15 Minsk Street, inside the bathroom.
Klein pulled a paper figurine from a hidden pocket in his clothes and shook it lightly, transforming it into a substitute.
He had the substitute sit on the toilet holding a newspaper to deceive others, while he used this as cover to hide in the shadows, take four steps backward, and ascend into the Gray Fog.
This series of moves was more magical than magic!
Inside the magnificent ancient palace, Klein sat at the head of the bronze long table and materialized the handkerchief of Jason Beria before him.
——This was only a projection, but it could still be used for divination, provided the handkerchief hadn’t left his real-world body. The earliest time he had divined the “Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem” in Tingen City, Klein had used a projection. Back then, he didn’t yet know the ritual to summon himself and couldn’t bring spiritual items up to the Gray Fog.
Of course, there was still a considerable gap in effectiveness between using a projection and using the original for divination. So, whenever possible, Klein preferred to use the original, but he was currently under the protection of official Beyonders and couldn’t perform the ritual so conveniently.
If someone discovered him squatting on the toilet in broad daylight while lighting a candle, it would be a big problem.
“If I can actually divine the whereabouts of that demon Jason Beria, but the revelation is not clear enough, then I’ll take a risk, summon myself, and bring the handkerchief up…” Klein muttered, materializing a piece of parchment and a round-bellied pen, and wrote the divination statement:
“Jason Beria’s current location.”
Normally, relying on a handkerchief that the target had only used in a single ritual, it would be impossible to divine the target’s activity and location, because the connection was not strong enough and there was too much interference. For example, it could easily attract the attention of the Duke of the Abyss that the ritual was directed at.
But for Klein, interference could be ruled out. The so-called Duke of the Abyss was at best a high-sequence demon, not the “Dark Side of the Universe” incarnation of the Abyss. Moreover, the space above the Gray Fog had entertained deities like the “Eternal Sun” and the “True Creator”, and at the very least, an angel-level “Mr. Door”, and had never capsized.
As for the problem of insufficient connection, Klein, who only received a certain boost from the Gray Fog, couldn’t solve it either. He could only try his luck. Perhaps after he became a high-sequence saint in this domain, he would have the corresponding confidence.
Theoretically, it was possible. After all, during a ritual, the body, mind, and spirit were at their most unified, making it easiest to connect with the outside… Klein, now barely considered a mysticism expert, muttered, holding the handkerchief and the parchment with the divination statement, then leaned back against the back of the chair.
He quickly entered a meditative state and kept silently repeating “Jason Beria’s current location.”
After seven repetitions, Klein fell into a deep sleep and entered the dream world.
In the gray-brown sky and earth, countless images flashed continuously, disjointed and highly scattered.
Soon, one image became clear and filled Klein’s “field of vision”, making him seem to enter that dream.
In the dream, the lighting was dim, the desk dark red, and a figure stood by a bay window, looking out at the garden outside.
Inside the garden was a glass-paneled greenhouse where roses bloomed, crimson and dripping in the December cold.
The figure’s appearance was projected onto the window. He was of medium build, with slightly curly brown hair and cold brown eyes, seemingly in his early thirties.
“Huh? Wasn’t I divining Jason Beria’s location? Who is this? Feels a bit familiar…” Klein was puzzled for a moment, but didn’t stop to think, letting his spirituality continue to spread as if wandering in a mysterious world.
As soon as his confusion subsided, the man turned around and walked to a corner of the room where two rather large leather suitcases were placed.
The man crouched down and opened one of the suitcases, revealing neatly stacked piles of banknotes and gold bars.
The exposed banknotes were all 10-pound denominations, and the gold bars radiated a charming luster.
The man pulled out an item from a hidden pocket of the suitcase and shook it open.
It was a slightly pale human skin!
A complete human skin!
The man quickly stripped naked and put the skin on. In just ten-odd seconds, he transformed into Jason Beria with high cheekbones, grayish-blue eyes, and neatly combed back hair!
At that point, the image suddenly shattered, and Klein opened his eyes.
“No wonder Jason dared to take risks. So for more than a decade, he had been wearing a human skin without ever revealing his true appearance… As expected of a calm yet crazy demon…” Klein couldn’t help but exclaim.
Jason had left his portrait in the house without arousing suspicion from Eisinger and others, because the surrounding residents had seen him and knew what he looked like. Even without the portrait, the official Beyonders’ abilities were sufficient to reconstruct a face that might even be more accurate than a photo. So Jason had no need or motivation to destroy such things. This was very easy to understand.
“Who would have thought that he had left a trap in this most normal of places! If they had followed the portrait, even if the Night Watch had the Sealed Artifact ‘1-42’, it wouldn’t have been so easy to lock onto the target. Moreover, during his two actions, he had used his own abilities to conceal his face. Who would have thought that the face that had been so strictly hidden and protected was actually fake!” Klein sensed a cunning taste from Jason.
He rubbed his temples and began recalling the images he had seen in his “dream divination”.
“A house with a glass greenhouse—this feature is quite distinctive. There won’t be many similar buildings in Backlund! But the question is: how should I report it? As soon as I tell the Mechanical Heart about this, Jason will certainly sense the danger and warily start disguising and moving…”
“Go directly to a Night Watch with the Sealed Artifact ‘1-42’? What if I run into someone I know? I don’t want to end up as ashes scattered into the Tussock River… Besides, I can’t rush to report. I just started my actions; I can’t get feedback from information channels that quickly…”
“That guy is really carrying a lot of cash and jewelry, a whole suitcase full of banknotes… The total value might exceed 50,000 pounds…”
Klein’s thoughts were flying. It took him a while to calm down, and he decided to wait two days before conveying the revelation he had obtained to the Night Watch in charge of this matter through an appropriate method.
With the divination done, he returned to the real world, dismissed his substitute, and sat down on the toilet himself.
…………