Chapter 352: Negative Impact (Seeking monthly votes at the start of the month)

"How could that be?" Jenna was surprised and stunned, with strong doubts.

She remembered that when the occult gathering just ended, the participants left at intervals, and there were quite a few routes to choose from. She and Franca had also paid attention not to leave any traces. How could they have been followed?

Seeing Jenna control the urge to turn her head and look, Franca walked as if nothing had happened and said in a low voice as if chatting:

"Who knows? Maybe a participant happened to choose this route, found someone in front, and wanted to follow to see if there was a chance to make a windfall, or maybe someone possessed special abilities and followed in a way we didn't think of.

"Walk forward, pretend nothing happened, and it will be safe once we return to the Arcade Underground Street.

"If the follower launches an attack before that, throw away the calcium carbide lamp in your hand immediately, hide in the surrounding shadows, and then decide how to participate in the battle based on the situation."

Jenna nodded lightly, indicating she would do as told.

Her left palm holding the calcium carbide lamp tightened slightly without her noticing.

After the two walked a hundred or two hundred meters along the dark and damp tunnel, Franca slowed down, turned her head, and muttered to herself in confusion:

"That follower is gone...

"It's also possible they used some method to bypass the 'spider silk' I left..."

Just as she finished speaking, in the darkness ahead, at the edge of the calcium carbide lamp's light, a figure walked out.

Jenna reacted extremely quickly, immediately throwing away the calcium carbide lamp she was holding in her left hand and hiding into the shadows on the side.

Franca, relying on the "Mirror Substitute," didn't rush to hide and cast her gaze toward that follower who had circled to the front.

It was a man dressed as a wizard, using the shadow of his hood to cover his face.

That client!

He looked at Franca and said in a voice deliberately sharpened:

"I want to make a deal with you."

…………

Behind the "Krismanna Night Pillar," Lu Mian held a new white candle, reflecting the yellowish firelight, and followed behind "Madame Lady Lady Hai La," walking step by step into the depths of the darkness along the mottled stone stairs that seemed to lead to the true hell.

The rock walls on both sides retreated slowly, revealing relief sculptures of human heads that looked real. The dark gray ones were densely packed together, just like the countless bones piled tightly together in the tomb chambers on the level above.

Just after finishing all the stone stairs and stepping onto the dead-silent fourth level of the catacombs, Lu Mian suddenly felt a burst of irritability, as if he had been locked in a prison, losing his personal freedom for a long time, and wanted to use every possible way to escape.

He had had such feelings before; that was the negative impact of the "Armor Shadow" contract, but it had never been as intense as it was now!

It was as if his spirit had been imprisoned by his body and finally recognized the fact.

His spirit wanted to blow up this "cage," blow up this world, blow up everything, and obtain true freedom!

Hu... Lu Mian let out a slow breath, making his mental state calm down quite a bit.

Even without the "Monk" gift, he asked himself if he could withstand such abnormal emotions, and with the power of the "Monk," he controlled it even more easily.

"According to Ms. Justice, the higher the Sequence, the more accumulated madness there is, and the easier it is to be affected by the corruption hidden in the fourth level of the catacombs... I'm in this situation now, but because the Sequence isn't high, the impact I receive is very weak, so I can endure and control it?" Lu Mian quickly had a guess about his current situation and instinctively raised his head, casting his gaze toward "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" diagonally in front.

The other party's neck was quite slender, mostly hidden in the collar of her widow-like mysterious robe, very suitable for being snapped from the middle...

Lu Mian had just had such a thought when he shook his head quickly, throwing the negative impact from the "Abscessed Hand" contract to the back of his mind.

At the same time, he saw "Madame Lady Lady Hai La's" face become paler, looking more like a corpse that had been dead for many days than a living human.

The next second, "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" took out a military flask, unscrewed the cap, and began to gulp it down.

Lu Mian twitched his nose and smelled the rich aroma of alcohol.

He muttered silently:

It should be strong liquor... Based on Ms. Madame Lady Lady Hai La's way of drinking, would she carry many flasks like those alcoholics in Feynapotter?

After drinking a third of the distilled liquor in one breath, "Madame Lady Lady Hai La's" face became a bit ruddier, and she asked:

"Which way should we go?"

"In a certain ancient tomb at the westernmost end." Lu Mian didn't hide it anymore and said frankly, "Currently, I only know the approximate range and am not sure which tomb it is."

"Madame Lady Lady Hai La" nodded lightly and cast her gaze toward the top of the catacombs.

There, a thick black line was drawn, with arrows extending in all directions, pointing to different positions.

Combined with the road signs near the entrance, Lu Mian roughly knew which route to choose to go west.

But he still took out the portable compass he had prepared in advance, intending to make a confirmation.

Just as that portable instrument was placed under the yellowish white candle flame, the needle jumped continuously, sometimes left, sometimes right, completely without regularity, and couldn't stop.

"It's crazy." Lu Mian used a joke to neutralize the irritability he had controlled.

"We can only combine the road signs and black lines to search." "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" seemed to have expected this.

Lu Mian sighed, looked at the compass that was still jumping, and laughed self-deprecatingly:

"Since it doesn't stop, can it be used as a perpetual motion machine?"

"Madame Lady Lady Hai La" looked at him:

"Aren't you a believer of the 'Eternal Blazing Sun'?"

Lu Mian answered sincerely:

"Temporarily."

"Madame Lady Lady Hai La" didn't continue this topic and took a step forward toward the right front according to the road signs and the black lines on the top of her head.

"'Marian Night Pillar' and 'Lius Night Pillar' are both on this level, huh. There's also the François Tomb, Blood Sect Hall, Crazy Mushroom Cave... Uh, the style of this name is completely different from the others." Lu Mian muttered, withdrawing his gaze from the road sign.

The most obvious difference between the fourth level of the catacombs and the three levels above was that the bones of the dead were no longer piled on both sides of the road, making it appear more spacious and clean, but this also set off the death-like silence even more.

And those ancient tombs all had closed entrances, making it impossible for people to see at a glance what was hidden inside.

"Madame Lady Lady Hai La" said without looking back:

"Is the manifestation of your mental abnormality becoming more talkative and more nagging?"

"That's not it; it's just that talking is conducive to relieving my irritability." Lu Mian didn't hide it.

The two walked and stopped, constantly adjusting their direction according to the road signs and black lines.

After passing that semi-natural tomb cave with blood-colored soil on the outer wall and named "Sect Hall," Lu Mian, whose gaze was constantly scanning the surrounding environment, suddenly saw a person.

It was a woman wearing a simple and plain white robe, with black hair draped down smoothly. Her features were exceptionally exquisite, matched perfectly, and her temperament was so holy that it didn't seem to belong to such a dead and filthy catacomb.

Although Lu Mian often saw "Pleasure Demonesses," he still felt a strong sense of amazement and even felt a sinful urge to ravage the other party.

This wasn't just the negative impact of the "Torture" gauntlet, but also the dark thoughts from the depths of his heart.

What made Lu Mian regain his sobriety was that the other party's crystal-clear blue eyes were cold and without a trace of life, and her hands were empty, not holding a lit white candle!

In the catacombs, living people would disappear without the protection of the white candle's firelight!

Lu Mian's body was tense, and that female figure turned into the surrounding darkness, blocked by the outer wall of the "Blood Sect Hall," and disappeared without a trace.

"What are you looking at?" "Madame Lady Lady Hai La's" cold voice rang out.

"Didn't you see it?" Lu Mian described the scene he witnessed in detail.

"Madame Lady Lady Hai La" was silent for a few seconds and said:

"I really didn't see it, although I cast my gaze there the moment you stopped moving forward."

"Only I can see it? Or, only let me see it?" Lu Mian wasn't sure if it was the impact brought by Termiboros or the reason for his own Sequence or gender.

"Madame Lady Lady Hai La" thought for a while and said:

"No need to pay attention to such things. It's normal for special vengeful spirits and evil spirits to wander in the depths of the catacombs, but this catacomb itself is equivalent to a very strong seal. If you don't violate the rules and trigger abnormalities, you won't encounter danger."

Lu Mian nodded:

"I was just wondering, ordinary tourists and adventurous university students definitely couldn't pass through the third level of the catacombs to get here. Why bother making guiding black lines and accurate road signs? Who is this for?"

"Official Beyonders who come here to clean up regularly and tomb managers responsible for patrolling every day." "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" answered while taking a step again.

She then reminded simply:

"According to your description, the female figure you just saw is very much like a high-level Demoness."

Lu Mian was startled:

"Could it be the vengeful spirit left by the 'Calamity Demoness' Krismanna?"

"I'm not sure." "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" took out the military flask and took another gulp.

Lu Mian glanced at it casually, and his eyelids jumped.

He saw a purple-red patch on the back of "Madame Lady Lady Hai La's" right hand.

That wasn't there before.

It looked like a corpse spot on a dead person!

Is this the impact brought by the pollution on the fourth level of the catacombs? Is "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" using strong liquor to fight it? Lu Mian continued his aimless chatter.

In a state of nagging, he and "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" passed through several ancient tombs without signs and arrived at the westernmost area of this level.

There were dozens or hundreds of ancient tombs distributed at the edge of the rock wall here, and Lu Mian couldn't see the end at a glance.

He was about to ask "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" if there was a way to speed up the progress of searching for the target when he suddenly heard a thumping sound coming from a nearby ancient tomb.

Amidst such movement, under the watchful eyes of "Madame Lady Lady Hai La" and Lu Mian, the dilapidated stone wall of the tomb collapsed further, forming a black hole that humans could enter.

A figure walked out from there, bent over.

Lu Mian, whose spirit was highly tense, really wanted to blast a "Giant Fireball" over, but he still forcibly suppressed the urge and intended to observe first.

The man who crawled out of the ancient tomb held a lit white candle, patted the dust on his clothes, and slowly straightened his body.

He was wearing a black robe like a fortune teller in a circus, his skin was brown-black, his figure was thin, his black hair was slightly curly, and his eyes were deep. He wore a monocle that looked like it was made of crystal on his right eye. It was none other than the island swindler Monit.

Monit smiled at Lu Mian and "Madame Lady Lady Hai La":

"What a coincidence!"

PS: Seeking monthly votes at the start of the month~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 353 =====