musicians of old

Chapter 862 Prayer, or Reading a Letter
Lasuth walked to a wall inside the cabin and pressed his fingers on several seemingly ordinary riveted plates in a specific order.

After a slight grinding sound, the wall silently slid open, revealing a downward, even darker mud and stone staircase, just wide enough for one person to pass through.

A faint yet unsettling scent emanated from below, resembling a mixture of old paper and peculiar grease.

The main element is "Jin" (烬), with "Huang" (荒) as a secondary element.

Lassus stepped aside, gesturing for Fanning to go first.

Fan Ning walked inside without any hesitation, even with a hint of amusement on her face.

Why all this secrecy?

“This leads to the ‘Silent Archives’, which is absolutely isolated and can completely avoid… certain ‘views’.”

Lasuth followed behind, his gaze sweeping meaningfully upwards, as if he saw the sky.

The steps are steep and narrow, with a long section extending straight down into the ground.

After walking for about a minute or two, there was another smaller and heavier circular door at the bottom. There was no keyhole on the door, only a complex metal compass-like structure made up of multiple concentric rings.

"Are you guys putting up a 'matryoshka doll' here?" Fanning laughed.

“Those things’ ‘vision’ is everywhere, more or less.” Hearing the other party’s strange sarcasm, Laxus simply smiled in response. “Absolute avoidance is impossible, but this place is an exception. Believe me, in the entire world right now, only this square meter is absolutely safe.”

He stepped forward and used his withered fingers to precisely and quickly manipulate the rings.

As the last symbol aligned, the center of the disc silently sank in, and the doorway slowly spun open.

The air seemed to freeze, as if time itself had thickened. A gas lamp with a bluish-green glass shade cast a dim light, elongating and distorting people's shadows on the steps they had come from.

On the table beneath the lampshade lay an object made of neither paper nor cloth, its cold, metallic gleam occasionally emanating from it.

Is it a piece of paper with secret markings, or an envelope?

Fanning stared at the combined symbol above.

The simple lines of the window and bookcase reveal a huge round table with about a quarter of its arc, and a small knife standing on the table.

The symbol on the "Discussion Group" flag that was raised on the last night of the Harvest Arts Festival celebrations in San Porto's Piazza del Sol.

The form of the symbol remained unchanged compared to before, but now Fanning could clearly perceive that its meaning had undergone an extremely profound and progressive change.

This is a "witness symbol"!
"Let's contact the leader, Your Excellency Fanning." Lasus continued to gesture for them to speak, but his gaze drifted into the distance. "Afterwards in the tower, the situation took a turn for the worse. The leader went up to the residence but was contaminated and isolated by dangerous elements. Logically speaking, you and I should not be able to contact each other now, but I must tell you in a 'fortunate' tone that things are still under the leader's arrangement and control."

“We’ve been dealing with each other for so many years, you should know that I find the last kind of talk the most disgusting.” Fan Ning shrugged. “So this is what you call ‘Pogrerich’s aftermath’s arrangements’? Well, you’re contradicting yourselves. One minute you say ‘unable to contact,’ the next you want me to contact you. What is the Director trying to tell me, the message from ten days ago or some kind of foolish move now?”

"Matters related to the 'worm' were arranged to be explained both before the struggle, as a precaution, and after the struggle, as a precaution."

Lasus picked up the secret contract from under the blue light shield and presented it to Fanning with both hands.

"In short, if Your Excellency Fanning were to pray to the Leader in this absolutely secluded area, you would surely receive His secret response."

Upon hearing this, Fan Ning's cold gaze met Lasus's.

Cold sweat instantly covered Laxus's face, and his heart pounded violently as if waking from a nightmare! He felt that the invisible "connection" between himself and everything around him had been rewritten in an instant! Some concepts that were originally weakly connected were forcibly aggregated and pulled together, while others with strong connections were forcibly repelled. "Flame" and "silence" were bound together, and the surrounding silence was filled with extreme heat that was burning away his spirituality; "ignorance" and "light" were bound together, and the more he stared at the lampshade that was turning yellow, the more unfamiliar those hidden spiritual sensibilities in his mind became; and the connection between "heartbeat" and "life" was reversed, and the faster his heart beat, the more he felt that he was entering a state of near death!
Fortunately, the feeling of losing control came and went quickly.

When Fanning withdrew his gaze, Lasus, who was proficient in three aspects, leaned against the wall of the steps in a semi-paralyzed state.

Only then did the latter truly realize just how terrifying Fan Ning's strength was, even though he was an Order Enforcer who had suffered a "suicidal blow"!
"Please." Fan Ning's eyes held a half-smile. "You can't offer sincerity, so you're trying to play dirty tricks right from the start, huh? Your esteemed hall initially treated everyone like three-year-olds, but now you're giving me a second glance, starting to regard me as someone who knew my former status. Please...please?"

Lasuze's jaw clenched, and beads of sweat trickled down his temples.

The fourth layer, the "Gate of the Moon," is the divine power that Fanning acquired. It can not only manipulate the attraction or repulsion between things, but also the "presence" and "perceivedness" of things in the perception of others! Just like the counterpoint between different voices, the tendency of harmonic resolution, and the transformation of conflict and harmony between intervals, all are under the control of the composer. Or in a complex symphony, through orchestration and dynamic changes, the theme that should stand out is quietly hidden in the background, or a secondary melody suddenly becomes the auditory focus!
The previous sense of terror and loss of control had passed, but now a new anomaly had occurred. Laxus felt that he suddenly couldn't find his way back. The staircase was clearly there, but he always "subconsciously ignored" it.

Conversely, certain “trivial details” that one has been deliberately avoiding paying attention to have become incredibly conspicuous, and now not only one side but also the other side has taken the opportunity to notice them.

Fan Ning took a step and casually raised his hand. The invisible force of the "key" loosened the bricks and stones, and he took a small piece of cement slab in his hand.

"Crackling!" "Crackling!"

On the wall near the lampshade, seven or eight specific metal plates were smashed by Fanning.

It produced a crisp, mirror-like cracking sound, followed by a sharp, alert, mercury-like liquid that flowed down through the crack.

"Specific areas and secret rituals to analyze the scent and shape of dreams—what, is your 'controlled zone' space not enough? Do you need to consider a projection of Southern history? But this projection doesn't match the atmosphere and style your hall favors."

Fan Ning weighed the cement brick in his hand a couple of times, tossed it aside, picked up the secret contract with the symbol of "round table and knife" again, examined it for a moment, and chuckled twice.

"If you don't serve something that really interests me, I'll just throw this whole place out the window. Anyway, the world is so big, there's shit everywhere these days, whether the last few latrines are demolished or kept won't affect the overall impression too much."

"Cough cough. Master Fanning cough cough cough." Lasus covered his mouth and coughed a few times in a disheveled manner.

"As someone who relays instructions, that's all that's supposed to be conveyed. The most valuable information, of course, can only be learned after contact is made. However, just as no one with knowledge will ever believe in the safety of 'prayers,' the leader has not promised that your 'prayers' will be guaranteed in any way, and has always taken into account the existence of repression and rebellion."

Lasuze wiped away the trail of blood from the tip of his nose, but remained calm, even letting out a composed laugh.

"But the leader did anticipate that Master Fanning would not contact him, whether it was due to concerns, disheartened feelings, or personal prejudice against our department. As the message from the summit said, 'All you have to do is choose.' The leader did indeed provide you with a second option, which can be considered a second-best choice."

"Oh?" Fan Ning's interest was clearly a little stronger this time than before.

"What you are holding is both a witness to the leader's ascension to the position of Witness and an envelope."

Lasusi leaned against the wall and weakly raised his hand.

"If you don't want to contact me in real time through prayer, you can tear open the envelope along the witnessing talisman and read the letter inside. That would truly be a pre-message in the purest sense. However, hehe, since Master Fanning came here because of 'a pitifully small amount of interest,' I must offer a word of advice."

"I bet the stuff in here isn't anything special. Master Fanning shouldn't have any high expectations of being 'interested'."

"What's the difference between the two?" Fanning narrowed his eyes. "And what's inside this one?"

“I guess it’s a ‘conservative treatment plan’.” Lasuth’s withered face wrinkled even more. “Some fallback negotiations about ‘post-event distribution of benefits and power structure’ in this world are very important to those who are still alive, but very boring to Master Fanning.”

“But this is different.” The man pointed to the symbol of “round table and knife” and urged Fanning to pray again. “I guess, hehe, the leader might have some more radical, more dangerous, but more reliable ‘backup plan’.”

"What did you say?!" Upon hearing this, Fan Ning's face finally turned serious, and his eyes sharpened!