Chapter 121: Strange Creature (Requesting guaranteed monthly votes during the double period)

Almost simultaneously, Lu Mian felt his hair stand on end and his back grow cold; he had a distinct premonition of danger.

Subconsciously, he drew the "Fallen Mercury" hidden at his waist, ready at any moment to tear off the black cloth strip wrapped around it.

That translucent figure, with its key parts covered by long, greenish hair and individual leaves, floated in mid-air, sizing up Lu Mian in the room. Its emerald-green eyes were at times hazy, at times smiling, and at times like deep whirlpools, making a human soul unable to help but want to drown within them.

On one hand, Lu Mian felt a certain urge that was both familiar and strange, ravaged by it in his mind, which scrambled most of his thoughts; on the other hand, he felt an uncontrollable fear, just like a flying insect encountering a spider spinning its web.

He slowed down his dance movements, ready to stop at any time.

That translucent female figure revealed an eager expression, but instinctively felt something was wrong, resisting the urge to approach Lu Mian.

It would occasionally lean its body out, then shrink back into the curtains, ultimately doing nothing.

When Lu Mian finished the "Dance of Inception" and heard a series of tiny, faint sounds entering his ears—so close it felt like they were in the next room—the strange creatures wandering in the room disappeared one after another.

The last to leave was the female figure wrapped in long, greenish hair and individual leaves; it was both reluctant and puzzled.

Lu Mian let out a breath, closed his eyes, and quietly listened to the noisy human voices coming from within his body.

He couldn't hear a single sentence clearly, yet he wanted to hear every sentence clearly.

After a moment, Lu Mian opened his eyes, looked at the window covered by tattered curtains, and muttered silently:

"What exactly was that thing just now?"

His intuition told him that the translucent female figure was much more powerful than the other strange creatures summoned, not something a Beyonder of his level could deal with.

If it weren't for the corruption sealed within his body and the blue-black pattern on his chest—which, even without being triggered, made spiritual creatures subconsciously afraid to approach—Lu Mian suspected he would have already met with misfortune.

This gave rise to a doubt:

"How exactly do other 'Dancers' survive?"

He had preliminarily confirmed that this area didn't have much danger before daring to perform the "Dance of Inception," yet he still almost ran into trouble. What do other "Dancers" rely on to avoid similar risks?

"Is it because my 'Gift' was obtained through theft, lacking certain occult knowledge, or can other 'Dancers' only summon strange creatures similar to themselves, and given that the 'Dance of Inception' comes from a Hidden Existence, it normally wouldn't cause any problems?" Lu Mian pondered for a while; the more he thought, the more he felt it was likely that he was the anomaly.

He believed that the corruption within his body was of a very high level, and even though it was sealed, it could still cause him to occasionally summon strange and quite dangerous things.

"Fortunately, the corruption is also a form of protection..." Lu Mian exhaled, put away the "Fallen Mercury," lit the iron-black carbide lamp, sat down at the wooden table, and began flipping through Aurora's notes.

Reading occult notes from back to front was a very painful thing. Lacking the corresponding knowledge base, he would occasionally feel like an illiterate, forced to take out Aurora's earliest notes to cram the corresponding symbols, signs, and occult meanings.

But Lu Mian couldn't calm his mind to study bit by bit from front to back. He believed that if there were truly important information hidden in Aurora's witchcraft notes, it would definitely be in the content of the last year or two—that was the time node when Cordu Village gradually began to show abnormalities and the shepherds began their "hunting."

After struggling with the knowledge named "Lightning Spell" for nearly two hours, Lu Mian declared his failure and decided to continue tomorrow night.

He washed up briefly and lay down on the bed.

Thinking of the strange creature summoned just now, Lu Mian uneasily placed the "Fallen Mercury" beside his pillow as a precaution.

Before leaving Cordu Village, he had already checked this silver-black evil short blade and confirmed that the fate it had exchanged from the fire monster was "suffering the pain of being burned by fire."

The darkness gradually deepened, yet the Sijie never had a moment of peace. Singing, shouting, cursing at the singers, fighting, chasing, coughing, crying, exercising—it was a cacophony, as if playing a symphony of the night.

Lu Mian had grown accustomed to the noise, even feeling that it gave him the sensation of still being alive in the human world.

Unknowingly, he fell asleep.

At six in the morning, the church in the distance rang its bell, just like in Cordu Village.

Lu Mian woke up on time, unwilling to open his eyes.

After a few minutes, he sat up and tucked the "Fallen Mercury" back into his waist.

His dreams throughout the night had been chaotic, with nothing special happening.

"Am I overthinking it?" Lu Mian muttered.

He immediately opened the door, walked into the nearest washroom, and by the morning light outside the window, looked at himself in the mirror.

Compared to the same time yesterday, he hadn't changed at all.

—The color dyed onto his hair and the lengthened parts belonged to external things and wouldn't reset with his physical state.

Lu Mian leaned down and began brushing his teeth.

While rinsing his mouth, he saw Charlie walk in from the corner of his eye.

"Don't you live on the 5th floor?" Lu Mian spat out the mouthwash and turned his head to ask Charlie.

Charlie had changed into a yellowing white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He yawned and said:

"Can you believe it? Those guys all got up before 6 o'clock, and the washroom on the 5th floor is packed!"

He then smiled:

"My favorite is still this washroom on the second floor. Do you know why? It's clean!"

"That bastard Laurent, although his eyebrows are very high and he doesn't know how to help his mother at all, he does have his merits. He loves cleanliness. As long as he's in the apartment, he cleans the room every day and cleans this washroom by the way. Haha, if the toilet is dirty, will he be unable to poop?"

So he was the one cleaning it... Lu Mian was a bit surprised for a moment.

The young man named Laurent had left him with an impression of being cold, arrogant, well-dressed, self-important, and inconsiderate of his mother's situation; he didn't look like someone who would come to clean a washroom at all.

Lu Mian had previously thought that other tenants on the second floor couldn't stand the landlord's stinginess and had cleaned the common area themselves.

Seeing Charlie's exhausted face, which looked like he hadn't slept all night, Lu Mian asked with a smile:

"Did you go to the City Wall Street last night?"

City Wall Street was a famous red-light district in Trier.

"How could I afford to go to City Wall Street? I'll definitely go once in the future!" Charlie gritted his teeth and said, "I didn't get back to the hotel until 10 o'clock last night, then went to the underground bar and drank with those guys until 12 o'clock. In the middle of the night, I even had a, hehe, wonderful dream. Xia Er, our names are the same, just the accent and pronunciation are different. Can you imagine how happy and joyful it was in the dream, and how disappointed and, uh, uh... I felt when I woke up?"

"Empty?" Lu Mian helped him think of an adjective.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Charlie walked to the toilet and unzipped his belt.

He squinted his already small eyes with a look of relief.

Lu Mian raised his hand to pinch his nose and sneered:

"Was it a wet dream?"

Charlie shivered, shook his right hand, and chuckled:

"That was the most realistic dream I've ever had. The lady in the dream was much prettier than those in City Wall Street, and she was so gentle and so passionate. I simply didn't want to wake up."

"Obviously, you couldn't last that long; waking up was a mercy to you." Lu Mian joked.

Charlie didn't refute him and said seriously:

"I was planning to go to the nearby Nightingale Street after getting my salary and when I don't have to work on Sunday. There are a few dance halls there where I can find some cheap kittens. My colleague told me that there, you only need 52 Koppes to give yourself a 'work bonus'." (Note 1)

"But now, I don't have much interest in going."

Speaking of this, he suddenly became excited, lowered his voice, and said to Lu Mian:

"Do you know? There's a wealthy tenant in the hotel who treats me very well, specifically asking me to deliver meals and help tidy up the room."

"A man?" Lu Mian asked this on purpose.

Charlie shook his head rapidly:

"No, it's a lady. I suspect she has taken a fancy to me. I'm hesitating. If she really makes that kind of request, should I give up my principles? You know, in Trier, this kind of thing is very common. I can get my first pot of gold from her and soon have my own hotel."

"I thought you wouldn't hesitate." Although they had only known each other for two days, Lu Mian believed Charlie was a person with a very flexible moral bottom line.

Charlie sighed and said distressingly:

"She is already over fifty years old."

Lu Mian gave a long "Oh," using his expression to convey his inner thoughts.

He bid farewell to Charlie, returned to his room to change into a jacket, trousers, and other clothing that better fit the atmosphere of the Sijie, went to the street outside to spend 6 Koppes to buy a scallion pancake, used 1 Rique to buy half a liter of apple sour wine, and sat in a corner of the street to slowly eat his breakfast.

The shadows of the buildings on both sides covered his body. While savoring the taste of scallion fragrance mixed with the sweetness of flour, he watched the peddlers hawking, the women buying groceries, the laborers rushing to and fro, the children picking up trash on the ground, and the barricades in the alley not far away.

It wasn't until 9 o'clock in the morning that Lu Mian stood up, patted his clothes, walked back to the "Golden Chicken Hotel," went up to the 3rd floor, and knocked on the door of Room 5.

The intelligence peddler Anthony Reid lived here.

After the sound of knocking, a steady male voice with an accent from the West Coast of the Sea of Contentment came out:

"Please come in."

Lu Mian turned the handle, pushed the door open, and first smelled a slightly pungent scent with a hint of mint; this seemed to be used for repelling insects.

Immediately after, he saw a man in his forties sitting by the bed.

This man was wearing a military green jacket and trousers of the same color, stepping in unlaced leather boots, his hair shaved very short, leaving only a thin layer.

He didn't have the crisp and capable temperament of a retired soldier. His light yellow hairline had receded much further than normal, making his forehead look very wide. His face was already chubby, his beard was shaved very clean, his skin had a slight oily sheen, and his nose pores were filled with some small black things; he actually looked a bit honest and simple.

Anthony Reid turned his head, looked at Lu Mian, and his dark brown eyes reflected the other person's figure.

For some reason, Lu Mian suddenly felt a bit of strange unease.

Note 1: "Kitten" has a double meaning in French slang, referring to a prostitute or female genitalia.

PS: Requesting guaranteed monthly votes during the double period~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 122 =====