Chapter 336: Clues

Inside the abandoned tunnel, Lu Mi opened his eyes.

He had actually fallen asleep uncontrollably just now, but because of that, he had recovered some spirituality. At the very least, his head no longer throbbed, and the burning sensation in his blood vessels, internal organs, and skin had completely subsided.

What met Lu Mi's eyes was pure, lightless darkness. After fumbling to light the storm lantern he had extinguished himself, he saw Jianna, dressed as a female mercenary, sitting diagonally across from him, leaning against the tunnel wall, her head lowered as she looked at the dark green canvas backpack and five ritual furs placed in front of her.

Sensing the movement, Jianna raised her head and cast her gaze toward Lu Mi.

She scrutinized him for a few seconds and said in a teasing tone:

"Finally, you're not so annoying."

Had the negative effect of the "Decency" brooch ended? Lu Mi instinctively let out a sigh of relief.

A smile played on the corners of Jianna's mouth. As she stood up with the dark green canvas backpack in front of her, she said to Lu Mi:

"Just now, I wanted to take advantage of you being asleep to beat you up severely several times and draw a few piles of dog shit on your face, but in the end, I controlled myself."

"Thank you very much." Lu Mi offered his thanks, though not with much sincerity or intent.

After Jianna shouldered the backpack, she bent down to pick up the five ritual furs and said with a leisurely smile:

"You're welcome."

Having said that, she stepped toward the exit of the abandoned tunnel, leaving behind a sentence filled with obvious amusement:

"Who told me to consider you a friend?"

Mocking me again... Lu Mi muttered, picked up the storm lantern, and followed.

…………

No. 3 White Coat Street, inside Apartment 601.

Having changed into her daily attire—a lady's blouse paired with light-colored breeches—Forsyth Woer finally waited for Lu Mi and Jianna to return.

She glanced at Lu Mi's charred upper body a few times and said with a smile:

"Jianna didn't take the opportunity to stab you a few times?

"The negative effect of 'Decency' isn't as strong as I imagined."

Without waiting for Lu Mi to respond, Jianna said candidly:

"For the first two quarters of an hour, I really couldn't help myself, so I had to hide outside the tunnel where he was resting, checking every few minutes to see if any danger was crawling out from the ground, the ceiling, or behind the rock walls. But even so, I still wanted to blow up that tunnel and bury him alive inside."

That's not what you said just now... Lu Mi couldn't help but glance at Jianna.

For a moment, he couldn't distinguish whether what this "Instigator" said in the abandoned tunnel was true, or what she was saying now was true.

Forsyth laughed and gave Jianna a thumbs up:

"It was hard on you.

"You actually thought about the possibility of attacks coming from underground, the ceiling, and behind the rock walls, and didn't let your guard down just because it was a semi-enclosed, deserted, abandoned tunnel."

Jianna's eyes relaxed, and she smiled with unconcealable pride:

"Don't you often tell me horror stories? Many of them have scenes where a hand suddenly reaches out from the dirt to grab someone's ankle, or a bloody head hangs down from the ceiling, or a person grows out of the wall surface and suddenly hugs the protagonist."

One of the daily evening entertainment programs is telling horror stories to Jianna? Lu Mi glanced at Forsyth, always feeling that her motives weren't that pure.

"See, listening to more stories is very useful!" Forsyth looked delighted.

She turned to look at Lu Mi:

"Do you need to find a doctor?"

These burns look quite severe.

"No need. For a 'Pyromaniac,' this is just a minor injury." Lu Mi didn't mention that he would be as good as new by 6:00 AM tomorrow. "If it really doesn't work, I can still go find 'Rat'."

The "Planter" he was raising hadn't yet become a Sequence 8 "Physician," so it was currently of no use.

Seeing that Lu Mi showed no signs of being affected by the pain, Forsyth stopped worrying. She picked up the dark green canvas backpack that Jianna had tossed onto the single sofa, intending to place it on the coffee table to carefully count the harvest.

Lu Mi conveniently pushed the cups, plates, newspapers, and magazines on the coffee table to one side, leaving enough space.

He scanned it at a glance and discovered the magazine's title was *Women*.

This was a weekly magazine very popular among middle-class women in Intis, covering the latest fashions, lifestyle tastes, and beauty tips in Trier; the *Ladies' Aesthetics* magazine in the Loen Kingdom was an imitation of it.

Lu Mian raised his head with a smile and looked at Franca, as if to say:

"Yo, you actually read this kind of magazine?"

Franca pursed her lips and puffed out her chest in response:

"What's wrong with me reading *Women*?"

After this silent and brief exchange, Franca opened the backpack and took out the banknotes, coins, and gold bars inside.

"About 60,000 verl d'or, it looks like." After a moment, she reached a conclusion.

In just over two months, the parish priest had used up 40,000 verl d'or of Aurore's savings, and that was without even buying Beyonder characteristics or obtaining magical artifacts... The more Lu Mian thought about it, the angrier he became.

The parish priest not having magical artifacts might not be because he didn't want to buy them, but because he couldn't get suitable ones in a short time. On one hand, he was a believer in an evil god and had to be sufficiently cautious, so the number of occult gatherings he attended was certainly very low, and the items he could encounter were inevitably few. On the other hand, he had contracted too many creatures, and the negative conditions on his body were numerous; many magical artifacts were not help to him, but rather a great weakening and a certain degree of danger, some even causing him to die suddenly.

Franca deliberated for a moment and said to Lu Mian and Jenna:

"All the gold goes to Charles, and of the rest, I'll take half. Jenna, you and Anthony can split the remaining half. As for how to split it specifically, let's wait until Anthony returns and see what he's gained before deciding, how about that?"

In this way, Lu Mian could get nearly 30,000 verl d'or, and Franca would get 15,000.

"I have no problem with that," Jenna said with some worry. "Anthony still hasn't returned yet. Damn, could something have happened to him?"

"If it were someone else, I would also think they might have encountered an accident, but Anthony is a 'Psychiatrist' who is best at reading people's hearts; it's unlikely he would step into a trap. Moreover, he is an experienced intelligence broker, and his tracking skills are no worse than mine or Charles'." After saying a mouthful, Franca smiled. "The most important thing is, while waiting for you, I used 'Magic Mirror Divination' to confirm that he is currently not in danger. Heh, him not returning for so long is actually a good thing; it shows he hasn't lost the target, and perhaps he's already had some gains."

"Couldn't you have just said you confirmed it through divination? You had to ramble on," Lu Mian replied with amusement.

Franca laughed, "Tsk tsk":

"You don't understand, this is called not being able to rely on divination."

She then pointed to the five ritual furs:

"Are these things the materials for the 'Art of Creating Beasts'? Can we use them?"

"Currently, only I can use them," Lu Mian shook his head. "And I haven't mastered the incantations preset by Guillaume Bénet yet."

Franca retracted her gaze with some disappointment and sat down in her armchair.

After a few seconds, she smiled slightly:

"By the way, I have already told the authorities through my own channels that a wanted criminal is hiding at 50 Vincent Street. Once they confirm Guillaume Bénet's death, we should still be able to get a bounty of about 20,000. Hmm, still distribute it according to the plan just now?"

This matter couldn't be left to Jenna, as that would make the "Purifiers" suspicious that Lu Mian Lee was hidden among the people she came into contact with.

The most suitable candidate was actually the intelligence broker Anthony Reid, but he hadn't returned yet, and Franca was worried that if they delayed any longer, the problem at 50 Vincent Street would be discovered by the police first, and then they wouldn't get the bounty.

After Lu Mian and Jenna both indicated they had no problem, the three of them began to wait for Anthony Reid.

After a few minutes, Lu Mian, who had already sat down, leaned forward slightly, looked at Franca and Jenna, and said in a deep voice:

"There's something I'd like to ask you to help me analyze."

Regarding matters involving Aurore, he felt he was prone to being irrational and having his judgment affected by emotions, so he wanted to hear what Franca and Jenna would say.

One of them had a companion relationship with Aurore, though the depth of their bond was clearly not as great as Lu Mian and Aurore's, and the other was a completely unrelated person, which was perfect for giving opinions from different angles.

"Okay," Franca and Jenna replied in unison.

They each adjusted their posture to make themselves appear professional.

Lu Mian spoke about the events in Cordu Village for the first time. Although it wasn't that detailed and he omitted the dream-related aspects and the Angel of Fate, he still described the general process of that disaster, including Aurore's abnormal behaviors and the claims made by Louis Longde, Madame Pualis, Guillaume Bénet, and others.

Some of this was information Franca knew but Jenna was not yet clear about, and hearing it made this old Pigeon Cage actor apprentice and underground singer at the Breeze Dance Hall almost doubt if this was still the world she knew.

She had originally thought the "Art of Creating Beasts" was terrifying and evil enough, but who knew there were things like "men giving birth" and "infants crawling on walls like birds."

It was too crazy, it was simply too crazy!

Franca was more concerned about the changes in Lu Mian's sister, Aurore. She had always wanted to know how a "Muggle" could die in Cordu Village, but she was afraid of upsetting Lu Mian and hadn't dared to ask in detail.

Discovering that the source of the problem lay with Aurore, she found it hard to believe; this was completely inconsistent with her impression of "Muggle."

When Lu Mian recounted Aurore saying "I am not Aurore Lee" in front of Guillaume Bénet, Franca was stunned for a moment, and her expression immediately became unusually serious.

Not long after, Lu Mian reached the final sacrifice, recounting how Aurore suddenly regained consciousness and pushed him off the altar, allowing him to survive.

Just then, Franca stood up abruptly.

Under the confused gazes of Lu Mian and Jenna, she rushed into her bedroom and brought out a stack of papers.

Those were the witchcraft notes of Aurore that Lu Mian had copied down, feeling there might be problems and hoping Franca could help look at them.

Franca placed those papers on the coffee table, pulled out one of them, and said with an expression of both fear and solemnity:

"I think I know where the problem is."

Lu Mian looked over in astonishment, only to see that the page of notes contained the "Wizard" spell, "Soul Calling."

It was an auxiliary spell that could help targets whose spirit and body had separated or whose astral projection was lost in the Spirit Realm to retrieve their spirit.

Lu Mian had studied its spell structure before and hadn't found any problems; it didn't involve evil gods at all.

At this moment, hearing Franca's words, he scanned the spell once more, his gaze fixing on the final date and origin:

"April 1, 1357, purchased at the 'April Fool's' gathering."

(End of chapter)