Chapter 783 — The Trap Deep in Memory
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Yuri and Magnum stood in the street of the deserted town, the same blank bewilderment on both their faces. Their minds had clearly been interfered with, their senses screened off, all consciousness trapped deep within some heavy "curtain"—precisely the state Daniel had been in not long ago.
Gao Yang approached these two Evernighters of the Everslumber cult, but before using his own peculiar nature to help the two awaken, he first glanced at Daniel.
"Within the Long Night Order, how do the priests above the rank of Bishop ordinarily regard 'outlander wanderers'?"
Daniel thought for a moment, then answered respectfully, "Your very existence is enough to fill the vast majority of Evernighters with dread and wariness. It is only that priests above the rank of Bishop must consider more than ordinary believers. Even as they fear you, they also analyze your actions and speculate about your likely stance..."
"Oh? Speculate about my stance?" Gao Yang's interest was immediately piqued. "What sort of stance?"
"The Bishops and Everslumber priests believe that every outlander wanderer carries a 'mission' beyond mortal comprehension, and that all your deeds revolve around that mission. They hold that conflict with you should be avoided as much as possible, for it brings no benefit. Some Bishops believe that outlander wanderers possess no innate good or evil, no fixed stance—that you and your kind are passersby in this world, and this world is merely a temporary stopping place in your eyes. A very small minority of Bishops, however, believe that limited, cautious contact with outlander wanderers is no bad thing. Though the Evernighters' first contact with you had an unfriendly beginning, your activity in Ansu has already shown that you do not mind establishing cooperation and ties with other mortals..."
Gao Yang stroked his chin, unable to shake the feeling that the Evernighters had cast him as some kind of large neutral wild monster...
So these homebody technicians really did live on pure imagination, did they?
Daniel quietly studied Gao Song's expression, then ventured cautiously, "My Lord, may I ask why you inquire about these things...?"
"Nothing much. Merely curious," Gao Lan said, and as he looked toward Yuri and Magnum, a smile he could not suppress surfaced on his face. "Curious what would happen if I suddenly dropped my concealment and appeared directly before these two."
Astonishment and blank shock appeared at once on Daniel's face, and then he began in earnest to ponder the feasibility of such a thing.
Seeing this, Gao Yang laughed. "Don't take it seriously. I have no intention of doing so."
As he spoke, he walked over to the two Netherworld priests still caught in their mental interference and lightly laid a hand on them.
"Next, I shall withdraw behind the scenes once more."
...
Yuri and Magnum wandered lost in the boundless chaotic mist for a long time—so long it was like a dream from which one could not wake.
As experts in the realm of mind and dream, they were not thrown into panic by such a situation, and they had already vaguely grasped the cause of it. Upon realizing that the problem lay not in the external environment but in their own minds, the two Netherworld priests ceased their futile wandering and exploring, and turned instead to solving the problem from within themselves.
"We shall likely have to recalibrate our minds," Magnum's booming voice came through the fog. Yuri could not make out the other's form or features clearly—only a somewhat familiar gray-black silhouette bobbing up and down in the mist, which meant the two of them must be "close." Yet the interference of perception meant that even with the two of them near at hand, they could not see each other directly. "This damned fog must be some kind of mental-image interference. It has thrown our layers of consciousness and layers of sense out of alignment."