Lord of Prayer - Chapter 343 - 228: Old Era Town (2)
At that moment, the group was discussing their next move.
“Outsiders entering the town will immediately draw the locals’ attention. Akita Town looks like a town from the Old Era. If we go in without any disguises, it won’t be long before we’re discovered. That could cause unnecessary trouble and affect our mission.” Zhou Chen’s gaze swept over the group.
Han Danqing had a Sword Box on his back, Yao Hu wore a pair of steampunk-style Magnetic Gloves, and Chengzi was clad in an Exoskeleton Armor—the kind that would never have appeared in the Old Era—while carrying a portable Alchemy Workshop. Liu Ling, Yan Wu, and Yano were also equipped with auxiliary Exoskeleton Armor and carried weapons…
And then there was Renie. Besides the exceptionally eye-catching Jet Sword on her back, her hair, eyebrows, and even irises were all fiery red. If she just stood on the street, she’d be guaranteed to turn every head.
Entering the town without any disguises meant trouble was sure to follow.
“Zhou Chen’s right,” Renie agreed. “We need to find a place to drop off our gear and put on some disguises.”
“Then let’s find an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town and use it as a temporary base,” Yano suggested. He was a Westerner with fairly average looks and a friendly smile that made him seem approachable.
“It doesn’t have to be that complicated,” Han Danqing spoke up then. “I have a Storage Artifact right here, and it has quite a bit of space. It can hold all of your Artifacts.”
’Of course he had a Storage Artifact; he was a disciple of the current Celestial Craft, after all.’
“Perfect. Thanks,” Liu Ling said, handing over his Long Halberd and other gear. The two of them were old acquaintances.
Han Danqing took the Long Halberd, hefted it a few times, and praised, “Fine craftsmanship.”
He opened the leather pouch hanging at his waist and stuffed the Long Halberd and other equipment inside.
Yan Wu and Yano hesitated for a moment, then took off their gear and handed it to Han Danqing. It was true that Yano was a disciple of a Master Forger, but he was just a mid-tier student among many, so he hadn’t received a Storage Artifact.
“I have a Storage Artifact too, but there isn’t much space left,” Renie said with a helpless shrug. “Just put all your stuff with Han Danqing.”
A few minutes later, everyone had shed their gear.
“The disguises are the easy part. I have Illusion Masks,” Han Danqing said. He pulled several masks, each as thin as a cicada’s wing, from his leather pouch. “As long as they aren’t damaged, you can use them indefinitely.” The masks were inscribed with intricate and complex Alchemy Runes that formed a miniature Matrix.
Zhou Chen took an Illusion Mask and pressed it to his face. In the next instant, his features morphed into those of a nondescript Westerner—an Eastern face would attract unwanted attention in a Western town like Akita Town.
Renie applied her mask, coiled up her long, fiery-red hair, and covered it with a long black wig. She then put in colored contacts to hide her fiery-red irises, completing her dowdy new look.
Five minutes later, the group’s disguises were complete, and they stepped into Akita Town.
To be cautious, they didn’t stick together. Instead, they entered Akita Town from different directions to split up and gather clues.
The streets of Akita Town were covered in snow. Snowmen could be seen every few alleys, and some front yards even had Christmas trees.
’Christmas is almost here?’
Zhou Chen looked around as he walked down the street. Akita Town was huge, with a population that could exceed fifty thousand. It was daytime, and the streets were bustling with people and traffic. Cars drove past, and from his modern perspective, these gasoline-powered vehicles were nothing but ancient relics.
It wasn’t just the cars, but also the phones in people’s hands, the earbuds they wore, the television screens in display windows… Though they were fundamentally the same things, to someone from the New Era, these creations of the Old Era were no different from antiques.
’The Old Era…’ A wave of emotion washed over Zhou Chen, mixed with a flicker of anticipation. He had always wanted to find the truth behind the Old Era’s destruction. Now that he had encountered this “afterimage” of it, could he find some useful information here?
’I wish to find clues about what led to Akita Town’s destruction.’
He made the wish in his mind, and the starlight motes inside the Wish Bottle flared brilliantly.
To Zhou Chen’s shock, the wish consumed a full one hundred starlight motes!
’It’s as if some powerful, unseen force is interfering… Could it be the chaotic Divine Power of the Restricted Area?’
He’d read in the files that some Restricted Areas had innate anti-divination properties that nullified any attempts at scrying. The files mentioned one dungeon-like Restricted Area where all methods of divination and precognition were useless. The trailblazers had to rely on piecing clues together bit by bit, and it ultimately took them three months to clear it.
According to the files, the researchers believed a Mysterious Power from the Restricted Area was secretly exerting its influence. But Zhou Chen knew the truth about the fog in the Restricted Areas—it was Divine Power. That made the source of the interference obvious.
The Akita Town instance seemed to have a similar anti-divination effect, though it wasn’t very strong. After consuming enough starlight motes, a map of Akita Town materialized in Zhou Chen’s Spiritual World, a locator beacon flashing to mark the clue’s position.
Before he could get a clear look at how many beacons there were, three children shimmering with a conspicuous golden light shot past him on bicycles from across the street.
Zhou Chen froze for a second, surprised that a lead had appeared so quickly. He immediately started to follow them.
It’s hard for someone on foot to keep up with kids on bikes, but the locator beacon hadn’t vanished. It didn’t matter if Zhou Chen was a little slow; he’d catch up to them eventually.
He passed a street bench with an abandoned newspaper on it. He casually picked it up and began to read.
“Third Disappearance This Month, Akita Town in Panic. Contact Sheriff if Seen… Family of Missing in Tears…”
“Superman Sighting in Southeast Asia? More Extraordinary Power? What in the World is Going On?”
“Unusual Activity at the Pyramids; Locals Claim a Pharaoh Has Returned.”
Zhou Chen’s eyes narrowed. He’d scrolled past news like this on the internet in his past life, but everyone online had claimed it was fake, photoshopped to create a distraction—just like UFO announcements were used to divert attention from social issues. He hadn’t paid it any mind back then. But thinking back on it now, the World had probably, unknowingly, begun its shift into the Extraordinary…
’My memories from my past life stop the moment I went to sleep one night. Don’t tell me I… died after that?’ Zhou Chen guessed the most likely reason he couldn’t remember anything further was because he had died that very night… died in the War of the Gods that swept across the entire World.
In a battle on that scale, death would have been instantaneous. Quick and clean.
As for why his Soul was reincarnated into the New Era… that was probably related to the Wish Bottle. But any thought beyond that led to a dead end.
Zhou Chen glanced at the newspaper’s date. There was still over a month left before his “death” in his past life. But even before then, the Extraordinary had already begun to spread across the World. And right now, Akita Town was mired in a crisis brought on by this Extraordinary Power.
He read the article’s details, his brow furrowing. The third disappearance in Akita Town this month, following twenty-one cases last month. The missing were presumed dead… ’This isn’t good news.’
’Anything involving the dead… ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s some evil power, the same kind of filth as the Abyss Church!’
Recalling the dream of the town consumed by a sea of fire, Zhou Chen had a nagging feeling that there was more to this than met the eye.
He folded the newspaper, tucked it into his pocket, and continued tailing the three children on their bikes.
Ten minutes later, Zhou Chen arrived in front of a house. Three bicycles were haphazardly thrown on the front lawn. It seemed the children had gone inside to get their friend.
After a few minutes, the first three children ran out of the house, followed closely by a girl who wheeled a bike out of her garage. The four of them then hastily set off together.
Zhou Chen remained hidden. He wanted to see just what these kids were up to.
