Chapter 327: Door-to-Door

The waiter looked at the large pile of gold coins and the banknotes that seemed to still smell of special ink, his eyes involuntarily staring, instinctively holding his breath.

After a few seconds, he hurriedly looked around, and seeing no one coming or going, he calmed down a little.

"All, all for me?" The waiter swallowed his saliva with difficulty.

Albus directly threw a gold coin worth 5 gold coins over, letting it land accurately in the waiter's palm, and then said with a smile:

"This depends on whether the information you provide is useful, but regardless, you can get another 20 gold coins."

The waiter gently bit the gold coin in his hand, looked back at the road he came from, and said in a low voice:

"The Southerner in Room 2 on the 6th floor is about the same as what you said. Every time he comes, he looks for the most famous courtesan and likes to order food in advance, letting us send it to the room every half hour."

Southerner, looking for the most famous courtesan, likes to order food in advance, Room 602... Albus was not stingy and threw two more 10-gold coins engraved with warships to the waiter.

Next, taking advantage of the fact that the busiest time on City Wall Street hadn't arrived yet, and taking advantage of the lazy opportunity under the afternoon sun, he sneaked to the sixth floor and hid in the balcony at the end of the corridor.

In less than ten minutes, the waiter responsible for delivering food took the steam-powered mechanical lift, pushed the silver-white metal dining car, came to Room 602, and gently rang the doorbell.

Albus stood up with a *swish*, found a place on the balcony where he could see the entrance of 602, and cast his gaze over.

The person who opened the door was a man under 1.7 meters, wearing an iron-black half-face mask, a white shirt, and light-colored boxer shorts.

Taking off pants but not clothes... to cover the tattoos on the upper body? The more Albus looked, the more he felt that the man in Room 602 was Guillaume Bénet on the wanted list.

He didn't go to "disturb" the other party, sat back on the white fence back chair on the balcony, and took out a gray, hairy rat from his pocket.

This was one of "Beast Tamer" Christo's pets!

Lu Mian had found that "rat" for the purpose of using his pets that could communicate simply to complete contact between team members more covertly and effectively.

Of course, this had to rely on Christo as the transit point and "translator."

Albus patted the rat's head and, according to the prior agreement, made a gesture with his thumb and index finger forming a ring, with the other three fingers upright.

This represented finding prey highly suspected to be the target.

The rat squeaked, jumped from Albus's hand, and looked for its owner who was hiding in a beer house nearby.

…………

After learning from "Rat" Christo's pet parrot that the "Iron-Blooded Cross Order" members had found the parish priest, Lu Mian fell into a brief state of shock and confusion.

If they really found Guillaume Bénet, then who did I see? Another parish priest?

If the person in the house at No. 50 Vincent Street was indeed Guillaume Bénet, then where did the fake one they saw come from?

As his thoughts turned, Lu Mian suddenly thought of a possibility:

"Substitution Technique"!

Guillaume Bénet had held a "Substitution Technique" ritual!

That was one of the five special ritual magics Lu Mian had obtained during the "Mendicant Monk" stage. The parish priest, who had already become a Sequence 5 "Fate Hunter," obviously knew it too.

Its function is to let the recipient find another person to live in their name for a period of time after sensing danger, gain recognition from surrounding people regardless of whether it is sincere or fake, establish sufficient mystical connections, and then hold a ritual to complete the substitution.

If the "Substitution Technique" is successful, in the eyes of others, the substitute will be exactly the same as the original, and although their self-cognition and actual performance will be affected to a certain extent, they will generally still be their original selves.

Once the substitute is swallowed by the predicted disaster, the recipient who used the "Substitution Technique" will have a change in fate and completely get rid of the corresponding danger.

Of course, the premise is that the "disaster" doesn't know it's a substitute when it arrives.

This would be quite effective against other Beyonders, but Lu Mian, who knew of the existence of the "Substitution Technique" and what the situation was, wouldn't be deceived as long as he thought of this point.

For him, the most critical question now is:

Which side is the real Guillaume Bénet, and which side is the substitute?

The power Lu Mian had organized had to be gathered together to have hope of severely damaging the parish priest without too much damage and catching him, so he had to choose one side to act first and couldn't attack simultaneously.

——Gardner Martin only promised to help find the "prey" and didn't agree to provide other help. Precisely because of this, the formal and peripheral members sent by the "Iron-Blooded Cross Order" were mostly low-sequence, or even ordinary people.

Of course, if Lu Mian really went to beg Gardner Martin, the other party might agree out of the idea of buying people's hearts, but the problem was that it would take several hours for the "Iron-Blooded Cross Order" to gather enough strength, and Guillaume Bénet wasn't an iron man, and that courtesan wasn't a "Pleasure Witch," so how could it last so long? He would inevitably leave in advance.

Which choice would Guillaume Bénet make? Let the substitute stay at home to attract fire while he goes out to fool around, or let the substitute go out to show his characteristics and "strangle" the danger outside the door? Lu Mian felt both possibilities existed and couldn't be truly ruled out.

He thought for a moment, looked at the green and white parrot, and said:

"You find 'Red Boots' Franca and let her divine who is real and who is fake between Guillaume Bénet at No. 50 Vincent Street and the other Guillaume Bénet."

The parrot looked at Lu Mian with the eyes of a fool and said:

"I'm just a parrot."

I said it too complicatedly, it couldn't understand, and it was hard to remember completely? After several thoughts flashed through Lu Mian's mind, he quickly made a decision:

"Take me to find 'Red Boots' Franca. No, take me to find Christo first."

There was still some time now, and the one at No. 50 Vincent Street couldn't run away. The team responsible for the action could meet briefly and exchange information simply.

Their side was hidden in the dark, and the enemy was active in the open. As long as they didn't disturb them, they could wait for a period of time. Of course, it had to end before the Guillaume Bénet who was fooling around with the famous courtesan finished venting his desires. After all, following a person had the risk of exposure, and following a parish priest with a large amount of strange unknown abilities was even more so.

…………

In an alley near City Wall Street.

The afternoon sun shone on the barricade that had been pushed down halfway, making even the wind want to stop and rest for a while.

Franca, who had changed into an assassin "suit," Jenna, dressed as a female mercenary, Anthony Reid, still in his military green clothes and trousers, and Lu Mian, wearing a duckbill cap, black vest, and white shirt, met in this quiet, uninhabited place.

Lu Mian briefly mentioned the situation. Due to time constraints, he didn't explain the "Substitution Technique" in detail, collectively referring to it as sorcery to create a living substitute.

Without waiting for him to ask, Franca had already taken out a mirror, stroking the surface while chanting the incantation.

Soon, water light rippled in the mirror, and an old voice came out:

"Both are real."

Both are real... Franca turned her head in surprise and looked at Lu Mian.

That sorcery to create a substitute is very powerful. The substitute created is exactly the same as the real one in both appearance and fate. Ordinary divination methods are hard to distinguish!

Both are real... Lu Mian had anticipated this answer and was already thinking of other ways just now.

Seeing him silent for a moment, Franca took a breath and said hesitantly:

"Need, need me to change the subject of inquiry?"

She intended to request an answer from the one whose divination results were the most accurate.

But if she did that, she would have to answer a question that might cause her social death in front of Jenna, Lu Mian, and Anthony Reid.

She felt that the person would very likely ask, "Do you often think about doing that kind of thing with Jenna?"

How would she get along with Jenna in the future!

Lu Mian shook his head:

"No need, I have a way."

He then said to Jenna:

"You hide in the shadows diagonally opposite Room 602 of 'Dill' and closely monitor the actions of that Guillaume Bénet.

"If he finishes completely and prepares to leave, and we haven't arrived yet, don't rashly follow. Just observe his direction from a distance and know which street he roughly went to."

"Okay." Jenna nodded while rehearsing what she should do in her mind.

Lu Mian turned to look at Franca and Anthony Reid:

"Let's go to No. 50 Vincent Street together. I'll go directly to 'visit' that Guillaume Bénet. Franca, you follow behind me in an invisible state. Don't make a move until we confirm the truth."

"Anthony, you guard outside. If that Guillaume Bénet is fake, we will rush to 'Dill.' You secretly monitor the hostess there and see where she goes. Later, if the Guillaume Bénet at 'Dill' successfully escapes, this will be an important clue for our subsequent tracking.

"If the one at No. 50 Vincent Street is real and a fierce battle occurs, you come in quietly and provide assistance."

Franca had no opinion on this arrangement. She knew Lu Mian had "Teleportation." Once it was confirmed that the one at Vincent Street was fake, he could let the main force of the battle rush to the other side before the real and fake Guillaume "exchanged information."

Anthony analyzed the risks he needed to bear and indicated no problem.

…………

No. 50 Vincent Street, near that beige three-story building.

Lu Mian saw Franca "turn invisible" without materials, raised his right hand, and wiped his face.

He instantly turned into a man in his thirties wearing a black uniform with inspector epaulets.

"Nisse's Face"!

Confirming his own situation, Lu Mian walked to the target building and directly rang the doorbell.

The person who opened the door was a man dressed as a butler. He looked at Lu Mian and asked suspiciously:

"Officer, is there anything?"

"There is a missing tramp case involving this street. I want to see your master." Lu Mian started making things up casually.

The butler's expression changed slightly:

"Officer, please wait a moment. I'll go ask our master."

After a while, the butler returned to the door and said to Lu Mian:

"Officer, our master invites you to the small living room on the first floor."

Lu Mian nodded slightly, followed the butler, and stepped into No. 50 Vincent Street.

The living room here was spacious, a blue-gray cat was curled up in the corner, the birds in the cage were chattering non-stop, and a black dog suspected to be a hunting dog was squatting in the aisle, looking vigilantly at the stranger entering the door.

After bypassing the set of elegant sofas, the butler turned into the small living room at the back. A man with black hair, blue eyes, a slightly hooked nose, wearing a dark shirt and black trousers, was sitting on a single sofa, stroking the head of a large brown dog, his posture leisurely and slightly arrogant.

"Officer, is there anything?" The man asked slowly after standing up.

It's him, it's him, Guillaume Bénet! The parish priest Guillaume Bénet! After seeing the master's appearance clearly, Lu Mian's gaze narrowed, he walked forward a few steps, and pulled the distance between the two sides to within five meters.

Immediately after, he directly opened his mouth and made a sound:

"Ha!"

Only by truly acting can one determine who is the substitute and who is the original!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 328 =====