Chapter 542: Chapter 541: Invitation from the Holy City

“Kino’s Journey” was a very unique novel that Fang Zheng had read before his time travel. It appeared to be a novel, but it was more like a collection of allegorical stories. It told the tale of a girl named Kino who traveled around with her talking motorcycle, Elumes.

Kino had a rather peculiar rule, which was to stay in each country for only three days. No matter how good or bad the country was, she would leave after three days and continue her travels. Fang Zheng had really liked this series of novels at the time. Though the countries in the stories were essentially just cities and the settings were not very realistic, it was precisely that sense of the absurd and whimsical that was quite captivating.

Furthermore, the events Kino encountered in each country were filled with profound philosophy, easily leaving a lasting impression on the reader. Compared to the likes of Andersen’s fairy tales, Fang Zheng found this novel to be even more interesting.

Therefore, he spent a whole day copying out the first part of the novel from memory and handed it over to Tina. He didn’t feel the slightest bit ashamed about acting as a scribe. After all, he wasn’t planning to sell the book for money; he simply wrote it to tell stories to the children.

Tina, too, quite enjoyed the novel. The very night she received it, she went through “The Country that Understands Human Suffering,” “The Country of Majority Vote,” and “Three Men on the Railroad” in one breath. Naturally, these unique allegorical tales also won the favor of the other Cursed Children.

Not only that, Fang Zheng even suggested that Tina could start a program similar to an evening talk show, where the Cursed Children could discuss these allegorical stories live on air in the studio, exchanging views and opinions.

Luckily, Fang Zheng’s method soon paid off. The day after this evening broadcast, the number of forum posts about that terrifying ghost story dropped sharply, replaced by exchanges and discussions about “Kino’s Journey.” Seeing this, Fang Zheng finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although the problem wasn’t completely solved, for now, it seemed he had managed to muddle through.

This whole ordeal had left Fang Zheng feeling downcast. It seemed he was naturally destined for a hard life. He had thought to live a few carefree days like a salted fish, but instead, what a turn of events: these past two days, he had been busy settling these troubles without doing anything else. He hadn’t even had the chance to visit Kitanatei since he’d redeemed it, let alone soak in the hot springs of the inn. Today, I must go to…

“Brother Fang Zheng?”

Just as Fang Zheng was getting ready to head to Kitanatei for a soak in the hot springs and to enjoy life a bit, Nobiru stuck her head in from outside and raised an envelope.

“The old grandfather in the Northlands asked me to give this to you…”

“…Has this ever going to end?”

Upon hearing Nobiru’s words, Fang Zheng rolled his eyes helplessly. Of course, he knew that the “old grandfather” Nobiru referred to was Knight Commander Wells from the Northern Fortress. Nobiru had been leading a group of girls on a “National Geographic” expedition in the Northlands and had grown quite familiar with them. If there was news from the Sanctuary, it made sense for it to reach him through Nobiru.

“It seems I need to find time to return to the Tower of Heaven and have them set up a Teleportation Array for me… Otherwise, all this back and forth is going to be quite troublesome.”

While muttering to himself, Fang Zheng reached out to take the letter from Nobiru’s hands.

But at that moment, something unexpected happened.

The instant Fang Zheng’s fingers touched the envelope, suddenly, he felt an intense burst of coldness erupt from behind him. In an instant, Fang Zheng felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar, chilled from the inside out, and even his soul seemed to have frozen solid. Moreover, he sensed an extremely terrifying presence, as if some fearsome creature was opening its gaping maw, ready to devour him, which inadvertently made him shudder. Not only that, but at that moment, the colorful world before Fang Zheng’s eyes turned to only black and white…

However, this sensation was fleeting, disappearing in less than a second. In the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal, and Fang Zheng’s world once again displayed its original colors.

“Brother Fang Zheng?”

Looking at Fang Zheng, Nobiru cocked her head. It was only then that Fang Zheng came back to his senses and took the letter. He was silent for a moment, then looked towards Nobiru.

“Nobiru, did all of our people from the Northlands return today?”

“Of course, I led the team so you can rest assured, Brother Fang Zheng, not a single one is missing!”

“Nothing went wrong, right?”

“Not at all?”

Surprised by Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Nobiru was quite astonished.

“What’s the matter? Is there a problem?”

“No, I was just asking…”

Fang Zheng shook his head, the feeling he had just a moment ago was extremely unsettling, as if some danger was looming ever closer to him. As a Prophet Mage, of course, he wouldn’t dismiss that feeling as a mere illusion. Clearly, his instincts had sensed some sort of threat.

If such a premonition was triggered, then it was obvious that the source of this looming danger must be right in front of him. If nothing was amiss with Nobiru’s team, such as missing persons or other problems, then the reason must lie in this letter.

While contemplating, Fang Zheng opened the envelope and saw an invitation inside. The content was simple. It stated that since the Northlands had been reclaimed, the Holy City was going to hold a banquet. As the hero of the Northlands’ recovery, Fang Zheng was, of course, included among the guests, and even as a distinguished one… Hm? Why does this event seem so familiar to me?

At this thought, Fang Zheng paused a moment. He remembered that the last time the Sanctuary invited him to a banquet because of the Northern Fortress issue, it didn’t end well. Back then, he even took down a Paladin and confronted a Knight Captain, forcing the Goddess herself to intervene. After that, Fang Zheng started his nomadic life of running hither and thither.

But now this… Could it be happening again? Could it be that the Sanctuary felt he was too much of a threat and was planning a Hongmen banquet? That doesn’t make sense, does it?

With invitation in hand, Fang Zheng thought hard but couldn’t come up with an explanation. To say that the Sanctuary dared to invite him, it definitely wouldn’t be a Hongmen banquet. Not to mention what reason the Sanctuary would have to target him, and if they wanted to, they would need to be aware of his power. Back in the Main World, Fang Zheng was always very careful, preferring not to show his strength if possible, with most matters being handled by others. He was more about cheering from behind the scenes, and the Sanctuary didn’t seem like an organization without brains to choose such a time to start trouble with him…

Or was it that someone was planning to fish in troubled waters?

After giving it some thought, Fang Zheng felt that this possibility was quite substantial. Following the inaugural ceremony at Golden Bay, his fame had spread. Although Fang Zheng himself wasn’t clear on the extent of his reputation, according to the regular Northern wanderers like Aohara Nobiru, he was all but treated as a Savior in the Kingdom of the Holy Church.

It seemed the Sanctuary also wanted to take this opportunity to curry favor with him, thus leveraging the successful recapture of the Northlands to sing his praises. Clearly, they wanted to foster an alliance between the Heavenly Dao Palace and the Kingdom of the Holy Church.

Not everyone was keen to see this happen, and upon closer thought, if someone wanted to use the banquet as a chance to assassinate him and then frame the Sanctuary or stir the waters, it wasn’t far-fetched at all.

As for who could have such a motive… Well, that list was long.

Fang Zheng carefully considered: the Kingdom of Flame, the Land of Wealth, and let’s not forget the Cultists of the Myriad Deaths Society and Doomsday. Oh, right, he had also foiled a plot by the burrowing ‘Old Mouse’ Dark Elves once. If he remembered correctly, those dark-skinned dwarves were notoriously skillful assassins…

Wow, thinking over it, Fang Zheng realized he was practically surrounded by enemies on all sides, and staying holed up in the Heavenly Dao Palace seemed like the best choice after all!