Susie was sitting by the door, waiting for Audrey to return.
At that moment, the golden retriever immediately went up to her as soon as she saw her approach. She even gave a rather talented showcase of her acting by barking and wagging her tail.
She didn't ask on the spot; instead, she kept accompanying Audrey back to her bedroom before asking in concern, "Is it over?"
Audrey tersely acknowledged, indicating that there was no problem.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Susie pressed.
"Not yet." Audrey shook her head slightly.
Due to Susie's concern, she instinctively recalled her previous experience, but to her surprise, she realized that she couldn't recall the image and name of the Psychology Alchemists president. To recall even the information that she had learned from The World Gehrman Sparrow, she had to focus quite a bit.
To be frank, in front of Beyonders below the demigod level, she could do similar feats as a Manipulator. However, to influence a saint in the mind domain and make it impossible for them to sense it was almost impossible unless the other party was hypnotized, unconscious, or enslaved.
That gentleman's level is probably higher than I expected… Audrey controlled her emotions and calmly made a certain judgment.
She gave Susie a look and got the golden retriever to stand guard outside the door. In her mind, she outlined the character mask that represented Pride.
Just as she was thinking about this, she felt a slight fluctuation in the sea of collective subconscious around her.
With just a thought, Audrey reached out her left hand and grabbed it. She took out an abnormally cold, illusory grayish-white mask.
As long as I seriously think about it, will this Pride mask come to my side? Or should I say that it has already existed in my subconscious and has been following me? As Audrey carefully examined her mind island, she signaled with a thought that made the Pride mask vanish.
The ice-cold, illusory grayish-white mask quickly turned transparent and melted into the surrounding sea of collective subconscious.
Audrey still couldn't determine where this Pride mask had gone. Why did it appear in such a timely manner each time?
This made her increasingly wary. She decided to pray to Mr. Fool and make the wish of sealing the mask.
Just as she was thinking of doing a few more experiments to obtain more knowledge from Pride, she saw the sea of collective subconscious begin to resonate without using her Manipulator Beyonder powers.
A beam of light came from afar as it grew larger and more obvious. Finally, it turned into an illusory letter.
This letter stopped in front of Audrey's mind island as though it was searching for a path to complete the "delivery."
Audrey naturally wouldn't let any foreign object enter her mind world. She hurriedly reached out her left hand and touched the illusory letter.
Seeing that her fingers were about to touch the surface of the letter, Audrey suddenly stopped.
Her experience and intelligence told her at the same time:
Don't touch anything in the mysticism world rashly. This was especially so for the mind domain. Otherwise, it would easily lead to corruption and produce mental problems!
With this in mind, Audrey produced a Virtual Persona and put on the black long-veiled glove, Hand of Horror.
After making the necessary preparations, she reached out to grab the illusory letter and watched as it peeled away its outer layer and flipped over one page at a time.
This was all the information related to the mind dragon in East Chester County.
To use the sea of collective subconscious to transmit information… The higher-ups of the Spectator pathway are truly amazing… As a Manipulator, Audrey had been trying her best to maintain her initial yearning towards the mysticism world. It was a pure and innocent pursuit of "dreams" and "magic."
This was one of the ways to prevent herself from losing herself in the "Manipulating" experience of things, and not be assimilated by the sea of collective subconscious.
After flipping through all the information, Audrey let the illusory letter melt into the sea of collective subconscious.
She was still in no hurry to pray to Mr. Fool. According to her previous arrangements, she went out to be busy over other things.
At dusk, before the banquet at home began, she found some time to quickly make a prayer in her bedroom and make a wish.
In the next second, Audrey saw the grayish-white Pride appear from the sea of collective subconscious in front of her. The illusory feeling slowly vanished as a tiny amount of metallic luster flashed.
For some reason, this persona mask had a certain substantial feel to it as though it was bordering between illusory and realism.
This meant that it was isolated from Audrey's mind island in a physical sense.
Of course, it also lost the ability to return to the sea of collective subconscious.
Audrey held Pride and attempted to remove Lie that had turned into an emerald necklace, overlapping the two together.
Just as she had expected, the half-illusory, half-real Pride embedded itself into Lie, turning into a blob of patterns that roughly looked like a human face.
In the future, I'll use this method to carry it with me. I won't allow the persona mask to have any contact with my mind or body until I need to use it… Audrey's mind raced as she sincerely thanked Mr. Fool.
She then left for the banquet hall.
Along the way, she met her father, Earl Hall.
"Good news." Earl Hall laughed.
Audrey didn't hide her surprise.
"Alfred's coming back?"
This was her other brother.
"You actually guessed it?" Earl Hall said in surprise, "In the next half of the year, he will return to Backlund as a general."
Half a year… Susie is already a Dreamwalker… Audrey thought for a moment and asked, "Father, when are we returning to East Chester County?"
As the war had just ended and there were many things in the kingdom that needed to be done, the nobles didn't return to their respective fiefs during New Year's. They remained in Backlund all this time. It was already the end of February.
Earl Hall nodded and said, "About April."
…
In the ancient palace above the fog.
Mind Mail… Be careful of viruses, don't click on them without thought… As Klein sighed, he threw the curtain that represented the Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic back into the junk pile, allowing it to cover all the items there.
He had just fulfilled Miss Justice's wish using the "Grafting" ability he named. He connected the illusory concept of the persona mask to an ordinary metal mask, and he gave the Worms of Spirit, who were on duty at Sefirah Castle, an order to recharge the powers from time to time to prolong the "Grafting" effect.
From the description of Mr. Gluttony from the Psychology Alchemists, Zaratul seems to have found Constant City. I have to be even more careful… Klein tapped the edge of the long mottled table with his finger, causing Worms of Spirit to appear from his body.
His figure vanished from Sefirah Castle.
…
Winter County, Amantha mountain range, Cathedral of Serenity.
Leonard obtained a document from the Pope.
This was the first thing he was responsible for after becoming a high-ranking deacon.
After returning to his room, Leonard leisurely leaned back and placed his feet on the desk. Then, he opened the document in his hand and began reading.
A wandering magician, Merlin Hermes, grants the wishes of others for pleasure… The newly rebuilt Constant City… Fully Automatic Wishing Machine… Sequence 4 of the Seer pathway is Bizarro Sorcerer, Sequence 3 is Scholar of Yore, and Sequence 2 is Miracle Invoker…
Leonard read until he suddenly fell silent.
After a few seconds, he suppressed his voice and asked, "Old Man, how many angels of the Seer pathway are active across the land?"
Pallez Zoroast scoffed.
"This is acting. There should only be one Miracle Invoker who still needs to act.
"You should know who I'm talking about."
Leonard looked at the information in his hand again and mumbled, "He's having quite a good time…"
He had already decided that the main purpose of this mission was to act as a Nightwatcher and digest his potion. He could also travel in passing. As for handling the matter, what mattered was to find a reasonable explanation.
After flipping through the thick documents in boredom, Leonard retracted his feet and stood up.
He was going to retrieve a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact that a high-ranking deacon like him could own.
To other saints of the Church of Evernight, this was quite a headache. This was because the negative effects of Sealed Artifacts weren't easily endured. It was even more so when one needed to carry them for a long period of time. However, if one chose a Holy Artifact that was more compatible with him, there would be a problem of powers overlapping.
As for Leonard, he didn't need to worry about this problem. As long as the Sealed Artifact he was interested in had a living characteristic, he could get Old Man's help. By parasitizing it with a Worm of Time, it significantly reduced the negative effects of the Sealed Artifact, making it as obedient as the Word of the Sea.
Therefore, the main thing to choose is its powers… Leonard whistled and walked out of the room.
…
Monday afternoon, in the ancient palace above the gray fog.
Dark red beams shot out, materializing into different figures.
Derrick hadn't needed to count his heartbeat for a long time. All he needed to do was take a look at the wall clock and calculate the time difference with Backlund to know how much longer before the Tarot Gathering happened. At that moment, he stood up with Miss Justice and the other members of the Tarot Club. He bowed to the end of the long bronze table and said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Fool."
After taking their seats and paying their respects, Emlyn glanced left and right and said, "I want to know if there's something special about the Planter and the Moon pathways compared to the other pathways?"
After raising the question, he didn't hide it and instead added frankly, "I recently learned that the internal system of the Church of Earth is different from other normal systems. It's split into two categories—Favored and Blessed…"
After Emlyn finished his simple description, Alger, Cattleya, Leonard, and company looked at each other, unable to provide a reasonable explanation.
Of course, every member present, including Derrick, could tell that the internal system of the Church of Earth was abnormal.
At this moment, they heard a soft sigh.
This sigh seemed to come from an era more ancient than ancient. It came from Mr. Fool, who sat at the end of the long mottled table.