â29th October. The leader of the Secret Order, Zaratul, visited me once again. He didnât mention anything specific and just casually chatted with me. I wasnât able to guess his true intentions. It seems like he just wanted to strengthen the communication between us and understand each other better?
âIâve already met the two High-Sequence Beyonders from the Church, but I felt that Zaratul was much more powerful and mysterious than them, so I asked him what Sequence number he was without much hope, and in the end, he actually answered me!
âHe told me that he was a Sequence 2, Miracle Invoker!
âSequence 2? In the Churchâs categorization, thatâs the position of an angel, close to that of a deity!
âHe truly is more powerful than the Alchemist and Arcane Scholar that I met before!
âBut my intuition tells me that Zaratul isnât telling the whole truth. Sequence 2 might just be his former position, or that heâs about to advance.
âMiracle Invoker? A master at creating miracles? The name of this potion makes oneâs imagination run wild!
âThis is the corresponding Sequence 2 of Seer, a Miracle Invoker who controls fate?
âI tried probing Zaratul if the word miracle refers to the miracle of fate? That the Seer pathway is one that slowly understands and grasps fate so as to control it?
âZaratul ignored the first question. He told me that fate is just one of the parts of the Seer pathway, and itâs not even its main focus. The pathway that truly represents fate is Monster!
âHe raised a few examples which were all potion names of the Monster Sequence. Sequence 7 The Lucky, Sequence 5 The Lucky, Sequence 2 Soothsayer, and Sequence 1 Snake of Mercury! Itâs also known as the Snake of Fate.
âThis was the first Sequence 1 I got to know. It hit me right in the face!
âAccording to what I know, the Monster pathway should be controlled by the Life School of Thought. This school seems to also have parts of the Apothecary Sequence pathway. They propose three major divisions, the world of absolute rationality, the world of the spirit, and the material world. Yea, itâs pretty cool.
âZaratul told me that the Life School of Thought specializes in astromancy, seeking to use medicine, music, light, wine, and fragrance, to eliminate paths with unfavorable star readings and fate. They believe that disasters and diseases are caused by the loss of balance between man and nature, as well as the balance between man and his own mind.
âHe added meaningfully that the Life School of Thought worships the moon.
âWhy worship the moon and not go one step further, the Evernight Goddess?â
This diary took up two pages and was clearly copied from both sides of the original.
Thatâs a lot of information⊠Klein sighed in heartfelt silence.
This was also the first time he was learning of a Sequence 1 potionâs name.
Snake of Mercury and Snake of Fate really made one feel a pining for!
Similarly, itâs my first time learning of a Sequence 2. I now know the corresponding Sequence 2 of Seer⊠The name Miracle Invoker sounds pretty good. It contains deep meaning and doesnât sound lowly. Of course, compared to Soothsayer, it does seem a little inferiorâŠ
Fate is only part of the Seer pathway and itâs not even its main focus. I have to remember this. I should constantly reflect on myself and not end up steering towards fate. It might result in the failure of my âactingâ⊠Zaratulâs words donât seem contradictory⊠The Monster pathway is the real path of fate⊠So, Soothsayer is a Sequence 2. If thatâs the case, then I already knew of a Sequence 2 in the pastâŠ
Although he didnât take his eyes off the paper, Klein was seriously considering his own Sequence chain.
Due to his experience in digesting the two potions, âSeerâ and âClown,â and because he could spy and revere fate, he was able to be a little prescient regarding fate. However, he would still be helpless toward the development of fate. He had slowly been equating the essence of his Beyonder pathway to fate. If it wasnât for this diary, it was very likely that he wouldâve used this as a premise to comprehend and âactâ for the subsequent Sequences.
As for whether or not Zaratul was lying, what Klein was certain of was that the Monster pathway was definitely the Sequence of Fate, which was consistent with what he had seen from the confidential information of the Nighthawks and with the potion name he had heard of earlier, âSoothsayer.â
Now that there was a Fate Sequence, the âSeerâ pathway was unlikely to be a repeat. This would result in some degree of overlapping, and it would be inconsistent with how each of the current Sequences had different characteristics.
Therefore, Klein was inclined to believe what Zaratul had said. He was inclined to believe that fate was only part of the Seerâs pathway, not even its main focus.
The value of these two pages is invaluable to the present me⊠The Alchemist and the Arcane Scholar should be the higher Sequences of the Savant pathway. From Roselleâs tone, they definitely donât belong to Sequence 2 and 1. That is to say, they are Sequence 4 and Sequence 3⊠For the time being, itâs impossible to determine which is Sequence 4 and which is Sequence 3⊠Klein gathered his thoughts, flipped the diary, and continued reading.
As for why the Life School of Thought only worshiped the moon and didnât believe in the Evernight Goddess which symbolized the crimson moon, he was unable to ponder too deeply about it due to the lack of information.
The third page was Roselleâs recount of inventing a practical steam engine. At times, he was afraid of suffering crackdowns, and at other times, afraid that the fruits of his labor would be seized by powerful figures. His words displayed his fear of being persecuted.
To think that even Emperor Roselle, who thought of himself as the protagonist of an era, would have such a perturbed and worried side to him⊠The corners of Kleinâs mouth twitched as he flipped to the fourth page of the diary.
â18th April. Matilda is pregnant.
âItâs to be expected, and I can even tell you exactly which love-making session she conceived in, because I felt a decrease in my Beyonder characteristic.
âOnce the conception is successful, my own Beyonder characteristic will follow a mysterious connection, and part of it will be transferred to my child.
âAfter that, I asked Archbishop Fan Esti worriedly. He told me that this is a normal phenomenon. For Sequence 7 and below, Beyonder characteristics will not be passed on to the next generation, but it isnât absolute, Sequence 6 and 5 will naturally pass down a portion, but it will not affect the parentâs strength. As for the child, they would be born with certain Beyonder powers, close to that of Sequence 9. But as a result, their pathway is basically fixed.
âAt high Sequences, the inheritance of Beyonder characteristics is something one can control. One can choose to pass down or not, or one can even choose to pass down just a little bit, a third, half, or all of them.
âIn other words, the children born from High-Sequence Beyonders might be born as Beyonders. As for the Sequence number, itâs up to either one of the parents to decide.
âI wonder if the descendants of the deities are like this as wellâŠâ
After reading the diary, there were only two phrases in Kleinâs mind: âLaw of Beyonder Characteristics Indestructibilityâ and âLaw of Beyonder Characteristics Conservation.â
Is the law governing the survival of Beyonder creatures? Itâs no wonder that some magical animals will reproduce only before they die⊠Itâs no wonder there would be the phenomenon of increased killing and bloodlust after childbirth. The target would be of their own race or even their partner. This is to supplement their Beyonder characteristics⊠According to this logic, if we trace this all the way back, where did the earliest Beyonder characteristics come from? Produced out of thin air? From the Creator who created everything?
Since Miss Justice had already advanced to Telepathist, Klein controlled the urge to nod and continued to leaf through the pages.
The fifth page was Roselleâs criticisms about how no one could enjoy his pop music and thought that he was making noise, while at the same time, he mused how refreshing stories was a common pursuit of different people from different worlds, and that the popularity of the novels he plagiarized from The Count of Monte Cristo allowed the newspaper he founded to flourish.
⊠Emperor, is there anything else you havenât done? With a smile, Klein turned to the sixth and final page.
â10th November, I received the great pirate Savigny Solomon in secret at the White Maple Palace. Solomon. I hope that he will plunder my opponents on the new sea route and strike at the ships of Feysac, Loen, and Feynapotter.
âAnd I promised to help him advance to a High-Sequence Beyonder.
âThe Beyonder pathway of Dark Emperor has names that are as strange as the Demoness pathwayâCorruption, Confusion, The Fallen, Disorder⊠However, in order to match the Dark Emperor, they added on their own suffixes, Baron of Corruption, Mentor of Confusion, Count of The Fallen, and Prince of Disorder.
âIn order for Savigny to live up to his name, I decided to confer him the title of Count of the Court in secret.
âSavigny has a child named Nast Solomon, and my intuition tells me that he will dominate the Five Seas in the future.â
Nast Solomon⊠The King of the Five Seas, Nast? Nast, who claims to be a descendant of the Solomon Empire? To think that he was born during the Roselle period! Klein was stunned.
Since Roselle had mentioned the term ânew sea route,â Klein had easily determined the corresponding year.
It was in 1194 that the new sea route was discovered and the Southern Continent was found, and Roselle was assassinated in 1198. The diary could only have been written between those two years.
That also meant that it was about 151 to 155 years ago.
If Nast, the âKing of the Five Seas,â was the Nast Solomon, Roselle had spoken of, heâs almost 160 years old⊠Is this due to other reasons, or do High-Sequence Beyonders obtain an extension to their lifespan in the first place⊠Klein thought seriously.
He gathered his thoughts and let the diary disappear from his hands. He then looked at Justice and said, âYou are free to trade or communicate now.â
Mr. Fool has no general knowledge to tell us today⊠Audrey was slightly disappointed. She turned her gaze to Sun and said, âCan I exchange information related to the dragon from you?â
She clearly remembered that Mr. Sun called the Spectator pathway âthe Dragon pathway,â and that he said it originated from the Dragon race.
âSure. I want the Sequence 8 potion formula for Bard,â answered The Sun, Derrick, who had been silent all this while, in hesitation.
He had wanted to use this as an exchange for information on the world where Justice and The Hanged Man were living so that he wouldnât always be confounded by what he heard. However, seeing that his process of digesting the potion was nearing completion, he still made his advancement his top priority.