Part 1. The Joker Chapter 33: “The Switch”
As soon as the old Neil spoke, the pair of illusory eyes in the darkness behind him quickly disappeared, and even Klein, who was in the state of “psychic vision”, could no longer detect any trace of its existence.
”This is a sign of ritual magic.” Old Neil huh explained.
It’s a bit magical …… Spiritual Vision is a strengthened version of Yin Yang Eyes? Like a child who got a new toy, Klein averted his eyes with interest and surveyed every corner of the room, wanting to see what was the difference between the current alchemy room and the previous one.
The darkness outlined the outlines of the objects, the long table, test tubes, scales, cups, cabinets, etc. were no different from before Klein turned on his “psychic vision”, and did not emit the slightest bit of light.
Inanimate objects have no spirit? Klein muttered secretly, his eyes swept over the silver box on the table.
Inside, he saw a light that was as blue as the sky, as bright as a star, or as red as fire!
”Material originating from a transcendent species still has some sort of life, uh, activity? Even if the original owner is dead?” Klein weighed his words and asked the old Neil for advice, full of curiosity.
”An accurate description would be that their spirituality lingers, one of the keys to successful potion formulation and one of the root causes of extraordinarys getting out of control, as Dunn should have told you.” Old Neil explained frankly.
He didn’t know what he remembered, but suddenly let out a chuckle:
”I remember that the recipe for ‘Body Collector’ includes air-dried adult black-spotted frogs, and it takes a very great deal of courage to try to take this magic potion.”
Crane imagined it, felt a little nauseous, and without seconding the old Neil, turned his gaze to the dimness of the surrounding area, which lacked sufficient light; however, there were none of the near-invisible spirits and ghosts and the like that he had been expecting.
”I thought the world of spirits was everywhere?” He spoke in confusion.
Old Neil gave a heave and said:
”Repeat after me, little one:”
”This is the headquarters of the Nightwatchman Squad, this is the underground of the Church of the Goddess of Darkness, and there are quite a few extraordinary people here!”
”Do you think we would let spirits and souls roam around here? And the world of spirits and spirits are two different concepts.”
A little embarrassed for a moment, Klein turned his head and pretended to look out at the slight gaslight glow of the entrance to the dark door:
”I see.”
As he spoke, his brow suddenly began to twitch, uncontrollably, as if in spasm.
What was going on? Klein was about to turn around and ask, when he suddenly saw a nearly transparent figure standing silently at the edge of the bright yellow glow where the dark door leaned in, it took on a humanoid shape, the color of its aura blending perfectly with the dim surroundings, making it difficult to distinguish.
Hiss!
Klein’s brow throbbed with pain, his vision was confused, he focused his attention again, but there was no “invisible” figure!
Strange …… He turned back and said:
”Mr. Neil, my eyebrow location is twitching, a little pain.”
”Haha, this is very normal, you are a newly promoted Extraordinary, spiritual vision will cause a great burden on your ‘spiritual body’, and always produce consumption, the external appearance of the brow twitching, tingling in the head, over-sensitivity, a little hallucination, and other symptoms, and the state of spiritual vision, you are very prone to strange environment feeling uncomfortable, and also easily affected by other people’s emotions, these are all matters that need attention, and must be adapted and eliminated through repeated practice, in addition, moderation of use, and timely end.” Old Neil replied with a smile.
How do you feel that you have a kind of joyful emotion …… Klein was busy asking for advice:
”Then how should I exit the psychic vision state?”
He had wanted to mention the “invisible” figure he had just seen, but after hearing “a few hallucinations” in the symptoms, he dismissed the idea.
Combined with the twitching and tingling in his brow, Old Neil’s answer was entirely predictable!
”Imagine the item as you did just now, gather your attention, then switch to the meditative state, close your eyes, control the aura, tell it to abort repeatedly, and then open your eyes again afterward to realize that the aura vision is over.”
Old Neil described it leisurely, and only added towards the end, “Of course, this is the most tedious and clumsy method, we can practice it by repeatedly suggesting ourselves in meditation and repeatedly influencing the aura to leave a simple ‘switching action’, for example, if I tap my brow twice, I can simply turn on the aura vision and two more taps can simply end it again, depending on your own habits and preferences as to how you set it up.”
”Understood.” Klein thought for a moment, and planned to imitate Old Neil, using the action of tapping his eyebrows twice as the “switch” for his spiritual vision.
”One tap could easily be confused with an instinctive knock on the head, three taps could waste precious time in a crisis situation, and snapping his fingers was too personalized to be noticed.
He gathers his attention, observes the gathering orbs of light, and re-enters a meditative state.
Under the guidance of the old Neil, after repeated hints and practice, he finally “set” the “switch action”.
Lightly clenched his fist, with the root joint of the index finger in the heart of the eyebrow knocked twice, Klein eyes suddenly more aura of different thicknesses and colors of light.
Two more taps and everything returned to its original state, no longer the slightest bit idiosyncratic.
”Finally mastered it ……,” he exclaimed with delighted emotion.
Until this time, he realized that he was so tired that he looked like he could fall asleep at any time, and his head was as empty and painful as if he had stayed up for three all-nighters.
Old Neil smiled and said:
”We are not ‘sleepless’, we need a period of sleep to recover after each excessive practice or excessive use of psychic vision, you can go home now, have a good rest, and in the afternoon go for a stroll from Welch’s residence to Iron Cross, trying to discover the clues of the notes of the Antigonus family at the earliest possible time, and wait till to-morrow we will resume our instruction in occult knowledge, and, of course, you must not forget to read those historical documents.”
”Okay.” Klein raised his hands and feet in approval of Old Neil’s arrangement.
Grabbing his cane, he exited the alchemy room and watched as the dark door closed and Old Neil returned to his side of the armory, Klein rubbed his brow and temples and pressed against the handrail, one step at a time, as he made his way up the stairs.
At that moment, Dunn-Smith came from behind, the corners of his mouth curling and his gaze deep and haunted:
”From what old Neil tells me, you’re pretty well attuned, both to meditation and to psychic vision.”
”Maybe it’s just the ‘Diviner’ special.” Klein replied humbly.
He guessed that Dunn had just been guarding the armory for Old Neil.
Dunn slowed his pace, only a little ahead of Klein, and after a few seconds of silence, he said without turning around:
”You must remember that curiosity kills cats as well as the extraordinary, and don’t try to explore whispers that you shouldn’t hear and presences that you shouldn’t see.”
”Okay.” Klein knew this was another reminder about Extraordinary People getting out of control.
Entering Blackthorn Security, he said hello to Roxanne, who obviously hadn’t realized that she had become an Extraordinary, and eased his way out the front door and onto the street, where he took a trackless public carriage back to Daffodil Street, nearly falling asleep on the way.
It was still morning, and the temperature was only twenty-six or twenty-seven, when Klein removed the brass key from his belt and unlocked the front door of his house.
Inside the house, many items had yet to be added, the living room and dining room were empty, and Benson and Melissa, one working and the other studying, had also left the house early.
Not caring about anything else, Klein closed the door behind him and walked quickly up the stairs and into his own, bookshelf bedroom.
After stripping off his tuxedo and hanging it on the coat rack, he couldn’t wait to fall back into bed, and just as soon as he hit the pillow, he drifted off into a deep sleep.
Klein woke up to the brilliant sunlight, turning his head on its side and slowly opening his eyes to find the blazing sun just right outside.
”What time is it? Won’t miss the afternoon ‘tarot party’, will we?” He struggled to get up and made his way to the coat rack, as the pocket watch was still in the inside pocket of his tuxedo yet to be removed.
Not only had he forgotten about it, but he had also forgotten to close his bedroom door and to draw the curtains of the convex belly window closed.
Snap!
Klein pulled out his pocket watch, pressed it open, and dropped his heart.
It was just after twelve o’clock, and there was still quite a bit of time before the appointed three o’clock in the afternoon.
–It was Monday, the day of his meeting with the Hanged Man and Justice.
Klein made a thoughtful gesture and tapped his brow twice, and once again his vision changed, seeing his aura return to its bright color.
Tapping it twice more and withdrawing from his aura, he easily walked to the first floor, boiled a pot of water, put in some bad tea, and nibbled off a loaf of rye bread with it and a little cream.
Afterward, Klein pulled out his history textbook and original master notes and leisurely “reviewed” and consolidated them.
……
At 2:57 p.m., Klein closed his books, put the cap on his pen, and closed the curtains with a quick swipe.
He then unlocked his bedroom door, making the room unusually dark.
Tapping his brow twice more, he turned on his psychic vision and looked around.
After confirming that there were no invisible spirits in this room, Klein ended his psychic vision, pulled out his pocket watch, and checked the time.
Tick tock, tick tock.
At one minute short of three o’clock, he took four steps counterclockwise as before, walking in a square, while silently reciting the corresponding incantation in Chinese for each step.
Only, he hadn’t prepared a main meal this time.
Klein closed his eyes and felt the back of his hand tingle a little, as if the four black dots that made up the small square there were protruding and surfacing.
Frantic hisses and seductive whispers began to echo, but Klein realized that the headache wasn’t as bad as it had been last time.
It wasn’t that he was unaffected, but he was able to control himself from actively listening.
Being “extraordinary”, he had a little more self-control in such an environment.
Soon, his “body” became lighter, floating upwards, and he saw the diffuse, grayish, boundless, hazy mist, and the crimson “stars”, two of which seemed to have a subtle connection with him, making him feel unusually familiar.
Klein looked at his blurred self and whispered in confusion:
”The astral spirit body that old Neil talked about?”
He calmed down for a few seconds and once again transformed on top of the gray mist to reveal the magnificent temple, the long bronze table located directly below the wide dome, and the twenty-two high-backed chairs with different constellation symbols.
Klein quietly walked to the top of the table and sat down, letting his body and face enveloped in a denser gray mist, then stretched out his right hand, pointing at the two familiar “crimson” stars from afar, to build a marvelous connection.