Chapter 237: Sequence 2

"29th October. The leader of the Secret Order, Zaratul, visited me once

again. He didn't mention anything specific and just casually chatted

with me. I wasn't able to guess his true intentions. It seems like he

just wanted to strengthen the communication between us and understand

each other better?

"I've already met the two High-Sequence Beyonders from the Church, but I

felt that Zaratul was much more powerful and mysterious than them, so I

asked him what Sequence number he was without much hope, and in the end,

he actually answered me!

"He told me that he was a Sequence 2, Miracle Invoker!

"Sequence 2? In the Church's categorization, that's the position of an

angel, close to that of a deity!

"He truly is more powerful than the Alchemist and Arcane Scholar that I

met before!

"But my intuition tells me that Zaratul isn't telling the whole truth.

Sequence 2 might just be his former position, or that he's about to

advance.

"Miracle Invoker? A master at creating miracles? The name of this potion

makes one's imagination run wild!

"This is the corresponding Sequence 2 of Seer, a Miracle Invoker who

controls fate?

"I tried probing Zaratul if the word miracle refers to the miracle of

fate? That the Seer pathway is one that slowly understands and grasps

fate so as to control it?

"Zaratul ignored the first question. He told me that fate is just one of

the parts of the Seer pathway, and it's not even its main focus. The

pathway that truly represents fate is Monster!

"He raised a few examples which were all potion names of the Monster

Sequence. Sequence 7 Lucky, Sequence 5 Winner, Sequence 2 Soothsayer,

and Sequence 1 Snake of Mercury! It's also known as the Snake of Fate.

"This was the first Sequence 1 I got to know. It hit me right in the

face!

"According to what I know, the Monster pathway should be controlled by

the Life School of Thought. This school seems to also have parts of the

Apothecary Sequence pathway. They propose three major divisions, the

world of absolute rationality, the world of the spirit, and the material

world. Yea, it's pretty cool.

"Zaratul told me that the Life School of Thought specializes in

astromancy, seeking to use medicine, music, light, wine, and fragrance,

to eliminate paths with unfavorable star readings and fate. They believe

that disasters and diseases are caused by the loss of balance between

man and nature, as well as the balance between man and his own mind.

"He added meaningfully that the Life School of Thought worships the

moon.

"Why worship the moon and not go one step further, the Evernight

Goddess?"

This diary took up two pages and was clearly copied from both sides of

the original.

That's a lot of information... Klein sighed in heartfelt

silence.

This was also the first time he was learning of a Sequence 1 potion's

name.

Snake of Mercury and Snake of Fate really made one feel a pining for!

*Similarly, it's my first time learning of a Sequence 2. I now know the

corresponding Sequence 2 of Seer... The name Miracle Invoker sounds

pretty good. It contains deep meaning and doesn't sound lowly. Of

course, compared to Soothsayer, it does seem a little

inferior...*

*Fate is only part of the Seer pathway and it's not even its main focus.

I have to remember this. I should constantly reflect on myself and not

end up steering towards fate. It might result in the failure of my

"acting"... Zaratul's words don't seem contradictory... The Monster

pathway is the real path of fate... So, Soothsayer is a Sequence 2. If

that's the case, then I already knew of a Sequence 2 in the

past...*

Although he didn't take his eyes off the paper, Klein was seriously

considering his own Sequence chain.

Due to his experience in digesting the two potions, "Seer" and "Clown,"

and because he could spy and revere fate, he was able to be a little

prescient regarding fate. However, he would still be helpless toward the

development of fate. He had slowly been equating the essence of his

Beyonder pathway to fate. If it wasn't for this diary, it was very

likely that he would've used this as a premise to comprehend and "act"

for the subsequent Sequences.

As for whether or not Zaratul was lying, what Klein was certain of was

that the Monster pathway was definitely the Sequence of Fate, which was

consistent with what he had seen from the confidential information of

the Nighthawks and with the potion name he had heard of earlier,

"Soothsayer."

Now that there was a Fate Sequence, the "Seer" pathway was unlikely to

be a repeat. This would result in some degree of overlapping, and it

would be inconsistent with how each of the current Sequences had

different characteristics.

Therefore, Klein was inclined to believe what Zaratul had said. He was

inclined to believe that fate was only part of the Seer's pathway, not

even its main focus.

*The value of these two pages is invaluable to the present me... The

Alchemist and the Arcane Scholar should be the higher Sequences of the

Savant pathway. From Roselle's tone, they definitely don't belong to

Sequence 2 and 1. That is to say, they are Sequence 4 and Sequence 3...

For the time being, it's impossible to determine which is Sequence 4 and

which is Sequence 3...* Klein gathered his thoughts, flipped the

diary, and continued reading.

As for why the Life School of Thought only worshiped the moon and didn't

believe in the Evernight Goddess which symbolized the crimson moon, he

was unable to ponder too deeply about it due to the lack of information.

The third page was Roselle's recount of inventing a practical steam

engine. At times, he was afraid of suffering crackdowns, and at other

times, afraid that the fruits of his labor would be seized by powerful

figures. His words displayed his fear of being persecuted.

To think that even Emperor Roselle, who thought of himself as the

protagonist of an era, would have such a perturbed and worried side to

him... The corners of Klein's mouth twitched as he flipped to the fourth

page of the diary.

"18th April. Matilda is pregnant.

"It's to be expected, and I can even tell you exactly which love-making

session she conceived in, because I felt a decrease in my Beyonder

characteristic.

"Once the conception is successful, my own Beyonder characteristic will

follow a mysterious connection, and part of it will be transferred to my

child.

"After that, I asked Archbishop Fan Esti worriedly. He told me that this

is a normal phenomenon. For Sequence 7 and below, Beyonder

characteristics will not be passed on to the next generation, but it

isn't absolute, Sequence 6 and 5 will naturally pass down a portion, but

it will not affect the parent's strength. As for the child, they would

be born with certain Beyonder powers, close to that of Sequence 9. But

as a result, their pathway is basically fixed.

"At high Sequences, the inheritance of Beyonder characteristics is

something one can control. One can choose to pass down or not, or one

can even choose to pass down just a little bit, a third, half, or all of

them.

"In other words, the children born from High-Sequence Beyonders might be

born as Beyonders. As for the Sequence number, it's up to either one of

the parents to decide.

"I wonder if the descendants of the deities are like this as well..."

After reading the diary, there were only two phrases in Klein's mind:

"Law of Beyonder Characteristics Indestructibility" and "Law of Beyonder

Characteristics Conservation."

*Is the law governing the survival of Beyonder creatures? It's no wonder

that some magical animals will reproduce only before they die... It's no

wonder there would be the phenomenon of increased killing and bloodlust

after childbirth. The target would be of their own race or even their

partner. This is to supplement their Beyonder characteristics...

According to this logic, if we trace this all the way back, where did

the earliest Beyonder characteristics come from? Produced out of thin

air? From the Creator who created everything?*

Since Miss Justice had already advanced to Telepathist, Klein controlled

the urge to nod and continued to leaf through the pages.

The fifth page was Roselle's criticisms about how no one could enjoy his

pop music and thought that he was making noise, while at the same time,

he mused how refreshing stories was a common pursuit of different people

from different worlds, and that the popularity of the novels he

plagiarized from The Count of Monte Cristo allowed the newspaper he

founded to flourish.

*...Emperor, is there anything else you haven't done? With a smile,

Klein turned to the sixth and final page.*

"10th November, I received the great pirate Savigny Solomon in secret at

the White Maple Palace. I hope that he will plunder my opponents on the

new sea route and strike at the ships of Feysac, Loen, and Feynapotter.

"And I promised to help him advance to a High-Sequence Beyonder.

"The Beyonder pathway of Black Emperor has names that are as strange as

the Demoness pathway---Corruption, Confusion, The Fallen, Disorder...

However, in order to match the Black Emperor, they added on their own

suffixes, Baron of Corruption, Mentor of Disorder, Earl of The Fallen,

and Prince of Abolition.

"In order for Savigny to live up to his name, I decided to confer him

the title of Earl of the Court in secret.

"Savigny has a child named Nast Solomon, and my intuition tells me that

he will dominate the Five Seas in the future."

*Nast Solomon... The King of the Five Seas, Nast? Nast, who claims to be

a descendant of the Solomon Empire? To think that he was born during the

Roselle period!* Klein was stunned.

Since Roselle had mentioned the term "new sea route," Klein had easily

determined the corresponding year.

It was in 1194 that the new sea route was discovered and the Southern

Continent was found, and Roselle was assassinated in 1198. The diary

could only have been written between those two years.

That also meant that it was about 151 to 155 years ago.

*If Nast, the "King of the Five Seas," was the Nast Solomon, Roselle had

spoken of, he's almost 160 years old... Is this due to other reasons, or

do High-Sequence Beyonders obtain an extension to their lifespan in the

first place...* Klein thought seriously.

He gathered his thoughts and let the diary disappear from his hands. He

then looked at Justice and said, "You are free to trade or communicate

now."

Mr. Fool has no general knowledge to tell us today... Audrey

was slightly disappointed. She turned her gaze to Sun and said, "Can I

exchange information related to the dragon from you?"

She clearly remembered that Mr. Sun called the Spectator pathway "the

Dragon pathway," and that he said it originated from the Dragon race.

"Sure. I want the Sequence 8 potion formula for Bard," answered The Sun,

Derrick, who had been silent all this while, in hesitation.

He had wanted to use this as an exchange for information on the world

where Justice and The Hanged Man were living so that he wouldn't always

be confounded by what he heard. However, seeing that his process of

digesting the potion was nearing completion, he still made his

advancement his top priority.