Sitting in a booth at a cheap coffee shop, Lawrence could hardly help thinking about the sufferings that the Abraham family had endured over the years.

Since they were split into small families and scattered across the country, the Elders' Council's control over family members has fallen to the lowest point. In order to avoid the impact of the curse, many Abrahams are unwilling to advance and always remain at Sequence 8 or Sequence 9. Some do not even try to become Beyonders. They just want to live a peaceful and beautiful life as ordinary people with a certain amount of knowledge and wealth.

The Elders believed that this was an act of forgetting the honor of the family, but they could not deal with it strictly because it would be tantamount to self-destruction.

In such a situation, the upper echelons of Abraham's family began to have ideas of reform. They imitated the master-apprentice inheritance system of the School of Life and trained non-family members, hoping that after they were promoted to high-sequence, they could in turn help Abraham solve the curse that had existed for 1,500 to 1,600 years, and find their ancestor Bethel Abraham who disappeared in the "War of the Four Emperors".

This plan went very smoothly in the beginning. The apprentices who did not have to worry about the curse quickly became stronger and were constantly promoted under the careful training of the Abraham family. In just ten years, there were several Sequence 5 powerhouses among them, while among the direct descendants of the Abraham family, there was not a single Sequence 6.

The trunk was too weak and the branches were too strong, and the seeds of tragedy were sown. The ambitious disciples turned their attention to the powerful seals owned by Abraham's family.

Their plot failed, but it also brought serious sequelae. All Sequence 6 and Sequence 5 Beyonders who were not family members believed that their status within the Abraham Family did not match their own strength, and that they were not trusted and could not obtain the control over certain seals.

During the process of back-and-forth tug-of-war, arduous negotiations, and mutual compromise, an accident occurred. One of the Sequence 5 "Travelers" named Butis was kidnapped by the "True Creator" and joined the Aurora Society, which brought about a terrible disaster.

In this disaster, the upper echelons of the Abraham family were almost wiped out, and more than half of the few powerful seals they had were lost, leaving only three. Lawrence's half-brother Richard died as a result.

Butis gained great benefits. Not only did he collect all the extraordinary materials he needed, but also with the help of the "True Creator", he successfully overcame the obstacles, stepped into the demigod sequence, and became the "Secret Saint", one of the five saints of the Aurora Society.

After the disaster, the rebuilt Elders' Council of the Family of Abraham reflected on their actions over the past years, but could not find a solution to the problem. Negativity, dejection, and despair enveloped the hearts of the few remaining family members.

Lawrence was unwilling to be in such an environment, unwilling to face the sighs and depressing atmosphere every day, so he found a reason to leave the Presbyterian Church and came to Backlund to look for his other half-brother, Lauberuo, and half-brother, Sam.

Now, he suddenly realized that he seemed to be the only one left in his father's branch.

He himself was nearly eighty years old, and all his children had died in the disaster brought by Butis.

Just thinking about these things made him feel overwhelmed with grief.

What made him most miserable was that he saw no hope of revenge, nor the dawn of restoring his family's glory.

"I am already very old, and I have suffered trauma before. I dare not use my extraordinary abilities unless it is necessary. It will lead to loss of control or a curse... Where is the future of the Abraham family?" Lawrence picked up the Filmer coffee, took a sip, and fell into a long silence.

…………

After returning to the rented house, Fors immediately went into the bedroom and locked the wooden door.

She sat on the edge of the bed, adjusted her state, and whispered the honorific name that represented hope and the future:

"Fools who do not belong to this era;"

"You are the mysterious master above the gray fog;"

"You are the yellow and black king who controls good luck."

"I want to pray to you and tell you what happened to me today."

"I met the brother of the husband of the old lady who made me an 'apprentice'. He seems to be a member of a certain family..."

"I concealed the things related to the mysterious field, but I am worried that he has a strong divination ability and can find out the complete truth..."

…

At this time, Klein was just above the gray fog.

He saw the crimson star representing the Magician expand outward, creating ripples, and heard the layers of prayers spreading.

After figuring out the specific details, Klein tapped the edge of the ancient long table with his fingers and muttered to himself silently:

"Very cautious, you know how to ask a fool for help."

"And, your guess is correct. The Sequence 7 corresponding to 'Apprentice' is called 'Astrologer'..."

He had been studying the "Book of Secrets" recently and quickly worked out a plan that could help the other party interfere with the divination through rituals.

“I have to say, after being promoted to Sequence 7 and obtaining the Book of Secrets, I have become more and more like a true god above the gray fog. Of course, I am still just an empty shell for now…

"Speaking of which, I have performed in front of Miss Justice, Mr. Hanged Man and others many times, and I have perfectly deceived them. Why is there no corresponding spiritual feedback, and the progress of the potion has not increased accordingly? Does it have to be in the real world? Well, it may also be that the "cheers" of these audiences are blocked by the gray fog and cannot directly affect me, just like the "Eternal Blazing Sun" and the "True Creator" have difficulty penetrating the gray fog and finding this mysterious space...

"It seems that the reactions of the gray fog and this mysterious space are very mechanical. They are not flexible enough and lack wisdom... However, for me, this is actually a good thing..."

As his thoughts raced, Klein materialized the relevant knowledge into an old parchment and threw it into the crimson star that symbolized the "magician."

Suddenly, endless gray-white fog filled Fors's eyes, and an illusory yellow-brown parchment fell from the sky.

She saw the knowledge written on it, and her heart suddenly felt at peace.

With Mr. Fool's help, Mr. Lawrence would definitely not be able to get the correct revelation in the divination! Fors expressed his sincere gratitude and busied himself preparing the ceremony.

She has seen many cases of evil spirits harming people, and does not trust The Fool that much, but the full moon curse forces her to rely on him.

The worst that can happen is that I lose my life. Without Mr. Fool’s help, I would have gone out of control and turned into a monster during the last blood moon… Every day I live, I earn one more day. This is all a gift from Mr. Fool, and he can take it back whenever he wants… Well, it’s better not to take it back… Fors took a breath and lit the two candles that symbolized the Fool.

The initial steps of this ritual were no different from those she had mastered before, until the candles were lit and items such as essential oils, hydrosols, and herbal powders were thrown into the fire.

When the clear and ethereal fragrance filled the room and the thin and illusory mist enveloped the entire altar, Fors quickly adjusted his body and mind according to the contents of the "parchment", entered into meditation, and silently recited the honorific name corresponding to "The Fool" over and over again.

This monotonous and repetitive behavior caused Fors, who was already calm and at ease due to visualization, to slowly enter a state of mental sleep and spiritual dispersion. He was in a daze, yet strangely lucid, and he felt his spirit was floating and rising continuously.

This has certain similarities with the "secret agreement" process achieved with the help of external objects, but it is different in many places. It is a technique of spiritualism used to communicate with higher-level spirits. When it is taken to the extreme, it can even allow extraordinary people to roam the spirit world while retaining a strange clarity.

Some extraordinary people who are good at influencing the mind call it "artificial sleepwalking". They can use techniques such as hypnosis to make ordinary people enter this state.

In that way, ordinary people may appear to be asleep but can answer questions, and may appear to have their eyes and mouths closed but can discover various spirits around them and achieve a certain degree of communication.

The reason why Klein didn't let Fors use the "Secret Ceremony" was because it could only provide knowledge, purification, erosion and other direct effects, allowing the other person's spirit to gain a wonderful experience, but it could not interfere with another person's divination and other things.

To put it simply, the "Secret Ritual" directly affects the target's spiritual body, astral body, mental body, and etheric body, and the positive or negative states related to them are cleared. The ritual under "artificial sleepwalking" allows Klein to do some indirect things to deal with intrusions from the outside world.

In a daze, Fors only felt that he was floating back to the towering ancient palace above the gray fog, and saw Mr. Fool sitting high up, overlooking everything.

Klein looked at the shadow of the "magician" outlined by the crimson starlight, and calmly picked up a paper figure that he had just found from the pile of debris in the corner.

As a "fortune teller" who has been promoted twice, he has many ways to interfere with other people's divination without the help of magical items.

At this moment, affected by the ritual, the mysterious space above the gray fog shook slightly, and some power flowed due to being pried open.

Klein pressed the "Black Emperor" card on the surface of the bronze table with his left hand, allowing it to connect with his own spirit body, which brought about an improvement in his status, just like how he used the "Yangyan Talisman" and Azik's bronze whistle to strengthen his spirit body and improve his level.

Then he shook his right wrist and threw the paper man out.

The paper figure suddenly grew larger, and twelve pairs of black angel wings cut out of paper grew out from its back, with lifelike feathers.

The paper "angel" quickly penetrated the crimson light and overlapped with the illusory figure of the "magician".

Silently, it burned up and disappeared completely.

Fors, who was half asleep and half awake, seemed to see a majestic angel, who was wrapping herself with many pairs of pitch-black wings layer by layer!

After an unknown amount of time, Fors suddenly woke up from her "artificial sleepwalking" state. In front of her, there was only an altar with three candles burning quietly and mist filling the entire room. At the tip of her nose was the familiar, clear, ethereal fragrance.

"Angel..." Fors was so lost in thought that she forgot to end the ceremony.

PS: I should have two or three updates in the remaining days of this month, but I’m not sure on which two days exactly. I’ve been so tired and sleepy these days from the fatigue caused by the meetings before the adjustment.