"Perhaps."
Klein nodded perfunctorily, looking at the spacious sled that could seat all three of them and said, "We can now take the sled out of this town and explore other places."
"Let's stay in town for now. With these thin clothes, I might freeze to death walking in the snow."
Leonard rejected Klein's suggestion. If there wasn't a lady beside him, requiring him to maintain his image, he would have already squatted on the ground, huddled into a ball.
Without needing to discuss, the three quickly reached an agreement. Audrey transformed the sled back into a model, and then the three returned to the previous restaurant. While enjoying the warmth of the fireplace, they inquired about the little match girl from the customers and staff.
A few minutes passed, and Audrey and Leonard successively felt a wave of dizziness, a feedback from their bodies indicating excessive spiritual consumption.
Klein closed his eyes and sensed the condition of his body in the outside world, then said, "Let's leave first. As long as we stay here, our bodies will continuously consume spirituality. This should be the fee we pay to the World Tree."
Audrey and Leonard nodded, then, following the method obtained during the previous ritual, cut off their connection with the world.
Their figures suddenly became transparent, then disintegrated into a "light" composed of pure knowledge, sinking into the depths of this information world.
Confirming that Leonard and Audrey had safely left, Klein also immediately cut off his connection with the World Tree, and his spirit returned to his physical body in reality.
Backlund.
Klein suddenly opened his eyes from the armchair.
He tilted his head to look at the wall clock, then sensed the remaining spirituality in his body, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly:
"What a shrewd merchant. With my demigod-level spirituality, I can only stay there for half an hour at most. Besides the necessary consumption to maintain the World Tree's operation, at least half of the spirituality we consumed must have been collected."
After sighing, Klein began to meditate with his eyes closed. He needed to adjust his state to prepare for finding the Specter Empire later.
In the middle of the Fog Sea, on an island near the Berserk Sea, illusory "lights" composed of complex information appeared out of thin air, quickly converging and reassembling Leyton and Roselle's bodies.
After waiting for a while, Klein, in the guise of "The World" Gehrman Sparrow, brought Moon Emlyn to the island by means of Sights in the Spirit World.
Emlyn briefly sized up Leyton and Roselle, then placed the briefcase he was carrying on the ground, opened it, and took out a golden brooch and an intricately patterned antique vase.
He displayed the two antiques from the Trunsoest Empire and explained, "These are from the collection of a Sanguine Baron. It is said they belonged to a prince of the former Trunsoest Empire."
Klein nodded and followed Emlyn's words, saying, "The Sanguine had placed certain marks on them, but they have already been cleared."
"Marks?"
Emlyn was slightly stunned. He had no idea about this matter. Did Mr. Fool conveniently perform a check and clear potential dangers when I offered the sacrifice?
Leyton's gaze lingered on the golden emblem for a moment. This emblem belonged to the Trunsoest Empire, representing the Night Emperor. This emblem should have originally been a Mystical Item, but the spirituality within it had long been completely lost.
Roselle stood with his arms crossed over his chest, quietly observing the two antiques Emlyn had taken out. After a moment of thought, he said, "This emblem should be enough. That vase is just an extra, or perhaps that Baron wanted to earn some money from you."
Only then did Emlyn notice the presence of a fourth person on the scene. A hint of surprise and vigilance flashed in his crimson eyes, and his right leg instinctively retreated a step.
Who is this guy? Has he been here all along? I didn't even notice him. This isn't normal. As thoughts floated through his mind, Emlyn found that he couldn't recall the other party's exact appearance in his mind, as if a blurry, viscous substance had been smeared over him.
It's a bit like the priest's Mental Terror Candle. Is he a Beyonder of the Spectator Pathway, or does he possess a corresponding Mystical Item?
As he pondered, he saw the person whose appearance he could never remember walk towards him and hand him a card.
He instinctively reached out and took it, lowering his head to look. The most prominent feature on the card face was a figure in black full-body armor, wearing a crown, and draped in a black cloak. In the upper left corner of the card, a line of small text was written in Ancient Feysac: Sequence 0: Black Emperor.
Card of Blasphemy! Black Emperor card, is this the Pathway of the Night Emperor Trunsoest?
Just as a guess arose in his mind, he heard "The World" Gehrman Sparrow's voice:
"He is a Sanguine, and not an ancient Sanguine who survived from the Fourth Epoch. Can he replace Trunsoest's descendants?"
"It might not be easy to trick a clever Angel, but tricking a ship is no problem."
Roselle replied quite confidently, then turned his head to Leyton and said, "Take us to a more distant sea surface. If the commotion is too great, we won't be discovered too early."
"On the Fog Sea now, who knows how many Intis fleets and pirates attracted by high bounties are hidden. It's impossible to remain completely undiscovered."
Although he said so, Leyton still took two steps forward, reaching out to place his hands on Roselle and Klein's shoulders. Klein then reached out to place his hand on Emlyn's shoulder.
With Leyton's help, their bodies instantly became illusory, disintegrating into complex knowledge, rapidly surging towards the sea surface as a torrent of information.
After completely moving away from the nearby colonial islands, the rapidly flowing torrent of information finally stopped, reassembling their bodies.
A dark red glow emerged in Roselle's eyes, and an invisible fluctuation spread out. Their downward trend was reduced to a minimum; they were almost suspended in mid-air.
Leyton released his hands from Roselle and Klein's shoulders, lowered his gaze to the sea below, and one complex, illusory symbol after another emerged in his eyes.
Under his influence, streams of information appeared out of thin air and came to life, spreading outwards with the blowing wind and surging seawater.
After doing all this, he snapped his fingers, changing the surrounding physical rules to a certain extent, allowing them to float directly in mid-air, unaffected by gravity.
Seeing this, Roselle withdrew the power that distorted the downward trend and looked at Emlyn, saying, "Little fellow, hold that emblem and the Black Emperor card, and then, carefully feel the calls coming from all around."
As he spoke, Roselle had already placed one hand on Emlyn's shoulder. Relying on the Black Emperor's Beyonder Characteristic and his connection with the Card of Blasphemy, he lent his Beyonder Characteristic to Emlyn.
Emlyn only felt his vision suddenly darken, and an immense, indescribable sense of oppression erupted from within him. His essence was infinitely elevated, as if it was about to touch the illusory and ethereal Astral World above his head.
Everything around him became illusory in his eyes, as if it had been reduced to its most primitive and fundamental symbolic forms. Together, they formed an illusory yet vast sea of stars.
In this state, his spiritual perception became extremely strong, as if he could directly sense every Sanguine or artificial Vampire existing in reality from that illusory sea of stars. In a hazy blur, he seemed to see several illusory red Moons, some serene, some flamboyant, some full of vitality, and each Crimson Moon made him want to approach it from the bottom of his heart.
Do these represent the existences that have grasped part of the Moon authority, the Mother Goddess, the Ancestor, the Evernight Goddess, and the Primordial Moon? I wonder which one represents the Ancestor?
As thoughts floated, he suddenly felt that some discordant stars had appeared in the illusory sea of stars. They carried an indescribable sense of majesty, giving people a very strong sense of aggression, like strictly regulated order and the shadow of order.
"Great…"
"Emperor…"
Many murmuring voices suddenly sounded in his ears, both chaotic and orderly, as if constantly switching between states of chaos and order.
In the eyes of Klein and Leyton, Emlyn's expression was first calm, then suddenly became excited, somewhat fanatical and obsessed, and then became painful.
His body grew many fine black hairs, his back bulged high as if to grow a pair of huge webbed wings, his ears became pointed and stood up, and his teeth kept growing longer.
Leyton stretched out his right hand forward, and countless pieces of information floated, condensing into an illusory ball of light that enveloped Emlyn, completely cutting off his information interaction with his surroundings, while also soothing his state.
After a while, the figure in the illusory light ball gradually returned to normal, and only then did Leyton release his isolation of him.
"Hoo~ Hoo—"
Emlyn gasped for air. He had almost thought he was going to lose control. Thinking of this, he looked at Roselle somewhat angrily.
His gaze suddenly became confused, then guilty, and finally, somewhat awkwardly, he withdrew his gaze and murmured, "Sorry."
Klein's mouth twitched. He almost couldn't manage his expression. Poor Mr. Moon, what kind of thought storm and inner drama did he experience in those brief two seconds?
However, this also indirectly showed that the auxiliary ability of the Black Emperor Pathway is truly powerful. It can make a Sanguine Viscount, equivalent to a Sequence 5, convince himself in two seconds, forget his anger, and even apologize to the other party. Even a demigod-level Spectator could barely do it, yet Roselle could easily achieve it with a Mystical Item combined with his own abilities.