Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As the short-haired man’s soft incantation echoed through the room, distorted human shadows began to drift out of the group of young people kneeling beside the bed.
After the shadows left their bodies, the young people seemed to have suffered from uncontrollable pain. they clenched their teeth and endured it by force as green veins became clear on the temples of their heads. After a while, they began to pray under their breath with their teeth chattering to vent out the pain in their hearts, “Great Sovereign of Truth. You’re the abstruse eyes that see through everything, the book that records all knowledge…”
“Oh, the Lord who masters all truth, you’re the embodiment of wisdom, the inheritance of civilization…”
“I piously kneel before you, not to gain the power and wealth of the world, but for the sake of the desire of seeking the ‘truth’ in my heart…”
At the same time, when the shadows drifted out of the young people’s bodies, they struggled to resist from getting completely disentangled, thus causing the shadows to stretch out like dough, which finally turned into thick ropes that gathered in the thin book held by the young short-haired man.
Like a black hole that could swallow up all matter, the pages incorporated the shadows into it after coming into contact with them.
A few seconds later, a faint brilliance suddenly flashed on the open book with many blurred images subsequently appearing one after another.
Looking at these complicated messages, the young short-haired man stopped chanting at once and began to mutter under his breath, “Nerine has been staying in her room browsing the Internet, watching the Daily Talk Show with Ginnifer all the time. Oh, girl, your disposition is amazing. Merrill has been relying on shopping to eliminate her stress today. My Lord is a tolerant God and has no taboos on luxury and pomposity as long as you can compose yourself well. Harrid has been exercising in the hotel gym in the afternoon and has also preached our teachings to beautiful girls. Even though we’re in a special situation now, it still looks like you haven’t forgotten the heart of praising our Lord…”
Every time he uttered a sentence, it would cut one shadow that gathered on the book off and one of the young people kneeling by the side would suddenly collapse, slumping on the ground with a relaxed expression on their faces
As time continued to pass, more and more people were relieved of pain. Inadvertently, only one person was left kneeling among them.
This man’s face had already flushed completely red because of suffering from pain, tension, and fear. The short-haired man shifted his gaze away from the pages to the poor man, before putting on a ferocious expression on his face. “Arrow, Arrow, oh, Arrow. Even though I didn’t see the cause of death of Joyes and Senroy from the Truth’s shadow, I saw the image of the three of you gathered together. Did you tell them to leave the hotel? ”
“N-No, I didn’t! I didn’t tell them to leave the hotel, Sage Kamil!” Arrow trembled with tears brimming in his eyes as he stuttered in defense. “U-Usually other people would become more pious being chosen to become the Lord’s ‘Pledger,’ but Joyes has become more and more arrogant instead. He would do as he please and just this morning, he actually cast the True Word Spell on a beautiful waitress in a restaurant to control her. I stopped his crime in fear of being captured by a surveillance camera, but he became enraged instead. For this reason, I had no choice but to ask Senroy to bring him out for a stroll to distract him. Who knew… who knew that such an accident would take place instead…”
As the young short-haired man listened to Arrow’s tearful complaint, he shut the book up in silence and stared at the last shadow rushing back to its owner too before beginning to speak. “Arrow, Joyes’ arrogance made him become unworthy of God’s favor. He’d become the Judas among the Truth’s believers and would forever be spurned by the devout believers. However, he was supposed to play an indispensable role in tomorrow’s ceremony, so now that he’s dead because of you, what do you think you should do to repair this matter?”
Under the invisible pressure brought by Kamil’s cold gaze, Arrow’s face turned from red to pale. After his heart struggled with emotions akin to a tidal wave for a while, he murmured, “S-Sage, I’m willing to risk blaspheming the Gods and replace Joyes in becoming the Pledger tomorrow. I won’t regret it even if my soul falls to Hell.”
“Brother Arrow, the fact that you can make such a choice represents the sublimation of faith.” The young short-haired man’s gaze turned from icy winter to a vivid summer. “Tonight, we shall all pray together to the God and may He accept your pious contribution and forgive your holy blasphemy. In that case, not only that, you may not have to be punished the day after tomorrow, you’d bestowed to become a sage just like me!”
“B-Become a sage? I-I also stand a chance of becoming a sage and stand side by side with you?” Arrow asked with his eyes widened, seemingly finding a highway heading to glory in the swamp of despair.
“Of course, Arrow. There’s nothing that cannot be done as long as you can get God’s favor!” Kamil smiled sorrowfully and turned to look out the window. His eyes seemed to penetrate the curtains as he stared at the quiet night and the starry sky before whispering, “Everything will have to depend on tomorrow…”
The leader of the Truth Society could not help but pray that everything would go well tomorrow. Meanwhile, his biggest enemy, Zhang Lisheng, was wearing a ridiculously oversized shirt, sitting in an open-air restaurant on the edge of Harvard’s open campus while sipping a can of iced Coke while staring at the bustling crowds not far away thoughtfully.
“Lisheng, I once again propose that you try the iced beer. If you drink a big mug in one go, you’ll know why this drink is the ‘beverage’ that you should drink on the streets during summer!” Upon seeing the young man’s unsocial look, a white man with a beard on his chin sitting opposite him, shouted.
After that, he glanced left and right a few times and mysteriously took out a row of test tubes fixed in a bright iron box under the dining table. Lowering his voice, he whispered, “Of course, if the reason you don’t drink is that the beer is not strong enough, I have a rivate stash right here for you as well.”
This man is good looking and had a tall and strong build. When Zhang Lisheng saw him takr out the iron box, he first felt perplexed, but suddenly, Trish suddenly stood up from the plastic chair by the side. She walked across Sheila and picked up a test tube filled with a transparent liquid before gulping it all down with one gulp. Then, sighing loudly, she shouted, “Oh it’s actually premium vodka! Fred, I can’t believe that you actually got this kind of thing in the open-air restaurant on campus.”
The US laws had a strict prohibition on alcohol. Even though each state had different laws, it was common for young people to drink beer legally at 18 and 21. However, the ban on drinking in public would only be lifted after the age of 23.
Even though implementing the alcohol ban was usually very loose during special occasions such as university celebrations, one would still bring upon troubles if one went over the line too much.
“Trish, lower your voice! We have young people under the age of 23 here! I don’t want to invite any trouble for myself and the good bartender who sold me this!” Fred looked at the girl who had lost her cool a little after drinking a few mugs of beer and whispered to her.
“Oh, Fred, the Man of Iron, will also be nervous, huh? If you’re so afraid, you shouldn’t have persuaded a person who doesn’t want to drink!” Trish replied in a slightly tipsy manner.
It stunned Zhang Lisheng. Only then did he realized that the girl was standing up for his sake. Unbothered, he shrugged and said, “It’s alright, Trish. You also know that I’ll occasionally drink a little red wine when I go to the restaurants in New York…”
“But you don’t want to drink now,” Trish interrupted the young man’s words and said loudly. “Do you?”
The girl’s shouts made the scene become a little awkward. Fred’s expression turned cold as he quickly downed two shots of vodka while moving the metal box filled with liquor from the table to the floor again. Slightly drunk, he pointed at Zhang Lisheng and said in annoyance, “Trish, the three of you are protecting this fellow tonight! Do you think this is okay? Especially you, you don’t even care so much about Herbert…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Sheila, who was sitting next to her boyfriend, frowned and stopped him. “Fred, you’re drunk. You better shut up now!”
“I’m not drunk, Sheila. The person who is drunk is…” Fred shook his head and said loudly. However, when he saw the cold gaze that his girlfriend was giving him, he realized that things would be beyond repair if he continued to utter on. With no other option, he stopped talking in annoyance and after a while of silence, he whispered, “Yes, I’m drunk. The beer and vodka in my stomach must have been too powerful for me. This feeling of blurriness feels quite good though. So how is it, Herbert? Let us have another round!”
“Good suggestion, Fred! Let’s have another round!” The polite, tall, and thin man sitting next to Trish replied with a smile.
The dinner could no longer continue now that the situation had escalated to such a point. The two depressed men, who shared the same fate, ordered another a barrel of beer while Zhang Lisheng and Tina wiped their mouths with a napkin at the same time. The young man was the first one who stood up and said, “I’m full already. Herbert, Fred, it was nice meeting you two. It’s already late now, so I guess it’s time to say goodbye.”
Tina also stood up and took her boyfriend’s arm before waving at the two depressed boyfriends. “Bye, Herbert. Bye, Fred!”
“Goodbye Tina. As for you, Mr. Zhang Lisheng, whom we have long been looking forward to meeting, it’s nice being able to get to know you as well! May you have a pleasant evening, and oh, I really have no idea why you’re so popular among girls despite your habit of not drinking,” Fred gulped a whole mug of beer and said tipsily.
“Well, because there are two types of men in this world. One is me, while the other is the rest of the men in the world!” Zhang Lisheng shrugged with a smile and turned to leave with his girlfriend.
They only took a few steps before Trish and Sheila rushed towards them.
The four people walked on Harvard’s crowded, brightly lit campus road. Seeing that the three girls did not speak at all after quietly walking for a while, Zhang Lisheng suddenly voiced out, “Trish, Sheila, how much do you know about the Truth Society?”
“The Truth Society? Isn’t that society popular among many famous schools on the east coast in recent years? I heard that it’s a hotchpotch of fraternities and sororities and I think Boston is one of its base camps!” Seeing that he had broken the silent atmosphere, Trish secretly sighed in relief and answered.
Sheila added, “There are many societies like this that will be all the rage for some time in the universities. It may be very popular now, but usually, nobody will join anymore after a few years.”
