asked a few questions about the details after inspecting the remains. Odis answered them one by one, and before long, they took the remains and left.

This case had always been handled by Max. Their visit today was mainly to confirm Odis was not in danger and to take a statement. After collecting the remains, they planned to hand over the statement and remains to Max once the joint operation over there ended.

Watching the agents leave, Odis pinched the bridge of his nose. Today’s ordeal was finally over for the time being.

The Machinery Hivemind likely wouldn’t discover the anomaly here. For now, they couldn’t be allowed to discover that a Demigod-level battle had taken place on these premises.

One side had been Odis’s enemy, so it wouldn’t matter much if they learned of that, but the identity of the other side would be hard to explain.

Fortunately, Demigods of this Pathway possessed all sorts of methods to conceal their tracks. Moreover, the official Beyonders’ attention had all been focused on the Backlund Bridge District today, so no one should have noticed the brief clash that occurred here.

After Kain returned, Odis went out to hire a renovation company to clear out the burnt debris from the courtyard and repaint the area.

Labor, materials, and other costs came to a total of 8 pounds, and it would take about two days to get everything in order.

Odis planned to continue growing herbs in the courtyard. Purchasing new large flowerpots would cost around 20 pounds. As for the herb seeds, they were already in the warehouse, so there was no need to factor in that cost.

Thus, this battle had cost Odis a total of 28 pounds, but in return, he had gained a Mystical item.

Once everything outside was settled, he entered the lounge and took out the exquisite little mirror to inspect it. His Spirituality sensed that this was a Mystical item equivalent to Sequence 7.

The negative effects shouldn’t be too severe, as his Spirituality detected no strong sense of danger. However, its utility was quite singular: it simply bound a target for a period of time.

At certain moments, such an ability could be quite useful. For instance, during an ambush, one could bind the opponent without warning and rush in for an instant kill.

The premise, of course, was that the target was Sequence 7 or below. Generally, once someone reached Sequence 6, they would have plenty of ways to neutralize an attack from this Mystical item.

Putting away the Sealed Artifact, Odis leaned back on his lounge chair, contemplating his current situation and potential solutions to his present troubles.

Soon, he drew inspiration from the arrays of the Giants.

In those days, the primary rivals of the Giants were the Dragons. Battles between deities naturally did not need to rely on arrays, but ordinary Giants faced two major dilemmas: first was the enemies’ Psychological Invisibility; the second was how to avoid attracting the attention of the Dragon of Imagination…