Chapter 368: Witch Cult

Are the dogs near this monastery this devout? Lu Mi withdrew his gaze and muttered to himself.

He soon left that patch of forest.

For him, what mattered was memorizing the route from Red Tianebao to the Sacred Heart Convent, and identifying environmental features along the way he could exploit; he didn't care at all what the convent looked like or whether it had any special features.

By mid-to-late afternoon, he had mapped out the terrain around Red Tianebao and found several escape routes usable in emergencies—some along main roads beside freight railways, others requiring passage through forests, lakes, or hills, offering not only greater concealment but also multiple natural traps.

Lu Mi had initially considered infiltrating Red Tianebao in dog form, but later realized the guards were too strict; any stray dog that dared approach would be shot on sight.

"Pity—the Beast-Shaping Art can only transform into larger animals, requiring fur capable of enveloping a curled-up human; otherwise, I could've turned into a rat—I bet you still couldn't stop me!" Lu Mi sighed as he left the area, finding a nearby deserted spot.

Then, he used his spiritual energy to vibrate the air inside the dog skin and mumbled two Hermesian words:

"Your Grace, the Archbishop!"

Producing sound this way was easy for Lu Mi; the difficulty lay in his spiritual energy being sealed along with his body by the Beast-Shaping Art—unable to extend beyond the dog skin, drastically reduced in quantity, so the voice remained confined within the fur, unheard by others, and limited to just a few utterances—enough only to recite the Spell of Unbinding.

A faint dark glow flashed; the brown-yellow dog skin split open from within, revealing Lu Mi's body.

Lu Mi crawled out, folded the skin, and hugged it to his chest.

It no longer possessed any supernatural properties and required a ritual to activate again; he had no intention of discarding it, since such a complete, large dog skin was hard to come by.

"Only one ritual dog skin left—I must use it sparingly," Lu Mi muttered as he followed the familiar path toward the nearest town.

In a metropolis like Trier, ritual dog skin was more practical than ritual sheep or ox skin; if he wore the latter two and transformed into those animals, he'd become a public spectacle, defeating the purpose of avoiding attention—after all, who wouldn't want to quietly lead home a lone sheep walking down the street to turn it into all manner of delicacies? Besides, Trier had its share of perverts who fancied sheep rumps.

………

When Lu Mi returned to Apartment 601, 3 White Coat Street, night had already fallen.

Franca had changed back into her usual attire, sitting cross-legged on the armchair, eyes sharply fixed on the "Lies" necklace resting on one corner of the coffee table—as if it might suddenly leap up and slap her.

"What's wrong?" Lu Mi closed the half-open door and casually tucked away the "Lies" necklace.

Franca's expression shifted several times, then sighed:

"After you left, I had nothing to do, so I tried fine-tuning my face—and…"

Here, she gasped, both terrified and entranced:

"I became infatuated with my own reflection!

"I'd never seen such a perfect woman—just looking at her face, I could stare all day, no, my whole life!"

Lu Mi thought for a moment and said:

"Lies work well to deceive others—but never deceive yourself."

"I know," Franca said sincerely, "but the combination of the 'Pleasure Witch' and 'Lies' is just too powerful. I barely managed to control myself, forcibly tore off the necklace, and threw it onto the coffee table. Yeah, my obsession was amplified by the emotional surge—but I still can't stop reliving it, still want to try again. Heh, my mind has passed the test."

Once the "Lies" necklace was out of sight, Franca visibly relaxed and laughed:

"You were just playing, uh—using your sister's way of speaking to warn me?"

"Yes, preparing for your gathering," Lu Mi didn't hide that he'd been practicing Aurora's speech patterns.

Franca nodded lightly:

"You're using it naturally—if you maintain this level, slipping past them won't be a problem."

Before Lu Mi could reply, the "Pleasure Witch" smirked:

"How was the honey-glazed chicken wings?"

"Fine," Lu Mi gave a neutral evaluation.

Franca asked with keen interest and a teasing tone:

"Is it the dog's taste? Did your sense of smell improve?"

"There's some effect, but not a full transformation—I still retain most human perception," Lu Mi answered with the attitude of an experimenter.

"What about other aspects?" Franca pressed further.

Lu Mi recalled and said:

"Other aspects? It felt like my soul was stuffed into a real dog's body—everything I did was limited and influenced by the body, including…"

He sat on the long sofa, lifted his leg, and assumed the posture of a canine urinating.

Franca exclaimed:

"You really don't care about appearances at all? No psychological burden?"

"Why should I care?" Lu Mi shrugged.

Franca thought for a moment, her eyes flickering:

"Last question—uh, do you experience abnormal reactions toward other dogs due to canine hormones?"

"The body is mine; the dog is just skin, just an external constraint," Lu Mi gave him a look as if to say, Are you stupid?

Then he imitated the "Magician" lady:

"Have you finished asking?"

"Finished," Franca said, thoroughly satisfied.

Lu Mi smiled:

"Now it's my turn to ask.

"What do you think of the women you observed today?"

Franca absentmindedly twirled a few strands of slightly ash-blonde hair that had slipped from her ponytail:

"Two suspects…"

She laid out her deductions, then added:

"That woman with the orange-red hair gave me a strange feeling—like she was drawing me in."

Lu Mi smiled:

"Your instinct is right—she's at least a 'Pleasure Witch' or a Mystic with a corresponding artifact."

After confirming she was a Mystic of the Witch Path, he sensed from her every movement a similar, instinctual allure to Franca's—difficult for him, with most of his abilities sealed, to resist; fortunately, the "Beggar Monk's" endurance still held.

"'Witch'?" Franca hadn't ruled out this possibility; she murmured thoughtfully, "Makes sense—how could a women's pleasure party not attract one or two 'Witches'…"

Lu Mi suddenly understood:

"To bring pleasure to others—and to enjoy it themselves?"

He felt it was a matter of role-playing.

"That's one part," Franca said with disdain and a touch of melancholy. "Even without needing to digest the potion, I'd still want to go—but I can control myself. Other 'Witches'? Not so much."

Lu Mi didn't fully grasp this, so he changed the subject:

"She was tailing you afterward—but you lost her."

"Ah…" Franca paused. "She must be from the Witch Family."

"The Witch Family you mentioned?" Lu Mi had heard Franca briefly describe this secret organization before.

He'd always struggled to understand: why could "Witches" form a family?

A matriarchal society?

Franca sighed:

"Yes—it's also called the Witch Cult. Its earliest origins trace back to the descendants of the 'Primordial Witch' who established the family in the Fourth Era. The 'Primordial Witch' was Sequence 0 of the Assassin Path, a true deity—widely regarded as a demon god, also known as the 'Chaos Witch.'"

"Primordial Witch…" Lu Mi noted the name.

Franca continued:

"The core of the Witch Family has always been the descendants of the 'Primordial Witch,' but they also recruit or develop outsiders from the Assassin Path—effectively a cult, controlling all potion recipes and the vast majority of resources along this Path.

"Only members of the Witch Cult will track suspected wild 'Witches' upon first meeting."

"To recover the Mystic Traits?" Lu Mi asked.

Whether recruiting or killing, both amounted to recovering Mystic Traits.

Franca pursed her lips:

"Yes. They don't want Mystic Traits of the Witch Path to leak outside their cult. Moreover, they despise female Assassins—every one they find must be eliminated."

"Why?" Lu Mi couldn't understand.

Franca gave him a "wounded" look—as if reproaching him for asking such a question.

She sighed:

"Because the 'Primordial Witch' was originally male. During his ascent to godhood via the Assassin Path, he was utterly transformed into a woman—his mind twisted, filled with agony. All members of the Witch Cult claim to draw near to the Primordial.

"So every 'Witch' in the cult was once male. After enduring their own pain and torment, they became grotesquely warped, craving to see other men suffer the same fate. You may not know—these 'Witches' take men as lovers, give birth to girls and abandon them, keep the boys, and force them to relive their mother's life."

As the prank king of Kordu Village, even Lu Mi couldn't help shaking his head:

"Isn't that too perverted?"

"More perverted? The fathers of those children all eventually became 'Witches,'" Franca said, recounting intelligence she'd obtained from the "Judge" lady, exhaling with dread. "I've always avoided them, never wanted them to notice me."

"But you were male originally—why fear them?" Lu Mi didn't understand. "Are you afraid that joining the Witch Cult would corrupt you with their perversions and distortions?"

Franca nodded solemnly:

"Yes.

"Besides, I'm already a Minor Arcana of the Tarot Society—how could I join the Witch Cult?"

Lu Mi fell silent for a few seconds:

"Didn't you also want to join the Iron Blood Cross?"

"That's different—that's a Tarot Society mission," Franca reflexively defended.

Lu Mi didn't press the issue, nodding thoughtfully:

"No wonder you said women's pleasure parties attract 'Witches.'"

Franca snorted:

"Because most 'Witches' belong to the Witch Cult, connected vertically or horizontally—otherwise, half the women at such parties might be 'Witches.'"

"An even more extreme case is like receiving an invitation to a striptease show, eagerly going to watch, only to find all the performers are men."

After muttering a few words, Francia looked at Lu Mian and said with great difficulty:

"What do we do next?"

(End of Chapter)