"To be honest, I'm a bit nervous now," Klein said softly after completing his preparations, exhaling gently.
"Do you need me to cheer you up?" Lin Ruo, snapping out of his thoughts about the Goddess of the Night, smiled and asked.
"If you can, wish me success!" Klein replied, taking a deep breath and his eyes becoming resolute.
He took a step and began walking in a square pattern counterclockwise.
When he took the first step, he chanted in a low whisper, "Blessings Stem From The Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth."
The second step, he sincerely chanted, "Blessings Stem From The Sky Lord of Heaven and Earth."
The third step, Zhou Mingrui breathed out a whisper. "Blessings Stem From The Exalted Thearch of Heaven and Earth."
At the fourth step, he spat out a foul breath and meditated in concentration. "Blessings Stem From The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth."
Each step was accompanied by a title of respect. Lin Ruo watched him complete the four steps, and then saw a hint of pain appear on Klein's face.
This didn't surprise Lin Ruo. He blinked and instinctively tried to do something through his connection with Klein… Wait, do something?
Lin Ruo was stunned for a moment as he instinctively began some operation. He was then surprised to sense something appearing in his perception after his instinctive action.
Almost simultaneously, sharp and chaotic whispers filled his ears, as if countless people were speaking, all in maddening tongues.
A mist appeared before Lin Ruo's eyes, as if something was emerging.
But in the next second, it was as if a video being played was paused, and everything disappeared.
At the same time, a thought arose in Lin Ruo's mind—
The Source Castle rejected establishing a connection with him!
Wait, was he just instinctively trying to connect with the Source Castle?
Lin Ruo realized this and was filled with shock.
His actions had scared himself. Not to mention that he had no intention of competing with Klein for the Source Castle, the fact that he instinctively tried to connect with it without thinking was terrifying. Moreover, there was one point that Lin Ruo couldn't understand about his actions.
How did he know how to do this?
Lin Ruo frowned and immediately searched his memory, but he couldn't find the source of this knowledge. It was as if everything was so natural, and his brain acquired the knowledge out of thin air when he wanted to do something.
But how could that be possible?
"Did I… forget something?"
Lin Ruo frowned. His memories were still the same as before, but the strange situation made him wonder if he was missing a part of his memory. Perhaps he hadn't just arrived in the mysterious world but had been here for a while and learned the relevant knowledge, only to forget it for some reason.
But after searching his brain for a long time without finding any evidence, he could only temporarily put the matter aside. He glanced at Klein, who had clearly entered the Source Castle. Although he regretted not being able to witness the birth of the "Fool" and the establishment of the Tarot Club, he didn't let this regret affect him for long and began to think about other things.
Undoubtedly, according to the original plot, Dunn and Leonard, the two Night Watchers of the Church of the Night, would soon come looking for the Fourth Epoch notebook that caused the original Klein Moretti and his classmates to commit suicide. After going through a series of tests and reflections, Klein would join the Night Watchers and officially begin his journey to become a god in three years and an ancient one in five years.
Lin Ruo was quite happy with this development. After all, even without the Goddess's attention, joining the Night Watchers would bring many benefits to both him and Klein. The systematic study of various occult knowledge in the Night Watchers was far more comprehensive than what a wild Beyonder could learn, which was undoubtedly a good thing for both Lin Ruo and Klein.
After all, both of them were novices in the extraordinary field. Klein was a complete rookie, and Lin Ruo, despite knowing many secrets from reading the original novel, lacked detailed knowledge of the occult basics that the novel didn't elaborate on and needed to catch up.
But catching up on knowledge aside, both he and Klein would eventually need to leave the comfortable environment of the Night Watchers.
After all, constrained by various factors, Klein couldn't become the Lord of the Mysteries if he stayed in the Night Watchers. And Lin Ruo didn't think he could find a way to escape his spirit state by staying there.
Of course, Lin Ruo knew that if he didn't intervene, Klein would almost certainly follow the original plot, dying with the captain due to Ince and 008's schemes, and then embarking on a journey of revenge after being resurrected by the Source Castle.
But Lin Ruo had no intention of standing by.
He didn't consider himself a hero of justice, but he respected innocent lives, heroes, and protectors, and despised those who disregarded innocent lives. Otherwise, he wouldn't have actively participated in revolutions in his previous life to change the status of ordinary people.
Encountering Ince, who caused the descent of an evil god's offspring and the Beckland smog incident, killing countless people for his selfish desires, Lin Ruo's desire to eliminate him was already stirring.
Moreover, now that he was bound to Klein and noticed by the Goddess of the Night, he was already in the midst of this vortex. In this situation, Lin Ruo wouldn't naively think he could avoid everything by doing nothing.
Rather than being pushed by fate, Lin Ruo preferred to face it head-on and take control of his destiny.
"With the secret badge, I don't have to worry about being detected by that pen." Lin Ruo tossed the secret badge in his hand, his eyes deep.
To deal with Ince, the first thing to consider was the 0-level Sealed Artifact 008 in his possession.
008 wasn't easy to deal with. Its characteristic of "knowing you once you know it, and the more you understand it, the easier it is to enter its story" could make over ninety percent of those who wanted to deal with it give up. But with the secret protection, Lin Ruo didn't have to worry about this aspect.
Next was the range and intensity of 008's influence when arranging others' fates.
From the information in the original novel, Lin Ruo knew that 008 could affect an area as large as Backlund, and its intensity could be referenced by the event where it caused an angel to fall in the Fourth Epoch.
Fortunately, due to Ince's incompetence, 008 probably couldn't exert its peak power now. It also couldn't significantly enhance Ince's combat abilities; otherwise, Ince wouldn't need to use the evil god's offspring as a weapon and could have just taken 008 to wipe out the Tingen Night Watchers.
And honestly, as an expert in arranging others' fates, Lin Ruo wasn't afraid of anyone in this field. He had arranged the lives of transcendents in the past, who were also capable of destroying cities single-handedly.
But he couldn't be too impulsive and needed to plan carefully!
Lin Ruo continued tossing the secret badge, deep in thought.