Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 187 Black Emperor Card
Inside the empty palace, the whispers of the fool could be heard from time to time.

"Pirate King!"

“one piece!”

Claire listened to The Fool translating the two words mentioned above in different languages, including Feysac, Ancient Feysac, Intis, Loen, Giant, and Elvish, and tried to spell out the bookmark's opening spell.

This attempt not only allowed Claire to confirm that The Fool was her fellow villager.

We are still fellow villagers of the same generation!

Unfortunately, these attempts were ineffective. Emperor Roselle, who had expressed his interest in the Pirate King in his diary, did not use such words as the opening spell for the relic.

Fortunately, there is no lock function for incorrect passwords... Claire thought silently in her heart as she watched.

Above the gray fog, after many attempts, The Fool materialized a pen and paper and began writing sentences on the paper:

"In this matter, Russell was both insanely desperate and clearly had a bad taste. The description 'those who are destined to receive it', which doesn't conform to current world language habits, is proof of this."

"So, it's certain that he really wanted someone to discover the specialness of the 'Blasphemy Card' by chance."

"...The method of opening it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine, and it could happen in everyday life."

"...different 'cards of blasphemy' should have different opening spells."

"...The first thing to rule out are the ones that are commonly used and spoken all the time."

"When creating the 'Blasphemy Card,' Russell was in a state of despair, madness, reluctance, nostalgia, struggle, and anger. You can try to put yourself in that state of mind, pretend to be Russell at that time, and imagine what method you would set to activate it."

Looking at these descriptions, Claire was thoughtful: "The Fool" was sorting out and recording his current thought process.

Notes are very helpful in organizing thoughts, and The Fool has the habit of writing notes to organize thoughts.

This is such a good habit!
The Fool's line of thought made perfect sense. Claire also placed herself in the shoes of Russell in his later years. Abandoned by the various forces he once supported, Russell, desperately trying to accomplish something significant, what would he be thinking about as he left behind a backup plan...

"Since the diary mentions a trump card for children, then perhaps the activation of the spell is related to his children..." As Claire pondered this, The Fool tried some curses and words of hope.

Even Claire heard a pure "fuck".

It's still a pity that everything failed.

But then, The Fool said in Intis: "Bernadette."

It was obvious that The Fool shared her idea and planned to try using the names of Russell's three children.

And Bernadette is the eldest daughter of Roselle who was predicted to become a great figure in the mysterious world.

Claire had guessed that this person was still alive.

But the bookmark still doesn't respond.

Undeterred, The Fool began to try to shout "Bernadette" in different languages. When he tried Ancient Feysac, the bookmark in The Fool's hand formed an invisible vortex!

Oh! There's feedback!

Claire quickly looked closely. A bright light slowly rose from the bookmark like bubbles. In the bright light, the image of Emperor Roselle in the portrait took on a whole new look.

Russell sat on an ancient stone throne, with a black crown inlaid with various gems on his head. He was wearing black armor and a cloak of the same color. He held a scepter in his hand and looked forward with cold eyes.

In the upper left corner of the bookmark, a line of text condensed from brilliant starlight: "Sequence 0: Black Emperor!"

The Black Emperor is Sequence 0?! A god?!

At this moment, the bookmark in the Fool's hand takes on the shape of a book.

The book describes in detail the promotion ceremony to become the Black Emperor!

Sequence 0: Black Emperor.

Promotion Ceremony: Have your own country!

Let his own name be associated with the title of emperor and become common knowledge among the people.

Establish a set of strict and complex rules that go against the norm, including architectural style.

The people were forced to build nine pyramid-like mausoleums, enter one of them, and take the Sequence 0 potion during the corresponding sacrificial ceremonies scattered across different cities, in which the vast majority of the people participated!
Claire's eyes widened.

Although it was expected that this was a blasphemous card, the blasphemous card contained the secret of becoming a god.

But when this secret was truly revealed to Claire, shock, joy, greed, and even a hint of helplessness... the complex emotions mixed with the numbness made Claire unable to calm down for a long time.

"This isn't just someone else's nonsense! This is a true ascension ceremony, no, a deification ceremony, recorded by a great figure in this world!" Claire took a deep breath, calming her surging emotions. "Although I can't confirm this ceremony at all right now,... I can confirm it step by step."

This blasphemous card, which looks like a miniature book, slowly turns over in the hands of The Fool:
The homepage features an image of Roselle wearing a white hood, with a corresponding description in ancient Feysac language next to it:
"Sequence 9, lawyer."

"Adept at discovering and exploiting loopholes in the rules and weaknesses of opponents, possessing exceptional eloquence and logical reasoning..."

"Potion formula..."

The next page shows a wild image of Russell half-naked, with a corresponding text description next to it:
"Sequence 8: Savage."

"Problems that cannot be resolved by law must be resolved by force. This is also a kind of rule... Beyonders of this sequence possess a considerable resistance to mental influence..."

"Potion recipe: One stalk of Madness Grass, a solid crystal of the Earth Rhino's horn. Supplementary ingredients: one deep-veined walnut, one stalk of lemon balm, 10ml of pure water soaked from poplar bark, and 100ml of liquor."

“Sequence 7: Briber…”

“Sequence 6: Corrupted Baron…”

"Sequence 5: Chaos Mentor..."

“Sequence 4: The Corrupted Count…”

"Sequence 3: Frenzy Mage..."

"Sequence 2: Duke of Entropy..."

"Sequence 1: Prince of Ordination..."

"Sequence 0: Black Emperor..."

Step by step, from the very beginning of the "lawyer" sequence to the "Black Emperor" who is called a god!
This is a complete sequential pathway!

This is the real mystical knowledge that is at the top of the world!
This "Black Emperor" card also revealed some of the Black Emperor's characteristics to Claire:
Once successfully promoted to the "Black Emperor", the "Black Emperor" will not truly die until the nine secret tombs are completely destroyed.

Even if he perishes, he can still awaken from one of the mausoleums. Even more terrifying is that even if he succeeds in killing a god and destroying all nine mausoleums, as long as a certain amount of the order established by that god still remains, he may still mysteriously resurrect!

The best way to completely destroy Him is to have a new "Black Emperor" emerge!
In addition, the Blasphemy Card revealed the Beyonder Characteristics Conservation and Indestructibility Law in the potion system, which involved the divine level.

Once a Sequence 0 True God appears on a certain path, it is impossible for a Sequence 1 Beyonder to appear again, not even a single one!
Taking the "Black Emperor" as an example, if the dead "Black Emperor" were to be resurrected, the three surviving copies of the Sequence 1 "Prince of Order-killing" characteristics would automatically return to their emperor. This is an order that no other true god can reverse or stop!

And if there is no sequence 0, then in the same path, there will be at most three sequence 1s.

Claire was thinking a lot at this moment. She was thinking about Her Highness Arianna, who was most likely to become the Pope.

"In other words, the highest level of the Servant of Secrets is Sequence 2 of the Sleepless Path... With the existence of the Evernight Goddess, Sequence 1 cannot exist, because all three Sequence 1s are within the Evernight Goddess."

"I once only speculated that only one deity could be born from each path, but I didn't expect the reality to be even more cruel than I imagined..."

"The same goes for that..."

"With the existence of the 'God of Steam and Machinery', I can only become a Sequence 2 of the 'Generalist' path in the future... unless the god falls."

Although Claire had previously guessed that gods would fall, let alone deicide, as long as gods existed, it would be impossible for a Sequence 1 close to them to be born.

Claire's thoughts echoed with the words Roselle left in the blasphemous card: "Mortals cannot fight against gods, not even angels!"

Claire looked unhappy as she thought of the second path in her life, the "secret peeper" path.

But at the top of the "Secret Peers" also occupies the evil god who has driven countless "Secret Peers" crazy with knowledge, the Hidden Sage!
Whether they are "generalists" or "secret peepers", it seems that it is clearly written that their future is doomed!
So what did the goddess want from investing in me, a "universalist"? It couldn't be a Sequence 2, could it? Based on the Black Emperor's description, in the eyes of a righteous god, a Sequence 2 would probably be no different from a mortal.

The goddess's thoughts were unpredictable. Claire integrated her knowledge of the sequence pathways and began to speculate about the gods corresponding to each pathway. The shelves and books related to gods and potion systems in the memory library deep in her consciousness had undergone earth-shaking changes.

"First, the seven righteous gods!"

With the help of the Black Emperor's knowledge, many things that were originally vague to Claire were now clearer.

The Night Goddess, the Path of the "Sleepless One";

God of Steam and Machinery, the "Generalist" Path;

Storm Lord, "Sailor" Path;

Mother Earth, the "tillman" path;

Ares, the "Warrior" path;

Eternal Sun, the Path of the Singer;

God of knowledge and wisdom, "Reader" path.

The sequence pathways corresponding to these Orthodox Churches were no secret to Claire, the captain of the Red Gloves. However, no one had ever considered that the gods also relied on the potion system to reach the top, and naturally, no one had connected these sequence pathways with the gods.

Claire had a certain understanding of not only the righteous gods, but also the top hidden organizations, especially those that believed in evil gods. From this understanding, she could basically determine those evil gods and the corresponding paths.

The Aurora Society believes in the "True Creator" and "Secret Prayer" path;

The "Original Witch" of the Gnosis Society and the Witch Cult, the "Assassin" path;

The "Hidden Sage" and "Secret Peer" paths of the Moss Ascetic Order;

The "dark side of the universe" and the "criminal" path of the Blood Cult;

The "Death God" and "Corpse Collector" paths of the Spirit Cult;

The "Bound God" and "Prisoner" paths of the Rose School.

"Excluding the paths suspected of being occupied by True Gods and known Evil Gods, the remaining nine paths are 'Fortune Teller,' 'Apprentice,' 'Thief,' 'Spectator,' 'Hunter,' 'Monster,' 'Arbitrator,' 'Lawyer,' and 'Pharmacist.'"

However, Claire knew that there had been a "Black Emperor" in the Solomon Empire in history.

But if Solomon's "Black Emperor" is a real god, what about the other three emperors in the War of the Four Emperors?
It was recorded in Roselle's diary that the "King of Hell" of the Southern Continent was known as the "God of Death."

That is to say... the "Black Emperor" of the Solomon Empire and the "Underworld Emperor" of the Southern Continent are both gods, corresponding to the paths of "lawyer" and "corpse collector".

These speculations made Claire shudder. She remembered that Her Highness Arianna had once told her that the war between the four empires was a true war between gods!

So, which path should the "Blood Emperor" of the Tudor Dynasty and the "Night Emperor" of the Trunsost Empire take?

Claire's memory currently contained no documentation or knowledge that could support her speculation on this issue, so after a moment's thought, she gave up.

But speaking of gods, Claire thought of the Silver City creation myth described by "The Sun". In addition to the omniscient and omnipotent god, there were also the Giant King Olmir, the Fantasy Dragon Angerweed, the Elf King Sonya Solem, the Vampire Ancestor Lilith, the Demon King Fabuti, the Phoenix Ancestor Graygari, the Alien King Kwashitun, and the Demon Wolf King Fregola.

In mythology, these eight people divided up the authority left by the omniscient and omnipotent God, became the masters of various races, and became true gods.

"The eight gods of Silver City are likely to have existed before the seven true gods. Judging from the description of 'The Sun', the authority of the eight gods of Silver City legend partially overlaps with the seven true gods of today. For example, the Wolf King, also known as the 'Night Wolf', and the Night Goddess... It's likely that their fall gave rise to the new seven gods."

"But how did the new gods seize the authority of the previous gods?"

"Could it be that, like the original creator, the gods will also naturally fall, like a large firework, and turn into nothingness?"

"Of course, there's another possibility... The Seven Gods of today and the gods in Silver City's mythology are actually the same group of gods. It's just that customs and traditions have led to different descriptions in the records."

"But if that's the case, then the seven true gods and the eight gods recorded in the Silver City records, not only in appearance, but also in the description of their authority, are quite different."

Claire kept sorting out the secrets that might be hidden in it, which made her feel that it contained the path to killing gods and becoming a god.

Even if the gods were truly just giant fireworks that would eventually vanish into nothingness, it didn't affect Claire's ambition to reach the highest point.

"By now, I'm already a 'mechanical expert'. Switching paths isn't practical. Besides, there might be gods I'm unaware of within the remaining nine paths."

"However, when advancing to Sequence 4, there's an opportunity to jump to an adjacent path without too much negative impact. I still need to figure out which Sequence 4s Astronomers can advance to..."

"Furthermore, judging by the strength of the Goddess's positive response, it's clear that the 'Fortune Teller' path, which seems to lead to godhood, is of the greatest value to her. However, the 'Hunter' path, which also seems to lead to godhood, is of no value to her. Perhaps the 'Hunter' path contains gods I'm unaware of? Or perhaps the 'Hunter' path itself is of no value to her?"

"But no matter what, my journey into the 'Educator' path is valuable to the Goddess, a righteous God. Perhaps once I become a High-Sequence Beyonder, I'll be able to further receive responses from the Goddess regarding these issues."

"The path I'm currently on may hold hidden value that I'm unaware of..."

"The most important thing is, if I don't continue, I'm afraid I won't even be able to save my life with the evil spirit tainting me, let alone make it to the end..."

The shock and contemplation brought on by the Blasphemy Card, the exhaustion from the past few days, and the mental exhaustion from peering above the gray fog had all made Claire's spirits increasingly depressed.

After the Fool closed the "book" of blasphemous cards, Claire, unable to hold on any longer, voluntarily dispelled her voyeuristic perspective on the gray fog world, collapsed on the single bed in the room, and fell into a deep sleep.

(End of this chapter)