Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 322 The way of heaven brings reincarnation

Roger listened carefully and discovered that the voice originated from Linssaya.

Her tone wasn't very calm, but it wasn't urgent either; she must have discovered something special and wanted to report it to Roger.

However, given the expectation in Leomaster's eyes, Roger could only temporarily refrain from answering Linssaya's question and instead addressed the "Black Saint":
"Not yet, but I can consult my lord."

Seeing Leomaster nod, Roger lowered his head and began to "listen" using the agreement he had previously reached with Mr. "Fool".

Roger was immediately empowered by the power of a high-sequence "listener," and he could hear many dangerous sounds coming from the wilderness, as well as a great deal of noise.

An ordinary person would likely be easily influenced by these voices and have their mind disturbed, but Roger remained as steady as a rock at that moment.

Possessing multiple forms of pollution and the "Primal Core," he is able to filter out a large amount of mystical noise. Combined with his high-level performance as the "Listener," he can focus only on certain specific sources of revelation.

After a while, Roger heard the voice of "The Fool".

The voice was a blessing and encouragement to Roger, exceptionally firm and gentle. Even though Roger knew its identity, he still felt a warmth in his heart.

After a while, as the silhouette of an angel with six wings descended, Roger finally opened his eyes.

Leomaster, who was standing to the side, stared intently at Roger. He had also noticed the "listener" aura emanating from Roger.

The fluctuation was not a simple output, but rather accompanied by both output and reception, which meant that Roger had successfully made contact with a great being.

As for whether that great being was the "true creator," Leomaster didn't give it much thought.

For ordinary "Mystic" practitioners with extraordinary abilities, as long as they use "Listen," there is a very high probability that they can hear sounds with similar frequencies.

If a high-sequence "Mystic" uses this ability, it is almost certain that they will hear the voice of the "True Creator".

If it weren't for the fact that the "true creator" has been in a very unstable state for more than a year, this kind of voice would almost never stop.

It is precisely because of this instability that Leomaster hopes to hear His oracle or at least receive His revelation in the "Forsaken Land," a place very close to the "True Creator."

When Leomaster saw Roger open his eyes, he knelt down with great reverence, palms up, as if to lift him up.

Roger knew this was the standard gesture of a devout believer of the "True Creator" praying to the saints of the "Aurora Society" for divine messages, but since Roger and Leomaster were on equal footing, the fact that the latter still adopted this gesture showed his piety and trust in Roger.

For a moment, Roger felt a pang of guilt.

Is it wrong of him to use such tactics against Leomaster?
Roger composed himself and spoke calmly:

"Our Lord has sent down a divine decree: Our exploration team is currently on the right track. We need to travel as far as possible through the 'Forsaken Land,' send those suffering and twisted beings into His Kingdom, and save the lost humans here, helping them improve their living environment."

Roger said this so that Leomaster would contribute as much as possible in the battles to come, and at the same time not to always think about meeting the "true creator," but to finish the work of exploring the human city-states first.

“My Lord is truly merciful, praise be to my Lord.”

Upon hearing this, Leomaster immediately offered his praise.

"...Not only that, I also saw my Lord's angels."

Roger paused for a moment, then spoke again.

"My Lord's angel?"

Upon hearing this, Leomaster's eyes widened immediately.

As a believer in the "true creator," Leomaster had no doubt about Roger's words at this moment, because the consequences of forging divine oracles were usually very terrible, and he believed that a devout believer like Roger would not do such a thing.

What truly surprised him was that, after becoming a saint of the Aurora Society, he had never actually seen the angel of the "True Creator" in "listening"—in fact, not only him, but several other saints of the Aurora Society had also experienced this.

However, at this moment, Roger, who had only recently become a high-ranking member of the "Aurora Society," was able to see it, which surprised Leomaster.

"Roger, you are truly blessed and favored by my Lord."

Leomaster had to admit that he was a little jealous, but as a monk, he quickly and instinctively banished such impure thoughts from his mind and simply offered genuine praise.

"Praise my Lord!"

"Praise my Lord!"

Roger muttered to himself as he continued Leomaster's rambling.

"Please rest here for a while. We're going to explore the ruins of 'Fog City' later."

Roger began to speak.

"Mist City? Is that the legendary city of broken oaths mentioned in the Holy Scriptures...Mist City?"

Leomaster's eyes widened. In just a few minutes, Roger had given him more shock than he had received in the past three years.

"Correct."

Roger nodded, confirming Leomaster's statement:

"My Lord's oracle also says that a group of devout believers in Fog City entered the wilderness to suffer voluntarily before Fog City was destroyed. Now their atonement is complete, and we need to redeem them."

"So we need to find clues in Ancient Fog City first, and then find those displaced people."

"Ok."

Leomaster nodded slightly:
“If they are truly devout believers of my Lord, then they too deserve to be saved.”

Afterwards, Roger chatted casually with Leomaster for a few more minutes, then settled him down again, who was now full of ambition, before going to the side to listen to Linseria's prayer.

The prayer began with Roger's name, which Lindsay repeated several times before she began to recount her experiences over the past few days.

First, although Linsaya had done her best to protect her combat squad members, there were still casualties. Two members were dragged into the darkness and dismembered by monsters in the dark due to carelessness during the battle.

Linsaya was furious and enraged. She fully activated the seal that corresponded to the extraordinary characteristics of the "Iron-Blooded Knight," turning into flames and annihilating all the monsters nearby.

In this battle, she killed hundreds of those low-intelligence monsters whose instinct for eating outweighed their consciousness, to the point that those creatures were so frightened that they dared not approach Linsaya for the next two days.

As a result, Linsaya suffered extensive burns on her skin. Killing those monsters did not bring her any relief. At this moment, Linsaya only felt extreme pain for failing to protect her subordinates.

On the other hand, Linssaya not only discovered several traces of human activity, but she even arrived near the "Silver City" and saw the exploration team that came out of there.

Because Roger had given prior instructions, Linssaya suppressed her curiosity and did not contact the residents of "Silver City." She simply observed their battle from a distance, using cover.

To Linssaya's great surprise, the combatants would hum special music during battle to enhance their combat power. Although Linssaya had never heard that music before, judging from her description of the combat effects, it must be the "Dawn Quartet".

At this moment, Linsaya and her exploration team are temporarily camped in the ruins of a building near "Silver City," while asking Roger what to do next.

"I didn't expect Linsaya and the others to be so fast, they've already met the people from 'Silver City' so quickly..."

Roger thought for a moment and then sent a reply to Lindsay.

He first comforted Linsaya and promised to provide the highest level of compensation to the fallen combat squad members. Then he asked Linsaya and the others to stay there temporarily and wait for his arrival.

Although Linssaya and her group still had plenty of supplies, Roger knew very well that they needed some snacks, alcohol, or other enjoyable things to relax in the current situation.

This was a lesson he learned while leading his own army: in the extreme conditions of the “forsaken land,” it was essential to do everything possible to ensure that the members of the exploration team had access to supplies beyond food and water. This would greatly soothe their morale, strengthen their fighting spirit, and regulate the atmosphere within the team.

Roger didn't even need to ask to know that Linsaya's combat squad was in very low spirits, which was undoubtedly very dangerous—in a place like the Forsaken Land, the depravity of people's hearts could easily be exploited by darkness and shadows, leading to some unpredictable consequences.

On the other hand, Roger also planned to take the "True Star Map" there, bury it somewhere around the ruins, and then instruct Derrick to lead an exploration team to dig it up.

This was something he had considered before—although Derrick's promotion of music had escaped the scrutiny of the Council of Six, it would be extremely dangerous for him to find the "True Star Map" again for no reason and submit it to the Council of Six.

This would bring back issues that didn't need to be investigated before, and if things go on like this, Derrick might be under surveillance again.

In contrast, burying the "True Star Map" near the "Silver City" and then guiding Derrick to explore it is clearly a safer approach, because Derrick's acquisition of the "True Star Map" will be corroborated by the testimonies of his companions, thus saving him the trouble of explaining too much to the "Council of Six".

All he needs to do is say that we discovered this thing during our exploration, and that so-and-so can testify to it. Then the "Council of Six" will find out everything by asking each of them.

What follows will be very simple—the “Silver City” will certainly try to figure out how to use it and thus gain a concept of stars and time.

In addition, Roger set an unlocking condition for the scroll of the "True Star Map".

That is to sing my specially modified honorific name once using the melody of "Four Seasons: Spring"!
In this way, the "True Star Chart" could be linked to the previous music, and as the concepts of time and talent were fully popularized throughout the city-state, Roger's "Living Star Chart" potion could not only be greatly digested, but his anchor could also become more stable and clear.

However, given Silver City's cautious approach, this process is bound to be anything but smooth sailing.

While the Council of Six would not miss any opportunity to learn about the past or find external intelligence about the Forsaken Land, they would not be so stubborn as to directly chant Roger's name inside the Silver City.

Although the "Council of Six," led by Chief Colin Iliad, had never seen the outside world, they were quite knowledgeable about mysticism and supernatural powers. They would naturally regard this as a possible act of corruption by an evil god.

However, the music originating from "Hestar" has already brought tangible benefits to "Silver City," so the "Council of Six" will eventually take the risk of trying something, such as sending a suicide squad away from Silver City and then chanting Roger's name in the wilderness.

This was a stopgap measure that could both protect the "Silver City" from contamination and allow for the exploration of the scroll's interior.

Once the function of the "True Star Map" is confirmed, it will surely be brought back to "Silver City".

Even if the process is bumpy and it goes through many tests, it will eventually happen.

Roger was so confident because the Silver City's thirst for the light of the Forsaken Land was like a sponge; as long as they could determine that something was related to the outside world, they would try every means to figure it out while ensuring their survival.

However, for now, sending the "True Star Map" to Linssaya will have to wait a bit, because for Roger, the most important thing right now is to finish exploring "Fog City" and obtain information about the direction of the exile of the devout followers of the "True Creator".

After the explorer team had all rested, Roger set off towards "Fog City" according to the plan he had previously discussed with Bernadette and Leomaster.

This time, "Admiral" Cattleya did not try to distance herself from Roger. Although she was still wearing a hat, she had changed into a lighter cloak and followed Roger a few steps behind.

Roger found Cattleya's change somewhat amusing, but he didn't try to talk to her and simply continued walking into the "Fog City".

Soon, the exploration team arrived at "Fog City".

As Roger had predicted, the rather impressive city immediately aroused great curiosity among the exploration team. They looked around and seemed to be full of curiosity about everything there.

The most exaggerated of them all was Leomaster, who, upon entering the "Fog City," burst into tears, chanting the name of the "First Creator" while bowing and worshipping the highest spire of the church.

Since Roger has eliminated the "servants of the gods" in the city, the city is currently safe. The only thing to be wary of is the shadow creatures that may enter "Fog City" from the outside.

Bernadette understood this as well. She ordered everyone to place portable lighting equipment throughout the main street of "Fog City," placing one at regular intervals, and also assigned people to monitor the situation outside the city walls. The remaining people were given free time to explore—except for the underground areas, Bernadette did not impose any special restrictions on the scope of their exploration.

Bandit followed closely behind Cattleya, watching her investigate.

Although Cattleya found the cat a bit strange, she didn't say anything because it was Mr. Wheel of Fortune's pet.

Just then, Leomaster suddenly approached Roger.

"Roger, I want to visit the main church in the center of 'Fog City'. If I'm not mistaken, that should be the legendary 'Church of Truth' at the highest point of 'Fog City'."

"You should know... that place is a holy site for believers of the Lord, so I would like to invite you to come with me. I wonder if you would be interested?"

Roger nodded:

“We are happy to go. As long as we don’t go underground and disturb the slumber of the ‘servants of the gods,’ there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“I believe this is also one of the intentions of our Lord in leading us here.”

Judging from the direction Amon left in earlier, He must have entered the "Church of Truth" and from there descended into the underground.

He only said not to explore underground, but he didn't say not to explore the above-ground part of the church, so Roger was happy to go and take a look.

That place was once a gathering place for believers of the True Creator in "Fog City," and if nothing unexpected happens, Roger may very well find records of the direction of the "True Creator" believers' exile there.

The two hit it off immediately. Roger told Bernadette and then walked ahead with Leomaster toward the "Church of Truth".

The two walked through the main street and ascended a stone staircase in the heart of the city.

The road was not short. Roger originally wanted to suggest that he fly up with Leomaster, but he saw that Leomaster had taken off his shoes and was climbing up barefoot with a devout expression.

This left Roger feeling like he had a fishbone stuck in his throat. He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to take off his shoes as well and walk uphill one after the other with Leomaster.

In a sense, this can be considered a cycle of karma. Roger had previously caused the "True Creator" a lot of trouble, and now His devout followers have tormented Roger all the way.

If it weren't for the fact that Leomaster was such an important combatant, and that he would be of great use to Roger in the future, and that Roger had to take his feelings into consideration, this "Dark Star Saint" would have preferred to throw this neurotic fanatic cultist directly into the "Old Box" to calm him down first.

It took Roger and Leomaster more than ten minutes to finally arrive at the entrance of the "Church of Truth".

Although it was in a godforsaken place, the church's door was still kept very clean, and even after twenty years, there were still few signs of decay.

It's important to understand that during the final days of "Fog City," the "Church of Truth" was definitely a key area attacked by the "Primordial Moon" believers. The fact that its entrance is so well preserved now suggests either that the devout followers of the "True Creator" risked their lives to protect it, or that Vinera later provided some protection for it.

In either case, the good thing is that the "Church of Truth" was preserved intact.

Leomaster stepped forward and tried to push the heavy door, but it wouldn't budge.

In the end, Roger came to help, and with the combined power of the two "Black Knights," the massive stone doors of the "Church of Truth" were finally pushed open just enough for one person to enter.

This time, Roger didn't give Leomaster a chance to waste words; he went into the "Church of Truth" first.

The interior of the "Church of Truth" was even darker than the surrounding "Fog City" district, and even the lightning outside was barely visible.

Roger knew very well that this was to accommodate the "servants of the gods" and that the areas that should have been stained glass were all coated with special ink to block out the outside light.

Inside the church, there were only a few lamps on the walls, none of which were lit, and the entire church was in complete darkness.

Strangely enough, the moment Roger entered the "Church of Truth," the floating lamp emitted by the "Explorer's Lantern" above his head went out, as if it had been dispelled by some force.

Leomaster followed Roger in, but to Roger's surprise, he did not release himself from the enslaved "Singer" pathway of the extraordinary soul's external state and continue to use his power to illuminate the surroundings.

This power was not dispelled; everything remained as usual.

Seeing Roger's strange expression, Leomaster shook his head:
"The shepherd's power is a power given by the Lord... Using this power to illuminate is a way of honoring the Lord."

As he spoke, Leomaster paused again, a puzzled look on his face:
"By the way, what's the superior order of 'shepherd' again?... Why can't I remember?"

Good heavens, they've even forgotten the name of the "Black Knight" potion?
Roger was surprised again.

He really couldn't figure out what kind of being Leomaster was right now—in fact, even the "true creator" would probably be scratching his head in disbelief at his current state.

At this moment, Roger didn't want to say anything more to Leomaster. To be honest, things couldn't go on like this.

Because Leomaster cannot use the "Black Knight" avatar ability, his combat power is only between Sequence 5 and true Sequence 4. On the other hand, he cannot always forget about the "Black Knight," because no matter what, after leaving, Leomaster will contact "Shadow Saint" Arexos and "Evil Saint" Vinera.

"By the way, Amon is still here...maybe I can ask him for his opinion?"

Roger was still wearing the "Invisible Bracelet," a Sequence 3 seal artifact from the "Spectator" pathway, which possessed the ability to alter the perceptions of saints.

While Amon is still here, Roger can ask this "wrong" Angel King if there is any way to exploit a bug that would allow him to regain the ability to use the full power of the "Black Knight" without changing Leomaster's mental state or losing control, and also desensitize the latter to the image of the "Black Knight" so that he won't be easily startled.

With these thoughts in mind, Roger summoned the soul of Seamus, making the lightning-studded Seamus his lighting assistant.

The two of them walked around the huge main hall of the "Church of Truth" and studied the furnishings of the church.

As Roger had predicted, Leomaster's expression became even more fanatical than before, because most of the things inside the "Church of Truth" were exactly the same as those described in the "Aurora Society's" holy book!
Roger's perspective was different. On one hand, he wanted to broaden his horizons and see how this church differed from the churches of the Orthodox Church. On the other hand, he also wanted to use this information to deduce the clues to the whereabouts of the exiles in "Fog City".

"Come to think of it, this 'True Creator's' church doesn't seem to be any different from the churches of the True God Church..."

Apart from the statue at the head of the church being a bloodthirsty giant hanging upside down on a cross, and the surrounding sculptures and murals containing some Tertiary myths and legends, the church looked very normal, so normal that Roger began to doubt whether this was the church of the "real creator".

Although he knew there must be something terrible beneath the spiral staircase leading down at the very end of the church, this was probably nothing out of the ordinary for the former residents of "Fog City".

After all, for these believers of the "true creator," the fact that those "servants of the gods," who appear to be full of evil and bizarre connotations, are regarded as the city's guardian deities already shows that their thought process is different from that of ordinary people.

With the help of the lightning surrounding "Ocean Singer" Seamus, Roger slowly walked to the highest platform at the top of the church and touched the stone table in the center.

There was some dust on the table, and Roger could tell from the feel that there were some words and patterns engraved on it.

This piqued Roger's curiosity, and he entered the "Secret Insight" field of vision, quickly reading the contents on the table with the help of Seamus's lightning.

At the top of the stone platform are some prayers about the "true Creator" and some records of the completion of the church's foundation, and at the bottom is a map.

"This is……"

When Roger saw the map, his heart skipped a beat.

"If I'm not mistaken, this appears to be the complete map of the 'Forsaken Land'?"

He combined his various memories and repeatedly checked the outline of the map's boundaries.

In the end, Roger was certain that his guess was correct.

On this map, the approximate location of "Fog City" is marked, along with some nearby city ruins, resource points, and ruins that have been explored by the "Fog City" exploration team. Even the general terrain is marked.

Further afield, these markings become increasingly sparse and eventually disappear completely.

That should be the border that "Fog City" explored in history, where they cleverly missed "Silver City," which they should have been able to discover, and did not record it on the map.

"This……"

Roger paused, then shifted his gaze to the other side of the map.

There, a general area was marked out, labeled "The Lord's Sanctuary".

"Good heavens, is 'Mist City' trying to use legends to find a sanctuary for the 'true creator'?"

Roger quickly realized that the Aurora Society's attempt to make a pilgrimage to the "True Creator" was not only happening in the Northern Continent, but also among the believers of the "True Creator" in the Eastern Continent.

"So... that exiled group from 'Mist City' may have set off in this direction, trying to find the sanctuary of the 'True Creator' and seek His protection?"

Roger thought about it more and more and felt that this was very likely.

However, judging from Amon's words, these people's search for the sanctuary of the "true creator" was likely a failure; otherwise, they would all have died and wouldn't have left anything behind.

Judging from the map, the sanctuary of the "true creator" as defined by the people of "Fog City" seems to be somewhat different from Roger's memory. This may be the result of Urolius deliberately obfuscating the location for safety reasons.

He quickly connected the map with the corresponding spirit realm region of the "Forsaken Land" that had already expanded within the "Original Heavenly Core," and reinforced his memory before looking up at the "Black Saint" Leomaster:

"Lord Leomaster, come and take a look at this."

Upon hearing this, Leomaster's previously frenzied expression softened slightly.

He walked over with great curiosity, and became excited after seeing the map Roger showed him.

"They must have gone to find the sanctuary of my Lord!"

Roger nodded in response to Leomaster's words.

It seems that Leomaster was thinking the same thing as him—this is indeed in line with the thought process of a fanatical believer in the "true creator," and it is also the action they are most likely to take.

On the other hand, it must be said that Ulorus's deliberate obfuscation of the "Sanctuary" location inadvertently provided Roger with a divine assist.

Subjectively, Roger did not want Leomaster, the "Black Saint," to find the Sanctuary of the "True Creator" so easily, as that would not be in his own interest. On the other hand, he was rashly leading people in that direction and did not know what Adam would say.

The best outcome would be for Roger to persuade Leomaster to help him finish what needs to be done without contacting the "true creator," which would be in Roger's best interest.

As for whether Leomaster will feel regret or have doubts about Roger at that time, that's a problem to be considered and resolved later.

"Then let's go now."

Leomaster's eyes were resolute; he couldn't wait to reunite with the "lost sheep" who shared his devout faith in the "true Creator."

"Wait a moment. We need to wait until Bernadette and the others have finished exploring 'Fog City.' There might be some secrets hidden here that we haven't discovered yet."

Roger glanced quickly at the spiral staircase leading down behind him and said without changing his expression.

……

Below the "Church of Truth".

The other Roger looked up at the space above, which was shimmering with faint sunlight and lightning, swallowed hard, and resolutely but stealthily walked into the darkness below.

(End of this chapter)