Chapter 171 Anchor, Disappeared

"To prevent getting lost?"

"That's right. In the Sea of ​​No Consciousness, there is no direction or distance. Ignorance allows us to float on it, and will allows us to move forward. But without an anchor, no matter how hard we struggle, it will only be an illusion before drowning. The anchor here is a strong belief, a belief that is so strong that it can interfere with reality. If you want to explore the Sea of ​​No Consciousness, this is essential."

Do you have this belief? The priest did not ask this question out loud, he just looked at Beatrice with a questioning look.

"Faith." A figure appeared in Beatrice's mind. She slowly placed the teacup on the table. "Please continue."

There was a hint of surprise in the priest's eyes, he was a little surprised.

Originally, he told Beatrice, a young lady who knew nothing about the world, about the dangers of the Sea of ​​Unconsciousness in order to make her give up, so that she would continue to explore with the help of the church. But he did not expect that she would be so determined.

Isn't Castel a deserted island? What's so important to her? But facing Beatrice's inquiring eyes, he had to give up, put aside these messy thoughts, and continued to introduce.

"Knowledge is pollution, and exposure to pollution can also gain knowledge. Countless investigators of the Candlelight Society have been constantly exploring the Corridor of Truth, and have found some methods through this."

"When we built each church, we buried an anchor point, which can serve as a beacon to guide the direction and transmit information in the sea of ​​ignorance."

"You know, there is no concept of distance in the Sea of ​​No-Knowledge, so we can cross any distance and let information flow in various churches."

"It's a great invention." Beatrice frowned and thought for a while, then looked at the priest. "But how did you advance in the Sea of ​​Unconsciousness? I see that you don't seem to be a transcendent, so you shouldn't be able to explore the Corridor of Truth."

The priest laughed. "Do you remember what I once said? Ignorance makes us float on it. Compared with the extraordinary, mortals are more likely to float in the sea of ​​ignorance, and the divination instrument can allow me to move towards the beacon."

The church regularly selects personnel from among mortals, trains them in the ability to sneak in the sea of ​​​​unconsciousness, and lets them serve as liaisons to transmit information between various churches.

This group of people are called the Heart Whisperers.

However, the Sea of ​​Unconsciousness has never been safe or stable. Even after the church has explored for so long to come up with the method, accidents still often occur.

Fortunately, the accident only caused casualties and did not affect the anchor point and beacon, so we just needed to replace someone to continue.

To put it simply, these mind talkers are just consumables. Their average life span is less than 30 years, and their ultimate fate is to fall into the sea of ​​unconsciousness forever. Whenever the young priest thought of this, he would feel anxious.

His recent voyage in the sea of ​​unconsciousness has become increasingly difficult.

"So under what circumstances will the beacon disappear and the anchor point become unavailable?"

The priest hesitated and whispered, "The church was destroyed, or...something is blocking the anchor point."

"Blocked? Didn't you say there is no direction in the Sea of ​​No Consciousness? How could it be blocked?"

Beatrice was a little confused. The light could be blocked because the sight could not turn, but there was no direction in the sea of ​​​​no knowledge, so what could block the beacon? Unless Beatrice suddenly had a somewhat terrible guess in her mind, she opened her eyes wide and suddenly turned to look at the priest.

The priest nodded slowly and said with some difficulty: "Unless there is some kind of existence that swallowed the anchor point whole, which would block the beacon."

The room became quiet, and the steam from the tea rose.

The sky over the Rhine is always gray.

Coal smoke and mist intertwined into a lead-gray curtain on the surface of the Rhine. The brass gas lamps on the street cast a hazy halo, like a copper collar loosened from the neck of a drowned person. The cast iron railings were condensed with black ice crystals mixed with oil and coal ash.

A choking cough suddenly broke out at the corner of an alley. A hunchbacked old cleaner was scraping away the coal slag that had compacted at the base of the wall with a shovel. The raised dust and mist mixed together into a gray gauze, which fell on his worn corduroy shoulders.

A horse-drawn carriage rushed past the alley, its wheels making a dull sound as they rolled over the cobblestone road. After turning a few corners, it stopped in front of an apartment building.

Beatrice got out of the carriage, glanced at the street, then lowered her head and walked into the apartment building.

This is a remote property of the Joan family. Beatrice has the key here and she comes here occasionally to do some shady things.

It hasn't been long since she returned from Castel, but Beatrice feels like she has met more people in these few days than in the past few decades combined.

Some are interested in Castel, some are interested in her soap, some are interested in her family, some are interested in her identity, and some are interested in her herself.

Desire, interest, power, all kinds of ugly and gorgeous things were interwoven together, and it was impossible to tell who was who. This was the Rhine, the largest fame and fortune place in the empire. When she came to her senses, she was already in it and could not escape.

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Beatrice felt like she had been kicked overboard and had to turn into a fish before she drowned.

Fortunately, she learned quickly enough.

The investigator endowed her with extraordinary perception. She could see the most subtle expressions on everyone's face and remember the most easily overlooked details in conversation. The family and the royal family behind her helped her gain a foothold. She slowly learned to put on a mask and flatter everyone.

Gradually, she also learned how to deal with others and began to thrive in the upper circles of Rhine.

There was no light in the dark corridor, but Beatrice's pace did not slow down at all. She moved quickly in the darkness like a nimble cat.

Soon, she came to a door, took the key out of her pocket, and after the door lock clicked, she entered the house.

The room was not big. There was a faint mist outside the wooden window frame. The carved iron fence of the fireplace was matte. The gas lamp with the brass switch turned to the end cast a semicircular light spot on the wallpaper. Beatrice walked to the window and pulled the dark red velvet curtain to block the gray Rhine outside. Beatrice was relieved until then. She hung the hat with a veil on the hat rack, kicked off her shoes, and fell straight onto the soft sofa.

With a puff, soft velvet wrapped around her and she rubbed it with satisfaction.

For some reason, she always felt tense and couldn't relax no matter what. Even in the room where she had lived since she was a child in the Nuoan family manor, she felt inexplicably depressed.

Only here, in a small room where no one knew, with the curtains drawn and herself thrown on the sofa, could she have a moment of peace.

(End of this chapter)