Chapter 548: The Prophet’s Routine

Chapter 548: The Prophet’s Routine

“Huh? It really still doesn’t work!” In her own room, the female prophet frowned slightly as she looked at the undisturbed water surface. Tracking prophecies about Zheng Yichen had already become a highly challenging quest within The Church. Quite a few prophets found any attempts at prophecy regarding Zheng Yichen utterly useless.

Even though he currently seemed benign and hadn’t done anything harmful, efforts in this area never stopped. The reason was simple: the more mysterious a being, the more it attracted those who wanted to unravel that mystery—including her. Right now, she was less than five hundred meters away from Zheng Yichen, almost face-to-face, using Prophecy Art, yet it was still completely useless.

“Could it be because this is just an Alchemical Puppet?” Liliya muttered, furrowing her brow. She removed the half-mask from her face, revealing her complete and lovely features. There was no hidden flaw or imperfection on the face behind the mask. As for why she wore it… well, to put it simply, in outside rumors, prophets were all said to have some quirky habits or other.

The problem was, she didn’t have any such quirks. Aside from Prophecy Art, she didn’t feel she had any particularly distinctive traits she wanted to display. So, to follow the crowd, she got herself this mask, just to avoid people’s nagging. At least, by fitting into these rumors, things became quite convenient when she worked. It prevented others from doubting her identity or thinking it was fake once she revealed it.

Hmm… It was like people’s impression of “grim reapers” in stories—they all carried scythes to claim lives. In reality, beings similar to grim reapers didn’t need such weapons at all.

“I’m exhausted. I’ll take a closer look at him tomorrow.”

The next day, Oro arrived early at the female prophet Liliya’s place and gently knocked on the door. In less than ten seconds, Liliya opened the door and came out, glanced at Oro, and said, “Let’s go. Time to start work.”

There wasn’t much to say. Oro also couldn’t be bothered to provide extra details to the prophet. As long as this prophet was competent, she would have done her homework before coming here. He had already reported everything about this place. The information wasn’t particularly confidential either. If the female prophet had prepared properly, there would be no need for additional explanations. They could get straight to work.

Searching for remnants left by the Undying Witch—this was something prophets were most suited for. After all, the Undying Witch was already “dead,” and those remnants lacked her protection. Without extra interference, the difficulty of prophetic tracking was greatly reduced. Things that were previously impossible to find now had a chance of being located.

Arriving at the town center, the female prophet took out a small bottle from inside her robe. Ignoring the glances of passersby on the street, she poured the contents onto the ground. A drop of silver liquid fell from the bottle. As soon as it touched the ground, it spread out, forming something like a silver disc.

Within this disc, the scenery of the entire town was reflected. The sharp-eyed bodyguard even saw himself in it, making him curl his lip slightly. Prophets might not be the strongest in combat, but they were generally very troublesome. These beings always mastered some strange and peculiar powers. Scenes like this weren’t something Magic could easily achieve… For example, to test the effect of this Prophecy Art, she picked up a grain of sand from the ground nearby and tossed it into the scenery within the silver disc.

The bodyguard beside Oro expressionlessly caught the “boulder” falling from above his head. He gently placed the boulder on the ground beside him, and it soon disappeared, turning back into a tiny grain of sand. The stone was a product of Prophecy Art; even if it formed, it was only temporary.

Seeing this, Oro gave a slight nod. The Prophecy Art Liliya mastered was among the more powerful kinds. Prophecy Art came in many varieties; some could only perform prophecies. Hers could already physically interfere, which was quite remarkable and not something ordinary people could learn. After all, prophets also depended on Talent… no, this field relied even more heavily on Talent. Without good Talent, mastering unique Prophecy Art was just a pipe dream.

“Hmm… that’ll do.” Liliya withdrew her gaze from the bodyguard and lightly pressed her finger on the silver disc. The mirror-like surface of the disc rippled like water. After the ripples settled, dense dots and lines appeared on the disc. They didn’t cause dizziness when looked at, meaning these dots and lines weren’t a Magic Rune Array.

“What’s this?” Oro asked. When you didn’t know, you asked. Even if he wasn’t fond of prophets, he was still willing to learn.

“A degraded manifestation of the Threads of Fate,” Liliya said without much explanation. “Degraded” was already putting it kindly. In reality, it wasn’t just degradation; it was more of a tangential manifestation. Otherwise, with so many people in the town, the manifested dots and lines wouldn’t be this “simple.”

Everyone, to some extent, was entwined with a dozen or so normal Threads of Fate. These threads came from their relatives, people they knew, or entanglements from past actions. Even people with no relationship could develop “connections” through the network formed by these various intertwined Threads of Fate.

“These dots represent special things in the town. The lines show their connections.”

“That’s a lot,” Oro couldn’t help but say after counting the dots. He had already familiarized himself with the entire town’s situation. There was nothing particularly special here. The troublesome dark forces had been dealt with by him as well. Even if they sprang back like weeds after a spring breeze, they wouldn’t reappear anytime soon. So, could there really be this many dots in this town?

“Don’t forget, this is a place with remnants of the Undying Witch. Most of these dots probably aren’t real. As for which ones aren’t real, you’ll have to investigate yourselves.” Liliya directly scooped up the silver disc from the ground.

So this thing could actually be picked up. Oro watched silently, not speaking immediately. When encountering something new, he preferred to observe first before saying anything. Like now, he successfully avoided a potential situation where he might be mocked for ignorance. Once the silver disc left the ground, it seemed like it had gone offline; the scenery synchronized with the town froze at the moment it was lifted.

She tossed the silver disc to the bodyguard. Once used, this thing couldn’t be reused. Now, aside from serving as a map, the disc was useless. It had already become entangled with useless Threads of Fate, turning it into scrap. There was no possibility of restoring or reusing it.

“Good work,” Oro said. Sometimes, prophets’ work was just this simple. They didn’t need extensive investigation time. As long as the spellcasting succeeded and they successfully locked onto some clues, the job was basically over—like now!

“It was alright. If you encounter unsolvable problems, find me. I won’t be leaving during this time.” After saying that, Liliya immediately left, heading back to the inn where she was staying earlier. While using Prophecy Art, she had incidentally checked on Zheng Yichen’s situation. There was a blurred blank spot where Zheng Yichen was.

This was something every prophet who had used Prophecy Art on Zheng Yichen had encountered. Seeing it again didn’t surprise her. As for relying on this blurriness to find Zheng Yichen? Don’t be silly. She could detect him up close purely because she was near him. Any other place?

That would be like searching for a tiny bubble in the ocean—maybe not even finding it at all. Blurred blank spot? Please!

“Who are you?” In the inn room, Zheng Yichen looked at the masked young woman before him, slightly puzzled. Who was this girl?

“Liliya.”

“Don’t know you.” Zheng Yichen raised an eyebrow. A person without a surname? Well, there were way too many people without surnames in this world…

“That’s fine. Now we know each other.” Liliya glanced into Zheng Yichen’s room. “Aren’t you going to welcome me?”

“If a stranger showed up at your place, would you just say ‘welcome’?”

“I would.”

“…”

Later, Zheng Yichen understood why she said that. This girl was a prophet. Even when meeting strangers, she could roughly tell their intentions. Whether to welcome them or not was easy. She was the first “prophet” Zheng Yichen had met aside from Dan Marina. Himself?

Forget it. After Dan Marina’s warning, Zheng Yichen had no plans to use Prophecy Art. That stuff might work alright, but the consequences weren’t worth it.

“What are you doing?” Liliya looked curiously at the pile of drafts on Zheng Yichen’s table, covered in strange symbols she didn’t recognize.

“You’re a prophet. Can’t you tell what I’m doing?” Zheng Yichen rolled his eyes and put the things away. It was better not to let outsiders see these. Although they were just trivial, unimportant bits of information, letting a prophet know? No thanks. Prophets were among the most likely to stir up trouble.

“Any information about you cannot be resolved through Prophecy Art.” Liliya shook her head. Was Zheng Yichen special? Maybe not. But more prophets believed Zheng Yichen’s uniqueness was likely brought about by the Fate Witch. How formidable the Fate Witch was, everyone in the prophet field knew. So if her interference caused various Prophecy Arts to be ineffective against Zheng Yichen, it seemed quite normal.

“Then I’m not going to tell you either.” Zheng Yichen shrugged and sat opposite Liliya. “Alright, Miss Prophet, please state your purpose. You should know I don’t want too much contact with prophets.”

Liliya nodded in understanding. After all, Zheng Yichen’s true location had always been a mystery. With no clues to go on, prophets were the standard for forcibly finding leads. They were the most likely to uncover Zheng Yichen’s true whereabouts. So Zheng Yichen’s aversion to other prophets was completely normal.

If it were her, she would also reject other prophets.

“Just wanting to meet you once shouldn’t be too big a problem, right? Many prophets are especially curious about you.” Liliya said, “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there are quite a few prophets observing you in the places where you usually move around with your Alchemical Puppet.”

To keep the conversation going, Liliya straightforwardly sold out her colleagues. Well, among prophets, there were plenty of feuds—even more severe than conflicts between Mages. So selling out unfamiliar prophets was no big deal; it wouldn’t cause them any real harm. And if it did and they found out?

Struggling with others was fundamental to improvement. Liliya wasn’t afraid of prophets targeting her specifically.

In short, she felt no pressure selling out her peers.

“You all enjoy peeping this much?”

“It’s humanity’s pursuit of mystery. In the prophet circle, you are a unique ‘mystery.’” Liliya said, “Perhaps we could sign a Contract…”

“Wait, wait! You’re from The Church, right?” Zheng Yichen quickly interrupted her and asked.

She nodded. Zheng Yichen continued, “From a conventional standpoint, our relationship is oppositional. And you still want to sign a Contract with me?”

Signing a Contract—yes, one must be extremely cautious when signing Contracts with prophets. Dan Marina was the best example. Even though the young white-haired woman before him was far inferior to Dan Marina, caution was still necessary. As for the Contract’s content? That could be discussed later. But as long as the other party was a prophet, refuse first!

After all, they could use Prophecy Art to do many things. Some things that couldn’t be traced or prophesied might yield completely different results with a small additional medium. A Contract was also a lever prophets could use for leverage. For example, some less capable prophets signing certain Contracts with people who had bright futures—regardless of the Contract type, as long as it wasn’t harmful—could draw strength from the other person… or obtain a leverage point to move heavier things.

Like the records in some Legend stories—they weren’t all nonsense. For instance, why did many Legend protagonists always encounter special “prophets”? In a Legend story, aside from the protagonist, the presence of prophets was almost standard.

After prophets found a “protagonist” entangled with numerous positive Threads of Fate, if they could successfully sign some Contracts, using the many positive Threads of Fate connected to that person as a springboard made things incredibly easy. After all, Threads of Fate were indirectly or directly connected; together, they formed a boundless, enormous “spider web.” Signing a suitable Contract with such protagonist-like existences meant having an extremely rich starting point.

So, signing Contracts with prophets—even something like “I’ll give you a certain amount of money within XX years”—must be treated with utmost caution. Maybe you felt you got a great deal because they gave you a lot of money, but in reality, the prophet would gain even more.