He slightly raised his hand forward, and the metal ring held by Bugs Bunny was directly lifted by an invisible hand, floating to his front.
Looking at the metal ring, which had become much smoother and cleaner, Leyton's mouth twitched slightly. It was indeed cleaned, even polished down a layer. Was this the power of brute force creating miracles?
Sighing inwardly, he brought the metal ring closer to his eyes, carefully discerning the already blurred patterns on it.
The patterns depicted a giant bird soaring with outstretched wings in the sky, its body covered in feathers woven from flames and patterns. Beneath it, a winding long river crawled, and behind it, layers of illusory doors followed.
On the upper and lower sides of the metal ring, a circle of mysterious symbols representing spirits and the undead was engraved, densely packed, like the souls of the dead worshipping this giant bird.
Phoenix. The Phoenix depicted on this must be "Phoenix Ancestor" Gregrace. Is this ring an item belonging to the Phoenix? Or an item crafted by creatures who worshipped the Phoenix at that time?
As he pondered, his eyes suddenly deepened, resembling the sea before a storm, his gaze unfocused and a blank white.
He used his divination ability to perform a certain divination on this ring, and soon, blurry images surfaced in his mind.
It was a dim, gloomy sky, with an exaggeratedly large giant bird circling in the sky, stirring up gusts of whimpering gales, the wind also mixed with the roars and wails of vengeful spirits.
On its right ankle, it wore a metal ring with intricate patterns, intertwined with grey-blue and dark gold. It continuously flapped its wings, seemingly rushing anxiously to a certain place.
The scene quickly shifted, and many Phoenixes appeared around, their pale flames almost merging into a single sheet, piercing through reality and surging into the illusory and distorted Spirit World, forming an exaggerated, terrifying sea of fire filled with wails and roars.
A terrifying to the extreme, exaggerated to the extreme figure flew out from the layers of illusory doors deep within the Spirit World. His body was covered in feathers interwoven with pale fire crows and mysterious patterns, his eyes seemed cast from bronze, containing layers of illusory doors within them.
Appearing with him was also an indescribable, pitch-black, illusory long river. It seemed to have burst forth from an indescribable, impenetrable mist, surging and flowing towards the end of all things, the cessation of all existence, a death that transcended death, indescribable, ineffable.
The moment this terrifying Phoenix appeared, carrying the pitch-black illusory long river, Leyton lost the ability to think. The flesh on his body rapidly cracked and became mottled.
Between the cracks in his flesh, tiny, pale white downy hairs grew, and in the blink of an eye, these hairs grew into white feathers.
His aura rapidly weakened, as if he was galloping on the path of death, reaching the end of his life in just a moment.
His flesh and even the clothes on his body fell off in chunks, turning into mottled debris and rising dust.
"Death! Boss is dying rapidly!"
Crow Anu, standing on the coat rack, was the first to recover. He flapped his wings, somewhat flustered, circling the room.
Bugs Bunny was stunned for a moment, then recovered at Crow Anu's voice. He almost instinctively pounced onto Leyton, burrowing into the clothes covered by the Sage's Robe, and fumbled out the small iron box containing the Die of Probability.
Before he could even leave Leyton's body, his feet suddenly lost ground, and he fell directly to the floor.
Bugs Bunny looked up blankly at Leyton, the figure who had been sitting in the chair had already dissipated, turning into specks of swirling starlight that permeated the room.
The originally brilliant starlight now dimmed, and from time to time, specks of paleness darted out from it, while tiny, pale downy hairs continuously melted away and reappeared.
The aura of death, decay, and corruption permeated these starlights, seemingly impossible to shake off.
Bugs Bunny was only stunned for a moment before quickly recovering. He somewhat frantically took out the Die of Probability and said in an anxious voice:
"Six, six, quickly give me a six!"
With that, he directly threw the Die of Probability from his hand. The milky white die rolled on the floor for two seconds before stopping, with six facing up!
Seeing the six given by the Die of Probability, Bugs Bunny breathed a sigh of relief. He anxiously turned his head to look around, finding that the floating starlight was still dim.
"One six is definitely not enough!" He muttered to himself as if cheering himself on, quickly picked up the Die of Probability from the floor, and threw it again.
Ding ding ~
The milky white die shook a few times on the floor before stopping again, still with six facing up!
"My turn! My turn!"
Crow Anu grumbled as he descended from the air. He extended a claw to grasp the Die of Probability, then flapped his wings to fly into the air and drop it.
The Die of Probability rolled on the floor for two or three seconds before stopping again, with two facing up!
"You stupid bird!"
Bugs Bunny looked at the two on the Die of Probability and grumbled loudly in dissatisfaction. He had never seen a number other than six.
He unhappily ran to pick up the Die of Probability to throw it again, but his feet slipped just as he was about to touch the Die of Probability, causing him to fall to the side.
"You useless, stinky bird, stupid bird!"
Bugs Bunny complained loudly. He felt that if it weren't for the unlucky crow throwing a two, he wouldn't have become unlucky himself.
Clang!
Crow Anu, who was about to descend from the air to pick up the Die of Probability, suddenly had a wing cramp, losing control of his direction and speed, and directly crashed into the bay window in front of him.
He fell to the ground dizzily, unable to stand up for a while.
Bugs Bunny had just gotten up from the ground when he saw Crow Anu, who had fallen into the corner, and sighed, shaking his head, looking quite speechless, saying:
"Stupid bird!"
He took a deep breath, preparing to pick up the Die of Probability again, but suddenly noticed that the surrounding dim starlight suddenly brightened, and the aura of death, decay, and corruption also abruptly disappeared.
Bugs Bunny's eyes lit up. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, he saw the swirling starlight around him quickly dim again.
Leyton, whose consciousness had fallen into slumber due to the influence of the River of Eternal Darkness, suddenly woke up. Before he could even figure out the current situation, a feeling of drowsiness struck him again.
His consciousness became blurred, and he could only roughly feel himself accelerating towards the end of his life, entering true death.
A strong sense of danger instinctively kept his consciousness barely awake, preventing him from falling directly into slumber as before.
"I was contaminated... the corruption brought by glimpsing the River of Eternal Darkness."
"This isn't a problem I can solve on my own. I must seek help from Knowledge Moor."
"The essence of knowledge, the root of mysteries, the light of civilization, the upholder of truth."
Thoughts floated with some difficulty in his mind. He silently chanted the honorific name pointing to Knowledge Moor in ancient hermes, over and over again.
By the third silent recitation, he finally felt a change.
His consciousness saw a vast and boundless ocean of light, composed of countless pixel-like particles stacked together, encompassing everything, covering everything. Every tiny pixel was a piece of knowledge, flickering, swaying, operating in a highly regular manner.
This was the materialization of knowledge, the collection of all knowledge, it was Knowledge Moor!
An understanding then appeared in Leyton's mind. The sense of drowsiness that had been sweeping through his consciousness disappeared at some point, and the trend of his life heading towards its end also stopped, as if frozen at that moment.
In the hotel room, white feathers and many tiny appearances drifted down from the scattered, dim starlight. As they fell, they quickly became pale and withered, gradually turning transparent. Before they could even reach the ground, they completely disintegrated and vanished.
The dim starlight began to cast out rays of brilliance, illuminating the entire room, dispelling the quiet night curtain that covered the specks of starlight, purifying the aura of decay, death, and withering.
As his state recovered, these starlights became increasingly brilliant, dazzling so much that Bugs Bunny and Crow Anu simultaneously closed their eyes.
Patches of starlight began to converge, forming a human figure interwoven with brilliant white and pale blue, yet it never transformed into a body of flesh and blood.
Within his consciousness, Leyton gazed at the ocean of light gradually moving away from him, an irrepressible urge arising in his heart to rush over, to merge with it.
This thought grew increasingly strong, and soon he could no longer control himself, rushing towards the receding ocean of light.
Just as he was about to touch that ocean of light, a curtain woven from shadows quietly appeared, severing the connection between him and that ocean of light.
The strong, uncontrollable urge in his heart then gradually subsided. Leyton quickly controlled the brilliant, dazzling starlight to condense his body.
Whoosh~ He let out a long breath. He clenched his fists, feeling the touch of flesh and blood on his body, and sighed in his heart:
"I almost put an end to my own life."
"An easy life makes one reckless. Knowing that the ring had a long history and involved the Phoenix, I actually performed a divination without any prior divination or preparation."
After sighing, he looked down at the Sage's Robe on his body. The magical symbols and emblems drawn on it had dimmed considerably. Clearly, when he reset his state earlier, it had also been affected by the River of Eternal Darkness and Phoenix Ancestor Gregrace, galloping far down the path to ruin.
Collecting his thoughts, Leyton turned his head to look at Bugs Bunny and Crow Anu, who were nervously staring at him, not daring to speak. He chuckled and nodded lightly, saying:
"I'm fine now."
His gaze noticed the Die of Probability held in Bugs Bunny's hands, and the bay window behind Crow Anu, which had fine cracks appearing on it.
As his eyes flickered, he had already recalled the events that had just occurred in the room.
A moment later, his gaze deepened as he looked at the Die of Probability held in Bugs Bunny's hand. This Die of Probability had undergone some changes; the bad luck and good luck it brought no longer affected the person who threw it, but instead directly affected a certain area.
This metal ring from the Phoenix, and my previous reckless action, was it an accident, or were they all under its influence?
Leyton quickly collected his thoughts. He glanced at the Die of Probability in Bugs Bunny's hand and said:
"Put this dice away for now. Don't use it casually anymore."
"Okay, Boss." Bugs Bunny nodded solemnly.
He felt that this dice was useless. Throwing a six didn't bring good luck, but the two thrown by Crow Anu could implicate him.
After tidying up the room, which had become somewhat chaotic due to the recent incident, Leyton leaned back in the wooden chair by the window, looking at the grey-blue and dark gold interwoven ring on the small round table. The ring, which had been cleaned by Bugs Bunny, was once again stained with rust, as if it had been baptized by long years.
It looked like an ordinary item with a long history. The spirituality it contained had long since dissipated over time, and it was precisely because of this that it affected my judgment, making me believe that peering into its past would not bring any danger.
The scene I saw earlier was clearly incomplete; it was just that I couldn't bear the contamination from Gregrace and the River of Eternal Darkness, and was forcibly interrupted.
As thoughts drifted, Leyton rummaged through the room for ritual materials. He prepared to sacrifice this metal ring to the Gray Fog, asking Klein to help him with divination. Anyway, he wouldn't truly die there; at most, he would explode once or twice and recover quickly.
Klein's response to the ritual was quick; he seemed to still be awake after midnight today.
Leyton leaned back in the wooden chair. The curtains in the room were drawn, and the gas wall lamp was extinguished, leaving only a thumb-sized candle flickering with dim yellow light on the small round table.