The members of the Funeral Agency froze in surprise. Igola hesitated before asking, "You mean that anonymous board where only the pitiful can be listed?"
"So you really didn't know." Helaifeisi let out an "oh." "Fair enough. Purple Moth only ran a small agency before; it's completely normal that you wouldn't know this secret."
Annan knitted her brows. "Aside from having no rewards, what other secret does that board hold?"
"Wrong, completely wrong." Helaifeisi wagged a finger. "Having no rewards is merely the surface appearance... Don't just stand there gaping, keep exercising."
Waiting until the land-dwellers were huffing and puffing through their workouts again, the sea witch continued, "You probably assumed that those who make it onto the List of the Unconnected are all destitute, helpless orphans, didn't you? In truth, over the past century, those named on that board have almost always been direct descendants of conglomerate clans like Kasri, Mercury, and Roland."
She paused, her voice turning slightly solemn. "My niece was one of them as well. It is also one of the few boards we sirens can appear on."
This time, Annan was genuinely astonished. "Could it be that the Gospel list deliberately conceals its rewards, which is why you all rush to get onto it one after another? Being listed actually brings massive benefits?"
"Rather than saying the rewards are concealed, it's more accurate to say they cannot be disclosed," Helaifeisi replied. "Furthermore, being listed truly offers no benefit whatsoever to the person. Just as the rumors say, once those listed come of age, they vanish without a trace one day.
"However, while it offers no benefit to the listed individual, it brings great fortune to others."
Harvey remarked, "I smell something foul."
"Although the unconnected are unneeded, when they come of age they are still nowhere near the age when they ought to die," the sea witch said. "Thus, when the Gospel takes them away, a vast expanse of destiny still lies ahead of them. The Gospel then takes their destiny and adds it to the person they were once closest to."
"Excuse me, what brand of ice cream is destiny? Or is it mayonnaise?" Igola's brow furrowed tightly. "Destiny can just be added directly like that?"
"Put it this way," Helaifeisi said. "Suppose there is a child who has thirty years left to live, who will master carpentry in the future, and who will earn twenty gold coins in his lifetime. Then... *snap*, all of that destiny is transferred to you.
"You gain an extra thirty years of lifespan, an opportunity to master carpentry, and a windfall of twenty gold coins. Just like that."
Just like that.
The sea witch spoke nonchalantly, but a chill ran down the spines of everyone from the Funeral Agency. Yaxiu found it hard to believe. "Why would the Gospel issue a board like that—"
"The Gospel's original intention was likely benevolent," Igola said calmly. "The prerequisite for destiny to be transferred is that you were once the person closest to that unconnected individual... In other words, the Gospel intended to reward kind souls who cared for the vulnerable members of society.
"Only, once the conglomerate clans discovered this mechanism, they developed a new use for it."
Annan said coldly, "Those families only need to find a marginal outcast—"
"No." Helaifeisi immediately cut her off. "Have you forgotten? What is being transferred is the unconnected person's destiny, so the richer their destiny, the greater the transferred benefit. Those clans would never seek out an outcast; instead, they choose..."
She paused. "If you observe closely, you will find that in the vast majority of conglomerate clans, every generation of the direct lineage has numerous siblings. Yet once they come of age, one or two of those children are never seen again."
Everyone was stunned speechless by this revelation. Only after a good while did Igola ask playfully, "Did your ascension to First Sea Witch have anything to do with your niece's sacrifice?"
"Yes," Helaifeisi answered. "And that is why my daughter is about to become an unconnected."
Igola started. The sea witch said in a chilly tone, "How could anyone exploit a loophole in the Gospel without paying a price? It isn't just us. In almost every generation, the patriarchs of those conglomerate clans must contribute one or even several of their favorite children. Only then is the unconnected's destiny weighty enough, and only then is the harvest rich enough for the rest... Perhaps it was never the original intent, but the existence of the List of the Unconnected has indeed effectively enhanced the caliber of every succeeding generation of clan scions."
Though Yaxiu felt an urge to curse at them—*how could you do that to your own children?*—against the grand narrative of a millennium-old family's rise, such an accusation would only sound overly naive. Moreover, Igola was currently leading the confrontation, so Yaxiu held his tongue to avoid dragging Rust Crow down.
"...What does this board have to do with the apocalypse?"
"Don't you think the List of the Unconnected looks far too incongruous amidst so many ordinary boards?" Helaifeisi asked. "On top of that, the Gospel surreptitiously stuffs the destiny of the unconnected into others. It looks exactly like... an experiment.
"An experiment regarding divine miracles!
"To the Omniscient Weaver, the unconnected are merely lab mice. He is researching how to extract destiny from these mice flawlessly, and our gains are nothing more than negligible byproducts!"
The sea witch's eyes flashed brilliantly. "How could ordinary sorcerers ever have the power to seize someone else's destiny? Never mind seizing destiny, we can hardly even touch the destiny faction! But if the Omniscient Weaver uses boards as a medium to test or develop divine miracles, our opportunity has arrived!
"Although historical records prior to the Isu Dynasty are quite murky, after years of reconstruction, we discovered that during the Era of Chaos, the Gospel launched many 'experimental boards.' Ordinary sorcerers could use those boards to indirectly invoke divine miracles and secure resources for themselves!
"More importantly, 'experimental boards' have no threshold for entry. Those of us sirens who were blacklisted from regular boards for exploiting the Gospel's loopholes are also qualified to become the Omniscient Weaver's lab mice!
"*This* is the opportunity sirens need!" Helaifeisi's tone surged with fervor. "While you land-dwellers are caught off guard by the apocalypse, we can take the opportunity to hide in the oceans and lakes, studying and using the experimental boards to develop at breakneck speed. Once the apocalypse passes, we will establish a Mermaid Dynasty and turn the Gospel into a sunken realm!"
*Right, sirens can take refuge in the water!*
Realizing she had said too much, the sea witch took a sip of blue sweet wine and chuckled. "My apologies for making a fool of myself before Rust Crow."
"Not at all. I am delighted that the Witch of Chaos spoke her true thoughts; this confirms we indeed share a common interest," Igola replied leisurely. "Honesty truly is the most effective negotiating tool.
"Now then, you can provide the intelligence regarding the princess..."
"One moment," Helaifeisi said. "This is a transaction. What do you intend to pay?"
"Money?" The corner of Annan's mouth quirked up. "I certainly don't mind the price. After finishing this job, I won't be needing money under any circumstances anyway."
"We have no need for money either," Helaifeisi said. "We intend to collect our payment directly from you—we wish to perform two prophecies on your group."
Everyone exchanged glances. Igola asked, "State your terms."
"First is the Ghost King," Helaifeisi said. "We want to know how you, as a mortal, command a god."
"I don't know," Harvey said. "Isn't that something that only happens in the future?"
Helaifeisi said, "Years flow as gold, floating light casts skimming shadows; the present already bears the signs left by the future, and the future is merely the belated reflection of the present. We don't need you to answer. We only need you to lie on the table, and we can extract the information ourselves."
With utter calm, Harvey walked over and lay down on the long table between the sirens, looking like a body platter for a necromancer feast. The others watched the sirens' prophetic ritual with curiosity, but the sirens merely sank into the pool, leaving behind only bubbling foam rising to the surface.
Before long, the Ten Sea Witches surfaced.
"The prophecy is complete."
Harvey sat up and asked, "Can you tell me?"
"Of course, this is your prophecy," Helaifeisi said. "In short, you will encounter a series of fortuitous opportunities on the Time Continent, eventually obtaining a Concept Incarnation related to the necromancy faction. That will be the key to commanding a god."
"What is a Concept Incarnation?" Harvey asked inquisitively.
Yaxiu was momentarily taken aback, but before he could stop him, Helaifeisi answered, "According to the prophecy, a Concept Incarnation appears to be a unique entity situated between a sorcery spirit and a god."
*Eh?*
*There's an explanation like that?*
*Wait...* Yaxiu suddenly recalled that the essence of a Concept Incarnation was certain illusory, generalized concepts in the Void Realm... but wasn't the essence of a sorcery spirit also a concept? The difference between the two was that a sorcery spirit was born from a sorcerer, while a Concept Incarnation was born of the Void Realm!
"The reason mortals cannot command gods is not because gods are overwhelmingly massive, but because the nature of their spiritual bodies is fundamentally different," Helaifeisi explained. "Our soul is a wooden bucket. If a sorcery spirit is water, then a god is strong acid that will corrode the bucket itself.
"A Concept Incarnation, however, is neither water nor acid. It does not harm the bucket, and when encountering strong acid, it forms a buffer layer. Hmm, put that way it might be hard to grasp; it's more like taking a beast's cub to tame the beast, or bringing your girlfriend along to ask her father for money."
Yaxiu blinked. So the scene on the Family Board where Harvey subdued a god was actually him picking up a Concept Incarnation girlfriend, and then digging up her father to live off his inheritance?
"However, you no longer have that chance," the sea witch said.
"Ah? Why?"
"Because you missed the initial opportunity." Helaifeisi looked somewhat puzzled as well. "Logically speaking, you should have obtained the first opportunity in the Void Realm by now. But for some reason, it was lost, and so the subsequent opportunities naturally vanished with it."
Harvey froze, instinctively exchanging a glance with Igola—the Desperate Colosseum!
Speaking of recent missed opportunities, that could only be it!
If those two female sorcerers hadn't interfered at the very end, they surely would have slain the Heroic Spirit Commander and obtained the commander's mysterious spoils!
"Mm, what a pity." Though he said so, Harvey didn't seem to care in the slightest, as if he had merely watched a plate of Lalafell drop to the floor.
Once the necromancer stepped back into line, Igola asked, "What is the second requirement?"
"Very simple," Helaifeisi said. "I only need the Demon Lord to answer one question."
Yaxiu signaled Lisi to get off him, ended his push-ups, stood up, and said, "What question?"
The sea witch was taken aback. She had assumed the other, shorter, masked figure who hadn't spoken this entire time was the Demon Lord; who would have thought the one busy looking after the child was the Demon Lord!
Tender and attentive toward a child, yet cold and ruthless toward the world. First he had Annan paint an apocalyptic portrait of him, and next he intertwined himself with Annan's mother and aunt, turning them into undead to accompany him for eternity... True enough, only a deviant like that could become the source of calamity.
"Did the death of Rog Dyoure have anything to do with you?"
"No," Yaxiu replied unequivocally.
The sea witches exchanged glances, their communication carried out through the ripples of water: *He isn't lying.*
Still, this was within expectations; had it truly been connected to him, Helaifeisi wouldn't have dared meet them in the first place.
"Nabistin Imperial Palace, the island in the center of Lake Yalan,"
the sea witch answered cleanly. "The princess resides in the tower on that island."
"Can you guarantee the accuracy of this information?" Annan asked. "I believe it isn't false, but its timeliness may have already expired."
"Mm, you probably don't know, but a little over thirty days ago, a disturbance broke out on the surface of Nabistin," Helaifeisi said. "Although the news was clamped down on immediately, quite a few people took notice. Many came to ask us whether something had happened to the princess. It was only then that we discovered a tiny flaw in the palace's miracle barrier, granting us limited access to intelligence regarding the princess. It was likely deliberately leaked by the Isu royal family to put everyone's minds at ease.
"Every day since, we have prophesied the princess's information—the princess has always stayed in the tower, without change."
***
Once the doors to the meeting room closed, the sea witches let out a sigh of relief.
"Helaifeisi, do you think they will succeed?"
"I don't think they'll succeed, nor do I think they'll fail," Helaifeisi said. "I merely find it intriguing.
"A princess favored by the Gospel, and a Demon Lord pampered by destiny. I am truly curious what the scene will look like when they meet. Unfortunately, that cannot be prophesied."
"Compared to that, the fact that Rog truly wasn't killed by the Demon Lord weighs more on my mind."
"Haven't we known that all along?" another sea witch asked. "Even if it couldn't be prophesied, no matter how one looks at it, the Isu royal family was carrying out a copycat crime to preserve the Gospel's credibility."
"I just feel it's a bit... too much of an overreaction," Helaifeisi said. "And rather than preserving the Gospel's credibility, it felt more like establishing the Demon Lord's prestige.
"And not just now—I've actually had a faint premonition from the very beginning. If the Art Board was a coincidence, then starting from the Family Board, the Gospel has continuously been drumming up momentum for the Demon Lord. The Family Board and the Evil Arts Board are essentially no different, except the latter is slightly more radical, almost as if... something can't wait any longer."
Helaifeisi pondered, "Between the Art Board and the Family Board, Yaxiu must have done something that drew the Gospel's intense scrutiny..."
"According to our investigation, he was playing video games in Sennheiser during that period," a sea witch said. "Inferred through prophecies, he also seemed to have flirted with Qinna and Annan in dreams."
"I think you're worrying too much, Chief," another sea witch remarked. "Even if the Isu royal family wanted to commit a copycat crime to maintain credibility, we aren't Rog. Even if the royal family deployed the Secret Guard, they couldn't possibly murder the Chief inside the Mermaid Palace!"
***
The following morning, a desiccated siren lay dead in the plaza's fountain.
Just as foretold for second place on the Evil Arts Board.
Chapter 446