Klein did not directly bring Azik's copper whistle to the Gray Fog this time. Instead, just like when he first divined the 'Mutated Sun Holy Emblem,' he planned to complete it through the projection and manifestation of the item. Although this would result in a certain decrease in accuracy, and might even cause the divination to yield no effective revelations, with a layer of Gray Fog in between, the item itself could remain intact to the greatest extent.
He still remembered that back then, when he used the black ear from the 'Listener' to divine its origin, that sealed artifact had been counterattacked by the 'True Creator,' directly collapsing and disintegrating, reassembling into a charm.
Therefore, suspecting that the divination results might point to the corpse of 'Death' or other remnants, or to the divine power of a long-fallen Sequence 0 that changed the environment of the Raging Sea, Klein decided to leave Azik's copper whistle in the real world and divine by projection, to avoid the possibility of damaging this important item. After all, 'Death' and the 'True Creator' are on the same level!
As for why Klein dared to directly use 'Grozier's Travels' to divine the source, it was because the ancient god 'Dragon of Imagination' had fallen long ago, and most of the corresponding characteristics had likely been inherited by others, changing hands many times. Moreover, the travelogue itself was extremely sturdy, not even a full-powered strike from the 'Sea God's Scepter' could damage it in the slightest. By the same reasoning, 'Mr. Door' was perhaps only at the level of a 'King of Angels,' and in a state of exile and isolation, barely able to transmit whispers, almost incapable of causing substantial damage.
'If I get hurt or contaminated, I can use the power of the mysterious space above the Gray Fog to quickly recover without leaving any hidden troubles. But if Azik's copper whistle breaks, it's really broken. I won't be able to contact Mr. Azik anymore, use it to attract undead, or even carry it with me...' Klein calmly and skillfully held the projection of the copper whistle and the paper with the divination statement, leaned back against his chair, half-closed his eyes, and in a meditative state, chanted softly:
'The reason for this copper whistle's anomaly today.'
After repeating it seven times, Klein fell into a deep sleep and entered a dream.
After an unknown amount of time, he saw a dark, cold mausoleum, a staircase extending downward, and coffins placed around.
Those coffins were all open, and inside each lay a dead person. On their backs had grown white feathers stained with light yellow grease.
Even in the dream, Klein found this scene extremely familiar, as if he had seen it before.
Just then, he seemed to smell the stench of decay and hear the sound of something breathing slowly, feeling the darkness in the mausoleum grow denser, giving a feeling of extreme deathly silence.
Suddenly, whispers of high and low pitches sounded at the same time, and all those dead people lying in the coffins with white feathers on their backs floated up, turning their half-rotten, half-pale faces to look outside the dream!
With a thud, Klein's heart lost control, as if pulled by an invisible hand, being forcibly dragged out of his chest.
During this process, his dream shattered into pieces and returned to nothingness.
And the last scene Klein saw was that not only did those corpses have white feathers on their backs, but also on other parts of their bodies. In addition, thin, almost illusory black tubes had one end plunged into their bodies and the other extending into the deepest part of the mausoleum, where there was a dense, deep, eerie, cold, boundless black fog.
The black fog slowly contracted and expanded, making a sound like breathing. After this sight and sound entered Klein's eyes and ears, his skin rapidly turned pale, his skin rotted and oozed pus, his pores grew fine white fuzz stained with light yellow grease, and the projection of Azik's copper whistle in his hand burst with a bang into a cloud of black fog.
In the entire ancient palace, the mottled long table decayed and collapsed, and the twenty-two high-backed chairs were wrapped in white feathers, as if they had a life of their own.
The boundless Gray Fog roiled silently, and the mysterious space above it swayed gently. Everything soon returned to its original state, as if nothing had happened.
Klein, who had fallen beside the seat, reached out and grabbed the table leg, slowly stood up, sat down again, and let out a long breath.
He rubbed his temples and unconsciously started making comparisons:
'Weaker than the 'True Creator' and the 'Eternal Blazing Sun,' stronger than 'Mr. Door,' but it's unclear if it's because the latter is exiled and isolated, so only very little power gets transmitted.
'Why am I thinking about this? None of them are opponents I can defeat anyway. Even if I become a demigod, it's the same…
'It's a pity I didn't directly see the thing hidden deep in the black fog. Otherwise, I might have gained some potion formula or mystical knowledge.'
Klein felt inexplicably regretful and turned his gaze to the side of his seat, where a mass of illusory black fog floated.
This was what remained after Azik's copper whistle projection was shattered.
'It has no sense of power, which means it can't be made into a charm. What use is this?' Klein shifted his thoughts, summoned a spare 'Paper Angel' from the pile of miscellaneous items, and tossed it toward the illusory black fog.
As soon as they touched, they instantly merged. The paper figure quickly turned black, appearing deep and dark, and white feathers stained with light yellow grease grew on its back.
This change only lasted a second. The paper figure returned to its original state, but it wasn't solid, having a half-illusory feel