Chapter 422

Although Beatrice Ancour was already dead, something seemed to have come alive on her body, slowly overflowing outward, rising upward like invisible steam, wanting to ascend to some dark place infinitely far away.

This brought about a dimming of the surrounding light, making the ceiling of the apartment present a strange sense of illusion. Lu Mian, Franca, and Blanche simultaneously felt a sense of being watched.

This didn't mean that there was really a gaze cast upon them; it was more like they were the only three people in the entire building, and there were no obstacles left, so the crimson moonlight from the high sky inevitably illuminated them.

Thump, thump, Lu Mian's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

The two Witches, who were good at divination, had an even stronger, intuitive premonition of danger.

With a pop, a translucent blood bubble first appeared on Beatrice Ancour's face, and then a brownish-brown tumor with a woody texture grew inside the blood bubble.

The tumor burst out of the bubble, stained with blood-colored pus, damp and sticky.

This... Lu Mian's pupils dilated rapidly, lacking sufficient anticipation for the emergence of this situation.

He hadn't killed just one or two members of the "Felicity Society," and it wasn't like he hadn't stayed beside their corpses for such a long time before, but there had been no such anomalies. Once dead, it was completely over. How could it cause such an unsettling, indescribable dark current of unknown origin to surge around?

Although he didn't know what was going on, Lu Mian quickly had a countermeasure.

He looked up at the blurry, illusory ceiling and looked at the wall from which faint movements were coming, intending to take a step forward, grab Beatrice's corpse, and "teleport" directly to the Albet mine he had been to before.

The closer one was to the underground of the Trier of the Fourth Epoch, the more dangerous it was, with all kinds of pollutants and runaway factors hidden. Even if such a corpse that was about to undergo an anomaly was added, there wouldn't be a major problem erupting.

That place itself was a collection of problems!

At that time, once Lu Mian dropped Beatrice's corpse, he would use "Spirit World Traversal" for the third time to return to the surface and stay away from danger.

He had thought of a plan in a very short time. When he made up his mind, Franca also instinctively took a step toward Beatrice's corpse, which had grown a second tree tumor.

Her right hand reached into the hidden pocket of her skirt, wanting to take out the ancient mirror she had "picked up" underground.

That ancient mirror was connected to a mirror world that was both strange and dangerous. She could try to stuff Beatrice's corpse, which had undergone unknown anomalies, into it and let danger fight danger!

This would buy enough time for further processing. In the end, whether the dead believer of the "Mother Tree of Desire" won or the strange mirror world swallowed the contamination and "smoothed out" the alienation, it wouldn't be able to affect Franca anymore, nor affect the humans present and the surrounding tenants.

Compared to them, Blanche Solon, who clearly lacked sufficient experience, had the first reaction of using black flames to burn the remaining spirituality of the corpse and using frost to freeze the anomaly that had just emerged, using the most "Witch" way to interrupt the deterioration of the situation.

Just then, Lu Mian, Franca, and the others felt that the surrounding light had dimmed quite a bit, as if they had lost the illumination of the high-altitude red moon, leaving only the light of a few gas wall lamps.

Subconsciously, Lu Mian turned his head to look at the window and found that the glass there was pitch black and dim, no longer transparent, having changed from a "channel" communicating inside and outside into a wall closing off this place.

And almost at the same time, the invisible things slowly evaporating from Beatrice's body seemed to have lost their direction, unable to find the road to the dark place infinitely far away, and could only wander in place, gradually sinking.

Their mysterious connection with some unknown things was thus interrupted. Whether it was Lu Mian, Franca, or Blanche, they suddenly lost the shivering feeling of being watched from afar and being "illuminated" by a gaze.

Thump, thump, their heartbeats were easing. They saw the tree tumors on Beatrice's corpse drying up rapidly, and no new blood bubbles emerged.

The dimness surrounding this corpse recovered, and the sinking invisible things began to attach to the surface of the diamond necklace on Beatrice's neck.

…………

Under the illumination of the high-altitude crimson moonlight, the building at 23 Menier Street was in total darkness. All the windows had no light, and no figures were reflected. It was dead silent and gloomy, like a haunted house.

And in a room in the apartment opposite, a fair palm was holding a mirror with a strange shape and an ancient temperament.

This mirror was surrounded by black snake sculptures intertwined with each other. The head of each "snake" had only a huge scarlet single eye, lacked a mouth, and had no fangs.

At this time, the mirror surface was clear, reflecting a brightly lit building.

Every floor of this building had windows reflecting the yellowish light of gas wall lamps, staging one family drama after another:

On the first floor, the old doorman was smoking cigarette butts he had collected, leaning against the wall of the lobby, enjoying the tranquility of the night; on the second floor, the couple was sitting in the living room, one reading a novel and the other unfolding a newspaper before their eyes; on the third floor, the window was half-open, and a half-naked man was sneaking a look at the door, ready at any time to climb down and jump to the street...

On the fourth floor, Lu Mian, Franca, and Blanche were looking at the surrounding situation in confusion. One wanted to use some kind of ability to try to see if they could leave the "crime scene," one had reached her right hand into a hidden pocket, not knowing what she wanted to pull out, and one seemed to have a guess, pulling away from the other two...

Another fair palm reached out and wiped the strange mirror surrounded by the one-eyed "strange snakes."

Suddenly, the brightly lit building disappeared from the mirror surface, and the dead and gloomy apartment at 23 Menier Street had one light after another turn on, one figure after another reflected, and various sounds played, audible from afar.

…………

After Lu Mian looked around, he found that Adana's apartment had completely returned to normal, no longer having the anomaly of being surrounded by dark night, the crimson moonlight being difficult to shine in, and the glass windows turning into black walls.

Beatrice Ancour's corpse had completely returned to calm, and the anomaly that made people's hearts palpitate and fear was like a hallucination that only existed in a nightmare.

Lu Mian, who was ready to grab Franca and "teleport" away at any time, didn't "wait" for a possible attack. He felt slightly relieved and turned his head to look at Blanche Solon:

It's impossible for the Witch Sect to have sent only such an inexperienced member to review Franca...

Was it the powerful Witch who was observing in the dark and dominating the situation who took timely action to help us deal with the possible anomaly?

This kind of performance doesn't look like a mid-sequence Beyonder. A high-level Witch, or a Sequence 5 "Pain Witch" with a divine item?

No wonder Blanche dared to come in so openly, not worried that I and Franca would attack her...

I wonder if that Witch hidden in the dark saw my "Heng-Ha Technique"...

Franca also thought of these things, withdrew her gaze from the window, and swept over Blanche Solon.

She frankly expressed her guess but didn't ask. She looked down at Beatrice's corpse and said with a bit of curiosity and confusion:

"That necklace seems to have changed?"

Lu Mian also discovered this point, feeling that every facet of the necklace's transparent diamond was reflecting the light of the gas wall lamp, making him feel flustered and his mouth dry.

Has this become a Beyonder weapon similar to "Fallen Mercury"? It didn't happen the previous few times because there was no anomaly, and the Gift of the Gifted wasn't blocked, all returning to the mother body? Lu Mian roughly had a guess, walked to the side of the corpse, and squatted down.

He carefully reached out toward the necklace. Just as he touched the surface, he felt various desires rising, rolling and difficult to suppress.

Lu Mian quickly withdrew his right hand, only then getting rid of that blood-pumping state.

Carrying magical items like "Torture" and bearing the negative effects of multiple contracts, he was no longer suitable for touching the necklace that could awaken the deepest desires.

"You do it." Lu Mian stood up and signaled Franca to handle it.

Franca didn't decline and took off the diamond necklace with anticipation.

The two didn't stay any longer, said goodbye to Blanche, and returned to the Market District.

…………

Market Avenue.

Franca successfully resolved Beatrice, was expected to pass the review of the Witches, and got a Beyonder item that should be quite compatible with the abilities of a "Pleasure Witch." She was in a quite good mood, just short of humming a little tune to express her good feeling.

She looked at Lu Mian, who was silent and just walking:

"What's wrong?"

"I'm thinking about where Maip Maier is hiding..." Lu Mian paused and suggested seriously, "Let's go underground now."

Franca was stunned at first, then understood Lu Mian's idea:

"Do you think Maip Maier will return to the place where Susanna Mattise once sacrificed to the 'Shadow Tree'?"

"Perhaps." Lu Mian wasn't sure, just feeling that there might be some clues or traces left.

Franca, who felt she had taken advantage of the distribution of spoils, didn't persuade him and entered the underground Trier with Lu Mian from the entrance of Market Avenue nearby.

With the help of the fireball's illumination, the two followed the road they were quite familiar with, passed through the collapsed mine where they had buried the "Felicity Society" member Luntasi and the place where Jenna had been drugged, and went deep into the altar area they hadn't dared to approach last time.

There were traces of burning everywhere, no living things, no turbid aura, just like it had been exposed to the fierce sun for many days, leaving only piles of dry white bones from different creatures.

The collapse and cracking in the middle of the cave had been filled with mud and stones. Lu Mian observed carefully for a while and found some fresh traces around the location of the original altar.

They clearly didn't belong to the same person and came from different "visitors."

Looking at these traces, looking at the collapse that had gone deep underground and been filled in, scenes of the "Shadow Tree," the "Samaritan Woman Spring," the "Iron and Blood Cross Order's" schemes, and various things happening around him suddenly emerged in Lu Mian's mind.

They seemed to have different sources and were scattered and complicated, but they had one thing in common:

They all directly or indirectly pointed underground, pointing to the history and dangers hidden under Trier!

(End of chapter)