Lord of the Mysteries

“What’s so special about Qilangos’s magical item?” Audrey asked slightly confidently.

She considered it carefully and suddenly realized that she had a decent ability to locate people in Backlund.

Firstly, her father was one of the most wealthy, connected, and reputable nobles, while she was quite popular amongst the younger generation too. Hence, in the upper-middle class of the society, she had quite a few resources to take advantage of.

Secondly, the two Beyonders that she knew had their own circles as well. Apprentice Fors was originally a clinical doctor, and was now an author. She knew quite a number of people in the literary world and publishing industry, as well as among the middle-class doctors.

Arbiter Xio Derecha had helped many middle-lower class people to coordinate and mediate disputes over a long period of time. She was also quite famous in East Backlund borough among the working class and mafia. She had a lot of hidden channels.

Plus, considering the Beyonders that they knew and their circles of influence, their ability to look for a person wasn’t to be belittled.

Towards Justice’s question, Alger answered almost straightaway without hesitation or thought.

“No one knows the real name of the magical item, but the people who have come into contact with it call it the ‘Creeping Hunger.’ Qilangos uses a living person’s soul and flesh to satisfy it every other day. Otherwise, it would consume its owner as a replacement.”

“This could be one of the most important clues to seek out Qilangos,” Audrey said, creasing her eyebrows.

She felt utter discomfort and extreme hatred towards any evil item that desired a living human’s fresh blood and soul.

“Yes, but in a big city with at least five million people, a few vagrants going missing wouldn’t be noticed,” Alger reminded her. “Ever since he got his hands on the Creeping Hunger, Qilangos has been very difficult to deal with.”

“He was originally a Wind-blessed. He possesses great Beyonder power in domains related to water, wind, and the weather. But, later on, people realized that he could drive his targets crazy, enter the dreams of others, summon light to purify a dead soul, sing to strengthen himself, and change his appearance… There’s almost nothing that he can’t do,” Alger described in detail. “We suspect that those are all effects that came from the magical item, Creeping Hunger…”

Before he finished sharing, Derrick Berg, who had been listening quietly, suddenly blurted, “Shepherd!”

Shepherd? Sequence 5 of the Secrets Suppliant and Listener pathway? Hmm, among the six-member council in the City of Silver, there is a new elder who’s a Shepherd. Sun had mentioned that she’s strong enough to fight against a Sequence 4 expert, well—an evil spirit of the same grade… Klein’s expression changed slightly, but it was covered by the gray fog. Justice wasn’t paying any attention to him either.

“Shepherd?”

“Shepherd?”

unison. One sounded completely confused while the other sounded shocked, as though they had heard the title of Shepherd elsewhere before and knew something about it, but

that everyone was staring at him, Derrick suddenly panicked a little. No matter how quiet, depressed, and vexed he was, he was

can swallow another’s soul into their body, including wraiths and evil spirits. They control these souls to

Beyonder souls they have swallowed, and that makes them very scary. They’re almost like

of souls that a Shepherd can consume and let out to

The Sequence pathway that the Aurora Order has in its control is enigmatic… No wonder they worship the True Creator, no, the Fallen Creator…

is very important information, very important insight. You could’ve exchanged it for valuable things, but you

magical item Creeping Hunger is similar to a Sequence 5 Shepherd… I wonder if other Sealed Artifacts

Alger seemed to have sorted out the

even more curious and pressed, “Which Sequence pathway is

Suppliant pathway, Sequence 5.” Klein seized the opportunity to answer so as to demonstrate that he knew

Order…” Audrey suddenly recalled Mr. A, who was a suspected Oracle of the Aurora Order, and she

price she could pay in exchange for Mr. Fool to take action and rid off

to a god wouldn’t be easily moved… There aren’t many

giving them a new perspective on Creeping Hunger, so that they

I can’t guarantee if I

succeed, maybe I could provide you the Telepathist’s main ingredients directly. Of course, the prerequisite is that we have

lips and

Alger created Qilangos’ portrait with Klein’s permission

was one of the seven major pirate admirals. He had a distinctive broad chin, brown hair tied into a bun at the back of his head like an ancient warrior, and green eyes that seemed to hint at laughter, but were

saw Justice and The Hanged Man get up swiftly

pressed forward with his right hand and severed

…

in the City of

outside at the dark sky that had flashes

for goatskin and a quill before writing down the

finally certain

wasn’t worried that possessing the Bard formula and becoming a different Beyonder would gain the suspicion of the upper echelons of the City of Silver. This was because in past exploratory expeditions, members of those elite troops would often collect some formulas, ingredients, and strange artifacts from the monsters in the abandoned and

kept some of the loot privately. As long as it didn’t involve anything too important, the captains and

became the foundation of strong families from generation to generation. The Things of the Dark surrounding the City of