Lord of Mysteries

Chapter 99 Red Chimney

In the afternoon, Klein returned home and drew the curtains, plunging the bedroom into darkness.

He took out paper and pen, thought for a long time, and finally wrote down a few words:

"There were extraordinary factors guiding the Elliott kidnapping case."

As a "fortune teller," Klein had previously divined whether those seemingly coincidental events had unnatural developments, and the results proved that he was overthinking it.

This time, influenced by his teacher Azik, he took the issue seriously again and learned from the tuxedo clown's lesson, carefully designing the "divination statements" and eliminating some vague and easily confused descriptions from the beginning.

"Hmm, break down the three coincidences and divine each one separately..." Klein nodded thoughtfully, slowly taking off the citrine pendant from his sleeve.

He held the pendulum with his left hand, letting the pendant hang almost touching the "divination statement" on the paper.

Calming his mind and entering meditation, Klein closed his eyes and began to repeat silently:

"There were extraordinary factors guiding the Elliott kidnapping case."

……

Again and again, he opened his eyes and looked at the pendulum, only to see the citrine pendant rotating slightly counterclockwise.

"Still a denial..." Klein muttered, redesigning the "divination statement" several more times, but the result was still that there was no coincidence in that matter.

He also performed divinations for the "Riell Bieber's stay in Tingen incident" and the "Selena's magic mirror divination incident," and the answers he received were both "normal."

Ha, I, a real fortune teller, was fooled by Mr. Azik, this fake charlatan? Besides, the captain and the others didn't seem to find anything strange... Klein shook his head with amusement, but still cautiously prepared to use "dream divination" for a final confirmation.

After a moment's thought, he changed the "divination statement" to suit different methods.

"The real cause of Elliott's kidnapping." Klein wrote with his pen, pausing occasionally to choose his words carefully.

After reading it several times, he tore off the paper, got up, walked to the bedside, and lay down in a relaxed state.

Holding the "divination statement," Klein quickly fell asleep through meditation.

In a hazy, distorted, and fragmented world, he regained some of his senses and wandered around in a daze.

Gradually, he saw the kidnappers, saw them lose their last chip at the gambling table, saw them obtain guns through underground channels, saw them scout the location several times, and saw them temporarily rent the house across from Riel Bieber's as a hideout...

It wasn't a continuous sequence of events, but rather a series of fleeting images, yet Klein couldn't find a single thing out of place.

Moreover, this largely matches the kidnappers' confessions that he had learned.

After exiting the dream, Klein divined two other things, and the results were the same: the development followed the pattern, and the coincidence was just a coincidence.

"I was definitely overthinking it. Mr. Azik is just a fortune-telling enthusiast..." Klein steadied his pendulum, shook his head, and smiled wryly.

He was about to draw back the curtains to let the afternoon sunlight into the bedroom when his fingertips suddenly stopped there.

"Judging from the original owner's impression, Professor Azik was a calm, reliable, and trustworthy gentleman who almost never said anything without basis. Even though he often argued with his mentor, it was limited to academic issues, and each had their own reasons... If he were just a simple divination enthusiast, he wouldn't communicate with me in this way... Moreover, the original owner didn't remember him liking divination at all... Of course, it's also possible that the corresponding memory fragments are missing..." Klein frowned, still feeling uneasy, and wanted to find another way to confirm.

He suspected that Mr. Azik had stumbled upon some inside information, so he used divination as a pretext to remind himself.

"What method should I use to confirm this?" Klein paced back and forth in his dimly lit bedroom, where he could barely make out the words on the book, recalling the other divination methods he knew.

One step, two steps, three steps, he suddenly stopped, an idea forming in his mind.

"Let's assume that the coincidence is indeed problematic. If I can't divine the answer because my sequence isn't high enough, or because I'm being interfered with by external factors, then we can change the environment. Let's change to an environment that's more mysterious and harder to understand than these things!" Klein perked up, opened a drawer, and took out a small silver knife.

Then, he gathered his spirit, allowing his spirituality to flow from the tip of the silver dagger, connecting with the surrounding nature.

As he walked, the spiritual wall gradually sealed the entire bedroom.

Klein's plan is to go above the gray fog to perform divination, to go to that mysterious world to perform divination!

…………

Above the boundless, hazy gray-white mist, within the majestic and magnificent ancient temple.

Klein sat at the head of the long bronze table, with a newly "manifested" parchment in front of him.

He picked up his round-bellied fountain pen and, following his previous attempts, wrote down the "divination statement":

"There were extraordinary factors guiding the Elliott kidnapping case."

Holding the pendulum and with the pendant hanging low, Klein allowed his mind to quickly settle, becoming quiet and ethereal.

He half-closed his eyes and silently recited the "divination statement" seven times, allowing his spirit to connect with the spiritual realm that reigns supreme.

Feeling the slight tug on the silver chain, Klein opened his eyes and looked at the pendulum.

Upon seeing this, he was immediately stunned:

The citrine pendant is rotating clockwise!

This means that there were extraordinary factors guiding the Elliott kidnapping case!

This is completely opposite to the results of Klein's divination in the outside world!

Guiding without a trace... Such power, or rather, such methods, are simply terrifying... What is the purpose of the person behind this? The Antigonus family notes and my intertwined destiny? Klein was greatly alarmed, losing his composure and causing the pendulum to spin erratically.

He carefully placed the citrine pendant down, pinched the bridge of his nose, and his expression became unusually solemn.

After considering for a few seconds, he didn't try to divine the other two things, but instead wrote down a new "divination statement":

"The real reason behind Elliott's kidnapping."

Holding the paper, Klein silently repeated it seven times, then leaned back in his chair and drifted into a deep sleep above the gray fog.

Soon, he saw an endless, illusory, grayish-white mist.

The mist slowly parted, revealing colorful flowers and lush green lawns.

Behind the flowers and lawn, the space twists and overlaps, as if it has become a living monster.

Klein strained to see and could barely make out a dark red chimney hidden there.

Just then, everything before his eyes collapsed and shattered, and his dream abruptly disintegrated.

Inside the magnificent temple, Klein suddenly straightened his back, feeling his heart pounding wildly for no reason.

"Hoo... I feel like I've glimpsed something terrifying..." He took two deep breaths to calm his chaotic emotions.

Knock, knock, knock. After a moment, Klein tapped the edge of the long table, lost in thought once more:

"Red chimney... garden... lawn... is this place connected to the person behind it all? But those coincidences don't reveal his purpose, and you could even say there's no malice involved..."

Amidst a jumble of thoughts, Klein felt a sudden chill, for himself, and for his captain and his comrades like Frye:

We are like puppets on strings, being manipulated into a performance, and what's even more terrifying is that we feel good about ourselves...

"Sigh... I don't know how to bring this up with the captain. Old Neil's divination results are exactly the same as mine outside... If I were to confirm it on the spot... I simply couldn't confirm it..." Klein rubbed his temples as if he had a headache.

After a few seconds of calm, he began to divine the "Riell Bieber's stay in Tingen incident," and again, he started with the pendulum method.

This time, Klein was astonished to see his citrine pendant standing there, motionless, neither confirming nor denying.

"Something's strange..." he muttered, his thoughts wandering as he speculated about the cause. "Did the mastermind detect my divination and take action?"

Next, he tried "dream divination," but he could only see discontinuous, fragmented, and hazy gray mist, and made no other discoveries.

The outcome of the "Selena's Magic Mirror Incident" was the same.

Klein was almost certain of his earlier thought. Unable to find a good opportunity to remind Captain Dunn Smith, he felt an unprecedented urgency to improve himself.

"Next, I'll continue to the fortune-telling club and try to 'play' successfully as soon as possible, digest the 'Fortune Teller' potion... Also, I need to confirm whether the 'Clown' potion is a sequel to the 'Fortune Teller' and find clues about it... In addition, I need to contact Mr. Azik more often and see if I can dig out any inside information he knows..." Klein put his right hand to his forehead, quickly formulated the next plan, and clarified the focus.

After thinking for a moment, he conjured up a piece of parchment in front of him and wrote:

"The sequence 9 'The Diviner' corresponds to the sequence 8 'The Clown'."

Having just experienced this, Klein was now completely confident that his divination skills would be enhanced and elevated above the gray fog.

"Just like how the running club always manages to land a big hit... Is this what it means to have good luck?" he murmured silently, picking up the pendulum again.

Before long, Klein received an affirmative answer:

The sequence 9 "The Diviner" corresponds to the sequence 8 "The Clown"!

Following that, he wrote:

"The Sequence 8, Sequence 7, Sequence 6, and Sequence 5 corresponding to 'Diviner' will each gain at least one new, independent ability."

With a whoosh, Klein tried the pendulum method once again.

However, he saw that the citrine pendant remained there, without turning at all.

"Insufficient prior information to complete the divination and obtain enlightenment?" Klein muttered to himself as if deep in thought, setting down the silver chain and beginning to carefully consider the words needed for "dream divination."

After a dozen seconds, he picked up his pen and solemnly wrote:

"A clue to the 'Clown' potion."

(End of this chapter)