34: Chapter 34 Aftershocks

After returning from Iron Cross Street, Lu Li lay in bed for a whole day.

It was not exhaustion. Squatting in the drainage branch pipe for half the night certainly was not easy, but what kept him from getting out of bed was not muscle soreness—it was the "echo" that arrived the moment the mold's concentric circles vanished from the center.

It had no substantial content; no whispers, no hallucinations, and none of the cold sensation of having one's memories rummaged through, like what he had experienced in the Underground Channel Secret Room.

It was just an extremely faint, crisp sound. It was as if someone were standing in the far distance, tapping a glass with their fingertip.

But when Lu Li heard that crisp sound, his Fate Anchor trembled. It was not a warning, and it was not location tracking. It was a response.

Lu Li stared at the crack on the ceiling extending from the corner, breaking this feeling down into understandable parts.

He was very clear about the functions of the Fate Anchor: immunity to low-level madness, sensing dangerous nodes and lost characteristics, and passive resonance with Sefirah Castle. None of these functions included "responding to a contact signal from an ancient will."

But the fact was, it had responded. Before he himself could even react, it had already responded on its own.

He sat up in bed and took the outline of loens modern history out of the nightstand drawer. The printing Error on page thirty-seven was still there—"1345" was printed as "134," and there was a very fine smudge of ink around the edges of the lead type.

He pressed his finger onto that line of lead type, closed his eyes, and pushed his spiritual perception to the limit. On the surface of the misprinted lead type, there was a faint layer of spiritual residue that did not belong to the ink itself.

The components of the residue had a faint similarity to the will of the array diagram he had encountered in the Underground Channel Secret Room—not the same source, not the same substance. It was more like the indentation left by the same writing tool on two completely different types of paper.

The typesetter who wrote this outline of loens modern history could not possibly have any connection to the scribe of the Antigonus notebook. But both of these texts had been gazed upon by the same person.

This thought sent a chill down his spine. He closed the book, changed his clothes, and went downstairs.

On the coffee table in the lounge, a pot of freshly brewed black tea, two teacups, and a plate of digestive biscuits had already been set out. Klein was sitting on the sofa, flipping through a copy of the mold cleanup report, and looked up when he heard footsteps.

"You slept for twelve hours. Dunn said you do not need to participate in the Backup Team's patrol today and had Leonard cover your shift."

"Leonard did not complain?"

"He complained. After complaining, he said he happened to have something he needed to confirm at Iron Cross Street." Klein placed the copy of the report on the coffee table. "Last week, while patrolling near the Pumping Station, he found a fragment of an old Sealed Artifact that had been overlooked. When he thought about it last night, he suddenly felt something was wrong. He said the color of that fragment was very similar to the mold."

"It is not similar. It is the same thing." Lu Li picked up his teacup and took a sip.

"Old Neil re-analyzed the mold root system samples yesterday. The composition of the roots is the same formula as the sealing material used in the outer sealing structure of the Chanis Gate. Six years ago, when Ince was maintaining the drainage system, he replaced the sealing material with the mold's culture medium. Those mold growths did not grow out of the array diagram—they were planted by Ince himself."

Klein was silent for a moment. "He did not plant the mold to assist with a Spirit Descent Ritual."

"Correct. He was leaving himself an escape route. Once the mold is activated, the concentric positioning circle automatically locks onto the marked target closest to the center of the circle."

"If he had inscribed himself into the list of marked targets for the backup rune before defecting, he could return to Iron Cross Street at any time and use the mold positioning circle to confirm whether his spiritual state was still within the safety line."

"He inscribed himself into the list?"

"He did. Old Neil found the list in his old journals. There was only one person on the list—Ince Zangwill himself. He did not know he had been corrupted before he defected, but he had always been suspicious. The mold was the last thermometer he used to test whether he still maintained his human identity."

Klein placed his teacup back on the coffee table.

"So, there was nothing at the center of the circle formed by the mold yesterday—it just happened to be activated by your spiritual residue. But there was only Ince on the marked list. As long as Ince is still alive, the mold may reappear."

"Correct. The source will not disappear; it is just dormant for now. The Backup Team's patrol every two weeks is enough."

Both of them picked up their teacups at the same time. Sunlight from outside the window leaked through the gaps in the clouds, casting a patch of bright light on the coffee table.

In the afternoon, Lu Li went to the Potion Room.

He closed the door, sat down at the workbench, opened his notebook, and turned to a blank page. He needed to start preparing the advancement plan for Sequence 7: Swindler now.

The digestion progress of the Prometheus potion was already more than halfway complete. The core ability was "Stealing Flames"—not just physical fire, but also flames of spirituality, flames of memory, and flames of emotion.

Old Coppersmith had said something on the day he successfully stole the fire: the key to acting as a Prometheus is to let the fire become something else in your hands. At the time, he only understood the literal meaning—turning fire into potions, turning it into tools.

But now he realized that this sentence had another layer of meaning: acting as a Prometheus was not just about manipulating the flames themselves; more importantly, it was about controlling the "ownership" of the flames.

After the alchemical fire was stolen from Old Coppersmith and turned into the main ingredient for the potion, that was a complete acting cycle. Next, he needed more diverse theft targets to advance his digestion progress.

He made a list in his notebook. The priority of theft targets from low to high: ordinary flames, flames of spirituality, flames of Sealed Artifacts, flames of memory, flames of emotion. Each time he completed a level of theft, the digestion progress would advance accordingly.

Currently, he had already completed the theft of the flames of spirituality; the next target was the flames of Sealed Artifacts.

But Tingen currently had no readily available fire-attribute Sealed Artifacts. The jiaowei had been transferred away, and the fire attribute of the silver snake key was too weak. This meant he needed to look for opportunities in Backlund or further afield.

He copied the Sequence 7 formula into his notebook. The main ingredients were the pituitary extract of an adult Transformation Lizard, the hyoid bone powder of a Deceiver, and an item "that had been used to deceive others" as the ritual catalyst.

The first two could be purchased on the black market, but the last one required him to personally complete a successful act of deception, and then use the item used in that deception as the ritual catalyst to meet the advancement conditions.

The core of a Swindler is not combat, but information asymmetry. He needed to accumulate enough experience in deception before advancing.

Lu Li copied the formula onto the last page of his notebook using shorthand and symbols that only he could understand, folded the corner of that page, closed the notebook, and locked it in the drawer.

Footsteps came from the corridor. Klein pushed the door open and entered, holding a telegram he had just received.

"Old Neil asked me to give this to you—the transfer list for Sealed Artifacts sent by the Backlund diocese headquarters. The jiaowei is still in Backlund and has not been transferred away. You can apply for a temporary transfer; the approval process takes at least three weeks."

Lu Li took the telegram and read through it.

"Three weeks is too slow. I plan to go to Backlund in person after things here in Tingen have come to an end. There is not only the jiaowei there, but also a more complete supply channel for Beyonder materials. Two of the main ingredients for the Swindler formula are not easy to get on the black market in Tingen."

Klein sat down in the chair opposite him.

"When do you plan to set off?"

"After the mold patrol stabilizes. I need to talk to Dunn about temporarily leaving the team first." Lu Li folded the telegram and put it into his notebook. Outside the window, the clock tower struck the hour again.

In the evening, Lu Li returned to his dormitory and placed the outline of loens modern history on the nightstand. The gold-stamped title on the spine had been worn away for the most part, leaving only the words "Loen" and "outline of... history" still faintly discernible.

He flipped through a few pages before bed and paused when he reached page thirty-seven. That printing Error was still there—"134"—and the ink smudge on the edge of the lead type had not disappeared just because the mold had been cleared; it remained quietly printed on the yellowed page. He suddenly thought of something.

When Roselle wrote his diaries in his later years, he used a language he had invented himself. Those diaries could only be deciphered above the gray fog, because the gray fog could automatically translate all languages.

But the Snake of Fate said it had met Roselle and that Roselle had made a deal with it. If Roselle had truly exchanged a finger with it—then certain traces left by Roselle might not need the gray fog to be read at all.

Just like the printing Error on page thirty-seven of the outline of loens modern history in his hand. It was not written in Hermes script, but anyone who could understand Hermes script could see that it was wrong.

Because the way it was wrong was not in the words themselves, but in the typesetting—in the position of the lead type, in the depth of the ink, in those inconspicuous but indeed existing subtle deviations.

He put the book back on the nightstand and turned off the light.

In the Darkness, the crack on the ceiling was illuminated faintly by the moonlight filtering in from outside the window. The Fate Anchor lay quietly in his palm, without any vibration.

The next morning, Lu Li flipped through the Backlund Sealed Artifact transfer list from beginning to end in the lounge. In the remarks column for the jiaowei, it read: "Grade 3 fire-attribute Sealed Artifact, stable condition, available for loan." He folded the list and put it into his pocket.

Klein walked out of the pantry carrying two cups of black tea.

"You have decided?"

"I have decided. Once the patrol schedule for the Backup Team comes out this week, I will go talk to Dunn." Lu Li took the teacup.

"The Beyonder material market in Backlund is much larger than in Tingen. Of the two main ingredients for the Swindler, I can only find one on the Tingen black market; the other needs to be purchased through official channels in Backlund. Besides, the jiaowei is also there—if I can complete the theft of the flames of Sealed Artifacts in Backlund, the digestion progress can directly push through more than half of Sequence 8."

Klein sat down opposite him.

"About how long will you be gone?"

"It depends on the progress of material procurement. If everything goes smoothly, the round trip plus procurement will take about a month. If the approval for the jiaowei transfer gets stuck, it might take longer."

"What did Old Neil say?"

"He said I can prepare the materials for the Sequence 7 formula first, and do the advancement ritual after returning to Tingen. The ritual for a Swindler requires an item 'that has been used to deceive others' as a catalyst—it is best to complete this in a familiar environment; I am not familiar with Backlund, so it is not suitable for this step."

Klein nodded, pulled a paper figurine from his cuff, placed it on the coffee table, and pushed it over.

"Backlund is not Tingen. The density of Beyonders there is much higher than here, with people from all major churches and secret organizations. If you run into trouble, activate the paper figurine—the perception above the gray fog is not limited by distance."

Lu Li put the paper figurine into his pocket.

"I will not go looking for trouble."

"But trouble will come looking for you. Especially when you are looking for fire-attribute Sealed Artifacts." Klein picked up his teacup and took a sip. "The jiaowei is in the Sealed Artifact warehouse at the Backlund diocese headquarters. The security level of that warehouse is two levels higher than the Tingen Nighthawks headquarters. Even for a legal transfer, the approval process will be reviewed repeatedly."

"That is why I need a letter of recommendation from Old Neil." Lu Li also picked up his teacup.

That afternoon, Old Neil listened to Lu Li's plan for the trip to Backlund in the Potion Room.

He leaned his staff against the back of the chair, took out letter paper and a fountain pen from the drawer, and began to write the letter of recommendation. The handwriting was as precise and stingy as always, stating only the facts without any superfluous embellishments.

"Lu Li, a Sequence 8 Beyonder of the Tingen Nighthawks squad, applies for temporary access to the Grade 3 fire-attribute Sealed Artifact 'jiaowei' in the Backlund diocese headquarters Sealed Artifact warehouse due to the need to procure advancement materials. This member has performed reliably in the maintenance of the Chanis Gate seal and the purification task of the Iron Cross Street anchor, and it is recommended to approve the transfer."

He folded the letter paper, put it into an envelope, sealed it with wax, and stamped it with his holy emblem seal.

"The approval for the jiaowei transfer takes at least three weeks. After you arrive in Backlund, find the materials first, then wait for the approval—do not do it the other way around and waste time." He pushed the envelope over.

Lu Li took the envelope and put it into his pocket.

"Three weeks is enough. The main ingredients for the Swindler can be resolved in the Backlund Beyonder material market, and the auxiliary materials can be gathered in Tingen."

"If the approval for the jiaowei goes smoothly, I can complete the theft of the flames of Sealed Artifacts in Backlund and push the digestion progress of the Prometheus much further."

Old Neil picked up his enamel mug again.

"Do not rush the Sequence 7 advancement ritual. The ritual catalyst for a Swindler requires an item 'that has been used to deceive others'; it is best to complete this in an environment you are familiar with, do not do it elsewhere. The waters in Backlund are much deeper than in Tingen; you are going alone, so keep a low profile."

"Understood."

Old Neil took a sip of tea and said nothing more. The distiller in the corner emitted a constant, low hum.

Lu Li pushed the door open and walked out of the Potion Room; the gas lamps in the corridor cast flickering light on the crack on the stone wall. He tucked the envelope away close to his body and walked toward his dormitory.