musicians of old

Chapter 957 The Mystery of the "Oracle"

As they returned to the outskirts of San Perto, dusk was swallowing up the last rays of light, and the sky had turned into a clear and deep dove blue. Fanning patted Joan on the shoulder, and his figure disappeared first.

The Holy Sun Church Cathedral.

The air was filled with the soft scent of frankincense. The halls, rooms, and corridors were brightly lit. Fan Ning walked alone among them, his shadow stretching and receding among the sculptures and murals.

Several priests, who were walking through a hall, froze on the spot when they saw Fan Ning.

"May grace and peace be abundantly bestowed upon you." Fan Ning offered his thanks calmly, his figure disappearing around the corner.

Five seconds later, an elderly priest was the first to struggle to speak, "Did any of you see anything just now?"

"Our Lightbringers?"

"Go and report to the Pope immediately!!"

Everyone already knew that Fan Ning had returned from the tower, but he had not yet accepted a formal audience with the church. Unexpectedly, he showed up uninvited on the last night of the new year. The group ran off like the wind.

"Going to the 'Radiant Ship'?"

Before long, in a secret scripture reading room, four high-ranking church officials looked at each other, with the Pope and the judge exchanging glances.

“Your Excellency Saint-Lavoisier, uh, I wonder about that ‘Night Watchman’s Lamp’?” Judge Melaltin couldn’t help but ask.

The location of the Transcendent Realm "Radiant Wheel" is extremely high, situated at a fork in the passage between the "Gate of Dawn" and the "Gate of the Dome." Only by completely shattering the lamp cavity of the "Night Watcher's Lamp" once can one enter the dream and reach it.

The two cardinals couldn't help but glance a few more times at Fanning's empty hands.

"Oh, no problem."

Fan Ning casually picked up a glass lamp from the scripture reading room and smashed it to pieces amidst the stunned gazes of everyone.

"The way is now opened, and it has been said and it is done. If any of you believe, you will go there as if you were going into a wilderness, and you will know the entrance as if you were seeing a reed in the wind."

The sound of this ordinary lamp shattering continued to reverberate like a tuning fork.

Before anyone could react, they felt their bodies shatter glass after glass. Once their thoughts were focused, they were immediately confronted with the complex and profound sight of the "Giant Wheel of Radiance."

Hundreds of halos revolve around the same center, rotating at different speeds on axes in different planes.

The closer you fly to its interior, the more the depth is extended and stretched, and the more enclosed the view becomes, until finally, you find yourself in a narrow tunnel.

But the dazzling stripe that was once a "third" different from the others is now indistinguishable from the others; it is simply a simple interplay of light and shadow, casting a shadow.

Pass through the "Wall of Icons" and arrive at the secret stone chamber at the very end.

Above the open sky, an indescribable "glowing" model slowly rotates, and particles of light pass through the "triangular prism" suspended in mid-air, projecting onto the "Slaughtering Cattle" painting on the rock wall below.

Every generation of those who have received the Light has come here to interpret the origins and secrets of Mithra. When Fan Ning first came to listen to the nameless saint's tale, he was probably following the same path. But this time, his purpose was different. Fan Ning gestured for the church's high-ranking members to step back, and then sat directly in front of the "Slaughtering the Ox" painting, amidst the light and particles refracted from the "radiance" model above.

Indeed, Fan Ning already understood the true meaning of "The Slaughter of the Ox," but now he wanted to get to the bottom of a problem.

Why does the "Unfading Fire" convey the image of "The Slaughter of the Ox"?
What was the state of mind and intention behind that seemingly plausible "oracle of the sun" that triggered so many factional divisions and subsequent disputes?
Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, Fan Ning, who was sitting on the ground, simply raised her hand and gently clenched it—

"boom!"

The triangular prism suspended beneath the "glowing" model was instantly reduced to dust!

The air inside the stone chamber instantly became viscous, the light from the surrounding stone lamps seemed to dim for a moment, and the rotation of the radiant wheel seemed to stop for a split second. Then, the originally orderly projection relationship instantly boiled over, and countless tiny filaments of light collided and splashed everywhere!

The projected content of "The Slaughter of the Ox" painting was completely messed up.

Fan Ning, however, kept his palm pressed against the stone wall and slowly closed his eyes.

The new "path" has been determined. He is now completely uninterested in the contents of the "oracle," but he has begun to try to deduce what state and intention the "Unfading Flame" was in when the "oracle" of the 0th history was generated!

As Fanning's divinity deepened its "reading," the "oracle of the sun" was deciphered into fragmented, noisy pieces of thought that flooded directly into his perception:
"Unknown!... Interface!... Source!... Non-source!... Channel!!... One-way!!... Stream splitting!!... Imitation!!... Disguise!?... Structure!?... Security!?... Cutting!?... Exchange!?!?... Time!!!!!!!!!..."

This "oracle of the sun" has no rules or sacredness; it is more like the echo of a contradictory roar from an ancient being trapped in some terrifying and unknown predicament, in pain and haste!
In other words, the doctrinal differences between "the three as light" and "the three as night," and the various conspiracy theories-laden interpretations, are likely just later interpretations and embellishments based on their own perspectives on this fragmented and disruptive "logo."
The Pope watched breathlessly from the side, but the scene was beyond anyone's comprehension. He felt the distorted and shifting light and shadows make him stagger. The two cardinals behind him quickly helped him up. Both of them were also pale-faced and clutched the holy emblem on their chests.

Fan Ning finally slowly withdrew his hand.

The light and shadow that had been shooting and bouncing around the stone chamber vanished instantly, returning to the original darkness and silence. Only the "glowing" model at the top began to slowly rotate again, emitting a faint, low-pitched sound of airflow.

The painting "Slaughtering an Ox" has now been frozen in time and taken on a completely different form.

A "light path diagram" that purely expresses the relationship between light and shadow; countless parallel, intertwined, mutually influential yet relatively independent "branches"; a complex, redundant "maze" full of internal interference and branches.

Fan Ning opened his eyes and remained silent for a long time, his eyes filled with deep weariness and even deeper confusion.

On the narrow tunnel outside, the complex stripes of shadow of the "glowing giant wheel" still intertwine and rotate.

The church's senior members looked at him with concern, their expressions hesitant to speak.

"Your Excellency Saint Lavoisier," the Pope finally murmured, his voice hoarse.

“The oracle may not be a revelation or command at all.” Fanning’s voice was soft, but it sounded like a hammer blow against a stone wall. “It’s more like a hasty operation to avoid danger.”

He didn't utter the rest of his sentence, because it had completely exceeded the comprehension of others; he only repeated it twice in his mind, bewildered—

"It's strange that the true meaning of 'The Slaughter of the Ox' is a metaphor for using various 'grids' to kill the 'gathering point,' a view that Pogrerich also agreed with before. This is also why artists feel the source of inexplicable malice after rising to the level of 'torchbearer.' But why do I feel that 'the unfailing fire' is not treating the 'gathering point' as a concrete 'thing' and fearing something? And there's something even stranger."

"It seems that He knew all along that once the 'exorcism ritual' was activated and the Zero History was destroyed, the world would form the 'noon' structure!"