Lord of the Mysteries: The New Black Emperor

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After thoroughly eliminating Erebus, Hobert lingered for a moment at Selena's grave before re-entering the spirit world.

Hobert didn't return to Backlund; instead, he went to Longtail Island.

Fors and April were having afternoon tea when Hobert smiled and said, "It seems I've arrived just in time."

Fors, dressed in a light, thin dress, was slightly taken aback when she saw Hobert's smiling face: "You…"

Hobert sat down opposite them: "What about me?"

"Nothing." Fors felt the warmth on Hobert again.

April said with a hint of criticism: "You should have come sooner!"

He should have come sooner to comfort Fors, after all, she had contributed significantly to the previous war.

"I've been a bit busy lately," Hobert lied casually, took a sip of the tea a servant handed him, and then asked Fors: "Has the Lord's Manor and the Governor's Office re-hired the servants?"

Fors smiled and said, "All the contracts have been renewed."

April, however, said: "In my opinion, Longtail Island's actions haven't changed anything at all. Although employment contracts have been signed, some employers with terrible behavior still won't respect their servants."

"Do you expect the servants to accuse their employers?"

Hobert patiently explained: "Mother, some things are difficult to change all at once.

"Moreover, the law is always a step behind; it can only exert its effect by punishing someone after they have committed a crime.

"But we must take this step. Only with corresponding laws will servants have a basis for suing their employers. As long as there is the first case, more and more such cases will gradually arise, and servants will gradually learn how to protect themselves."

Speaking of this, He leaned back in his chair and said: "What the government should do is give them basic fairness, not decide their lives."

April thought for a moment before taking a sip of tea and saying: "Fortunately, I didn't enter politics, otherwise it would likely be a disaster."

She didn't continue the topic, but said: "I'm preparing to advance to Sequence 2. The advancement may be a bit dangerous. You need to help 'tamper' with my state and 'bestow' some negative states away."

"No problem." Hobert first agreed, then asked: "You're advancing without completely digesting the potion?"

April replied: "No, the 'High Summoner' potion is digested very quickly."

To be precise, it was digested almost without any active acting.

Hobert was slightly taken aback, then asked: "Your advancement ceremony isn't well prepared?"

"The ritual is also ready." April explained: "The reason it's dangerous is because of my own reasons, and the Beyonder characteristics I'm using for advancement are a bit special."

Hobert pondered for a moment before saying: "I can help you get the 'Creator's' spare characteristic without too much spiritual imprint."

Smashing the "0-70" Creator Bracelet would do it.

April shook her head: "For now, the Beyonder characteristics I'm using for advancement are the best choice."

Hobert knew that his mother had some special circumstances, so he nodded: "Okay, I'll be there whenever you need me."

April finished her cup of tea and stood up: "I've been here for several days, it's time to go back."

She took Fors's hand and said: "Thank you for your hospitality these past few days."

The two exchanged a few polite words, and April opened two hazy doors, entered the spirit world, and left.

Hobert and Fors chatted over tea for half an afternoon, and a smile was always on Fors's face because Hobert explained to her in detail about the curse on his body, the process of advancement, and the difficulties he was currently facing.

Fors had been waiting for Hobert to take the initiative to talk about these things, and now she finally heard Hobert's description.

In the evening, the two had a pleasant dinner and took a walk on the beach.

At night, after some intimacy, they habitually talked about serious matters.

Fors told Hobert about the recent changes on Longtail Island. The factories in the industrial area have been fully operational, and industrial products from South Colson and Longtail Island have begun to be sold to the Southern Continent in large quantities.

The South Balam Duchy is a huge market that can absorb excess capacity.

In addition, with the start of the war, the number of merchant ships and passenger ships has decreased significantly, and Longtail Island's trade with pirates has decreased a lot.

However, the income of Tortuga Port has not decreased, because the pirates who earned money before basically live in this port, waiting for the war to end so they can continue to "work."

There was another thing that Fors felt was special: "'Earl's Light's' manager, Todd, and Mr. Dophis, both came to me and said that a group of Loen Air Force officers wanted to visit Longtail Island."

"Let them come." Hobert stroked Fors's smooth back and said, "And treat them well."

He took a deep breath: "It's time to show the world the reform achievements of Longtail Island and South Colson."

This reminded Hobert: "Have the kitchen prepare in advance the day after tomorrow, I want to entertain Gehrman Sparrow again."

Fors agreed: "Okay."

As they chatted, Fors fell into a deep sleep.

Hobert quietly looked at the ceiling, habitually thinking about the next plan. For him, the most important things at the moment were digesting the potion, preparing for the Sequence 1 ritual, and secretly building nine secret mausoleums.

In recent days, the potion has been giving feedback on digestion. Hobert plans to spend the next period of time in the South Balam Duchy, keeping an eye on the next step of land reform and system reform.

When the economic and political model of the South Balam Duchy begins to operate normally, it is estimated that most of the potion will be digested.

So there is no need to actively create opportunities to digest the potion for the time being.

As for the Sequence 1 ritual, it is not very difficult for Hobert.

The ritual for advancing to "Prince of Abolition" is: To subvert the rule of a country, or to establish a country through rebellion. Create a set of systems that violate the common sense of this world in the established country, and establish a culture and order that is unacceptable to everyone in the territory.

"Subverting the rule of a country" can be achieved by launching a full-scale attack on the Highland Kingdom after completing the internal reforms of the South Balam Duchy.

In the current form, Hobert is confident that he can destroy this country before the end of the "World War."

This is subverting the rule of a country in the form of force.

Even if he can't destroy the Highland Kingdom, Hobert can immediately declare the independence of the South Balam Duchy and complete the "establishment of a country through rebellion."

As for "creating" a system that violates the common sense of the world and establishing an unacceptable culture and order, the process of digesting the "Duke of Entropy" potion is equivalent to completing this aspect of the ritual.

For safety's sake, Hobert will also, like the residents of Longtail Island, force the local natives and aborigines of the South Balam Duchy to abandon their primitive lifestyles and prohibit the worship of the "Chained God" or some wild gods.

This will definitely cause huge chaos again, at which point Hobert will need to come forward and create some miracles to concentrate the worship of evil gods and wild gods on himself.

This approach has many benefits. He can use the direct influence on their spiritual bodies and astral projections to help them master the Loen language and Loen writing as soon as possible, as well as the unique values of the South Balam Duchy.

In addition, this can let them know who their king is, which is equivalent to preparing for the "Black Emperor's" advancement ceremony in advance.

Finally, Hobert began to think about building mausoleums. This sounds difficult, but the ritual does not specify the size of the mausoleums. They do not have to be built into pyramids or imperial mausoleums.

This reminded Hobert of what he had seen and heard in his previous work and the information he had read. He still had some experience in building mausoleums, after all, he used to dig them often.

The difficulty of those nine mausoleums is actually the "secret construction" aspect.

First of all, there must be anti-divination arrangements. Klein can be asked to help with this.

Secondly, it should not be noticed visually, after all, it is a large construction site and can be easily discovered.

Regarding this point, Hobert has two ideas. One is to use some of the abilities of the "Door" pathway to hide the construction site in a "Concealed space."

The second idea is to use the uniqueness of the "Black Emperor" pathway to forcibly "tamper" and "distort" the space around the construction site to achieve the effect of concealment.

Currently, Hobert can do both of these. The first idea can be achieved by using the power of the "0-71" Box of the Great Old Ones.

However, in the end, Hobert plans to use the second idea, which is safer.

Thinking and thinking, Hobert couldn't fall asleep until late at night.

Listening to Fors's even breathing, Hobert kissed her forehead, "distorted" the air and blankets, and let them continue to embrace Fors like himself.

Hobert took the opportunity to withdraw, and "tampered" with the position and shape of the clothes, so that their position was instantly tampered from the hanger and clothes stool to being worn on his body.

Then Hobert "distorted" space to enter the spirit world and came to the South Balam Duchy, taking advantage of the night to shuttle through his kingdom at will, looking for a location to build a mausoleum.

He didn't rest in Angel City until dawn.

As soon as he entered the command room, he found Archibald drinking tea and waiting for him.

Hobert couldn't help but smile: "Dealing with a 'Seer' saves a lot of time. I was about to send guards to find you, but I didn't expect you to have already divined my actions."

Archibald stood up and said: "My spirituality just suddenly told me that coming to the command room at this time would encounter good things."

"Your spiritual perception is very accurate." Hobert sat down: "I'm going to talk to you about advancement."

Archibald first poured a cup of tea for Hobert before sitting back in his original position.

Hobert asked: "Do you know the ritual for advancing to 'Scholar of Yore'?"

"I've heard of it."

"What are your thoughts?" Hobert took a sip of tea: "After all, it's too troublesome to be separated from reality for at least 300 years to make yourself a history."

Archibald: "I hope you can help me pray to the 'Creator' for help."

Then he explained: "First of all, for someone like me, who has been a half Sequence 3 for more than a hundred years, the 'Scholar of Yore' ritual is not as important as it is for human Beyonders. It can be completed in some ingenious ways.

"My idea is to ask the 'Creator' to distort and tamper with the information corresponding to me in the spirit world, so as to deceive my own spirituality and potion.

"After the advancement is completed, after the relevant information in the spirit world is restored, I will only be in a bad state for a few days at most, and I can get through those few days carefully."

Based on Archibald's perception and observation of the "Creator" during the previous decisive battle, he believed that with the "Creator's" current strength, he could completely do this.

Hobert slowly nodded. Having a smart subordinate is a very good experience. There is no need to help him deal with difficult problems, just help him consult on his own ideas and provide help when necessary.

Then He pondered for a moment. Currently, the "Creator" can completely do this while wearing the Uniqueness.

At the same time, He believed that Archibald's idea was very good. In many cases, a person's information in the occult comes almost entirely from feedback from the spirit world.

This is the theoretical basis of divination. For example, divining a person's position is to use related powers to "query" that person's relevant information in the spirit world, so as to obtain that person's position.

However, because the spirit world does not have the concept of normal time and space, sometimes it may be possible to divine that person's future position, or past position.

The higher the level of the "Seer", the stronger the ability to avoid this information interference, and the more accurate the divination results.

Using this theory, Archibald is only over a hundred years old when he advances, and he has not left the real world. After he takes the potion, the relevant information in the spirit world cannot produce correct feedback with the potion, so the advancement is likely to fail.

But if the information about him in the spirit world is tampered with, it can form the correct feedback with the potion.

After completing the advancement, this correct feedback will immediately collapse, but Archibald is born as half an "Scholar of Yore", which is equivalent to him having already digested half of the "Scholar of Yore" potion.

This can be used to offset most of the damage the potion brings to him after the advancement.

These ideas instantly appeared in Hobert's mind. He just considered it slightly and said: "I can help you pray for the power of the 'Creator'.

"You can do some preparations for advancement."

The implication is that He is quite confident that he can invite the "Creator" to help.

Archibald immediately stood up to thank Hobert. Hobert finished the tea in his cup and stood up to leave.

Back at the Governor's Mansion on Longtail Island, Fors was indeed not awake yet.

Hobert lay back in his original position, rested for a while, and then woke Fors up.

After confirming that the other party wanted to sleep for a while, Hobert ate breakfast alone and returned to Backlund.

He didn't return to the Earl's Mansion, but went directly to the office of the financial director of "Earl's Light."

Audrey, wearing a simple dress that still highlighted her good figure, had just arrived at the office and was about to hand a document to Susie when Hobert knocked on the door and came in.

Susie immediately retracted her paw that was reaching out to receive the document, and Audrey also casually put the document back on the desk: "Hobert, why are you here?"

Hobert smiled and said: "I'll take up our beautiful financial director's time for a while, let's go out together."

Audrey looked Hobert up and down: "Okay."

She took a step forward, took Hobert's arm, and the next second the two entered the spirit world.

In the office, Susie watched the spot where the person had disappeared: "He's out playing again, leaving me here to work."

As she spoke, she stood up and "took" the document from earlier with her paw, going to the small desk Audrey had prepared for her to work.

The contents of this document were precisely the part of the work she had been responsible for.

If an employee were to come in at this moment, they would only see the golden retriever sitting there in a daze, completely ignoring the document in front of it and what it was doing.

...

In the spirit world, Hobert said to Audrey, "Close your eyes, I have a surprise for you!"

"What surprise?" Audrey asked as she obediently closed her eyes.

The next second, the two of them left the spirit world, and Hobert smiled, "The surprise is right in front of you, open your eyes, ta-da!"

Audrey opened her eyes and found herself in a field of flowers, surrounded by birds singing and the fragrance of flowers, with bees buzzing as they worked.

Because it was already winter in the Northern Continent, and Audrey didn't particularly like going to greenhouses, she hadn't seen so many vibrant flowers for a while.

She exclaimed, "It's so beautiful!"

Hobert took her hand and led her to the end of this flower-lined corridor, where there was a small pavilion. After climbing a dozen steps, Audrey's entire view was completely dominated by the sea.

The distant horizon merged with the sky, and she could see ships entering the harbor, as well as many seabirds hunting for food.

Outside the stone pavilion was a wide beach, with waves gently lapping against the sand, slowing down one's emotions and allowing one to appreciate the beautiful side of the sea.

"I really like the design of this pavilion," Hobert said with a smile. "You can't see the sea from the garden, but when you come to this pavilion, the view is suddenly wide open."

Audrey sat down on the stone bench, looking towards the sea and said, "I feel like I could sit here all day."

Hobert sat down next to her: "Then let's sit here all day."

For the next two or three minutes, Audrey enjoyed the inner peace. She took a deep breath and asked with a smile, "Is this the seaside villa you're giving me?"

Because on the other side of the garden, there was also a three-story villa, a huge front yard, and some accompanying bungalow buildings.

"Yes," Hobert said with a smile. "It's spoils of war."

This place was located in the capital of the Milherbon State, and a warlord had spent eight years building this villa.

In the capital of another State, a large number of villas and mansions were also seized. Hobert chose two seaside villas from the spoils, one for Audrey and one for Fors.

The rest were all confiscated and became the office residences of government functional departments.

Audrey did not refuse: "This is the most delightful gift I've ever received."

Hobert pointed to the front, briefly introduced the villa, and accompanied Audrey to look out for a while. He took the initiative to talk about another topic: "You should form your own work team."

Currently, Fors already had her own team, some of whose members were recruited from the territory, and some from the Travelers' Research association.

Some team members helped her observe the implementation of some government policies, some were responsible for the finances of Longtail Island and South Colson, some were responsible for material transportation, some were responsible for agriculture and industry, and some helped her manage Greenlawn Manor and other private properties that Hobert had previously given her.

They did not have any administrative power, but when Fors encountered problems in certain areas, she would ask the relevant people for the information she needed.

When working, Fors already had the air of a queen.

It's just that this queen was a bit late for work.

Hobert continued: "After the engagement, you will help me manage some of the duchy's affairs as my fiancée, and you will also continue to be the 'Earl's Light's' chief financial officer."

Such a request made Audrey very happy, managing some of the duchy's affairs meant that Hobert was actively binding her to him politically and financially.

She herself didn't care too much about these things, but it would make her parents and family members feel Hobert's sincerity.

Audrey asked curiously, "What part of the work do you plan to have me be responsible for? I'd like to have a direction when I'm forming my team."

Under the influence of the education she received in a noble family, she was very clear that it didn't matter if she lacked understanding in a certain field, she could consult relevant experts more and hire professionals in that field to provide her with advice.

"Diplomacy!" Hobert had already planned this: "In the future, you will be the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the duchy. I will assign you a capable assistant, and you can recruit the other members yourself."

In his vision, one queen would be in charge of domestic affairs, and the other would be in charge of foreign affairs.

Because Fors didn't have many relatives, letting her help observe the domestic governance would prevent the power of "outer relatives" from growing.

Audrey, on the other hand, had too many noble relatives. To prevent these nobles from influencing the Southern Balam Duchy, and to avoid making things too difficult for Audrey, he would let her be responsible for foreign affairs.

Audrey didn't think as deeply as Hobert did. She smiled and said, "I can already imagine myself easily guessing the true intentions of the representatives of other countries during negotiations."

Hobert followed Audrey's words and said, "That's what I think too. This job will allow you to use your abilities to the fullest extent."

Then he added: "After we get engaged, you need to prepare to enter work mode. The Southern Balam Duchy will be negotiating with the Eternal Blazing Sun Church soon."

"Helen is in charge of this negotiation. You will go with her at that time and feel the working atmosphere."

Audrey nodded: "Okay."

She planned to ask her father, Earl Hall, this afternoon about what issues she should pay attention to when forming her team.

Next, Hobert talked to Audrey about the course of the civil war, and the appearance of Beyonders from the Eternal Blazing Sun Church on the Roklier City battlefield.

Hobert guessed that this should be the Eternal Blazing Sun Church testing his bottom line, but overall, the two sides had the interests of the "Earl's Light" as a bond and would cooperate around the principle of "fighting without breaking."

After chatting for more than an hour, the two returned to Backlund and went back to prepare for the engagement ceremony held at noon.

Because this engagement ceremony was held during the war, to show solidarity with the kingdom, everything was kept simple and only conducted according to the normal duke-level cocktail party specifications.

Hobert couldn't wait to talk to the nobles about the topic of the civil war in the Southern Balam Duchy.

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