Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 167 Klein's Divination Attempt
Klein stared at the letter in his hand, his eyes wide with shock. His gaze was fixed on the envelope, unable to look away.

James Holmes!
And that familiar address!

He only chose the name Sherlock Moriarty because he had become a detective and wanted to use it as a reference. However, he never expected that someone would actually know the origin of the name and even send him a letter!
Who wrote the letter?

Are they fellow time travelers like me?
Or is it that Russell secretly wrote this detective novel, and the person who wrote to me was someone who had read it?
Klein was overjoyed and flustered, unable to contain himself. He couldn't help but reach out and grab the edge of the envelope, about to tear it open, but he suddenly stopped just as he was about to open it.

He put down the envelope and paced anxiously, even restlessly, on the ground a few times.

"No, I need to calm down."

"I can't be sure what's inside. What if there's some danger?"

"It is precisely at times like these that we must remain rational."

Klein paced around a few times, trying to take deep breaths and meditate, gradually calming his agitated emotions.

There is a way.

Sure enough, after calming down, he quickly came up with a safe way to open the envelope: to offer it as a sacrifice above the gray fog. There, the mystery was enough to isolate the danger within the letter, and he could also use the opportunity to divine the letter's origin.

With that in mind, Klein swiftly began the sacrificial ritual, opening the illusory gate, offering the letter above the gray mist, and then taking four steps backward, thus escaping the real world.

In a land perpetually shrouded in gray mist, the letter lay quietly on a bronze table.

Klein sat in the bronze bench, his figure appearing tall and profound. He carefully picked up the letter and tore it open.

Inside the envelope was a short letter written in Rune script. It said that the writer, who called himself "James Holmes," had seen his advertisement in the newspaper and was writing to ask him some questions.

The person stated that he had obtained a string of notes from Russell, along with some unfamiliar letters, and hoped that Detective Sherlock could provide some insights and try to analyze the original meaning of the letters from a cipher perspective.

Ok?
What the letter says doesn't match the obvious hints on the envelope at all.
Klein was puzzled, but he still turned the letter over to look at the so-called Roselle script and corresponding cipher letters provided by the sender. He understood that Roselle script was obviously Chinese, but he didn't know what the so-called cipher letters were.

As a result, he found a string of Chinese characters and their corresponding English on the back of the letter.

After reading it, Klein was once again filled with shock and joy.

It turns out that although the two languages ​​differ in form, they convey the same meaning: Hello, the content on the front of this letter is a facade, a disguise. If you can understand these words, if you come from a different world, like Russell and me, the writer of this letter, then without a doubt, we are companions.

As we're from the same hometown, I hope we can meet and exchange information. If you're interested, we can meet tomorrow evening at the first archway under the Backlund Bridge.

It turns out they really are from the same hometown as the time traveler.
Klein's excitement was palpable; the feeling of meeting a companion in a foreign land was indescribable. He read the short text repeatedly, trying to glean more information from it.

The letter writer was very cautious; first, they tested the letter with the name and address on the envelope, and then they even wrote a fake letter as a cover.
Their Chinese characters are written very fluently, so they must be from China, or at least have a precise grasp of both language expression and writing. The reason they are bilingual is probably because they were worried I wouldn't understand Chinese characters. Furthermore, the fact that they only know these two languages ​​gives the impression that they have received compulsory education.
Klein analyzed the letter with great interest.

Only after he found nothing more did he put down the letter, conjure paper and pen on the bronze table, and write a line of text:
—Information about the person who wrote this letter.

That's right, he wants to use divination to get more information about the other person! Sorry, fellow villager whose name I don't even know, since you're so cautious, I have to be careful too.
While apologizing, Klein read the divination text on the paper seven times, then leaned back in his chair and entered a dreamlike state.

At first, he saw nothing in his dream.

Gradually, sounds began to rise, and the dream gained color. He saw vast expanses of blood-red mist, and at the same time, he heard the illusory sound of the tide from the other side of the mist. The sound of the tide grew louder and louder, until it filled his mind and his thoughts.

Why can't I see any other images? And this sound is so strange.
Klein thought to himself.

Just then, he suddenly had a strange feeling.

Something within me was subtly rejecting this dream, or more precisely, rejecting the sound of the ocean waves.
"boom!"

The feeling of rejection suddenly intensified, and before he could end it on his own, a terrifying repulsive force quickly filled his mind until it burst his head!
"Woo——"

Inside the ancient palace, grayish-white mist swirled violently, as if an invisible gale was raging within, stirring up unrest.

Klein, his head mangled, struggled to support himself on the table, letting out a muffled groan of pain. After some time, his body slowly began to recover. He noticed the changes in the gray mist and was utterly astonished.

what happened!

The gray mist, which had always been calm and peaceful, had never reacted so strongly, not even when he witnessed the blood of the "Eternal Sun" and listened to the mad ramblings of the "True Creator."
What secrets do this fellow countryman who wrote the letter hold, and what is the mystery behind this strange sound of the tide?
He watched the churning gray fog with unease, recalling how, in the dream, besides feeling a sense of repulsion, the gray fog seemed to have a strange attraction to the sound of the ocean waves.
"It's utterly absurd and completely contradictory."

Klein said in a low voice, tapping the table lightly.

He was already prepared to meet the other person at the agreed location. However, the other person's strange divination result made him waver and unable to make up his mind.

Sure enough, they're all time travelers; everyone has some secrets.
Klein looked around at the gray fog, thinking about his own special characteristics, and couldn't help but smile wryly.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

In a maddening illusion.

Terrifying murmurs filled the world, and on the massive cross atop the dark mountain peak hung an equally imposing giant.

Luze sat cross-legged, staring at the giant.

"Repent of your sins, until profane blood rises from the abyss and fills the living."

The muttering tormented his mind; the veins on his head bulged, and his eyes were bloodshot. He was involuntarily murmuring, reciting blasphemous, frenzied, and nameless ancient poems with the giant.

Ok?
Suddenly, he frowned slightly, feeling the turbulent waves in his head surge for no reason for a few seconds.

　Thank you to reader Yuanhao for the 1500 Qidian coins!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)