Chapter 127 Concealing the Gods' Gaze

Making an enemy of high-level Beyonders from the Spectator Pathway was an excruciating affair.

Take the ordinary Giant Warriors of ancient times, for instance… Once they gained a certain degree of understanding about the Dragon of Imagination, Ankewelt, the latter would take notice of them and could gaze upon them at any given moment.

It might not have mattered much in ordinary times, but if they were discussing secrets such as formulating a battle plan targeting the Dragons and happened to catch Ankewelt’s gaze, it was essentially tantamount to reporting their operational plans directly to the enemy leader.

Of course, that was just an analogy. Considering the general impression Giants left on others, they likely didn’t have any battle plans at all when waging war.

However, lacking knowledge of the enemy posed an even greater problem. Commanders, in particular, had to understand the capabilities of higher-level foes.

Thus, the Giants had faced a thorny dilemma back then: remaining ignorant of high-ranking enemies was unacceptable, but once they came to know such enemies, those enemies became aware of them in turn…

Another issue was the enemy’s Psychological Invisibility. For example, while a group of commanders discussed battle plans, Ankewelt might very well be crouching right beside them listening in, completely undetected if their own rank wasn’t high enough.

The Giant King Aurmir could certainly provide them with some measure of protection, but not indefinitely. They had to find ways to confront this challenge themselves.

Fortunately, the Warrior Pathway’s Light of Dawn could dispel all manner of Beyonder powers, resolving the issue to a certain extent.

The reason it was only to a certain extent was that one couldn’t expect a Sequence 4’s Light of Dawn to penetrate an enemy Angel’s Psychological Invisibility.

Throughout the prolonged confrontation between these two ancient races, the Giants gradually devised two arrays capable of detecting Psychological Invisibility and guarding against voyeurism by high-ranking enemies like the Dragon of Imagination.

The dilemma Odis faced now was remarkably similar to that of the ordinary Giants back then. Whether it was the God of Steam and Machinery or the Hidden Sage, both had countless means of observing him without his knowledge.

And Odis was completely powerless to block such gazes.

These two arrays provided him with a promising direction. First, he intended to craft an early-warning mechanism that would trigger an alarm whenever a high-level gaze turned his way, at least letting him know he was being watched.

Second, he could utilize the array designed to guard against the Mind Dragons’ prying eyes, allowing him to avoid the gaze of deities whenever necessary.

That very night, Odis entered the Knowledge Moor and began his research into the two arrays…

The early-warning mechanism was relatively simple, as the underlying principle of the array relied on feedback from his own Spirituality.

Spirituality shared an intimate connection with the Spirit World. A Beyonder’s Spirituality, in particular, could glean an abundance of information from the Spirit World that ordinary people could scarcely detect.

However, a Beyonder’s subconscious judgment would filter out much of this information. This served as a self-defense mechanism; otherwise, Beyonders would hear and see far too many things they were never meant to hear or see.

If the God of Steam and Machinery were to gaze upon Odis, his Spirituality could theoretically detect it. However, because it was far too weak compared to that of a god, that self-defense mechanism would very likely filter it out.

Furthermore, gods had countless ways to make Odis’s Spirituality overlook their gaze…

An array, however, was an inanimate construct. It possessed no judgment of its own. As long as Odis’s Spirituality produced a certain feedback, it would be triggered, thereby sending an early warning signal.

Modifying the other array would not be quite so simple. Theoretically, if two Giants had discussions about Ankewelt, the reason the Dragon of Imagination would notice was that the event of discussing Him had taken place.

According to Odis’s extensive research, whenever an event occurred in the material world, a corresponding imprint would appear in the Spirit World.

Many advancement rituals leveraged this very concept, drawing a measure of aid from the Spirit World’s imprints during the moment of advancement.

For instance, the ritual to advance to Bizarro Sorcerer was to direct a grand drama. Once this drama unfolded in the material world, a corresponding imprint was left in the Spirit World.

Then, during the advancement, the Beyonder could use that imprint in the Spirit World to regain their sanity as quickly as possible.

However, the corresponding ability of High-Sequence Beyonders from the Spectator Pathway did not locate imprints from the Spirit World, but from the sea of collective subconscious.

The underlying theory was identical, only the target differed. For example, if two Giants discussed the Dragon of Imagination in the material world, a corresponding imprint would appear in the Spirit World, and a corresponding imprint would also appear in the sea of collective subconscious.

Thus, the Spirituality of the Dragon of Imagination could instantly discover and pinpoint the imprint containing His name. Following this imprint in the sea of collective subconscious, He could trace it back to the ‘event’ that occurred in the material world, ultimately learning that two Giants were talking about Him.

If the nature of their discussion was intolerable, He could even follow the imprint in the sea of collective subconscious to cast down divine punishment.

This was the theoretical foundation of the ‘Any mention of them will be known’, ability possessed by Beyonders of the Spectator Pathway once they reached Sequence 1.

Adam’s ability operated on the exact same principle…

Thus, the array invented by the Giants severed the connection between the material world and the sea of collective subconscious.

By discussing the Dragon of Imagination within the array, no corresponding imprint would form in the sea of collective subconscious, leaving Ankewelt unaware that He was being spoken of.

However, the method and process by which the God of Steam and Machinery observed Odis was different from that of the Giants and the Dragon of Imagination.

He had placed a mark on Odis… or rather, on his Soul Body. Whenever He wished to take a glance, His gaze could pierce through the Spirit World and the Astral World, guided directly by that mark to peer down upon him.

With minor modifications, the Giant array’s ability of severing the connection to the sea of collective subconscious could be applied to the Spirit World, concealing the mark on Odis’s Soul Body.

The problem was that at his current level, his understanding of the Astral World was quite limited. He didn’t know if he could similarly conceal the mark placed on him within the Astral World.

Crucially, the Knowledge Moor could not yet simulate the gaze of a god. Odis did have a few ideas, but he had no way of verifying how effective these designs would be.

Ultimately, this research could only guarantee the most optimal outcome: that being if Odis stood within the array, or carried it above his head, the God of Steam and Machinery would be unable to find the mark on his Soul Body, and thus would be unable to gaze upon him.

However, the efficacy of the arrangements regarding the Astral World was difficult to determine. It was very likely that the God of Steam and Machinery could locate him once again through a divine perspective…

Odis submitted these findings to the Knowledge Moor, considering them his completed research for the week.

After leaving the Sefirah, he remained dissatisfied with the result, as there were simply too many uncertainties!

But there was no other choice for now. He was, after all, dealing with a god. Being able to blind such an existence’s sight on certain occasions was already a deeply blasphemous design.

Then, Odis realized that relying solely on this array would not suffice; he also needed a Mystical item with the Traveling ability.

After all, gods were not blind. Even if he used the array to hide that mark, the deity could still manually search person by person.

For instance, if Odis, residing at Unit 51 Henry Street, learned he was being watched by the God of Steam and Machinery, he could immediately use the array to mask the mark on his Soul Body, but the God of Steam and Machinery could still use His divine sense to search for him.

It wouldn’t even take a second for Him to scan every single person on Henry Street. And a single second was not even enough time for Odis to flee Gale’s Herbal Shop.

It would be an entirely different story if he possessed the ability to Teleport. He could escape hundreds of kilometers away from Backlund to Desi County in an exceedingly short span of time, temporarily fleeing the sight of the God of Steam and Machinery.

Odis pondered for a moment and decided to treat a dead horse as a living one, operating under the assumption that his array would indeed be effective.

In that case, another problem arose: where could he purchase a Mystical item with the Travel ability?

First, he thought of the Tarot Club, specifically, Miss Magician’s channel through the Abraham family. Second was Bernadette’s channel.

The former was an Apprentice Pathway family, so they ought to possess quite a few Mystical items that had Traveling.

As for Bernadette, she had been active in the Beyonder world for over a century and would certainly have accumulated assets in this regard…

The second problem was: how could he secure the money to purchase such a Mystical item?

After delivering those ten Flamebolts, Odis’s savings had risen to 5,000 pounds! Additionally, next week would mark the end of November, meaning he could collect his November dividend from the Rosewood Pavilion, which would be somewhere around 3,000 pounds.

Even so, it was still far from enough. At a conservative estimate, such a Sealed Artifact would cost at least 12,000 to 15,000 pounds. Even if it were priced at 18,000 pounds, as long as its negative effects were not severe, it would still be considered acceptable.

Odis let out a sigh, feeling such an ardent craving for money for the very first time.

Consequently, on Sunday, besides researching Witchcraft and Spellcasting in the backyard of the herbal shop, he spent his time pondering how to make money.

He was distracted to the point that when Max came by to follow up on the case, Odis remained somewhat absentminded.

Max asked him why his mind kept wandering. Upon learning that Odis was short on cash, he immediately stood up, claimed he had a very busy schedule for the day, and departed just like that…

Odis let out a helpless chuckle at that. Though Max’s salary was considered relatively high in Backlund (around 20 pounds a week), it was still a drop in the bucket for Odis, and he had no intention of borrowing from the other…

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When Monday arrived, Odis decided to sell one or two Mystical items at the Tarot Club to amass gold pounds.

At the same time, he planned to actively trade intelligence or mysticism knowledge with Audrey at the Tarot Club, striving to save up enough money by the end of the year to purchase an item possessing the Traveling ability.

Only after forming a rough financial plan could he settle down to study his craft in peace…

…

A little past two in the afternoon, Odis lay back on his armchair, preparing to attend the Tarot Club.

At three o’clock sharp, gray fog suddenly engulfed his vision. In the blink of an eye, he arrived inside the grand palace that seemed built for Giants…

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fool.” Audrey’s greeting rang out at once.

Then, as usual, she greeted every member while observing the others.

Klein, on the other hand, noticed that aside from a subtle shift in Mr. Hermit’s aura, everyone else appeared entirely normal, seemingly having encountered no major incidents over the past week…