Mystery: I Married the Queen of Mystery.

Chapter 370 The Anchor of the Gods
The Tarot Club entered the communication phase.

Audrey, the Justice, spoke first, "I've received accurate information. Official Beyonders have already taken notice of the dragon-believing village due to the archaeological team's experience."

She had previously announced a piece of news she had received from the "Psychological Alchemy Society".

Several members of the "Psychological Alchemist Society" formed an archaeological team to study a village with dragon worship. As a result, they all went crazy in the middle of the night and started attacking their companions. In the end, no one in the archaeological team survived.

Although the "Psychological Alchemy Society" concealed this matter to a certain extent at the time, it has now been noticed by official extraordinary people and they have begun to take some actions.

The Hanged Man, Alger, said, "It will be noticed by the official Beyonders sooner or later."

Audrey asked, "I'm a little curious, is the Mind Dragon still in the same area?"

"No." Alger almost blurted out.

Audrey said "Oh", she thought so too, but she still had a question in her mind: "If the dragon is just hiding in the ocean of subconsciousness, it should be difficult to be discovered.

"Why did it allow the residents of those villages to be influenced and develop the custom of believing in dragons, and why did it let the Beyonders or official Beyonders along the same path notice it?"

Klein the Fool, who sat at the head of the long bronze table, recalled some of the information he had learned and manipulated the World to say, "The custom of dragon worship is of great help in stabilizing the state of the psychic dragon.

"You can have people pay attention to this matter. If the customs in the village change significantly, it means that the psychic dragon will create similar traditions in other places."

Audrey asked in confusion, "Is that custom conducive to stabilizing the dragon's condition?"

"Yes." The World Gehrman Sparrow did not give any explanation, but simply answered in the affirmative.

At this time, Klein, posing as The Fool, looked around and said, "Why do you think the gods want to preach?"

Audrey immediately came up with the orthodox answer in her heart: Doesn’t God love the world?
Then, like members like "The Hanged Man" Alger and "Priestess" Cattleya, she came up with the second answer: a stable state!
Cattleya immediately thought of the scepter that the Fool was playing with when she first entered the giant's hall.

Later, she speculated that it must be the extraordinary characteristics of "Sea God" Kalvetuwa, which seemed to represent authority and believers. At this time, she further speculated: Does that mean that Mr. "Fool" really needs a large number of believers to stabilize his state, so he managed to obtain Kalvetuwa's characteristics, replace "Sea God", and gain a large number of believers.

Alger had seen the mural before, so when he heard this again, he no longer felt the same trembling fear. Instead, he began to seriously consider why faith could stabilize the state of a demigod-level creature.

Only the "hermit" Odysseus thought to himself: You've fooled me again.

Because Mr. Fool didn't explain further, the other members turned to Odysseus. Audrey even asked directly, "Mr. Hermit, do you understand the logic behind this? What kind of reward do I need to pay to get the corresponding answer?"

Klein, the Fool, also secretly glanced at the Hermit from the corner of his eye behind the gray fog, because he didn't understand the underlying logic. However, from the diary he obtained today, he had a rough idea that it might be related to "mental residue."

He had just explained that in the hope of whetting the appetites of the other members and asking them to ask the "Hermit" so that he could know the answer to this question.

After hearing Audrey's question, Odysseus smiled somewhat helplessly. He knew that the final result would be like this.

After thinking for a while, Odysseus said, "I can't give you an accurate answer to this question, but I can tell you my guess.

"Because I don't know whether those guesses are accurate, I won't charge you any compensation."

Everyone was not disappointed because the "hermit's" speculations were very logical and could also satisfy their curiosity.

Odysseus organized his words before saying, "First, we need to understand one question: why is the state of the gods unstable?"

Everyone was stunned, feeling that the Hermit was completely speculating about the gods in front of Mr. Fool. They secretly glanced at Mr. Fool, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that he was not angry.

Klein was somewhat embarrassed at this moment. Logically, he should have warned the Hermit, but if he did that, he wouldn't get the answer he wanted.

After pondering for a moment, Klein smiled with satisfaction and nodded encouragingly, as if to show that he was very generous and told the Hermit not to be shy and to speak freely.

The other members were finally relieved when they saw Mr. Fool's expression.

While Odysseus was impressed by Klein's ability to respond, he thought to himself: Young man, I see that you have a unique talent and are a good material for becoming an evil god.

Then he continued, "Actually, we've already discussed this issue. The problem with the state of a normal god is most likely due to 'mental residue', or simply called 'mental imprint'.

"Such a brand comes from two aspects. One aspect is that the higher the sequence, the closer to the 'Primordial Creator,' so the brand left by the 'Primordial' will appear in the characteristics.

"Secondly, there are the spiritual imprints left by other high-sequence Beyonders.

"For example, the divinity obtained by the 'Goddess of Night' theoretically includes the mark of 'Origin' and the mark of the 'Destruction Wolf'."

Odysseus paused for a moment and continued, "The spiritual imprint of 'the beginning' should be inclined towards the order of the operation of this universe, which is very cold and inhuman.

“And the spiritual imprint left by the previous gods of the same path is more like something twisted and crazy.

"If these spiritual imprints are too severe, they will cause the gods to become cold, crazy, and twisted. Actually, up to this point, they are still relatively normal gods.

"Like the several evil gods we know, they were in such bad condition due to other problems.

"For example, the 'True Creator' was betrayed and only gained humanity, which is incomplete.

"It seems the 'Original Witch' isn't in good shape due to some issues in Trier.

"The Demon Kings have the characteristics of adjacent pathways within their bodies. In short, the reason they're in such poor condition is mostly due to some legacy issues.

“Of course, the problem of mental stigma also exists, but it is not the most serious one.

"The main problem of the seven righteous gods is the problem of spiritual imprint."

The other members listened attentively, and they didn't expect that they could get so much advanced information during the communication session.

Odysseus continued, "My guess is this: believers chant the names of gods and pray to them. Even if they don't receive a response from the gods, they should have established a certain mystical connection with them.

“This kind of connection is more like opening one’s spirituality and mental body to the divine.

"I have this idea because I think that if you pray to an evil god, you will be spiritually polluted or seriously affected. So when you pray to the gods, the believers' spirits should be open to the gods.

"Could it be that during this process, the deity asked believers to help Him share the burden brought by the 'spiritual imprint'?
"But because the True God Church has a large base of believers, the mental burden borne by each believer is very small and almost unnoticeable."

The other members were stunned at first, and they all wanted to take a look at Mr. Fool and inquire about the truth of Mr. Hermit’s guess.

But none of them had the courage to do so, so they had to give up in the end.

Klein the Fool sighed. This idea sounded very rigorous. Even if the actual situation was different from this idea, it should still be pretty close.

The hall was quiet for a while before the communication session continued.

After a while of further communication, Audrey, the Justice, spoke again and asked the Hermit, "Why didn't you wear glasses at this party?"

In fact, she had noticed this a long time ago. She originally thought that the "Hermit" would share the reason, but he never talked about his experience in this regard. So when Audrey realized that the communication session was about to end, she took the initiative to ask her own questions.

The other members noticed this as well, but didn't take it too seriously.

Reminded by Miss Justice, Cattleya asked speculatively, "You... you don't already possess the complete 'Eye of Prying Secrets,' do you?"

At the beginning of the Tarot Club, she also noticed that the "Hermit" did not manifest the glasses that could block the power of the "Eye of Secrets".

At that time, she also wondered whether the "Hermit" had been promoted?
But then she felt that it was unlikely, because if she remembered correctly, the "Hermit" seemed to have been promoted to "Astrologer" only two or three months ago, and it was impossible for him to be promoted so quickly.

You know, it took her two years to completely digest the "Astrologer" potion.

So at this moment, Cattleya's tone was full of uncertainty. She even wondered if the "Hermit" had found a better way to seal the "Eye of Prying Secrets"?

Odysseus replied to the "priestess": "Yes."

Cattleya almost rushed over, grabbed the "Hermit" by the collar and asked: How did you do it?
At this point, she had the characteristics required to advance to Sequence 4, and the ceremony was also ready. She had been adjusting her condition in the past few days in preparation for the advancement.

But she never expected that the "Hermit" had already completed the promotion!

Audrey seemed to understand the conversation between the Hermit and the Priestess: "So, Mr. Hermit has been promoted to demigod?"

The other members looked at the Hermit in disbelief. Alger, the Hanged Man, even felt a sense of absurdity: Did this guy cheat? How could he be promoted so quickly?

Odysseus gave a clear answer: "Yes."

The other members took a deep breath: The first demigod among the Tarot Club members besides Mr. Fool!
Then everyone's reactions varied, and Alger suddenly felt that the joy of having obtained the formula for the demigod potion had come to an abrupt end.

The "magician" Fors simply exclaimed: How fast!

"The Sun" Derrick encouraged himself: Half-human, half-god! I must also work hard towards this goal!

"Moon" Emlyn sighed: He was promoted so quickly, why is he still in such good shape?

Audrey felt as if the distance between herself and the "hermit" had widened.

The topic ended in silence again, and Odysseus asked Audrey, "Has anything noteworthy happened in Backlund recently?"

After the letter from the "Hidden Sage" was delivered to him, Odysseus planned to ask "Justice" to see if there was anything worthy of attention?
Perhaps that was the arrangement of the "Hidden Sage" or the "God of Steam and Machinery".

Audrey thought for a moment before shaking her head and saying, "Apart from what I discussed earlier about the Mind Dragon, I haven't heard of anything particularly noteworthy."

Odysseus then looked at the Magician. Fors thought for a moment before saying, "I haven't heard of anything particularly noteworthy."

Odysseus finally looked at Emlyn the Moon. Mr. Moon was visibly taken aback. "How did you know I was in Backlund?"

Klein almost covered his face with his hands: Many of the things you said in our previous communication have long revealed that your location is in Backlund.

For a moment, some of the other members looked like they were trying to suppress laughter, while others tried to put on serious expressions.

Odysseus had no choice but to say, "You should know that I am very good at analyzing intelligence."

"You're really good at it." Emlyn smiled. "You actually saw through my disguise."

Alger immediately turned his head away, his shoulders seeming to tremble.

But it was not easy to avoid the ladies opposite Emlyn. Audrey took a deep breath and used some of the characteristics of the "audience" ability to hide her emotions well.

Cattleya and Fors both looked intently at the long bronze table, as if the mottled pattern on the table represented a fascinating novel or some profound knowledge.

Odysseus had no choice but to say, "Yes, it took me a lot of effort to figure it out."

The other members felt that they had reached their limits.

Emlyn raised his chin, then thought for a moment and said, "The discovery of unexplained spiritual fluctuations in the East District, does that count?"

Everyone then took a deep breath, leaned back in their chairs, and listened to the conversation between the two people.

Odysseus asked, "Can you be more specific?"

"That was a piece of news I overheard when I was... reporting to the Marquis in private." Emlyn said, "It is said that the Marquis sensed a strange spiritual fluctuation in the direction of the East District.

"But the Marquis is not very clear about the specific problem." In fact, he went to the Marquis to borrow money that day. The Marquis was discussing this matter with several viscounts, and he heard a few words.

Odysseus nodded: "I understand, thank you."

It is also possible that the believers of the "original moon" were carrying out certain actions, causing spiritual abnormalities. It is really impossible to guess such general information.

Emlyn waved his hand to indicate that it was nothing.

Next, Odysseus and Derrick traded extraordinary materials and extraordinary weapons as usual. In the previous transaction, "Little Sun" was shocked by the information about this Tarot Club transaction and forgot about this routine transaction for a while.

After everyone discussed this for a while, Klein the Fool announced the end of this Tarot Club.

……

Back in the real world, Odysseus stared at the ceiling of the train car for a while, then got up and went to the small dining table to prepare for the ceremony.

First, he offered the pre-packaged Extraordinary weapons and a copy of the Crimson Scholar's characteristics to Mr. Fool, asking him to deliver them to the Little Sun in the God-Forsaken Land and to Emlyn in Backlund.

After a short wait, Odysseus gained a large sum of cash, extraordinary materials, and two Sequence 5 level extraordinary characteristics.

At this gathering, Odysseus received a total of 9200 pounds from the trade for the "Great Cataclysm" intelligence. As usual, Derrick paid his share with extraordinary materials.

In addition, he received 7500 pounds for the Beyonder Characteristics he traded with Emlyn the Moon, and 600 pounds for helping Klein create a magical item.

However, he also spent 8000 pounds at this Tarot Club to purchase the "Chaos Mentor" feature.

In the end, he received £9300 in cash.

As for the two extraordinary characteristics, one is the characteristic bought by Odysseus, and the other is the "Ocean Singer" characteristic that the "World" wants to create magical items.

Odysseus did not rush to the "Wilderness of Knowledge" to make magical items. Instead, he roughly counted the gold pounds and the large amount of extraordinary materials obtained from trading extraordinary weapons, and put all these things into the "Wilderness of Knowledge".

After dealing with the matters after the end of the Tarot Club, Odysseus continued to think about the matter of the "Hidden Sage". He suddenly found that he had no sense of urgency for promotion before, but now it was different.

After receiving the "warning letter" from the "Hidden Sage", Odysseus once again felt the pressure from the gods of the same path and the gods of adjacent paths.

Only by being promoted as quickly as possible and becoming an angel can one have the ability to protect oneself.

Of course, the so-called self-preservation ability only means that when one of the two gods wants to deal with him, he can detect danger in time and have the ability to escape.

In any case, after becoming an angel, there is much more room for maneuver.

Then Odysseus began to think about the issue of promotion. First, he started to purchase the two auxiliary materials. However, the probability of purchasing them from existing channels was not high. It would be better to ask Bernadette directly, as she did not have any extra materials.

If not, Odysseus planned to pray to the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom" or the "Goddess of Night" and trade the corresponding materials from them.

For a god, especially the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom", there should be corresponding accumulation.

The auxiliary material that takes up the most time now is, on the contrary, the "observation record of the fate of at least three people". Since it is an observation of "fate", it is necessary to observe for at least a period of time, and at least observe a turning point in fate.

Odysseus planned to ask Xio to help him find several targets after arriving in Backlund, and then observe them simultaneously to save time.

As for the prophecy prepared for the ceremony, Odysseus thought that if it was a "prophecy" that a world war would start in winter, it would probably have to wait until the world war started before it could be used for promotion.

In other words, we still have to wait for more than four months!
Odysseus realized that he would probably be held back by this "prophecy".

In order to prepare for promotion in the near future, you need a "prophecy" that will "happen" in the near future.

Odysseus began to wonder what major events might have occurred recently. The first thing he thought of was that the City of Silver seemed to have prevented the former Chief from changing. This was equivalent to preventing the "artificial Grim Reaper" in the real world from connecting with the former Chief of the City of Silver.

If we were to make a "prophecy" about this matter, the levels involved should be sufficient.

The requirement for the promotion ceremony to "Master of Prophecy" is to make a prediction about the future world. The more accurate and clear the prediction, the better the effect.

Odysseus's understanding of this ritual is that the focus is on the "world" scope, which means that either it is a world-wide event like the start of a world war, or the prophecy must involve at least the level of angels.

"Artificial Death God" is considered as the unique activation of the "Death God" path, and the level is sufficient.

Then Odysseus thought again that Klein seemed to be about to take revenge soon. Although the battle for his revenge was only at the demigod level, it involved Adam and the "Goddess of Night", which was safer.

But the problem is that this "prophecy" is best avoided by Adam. If the "prophecy" involves Adam, the other party will probably notice it immediately.

Of course, if the "prophecy" involves the "Goddess of Night", the "Goddess of Night" will definitely be able to sense it, but she is a potential ally after all, so there is no need to worry that she will bring down divine punishment.

Odysseus pondered for a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "The resurrected avenger sounded the death knell for the betrayer, causing him to die in agony. The brushstrokes of nightmare will fall into the arms of the Creator, and misfortune will smile triumphantly."

This "prophecy" avoids mentioning Adam and the "Goddess of Night", and also includes details such as "nightmare strokes" and "doom", which should be able to meet the requirements of the ritual.

He thought about it again and it seemed that this event would happen in the next one or two months and would be confirmed soon.

In order to make thorough preparations, Odysseus then made predictions that "a world war will break out in late October of this year" and that the City of Silver would soon sever the connection between the "Artificial Death God" and the "God-Forsaken Land."

If the prophecy about the "artificial death god" and the prophecy about Klein's revenge are not effective, then we can only wait for the prophecy of world war to happen before we can be promoted.

After making certain plans, Odysseus went out and told his staff that he wanted to stop for a while in the city ahead so that he could pray to the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom".

This request was reasonable. After all, if the train continued to run, it would leave Lenburg tonight and enter the territory of the Kingdom of Loen, where there would no longer be a church dedicated to the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom."

Therefore, it is not excessive to ask for prayers to the gods in church before leaving the country.

So the train continued on for more than half an hour before stopping at the railway station in Glarus, an important city in eastern Lemberg. Odysseus, accompanied by two entourage members and a squad of guards, took a rented carriage to a church not far away.

The church was about to close at this time. Odysseus asked the guards to wait outside, entered the church, found a seat in a corner, and prayed quietly to the "Holy Emblem of Knowledge".

After reading out the honorific name, he whispered several times about the "warning letter" he had received. Seeing that the "God of Knowledge" did not respond, Odysseus was about to get up and leave.

Suddenly, he felt as if his spirit was being lifted up.

Then, Odysseus seemed to be in the middle of an illusory bookshelf, and suddenly a book flew towards Odysseus.

Before Odysseus could react, the book suddenly turned into a ball of soft light. The light quickly disappeared, but at the same time, Odysseus' mind was filled with a lot of high-sequence knowledge about the "Universalist" path and the "Secret Peeper" path.

Then the feeling of his spirit being lifted up disappeared instantly. Odysseus opened his eyes and found that he was still in the church.

He took a deep breath, sincerely thanked the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom", then left the church and took a carriage back to the train station.

In the carriage, Odysseus began to reflect on the knowledge that the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom" had just given him. First of all, he knew that after the Beyonders of the "Generalist" path became Sequence 2 "Knowledge Mentors", they could use the corresponding authority of "knowledge" to influence Beyonders of adjacent paths.

The main reason for this effect is that this sequence happens to be closer to the authority of the high-sequence "Secret Peeper" path.

Although the authority held by the "Knowledge Mentor" is not much, it is enough to influence the extraordinary people below the angels of the adjacent path. However, this influence is very small and generally difficult to detect.

But Odysseus knew very well that the influence at the angel level was relatively small, and it was not necessarily the case that the influence at the true god level would still be very small.

That is to say, under normal circumstances, the "God of Steam and Machinery" can have a certain impact on extraordinary people below the adjacent path angels.

This is indeed something Odysseus should pay attention to.

Another high-level intelligence shared by the God of Knowledge was that Enlighteners could fabricate knowledge to subvert their opponents' pre-existing perceptions. Sequence 0 Perfectors could exploit these altered perceptions to break through their rationality, transforming them into a shimmering mass of numbers, information, and knowledge.

At this point, the "perfector" can be allowed to take further actions.

This series of operations could be an attack completed instantly during combat, or it could be the seeds of "enlightenment" planted in advance, suddenly detonating when needed, catching the target off guard.

Odysseus felt that if the "God of Steam" wanted to deal with him, he would probably secretly plant the "seeds of enlightenment" and suddenly erupt at the critical moment.

There are also two pieces of high-sequence intelligence about the "Secret Peepers". The first is that the "Hidden Sage" is suspected to have been influenced or contaminated by the Outer Gods.

Odysseus had been mentally prepared for this. The fact that believers of the Foreign Gods had appeared in the "Moss Ascetic Order" and had not yet been cleared out showed that this organization had been seriously influenced by the Foreign Gods.

The reminder from the "God of Knowledge" was equivalent to confirming his guess.

The second piece of information is that the "Hidden Sage" who possesses the unique path of "Secret Peeping" is equivalent to having his own part in the most basic knowledge of this world.

He can use this authority to invade the target without the target knowing and make the target come under His influence.

In other words, anything related to "knowledge" can be used by the "Hidden Sage." Or, as long as Odysseus has a certain amount of knowledge in his head, the "Hidden Sage" can use that knowledge to invade Odysseus.

This reminded Odysseus of the time when Bernadette was promoted and was almost invaded by the "Hidden Sage".

However, Odysseus has the help of the "Goddess of Night" and the protection of the "Novice Period". The "Hidden Sage" cannot find him for the time being and it is difficult to invade him.

The above is all the harvest from this prayer.

Odysseus took a deep breath and began to think about how to deal with this problem. After thinking for a while, he felt that he could use Bernadette's "Sage's Forehead Ornament" to check himself.

After reaching Sequence 4 and gaining a faint divinity, Odysseus can temporarily transform himself into an information stream when using the "Sage's Forehead Ornament".

If the "seeds of enlightenment" have been planted in you, you should be able to detect it through such self-examination.

Another solution is to go to church and pray more often. In Loen, go to the church of the "Goddess of Night", and in Lunburg, go to the church of the "God of Knowledge".

As I said, only gods can deal with gods.

After having some ideas, Odysseus was not as nervous as when he first saw the "warning letter".

After getting on the train again, Odysseus locked himself in the room again, thinking about how to investigate the arrangements of the "Hidden Sage" and the "God of Steam and Machinery".

What Odysseus can be sure of now is that he does have a "newbie protection period".

Because whether it is the "Hidden Sage" or the "God of Steam", with their authority, it is easy for them to deal with Odysseus.

They must have some concerns, which is why they didn't take action when Odysseus was weak.

Especially the "God of Steam". When Odysseus was at Sequence 9, his concept of gods was a bit vague. He always felt that the other party did not attack him because of concerns about the "Wilderness of Knowledge".

After receiving clear information from the "God of Knowledge", he realized that the "God of Steam" had plenty of ways to bypass the "Wilderness of Knowledge" and influence him.

Based on this, Odysseus believed that since neither the "Hidden Sage" nor the "God of Steam" could deal with him directly, their arrangements must be "circumvented". If he paid close attention, he should be able to find some clues in advance.

Late at night, Odysseus was a little insomniac. He looked at the scenery outside, which was rapidly receding in the distance. He took a deep breath and suddenly smiled: At the Tarot Meeting, I just told "Little Sun" that the Extraordinary Path is a cruel race, but now I am lamenting the pressure from the High Sequence so soon.

Thinking of this, a bit of courage seemed to be added to his heart. This courage grew stronger and stronger, and the uneasiness and confusion in Odysseus's heart gradually disappeared.

Soon, Odysseus fell into a deep sleep.

Over the next two days, the train left the mountainous region of the central plateau, passed through the flat Takwell Plain, and then passed through the Balchis Mountains, which were only a few dozen kilometers wide from east to west. Backlund, the "City of Hope," appeared before them.

(End of this chapter)