Chapter 551: Wasted Joy

Chapter 551: Wasted Joy

“Let those people search slowly; we’ll go to the bar.” Oro suppressed that uncomfortable feeling and directly suggested taking a break. The bodyguard didn’t say anything. After all, if Oro’s analysis was correct, he would definitely head to the Containment Zone later anyway.

The conditions in the Containment Zone could be seen from the Church’s posts. What happened there wasn’t exactly a secret. Apart from some confidential matters, even if the Church tried to manage things, some Adventurers and Mercenaries would still leak information. So others had a pretty detailed understanding of the situation in the Containment Zone.

Even though the environment there had seen many improvements, the place was still like a defensive stronghold, yet it oddly lacked city walls. There were only Campsites, one after another. Despite many preventive measures, it was still possible to get infected by the Flesh Seed. Therefore, those camps never gathered together directly. The more people there were, the more likely something would go wrong.

“Tsk tsk, really… Should I put in some effort too?” Zheng Yichen thought to himself. His search was just for show; his main focus was still the Containment Zone. But… there was no movement over there at all. He wondered what that Derivative Witch was thinking. Maybe she wasn’t overthinking it?

“Then I should also do something properly serious.” Zheng Yichen stepped outside and glanced at the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. There were still no replies he wanted to see.

In another Town, the Church members who had sprung into action looked utterly exasperated at a piece of paper buried in the ground before them. This paper was a special kind of cardboard with a complex Magic Rune Array drawn on it. After an appraisal by the Spellcaster in their team, it was identified as an exploration Magic — a triggered exploration Magic. It would activate if certain changes occurred within the array’s range, or if a Mana reaction exceeded a specific threshold.

This one was currently triggered. They had set it off when they dug it up, activating this peculiarly sensitive yet insensitive special Magic.

“So, um… this should be something that dragon set up, right?” a Church member whispered. “Should we put it back?”

“…Put it back,” a Spellcaster said. No one else in the Town could have made something like this. Besides, it wasn’t a single-use item; it could still be used if returned. “Also, mark this location and inform other squads later. Don’t let them take these things away, or that dragon might come looking for us.”

At the same time, the Spellcaster in the team felt a bit annoyed internally. That dragon seemed to do nothing all day, just running around aimlessly. Who would have thought she had quietly placed so many of these things all over the Towns? He strongly suspected if most of the Nodes on that Prophecy Silver Disc’s map were such preparations…

If that were the case, then they had unknowingly fallen behind. With these things in place, the moment any spot showed the slightest abnormality, Zheng Yichen would immediately notice. As for this one… well, investigation was unavoidable. He just hoped that dragon’s temper was somewhat tolerable.

“Ugh, such harassment…” Zheng Yichen scratched his ear and irritably tossed a Mobile Phone-like object into his Personal Space. Only then did the little thing, which had been vibrating incessantly, finally quiet down. Those vibrations were feedback from the Magic Rune Arrays. Although those things were partly for show, they were indeed functional. Now, with people continuously digging them up and frequently triggering them, the feeling they brought was sheer annoyance.

After blocking all that feedback, he felt much better. The Church members were still active. Zheng Yichen slightly curled his lip. Using a Prophet to cheat… It wasn’t like he knew nothing about Prophecy Art. Tsk!

This time, Zheng Yichen also gained a direct understanding of Prophecy Art. Though it might sound ridiculous, Dan Marina could be considered an extremely powerful Prophet. Yet, even with her constantly by his side, he had genuinely never seen her use any Prophecy Art… ╮(╯▽╰)╭

There wasn’t much to say. Prophecy Art was originally a Magic or Secret Method that shouldn’t be used casually, let alone for performance. It was normal for Dan Marina not to use it idly. To show off? She might often appear frivolous, but in many aspects, her behavior was quite restrained.

By the way, the imagery characteristic in Prophecy Art referred to synchronous interference. Word Spirit was about forcibly making one’s words become true in a ‘prophetic’ way. For example, a simple “die” was equivalent to using Prophecy Art to forcibly generate a ‘death’ Thread of Fate. The process could be ignored; once entangled by this already established ‘death’ Thread of Fate, it meant death…

However, because it was a forcibly generated Thread of Fate, even with the aid of the Power of Fate, it wasn’t as powerful as a proper, natural Thread of Fate, being an ‘unnatural’ product. Therefore, some powerful beings could resist it.

As for Mirror Image, it displayed the immediate situation within a certain range and then intervened through extraordinary means. The sand Liliya dropped during her test turning into huge falling rocks was one form of interference. The Mirror Trait vaguely involved aspects of space, making it seem more advanced.

But then, Word Spirit-type Prophecy Art was considered the purest, though its effectiveness varied greatly. The powerful ones could reach the ceiling, while average ones were pretty useless even if you talked your mouth dry. Its only advantage was its fast activation speed — words becoming deeds almost instantly.

Other methods required a lot of preparation to alter the Threads of Fate, not change them immediately. Direct interference-type Prophecy Arts were few, as Prophets weren’t typically experts in combat.

The number of Nodes on the Prophecy Silver Disc exceeded three hundred. Considering the search time and the limit on personnel, in one day, they had searched less than a third. What astonished the Church members was that nearly half of those Nodes were related to the Magic setups Zheng Yichen had been fiddling with.

“Huh? Related to him? How is that possible?” Before the Church members could fret for long, Liliya, who learned the information, was instead shocked. Had she somehow become incredibly powerful without realizing it? How could things related to Zheng Yichen be prophesied? Anything related to him should definitely show up blank.

“Where’s the Silver Disc?” Liliya looked at the Church member before her. He paused for a moment, then took out a map. This map recorded the same Node information as on the Silver Disc. Liliya glanced at the marked Nodes on it and immediately, without hesitation, went out and found one of Zheng Yichen’s preparations.

Staring at this piece of cardboard for a while, Liliya frowned. This thing really didn’t have much connection to Zheng Yichen himself… It was probably linked to some Magic Artifact. Tsk, and here she thought it was something major. What a wasted joy!