Chapter 317
Page 317
But this is a nightmare orchestrated by Dongya. If a real fight breaks out, it will provoke a counterattack from the power of Sequence Two, and she will be stuck here.
Therefore, Tia thought for a moment and simply followed behind Dongya.
Not long after Dongya left the church hospital, a tall, middle-aged priest wearing a purple sash followed behind her.
"Wait a minute, little Donya!"
Hearing the voice behind her, Dongya quickly turned around, her face flushed from the cold, and said, "Priest Arash, is there anything I can help you with? I'm in a hurry to get home..."
Arash paused, then said seriously, "I noticed you left even earlier today than the past few days, and you haven't finished your choir lessons."
“Yes, Priest Arash. I have some at home… and I’ve done all the basic assignments; there are some I didn’t do because they were for my promotion to higher teaching positions…”
"This will greatly affect your future, little Donya! Didn't I tell you last month to finish reading the Codex of Heaven, the Dualistic Creation Theory, and the basics of mathematics?"
“I know what you’re thinking. That kid from the Crucioli family did indeed pre-select your teaching position. But it’s not just about getting you promoted. Even if you don’t get the teaching position, you can at least get a job in a shop using your math skills, and if something happens, you won’t have to spend a fortune hiring a lawyer. You won’t end up like your deceased parents, having to find unpleasant jobs in the mines or in noble houses.”
The more the priest Arash reprimanded her, the more heartbroken he became. In the end, he couldn't help but grab Dongya's wrist and pull her back into the church.
Dongya lowered her head, remaining silent and motionless, and whispered:
“Priest Arash. It’s not just because Crusillo is more talented than me, is it? I never had a chance to become a teacher. I didn’t want to work in the shop either. Actually, I’ve already read all those books.”
"This is utter nonsense!"
Priest Arash said with heartache, "You are very talented! You will have an opportunity in a few years!"
"There is no chance, Priest of Arash."
Dongya looked up at Arash, her voice rising slightly: "Even without Crusillo, there will be others next year. There are only so many teaching positions. Not just teaching positions, but even in court, do we think that just because we have the law, we can persuade the judge to punish those nobles?"
"That can't be right..."
Priest Arash was silent for a moment, then comforted him, "There will always be opportunities! Besides, if you don't find a job, how will you eat?! The money your mother left behind is only a little; how long can you live on it? Half a year, or a year?"
"What do you do when you run out of money? The real world isn't the heaven of the Father of All Things; we need to eat! Don't tell me you want to be a prostitute. There are prostitutes everywhere in Bursa now, especially someone like you. Child prostitutes don't even earn a living; they're often killed after being used!"
"I hadn't thought about that..."
"So what are you trying to do, little Donya? You have to find a way to survive. The church can only provide you with bread on Sundays. What about the other six days? How are you going to live?"
Dongya remained silent.
Seeing this, High Priest Arash sighed, released Dongya's wrist, and turned to leave.
Tia stared at the scene thoughtfully.
She didn't care much about Dongya's life and aspirations; what did that have to do with her, Tia Sulf? Compared to how pitiful Dongya was, it was her stupid sister Avina who was about to die.
If the star map were to actually be projected into the deep sea, she wouldn't have time to summon Avina's soul.
This is the real big deal.
Of course, Tia isn't too worried about being trapped in the nightmare. Although she's trapped, she still has backup plans, and the original plan can still proceed normally.
Tia focused all her attention on getting out of trouble quickly.
So this is the core event of this nightmare.
It was probably from this point that Dongya rejected the grace of the Holy Grail and chose to embark on the path of a prophet.
If this can be reversed, Dongya's life trajectory will be completely changed, and the nightmare will naturally dissipate on its own.
Chapter 533 Retreating at the Peak of Success: Sulph
After chasing Dongya out of the neighborhood and passing countless intersections, they finally arrived at Dongya's house.
It was a row of red-tiled apartment buildings, three stories high, with more than twenty units on each floor, each unit extremely small, at most thirty square meters.
Two rooms were forcibly opened in the cramped house, and the stove, table and chairs were squeezed together in the living room.
Tia, downstairs in the apartment building, casually used the surrounding soil, dead leaves, flowers and grass as ritual materials to set up the ceremony again.
The world around her was like a lake tossed with a stone, rippling outwards. In an instant, Tia transformed into the appearance of an Arash priest, a typical middle-aged Celestial priest with a deep and three-dimensional face.
Boom boom boom!
Not long after knocking, Dongya came to open the door. She looked up and was slightly taken aback when she saw that it was Priest Arash.
"Priest Arash—you...you've come here?"
Tia said in a voice tinged with pain and concern, "Little Donya, I don't know what you're trying to do, but what's wrong with you these past few days? Have you suffered some injustice?"
Dongya pursed her lips and remained silent.
"I'm trying to find a way for you to get a teaching position. You're still young, so there will always be opportunities in the future! If it doesn't work in one year, then two years, and if it doesn't work in two years, then three. As long as you're still in the church for a year, I'll find a way to get you a teaching position for that year."
"But I..."
Dongya's voice wavered slightly, and her eyes welled up with tears as she looked up at Tia, but she quickly calmed herself and shook her head, saying, "I don't need your help. Please go back, Priest Arash."
"Little Donya, what's wrong with you? Just tell me! No one will blame you!"
"..."
Dongya was silent for a moment, then stammered, "Is there really a chance?"
"Of course there are. There are always opportunities for teaching positions. Even if it's not possible now, it will definitely be possible in the future. If it's not possible in Bursa, there are many other cities!"
"But I don't have that much money."
"Then find a job, or borrow money from the church. The first loan won't be too high."
Dongya looked up and whispered, "Is it really okay?"
Tia said, "I will help you, whether it's finding a job or taking out a loan. There will always be opportunities, little Donya. Look, many factories have been built now, and there's a shortage of workers every day. Even if you can't find work, can't you work as a clerk in a factory? Aren't you good at math and writing?"
"As long as you have a dream, there's always a way!"
"ideal......"
Dongya smiled and said, "Priest Arash, you're right. But my ideal doesn't lie here."
"???"
“I realized very early on that the so-called pursuit of ideals is just wishful thinking and fantasy. Our world is not the heaven of the Father of All Things, which is constant and follows the natural order. Our world is chaotic. My mother was hit and killed by a carriage simply because she was not paying attention on the road. My father went to prospect for minerals that everyone claimed was safe, but he encountered the shockwave of a battle between superhumans.”
"Whose fault is this? The nobles are certainly wrong, and the superhumans are wrong too, but trying to correct them... is futile. On this land, slave rebellions and noble rule alternate, but this cycle has never ended. Every dynasty tries to suppress superhuman power, but in the end, the great figures of the superhuman world surpass them, and then those prophets, priests, this hand and that sword, all return to dust because of the chaos of fate. Everyone is pursuing futile fantasies, and ultimately achieving nothing."
Tia stared intently at Dongya and asked, "So you want to...."
"The fundamental order of our world is so fragile that any individual's caution and planning are as thin as a cicada's wing in the face of chance and violence. Under such an order, everything is just pursuing delusion. My ideal is not to become a priest and follow the eternal Kingdom of the Father of all things. I want to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth."
"The prophets of the Wisdom Palace were recently collecting test subjects to help them test their weapon for predicting the future—the Destiny Star Chart. You must have heard of it, right?"
Before Tia could answer, Dongya continued, "I have sold myself—or rather, the value of my participation in testing the Destiny Star Chart, and the remaining value after the Destiny Star Chart test—to the Prophet and the Palace of Wisdom. In exchange, the former gave me a large sum of money, while the latter allowed me to enroll in the Palace of Wisdom."
"And I am one of the few survivors of the Destiny Star Chart experiment, and the host of the Destiny Star Chart."
"With the help of the star map, I have seen how vast the future can be, how an infinite system can be bound together into a single line, and how we can control our destiny in this way—truly controlling destiny is like stepping into a nightmare, seeing the nightmare clearly."
"Wait--"
As Tia listened, she realized something was wrong and suddenly understood.
Then she saw Dongya smiling, as if she were wearing round-framed glasses, and holding a scroll of parchment in her hand. Her future figure and past figure overlapped, and the spiritual aura around her was rapidly increasing in a vortex.
Sequence nine, sequence eight, sequence seven, sequence six, sequence five, sequence four, sequence three.
When she was about to become a saint, Tia had already used a spatial warp to fly hundreds of kilometers away.
What a joke!
So, when you, Dongya Bahram, were seven or eight years old, you were bewitched by the Destiny Star Chart, and even merged with it. No wonder you were so obsessed!
If she had known that Dongya had already become a Star Chart Spirit at this age and was so difficult to deal with, she would have just unleashed a super super super super fireball directly at her!
Just as Tia was about to unleash a massive fireball and the two were about to clash, the entire nightmare, unable to withstand such intense spiritual fluctuations, rapidly rewound through time.
..................
"Achoo!"
Dongya sneezed while sitting on the throne, rubbed her nose, and revealed a genuine smile.
The prophet, who was entering the tent from the camp, was startled and cautiously asked, "Your Excellency, what is this...?"
"Nothing much. I was just thinking about something funny. Haha, Sulf definitely didn't expect to run into something like this!"
"Ah, is this fun?"
The prophet was completely bewildered.
Dongya waved her hand and said, "Don't worry about me, continue calming the deep-sea turbulence. Where is Avina?"
The prophet respectfully said, "Her second body, the twin silver dragon Arianok, is in the shallow waters, attempting to attack the prophet who is calming the turbulent currents, but after being repelled by us, it has disappeared without a trace. I'm afraid Avina, along with the giant serpent, the bewitching spirits, and their gang, are also there."
"Then let's continue with the original work, I'll handle her."
Chapter 534 The Name of Anne Mercury
“It’s all here—all the secret manuals are here. Tia specifically asked me to bring them back.”
On the third floor of Westerburg, Vera opened her suitcase and laid it flat on the floor. Eleanor and Anne were in front of her, with Bernice and Rasina on either side.
Duke Rashina wanted to say something more, but Anne frowned slightly, then suddenly looked up at Bernice and said, "Madam, please immediately set up an anti-spying ritual, at least Sequence Three, it must be Sequence Three."
Bernice's expression also became slightly serious. She instructed Rashina to prepare the ritual materials and use the ritual platform left by Tia as the rites to quickly set up a Sequence Three "invisible" rite.
The Sequence 3 anti-spying ritual can have a very strong effect on interfering with the prophet's prophecies.
Perhaps a Sequence Two Great Prophet like Dongya can make relatively accurate predictions, but it is clear that this Great Prophet, the Faceless One, is probably preoccupied with the Fate Star Chart Projection Ritual and the interference projection of Avina, and has no time to deal with Westburg on the edge of the Great Icefield.
Even if she notices forces other than Avina, her primary focus will be Merlin, not Westerburg, the ridiculous fiefdom of Anzu that can't even be found on a map.
“What do you want to say, Anne? You can say it now.”
"Something has probably happened to Tia."
"you sure?"
Anne took a deep breath and said, "I'm not sure, ma'am. But I know Tia's personality, and I know Vera's personality. If she specifically asked Vera to come back at this time, then she must have encountered a very difficult problem. Otherwise, she would never force an idiot like Vera to do such an important thing!"
Vera: "???"
Are we still good friends? That's so hurtful.
Vera retorted, "Tia also asked me to find the secret manual before, okay!"
"That's because we all thought the Seven Seas were very safe. Vera, you're not a primary school student. What trouble would you cause by going to the Knights' headquarters to get the secret manual and buy information? Besides, even a primary school student could handle this."
Anne shook her head and said, "But the reason we specifically asked Vera to bring the secret manual back this time is probably because we encountered a very troublesome problem."
"But Tia didn't say that."
"It's not that I didn't say it—it's that I couldn't say it."
"You mean the Prophet?" Duke Rashina nodded thoughtfully. "But to specifically send the secret text back at this time..."
Rashina hesitated, about to ask if they should divide the inheritance, when Bernice gave Eleanor a deep look, who was still confused about the situation.
"Is it Eleanor?"
"That's right, it's Eleanor."
Anne nodded.
Eleanor was a little insecure. "Oh, me?"
Rashina felt dizzy for a moment and asked in confusion, "Eleanor, what do you want Eleanor to do? You want her to learn the secret manual, advance to Sequence Three, and then go to the Great Ice Plains?"
Anne shook her head and said, "This is our business, and it's not convenient for me to disclose. But it's related to the conversion ceremony..."
"Little Sulph is going to advance to Sequence Two?"
"No, not entirely."
"That means..."
Before Rashina could ask any more questions, Anne interrupted, "Please help us maintain the ceremony. Time is running out, Aunt Rashina and Ms. Bernice, please leave the ceremony room!"
Bernice was somewhat surprised to see Anne so serious, and left the ceremony room one after the other with Rashina.