Chapter 2679 Enlightenment <TOC> Chapter 2681 Plunged into the Void
Translator: SumTLMan
“Yes, it was all an act.” Daus watched Angel suddenly speed up, and he couldn’t help thinking to himself. Previously, Angel had been walking slowly, saying that walking faster would lead to more consumption. Now he was suddenly running so quickly, no one would believe that his calculation power consumption was that great.
Back in Princess Town, Daus already knew Angel was sly and had a mind full of tricks. Anything he said should be met with skepticism.
As Daus ridiculed Angel inwardly, he followed along.
He decided to properly question Angel. Since his calculation power consumption clearly wasn’t that high, why did he play up that “if I die, I have to start running all over again” routine?
Daus cared so much about Angel’s so-called calculation power consumption because, after he touched the picture frame and “died,” he had to run all the way back again. Watching someone else do a “corpse run” can be entertaining, but when it’s yourself, it’s embarrassing.
Especially since Vai and Kael both witnessed the scene of him running back.
Vai might be all right, since he’s a shut-in who isn’t seen around much. But Kael lives in the Sandworm Market. If every time Daus sees Kael he’s reminded of this humiliating “royal run,” how can he show his face at the Cross Bar?
Filled with resentment, Daus caught up with Angel.
Just when he wanted to question him, however, Angel came to a solemn halt, looked back at the others, then turned to face forward, his expression full of unease.
“What is it?” Daus wondered: “Did he discover something?”
He scanned the surroundings, trying to see if there was anything obviously wrong. With the naked eye, he couldn’t detect any abnormalities. His mental power still couldn’t penetrate the Hanging Prison Stairs, so all he could do was cast a puzzled look at Angel.
Angel said: “There’s a fork in the path here.”
Daus looked in the direction Angel indicated. Sure enough, there was a clearly diverging route, two directions that were obviously different. But…
“Is there anything strange about this fork?” Daus asked.
Angel said: “Nothing strange.”
“Then why did you stop?” Daus asked, full of suspicion.
“I’m thinking about which path to take first,” Angel answered.
Daus fell silent for a moment: “You’re making such a solemn face just to decide which path to take? And it doesn’t matter which one we pick first. If we don’t find what we’re looking for, we’ll just have to come back and take the other.”
Angel turned around: “Which one do you think we should choose?”
Daus froze. This question felt strangely familiar.
After two seconds, Daus hesitated and said: “My inspiration talent hasn’t recovered yet.”
Angel said: “I’m just feeling lazy and don’t want to decide. Since you don’t want to decide, let’s leave it to fate.”
“Lazy? Fate?” Daus was still wondering what Angel meant, when Angel casually tossed the staff he was holding into the air. It spun several times before landing straight up at the fork, then wobbled for a moment and began spinning like a top, using its end as a pivot.
Seeing this, Daus could guess what Angel intended to do, using the staff to “ask for directions.”
“You know prophecy spells? Is this Star Path Divination, or one of the Good Fortune Staff spells, or maybe Fate’s Guidance?” Daus asked.
Star Path Divination was a third level trick from the star map branch of observational spells, which required a staff as a medium for the divination. Good Fortune spells were from the ‘Bell of Inquiry’ branch and also used a staff as a focus for prophecy. As for Fate’s Guidance, that belonged to the Fate’s String branch, a second level spell only encountered by wizards at least at the peak of first level or at the true knowledge realm. Daus definitely didn’t believe Angel had mastered Fate’s Guidance. He only brought it up as a joke.
Angel shook his head: “None of those. This is…”
Angel fell silent for a moment, then slowly spat out the words: “…fate itself.”
Daus stared at Angel, who was still looking perfectly serious. After a brief daze, he realized what Angel meant: “You aren’t using prophecy? You’re purely leaving it to chance?”
With a thoughtful look, Angel said: “Not just chance, also appearances.”
“What do you mean by appearances?” Vai asked curiously, stepping forward.
Angel pointed at Daus: “You should ask him.”
Daus pointed to himself, lips parted but no sound came out: “Ask me? How should I know?”
Angel reminded him: “Didn’t you just say that maybe the Wood Spirit recognizes me? If that turns out to be true, then it’ll all come down to appearances, won’t it?”
“…Are you serious?” Daus asked.
Angel smiled: “Care to guess?”
Daus actually thought about it seriously for a second. Angel’s reply seemed like a joke, and everyone else’s reactions suggested they felt he was joking as well. And yet, strangely enough, Daus had a hunch Angel might be serious, at least partly so, and was just using humor to hide his genuine thinking.
So, could Angel really believe that the Wood Spirit might recognize him?
But how was that possible? Even if the Wood Spirit recognized the staff, and if the staff truly belonged to Sanders, that didn’t mean the Wood Spirit knew Angel. The spirit might remember its original owner was Sanders, but Angel, who only popped up in the last few years, how could it possibly know him?
Though Daus felt it impossible, Angel’s calm demeanor unsettled him. Could there be some hidden truth here?
“Well, I don’t know if you’re serious or not,” Daus said at last: “but I’ll remind you: the staff has landed.”
Following Daus’ gesture, everyone looked to see that the staff had indeed touched down, pointing toward the right path of the fork.
“Lord, shall we go to the right, then?” Kael asked.
Angel looked at the path on the right, pondering for a moment before saying: “No. We’ll go left first.”
Seeing Angel heading down the left path, everyone was stunned. This back-and-forth was so abrupt they hardly knew how to react. Hadn’t Angel just said it was up to fate? Why go against fate’s guidance?
Though they couldn’t understand Angel’s sudden reversal, they didn’t question him. After all, they hadn’t known Angel that long and weren’t yet familiar with his nature. Perhaps he really was just the type to flip-flop on a whim?
Such people were hardly uncommon in the Wizarding World. As Day once said: “Wizards spend years cooped up in tiny rooms either cultivating or researching. After such prolonged isolation, it’s normal to have eccentric personalities and shifting moods.”
But was Angel truly so capricious?
Clearly not. In fact, even the indecisiveness he showed earlier had been feigned.
He actually stopped here because he had felt the staff grow slightly warm, resonating toward the left path. If the resonance came from the Wood Spirit, it suggested the Wood Spirit was down that way.
However, the moment Angel reached this fork, the staff suddenly stopped giving off any warmth.
Which was puzzling. If it had just resonated before, clearly pointing left, why did it cease the moment he arrived at a fork distinguishing left and right?
Could it be that the Wood Spirit believed it had done enough guiding already, so it stopped? Or was it misdirecting him in some way?
Angel didn’t know. Left or right, personally, it didn’t matter to him. He was just very curious. If that warmth had indeed been caused by the Wood Spirit meddling, what was its purpose? If not the Wood Spirit, then who else could it be? The Demon God of Mirrors?
To test his hypothesis, Angel had tossed the staff to “ask for directions.”
Since the staff’s body came from the Wood Spirit, throwing it into midair also meant giving up his control. If the Wood Spirit were truly lurking nearby, it could fully take over the staff.
Thus, the staff pointing right meant one of two things: one, simple inertia made it land that way with no external influence. Two, the Wood Spirit manipulated it to point right.
The first scenario, no outside factor, didn’t warrant further discussion. The second scenario, if the Wood Spirit had seized control and turned it right, would be very interesting.
Earlier, the Wood Spirit’s actions seemed to indicate it was on the left. Why would it now direct them to the right? That would be contradictory.
What made it change its mind? Was it trying to distract him? Or was there some other plan?
All these questions were based on the assumption that the Wood Spirit was truly involved. Of course, it was quite possible that the Wood Spirit wasn’t involved at all, and Angel’s speculations were just idle musings.
But if the Wood Spirit wasn’t involved, then who was causing the staff’s faint warmth and guiding resonance? What sort of trick was this?
With these questions in mind, Angel proceeded down the left path.
Choosing the left path was Angel’s original intent. Since the staff had pointed him left at first, whoever or whatever had guided it there, he would likely find clues by going left. If he went right instead, there was no telling what he might miss.
…
The left path was longer than Angel expected, but it was fairly uneventful.
They passed the ruins of three separate rooms, each drifting in the void. Angel found them all somewhat familiar, but it was difficult to match them to any from the second level in his memory. They were too broken to tell. None of the three had anything worth discovering.
Now they were heading to the final room on the left path. According to information from the Black Count, it was the best-preserved room on the entire second level.
When they actually saw it, it was indeed just as the Black Count had said. Not only was its outer shell intact, it still had a second floor and an attic hidden away.
However, despite how well-preserved it was, there was no trace of the Wood Spirit.
The only noteworthy thing was a shadowy corpse of a ghost left in the attic. Calling it a “corpse” might be an overstatement, only a ring of black spots remained on the wall.
These spots were characteristic of a ghost. When it died, it gradually dissolved. The last thing left in the place it died was a human-shaped black stain, the ghost’s final lingering mark in the world, a sort of alternative tombstone.
How long that black mark remains varies. A ghost at a wizard’s realm might linger for over a thousand years, but an ordinary ghost’s mark might vanish in under a century.
The ghost remains here indicated it hadn’t reached wizard level before death. Meaning it had died within the last hundred years.
So who had killed it?
From Cecia’s account, no one had passed by her in the last hundred years except their current party, and the one before them was the Wood Spirit.
Thus, if an outsider had slain this ghost, it would have to have been the Wood Spirit.
Because the only entrances to the Hanging Prison Stairs either pass through Cecia’s passage or the Sovereign of Wisdom’s Great Hall. There was no one else.
No one in the group was stupid. Even Vai, who was pushing a century in age, could figure out the significance of this ghost.
Seeing everyone cast their eyes on him, the Sovereign of Wisdom thought for a moment, then said plainly: “I don’t know who did it. The strongest likelihood is that the Wood Spirit did it, because it used to hide here. At some point, it changed hiding places, and I haven’t seen it return since.”
“If it was the Wood Spirit who killed the ghost, then it’s not as timid as I thought,” Daus said, rubbing his chin in thought.
Angel asked: “Sovereign of Wisdom, do you know whether the Wood Spirit left before the ghost died, or after it died?”
The Sovereign of Wisdom shook his head: “I don’t know.”
Daus looked at Angel, puzzled: “Why does it matter? If the Wood Spirit killed the ghost, obviously it would have left after killing it.”
“Not necessarily,” came the voice of the Black Count, who had been silent until now: “Based on the current information, the Wood Spirit’s character is timid, but its talent for hiding is strong. However, we still don’t know anything about its offensive ability or how it actually attacks.”
“If its specialty were extremely long-range attacks, it could take action from a safe distance, thus avoiding direct conflict that would clash with its timid nature.”
“Oh, I see…” Daus nodded: “But if it really can attack from a very long range, then it must also have extremely long-range perception. Otherwise, it’d be hard to strike the ghost at a distance with precision.”
“In that case, if the Wood Spirit is on the second level, perhaps it has already noticed us?”
With that, Daus sharply turned to look at the Sovereign of Wisdom.
The Sovereign of Wisdom only smiled slightly, without giving any answer.
He neither confirmed nor denied their hypothesis.
Certainly, the Wood Spirit had to have some Means of Attack.
And given its timid nature, its methods wouldn’t be a direct confrontation. Most likely it was some form of long-range assault or an underhanded ambush.
“If that’s true… then we’re already in danger?” Vai asked in shock.
“You’re not even here in person. What danger?” Daus said impatiently.
Vai froze for a second before hastily adding: “I mean, Lord Superdimenional is in danger.”
“And have you forgotten about me?” Kael said gloomily, giving Vai a sidelong glance.
Compared to Lord Super Dimensional, Kael felt he was the one more likely to be in danger.
Vai looked embarrassed, scratching his head at a loss for words.
Daus shrugged: “Relax. We won’t just leave you. If you die, I’ll be sure to bring your soul back.”
Kael shot Daus a resentful look, then silently turned his gaze to Angel.
“Everything is speculation,” Angel said, patting Kael on the shoulder: “We don’t have any solid evidence. And if the Wood Spirit truly is timid, it definitely won’t be eager for a fight.”
“All right, let’s go. There’s nothing more here. Besides, I have something I need your help with,” Angel said to Kael. Then, seeing no reason to linger, he led everyone away from the attic.
Chapter 2679 Enlightenment <TOC> Chapter 2681 Plunged into the Void