To some extent, the Nation of Disorder replaced the Divine Kingdom, which allowed Aaron to access authority that only a Sequence 0 Justiciar could possess, even though he was merely a Sequence 3.
The Night Emperor back then should have had a projection of the entire Trunsoest Empire within His Divine Kingdom. The collapse of order brought about by the empire's demise was very likely the reason for the fall of this Justiciar.
But if Lilith could leave behind a Divine Kingdom, what about the Night Emperor?
If I could obtain the Night Emperor's Divine Kingdom, even just a fragment, I would likely benefit greatly.
Calming the surging thoughts in his mind, Aaron looked again at the gradually solidifying Moon City, and at High Priest Nim standing at the forefront.
Although he couldn't truly use this authority yet, he wanted to test an idea of his own through this medium.
With a slight shift in his thoughts, the Domain of Judgment immediately enveloped High Priest Nim, and dark-gold chains seemed to connect reality with illusion.
In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, within the Moon City's council hall, High Priest Nim calmly looked at Bruce and the other elders, speaking gently:
"After the Lord's Holy Day ends, many members of the Moon City hunting team reported today that their potions have been fully digested. This is the Lord's grace."
"All inventory of Beyonder characteristics and materials will be allocated to the maximum extent possible. The Lord will surely..."
Just then, his words suddenly stopped. A dense, profound darkness surged from behind him, spreading outwards like tentacles. This was a sign of his spirituality suddenly rising and his power becoming somewhat uncontrollable.
However, as an experienced Nighthawk, Nim quickly regained control of his power. In a trance, he seemed to see a magnificent figure shrouded in dark-gold mist.
Indeed!
Aaron retracted the Domain of Judgment, and High Priest Nim, who had been tinged black, returned to normal. Having observed through the light of faith, he had verified his idea.
Since the Beyonder characteristic he hunted when advancing to Chaos Hunter was a living Duke of Entropy characteristic, Aaron's current Domain of Judgment also carried some authority of 'Entropy Transformation'. The power that caused Nim's spirituality to surge originated from this.
Although he couldn't directly modify the underlying rules, he could cast this weakened version of divine descent within the Divine Kingdom. This kind of distance-ignoring enhancement was clearly not an ability a Sequence 3 could possess; at least, it was something a Sequence 2 or even a Sequence 1 could achieve after possessing a nascent Divine Kingdom.
Aaron felt himself. Perhaps because he gained this ability by utilizing the Nation of Disorder, the spiritual energy consumed was almost equivalent to summoning a historical void projection of a Sequence 4 of the same level.
Aaron could hardly imagine the grandeur of the Trunsoest Empire in its most glorious period, where simply standing on its territory would grant one the favor and blessings of its rules.
Bringing his thoughts back, Aaron pondered on Moon City, which he had just observed. The residents whose potions had been fully digested were likely due to his continuous enrichment of the 'Moon City' residents within the Nation of Disorder. This was a mutually beneficial double cycle!
After verifying his conjectures, a bolder idea surfaced in Aaron's mind, though it would require some preparation time.
After taking another look at the magnificent palace and the boundless dark-gold ocean outside Moon City, and imagining a future where this place would be filled with the Northern and Southern Continents, Aaron's thoughts shifted slightly, and he returned to the Lost City of Newins.
Standing amidst the ruins, Aaron's pupils instantly turned golden, gazing at the deep pit from which the shadow giant had emerged. It was dark and obscure, with faint remnants of illusory waves.
Aaron was certain that this place had indeed been an exit connecting the Chaos Sea to the outside world, similar to the abandoned ancient castle on the outskirts of Backlund. However, he didn't know why the Chaos Sea had vanished so completely, leaving only residual aura.
He had no intention of delving deeper. The first Blasphemy Slate that could manipulate the Chaos Sea was still in Dark Angel Sasrir's hands. He had already successfully advanced, so there was no need to create extra trouble.
Silently lifting the Nation of Disorder's blockade on the Lost City of Newins, Aaron cast his gaze towards the deep sea, leveraging the connection of the rules in that area.
After a glance with his True Vision, Aaron's brows furrowed deeply. Although the original True Creator phantom had disappeared, and the predicted Angel of Fate from the Aurora Order had not appeared, the pervasive pollution in this sea area made him feel uncomfortable.
Just as he was pondering what had happened during his advancement, a dense dark-gold mist suddenly appeared before Aaron's eyes, and an inexplicable sense of crisis arose in his heart, like a prey being targeted by a venomous snake.
Without the slightest hesitation, the Domain of Judgment instantly enveloped him, isolating external perception. The Star Crown appeared above his head, with brilliant light flickering.
A gray-blue Door of Exile with seven brass keyholes quietly appeared before Aaron.
Although he couldn't yet confirm the source of the danger, anything that could bring him such a sense of crisis would surely track ordinary teleportation or Spirit World travel. Only the Sealed Artifact Grade 0 Door of Exile was the best way to escape.
Without wasting time risking sensing the source of danger, Aaron decisively stepped through the door. Anyway, the value of this ruin had already been squeezed dry.
On the turbid ocean, where scarlet mist drifted, a strange, tentacled octopus sea Monster's body continuously swelled. Each bulging nodule split open, giving birth to more octopuses, each faintly tinged with scarlet.
These Monsters showed no signs of distortion. With remarkable fluidity, they each used their tentacles to retrieve a monocle made of crystal from the void, placing it over a position resembling a human's right eye. After glancing at the blurry island to the west, from which scarlet mist continuously surged, they turned their gaze back to the deep seabed:
"This aura... I never expected a complete Sefirah to exist in the outside world. How interesting!"
"What a pity, I was just a little short, and I could have used the rules of deception to appear directly before that fellow."
"The Scholar of Yore who entered the Forsaken Land of the Gods seems to be His believer. I have a premonition that by following this clue, I will soon find Pallez..."
The octopus Amons paid no mind to the continuously gathering scarlet mist, which seemed to possess vitality. Their bodies suddenly exploded, and clusters of brilliant light points dissipated, vanishing from their original location.
After repeatedly changing locations several times using the Door of Exile from the Star Crown, Aaron only teleported back to Osel after confirming that the sense of dread had disappeared.
"Given my current Beyonder rank, any existence that can still give me this sense of dread must be at least a Sequence 1 Angel or above."
"I immediately suppressed the anomaly of the Nation of Disorder after my advancement, so it shouldn't be those two from the Augustus and Castiya families."
"Although the Moses Ascetic Order has been tracking me, the Hidden Sage would never act rashly after what happened last time."
"The greatest possibility is that Pallez Zoroast's use of the Worm of Time and Trojan Horse of Fate abilities attracted Amon's attention. He followed the anomaly of Fate to the Fog Sea and had been waiting until I lifted the concealment."
Aaron pondered various possibilities, but his figure had already appeared in the underground hall of the ancestral tower, where he saw Varna Weil and Alvin Gallows, who had already returned from the Moon Kingdom.
Feeling the aura emanating from Aaron, Alvin Gallows's blood-red eyes froze for a moment. There was a fleeting sense of the Night Emperor, who once ruled the world, reappearing. His voice involuntarily deepened a few notes:
"Congratulations on your advancement. I have brought back all of Solomon's treasures. All materials, Beyonder characteristics, and Sealed Artifacts below the demigod level have been stored in the family treasury. There are still four demigod Sealed Artifacts remaining."
As he spoke, his chest, entwined with sinister vines and thorns, split open from the middle, revealing a terrifying, profound, and indescribable aura of death and pressure.
Aaron, who was distracted by calming the anomaly of the Nation of Disorder, calmly watched as a bone gate slowly emerged from the split body. With his current strength, he could now see the true form of this Sealed Artifact Grade 0.
Mysterious symbols, rendered in pale and eerie green, emerged one after another, intertwining on the white bones. Once connected into a whole, they collapsed inward, transforming into a boundless, slowly rotating dark vortex.
A total of four items, radiating intense spiritual fluctuations, flew out from within the vortex, quietly suspended before Aaron.
-----------------
Tingen City. After dealing with the deranged Mrs. Sharron, Klein returned alone by rented carriage to Zouteland Street.
The scarlet moonlight shone on his face, flickering between light and dark. In his mind, Coen Lei, who had vomited his internal organs, and Dunn, whose mouth was covered in dark red blood, appeared alternately, making his thoughts both chaotic and scattered:
Coen Lei is dead...
I remember he just got engaged... His parents are still alive...
What was the Captain doing just now...?
His chaotic thoughts continued until Klein returned to his bedroom. His hand, which had just picked up a letter, paused slightly, then slowly put it down. He couldn't determine whether this operation was just an accident or another coincidence.
After some thought, to confirm Captain Dunn Smith's condition, he decided to eliminate all interference and divine above the gray fog.
The majestic palace and the ancient, mottled long table entered his eyes, as if they had remained unchanged for thousands of years.
Klein sat in the high-backed chair belonging to the Fool, holding the pendulum in his left hand. He silently chanted the divinatory statement seven times, then closed his eyes and entered a state of meditation.
After a few seconds of stability, he opened his eyes, his deepened gaze now returned to normal.
He looked at the citrine pendant, his heart gradually sinking, because the pendulum was rotating clockwise, with a considerable amplitude and a steady speed.
This indicated that the answer was affirmative: Dunn Smith's anomaly would put him in danger!
And the danger was not low!
Closing his eyes for a moment, Klein "erased" the previous content and wrote a new divinatory statement:
"The reason for Dunn Smith's anomaly."
He put away the citrine pendant, leaned back against the chair, and while silently chanting the divinatory statement, he entered a dream state through meditation.
In that hazy, illusory world, he saw nothing, discovered nothing; besides the grayness, there was only grayness.
"This means insufficient information, divination failed..." Klein opened his eyes, looked at the parchment on the bronze long table, and muttered bitterly and helplessly.
Having gained no practical insights, Klein was about to return to reality to consult Mr. Azik when he suddenly heard layers of illusory prayers.
Jotun... Klein instantly recognized this as Sun Derrick. He composed himself and virtually tapped the expanding and contracting crimson star.
Within the somewhat blurred prayer scene, Derrick placed a beast hide inscribed with various symbols on a crude altar:
"Sequence 6: Wind-Blessed"
"Main ingredients: Six crystallized feathers from a Blue Shadow Falcon, a pair of Dragon Eye Sea Eagle eyeballs"
"Supplementary ingredients: 100 grams of dried Octopus Jellyfish powder, 50 milliliters of Deep Sea Naga blood."
To get a potion formula so quickly... Klein was surprised. After using divination to confirm the formula's correctness, he directly transmitted Derrick's prayer scene to Hanged Man Alger.
Although he hadn't yet received the compensation in pounds from Mr. Hanged Man, Klein first condensed the Light Supplicant and Solar High Priest potion formulas into light points and threw them into the crimson star representing Sun Derrick.
Even though he had gained a Sequence 6 level potion formula, Klein was in no mood to be excited. After returning to reality, he urgently wrote on a letter.
.....
"In a recent mission, my superior exhibited some unusual behavior. He sent me away, then half-crouched beside a teammate's corpse, his mouth covered in dark red blood."
"In your memory, have you encountered similar incidents? How should I help my superior?"
After the ink dried, Klein quickly scanned the letter from top to bottom, and at the end, he added another paragraph:
"Respected Mr. Azik, I received intelligence that Vice Admiral Hurricane Qilangos has secretly infiltrated Backlund. He possesses a very powerful Shepherd's glove."
"I'm not sure if this will interest you, but I believe it's necessary to let you know."
Klein quickly finished, folded the letter, took out the copper whistle, put it to his lips, and blew hard.
Silently, he saw illusory, hazy white bones being thrown out one by one from the top of the desk, forming a fountain that assembled into a giant Monster.
It was still nearly four meters tall, still covered in a faint glow, and still had its head poking through the roof, seemingly no different from before.
Klein flicked his wrist, tossing the letter up, and saw the bone Monster firmly catch it.
He blew the copper whistle again, watching the "Messenger" disintegrate into illusory white bones, falling like rain, disappearing into the surface of the desk.
Watching the disappearing messenger, for some reason, an unprecedented sense of anxiety suddenly arose in Klein's heart. He felt as if something extremely bad was about to happen.
This was the Clown's premonition of crisis!
-----------------
Backlund, Cherwood Borough, Holy Wind Cathedral.
In a simple, unadorned room, Hanged Man Alger, who had come to Backlund to investigate Qilangos, was studying the investigation reports from the past few days, trying to find clues within them.
To his upper right, a stack of papers filled with distorted "symbols" was placed.
Just as Alger leaned back and reached to rub his eyes, he suddenly found his vision becoming illusory, presenting a dense, grayish-white mist.
In the depths of this endless mist, there was a high-backed chair, as if it had always existed there, and an indistinct figure sat upon it.
Mr. Fool... Alger had just thought of this when he saw a young man appear in the hazy, grayish-white mist.
Wind-Blessed Potion Formula!
Alger was first startled, then showed a look of surprise. He pressed his hand to his chest, lowered his head, and said in a hushed voice:
"Praise be to You, Mr. Fool!"
Before he finished speaking, everything he heard and saw disappeared, as if it had never appeared.
Gazing at the collected Roselle's diary and investigation reports, Alger's pupils trembled, and he once again felt the Fool's power:
This was the Holy Wind Cathedral, once the headquarters of the Church of the Lord of Storms. Although this was over a thousand years ago, it didn't prevent believers from still considering it one of their holy sites.
However, Mr. Fool could still "descend" silently and give a response.