Lord of the Mysteries: The New Black Emperor

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Using his ability of "Connection," Hobert indeed sensed that something was wrong with the connection between the soldier named Bruce Will and the spirit world.

This problem was difficult to notice. Only when the other party took corresponding actions could he use his ability to perceive that their connection to the spirit world seemed very obscure.

Before Hobert could remind everyone, the soldier Bob said that Bruce had already died two months ago!

Reminded by Bob, Egbert also "recalled": "That's right, we buried him together, right on the road leading to this watchtower."

Bruce first fell into confusion, and then seemed to remember: "That's right! I'm already dead!"

In that instant, his military uniform became old and worn, the pupils of his eyes disappeared, turning completely white, and there were slight signs of decay on his cheeks.

Thump~

The next second, he fell straight to the ground.

Immediately after, a faint green, blurry figure floated from Bruce's corpse.

This change startled the soldiers, but Hobert had been using "Air Cage" to "confine" them there, making it impossible for them to even retreat.

Hobert did not immediately attack the green shadow, but asked, "Who are you?"

The faint green phantom turned a deaf ear to Hobert's question, and asked the soldiers beside him, "Why are you starting a war?"

That soldier took a deep breath, saying with a slight tremor in his voice, "Be... because of justice!"

"No, no side in this war is righteous!" After the faint green phantom finished speaking, it suddenly rushed towards the soldier.

The soldier closed his eyes in terror, waiting for death, and the others also thought that this soldier was doomed.

But at this critical moment, a layer of black film suddenly appeared in front of the soldier, and the phantom crashed into the film and was bounced back.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this, and then they heard Duke Hobert ask again: "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

The soldiers immediately understood that the layer of black film was Duke Hobert's ability. Captain Egbert was somewhat surprised, inwardly marveling at how Duke Hobert's level had once again exceeded his expectations.

The green shadow still did not answer Hobert's question, but asked the other soldiers: "Why are you starting a war?"

The soldiers had different answers: "For the king!"

"Don't know."

"Because politicians are all baboons with curly hair."

"For profit."

…

Finally, when it was Egbert's turn, he replied: "If we can win, I can receive an officer's allowance, and my family can live a prosperous life from then on."

The faint green phantom seemed dissatisfied with all these answers. After asking around, it finally asked Hobert: "Why are you starting a war?"

Hobert countered: "Why should I answer your question?"

The phantom was slightly stunned by this counter-question: "Why can't you answer?"

"How about this, let's make a deal. I'll answer one of your questions, and you have to answer one of my questions," Hobert said.

The soldiers and the High Priest of the Church of the Evernight Goddess were stunned: Can you even bargain like this?

But what surprised them even more was that the phantom actually said: "Okay."

So Hobert said: "Please repeat your question."

"Why are you starting a war?"

Hobert replied: "For me, starting a war is to establish an ideal nation."

The phantom seemed quite interested in this answer, and it continued to ask: "Why must you use war to establish an ideal nation?"

"It's my turn to ask," Hobert said with a smile. "You need to answer my first question before I can answer your question."

"Please ask."

Hobert asked: "Who are you?"

"I am the epitome of your war."

Hobert immediately said: "Please explain more clearly."

The phantom didn't fall for it: "Is that your second question?"

"No," Hobert looked at the phantom. "But you have already asked the second question, and I have already answered it."

Egbert and the others were stunned: Duke Hobert... even swindles monsters!

Beside him, Bin almost laughed out loud: This is the consequence of playing word games with a "lawyer."

The phantom froze on the spot, obviously not expecting to have made such a low-level mistake.

Hobert continued: "My answer is very clear, but your answer is very difficult to understand. Such an answer is obviously not acceptable.

"I demand that you explain clearly before we can continue the Q&A. Also, if you don't know the answer, you can automatically skip to the next question.

"In addition, you currently owe me an answer to one question."

The phantom clearly paused again before saying: "I originate from the unwillingness, helplessness, and the stench of decaying corpses in war."

Hobert and Bin suddenly understood: So the phantom was manipulating the corpse through the stench of decay just now. No wonder they didn't feel the power of the "Death" pathway.

"You see, if you don't explain it, it's completely different from your previous answer," Hobert said. "Then I'll ask the second question: Are you a collection of undead created by war?"

This time, the phantom did not answer immediately, but seemed to think for a moment before answering: "I am more like an emotional resonance generated by war, and then formed with the support of 'external force'."

It paused and asked: "Why would you rather start a war and kill so many people than establish an ideal nation?"

"Because that is sacrifice, the darkness before dawn," Hobert said. "First of all, I want to make one thing clear: everything has two sides.

"I am very disgusted with that kind of mindless anti-war behavior, because some wars are inevitable, or rather, war can temper human society.

"For example, the war I launched in the Southern Continent is different from the war in the Northern Continent.

"The Southern Balam Duchy will undergo large-scale construction after the war, allowing more people to survive and live better.

"And the war in the Northern Continent is just a few people, or a group of people, fighting for interests. The meaning of the war is different, and the results are of course different.

"So, in my opinion, in order to kill fewer people in the future, we must start a war now. Some wars are bound to come sooner or later, so it is better to find an opportunity to fight that can kill as few people as possible.

"In addition, from the civil war in the Southern Balam Duchy to now, we have saved hundreds of thousands of people who would have died of hunger and cold, and from the war against the Highland Kingdom to this day, we have also saved thousands of slaves and young girls who were about to become sacrifices to evil gods.

"This is the meaning of war. We don't want to fight, but there are always reasons why we have to fight!"

These words not only stunned the phantom, but even the soldiers like Egbert and the High Priest Bin fell into deep thought.

Hobert then asked: "According to your description, you should appear on the battlefields of those tragic stalemates. Why did you appear here?"

The phantom replied: "Because this place has the opportunity for me to form."

Then it explained: "This opportunity just appeared a few days ago."

The phantom asked again: "Then why does the war in the Northern Continent, which has killed so many people, still make people feel that it is not as meaningful as the war in the Southern Continent?"

"Because they are not starting a war for the welfare of ordinary people," Hobert also explained. "Or rather, the people who start the war don't care about the life or death of ordinary people.

"The meaning of their war is for cold things like profit, and the consideration of the meaning of war is only carried out by people with warmth, so there is no way out for this kind of war."

Then he asked: "Is the opportunity you mentioned coming from the cosmos?"

When asking this question, Hobert raised his hand and "distorted" everyone's hearing, so Egbert and the others did not hear the word "cosmos."

The phantom replied: "I'm not sure either, but I did receive some support from the power of the cosmos."

It asked: "You just said that the Southern Balam Duchy saved so many people, so how many people died in the war on both sides?"

Hobert said: "Our current losses are that more than thirty Beyonders have been sacrificed, and more than fifty ordinary soldiers have been sacrificed!"

This number shocked Egbert and the others again. They only lost so few people and they attacked the capital of the Highland Kingdom?

"As for the enemy, their losses are relatively large," Hobert said. "Just the Beyonders alone have died four or five hundred people, and the number of deaths of ordinary soldiers is probably around eight hundred.

"They serve the nobles. After the nobles flee or surrender, they also collapse, so the casualties are not large.

"But many civilians died. In Yason City alone, more than 300,000 civilians died."

Hobert then asked: "Where is the telescope on the third floor connected to?"

"Don't know," the phantom said. "You can change the question."

Hobert asked again: "Where is Larrion currently?"

"I don't know either."

Hobert spread his hands: "Let's end our Q&A here."

As he spoke, a mass of black crystal wrapped the faint green phantom.

But immediately after, another phantom of the same color appeared outside the window. It floated outside and said: "It's useless. Too many people have died in this war. Every decaying corpse represents one of my avatars.

"Your body will decay sooner or later. Why don't you let me help it decay now?"

Hobert said: "I'm different. If it weren't for external forces, I could live for a very, very long time, so I don't need your help."

As he spoke, he used "Distortion" to leave the watchtower with everyone. In a few breaths, they arrived on the south side of the mountain range.

Hobert said to them: "Continue to say your names and dates of birth."

Since this verification method is so simple, it must be used to verify the remaining people again.

Fortunately, the others smoothly provided their relevant information without encountering problems like Soldier Brook.

Hobert said to them, "You guys leave first, I'll try to deal with that fellow."

Without waiting for everyone to reply, Hobert hurried back to the watchtower.

At this time, the watchtower no longer had any signs of life, and even the phantom was gone.

Hobert arrived at the third floor, stood in front of the telescope, and with a forceful effort, pulled it off the stand.

Then, Hobert used the "Order Crystal" to seal the telescope, but His spirituality quickly realized that the connection between the telescope and the cosmos had not been closed as a result.

In the beginning, this telescope was indeed a channel, turning it into a Grade 3 Sealed Artifact capable of releasing curses to those around it.

Using the telescope for too long could also lead to unknown corruption.

However, after the channel was established, its existence became irrelevant.

Standing in front of the empty stand where the telescope had been, Hobert pondered how to deal with the phantom.

First of all, this phantom doesn't have a physical body, so physical attacks are ineffective.

The key is that this phantom has a high degree of intelligence, making it difficult to trick it into concentrating all its avatars together, so sealing it with the "Order Crystal" is also a dead end.

The only method Hobert can currently think of is to cut off its source of power.

But how to cut it off is a problem. According to the phantom's own description, it originates from the unwillingness, helplessness, and the stench of decaying corpses in the war.

Currently, Hobert doesn't have enough energy to end the war and burn all the corpses that died in the war!

This idea is obviously unfeasible, so Hobert changed his approach: Where does this phantom's power come from?

It admitted itself that part of its power comes from the cosmos. Hobert first thought of the Outer God related to the aura of decay: the Monarch of Decay.

Although Hobert doesn't know His specific authority, it sounds somewhat similar to the God of Combat. This Outer God also seems to symbolize decay to some extent.

This made Hobert think of the ice-blue metal cylinder in the "Nation of Disorder," which was suspected to be related to the "Monarch of Decay."

That cylinder was seized by Hobert when he killed Hvin Rambis of the Psychology Alchemists.

At this time, Hobert thought of what the phantom said earlier, that it "originates from the unwillingness and helplessness in the war," which are all expressions of emotion.

This is obviously not the same as the authority of "Decay," but is somewhat similar to the authority of the "Spectator" pathway, but with obvious differences.

At the time, Hobert was still wondering, if the ice-blue metal cylinder was related to the "Monarch of Decay," why would it "seek out" a Beyonder of the Spectator pathway?

Now it seems that the "Monarch of Decay" may also have certain authorities similar to the "Spectator" pathway, which is why this Sealed Artifact fell into the hands of the Psychology Alchemists?

Hobert shook his head, temporarily putting this question aside, and followed the previous line of thought: Could the trigger for the phantom's appearance be when the Sealed Artifact in Larrion's hand showed signs of getting out of control?

This is very likely. That Sealed Artifact may also be related to the Outer God "Monarch of Decay," so its loss of control allowed the "decay" of corpses on the battlefield, as well as the emotions of unwillingness and helplessness, to connect with the "Monarch of Decay" in the cosmos through this telescope, forming the phantom.

If this guess is correct, then finding that Sealed Artifact may provide an opportunity to cut off the source of the phantom's power.

As for how to find that Sealed Artifact, Hobert had a good idea. He took out the crystal box containing the ice-blue metal cylinder from the "Nation of Disorder," opened the seal, and held the cold cylinder in his hand, using it to "connect" to the Sealed Artifact in Larrion's hand.

As Hobert expected, he quickly found a connection. The Sealed Artifact in Larrion's hand was indeed not far away.

After basically determining Larrion's location, He made some simple preparations and immediately set off.

Following the connection between the two, Hobert quickly found Larrion in the dense forest, his whole body emitting a twilight glow.

He was sitting cross-legged on the ground, in front of him was a fleshy crystal stone that was constantly changing its shape. If it weren't for the reflective surface of the stone, it would look more like a piece of constantly wriggling rotten meat.

At this time, a circle of twilight glow emanated from the surrounding area of the stone, causing the surrounding trees to quickly wither and decay. Obviously, Larrion was trying to seal this Sealed Artifact.

Hobert was about to snatch it, but Larrion suddenly retreated, stopping his control over the Sealed Artifact.

Hobert was slightly stunned, but immediately realized that this guy was about to lose control of the Sealed Artifact in front of him, and couldn't wait for someone to take over at this time.

But why didn't Larrion pray for the power of the God of Combat?

While thinking, Hobert condensed an "Order Crystal" and placed it on the "Fleshy Crystal Stone," and this Sealed Artifact immediately became docile.

Larrion was stunned by this scene. He seemed to hesitate whether to come back and snatch this Sealed Artifact.

Hobert did not immediately put away the Sealed Artifact, but asked, "Why has this Sealed Artifact been so active recently?"

Before this war, there had been three large-scale wars in the Fifth Epoch alone, and they were all wars with very long cycles.

If the phantom really appeared because of large-scale wars, then it should have appeared long ago, after all, classical wars also killed many people, as well as the plagues and famines after the war, especially civilians, who would die in large numbers.

If it was only because of the war, the phantom should have appeared long ago.

Combining the fact that Larrion was trying to seal the "Fleshy Crystal Stone" just now, Hobert believed that this Sealed Artifact being too active recently was the main reason for the phantom's appearance.

Larrion sneered and didn't intend to answer.

Hobert then said, "If I fail to properly seal this Sealed Artifact due to insufficient information, then I will throw it onto some angel of the God of Combat Church while you are fighting the Church of the Evernight Goddess."

Larrion was stunned for a moment before saying, "That's because the Evernight Goddess hasn't strengthened the power of the barrier in the astral world recently, so some Outer Deities have had the opportunity to infiltrate some power into the real world."

At this time, Hobert's mind was filled with the thought: This woman is definitely doing it on purpose!

First of all, this is a kind of show of weakness. The Evernight Goddess indicates that she is very busy and has no time to manage the barrier.

The key is that the Evernight Goddess has long known that the God of Combat Church has the Sealed Artifact "Fleshy Crystal Stone," and at the beginning of the war, she planned to have Hobert, who has the "Order Crystal," seize it.

At this time, a slight loophole appeared in the barrier, and the "Monarch of Decay" infiltrated a little power into the real world, causing the "Fleshy Crystal Stone" Sealed Artifact that the Evernight Goddess had always hoped to obtain to suddenly become active.

Hobert didn't believe that all of this was a coincidence.

Then He asked again, "Why didn't you pray for the help of the God of Combat?"

Larrion, who was about to leave, paused and said, "This is a secret of our church."

After saying that, his whole person turned into a twilight-colored light and disappeared into the dense forest. At this time, the spirit world suddenly flashed a twilight-colored light, and Larrion's figure was quickly outlined. He left through the spirit world.

Hobert thoughtfully picked up the Sealed Artifact on the ground. Larrion's answer seemed to be saying that the God of Combat, for some special reason, seemed unable to provide any help?

Returning to the third floor of the watchtower again, Hobert released the seal on the Sealed Artifact, and the fleshy crystal stone became active again.

Hobert remotely injected spirituality into the crystal stone. The beautiful scenery of the Midseashire and the dense forest in front of Him suddenly appeared like broken colored pictures, with a black hole in the middle.

This hole gave people a very deep feeling, as if it led to the depths of the universe.

Hobert "magnified" and "distorted" the power of the real world, as if piling the surrounding space towards the black hole, and soon filled the hole.

"It's useless. The power from the cosmos is only to form my initial power. I don't need it anymore." At this time, the phantom floated outside the third floor again:

"Unless you end the war, unless you burn all the decaying corpses, I will always exist, and the power will become stronger and stronger."

Hobert temporarily sealed the "Fleshy Crystal Stone." He frowned tightly: This doesn't work either?

Things are really a bit difficult now. The phantom's source of power is really too much.

Moreover, as the war continues, it will indeed provide it with more nourishment.

The phantom knew that it couldn't harm Hobert either, so it surrounded Hobert, constantly saying some words to make Hobert give up.

Hobert thought for two or three minutes, but couldn't think of a good way. He was about to ask the Evernight Goddess for help again, but suddenly recalled the method of screening the soldiers just now.

Then He had a very good idea and smiled at the phantom: "For the real world, you are very redundant."

While speaking, Hobert first prayed to the "Creator", and then began to seriously arrange the "Wall of Spirituality", and added a layer of "Order Crystal" barrier outside the "Wall of Spirituality".

Only then did He enter the "Nation of Disorder" with peace of mind, took the "0-78" Spiritual Wilderness that had just been seized from the stone platform not long ago, and projected the power of the "Creator" to the real world through His own stars.

Seeing the phantom still "fearless", the "Creator" picked up the "Spiritual Wilderness" full of barbs and began to establish a "Spiritual Cage" between the spirit world and the real world around the phantom.

The phantom seemed to encounter something wrong and immediately wanted to escape from the "Cage".

The "Creator" made a "magnification", and instantly one-third of the entire Minsk Mountains was covered by the "Spiritual Cage"!

Seated on the "Iron Throne," the "Creator" grasped the "Spiritual Wilderness" and began to use the power of "Connection" to quickly locate the connection between the Wraith and the Spirit World.

As Hobert had expected, its connection to the Spirit World was very abnormal. At this moment, these connections were blocked in the real world by the "Spiritual Cage."

Hobert used the "Spiritual Wilderness" to manipulate spirituality, "dismantling" these connections bit by bit.

Even if the Wraith shuttled between one avatar and another, it was to no avail. Hobert could always follow the spiritual connection and continue to "dismantle."

Only after the Wraith's connections with the entire world in terms of spirituality and the Spirit World were severed did Hobert leisurely arrive at the Clock Tower.

At this time, although the Wraith could still use the decayed avatars to shuttle inside the "Spiritual Cage," it could clearly feel that the entire world was becoming more and more repulsive to it.

Dong~

At this moment, a distant bell sound suddenly rang in the air.

The bell sound stirred up flocks of birds in the forest, adding a touch of agility and vitality to the mountains that were just beginning to sprout.

The Wraith stood there blankly. Suddenly, a young face appeared in the Wraith: "I can't die here, my mother is still waiting for me to go home..."

Immediately afterward, a twenty-seven or eight-year-old military officer appeared in the Wraith: "Am I going to die? Will I never see my wife and newborn daughter again?"

The Wraith's image kept changing: "...Why? Instead of walking into the hall of marriage with my fiancée, I have to die in this mud pit?"

"...Why are they still killing me even after I surrendered?"

"...The war wasn't started by me, so why do I have to die?"

"...Heh, this world, why is there only coldness?"

"...Child, did you escape safely? You're only 7 years old, what will you do in the future? What will you do?"

"..."

At this moment, Hobert in the Clock Tower was reluctant to continue pushing the bell hammer, but in the next second, he gritted his teeth and rang the "Bell of Order" again.

Dong~

The Wraith, which should not have existed in this world, disappeared instantly.

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