Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

Chapter 1071  Fooling

The figure of The Fool, inundated with countless pieces of knowledge, suddenly froze, his head exploding into a mass of warped maggots.

These maggots rapidly disappeared, leaving behind only a pair of black gloves and a cane inlaid with many star fragments.

Amidst the thin mist that permeated the mountain peaks, another figure descended—once again, The Fool, dressed in a black coat and wearing a half top hat.

The black gloves and star-studded cane immediately returned to his control.

Just now?

That was just a historical projection!

On the black shadow that the Hidden Sage had transformed into, the protruding black and white distinct eyes each rotated, reflecting the figure of The Fool once more.

At this moment, He wanted to escape.

This is not to say that He lacked the courage to destroy His current body and revive using the backup, hidden information from other locations—for a being of such a living Uniqueness, this would not be too painful.

The reason restraining Him from making this choice was:

for the designated backup information to receive the Uniqueness, the Hidden Sage had to, before death, actively choose and activate it Himself, and this activation could potentially be traced and located. As the embodiment of mysticism knowledge, the Hidden Sage naturally knew the specialties of His current enemies, and what role the dark barrier that had sealed off the entire unknown realm and the permeating gray fog within it could play.

If He did not activate it, the Uniqueness would naturally transfer to the nearest backup information, following the proximity principle, and the Hidden Sage had hidden another backup within this unknown realm.

When He had initially made these arrangements, His idea was that if a powerful enemy arrived, He could try to drive them away or outright kill them and claim the spoils by reviving twice, and if the two revivals failed, it would mean He could not win, so He would let Himself be killed the third time and revive from the backup information hidden elsewhere, fully escaping the entanglement.

In other words, the Hidden Sage was not panicked now—after dying twice more, He could truly flee this unknown realm without being tracked, and return to a state of hiding.

His current plan was to try counterattacking, and if that didn't work, just wait to be killed, rather than self-destruct.

Information underwent loss, degradation, errors, and chaos in the process of constant backups—this was a fundamental rule of the entire world, a manifestation of error, decay, and increasing entropy. The more times the overall information was backed up, the higher the probability of problems arising, and the greater the latent chaos. If the Hidden Sage were to revive using the fourth set of information, some hidden errors might emerge, and the enemy before Him symbolized Error.

In this matter, self-destruction would lead to more significant degradation and amplification of chaos in the information, because it started from an internal, self-conscious negation, rather than being killed by others.

In the black and white distinct eyes that reflected The Fool's figure, new ethereal symbols emerged—not complex, just simple numbers.

One was "0", the other "1".

In the cognition of the Moses Ascetic Order, each number had spirituality and its own symbolic meaning.

Of course, numbers did not directly possess power, but they could bring corresponding occult implications.

And one of the Hidden Sage's core abilities was to imbue numbers with power, giving them truly different, somewhat diminished symbolic force compared to the original!

Among them, "0" represented chaos, the unknown, what existed before everything, while "1" represented the beginning, the Oldest One, the Creator who made this world.

The "0" and "1" within those black and white eyes suddenly underwent a change.

They connected end-to-end, rapidly flowing through the transparent tunnel formed by the eye orbs, shifting from "0" to "1", then from "1" back to "0", from non-existence to existence, and then back again.

Accompanying the appearance and flow of these "0" and "1", the unknown realm rapidly became transparent.

Whether it was the realm itself, the shrouding dark barrier, or the diffused gray fog, all were now composed of countless "0" and "1".

They were clusters formed by just these two numbers!

The figure of The Fool also underwent similar changes—crawling over his face, his gloves, were countless small worms, transparent or brilliant or segmented, all woven from intertwined strings of "0" and "1".

Under the Hidden Sage's influence, vast numbers of "1" were turning into "0", and when "0" dominated the majority, this numeric world would completely collapse and disappear into "nothingness", unable to impede the Hidden Sage's escape any longer.

Even The Fool himself would be affected, unable to locate and track in time!

Suddenly, The Fool's figure vanished.

He appeared in the sky filled with digital fog, thrusting the star-studded cane downward from afar.

Silently, the dark barrier confining the unknown realm imploded inward, causing the diffuse gray fog and the unknown realm itself to crumble inch by inch, generating a series of terrifying spatial-temporal storms.

The Fool had proactively plunged this numeric world into destruction.

The raging spatial-temporal storms swept towards the Hidden Sage, the surrounding disintegration and collapse also spreading to this evil god. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Hidden Sage was not alarmed, but delighted.

This destruction not only caused the last backup information hidden in the unknown realm to be destroyed, allowing Him to truly escape The Fool's pursuit after just one more death, but also lifted the barrier, throwing the situation into chaos—even if He fled directly or activated the corresponding backup information in advance, He wouldn't have to worry about being tracked!

The Hidden Sage, with His countless black and white distinct eyes, let the world's collapse and the spatial-temporal storms' tearing ravage fall upon Himself.

He was immediately reduced to stream after stream of transparent, ethereal information.

This information was tinged with an imperceptible crimson.

Just as the Hidden Sage was about to fade away and revive from the hidden backup information, the left hand of The Fool in the sky—not holding the star-studded cane—suddenly reached forward.

Clang!

The ancient tolling of a bell echoed through the world on the verge of total collapse, and the hands of the massive illusory stone clock were pressed down by the black palm.

The raging dark storms, the collapsing mountains, chasms, and seas—all were frozen, as if turned into a photograph.

In this scene, the only ones still able to move were The Fool and the Hidden Sage, which had already collapsed into multiple streams of information but not yet completely vanished.

Mr. Fool had not included the Hidden Sage within the time-freeze!

The black coat behind him billowed, and the face under the black hat became dim and obscure.

Fooled!

In the wilderness, Lumian, having received the cue, jumped into the fog completely filling the sunken pit with the phone in hand.

This secret passage had long been Grafted to the unknown realm where the Hidden Sage was.

As Lumian's figure appeared within this destruction scene paused in time, the Hidden Sage, fragmented into multiple streams of information and instinctively wanting to flee, suddenly sensed something.

He sensed the presence of a Child of God.

No, that is the aura of the Great Mother!

The Great Mother has come to save me!

The streams of the Hidden Sage's information rushed towards the uncloaked Lumian, whose radiant countenance was now revealed.

Not only did He feel He had been saved, but He also believed there was a chance to turn the tide.

If the Great Mother had personally intervened, what else could not happen?

Lumian raised his right hand, holding the phone displaying a small program screen towards the front.

At this moment, the "freezing" had reached its limit, and the destruction resumed its progress.

The Hidden Sage's information surged even more frantically.

Affected by this evil god's aura, personage, and current state, Lumian's fair, smooth skin began peeling away, with chunks of flesh writhing, about to sprout distinct black and white eyes.

This was both corruption and impact.

Lumian did not flee or abandon the phone, standing still and savoring the physical pain and spiritual ecstasy.

The residual aura of the Blood Emperor, the seal of the Underworld Daoist, and the pitch-black "pinhole" in his palm had all been activated—his mind was descending into chaos, as if he had gained knowledge he should not have.

His mouth curled up, with two distinct black and white eyes.

Looking at the frantically surging transparent information of the Hidden Sage, he smiled brilliantly.

I've come to find you!

I told you, I would come find you!

Piece by piece, the flesh on Lumian's body began falling off, each bearing distinct black and white eyes, but he remained motionless, still firmly gripping the phone made by the God of Steam and Machinery.

Finally, the Hidden Sage's information reached its destination.

Lumian immediately pressed the Information Shredder app's run button.

The phone's surface suddenly turned dark, drawing in the remaining light and the disembodied information around it.

The Hidden Sage abruptly became lucid, but it was too late—the phone had transformed into a massive vortex, sweeping in all the transparent, ethereal information it had fragmented into.

Seeing this, Lumian no longer held back, igniting the corrupted himself with the Fire of Destruction.

Amid the violent burning of the black flames restraining his frenzy and repression, he turned to ash with a brilliant yet horrifying smile.

The real him had died.

The corruption spread to the mirror, and the him in the mirror also died.

Only the dormant mirror, hidden away beforehand by Concealment powers, remained unaffected.

The phone's barrier lit up again, the portion of ethereal glow composed of complex information desperately trying to break free, escaping control.

The Fool, in the black coat and half-high hat, descended in front of the phone and Lumian's Traveler's Bag, with the collapsing and disintegrating unknown realm behind him.

The Hidden Sage cried out in despair and fear, "Spare me! I will pledge loyalty to you!

"Spare me!"

The Fool's voice was coldly incisive yet somewhat gentle.

"You have harmed too many people."

He raised the star-studded cane, pushing the struggling Hidden Sage back into the phone screen.

From the depths of the phone, a chilling sound, like a monster gnawing on human bones, echoed out.