Chapter 318: Invitation Letter

Like the previous two times, the silver-white candle flame with black condensed into a pillar of light, falling on Lu Mian's left chest, which had already fallen into pain and chaos.

In the permeating gray fog and black strange wind, silver-black illusory liquid flowed out from there.

I don't know when, Lu Mian forgot the pain, forgot the dizziness, as if he had become another person.

He stood on the wilderness, pulled the wooden bow in his hand, and shot a long arrow flickering with dark blue luster toward the prey in the sky.

Vaguely, Lu Mian still remembered who he was, just feeling that all this was incomparably real and was something he was experiencing.

That sharp-headed dark blue arrow pierced the sky and penetrated into the abdomen of a gray-black vulture.

Intense pain flooded Lu Mian's mind, and he saw himself flapping his wings, carrying the sharp arrow that almost pierced his abdomen, falling toward the ground.

No, how could I become a vulture... In his blurriness, such a cognition flashed through Lu Mian's mind, and he wasn't completely assimilated by the current scene and the situation of his body.

Bang!

He fell heavily to the ground, feeling his bones breaking one by one, the pain piercing his heart.

Lu Mian almost fainted directly, seeing a hyena pouncing over.

Warm and fishy flesh and blood filled his mouth, and he discovered that he was gnawing on the body of the gray-black vulture, and the arrow head flickering with dark blue luster had broken inside this raptor.

It tastes so bad... And I'm not that little monster Ludwig... Lu Mian couldn't help but slander in his heart.

He didn't completely treat himself as a hyena, but uncontrollably continued to tear and gnaw on the prey, not letting go of the part that had been stained with poison.

Suddenly, a sharp pain in his back, and he was pressed to the ground by sharp claws.

The attacker was a strange lion whose body was rotting in many places and dripping with blood-yellow pus.

Lu Mian bit off the hyena's throat, carried it, and hid in the nearby grass.

While watching this scene from the perspective of a bystander with a sense of detachment, he quickly dismantled the hyena and ate it.

In the feeling of being both satisfied and nauseated, Lu Mian's abdomen began to ache, and the extraordinary power that was already close to losing control was completely stimulated by the poison, bringing about a mutation.

He quickly lost his reason, became crazy, and only had the desire to destroy everything in front of him and destroy wantonly.

No, it can't be like this... The most important thing hasn't been completed yet... Lu Mian smelled the scent mixed with the elegant and sweet fragrance of gray amber perfume and didn't let himself fully invest in that kind of madness.

In the running like venting, he saw a hunter and pounced over fiercely.

Lu Mian, holding the wooden bow, smelled a strong fishy smell and saw a lion whose body was rotting everywhere and had two meat tumors like heads growing on its shoulders.

That mouth hanging with strands of fresh red flesh opened to the limit.

Lu Mian was startled and finally found his complete self-cognition, discovering that the hunter's "body" and the vulture, hyena, lion, and other humans all became illusory, turning into complex silver-white characters with black and weird symbols.

These characters and symbols were connected end to end, forming a ring, and suddenly shrank into the human body.

Lu Mian opened his eyes with a brush, saw the silver-white candle flame with black swaying quietly, and saw the half-meter-high stone that served as an altar.

The experience just now was so real... It was like being a vulture, hyena, lion, and another human once... Lu Mian rubbed his swollen and painful head, stood up slowly, and while savoring the previous experience, digested the knowledge that had appeared in his mind.

He completely forgot when he was rolling on the ground in pain.

Phew... After a brief calm, Lu Mian confirmed that he had obtained a new gift and became a "Contractee."

He quickly packed up the altar, lifted the "Wall of Spirituality," carried the calcium carbide lamp, and was ready to leave this quarry hollow at any time.

At the same time, Lu Mian examined his own changes and the abilities of "Contractee":

His spirituality had increased quite a bit;

His flexibility from "Dancer" and his ability to endure extreme environments from "Monk" had both improved to a certain extent, but not much;

His intuition for sensing luck had also increased slightly, but after discovering that Termiboros could affect his fate and judgment, he rarely used this ability, guarding against the other party;

The range that "Dance of Incitement" could affect was larger, and the weird creatures he could forcibly possess through it were also of higher rank;

"Contractee" only added one new ability, which was to sign a contract with the summoned creature and directly borrow the ability of a certain characteristic.

And unlike Lu Mian's expectation, this special contract was integrated into his body and soul during promotion and couldn't be transferred to others.

In other words, he himself was equivalent to a component of the contract, and still the most important component. Later, he had to rely on this to write out the remaining part of the contract and hand it to the target creature to "sign."

After pondering for a period of time, Lu Mian roughly grasped the specific situation of the "Contract" ability:

Must obtain the target creature's consent to sign the contract;

After signing the contract, he can choose the characteristics he wants according to his own will;

Each contract signed brings not only a kind of ability but also a certain influence from the contract creature. The higher their rank, the greater the negative influence caused;

The number of contracts signed depends on his own endurance. High-rank or very powerful characteristics might only be able to bear one, relatively ordinary ones that are on par with his own level are definitely three, and those that are particularly weak and of low enough rank can be more;

When signing a contract, he needs to pay a price. Part of this goes to the contract creature, and the other part goes to the witness of the contract. The price can be life, limbs, blood relatives, lovers, sacrifices, the upper limit of spirituality, part of his reason, etc. What exactly it is depends on what the contract creature wants.

Therefore, the vast majority of the knowledge Lu Mian obtained through this gift was data on corresponding creatures, including specific ability characteristics and the "reward" the other party wanted to obtain.

But most of these strange creatures were evil and weird, and the prices that needed to be paid were also the same. Lu Mian didn't want to choose from them too much.

Of course, the main reason wasn't this, but that these creatures contained in the mystical knowledge brought by the power of fate might have a certain relationship with the existence named after fate. Lu Mian was worried that signing a contract with them would suffer hidden influence, causing his own fate to slide into the abyss.

Based on this reason, Lu Mian didn't intend to take that existence as the object of prayer and witness of the contract when signing the contract.

He had a better choice:

Mr. Fool!

According to the content of the scriptures Lu Mian heard in the "Fool" church, this great existence is the master of the Spirit World, and the holy Angel beside His throne is managing the Spirit World on His behalf.

Even if this had exaggerated components, it was enough to show that Mr. Fool had a strong influence in the Spirit World.

Under such circumstances, Lu Mian, who was wearing Mr. Fool's seal and taking Mr. Fool as the object of prayer and witness of the contract, trying to take Spirit World creatures as contract targets, would likely have no small bonus and hidden benefits, just like other "Contractees" signing contracts with weird creatures in the knowledge brought by the gift.

Lu Mian combed through the knowledge he had just gained again and found that some of the descriptions were very vague, seemingly harboring multiple possibilities.

For example, the point "must obtain the target creature's consent to sign the contract" didn't limit what way to obtain consent. Using sacrifices to bribe and let the other party agree was consent, and beating them into complete submission was also consent. Similarly, the "reward" demanded by the latter should be negotiable.

In addition, the combination of the two pieces of knowledge "contract creatures will bring certain negative influence" and "the endurance itself has a limit" excluded the possibility of Lu Mian cheating by relying on the seal of the Spirit World Lord Mr. Fool, using enough price to find high-rank creatures to sign contracts and obtain divine power.

But regardless, the feature of being able to choose ability combinations arbitrarily within a certain range made the upper limit of "Contractee" very high. Of course, the lower limit was also low. If he chose the wrong ability and paid the wrong price, he might not even be as good as the outstanding people among ordinary people.

Lu Mian restrained his spirit and whispered happily:

"Termiboros, do you have anything to add?"

Honestly speaking, when entering the underground, the problem Lu Mian was most worried about was whether Termiboros would do something during this ritual of praying for gifts, trying to destroy it. After all, the level of the gift power he obtained was getting higher and higher, truly starting to endanger this Angel of Fate. Even if He was sealed tightly, He would find a way to make trouble and couldn't possibly sit there waiting to be weakened.

And when holding the ritual of praying for gifts, the seal would definitely open slightly so that the power of fate could flow out, which would give Termiboros a certain opportunity.

Lu Mian's original preparation was to request protection before formally praying for gifts. He didn't expect that Monit's weird appearance and the Angel behind him would make the protection happen in advance, while Termiboros became relatively quiet and didn't make obvious interference behavior afterward.

Termiboros replied with a grand voice:

"Mine cave entrance."

Mine cave entrance... What does that mean? Lu Mian carried the calcium carbide lamp and walked toward the entrance and exit of the current quarry hollow in confusion.

As the yellowish light dyed with a hint of blue illuminated the area covered with rubble, he saw a neatly cut piece of hard paper.

It wasn't there when I came in... Lu Mian's spirit tightened, and he slowly approached, seeing that on the surface of the black paper was drawn a monocle that was almost rubbed off, with four lines of thick and bright red Intisian words written:

"'Different' Cabaret

"Night of Lovers

"7 PM on the last day of every month

"Inviting you to participate."

"Different" Cabaret... Monocle... Night of Lovers... In Lu Mian's mind, Monit, who was wearing a monocle in his right eye socket, instantly appeared.

He had clearly prayed for the protection of Mr. Fool's Angel and had done many counter-surveillance measures, but he hadn't shaken off that strange swindler?

"No, Mr. Fool's Angel protection has a very high-level anti-divination and anti-prophecy effect. Unless Monit had been hiding around me all along and was never shaken off, it's impossible for him to catch up again!" Lu Mian was startled and almost instinctively looked around.

In the darkness at the edge of the quarry hollow, everything was quiet to the point of dead silence, but Lu Mian had a layer of goosebumps, as if countless eyes were hidden in the air, watching him without moving.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 319 =====