Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 26 The Key to Digesting Potions

Luze consulted the Night Watchers' records and found some notes that were supposedly left behind by Emperor Rosell the Great. They were stored in a box, and upon opening it, Luze was astonished to find—in Chinese.

He was utterly astonished as he looked at the familiar yet incongruous text.

Emperor Roselle. He really was a time traveler, and from the same civilization as me.

Although he had guessed this possibility, Lu Ze's feelings were indescribable when he actually discovered the truth.

No wonder no one can understand it, because it comes from another world! But if that's the case, what hidden things would Roselle record in a script that only he knows?
Lu Ze reached into the box and took out three manuscripts. The characters on them were enlarged and the strokes were somewhat strange, clearly indicating that they were copied by later generations who did not understand Chinese characters.

He read on with a sense of nostalgia.

"November 18th, what a magical thing. A whimsical experiment and an accidental mistake led me to discover a poor fellow trapped in a storm, lost in the depths of darkness. He could only get slightly closer to the real world during the full moon each month, but even then, he couldn't get his cries through. He was lucky; he met me, the protagonist of this era."

"On January 1, 1184, at the grand New Year's Eve party, Madame Florent was a true beauty."

"January 3rd, the choice at the time was too hasty. Now it seems that whether it is 'apprentice', 'fortune teller', or 'thief', they are all better. Unfortunately, there is no going back."

"On September 23, I lost contact with the ships searching for the 'Forsaken Land.' I should consider inventing wireless telegraphy; hopefully, it won't be affected by the storm."

The information in the three manuscripts is not coherent, and they appear to be diaries left by Roselle at different stages of her life. Besides some palace secrets and national politics, Luzer unexpectedly, yet not unexpectedly, discovers that Roselle himself seems to be a high-sequence Extraordinary. He even has the ability to contact mysterious figures who do not exist in the real world and to search for the unknown region known as the "Forsaken Land."

But what excited Lu Ze the most was this description in the diary—

"January 4th, why were my children so stupid? I've said it a million times, don't be fooled by those charlatans. No, those charlatans might be fooled themselves. The key to potions isn't mastering them, it's digesting them! Not digging them out, it's playing them! And the name of a potion isn't just a core symbol, it's a concrete image, and even more so, it's the 'key' to digesting it!"

Digestion?

Do potions need to be digested?
Moreover, the key to digestion is the name of the potion?

Digestion, use the name of the potion to digest!
Thoughts surged forth, exploding in my mind like thunderclaps.

Lu Ze was extremely excited; his hand holding the diary was trembling.

Russell is clearly a high-sequence powerhouse. The probability that what he wrote in a language that only he can understand is maliciously deceiving people—that is to say, this method is extremely likely to be true and will be of great use to his path to becoming an extraordinary being!

But at that moment, his smile suddenly stopped, as if he had remembered something.

Wait a minute, I can't be promoted to Sequence 8!
He recalled Dunn's warning: "Secret Prayers" must never seek advancement, or they will only be courting death. In that case, even if the method in Roselle's diary was true, he couldn't use it to quickly advance and become a high-level powerhouse.
Lu Ze gradually calmed down, sat back in his chair, and put the diary back in the box.

On the bright side, he can at least use this method to "digest" the potion, reduce its effects on his body, and avoid losing control.

Thinking about this made him feel somewhat at peace.

But how do we digest it?
The name of the potion is the core symbol, the specific image, and the key.
The name "Secret Prayer" literally means someone who prays and makes requests in secret. Does that mean I can digest the potion simply by doing things that fit this name?
Luzer looked down and recalled that he seemed to have actually done something similar. He had prayed to the true creator twice, once to deal with the mad Hainas, and once to save Old Neil.

After these two prayers, did the potion's effects decrease?
Hmm, it seems there really is one.

When he first took the potion, his mind was very unstable, and he could see strange things in the corners. But after those two prayers, his spirituality became more and more stable, and it seemed that learning rituals and practicing Hermes script had helped him digest them. Luzer's expression was a little strange.

What kind of lame joke is this! To reduce the influence of the true creator, one needs to digest the potion—but the key to digesting the potion is to pray to the true creator?
The logic is complete!

Wait a minute, the potion's name refers to a hidden being, not specifically the true creator. Could praying to other hidden beings help with digestion? That seems like something worth trying.

Lu Ze breathed a sigh of relief and closed the box.

Russell's diary seems to have been scattered around. I might look for it if I have the chance in the future, since it was really useful.

He suppressed the turmoil in his mind and tried to continue his self-study of the occult, but he couldn't calm his mind. So he simply put it all aside and closed his eyes to rest. He didn't open his eyes until Leonard, who was replacing him, came down from the stage.

"So relaxed? Didn't the captain tell you to study the occult on your own?"

He asked with a slightly frivolous smile.

"I'm tired of studying."

Lu Ze was very tired at the moment and didn't really want to talk to him.

"That's it."

Leonard smiled, staring at him with his dark green eyes. Just as he was about to walk out of the armory, he suddenly spoke up, "Hey, Luzer, I always feel like you have a unique aura."

"Really? I didn't sense it. What kind of aura is it?"

"That kind of charisma you have as the protagonist of the story. Look, you not only miraculously survived the cultists, but you even became an extraordinary individual, joined us, and demonstrated your abilities."

Lu Ze didn't want to listen to his rambling, so he turned to look at him.

"what do you want to say in the end?"

"I just have a question."

Leonard chuckled, a dark glint in his eyes. "Why is the Aurora Society so fixated on you? And why did Sirius, who guards you, suddenly go mad? You seem to hold some strange secret, don't you?"

Lu Ze silently sized him up for a few moments before speaking:

"I don't know. I was mentally ill back then. How could a mentally ill person understand those things?"

Leonard's smile froze.

Neurosis. Neurosis.
After saying that, Lu Ze stopped talking and went out into the hall. Facing the sunlight outside, he suddenly thought of Klein, the "diviner" who had just left. He happened to be going to the divination club to do divination for people, which was exactly the behavior that matched the name of his potion. Could it be that he also knew the key to digesting the potion?

Thinking back to Leonard testing him earlier, Old Neil praying to the evil god, and himself, the Mystic being watched by the true Creator, this Night Watch team is truly quite a spectacle.

(End of this chapter)