Whisperer (Seeking Monthly Votes~ Seeking Follow-up Reads~)

Diana felt a sense of trepidation in her heart. She dared not continue reading, so she closed her eyes and began to pray silently.

"Great Lord of All Spirits, please protect your knight and shield her from the intrusion of creatures from the Spirit Realm."

Hearing the prayer from the young girl before him, Ivan finally snapped back to reality. He hurriedly withdrew his inquisitive gaze and paused for a moment before responding:

"Your plea has been received."

Diana let out a sigh of relief upon receiving a reply from her Lord, and she noticed that the feeling of being watched had indeed vanished.

Her eyes shone with excitement and emotion, her heart filled with immense gratitude:

"The Lord actually responded to me once again. As a revived ancient god, He is actually able to pay attention to every single person amidst the prayers of countless believers."

She could not help but whisper softly: "The Lord's mercy is truly awe-inspiring. Praise the great Lord of All Spirits!"

Ivan did not respond further to the girl, even though he possessed neither countless believers nor the ability to listen to thousands of prayers simultaneously.

However, these facts did not stop him from putting on the facade of someone who had taken time out of his busy schedule of hearing myriad prayers to respond to Diana.

Sigh, even the simplest task must be done slowly and with great difficulty, otherwise, it would make it seem like I have too much free time...

Having received the Lord's blessing, Diana continued to focus on her translation work.

[Whisperer]: Through tone and rhetoric, one can perform shallow hypnosis on a target, modifying their simple perception of low-impression objects. The deeper the target's impression of an object, the lower the success rate of the hypnosis.

As the rank increases, the ease of hypnosis and the scope of modifiable cognition will both improve.

One can quickly identify contradictions in a target's cognition and apply pressure to force them into self-doubt; as the rank increases, this effect is strengthened.

One can enter the target's dreams to construct cognitive scenarios, guiding them to form new perceptions. At higher ranks, one can even actively pull others into dreams.

Secret Rite: Targeting a group of at least 20 people, through hypnosis and cognitive modification, implant a temporary consensus that defies common sense but is logically self-consistent.

Furthermore, these people must take practical actions based on this consensus, and finally, collect the spirituality dissipated during the group's actions to integrate into Extraordinary characteristics.

Code of Conduct: One must regularly record one's own emotional changes to maintain self-awareness and avoid being assimilated by the emotions of others.

Ivan looked at the Whisperer abilities and immediately realized that this was the source of the Church of Divine Grace bishop's hypnosis.

"But looking at the description alone, it's hard to imagine how much power would be required to influence the cognition of the entire Rhine Kingdom. Rank Nine?"

He pondered to himself, feeling suspicious about whether the disappearance of the Church of Creation, as mentioned by Old Harvey, was related to the Church of Divine Grace.

Diana put down the Book of Rituals. There was no more content on the pages, and the remaining pages were still stuck together as before.

"How magical, just touching it with the eyeball revealed so much information..."

"According to what Bishop Tarik said today, this should be the material for concocting the Heart-Dream Aspect Magic Potion."

"This Book of Rituals is actually capable of reading out the detailed information within it."

She could not help but grow excited, her small mouth forming an oval shape.

She had not expected that this ancient book, besides leading her to believe in the great Lord of All Spirits, would have such a magical use.

"It's just that I don't know what the rituals and secret rules inside mean... Should I pray to the great Lord and ask?"

"No, no, the Lord has thousands of believers, and I am not the only one."

"The Lord has spent too much energy on me lately; He cannot keep answering questions just for me..."

She lowered her head and muttered to herself:

"Anyway, the bishop of the Church of Divine Grace wants me to join the Heart-Dream Aspect, so I might as well find an opportunity to ask him about this knowledge of the mysterious world."

"Diana, you cannot always rely on the great Lord of All Spirits; you must also rely on yourself to forge a path in the mysterious world."

Diana suppressed the excitement in her heart and took the Myth of the Era from the bookshelf.

She touched this ancient book, which she had just "borrowed" from the library archives, with the eyeball. The imagined anomaly did not occur; the Myth of the Era remained the same as it was in the library, allowing her to read only that one story.

She glanced at the two ancient symbols she did not recognize, and recalling the Lord's warning, she hurriedly closed the book and cast the pattern to the back of her mind.

"Hmm... don't think about it. There are still a few days until Sunday; I can go to the school's library archives again to see if there are any other ancient books."

Ivan also decided to continue following Diana for the next few days. He needed to learn the ancient language and, incidentally, continue searching for other clues regarding the Lord of All Spirits and the Spirit Realm.

Diana tidied up her desk, nimbly kicked off her white socks, and jumped back onto her bed with bare feet.

After tossing and turning for quite a while, the girl finally exhausted her energy.

As the knob on the bedside lamp was turned, the gaslight in the room gradually dimmed, and darkness and silence filled the room once more.

St. Peter's Cathedral.

Abel dragged his weary body back into the cathedral after finishing his patrol mission for the night.

There were still no suspicious individuals discovered today, and he had yet to find any trace of the cult the bishop had spoken of.

Recently, the reports regarding cults received by the church and the City Hall had become fewer and fewer, and even the bloody cases rumored in the streets seemed to be mentioned by no one anymore.

It was as if the cult had completely vanished from Trino City.

But his intuition as a Night Watchman—or rather, as a possessor of the Order Aspect—told him that the matter was definitely not over yet.

For the past month, he had chased down so many leads, from brawl scenes in the slums to smuggling dens at the docks, and from late-night chapels to the inexplicably damaged gates of the Poorhouse.

Every time he felt he was about to grasp the key to the matter, the trail would inexplicably go cold.

He took out the withered, dark green leaf from his pocket; its edges had already turned black. It was the only valuable clue he had found recently.

"I wonder if that particular Beyonder with that Aspect is still in Trino City..."

"Participating in gatherings, destroying the Poorhouse gates... the existence of such a person is, in the end, a hidden danger."

In fact, on that morning when he arrived at the Poorhouse, he had already determined from the residual Spirituality traces that the vandal was the same person as the Beyonder from the Small Chapel earlier.

Sizzle. Sparks flew from the steel strip in his hand, igniting the cigarette dangling from his lips.

Smoke gradually swirled around his body, drifting slowly toward the sky.

"Heh, it seems I still have to start with the destitute who might have seen that person." He stood in the open space outside the clock tower, gazing at the night sky in contemplation.

"However, they aren't exactly willing to deal with someone like me, and it's unlikely they'll tell the truth."

"'Restrain yourself, do not abuse the rules'—I fear I am about to break this secret code of the Hand of Arbitration once again."

"If that happens, I don't know when I'll be able to hold the ritual and advance to the Fourth Order [Overseer]..."

The cigarette burned quietly between his fingers. He brought it to his lips and took a deep drag, the cigarette instantly reduced to a small stub. Hazy smoke billowed from his mouth, blurring the view ahead.

He tossed the butt into the tin trash can beside the church, turned, and walked into the clock tower. Passing room after room, he returned to the interrogation room alone.

Abel took off his Night Watchman uniform, tossing the silver badge onto the table.

His weary yet still sharp eyes stared at the empty interrogation chair opposite him, then he looked back at the rows of "God Blood" behind him.

He rubbed his sore, swollen eyes, feeling a sense of lament:

"I really don't know what the point is of the church setting up so many empty rooms in the Night Watchman clock tower."

"Having this interrogation room and my own quarters should be more than enough; it's simply a massive waste of resources."

Ever since becoming a Night Watchman for the church, Abel had maintained order at night and rested in the small room in the clock tower during the day.

Oh, right, sometimes he also had to find time during the day to face the Bishop's annoying face, though he had never once concerned himself with the church's administration.

Abel reached into his pocket to feel for another cigarette, only to find that his daily ration had been completely exhausted.

He rubbed his temples, which were throbbing from overthinking, and sighed at the thought of having to continue his night watch tomorrow.

"No choice, after all, in the entire church, I am the only Night Watchman."