Chapter 335

Watching the spirit body twisting, struggling, and wailing silently in the flames, Lu Mian's smile gradually relaxed.

This was one of the ways he had envisioned the parish priest dying.

Of course, when he first ignited the "Abyss Magic Flower" to turn the abandoned mine in the "Bottle of Fiction" into a fire scene, he hadn't thought he could directly burn Guillaume Bénet to death.

At that moment, he was just relying on combat instinct and experience to create an environment where he could exert his own strengths and avoid his biggest weaknesses, and the parish priest summoning the "Abyss Magic Flower" just happened to give him the opportunity.

The anesthetic gas produced by burning the "Abyss Magic Flower" wasn't what he wanted; what he hoped for was to fight in a hell of flames.

At the time, he didn't have much spirituality left, but a "Pyro" has a significantly stronger resistance to flames than a "Fate Appropriator," and that belongs to a physical trait that wouldn't consume spirituality.

Once the "Bottle of Fiction" turned into a hell of flames, even the air could scorch the trachea and lungs. Lu Mian believed he could have the last laugh, persisting longer than Guillaume Bénet—long enough for the flames to have nothing left to burn and extinguish on their own.

Based on his understanding of the "Inevitability" pathway, as long as no unimaginable mutation occurred at Sequence 6, Guillaume Bénet's body was only stronger than an ordinary person's. What was formidable was his flexibility and endurance, not his defense against flame damage.

This point could be corroborated by his retrospection of the various battles in Cordu Village—Guillaume Bénet and Pierre Berry, who were clearly beyond the Sequence 7 level, had shown sufficiently strong combat ability, but neither had corresponding defensive traits.

What Lu Mian hadn't expected was that the parish priest had also contracted the "Steel Body" ability. It had its pros and cons; on one hand, it caused Lu Mian's initial plan for a hell of flames to go bankrupt, but on the other hand, it self-restricted, giving Lu Mian the opportunity to further maneuver, open the entrance to the "Bottle of Fiction," and let his companions come in to help. After that, it was a matter of utilizing Guillaume Bénet's mindset of wanting to deal with Fu Lanca first to remove unnecessary interference, relying on improvisation to set a fatal trap for him.

Amidst the crackling sound of burning air, Guillaume Bénet's wailing spirit body disintegrated rapidly and gradually dissipated.

After finishing this, Lu Mian turned around and nodded to Fu Lanca and Jianna, indicating that things were over on his end.

The next second, he walked unsteadily to the side of the altar and picked up the pieces of cow, sheep, and dog skin.

They were all complete, and upon closer inspection, they exuded an indescribable evil.

These were special furs that had undergone the first half of the "Livestock Creation" ritual and used the "Ascetic" ability to accumulate the process. As long as one mastered the corresponding incantation and wrapped them around others or oneself, one could directly complete the "Livestock Creation."

Although Lu Mian hadn't mastered what Guillaume Bénet's pre-set livestock creation incantation and release incantation were, these were problems that could be solved later. For example, catching Paulina, the parish priest's housekeeper, and others to see if they knew; for example, asking a "Mystery Pryer" of the "Marauder" pathway to crack the incantation; for example, trying them one by one based on his knowledge of the Inevitability domain and his understanding of Guillaume Bénet; for example, seeing if divination could yield any results.

Therefore, these two sheepskins, one cowhide, and two dog skins were all items of considerable value. If applied properly, they could exert unimaginable effects. Previously, Guillaume Bénet had almost managed to deceive Lu Mian by turning into a brown-haired giant dog and escape Vincent Street, completely severing this fate. But he was influenced by the fanaticism that came with the gifts of Inevitability and had also become greedy due to the contracts, choosing to set a trap instead, turning from prey into hunter.

Seeing Lu Mian holding those pieces of cow, sheep, and dog skin, his body swaying as if even standing had become difficult, Fu Lanca and Jianna each helped him take some of them.

At this moment, a clattering sound came from the "Bottle of Fiction."

Having lost Guillaume Bénet's maintenance and been burned by the hell of flames for quite a while, it finally cracked like an ice sheet, falling into the void piece by piece.

The abandoned cave it had enclosed was fully revealed to Lu Mian and the others through the secret door. All the "Abyss Magic Flowers" had been burned to charcoal and scattered all over the ground. The flames had nothing left to burn, and with Lu Mian no longer providing spirituality, most of them had extinguished, leaving only a few areas with crimson light, and even they were constantly dying out.

Lu Mian glanced over there and said to Fu Lanca:

"I'll go from underground Trier to White Coat Street; you take the Earth Blood Ore and go by ground."

Once the "Decency" brooch was removed, Lu Mian would immediately be loathed and hated by those around him. If he returned the same way, he would definitely encounter a large number of accidents. And if he didn't remove it, in another two or three minutes, it would sound an "alarm," attracting the surrounding official Beyonders or other secret forces.

Considering that bringing that piece of Earth Blood Ore into the underground would likely cause big problems, and if he handed it to Jianna, she might not be able to handle the subsequent troubles that might or might not happen, Fu Lanca had no choice but to nod. She pursed her lips, turned to the side, and said to Jianna:

"You follow Charles. He's reached his limit now; even if he encountered a dog, he might not be able to beat it."

"If it's that kind of dog from just now, I really couldn't beat it," Lu Mian muttered.

Seeing that the exit on the other side of the abandoned mine wasn't blocked, the cold underground wind blew into the sacrificial hall, causing the anesthetic gas to dissipate quite a bit along with the collapse of the "Bottle of Fiction." Lu Mian walked in with stumbling steps and arrived in front of Guillaume Bénet's corpse, which already had large areas of charred black.

He kicked the corpse with his foot, turned him over, and confirmed that nothing was hidden.

Lu Mian then picked up the iron-gray military flask he had discarded earlier and walked to the exit of the abandoned mine, seeing a brown-haired dog skin that was no longer evil lying there.

This position hadn't been burned, so the dog skin was preserved quite well, but the "Livestock Creation" ritual would have to be performed again, using the "Ascetic" ability, for it to become a supernatural object again.

Outside the exit of the abandoned mine, two things were placed right against the rock wall.

One was a kerosene lantern, and the other was a dark green canvas backpack that adventurers and mercenaries loved to use.

Lu Mian lifted the backpack and felt it was unusually heavy; he almost couldn't lift it.

Fu Lanca curiously squatted down, opened the backpack, and found it filled with gold bars that made one's mood pleasant, stacks of banknotes, and gold coins.

"Wow!" Fu Lanca let out an exclamation.

So much money? Lu Mian's first reaction was, "Thank goodness, thank goodness, that old boar of a parish priest didn't spend all the royalties Aurore saved up." His second reaction was, "Damn it, this guy is so insidious!"

Clearly, Guillaume Bénet had considered the possibility that Paulina and the others might not have escaped. In that case, Lu Mian and his companions would have inferred that the parish priest had chosen another escape route based on the fact that these Inevitability believers hadn't brought much money with them, and then they would have chased him to the basement and stepped into the trap.

"Not bad, not bad." Fu Lanca laughed. "Although these cultists don't drop characteristics, they drop other things."

She then pointed to the top of her head:

"I'm going upstairs. Give me this dog skin."

She handed the three ritual furs in her hand to Jianna, took the dog skin Guillaume Bénet had used earlier, and returned toward 50 Vincent Street.

Jianna put on the dark green canvas bag, held the five evil furs, and watched Lu Mian pick up the lantern and light it.

Walking a few steps along the dark tunnel outside the abandoned mine, Lu Mian took off the "Decency" brooch in time, put it into another military flask hanging at his waist, and sank it to the bottom of the strong liquor.

After walking a few more steps, Lu Mian suddenly shivered, turned his body, and looked at Jianna, who was following behind.

Jianna, who was holding the cow, sheep, and dog skins and carrying the canvas bag, had gloomy eyes full of disgust, and said with great difficulty:

"I, I can control myself.

"Damn it, I won't beat you up!"

Although Lu Mian didn't quite believe it, there was no other way at a time like this, so he could only continue forward.

After seven or eight minutes, he found an empty abandoned tunnel, sat in a corner, and patiently waited for the negative effects of the "Decency" brooch to end, while using the rest to recover some spirituality.

Because no one knew yet that an incident had occurred at 50 Vincent Street, Fu Lanca calmly eliminated various traces and completed anti-divination in the way of a Witch.

During this process, she visited every room. Worried about encountering contamination, she didn't conduct a deep search and didn't find any items with effective clues or high value.

Finally, she returned to the small living room on the first floor and woke up the unconscious fake Guillaume Bénet.

The fake Guillaume Bénet looked at the woman in the hood and black robe before him and the brown-haired dog skin in her hand, feeling as if he were trapped in a dream, as if he hadn't woken up yet.

Fu Lanca laughed in a low voice:

"You saw it too; that demon was finished off by us."

In her eyes, the fake Guillaume Bénet no longer looked like that parish priest; he had become very unfamiliar.

Perhaps this was his true appearance.

"I, I..." the fake Guillaume Bénet asked in both surprise and joy, "Are you here to help me?"

"We are Demon Hunters." Fu Lanca made up a term. "Is there anything else you want to tell us about this demon?"

Although her "Magic Mirror Divination" allowed Lu Mian to obtain more information from Guillaume Bénet, it ultimately had its own limits. She couldn't ask everything, so she still needed to investigate related personnel to avoid missing important clues.

The fake Guillaume Bénet only felt that the lady before him who hadn't revealed her face was exceptionally kind. He recalled for a moment and said:

"Other than having an affair with my wife and liking to eat steak and lamb chops, that demon didn't have anything special about it.

"Hmm... It, it would disappear for one day every week, and then quietly return."

Disappear for one day every week? Fu Lanca nodded and asked about other things.

After confirming that no extra information could be squeezed out, she laughed and "instigated" the fake Guillaume Bénet:

"If I were you, I would flee here immediately. Your wife is now equivalent to a demon.

"I would take the items that are still worth something, go to a place where no one knows me, buy a new house, marry a new wife, and start a new life."

The fake Guillaume Bénet was moved by what he heard and gave up the idea of holding his ground here.

The next second, he saw that lady melt away like snow before his eyes.

(End of chapter)