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*****
"Sealed Artifact 3-0611 is 'Quiet Hair'."
Crestet came to a sudden realization upon hearing this.
He remembered this Sealed Artifact; it was formed after the death of a Sequence 6 colleague he once knew, whose Beyonder characteristic had attached itself to a strand of hair.
Most Sealed Artifacts are, in fact, products of a Beyonder's characteristic precipitating and combining with an object after their death, and their effects are related to the Beyonder's original abilities.
This colleague had been a Soul Soother in life, so the power of the Quiet Hair was to make anyone who touched it lose all desire and emotion, causing them to stay in place quietly.
It could affect up to Sequence 5.
The negative effect was that it had to be removed every two hours; otherwise, the target would lose their desires and emotions permanently, becoming quiet forever.
"Everyone out. Leave it to me."
Using the excuse that he wasn't used to being watched while working, George dismissed everyone from the room where Old Neil was being held.
Once everyone had left, he began to rapidly treat Old Neil, precipitating the Beyonder characteristic that had been corrupted by the Hidden Sage from his body.
Because the amount of spiritual energy he had converted during this period had increased significantly, it took him less than three seconds to complete the operation.
With the Beyonder characteristic removed and the soul purified, Old Neil reverted from a monster back to his normal appearance, becoming an ordinary old man again.
However, due to the influence of the Quiet Hair, he had not yet regained consciousness.
Taking advantage of this window, George began to perform a divination on Old Neil's Beyonder characteristic.
This time, he did not enter Klein's gray mist to divine.
This was because the gray mist would isolate most of the Hidden Sage's power, which was equivalent to blocking out most of the infusion of occult knowledge.
"The source of Old Neil's corruption!"
Closing his eyes and entering a state of meditation, a unique light immediately surfaced in George's mind.
That light seemed to be composed of stream after stream of complex information, moving in an illusory posture like a torrential flood.
This was precisely the embodiment of this world's occult knowledge—the personified and corrupted Hidden Sage.
Upon sensing George's divination, the glowing torrent immediately followed the thread of the divination and crashed into George's mind.
Countless pieces of occult knowledge exploded in George's heart like dynamite.
If this were an ordinary low-sequence Beyonder, they would likely lose control and turn into a monster instantly, unable to withstand such knowledge.
Even for high-sequence powerhouses, it would be difficult to resist for long.
This was because George was currently equivalent to looking directly at a God—looking directly at the Hidden Sage.
This was many times more terrifying than a typical Beyonder of the Hermit pathway being "chased by knowledge" at periodic intervals.
However, this was exactly what George wanted.
Facing the impact of the Hidden Sage's flood of knowledge, George held his soul firm. He remained completely unaffected and began to greedily absorb and memorize this vast wealth of occult knowledge.
Even without merging, his avatar soul was much stronger than the Hidden Sage. He didn't care in the slightest about this impact traced through divination.
"Come then! Let the storm be even more violent!"
George remained silent, simply accepting the chase of knowledge without reservation.
Spirit Body, Astral Body, Ether Body, Mind Body, Spirituality, Inspiration, Spirit Vision, the Spirit World, the Cosmos, Ritual Magic, Summoning Messengers, Ancient Hermes, Antique Fusac, Elvish, Jotun, Dragonese...
Countless pieces of occult knowledge were absorbed and recorded by George.
If this continued, he could fleece every last bit of occult knowledge from the Hidden Sage.
Unfortunately, since the Hidden Sage possessed a personality, He also possessed a corresponding level of intelligence. He might not have noticed for a short time, but over an extended period, He was bound to find it abnormal.
Sure enough, after continuously infusing knowledge for over ten minutes and realizing that the other side was not only not resisting but was completely open to receiving it without any ill effects, He immediately withdrew the torrent of knowledge.
Furthermore, no matter how George provoked Him or tried to divine Him, He no longer transmitted any knowledge to this side.
He even used His own occult knowledge to forcibly shield George's divinations.
"Forget it. When my strength is sufficient later, I'll find this guy and devour him entirely.
"That should allow me to obtain all the occult knowledge of this world."
Regarding an Evil God-like existence such as the Hidden Sage, George felt no moral burden in killing and devouring him.
If it were the seven Orthodox Deities, he might hesitate.
At the very least, while those Orthodox Deities aimed to develop believers as their "anchors," they truly maintained the stability of the world, preventing ordinary people from being killed off by Evil Gods.
By the way, even after becoming an Orthodox Deity, there is a risk of losing control.
That is why they require a vast number of believers to serve as anchors, allowing them to maintain their sanity rather than turning into chaotic, mindless mythical monsters.
This knowledge came precisely from the Hidden Sage just now.
It was a pity that the Hidden Sage reacted so quickly; otherwise, George would have soon obtained more knowledge regarding the level of Orthodox Deities and might have even secured some intelligence concerning the Original Creator.
Even so, it was a grand harvest.
Once he thoroughly researched all this occult knowledge, he would basically be able to cast many spells from other worlds.
He reached out and removed the Quiet Hair from Old Neil. Ignoring its lingering effects, he led the dazed Old Neil out of the room.
"Done!"
"Dunn, Klein, Leonard... I've made you all worry."
The awakened Old Neil spoke with some self-reproach as he looked at the group of people with reddened eyes.
"It's good that you're alive. Just being alive is enough."
Captain Dunn stepped forward and gave Old Neil a big hug.
Klein also breathed a sigh of relief, while Leonard, standing beside him, even cracked a joke:
"To save you, we spent a hundred and fifty pounds. You'll have to work hard and pay it back later."
Even though Old Neil no longer had a Beyonder characteristic and had become an ordinary person, he could still become a clerk for the Nighthawks, using his experience and knowledge to help train newcomers.
"This fellow is indeed a bit strange."
George's gaze swept over Leonard, the handsome Nighthawk team member with a poet-like temperament, and noticed a trace of something unusual.
Leonard was one of the members of the Nighthawk squad, Klein's colleague, and a Sequence 8 "Midnight Poet" of the Sleepless pathway.
Klein had mentioned to him that on the night of the warehouse battle, Leonard seemed to have noticed something different about him but had not exposed it.
This was because Leonard had his own fortuitous encounter and considered himself a "protagonist of the era."
George hadn't noticed anything during previous encounters, but just now, when he brought Old Neil out, he sensed a faint trace of probing. Only then did he discover that a second soul seemed to be hidden inside Leonard's body.
This soul was very adept at hiding. If it hadn't probed out of curiosity regarding his ability to restore someone who had lost control, George really wouldn't have discovered it without using his mental strength to scan.
"This feels somewhat like a Parasite. If it is a Parasite and can hide so well..."
Based on the knowledge he had just obtained from the Hidden Sage, he roughly guessed the other party's sequence pathway and strength.
(End of Chapter)