Water Ball Spell Incantation

"Michelle, once this is over, let's leave this place and go to Frieden."

After their heartfelt sisterly reunion, they set off again.

However, the atmosphere in the group had become completely different from before. They chatted frequently, like real sisters, and none of the previous tension remained.

"Sure. I've wanted to leave this place for a long time too," Michelle replied gently.

Of course, this lack of tension did not include Gu Bei.

His treatment remained the same as ever—his hands were numb from the ropes, his legs trembled from walking, and he had no right to speak. The moment he opened his mouth, Annie, who might have been smiling sweetly a second ago, would turn around and give him two lashes.

What saddened him most was that it seemed he could only communicate with the system now.

"Try the candied fried noodles I invented myself."

"These noodles are sweet enough to rot your teeth..."

Gu Bei cut it off. "Have you thought of a way for me to escape?"

The system instantly fell silent.

Of course, Gu Bei knew he could not place his hopes on such an unreliable system. He had only asked to make it shut up.

He continued muttering to himself.

"We need to find a way to lure the pursuers over, while making sure Michelle doesn't notice at all. That way, when they arrive, she won't have time to kill me..."

The system interrupted, "The success rate is too low. You might as well try seducing Michelle. The chance of success is at least twenty-five percent."

"..."

Gu Bei seriously considered the suggestion before finally telling the system, "Get lost."

The three of them continued onward. Gu Bei followed Michelle, pretending to be half-dead so Annie would lower her guard, while secretly considering ways to escape.

Suddenly, he looked up at Michelle. An idea flashed through his mind.

"Let's do this. There's no other way."

Annie was driving him forward, and he looked obedient enough, stumbling along. But soon, his body abruptly stiffened. Pretending that he had run out of strength, he collapsed to the ground.

He closed his eyes and lay completely still.

Michelle stopped and turned around. Annie came over to examine Gu Bei for a moment, then shook her head.

"He fainted."

Michelle said nothing. She seemed to be looking down in thought, and no one could tell what was on her mind.

"These nobles really are useless."

Annie sounded displeased as she kicked Gu Bei hard.

Gu Bei endured the pain without giving himself away.

At the same time, the hand pinned beneath his stomach quietly wrote a word on the ground—"Treasure Vault."

This was Gu Bei's plan: he would pretend to faint and leave a mark here, allowing the pursuers to discover Michelle's destination. That way, the Riser Family could lie in wait at the Treasure Vault.

Because his movements were hidden enough, neither Annie nor Michelle noticed.

"Do you really think this will work? Even if someone finds the marks and the pursuers hurry over, Michelle would still have plenty of time to silence you."

The system spoke inside his head.

"Better than doing nothing."

Gu Bei replied inwardly.

Besides, if the pursuers set up their ambush well enough and caught Michelle off guard, his chances of surviving would still be high. The system's pessimism made no sense. Judging by how seriously Michelle was taking this, the Riser Family should have some real capability. They could not be that useless.

Therefore, he held considerable hope for this plan.

Just as Gu Bei was tracing the mark into the ground.

A string of strange words suddenly drifted over—words he had never heard before and could not understand.

It was Annie. She was chanting something, but her voice was completely unlike her usual one. Those low, mysterious words echoed through the forest as though they carried magic, making Gu Bei involuntarily slip into a daze.

He felt a tremor rise from his soul.

Before he could react, a ball of water suddenly appeared out of thin air and drenched him to the bone. The shock made it impossible for him to keep pretending.

His body shuddered as he "woke up."

"What a nuisance. What a waste of my magic," Annie's voice returned to normal.

But Gu Bei was still immersed in shock.

What was that? An incantation? Magic?

Although Gu Bei had already learned about this world from their earlier conversations, and knew that Michelle and Annie were mages, he had never witnessed it with his own eyes.

The instant the incantation sounded, he felt as though the entire world had turned upside down.

Time froze. The trees and soil within reach became blurred and distant. Fear and pleasure rising from the depths of his soul intertwined, and everything became more... more...

Gu Bei did not know how to describe it.

"More essential," the system suddenly said in his mind.

Right, more essential!

Gu Bei felt a surge of excitement. The moment the incantation appeared, he felt as though he had conversed with the source of his own being.

The sensation was as wondrous as his first time, yet even deeper. It was like a blissful trance, yet also like endless pain surging from an abyss and wrapping around him, making it impossible to stop.

His body would not stop trembling.

"Is this... magic?"

Gu Bei could not help saying it aloud.

He needed more.

Just as Gu Bei savored the lingering aftertaste of the incantation.

"Yes. Magic."

To his surprise, Annie actually responded to his muttering.

As if something had touched a nerve, she suddenly raised her eyes, and intense hatred flooded her voice.

"What is so remarkable about it? You never learned even the slightest thing about magic, yet you nailed it shut inside a coffin underground. How could you possibly understand it?"

Gu Bei came back to himself and looked at Annie in confusion.

Annie seemed to have been stirred up. Bitter accusations spilled from her one after another.

"You are merely cowardly. You fear everyone who is different from you. Only when everyone becomes as mediocre and incapable as you are will you be satisfied. Yet you feel no shame. Instead, you place the label of evil upon geniuses, using so-called normality as a pass for your own incompetence."

The more Annie spoke, the more agitated she became.

"Annie, enough!"

Michelle interrupted her. "What's the point of saying this to him?"

Annie froze and stopped speaking. Realizing she had lost control, she looked at Michelle uneasily.

"I'm sorry. I got too emotional."

Michelle nodded, unconcerned.

"We've wasted enough time. Don't forget, we're still wanted by The Church." She glanced at Gu Bei and urged, "Let's go."

Annie nodded. She turned around, kicked Gu Bei, and forced him to get up.

"Useless thing, hurry up and follow!"

Gu Bei was not angry. He did not react at all to Annie's lengthy speech. He merely looked weak as he meekly followed behind Michelle.

No one knew how ecstatic he was inside at that moment.

"Again! Play it again!"

He shouted at the system in his mind.

Half an hour ago, he never would have expected that the cold mechanical voice could excite him so much. He had never imagined he would ask the system not to shut up, but to say more.

The system, usually so chatty, seemed strangely bashful now. After hesitating for a long time, it finally shyly spat out a sentence.

A sentence in which Gu Bei could not understand a single word.

But that did not matter, because it was Annie's Water Ball Spell incantation.

The system had recreated it perfectly, without missing a single word.

In other words, he could listen to that incantation again whenever he wanted!

When the system played it, the incantation sounded like the ravings of a madman, lacking even a trace of its previous mystery and power. But Gu Bei did not care. He knew that it only needed something else to become a true incantation and unleash unimaginable power.

He would find that something.

That was right. From the moment he heard the incantation, Gu Bei had resolved to become a mage.

It was not merely to gain power, nor was it because he hoped to become someone extraordinary.

Ever since he had transmigrated, he had been pondering one question: what was the meaning of his transmigration? Why had he come here? Perhaps it was all an accident, but accidents implied inevitability.

And now, he thought he had found the answer.

Magic was calling him.

He had escaped his ordinary, tedious life and crossed an unknown amount of time and space to come here, not to remain submerged among the countless gears of society's factory and become an ordinary person once more.

The butterfly had flapped its wings. He had an obligation to make this world utterly different because of him.

And for now, the only thing he could do was focus on this incantation.

"You can repeat that sentence all day. I'll never tell you to shut up again."

Thus, filled with excitement, Gu Bei told the system.

"...Sir, I suspect you have Stockholm syndrome."

Even the cold mechanical voice now carried a hint of helplessness.

Just as Gu Bei repeatedly pondered that incantation.

On the other side of the sky.

Havenlight's inner city lay quiet and solemn beneath the night.

St. Peter's Cathedral.

Hurried footsteps passed through white marble pillars and stopped in the corridor outside the hall. The hall was empty late at night, yet somehow gave the illusion that it was filled with worshippers.

"Your Excellency Bishop, 'it' has shown signs of disturbance again!"

A young priest stopped, speaking in a panic.

"So many years have passed. What year has 'it' not caused some trouble? There is no need for such panic."

The bishop seemed unconcerned as he spoke casually.

With his back to the doors, he stood before the pulpit with his head lowered, flipping through the books on it. His crimson robes were pressed without a wrinkle. To either side of him, jet-black seats and creamy white walls stood in flawless symmetry, joining the solemn dark red at the center to form a striking sight.

Moonlight rested low upon the stained-glass windows, tracing their dense patterns stroke by stroke.

"Your Excellency Bishop, this time is different!" The young priest failed to calm down and continued, "It is not only 'it.' Even the holy relic is stirring. And we have received a divine oracle!"

Sweat slid down from his temple.

The bishop finally turned around. Beneath his deep eye sockets, sharp eyes radiated from beneath a hooked nose.

"Has the divine oracle been translated?"

The young priest nodded. Beyond his panic, a deep fear showed in his eyes.

"The translation has been completed."

The bishop's voice held no emotion. "Speak. What did it say?"

The priest swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He opened his mouth, trying to regain his calm, natural composure, but the sound that emerged startled even him. His throat was as hoarse as a heretic who had gone three days without water in the Purification Center.

These were the words he recited.

"God said that the bell of the seventh day has finished ringing."