Xia De’s eyes lingered on Darkness’s red glove for a moment, then he shook his head indifferently. He had no competitive spirit and told the other party what he had done:
“It doesn’t matter what Hexacle I am, but since you look down on me, I won’t say anything more. Let’s just pretend we never met today.”
“No, no, no, not meeting is not an option. Since you found me, I certainly can’t let you leave.”
As he spoke, Mr. Darkness had already dropped the umbrella in his hand and then took off the red glove from his right hand. The right hand beneath the glove was noticeably larger than his other hand. Beneath the dark, swollen skin, it seemed as if worms were writhing.
He gave Xia De a strange smile, then used his left hand to raise his right arm. Xia De instinctively felt uneasy, and what happened next proved this uneasiness was correct, because a slit actually opened in the palm of Mr. Darkness’s right hand, and then a mouth with teeth appeared in the palm.
“Oh!”
A strange sense of dizziness made Xia De stumble and almost lose his footing. The open mouth seemed to be directly connected to a bottomless abyss; he even felt as if his soul was about to be sucked in.
Soul separation was an illusion, but the enormous suction was not. As the mouth wriggled, the falling rainwater above the open ground between Xia De and Darkness actually changed its trajectory, flying in an arc towards that mouth.
The suction forced Xia De to stumble forward again, so he immediately thrust out a Moonlight with his right hand. The light directly struck towards the open mouth, but as a strange Darkness appeared in front of Darkness, the Silver Moon’s strike actually disappeared.
It wasn't spatial displacement, nor had it already hit the target; the Moonlight was truly swallowed by the Darkness.
“You...”
Behind the mask, Xia De’s eyes widened.
The power of that eerie Darkness gave him a strange feeling, a feeling that even the bizarre mouth on the other party’s right hand hadn't evoked. After a moment of thought, he realized that the Darkness that had swallowed the Moonlight was extremely similar to the feeling Xia De experienced when sensing Iluna’s “Balance.”
“This is truly...”
The Darkness only appeared for a moment before disappearing, but the suction from the mouth on Darkness’s right hand continued to strengthen. Xia De’s body wanted to move sideways, but the powerful suction prevented him from making any movement.
“You can’t escape... Hmm?”
Darkness frowned slightly, because Xia De’s figure disappeared into thin air and then reappeared in the corner of the rooftop. Before Darkness could turn his right hand, Xia De dropped the frog leg, then bent slightly and leaped backward, jumping across the alley with his umbrella to the rooftop of the building opposite.
From a distance, the suction from that terrifying hand diminished significantly, only futilely swallowing rainwater. So the grim-faced middle-aged man lowered his right hand, squinting his eyes and looking through the rain curtain at Xia De across the alley.
The two looked at each other in silence, neither speaking first. Finally, Xia De broke the silence, his somewhat muffled voice reaching the ears of the middle-aged man who was putting his glove back on:
“I am quite curious, who exactly are you? To be so heavy-handed upon meeting, that’s very unfriendly.”
Xia De was not arrogant enough to think he could fight a Six-Ring Arcanist. His escape just now was only because the other party hadn't expected him to be able to move through space. Therefore, while speaking, Xia De leaped from the rooftop again, and within a few breaths, his figure completely disappeared into the rain.
The most important reason for choosing to meet on the rooftop was to facilitate escape.
The middle-aged man wearing the red glove did not pursue, and even the other Ring術士 ambushing downstairs did not pursue:
“Do you think you can escape?”
He muttered, picked up his umbrella, and turned towards the stairs, preparing to rendezvous with his companions.
On the other side, Xia De didn't know if anyone was chasing him, so he continued to run until the spell 【Frog's Leap】 was about to end before stopping.
When he stopped, even he didn't know where in Coldwater Port he had run to. He circled the vicinity a few times and found no one suddenly jumping out to kill him, which finally put his mind at ease.
Taking off his mask, he leaned against the alley entrance, panting. In front of him was a main road, with few people due to the rain. Thinking about what had just happened, he felt this trip was well worth it:
“This was truly an adventure. So Mr. Darkness is a Six-Ring Arcanist... He must have extraordinary abilities to be able to go to the bottom cabin of the Fishbone Pirate Ship. But that mouth in his palm just now, was that also a Miracle...? It looks more like a Ring術士 losing control. And that Darkness that swallowed my Miracle, that strange feeling...”
A carriage galloped through the rain, passing in front of Xia De, and the splashing water landed on his boots.
“If this kind of guy who wants to kill on sight really is the second Chosen One, then that’s truly terrible.”
After a few gasps, feeling somewhat recovered, just as Xia De relaxed and was about to return to the Seven Broomsticks Tavern, a voice suddenly came to his ears:
【If I remember correctly, you always carry the “dice of fate.”】
“Of course.”
【From one to twenty, from twenty to one, Outsider, now is a good time to roll the dice.】
“Huh? What?”
In the drizzling rain, Xia De’s face showed expressions of horror and bewilderment.
He quickly dropped his umbrella, took out the box from his pocket, picked up the metal dice inside, and threw them directly into the rain. At the same time, the whispering in his ear continued to explain the current situation:
【You have sensed an attack from fate.】
“Who? Who wants to harm me again?”
Xia De looked left and right in the rain.
【You counterattacked it.】
Xia De caught the falling dice, and when he saw that the number on the dice was actually twenty, his eyes widened again:
“Who is trying to kill me again?”
A powerful attack can bounce back with extremely high luck. This time, a twenty means the other party put a great deal of effort into the attack.
The twenty on the dice has not yet manifested good luck, but something is bound to happen at this moment. This time there was no need to wait; she gave the answer:
【This ripple of fate is the same as the last one.】
“Which last one?”
【The puppeteer's script, Outsider, it is the puppeteer's script attacking you.】
Xia De didn't pick up his umbrella; he just stood in the rain, letting the water soak him, his face showing shock, bewilderment, and anger:
“Luvia has three pages of the script, but she couldn’t possibly attack me. The remaining scripts are all in the hands of the Blood Spirit School. It’s the Blood Spirit School again... Wait!”
Xia De suddenly turned around, looking in the direction he had come from:
“I just left Darkness’s side and encountered an attack... Mr. Darkness, is he from the Blood Spirit School?”
More details simultaneously appeared in Xia De’s mind, and he understood everything:
“Mr. Darkness is the person Miss Jialinna mentioned, who was originally arranged to come from the New World to Tobesk to assist Mercury Blood!”
He looked into the distant direction. If he wasn't mistaken, there was now someone holding a pen, bewildered to find that the blood on their finger had smudged the words they had just written.
“Mr. Darkness’s companions are another member of the Blood Spirit School, and other members of Mercury Blood who escaped from Tobesk! That’s why there are so many people at the Pink Rose Inn who don’t want to show their faces easily!”
He bent down to pick up his umbrella, understanding everything in his heart:
“So that’s it, so that’s it. They were waiting to board the ship, so that’s what it meant! They were preparing to board the ship and return to the New World. That’s why they tried their best to avoid being found. So that’s it! I knew it, anyone who cheats at cards is definitely not a good person!”
She chuckled in his ear.
“Blood Spirit School, it’s you again. But if Darkness really is the second Chosen One...”
Standing in place and pondering for a moment, Xia De held his umbrella and hurried away.
(Xia De running...)
An hour and a half later, at 1 PM, a panting Xia De met the purple-eyed Diviner in the divination room on the second floor of the Prophet Association in Tobesk City.
This time Xia De didn't bring his cat. Luvia closed the door and looked at him curiously:
“Xia De, why do you look like you’ve been running frantically for several blocks?”
“I didn’t just run frantically, I also swam a long distance.”
He clutched his chest, adjusting his breathing.
“Swimming? Did you just come back from Coldwater Port? What happened?”
Luvia’s expression became serious:
“Xia De, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, but there might be trouble regarding the second Chosen One.”
He took out the 【Kolmor Empire Gold Coin】 and 【Death’s Atonement Coin】 left over from the last divination, and softly recounted what he had encountered today. As Luvia frowned, Xia De stated what he wanted to do:
“Use these two coins to divine whether I met a Chosen One today.”
“If it really is, then it’s troublesome, the Blood Spirit School...”
Luvia understood what Xia De was worried about. She first tried to toss one, but one coin couldn’t even produce a result, which itself subtly revealed the outcome.
But to be safe, she still expended these two hard-earned special coins, which meant they only had one blood money each. As the coins turned to dust, Luvia opened her purple eyes:
“I saw a man holding an umbrella and wearing a red glove.”
“Yes, that’s Mr. Darkness.”
“That is the second Chosen One.”
Although he had expected this result, Xia De couldn't help but gasp when it was confirmed. The Outsider and the Diviner had long thought it impossible for all Chosen Ones to be good people, but for the second one to be a Ring術士 from an opposing force, this was not good news.
“The other party has the mermaid's song curse on him, so he definitely won’t leave Coldwater Port until at least the Sea Offering Ritual. What should we do? Just pretend he doesn’t exist?”
Xia De asked. Neither he nor Luvia would be close to such a person.
“Or just kill him?”
Xia De narrowed his eyes slightly. He still had a drop of divinity on him, and the other party hadn't even truly awakened yet. But the question wasn't whether Xia De could succeed, but whether it was worth it.
“Or... report him?”
“Report him!”
Luvia said loudly.
