Super Righteous Player
Chapter 624 - 165 Beauty of Imbalance Vasily_1

Chapter 624: Chapter 165 Beauty of Imbalance Vasily_1

In the dimly lit collection room, Annan slightly lifted his head.

Under the candlelight’s glow, silvery-white strands of hair peeped out from beneath the white hood, radiating a warm, milky halo.

Annan’s face seemed to be luminous.

In his emerald-like left eye, which sparkled with a gentle luster, flickering candlelight was reflected.

These were the brass candlesticks scattered around the room, the tops of which resembled hands with fingers splayed, gripping the base of the candles. This shape inevitably reminded Annan of small monsters from certain game rations...

The candles were thick. Each one was thicker than Annan’s arm, with surfaces devoid of any carvings or patterns, just pure white candles burning quietly.

The scene before him reminded Annan of the numerous candles placed in that room in Pale Princess’s nightmare.

"Please, come and sit over here."

Vasily, the cat-woman, gently touched Annan’s shoulder, speaking softly and elegantly, "Your tea is ready."

She gently nudged Annan, escorting him up the spiral staircase to a platform on the side of the room.

The design here was clever—seated here, one could view all the display cases winding through the U-shaped hall. Yet from any position, one would subconsciously overlook this spot... even Annan had failed to notice the tables and chairs here before ascending the stairs.

...Who knows who designed it. It truly was a very clever design.

"This is the ’Skewed Vision’ ritual. It can skew the attention within a 180-degree range."

Vasily noticed Annan’s gaze and smiled slightly, explaining softly, "It’s a ritual you personally arranged for us before..."

...Oh, it was me.

Then it’s fine.

Sitting at the table, Vasily personally poured a cup of tea for Annan.

It was precisely the sparkling fruit tea that Annan liked most.

In that case, was I quite familiar with her before?

"No need for green flame?"

Annan didn’t rush to ask other questions, instead inquiring casually.

The lighting here wasn’t particularly bright.

It was roughly the luminance of a candlelight dinner.

Romantic indeed, but the curtains were so thick they brought to mind a dark internet cafe... Annan’s perceptive abilities were strong, but for an ordinary person, it might take all their effort just to see what’s inside.

With green flame lamps, combined with these glass cabinets, it would be much brighter than this.

"Although it’s a low probability, green flame still carries the risk of explosion. And there are hardly any barriers that can withstand an explosion from within. I can’t possibly apply a stabilizing ritual to each and every exhibit... especially since some exhibits are meant to be auctioned off."

Vasily answered cheerfully, "If there is a risk, we can’t use it. For Prophet Wizards, even a 1% chance can be amplified to 100%. It’s the ability to manipulate probabilities... but candles are different.

"However, I’ve heard that a few years ago, Heath Tower of Black seemed to have an optimized green flame technology still in the experimental stage. But it will probably take another five or six years to get here and become widespread... We’ll talk about it then.

"And also..."

"And also?"

Annan asked further.

Vasily smiled.

"Light and secrecy are relative.

"When seeking the power of secrecy as the core of a ritual, the ’light’ and ’fire’ in the area must be kept sufficiently weak and stable. If they are too active, then it becomes about ’revelation’ and ’display’, but if they are too inert, it turns into ’fear’ and ’darkness’.

"The former would allow some exhibits to bypass my sealing ritual and directly affect the noble guests’ minds, making them become unnecessarily devout, zealous, passionate... And the latter could let unspeakable dark entities proliferate indiscriminately, even invading others’ dreams."

Maintaining a balance of elements among multiple ritual spaces is a meticulous and challenging task.

Thus spoke the cat-woman.

Despite that...

Annan glanced at Vasily again.

She herself did not project a sense of "balance". Rather, she seemed extremely unbalanced.

Mismatched eye shadow and nail polish, contrasting hairstyles, as well as the symmetry of her bare foot and long boot...

Upon closer observation, even the materials on the left and right sides of her blouse differed. The left side was fur-trimmed with cloth as decoration, while the right side was the reverse; and the patterns on both sides were not identical.

Her right hand and left foot were bare and smooth, whereas her left hand was encased in a long leather glove extending nearly to her elbow. She even wore an earring on only one side, and her brooch was also to one side.

Her attire seemed to deliberately emphasize an "asymmetry."

Just by looking, one’s gaze was strongly drawn—and a sense of aversion was felt.

To break free from this instinctual, superficial aversion was a unique ability of Annan’s, not a "normal situation" encountered by most people.

"I guess..."

The cat woman elongated her tone and leisurely said, "Your Majesty, are you asking about the sense of imbalance on me?"

"Did I ask the same question the first time I came here?"

Annan retorted.

The clan leader of the cat women smiled and nodded her head.

Her fingers intertwined, and her somewhat sharp nails reminded one of a Venus flytrap opening its mouth.

And she herself rested her chin gently on the center of her interlaced fingers.

The cat woman’s vertical pupils, which emanated a strong sense of danger, narrowed slightly, and she said with interest, "But you haven’t triggered the ritual, not even after coming here twice."

"Ritual?"

What ritual?

Annan was about to ask this.

But the next moment, his keen senses preemptively felt a sense of crisis.

It was a crisis like being pointed at with a knife or aimed at with a gun.

Was it an ambush?

No, that’s not right...

This sense of crisis was coming from outside the door—

"There’s no need to be tense, Your Majesty."

The cat woman said leisurely, "They’re just petty thieves."

As her calm voice fell, three men with covered faces suddenly burst in, looking around as if searching for something. But they did not see the two people sitting on the high platform.

One of them induced in Annan the most intense sense of danger... The last time Annan had such a feeling was when he saw "Gold" in his nightmare at the White Tower.

This must be a destroyer wizard—

But before they could make a move,

Suddenly, the cat woman lowered her right index and middle fingers slowly.

Those three men trembled all at once and fell to their knees.

They wailed and then suddenly started to vomit.

The cat woman slightly frowned, her intertwined fingers coming undone.

The three men instantly fainted.

This strange scene also puzzled Annan.

Although this cat woman was indeed a Gold-tier Transcendent...

Annan had not seen her curse bearer activated just now. And a Bronze-tier power seemed insufficient to instantly knock unconscious at least one Silver-tier destroyer wizard.

"This is the power of the Ritualist."

The cat woman explained.

She chuckled lightly, "To invade the home ground of a Ritualist... Those behind them are really daring.

"This poor wizard was probably being exploited. They might have planned to confirm your presence, then trigger some mechanism, or have someone nearby take action to kill the destroyer wizard, aiming to blow you up with him."

A Silver-tier destroyer wizard is in itself an extremely dangerous explosive.

The explosive effect when Gold died even destroyed a quarter of the Wizard’s Tower. Even across a Wizard’s Tower, Annan and the others could feel the violent shaking of the ground.

If there was a sudden explosion in such a confined space, Annan might indeed have been in danger.

But in front of this cat woman, what could have been a very likely successful assassination was strangely stopped.

"...Is it the power of imbalance?"

Annan vaguely realized something.

Those three men felt like they were suffering from severe motion sickness.

The cat woman nodded and happily said, "Not bad, Your Majesty. Even with lost memories, you remain so sharp...

"This is my ’Beauty of Imbalance’ ritual.

With a slight smile, the cat woman Vasily said, "Under ’certain’ conditions, anyone who feels disgust or admiration for me will have their ’sense of balance’ controlled by me. As the depth of their animosity or affection increases, so does the degree control.

"Those three had pure murderous intent towards me, which is an imbalance. Thus, I controlled their bodily balance, making them spin more than five hundred times in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Then I severed the connection between their spirit and flesh... causing them to become ’completely unbalanced’."

"...Why tell me all this?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

The cat woman smiled joyfully, "After all, it was you who completed this ritual for me."