[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-ring-of-fate":3,"chapter-the-ring-of-fate-the-ring-of-fate-chapter-14":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Ring of Fate",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2297983,4496,"Chapter 14: Different Monsters","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-14",14,"\u003Cp>After searching for a while, Lu Mi found a considerable number of gold, silver, and copper coins totaling 197 Fael and 25 Kope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among them, there were five gold Louis alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for paper bills, he found only some suspected remnants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides money, Lu Mi also uncovered a small blue book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The book had a gray-blue cover and was sized 16mo, widely found in the countryside and towns of Intis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Based on the calendar, it blended almanac content with the doctrines of the two major churches, playing a notably positive role in guiding farmers and herders in cultivation, production, and livestock management, while enriching their spiritual lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, even nearly two centuries after Emperor Rosel promoted compulsory education, many farmers, herders, and workers still could not read a few words and remained illiterate, relying entirely on explanations from others to extract useful guidance from the small blue book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi flipped through a few pages at random and found this little blue book was no different from the one at his home, only slightly more worn overall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“With a small blue book and so many Fael, this family must have been among the wealthiest in the countryside—there wouldn’t be more than five such households in Kordu Village…” Lu Mi tossed the book aside and sorted the gold, silver, and copper coins into different pockets—some hidden deep inside the lining of his cotton coat, some placed in his trouser pockets, others casually stuffed into the pockets of his leather jacket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Lu Mi knew these coins couldn’t be taken to reality, he still couldn’t help collecting and preserving them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These small objects, golden, silver, or copper-hued, always held his gaze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During his past years as a vagrant, even a single Kope or Rik copper coin was treasured by him; he often fought over them and risked his life for them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After glancing around, Lu Mi picked up his axe and crept toward the collapsed building closer to the reddish-brown mountain peak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He advanced slowly, each time crossing the open circular space in the center, his heart pounding with fear that dozens of monsters might suddenly surge forth and trap him in an exposed area.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid faint gray mist, Lu Mi crouched behind a half-collapsed stone wall, concealing his form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He cautiously peered out ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a narrow strip between two ruined buildings—no trees, no weeds, only broken stones, cracks, and dirt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, a human silhouette entered Lu Mi’s view.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He” stood inside the opposite building, gazing at something unseen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The figure wore a long black robe with a hood; his back showed no abnormalities, appearing like an ordinary human.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi’s heart tightened, his vigilance rising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this dream ruin, encountering a normal person was far more terrifying than encountering a monster!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As if sensing being watched, the figure slowly turned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi cast a quick glance and immediately pulled his head back, pressing against the wall, motionless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That single glance gave him the illusion he had entered hell or the abyss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The figure was indeed human—but it had three faces and six eyes!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The front face had cloudy eyes, sparse eyebrows, and deep wrinkles—clearly an old man;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The left face was angular, with bright blue eyes and thick, jet-black whiskers—like a strong man;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The right face had smooth, delicate skin like a peeled egg, with bright blue eyes radiating unmistakable innocence and naïveté—evidently no older than five.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What kind of monster is this…?” Lu Mi forced himself to control his breathing, suppressing his racing heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even in Aurora’s horror stories, such a monster had never appeared—only in the deepest, most grotesque nightmares could one possibly encounter it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though judging by appearance is unreliable, Lu Mi instinctively felt this three-faced monster was incomparably more dangerous than the skinless one he’d faced before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, it very likely possessed supernatural power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Eternal Sun, Great Father, protect me from being noticed by it…” In this moment, the nominal believer Lu Mi could not help but pray to the “Eternal Sun.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If not for the axe still in his hand and the perilous surroundings, he would have opened his arms in the “Praise the Sun” gesture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, time seemed to freeze; Lu Mi thought he might be hallucinating:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It felt as if a gaze had pierced the wall and settled on his back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His back instantly stiffened, faintly burning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within one or two seconds, the illusion vanished, replaced by heavy footsteps retreating into the distance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi waited longer, until the footsteps disappeared completely, then slowly straightened his knees, turned his body, and peered out again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The monster was farther away now, standing behind a building with intact sides but a collapsed center, its half-body visible in the faint gray mist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He” still faced away from Lu Mi, as if turned to stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi quietly exhaled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had no confidence at all against such a monster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Going straight deeper into the ruins is impossible… Circumvent it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are there no similar monsters elsewhere?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The closer to the mountain peak, the stronger the monsters become?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi pulled back, thought for a moment, and decided to end his exploration for tonight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He planned to ask the woman who gave him the Tarot cards at dawn—see if she knew how to deal with the three-faced monster; if not, he’d consider detouring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crouching low, he left the wall and headed back the way he came.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, a thought struck him:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I fall asleep in these ruins, will I also escape the dream?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Considering the abundance of monsters nearby, he suppressed the urge to try.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On his way back, he swiftly searched every ruined building he passed but found no useful written materials—only a few scattered coins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After retreating a distance, Lu Mi considered and decided to take a slight detour, approaching from the side the earliest burned-down house—the one where he had buried the skinless monster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to observe whether its death had been noticed by its kind, whether it had triggered any changes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finding the spot and hiding himself, Lu Mi peered out sideways toward the target area.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next instant, he saw another “figure.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The figure was half-human, half-beast, crouching with its legs folded forward, examining the skinless monster’s corpse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had already dismantled the bricks and wood Lu Mi had piled atop it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wore a dark jacket and tight, muddy trousers; its black hair hung in greasy tangles to its neck, and a hunting rifle was slung across its back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A hunting rifle!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi quickly averted his gaze and pulled his head back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“These monsters are insane!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They’re even using hunting rifles now…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that instant, Lu Mi felt the absurdity, disillusionment, and despair of being a hunter armed with weapons and companions, venturing into the hills to hunt—only to find the rabbit across from him had set up a water-cooled machine gun, aiming straight at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Time passed second by second as he patiently waited for the rifle-carrying monster to leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, he heard a faint rustling, gradually fading into distance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi cautiously peered out again, watching the half-human, half-beast monster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It” moved like a cat, heading toward the rear of the building.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi first let out the breath he’d been holding, then widened his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He realized the monster’s path perfectly overlapped with the route he had taken earlier into the ruins!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s tracking me!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It has an extraordinary, beyond-normal tracking ability!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi made the instinctive judgment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was immensely grateful he’d had the sudden idea to detour on his return—otherwise, he would have walked straight into it, possibly been ambushed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the monster vanished, Lu Mi sprang up and sprinted home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The crimson glow of the hearth reflected in the ground-floor window of his house seemed like sunlight dispelling darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi ran all the way to his two-story house, yanked open the slightly ajar front door, and dashed inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after locking the door did he look out the window toward the ruins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the distant gray mist, at the edge of the ruins, a silhouette stood—but did not approach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Phew, Lu Mi exhaled, prepared to extinguish the hearth, climb upstairs, and leave the dream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He glanced at the still-burning fire and wondered:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’ll keep burning for a while…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I could test it—see if, after I leave the dream, it continues burning until it dies out, or freezes at the moment I depart…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi had already confirmed through rain that the wilderness around the ruins followed natural progression, independent of whether he dreamed or not—but whether the same applied to his own house, the so-called safe zone, remained unverified.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He acted on the thought: added more coal to the fire, stirred it, then took up his axe and pitchfork and climbed to the second floor, entering his bedroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…………\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Lu Mi awoke, dawn was just breaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He checked his shirt-like pajamas; as expected, he felt a familiar disappointment—the gold, silver, and copper coins had not followed him into reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rolled out of bed, stretched his body, then walked to the desk and pulled open the curtains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a soft rustle, gentle, clear light flowed in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the window opened, fresh, natural air entered Lu Mi’s nostrils, prompting him to stretch luxuriously—he sometimes found waking early quite pleasant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, this was thanks to Emperor Rosel’s vigorous “Patriotic Sanitation Campaign”—even if its impact on the countryside was limited, it had brought some improvement; at least, feces had become valuable, no longer scattered everywhere—and later rulers had preserved it, merely renaming it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze wandered—now to the distant forested hills, now to the orange-red clouds on the horizon, now to the weeds outside his house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, Lu Mi’s gaze froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw a large bird perched on a nearby elm tree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bird had a sharp beak, a cat-like face, brown feathers speckled with fine spots, and brownish-yellow sclera paired with black pupils—strikingly alert.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was an owl.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed to be watching Lu Mi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1672,"2026-06-20T06:22:34.374Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","3f6724dc0f6d2068814a2e60c72c0e5871e4214b86706af363585a8deac65a3b","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-15","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-13",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-ring-of-fate-cover.jpg"]