Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability
chapter-1009

At Xinhong District, in the rented apartment.

After telling Anthony the results of his discussion with Franca, and instructing him to hand Ludwig over to Franca before probing Peng Deng, Lumian lay down on the bed.

He closed his eyes, entered a Cogitative state, and outlined his own phantom image in his mind.

Then, he imagined himself leaping from an extremely high place, rapidly falling in free fall.

In this state, he heard the whistling of wind in his ears.

But he didn't immediately leave the dream. He vaguely heard humans conversing in the wind, with words coming from different directions.

At this moment, Lumian seemed to return to Cordu Village, back to a warm summer afternoon. At that time, he was lying drowsily atop a haystack, with old women gathered nearby, picking lice off each other while gossiping about various rumors in the village. Children occasionally ran back and forth around them, farmers returned to the village early from their work, and members of the padre's family passed by grumbling…

Lumian opened his eyes, his nose still seeming to smell the scent of grass mixed with sheep dung.

He let out a breath, then rolled out of bed, walked out of the room, and came downstairs to the luxurious villa.

Madam Justice, Madam Magician, and Madam Judgment were all in the living room.

"Important intelligence?" Madam Justice understood that Lumian wouldn't actively exit the dream unless it was something very crucial.

And she hadn't noticed that the current real dream had a strong rejection towards Lumian, which meant Lumian wasn't kicked out of the dream.

"Yes." Lumian sat down on a single sofa, "It starts with a psychological trauma Franca saw in the underground area of Mushu Hospital."

Madam Justice looked at Lumian for a few seconds. "First, tell us how you rescued Two of Cups. Seven of Cups was kicked out of the dream too early and doesn't know much."

Smiling, Lumian replied, "I used the corpse wax candle."

"You completed a secret deed ritual and received feedback?" Madam Magician had already roughly guessed what had happened from the changes in Lumian's real body state and the stress response that appeared in Fourth Epoch Trier. Now she was just confirming.

Lumian verbally described what he saw, heard, and felt during the covenant ritual, and finally said, "The remnant aura of the Blood Emperor underwent a rather obvious change, and it fused a bit with the Underworld Daoist's seal. It seems like I've gained something extra, but I can't detect it."

As he spoke, he displayed the old blood spots hidden under the pale skin of his palm.

Madam Magician nodded slightly, countless dazzling starbursts lighting up and slowly rotating in the depths of her eyes.

After twenty or thirty seconds, she said with a hint of amusement, "I don't know whether to say you're lucky or unlucky.

"That terrifying will not only gazed upon you but also bestowed power upon you.

"But due to the lack of necessary rituals and the existence of the Underworld Daoist's seal, that power fused with the remnant aura of the Blood Emperor and is under seal, unable to be utilized. Otherwise, you'd already be a gifted War Bishop or something else by now.

"Although this power is sealed, it has still brought some effects to you. For example, the soul fragments of the Cordu villagers under my seal have undergone some mutations, preparing to become your 'soldiers'."

"No wonder I vaguely heard everyone's 'conversations' when I was leaving the dream just now…" Lumian suddenly realized.

So what he had gained was a new power.

Madam Magician continued, "Whether there are any hidden dangers in that power itself, I can't tell at the moment, but after it fused with the remnant aura of the Blood Emperor, there are certainly hidden dangers, and it has become more active."

At this point, Madam Magician paused. "Combined with the Omebella bloodline in your body, if not for the Underworld Daoist's seal, I'd suspect you might become pregnant in response, unable to abort, giving birth to a deeply corrupted, mutated version of Alista Tudor."

"Wouldn't that make the Blood Emperor have to call me daddy?" Lumian, in his Demoness of Despair state, laughed.

"It would be mommy," Madam Magician corrected.

Lumian didn't continue this topic, instead turning to talk about how he entered the vortex, how he took advantage of the lightning strike to open a channel and rescue Franca.

"It seems our efforts were not in vain." Madam Justice showed a gratified smile.

"Which deity does that incantation involve?" Lumian asked.

Madam Justice made an "mm" sound and said, "The Lord of Storms, that's His true name. Don't casually recite it. Lightning damage is area-of-effect and indiscriminate. Moreover, Mr. Fool's avatars have triggered lightning strikes with this before. The subconscious perception is that the lightning brought by this incantation is very terrifying and highly destructive."

Using a deity's true name as an incantation? How is Mr. Fool's incarnation even more like a Provoker than me? Lumian nodded slightly.

He was silent for two seconds before saying, "At that time, I was prepared for the possibility that I might collapse out of control due to the secret deed ritual, or even die. I had only one thought, which was to open the abyssal channel as quickly as possible, or destroy that illusory abyss.

"This might not have been enough, so I asked Jenna and Luo Shan to invite Zhou Mingrui, who was at Mushu Hospital's emergency center, to come down to the underground area and take a look. I didn't know if this would bring good results or bad changes, or how high the probability of fixing it would be if problems arose, but none of that was the most important thing at the moment."

As he spoke, Lumian in his Demoness of Despair state slightly raised his chin.

Madam Justice, Madam Magician, and Madam Judgment all fell silent.

Lumian displayed a bright smile and continued, "If that would truly bring destructive results, and you monitored it, you could kill my body in the real world in advance to prevent all this.

"It would be good to die. If I died, I wouldn't know anything, wouldn't have to care about anything."

After exchanging glances for a few seconds, Madam Justice, Madam Magician, and Madam Judgment sighed and showed warm smiles that calmed one's emotions.

"I don't agree with this style of yours, but I'm glad to see you have your own thoughts and choices."

Madam Magician also sighed and said, "If you encounter similar situations in the future, you can try reciting my honorific name. The power sealing those soul fragments in you comes from me. I can use them as a medium and, through the connection created by the honorific name, exert some influence, but success is not guaranteed.

"Also, if you're willing to pay the price of being permanently kicked out and unable to re-enter the dream city to escape a predicament, I can give you better incantations."

Lumian's straightened back relaxed a bit, and his chin was no longer slightly raised.

Curious, he inquired, "What incantation?"

"Chief Yagates's honorific name," Madam Magician smiled, "Reciting this outside the dream would have no effect, and might even unknowingly turn the reciter into a marionette of the Celestial Worthy. But reciting it in the dream can attract attention and open any channel. However, similarly, Chief Yagates is essentially a manifestation created by the fusion of Mr. Door's remnant spirit and the dream's subconscious, with special symbolism. His actions might be influenced by the Celestial Worthy, but relatively speaking, compared to reciting Mr. Fool's honorific name, this receives less interference."

"So it can be done like this…" Lumian said thoughtfully, "Were we perhaps following the surface rules of the dream city too strictly before? Always trying to play the role of citizens with Beyonder powers… Remember, you're just acting; it's essentially a dream…"

Madam Magician smiled and said, "We've thought about this issue too. The method of reciting the Chief's honorific name was my idea. But before finding exploitable rule loopholes, you'd better not casually break the rules. Otherwise, hehe, there are too many painful lessons from before. I won't list them one by one."

Lumian nodded, adjusted his state, and detailed the scene Franca saw in that psychological trauma at the bottom of the illusory abyss, the deductions she made, and the problems she discovered.

Finally, he said, "It was only after Franca realized that Mr. Fool was a transmigrator that she found she had previously overlooked names like Sherlock Moriarty and Merlin Hermes. Logically, she should have immediately deduced from these that Mr. Fool, like her, was also a transmigrator, though she would have guessed he came from another world.

"In the dream city, many of our ideas seem to have been restricted. We unconsciously overlooked certain things, like An Xiaotian's problem, like the evidence that Mr. Fool was a transmigrator. This might be the Celestial Worthy's will at work, creating a Fooling effect.

"And what He deliberately made us overlook and avoid, most likely hides the correct direction."

Madam Justice listened intently, her expression first showing a bit of bewilderment and surprise, but quickly revealing relief and emotion.

Madam Magician and Madam Judgment had similar reactions.

After Lumian finished speaking, Madam Justice's emerald eyes flickered as she recalled,

"You don't know under what kind of situation and in what way we first saw Mr. Fool, and what kind of performance he showed subsequently. So you certainly can't understand why we didn't think in the direction that Mr. Fool might be a transmigrator, an ordinary person who grew in strength a step at a time…"

"It was only after the Cordu Village disaster that I vaguely felt this possibility," Madam Magician added.

Madam Justice's expression became very gentle, with more smiles on her face.

"To have done so many things with a mortal body, to have reached this level, to use true human nature to confront the Celestial Worthy, I-I admire Mr. Fool even more, um, and also feel more sympathetic…"

Curious, Lumian inquired, "What things has Mr. Fool done?"

In his view, Mr. Fool now seemed closer. This great existence was once human, and was even a "fellow countryman" with Aurore.

And Lumian only knew about things related to Gehrman Sparrow and what was told in the Bible.

"We can tell you about it properly, but now let's first discuss the key issues you've discovered," Madam Justice said with a smile.