Lockhart Siakam, the secretary deeply trusted by Duke Negan, did not have a simple background.
He was not only a powerful Beyonder, but by sheer coincidence, he also walked the same pathway as himself, he was a Sequence 5 Mentor of Disorder.
This information was provided by Greg, in order to help Hastur find Lockhart more quickly.
Under the guidance of fate, Lockhart's whereabouts had nowhere to hide. Very soon, Hastur saw his place of concealment.
It was a manor, huge and luxurious, no smaller than Duke Negan's own estate. At this moment, he seemed very satisfied with his masterpiece, leisurely sipping some wine, not the least bit afraid of being traced here.
A royal manor? After recognizing the origin and exact location of that estate, Hastur withdrew his gaze from fate.
Lockhart hiding inside the manor of a royal family member was not surprising news.
Because the king of the Loen Kingdom was currently cooperating with the Twilight Hermit Order. It was very possible that the assassination of Duke Negan had been tacitly approved by the king, or even proposed by him, merely using the Twilight Hermit Order's hand to clear away a target.
In the new tide of the era, an old great noble like Duke Negan, with such high status and power, was indeed an obstructive existence.
This Lockhart was a Beyonder of the Black Emperor pathway. Perhaps he was only loyal to the king, and staying by Duke Negan's side from the beginning was merely to monitor his every move.
"That's yet another reason to oppose George III becoming the Black Emperor." Hastur muttered, then shifted his gaze toward the star where Adam was located.
Adam was still in his small chapel and had no intention of going out, which dashed Hastur's hopes of him convening the Twilight Hermit Order.
Then he turned slightly and looked toward the point of light where Mr. A, chosen by the True Creator, was located.
At this moment, Mr. A was kneeling before the statue of the Hanged Man. In front of him was also a red-bronze coffin, from which faint waves of divinity were emanating.
Divinity extracted from Lanevus? That aura of new life was growing denser and denser, with the possibility of being born into the world at any moment.
It should be that during this period, the Smog incident caused by that Panatiya had provided it with massive nourishment.
"Can I turn this unborn evil god's offspring into my believer?" Such a thought suddenly popped into Hastur's mind.
From his observation, although the divine power inside the coffin came from the True Creator, it had not yet begun to form its own consciousness, and the True Creator's consciousness had not yet descended upon it.
This meant that, at present, it was only an unconscious puppet possessing great power.
If it were allowed to begin accepting the baptism of the power of the stars from this moment on, was it possible for it to become a believer of the stars?
But if he did that, it would inevitably draw the True Creator's attention.
Although he possessed the authority of secrecy, he might not necessarily be able to hide this matter from the True Creator.
After all, his Sequence was still a bit low. If he were already a Sequence 2 angel, then with the power of the Hall of Stars, he should be able to conceal it from the True Creator's gaze.
"It's not that there's no way to solve it."
His authority of secrecy naturally could not hide things from the True Creator, but if it were the Evernight Goddess, then even if the True Creator knew what She was hiding, He would not tear off all pretenses and forcibly peer into what was hidden.
Because the current True Creator and Adam were both pretending to be weak, one pretending to be mad, the other pretending to be obsessive, in order to relax the vigilance of the Eternal Blazing Sun, Lord of Storm, and God of Knowledge and Wisdom.
This was precisely something Hastur could make use of.
Have Mr. A transport the coffin containing the True Creator's divine power to the vicinity of Saint Samuel Cathedral, then use the power of the Hall of Stars to baptize that new life with the power of the Sovereign of Stars.
Perhaps it really could be made completely loyal to the stars from the moment of its birth, becoming a true believer of the stars.
The more Hastur thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. The only risk he needed to bear was Mr. A.
Transporting a coffin filled with the True Creator's divine power to the vicinity of Saint Samuel Cathedral was an enormous challenge. With one slip-up, Mr. A would die for this plan.
But given Mr. A's level of madness, he would not refuse such a challenge.
After thinking for a while, Hastur still decided to wait first. He would first peer into the relevant fate, and also wait until he left Backlund before operating.
That way, even if something really went wrong, it would have nothing to do with him, who would be far away in Southville County.
Withdrawing his gaze, Hastur, as usual, swept his eyes across the bright stars and found nothing abnormal.
He reached out and summoned the fourth Chain of Order, gently stroking the slightly warm chain, and began to think about what kind of rule he should formulate.
The first Chain of Order was the foundation of order, containing the Judge pathway and giving him the ability to formulate rules.
The second Chain of Order was fate, the eyes that peer into fate.
The third Chain of Order was secrecy, belonging to the Night pathway.
This time, he wanted to extend his reach into the pathway where the True Creator and Adam resided.
The Beyonder pathways he could choose from were: Adam's Spectator Pathway, the True Creator's Hanged Man Pathway, Tyrant Pathway, White Tower Pathway, and the Sun pathway.
He excluded the pathway of the True Creator at the very beginning, because the Beyonder abilities of that pathway were of little use to him.
Beyonders of the Aurora Order like Mr. A, from Sequence 9 Secret Supplicant onward, began to come into contact with everything related to the True Creator, and were very easily contaminated by Him.
Even the Shepherd, the strongest combat power below demigod, was neither here nor there for Hastur. They herded Beyonder souls to obtain related Beyonder abilities, and what he was doing now was already equivalent to a luxurious enhanced version of a Shepherd.
He also didn't particularly like or favor the Tyrant and White Tower pathways.
In the end, his targets were reduced to only the Spectator pathway and the Sun pathway.
Before being nerfed, the spectator pathway was also a good choice. And he just so happened to be up against the Twilight Hermit Order. This Beyonder pathway did indeed suit his current needs very well.
But the Sun pathway had great future potential. Choosing it might bring a chance for a comeback in the late game. Especially when the Supernova Dominator gradually devoured the power and authority of the Eternal Blazing Sun.
If he could catch up to that point, who the Sun ultimately belonged to was really hard to say. Moreover, the Sun was also one of the stars. This could likewise be considered part of his own authority.
After thinking it over again and again, Hastur chose the Sun pathway.
First Night, then Sun, a very balanced choice.
With the general idea settled, what came next was to draft the descriptive wording of the relevant rule.
This could not be rushed. It could be done slowly.
...
The matter of Duke Negan's assassination was still fermenting in Backlund.
But even though many Beyonders were secretly searching everywhere, none of them found even the slightest trace of Lockhart.
Xio, walking along the streets of the Empress Borough, sighed again and again. For the sake of that enormous bounty, she had specially come to the Empress Borough to look for clues, but she found nothing at all.
Everything here was expensive. She was even reluctant to eat lunch here, only carrying some small snacks with her, planning to eat a good meal at night after going back.
Just as she was feeling dejected, a carriage stopped in front of her. She subconsciously raised her head to look, and quickly recognized the origin of this carriage.
"Get in." Xio nodded, then boarded the carriage, lifted the curtain, and went inside. The person inside was indeed Mr. Hastur.
"Mr. Hastur, I didn't expect to meet you here."
"I live nearby."
"..." Xio felt that her first sentence had been very stupid.
"You came for the Negan family's enormous bounty?"
"Yes. Does Mr. Hastur also want to get involved?" Xio suddenly perked up. She was very willing to find a partner.
"I know some clues, but it's inconvenient for me to investigate them myself."
"Clues!" Xio's eyes instantly lit up. The huge bounty offered by the Negan family, even a single useful clue could be worth several hundred pounds!
If they could find that assassin because of it, there would be an even more generous reward.
"Mr. Hastur wants to cooperate with me?" Xio quickly straightened her posture again.
"More or less. I provide a piece of information, you are responsible for investigating it. Once the information is confirmed to be true, we split the bounty evenly."
"No, no. I'll take thirty percent of the bounty, that's enough." Xio knew her own worth. She knew that Mr. Hastur was deliberately giving her a business opportunity.
Otherwise, he could have hired someone else to do this, instead of cooperating with her.
"No, we split it evenly. The reward should match the risk."
"This task is very difficult?" Xio's heart skipped a beat, and she felt a bit scared.
"This is the assassin's detailed information. You can read it first, then decide whether to cooperate with me."
Hastur handed Xio the internal information on Lockhart he had received from from Greg.
This information came from MI9 and was classified material. Wild Beyonders like Xio basically had no chance of seeing it.
Many people only thought about the huge bounty offered by the Negan family, without knowing how strong the assassin really was.
"Sequence 5!" Seeing the key information, Xio cried out in shock. Such an existence could probably crush her with just one finger. But she still forced herself to finish reading all the report.
Even if she refused this cooperation, just relying on the contents of this few pages, she could sell it for a good price.
After reading and memorizing it, Xio's expression changed slightly, and she said with difficulty, "Mr. Hastur, the other party is a Sequence 5 Beyonder. If the mission is too dangerous, I can't risk my life."
Huge sums of money were indeed tempting, but that depended on whether one would still be alive to enjoy them.
"The task isn't very difficult, and it doesn't even require you to personally show up."
"Really?" Xio's eyes lit up again.
"I suspect the assassin is hiding inside a royal manor. You only need to spread this news and draw the Church into searching that royal manor."
'This is my specialty!'
'Isn't it just spreading rumors and sowing information? That's exactly my field.'
Xio was truly tempted. She only needed to carefully hide her tracks and then casually leak the information, and she could achieve this goal.
No, she could sell this news along with the contents of the document multiple times. That way, whether it succeeded or not, she could still earn a hardship fee.
When she voiced her thoughts, Hastur also approved of her approach and told her to act cautiously and not be too hasty.
"Don't worry. When it comes to disguising my identity, I'm very good at it." Xio smiled brightly and confidently.
Hastur sized her up from head to toe and understood one truth: why blank paper is the easiest to paint on.