Chapter 360: Oversight

Madam Magician chuckled.

"Why care about this? You can't use it anyway. It can only be used to forget all memories and original emotions, turning one into a brand-new person.

"Hmm, for the 'Corpse Collector', 'Sleeper', and 'Warrior' pathways, depending on the usage, ritual, and combination, the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' has different uses, including but not limited to temporarily clearing memories, healing damage to the essence of the spirit, increasing one's own spirituality, becoming a material for important rituals, bringing about different branches of abilities, and so on, and so on."

Corresponding to the 'Corpse Collector', 'Sleeper', and 'Warrior' pathways that can be converted into each other? Lu Mian distilled the key information.

At this moment, Madam Magician glanced at him, her smile fading.

"No more questions?"

Lu Mian thought for a moment and said,

"Not for now."

Madam Magician nodded.

"Then it's my turn to ask."

"Ask what?" Lu Mian was very puzzled.

He had told her every detail.

Madam Magician's fingers tapped lightly on the void in front of her.

"Why didn't you tell me that Miss Justice asked you to go to the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring'?"

Lu Mian was stunned.

"I thought she would tell you, and besides, I thought that since she is also a Major Arcana card of the Tarot Club, there shouldn't be any problem accepting her commission, so I didn't need to ask you for confirmation."

Madam Magician wore a thoughtful expression.

"Normally, there wouldn't be any problem, but there are always too many abnormalities in this world."

Lu Mian asked with uncertainty,

"Has Miss Justice encountered an abnormality?"

"That's not it." Madam Magician shook her head. "The problem is that not long after you agreed to go to the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring', the Earth Blood Ore was lost, and I didn't know you were about to go to the fourth floor of the catacombs, while Miss Justice didn't know the Earth Blood Ore had fallen into someone else's hands. It's not that you didn't want to bring it, but it wasn't certain you wouldn't."

"If we had communicated in advance, I could have let you postpone it for a while, wait until the whereabouts of the Earth Blood Ore were confirmed, or make some arrangements."

Lu Mian thought carefully for a while and found that it was indeed as Madam Magician said.

Having foreseen that the Earth Blood Ore would bring certain encounters underground, she would not have ignored the hidden connection between the 'loss of the Earth Blood Ore' and the 'trip to the Samaritan Woman's Spring'.

And Lu Mian's small oversight, or rather, his self-considered reasonable handling, was the source of the subsequent encounters.

Madam Magician looked deeply at Lu Mian for a few seconds, pondered for a moment, and said,

"This can't be blamed on you either. Your handling actually didn't have much of a problem; this is just to remind you to be more cautious in the future."

She paused and said meaningfully,

"This is even more true when you go to find the entrance to the Fourth Epoch Trier in the future."

"Yes, Madam Magician." Lu Mian sincerely accepted the lesson.

After Madam Magician disappeared before his eyes with the bottle containing the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' water, Lu Mian quickly tidied up the altar and sat back down.

He reviewed the mistakes he had made in this operation.

"First, Madam Magician was right; I should have informed her of Miss Justice's commission. Even if they had already communicated privately and there was no problem with the matter, I should have told her. After all, the Major Arcana card I am directly under is not 'Justice', but 'Magician'. Doing things for other Major Arcana cards requires the permission of one's own Major Arcana card."

"Second, before entering the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring', I should have checked my own state and items and made a final confirmation. Unless it's an encounter battle or an emergency, this should become a mandatory procedure."

"If I could have remembered and completed this, I could have avoided many problems in advance and wouldn't have brought the Earth Blood Ore into the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' area without realizing it. Monit, no, Amon, appearing several times and deliberately scaring me was to interrupt my train of thought, keep my attention on being vigilant against Him rather than on my own state, and thus ignore the 'return' of the Earth Blood Ore?"

"Third, I didn't notice Termiboros's abnormality. Facing Monit's appearance, He actually remained silent, unlike last time when He was so vigilant and anxious. Heh, although He is sealed, He can use me to sense the situation around us. As an angel, would He not have discovered that Amon stuffed the Earth Blood Ore back into my pocket?"

"Moreover, His fate and my fate are linked together. When I entered the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' with the Earth Blood Ore, my fate must have changed. He wouldn't have failed to notice it. Why didn't He remind me?"

"Did He also want to use the special environment of the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' and the mutation brought by the Earth Blood Ore to find a way to break free from the seal? Yes, it was He who first reminded me that the Earth Blood Ore was special and said it would bring me an encounter!"

"That strange power ultimately prevented His goal from being achieved. Whose could it be?"

"One really cannot fully trust an angel of an evil god. Termiboros has been performing so reliably during this period, reminding me from time to time. Besides needing to avoid dangers that could affect Him, He was also numbing me, just waiting for the opportunity to come and stab me in the back."

"Heh, are you a Hunter too?"

"After entering the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring', my choices were actually not a problem. Under the circumstances of the negative effects erupting and various mental pollutions overlapping, it was already not easy for me to make basic responses. Let's not worry about whether it was right or wrong... If those pollutions hadn't contradicted each other and held each other back, I might have gone crazy on the spot."

Lu Mian reviewed the whole thing and suddenly laughed in a low voice.

"Termiboros, how did you not notice Monit stuffing the Earth Blood Ore back?"

Termiboros remained silent and did not answer.

After Lu Mian roughly confirmed the role this angel of fate played in the aforementioned events, he checked the items on his body, fearing that they too had headed toward 'death'.

Fortunately, the inanimate items were less affected and had no substantial damage. The 'Rust' encountered by the 'Torture' gloves was not an attack in the true sense; besides leaving a few marks on it, it did not affect its use.

As for the gaze and dangerous creatures that would be brought by wearing this pair of gloves, Lu Mian felt nothing, believing that the special environment of the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' had limited the corresponding negative effects.

After doing these things, Lu Mian looked around, feeling an indescribable fear and disgust for this safe house that Amon had entered, always feeling that there were some eyes hidden in the surrounding air.

Of course, this was mainly his psychological feeling, after all, Madam Magician had already been here.

After removing the traps hidden in this safe house, Lu Mian took all his items and opened the door to leave, intending never to return here again, preferring to waste the rent.

…………

Trier, in a park with lush green grass.

Madam Magician, wearing a brownish-yellow long dress, looked at the golden retriever walking at the edge of the grass and said to the lady beside her,

"The 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' has been brought back."

That lady was wearing a simple long dress with a white base and green patterns, her golden hair draped down naturally, only loosely tied, her eyes as green as gems, and as clear as a lake reflecting trees.

She smiled slightly.

"Did any accidents happen? You were supposed to have the messenger bring it over."

Madam Magician nodded, roughly mentioned the key information of the whole thing, and finally said,

"It just so happens that we haven't met in the past few days, and we lacked communication."

"This resulted in me knowing that he lost the Earth Blood Ore, suspected to have been stolen by Amon, but not knowing that he was going to get the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring', while you were just the opposite, knowing he was going to get the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring', but not knowing the Earth Blood Ore had been stolen."

Justice listened quietly, was silent for a few seconds, and sighed,

"It's very much in that person's style..."

"Is it really that person?" Madam Magician frowned slightly. "When did He cast His gaze? Did He not hide it from the very beginning?"

Justice thought for a moment and said,

"This isn't considered an accident either. The most important thing now is what exactly He wants to arrange."

"I don't know." Madam Magician laughed at herself. "But since the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' incident has already happened, then I can foresee..."

Speaking of this, she sighed while walking into the void surrounded by starlight.

"It won't be long before the gate to the Fourth Epoch Trier truly opens."

…………

Outside an abandoned ancient castle.

Justice's figure appeared at the door, holding the small golden bottle containing the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring'.

In front of her, a faint and dark illusory sea emerged. She stepped into it and arrived at a special dream.

In the dream, the black mausoleum that looked like an inverted pyramid layer by layer was not only missing a part but also split into two, with deep cracks on the surface, and oily pale yellow feathers and various things symbolizing death scattered everywhere.

Justice floated in mid-air and tilted the golden bottle in her hand.

Under her guidance, part of the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring' water turned into dark rain, gently sprinkling onto the earth.

All the damaged marks healed further, and the mausoleum split into two gradually moved closer together.

Amidst such changes, Justice put away the golden bottle, looked at the remaining 'Samaritan Woman's Spring', and whispered to herself,

"Two more times should be enough."

…………

On the second floor of the Breeze Dance Hall, in Lu Mian's bedroom.

Having had a sleep, he raised his right palm and found that the bright red scar had faded a lot, closer to the kind of mark left after being squeezed.

"This way it won't attract attention." Lu Mian breathed a sigh of relief.

He had originally intended to wrap his right palm with white bandages to avoid the boss and the others seeing the problem at a glance.

Now, Lu Mian thought for a moment and wrapped the bandage around his left palm, which had no abnormalities.

After doing this, he looked forward to the reward Miss Justice mentioned, not knowing when it would be sent.

He believed it shouldn't take more than a few days.

Suddenly, Lu Mian turned his head sharply and looked at the window facing the back alley.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The glass there was being tapped by someone.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 361 =====