The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 494

Chapter 493
I’ve Seen Through the Lord of Scales and Feathers
The elf known as “Physician” has also remained silent… Most likely, there’s no need to look for him.
Three have been eliminated so far. If Stranger is alright, then Physician must surely be dead.
Without an Adapter to conduct investigation or prophecy, they can only resort to prayer or rituals for locating items.
As an experienced Ritualist, Leah is proficient in various substitute rituals. She can even perform some Simple Rituals without a Ritual Array.
She took out a pocket watch and then took a bottle of woodpecker blood from her ritual bag, smearing it onto her face. Afterward, she donned a white mask with no eyes or mouth and placed the rope around her neck as a noose.
“Lord of the Gallows, Mother of Threads! Sixty-seven illusions, I offer the blood of the woodpecker!”
Leah channeled her mana and prayed loudly, reciting the epithet of a certain divine being: “Watch over this place with endless mist, and answer my question!”
Eivass knew these were two other aliases of the Grey Heavenly Envoy.
The Grey Heavenly Envoy is said to have sixty-seven forms, but this is also a lie. At least, the Grey Heavenly Envoy that was pulled into the Material Realm by the Ouroboros Ring ritual appeared as a giant grey spider. On the spider’s carapace lay a beautiful woman, as if kidnapped by the spider, or perhaps controlling it.
Like a spider-tailed viper, the snake’s tail ends in a lifelike spider. When birds see the spider and try to prey on it, they are bitten by the venomous snake.
The Grey Heavenly Envoy’s first phase is a woman, the second phase is a woman riding a spider, and the third phase is a giant spider, making it seem like it’s no longer hiding anything. But in reality, neither the woman nor the spider is the true Grey Heavenly Envoy. The Grey Heavenly Envoy’s true body is the mass of grey mist connecting them.
In the earlier mechanics, the Grey Heavenly Envoy would constantly split into small mist orbs at regular intervals. If not destroyed, they would explode and cause significant slowdowns, causing players to switch their focus to the orbs. In the final phase, when its health is low, it splits into numerous small orbs. At this point, many players will think, “Let’s quickly kill the main body, ignore these orbs, we won’t have time to clear them all anyway.”
But if the spider is killed at this point, it will trigger a team wipe mechanic. This is because the earlier mechanics would have hinted multiple times that the spider’s health bar was fake. It loses health continuously during the fight; its true health bar is actually the count of the mist orbs destroyed.
Thus, its earlier mechanics appeared simple and boring… Only players who are particularly sensitive to data and who unexpectedly stopped attacking would feel that the rate at which the health bar dropped was unusual.
At this point, one must return to attacking those small orbs; destroying a certain number within the time limit will trigger the mechanic, allowing players to face the Grey Heavenly Envoy’s true body.
—This is the Grey Heavenly Envoy.
A Heavenly Envoy that is neither true nor false, a Heavenly Envoy of silence. It controls the domain of lies—things that are neither black nor white, words that are neither evil nor good. No matter what question you ask it, if it is willing to answer, it will always tell a lie—from another perspective, this could also be considered the truth.
Leah then tied the noose to the end of the pocket watch and swung it like a ball and chain before tossing it.
The pocket watch struck the opposite end of the beam, passing through the wooden rafters. It became incredibly heavy, hoisting Leah up.
“Please… grant me lies!”
Leah strained her hands against the noose, preventing herself from actually being hanged. The old Ritualist’s face flushed red as she stammered, “The item Eivass is looking for… is nearby—yes or no!”
Upon hearing this, she suddenly signaled Eivass with her eyes.
Eivass understood her meaning, flicked a spark from his right hand, and burned through the rope.
Leah and the pocket watch fell to the ground simultaneously. The pocket watch rolled over, landing face-up.
Meaning “No.”
“The Grey Heavenly Envoy said ‘No,’ which means ‘Yes’! Excellent…”
Eivass clarified his target and began setting up a prayer ritual: “Prepare yourselves, we might need to make a quick push later.”
…A quick push?
Grape blinked, not quite understanding what she meant.
But the Advisor and Leah’s faces changed, having already guessed what Eivass was planning.
Based on the surrounding environment, Eivass chose to pray to the Flame Heavenly Envoy: “I implore the Flame Heavenly Envoy!
“Heavenly Envoy of Burning Iron and Smelting Steel, Heavenly Envoy of Crucibles and Furnaces!
“Grant me the fire of life—spread like a snake, dance like a butterfly, search like a dog!”
An endless stream of light and fire-attribute mana gathered in Eivass’s hands.
The entire house around them seemed to have its flames drawn towards Eivass. This heat converged into a ball of platinum-white fire. It was so bright that it made the surrounding walls appear dim.
Under Eivass’s prayer, it gradually took on a form and rapidly expanded.
It soon grew as tall as an adult’s thigh, resembling a leopard.
—This was a monster similar to a “Manticore.” Its butterfly wings unfolded like embers, and its swaying tail resembled a burning snake.
Under Eivass’s prayer, Eivass summoned an elemental creature from the Flame Heavenly Envoy’s domain.
This was a Third Tier prayer, summoning a lesser elemental creature. The monster, known as a Flame Tail Beast, typically only inhabits volcanoes in the Material Realm.
Elemental creatures summoned at this level are considered relatively weak, even within the Second Tier, and can only exist for ten minutes. Their only advantages are the fire burning on their bodies and their high intelligence.
Eivass summoned it now because it possessed the ability of “Treasure Sense.” And most importantly, its special ability, “Flame Vision”—it interacts with flames much like a shark interacts with the sea; when it touches fire, the entire surrounding flame is perceived as an extension of itself.
“Help me find a dagger, it should be nearby. Its characteristics are…”
Eivass explained to it as he looked down.
Soon, the Flame Tail Beast nodded. It signaled that it had fully understood.
It leaped into the flames in the corner and disappeared.
After only two or three seconds, it leaped out and ran out quickly.
Eivass followed without hesitation. The other three followed closely behind Eivass.
Grape was the slowest among them, even slower than “Sherlock”—Mycroft’s cumbersome physique made running extremely difficult in this environment.
But they had no choice but to run—she was stunned to realize that the seemingly blind knights and servants now seemed to have detected their presence and were converging from all directions. The entire palace seemed to have awakened, and flames began to erupt from the walls again… The cracks in the walls spewed fire rhythmically, like breathing, requiring them to dodge the flames at fixed intervals to escape without getting burned.
“What… what is happening—”
“The flames in this area have a mistress!”
Sherlock gasped for air and said loudly, “The Flame Demon sensed us!”
Now that they were exposed, he no longer needed to conserve mana. Sherlock directly cast the spell “Water Veil” around himself, causing the air to become misty. A cloud of white vapor enveloped him, making him completely invisible.
Even so, running was still somewhat difficult for him—especially since Eivass ran incredibly fast. Eivass, with his extremely high resistance to fire and heat, was completely unfazed by the flames. He followed the Flame Tail Beast, ignoring the fires completely. But the three of them couldn’t ignore them completely and had to wait.
The Advisor ran, panting heavily, but was still blocked by the flames.
He looked back at the approaching knights and couldn’t help but curse inwardly:
—Wait for me, you damn it!
…But he thought about it, realizing there was no point in complaining to the Ritualist natives. Eivass was running so fast, it must be the Lord of Scales and Feathers’ test. He had to keep up!
Sherlock dashed forward, despairingly finding himself in a place he was extremely familiar with.
The underground ritual chamber.
It was the place where he had been rescued in the first place.
Why didn’t I see anything that needed to be collected here back then?!
“Great Detective, open the door!”
Eivass shouted from afar when he saw him coming.
—You can’t even open the door, why are you running so fast?!
The Advisor thought through gritted teeth.
Although he didn’t have a staff, he skillfully began to chant a spell in a low voice.
Mana of wind and earth attributes intertwined, forming strange fluctuations. The moment they converged, the previously shut door was forcibly unlocked by Sherlock’s spell.
—Unlock spell!
He rushed in, following closely behind Eivass.
Besides the three ritual altars, the underground ritual chamber also contained a large number of cabinets for storing ritual materials—nearly twenty cabinets, each with many drawers. From the outside, nothing could be discerned.
The Flame Tail Beast darted directly towards a specific spot and stopped in front of a cabinet.
The Advisor then summoned a sharp, knife-like gale towards that cabinet. This was a “Revelation Projection” specifically designed to destroy containers, with an exceptionally strong effect on vessels—in an instant, it shattered those cabinets, scattering their contents.
Eivass immediately found the dagger he was looking for among them, rushed over, and grabbed it.
“Got it, retreat!”
“It might not be… not so easy to retreat…”
Grape, the last to enter, said breathlessly.
After entering, he immediately shut the door. As a yellowish-brown light flashed, “Preservation Technique” took effect, instantly reinforcing the tightly shut door.
The next moment, small sparks sprayed from the seams of the door. Standing inside, they could all hear the door vibrating significantly.
Someone was attacking the door!
If Grape hadn’t urgently reinforced the door with a protective technique, it would likely have been breached immediately!
“Those outside are at most Fourth Tier, they won’t be able to break through my Preservation Technique that easily… But how do we get out now?”
Grape looked at the Advisor nervously.
The Advisor glared back at her.
Why are you looking at me!
—You’re my brother now, my brother!
“Then… leave it to me.”
Eivass said softly, drawing a red card from his fingertips.
“Leah, guide the Flame Stream!”
Sensing the terrifying heat and pressure from the air, the Advisor’s spirit immediately jolted.
—I knew it, as long as I follow Eivass, there will definitely be no dead end!
I’ve completely seen through the Lord of Scales and Feathers’ arrangements!
(End of Chapter)