Chapter 221: Probing

Lu Mian cast his gaze toward Louis Lund, who was sitting in the coachman's position, and saw him nod at him.

Lu Mian immediately took a deep breath, then walked toward the four-wheeled carriage, bent down, and drilled into the carriage.

He had already understood what the current situation was:

Madame Pualis was cautious and didn't reply by letter, but hid around 9 Slate Street, waiting for Lu Mian to come and check for a reply. This could effectively avoid the risk of being followed and the meeting place being surrounded.

The next second, a familiar figure came into Lu Mian's view:

She was wearing an exquisite pure black corset dress, a slightly playful lady's small round hat on her head, a shawl with a hazy beauty draped over her shoulders, sparse eyebrows, bright brown eyes, moist lips, and brown hair half-tied and half-draped. It wasn't very formal, but her temperament was elegant, clean, and alluring. It was none other than the wife of the administrative officer of Cordu Village, Pualis de Rochefort.

"Long time no see." Madame Pualis greeted with a smile in her voice, but her eyes were ice-cold, giving people a feeling of chill penetrating into the bone marrow.

Almost at the same time, Lu Mian discovered that the surrounding scene had changed.

He was no longer in the carriage but had arrived in a desolate wilderness.

There was nothing in front of him, and Madame Pualis had lost her trace.

Just as Lu Mian was looking around in astonishment, he saw a huge, irregular shadow appear on the ground.

He subconsciously looked up, and his eyes reflected pieces of brownish feathers.

Each of those feathers was the size of his head, layered and layered to form a pair of wings that seemed to be able to cover the sky.

These wings belonged to Madame Pualis. Her body also became huge, hanging high in mid-air, her feet both bent like bird claws, her nails sharp, flashing with cold light.

A magnificent and ethereal voice followed:

"You should have been buried with Cordu Village!"

Lu Mian's heart tightened. While pulling out his revolver, he turned his body and ran wildly toward the end of this wilderness.

If the scene presented in the dream had a certain reality, he could escape this "Other Shore World" from the edge!

*Bang bang bang! *

Lu Mian kept firing bullets into mid-air while moving in a curved path. This was his only long-range attack method at present.

But Madame Pualis clearly looked very huge, yet she wasn't clumsy at all. Her wings flapped, bringing not only strong winds that affected the trajectory but also allowing her to flexibly change her position.

Immediately after, she let out a shrill scream.

In front of Lu Mian, the wilderness ground suddenly rose, the soil slid off, and another behemoth drilled out.

That was a giant python that seemed to have been dead for a long time. Most of its dark blue scales had fallen off, revealing rotten muscles and parts of white bones with spikes.

Yellow pus and countless twisted silk worms filled the entire body of the giant python, making it emit a strong, unbearable stench.

This giant python's eyes were scarlet, and in the gaps of the sunken eye sockets, semi-transparent silk worms were drilling in and out crazily.

Its gaze was cast toward Lu Mian in a condescending posture, its mouth opened, revealing yellow fangs, and it bit toward this living person with a *swish*.

Lu Mian had already been made dizzy by the stench. He hurriedly took out a drawing paper from the inside of his clothes and unfolded it.

On it was a golden-red sun with colorful radiance.

The surroundings suddenly became warm, and the sky covered by Madame Pualis seemed to have brightened quite a bit.

That giant python that had long been dead shifted its gaze away from Lu Mian, seemingly unwilling to face the sun directly.

But its attack only slowed down and didn't stop.

Grabbing this opportunity, Lu Mian turned his body, grabbed the scroll, and ran wildly in another direction to escape.

Madame Pualis, who was hovering in mid-air, saw this, opened her mouth, and spat out a word that Lu Mian couldn't understand at all and was full of evil meaning.

Lu Mian instantly became much weaker, and his running speed slowed down, as if he had suffered a serious illness and hadn't fully recovered.

Following closely, Madame Pualis raised her head and let out a howl that was both shrill and painful.

At this moment, Lu Mian heard a phantom shattering sound.

It came from his soul, from his body, making his eyes go dark, and he entered a near-death state directly.

If it weren't for the fact that "Hunter," "Provocateur," "Dancer," and "Tonsured Monk" had all strengthened his physical fitness in different aspects, he, who had been added with the "Weakened" state, would likely have died directly.

With his last bit of reason, enduring the exaggerated pain, Lu Mian used his remaining strength to reach his left palm into his pocket and touch Mr. K's finger.

Just at this moment, he felt cool rainwater dripping down, nourishing his body and soul.

The trauma he had just suffered healed rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the surrounding wilderness gradually became illusory until it disappeared.

Lu Mian saw Madame Pualis sitting opposite him in the carriage again.

This lady's gaze was no longer cold and carried a hint of mockery:

"With this bit of strength, you want to seek revenge on Guillaume Bénet?

"When I left Cordu Village, because he drove away us believers of the Great Mother, he obtained a new gift and was already a 'Fate Hunter' equivalent to Sequence 5. Later, he might even find a corresponding potion to consume."

Was the attack just now probing my strength? Lu Mian wasn't surprised at all that the parish priest had Sequence 5 level. After all, the number of contract abilities he possessed far exceeded the level of a "Contracted Person," and he clearly didn't possess divinity, so there were only two possibilities: Sequence 6 and Sequence 5.

Combining Guillaume Bénet's performance in the dream and when fighting against himself, Ryan, Lyra, and Valentine, Lu Mian had long suspected he was a Sequence 5 "Fate Hunter," and now he had obtained confirmation from Madame Pualis.

What surprised him was that the gifted ones seemed to have the possibility of consuming potions to obtain additional abilities, just that they had to choose the corresponding, or rather, suitable types.

Lu Mian thought for a moment and felt this was also normal:

Beyonders could also obtain gifts, just that there would be quite a few problems.

Lu Mian looked at Madame Pualis and answered in a calm tone:

"I still have time to grow and still have opportunities to become stronger, while Guillaume Bénet has almost no hope of obtaining divinity. After all, the one he believes in isn't one of the three existences including the 'Great Mother'.

"I will catch up to him in the shortest possible time."

What Lu Mian didn't say was that he still had hope of obtaining more and stronger helpers, while Guillaume Bénet, as an evil god's emissary, had offended the believers of the "Great Mother," so the companions he could find wouldn't be many, and they should mainly be wild Beyonders and gifted ones who also believed in Fate.

Madame Pualis laughed lightly:

"Having confidence is a good thing. I like young people like you who have confidence. Do you want to follow me and believe in the great Mother? That way you can get extra help. Besides the power of potions, you can also harvest gifts."

"I don't want to get pregnant and have children." Lu Mian rejected Madame Pualis's good intentions in a tactful way.

Madame Pualis smiled and said:

"It seems you still lack sufficient experience in the sacredness and preciousness of life and the joy that new life gives us. I also truly gave birth to a child before I completely understood.

"You don't have to refuse now. When you feel the greatness of the Mother, you can come find me at any time."

Lu Mian didn't want to get entangled in matters related to the "Great Mother" and changed the subject:

"I thought you always let others have children. I didn't expect you to have given birth yourself."

Madame Pualis's face was covered with a layer of maternal radiance:

"After becoming a 'Banshee,' one must also give birth to a child oneself to get closer to the great Mother."

It's hard to believe you were a man before... Lu Mian almost didn't dare to look directly at Madame Pualis and found a question at random:

"Did that child of yours die in the castle?"

"That's right." Madame Pualis sighed, "Killed by his father with his own hands. It's a pity he didn't know that was his child."

"Who?" Lu Mian blurted out.

Madame Pualis smiled:

"Guillaume Bénet. Didn't you bump into us having an affair? He didn't discover it, but I knew you were hiding behind the altar and was thinking about whether to invite you to participate."

I thought your affair was just a symbolic manifestation of certain things... There was some reality in it? Lu Mian was stunned for a moment, and a few pictures flashed through his mind:

Madame Pualis and the parish priest were entangled naked together;

Madame Pualis praised the parish priest for being rude, direct, and having masculine spirit;

The parish priest planned to wrong Saint Sis...

Observing the change in his expression, Madame Pualis smiled and said:

"When I arrived at Cordu Village and got familiar with the environment, the first thing I did was seduce Guillaume Bénet.

"He is a clergyman with actual power and is the only channel for Cordu Village to communicate with the 'Eternal Blazing Sun' Church. If I could take him down and make him a believer of the Great Mother, and then cooperate with Beost's identity, I could truly develop Cordu Village into my territory without being suspected by the outside world.

"It just so happened that I also needed a child, so I tried with him and used a week to leave his bloodline as a backup. But after July or August last year, his attitude changed and he was no longer interested in the Great Mother. It's a pity I didn't even have time to let him give birth to a child for me and experience the beauty of life."

"July or August last year?" Lu Mian repeated this time node.

Every May or June, the shepherds would transfer back to the high mountains.

"That's right, I remember it very clearly." Madame Pualis laughed softly, "Later, that idiot Louis Lund even tried to seek his help."

Lu Mian frowned and asked:

"Why did the parish priest's attitude suddenly change?"

"I'm not sure. I only know that during that time, some villagers were promoting constellation heresies and were reported to Guillaume Bénet. After Guillaume Bénet interrogated those people, his attitude slowly changed." Madame Pualis's eyes were like a lake reflecting the sun.

"Which people?" Lu Mian asked further.

Madame Pualis answered with a smile:

"Naala, Aiza, and the others. They are all people you know."

Lu Mian was silent for a few seconds before saying:

"When the parish priest and the others attacked the castle, where were you and what were you doing?"

Pualis let out a light laugh:

"You finally asked.

"You should have already guessed the answer, right?"

She looked at Lu Mian, her expression smiling with some pain and distortion:

"Aurora attacked me."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 222 =====