Chapter 442

"The Hanged Man" agreed to Lu Mian's request and told him to contact him through "Magician."

After expressing his thanks, Lu Mian and Franca left the captain's cabin, walked along the corridor that could only accommodate three people, stepped on the creaking wooden planks, and returned to the deck under the illumination of dim torches.

They noticed that this ghost ship named the "Blue Avenger" did not only have "Storm Bringer" Alger; at the stern, outside the cabins, and inside the mast's lookout, there were a dozen or so sailors, hiding at the edge of the darkness and not attempting to approach.

The next second, Lu Mian and Franca simultaneously saw a brilliant star hanging in front of them, stained with a hint of eerie blue, as if it had just emerged from the Spirit Realm.

This star grew larger and larger, as if it had instantly descended to the ground, and its light spread out, swallowing everything around it.

Lu Mian and Franca only blinked, and they were swept up by the starlight. When their vision recovered, they had returned to Room 207 of the Auberge du Coq Doré.

"Too, too gorgeous!" Franca praised sincerely, her face full of longing.

She hated that the only choice for her pathway change was "Hunter," making it impossible to experience the flair of "Apprentices," and she could only consider obtaining a sealed artifact with similar abilities in the future.

Lu Mian did not echo Franca's sentiment, standing there lost in thought.

Franca glanced at him and thought for a moment:

"Don't you think this is a bit strange?

"Raising 100,000 gold pounds should be a very simple matter for a treasure hunter whose strength is equivalent to a Pirate King, and those three questions shouldn't have taken too long to think about. Yet, Mr. 'Hanged Man' waited so many days before asking you to summon the 'Armor Shadow,' and that was only after he had already arrived in Trier.

"Furthermore, with the abilities Ms. 'Magician' has shown, she could have easily sent us to the sea, to the interior of the 'Blue Avenger,' and then brought us back. Why did she have to wait until Mr. 'Hanged Man' came to Trier to do so?"

Lu Mian laughed and praised Franca:

"You're very sharp this time. It seems you still need to use your brain more; leaving it idle always makes one's intelligence seem insufficient."

"Damn it, are you praising me or scolding me?" Franca spat, frowning slightly, "Either Mr. 'Hanged Man' was in a special environment recently, making it difficult to pinpoint his location, or he has other purposes for coming to Trier..."

Speaking of this, Lu Mian and Franca simultaneously remembered the impending disaster, sensing the oppression and terror of a storm pressing down on the city, about to descend.

"Is the 'Tarot Club' deploying more Major Arcana cards to Trier? Is it so that if the disaster cannot be successfully prevented, they can protect the citizens as much as possible?" Franca guessed.

Lu Mian nodded gently without refuting.

After a moment of silence, Franca changed the subject, shouting with motivation:

"I want to become a demigod, I want to accumulate gold!"

Seeing Lu Mian raise an eyebrow, asking with his eyes, Franca said with longing and desire:

"That way, I can directly have you summon the 'Armor Shadow' to ask the questions I want to ask, without needing the Major Arcana cards to protect us!"

"Keep working hard, Miss Pleasure." Lu Mian teased.

…………

The next day, near noon.

Lu Mian, returning from Spring Street, led Jenna into the underground, arriving at the third level of the catacombs and reaching the small plaza where two sacrificial pillars stood.

"Why bring me here?" Jenna asked, full of confusion.

If she didn't know Lu Mian very well and what kind of person he was, she would have suspected that her friend had suddenly developed malicious intentions.

Lu Mian, with his black messenger bag slung across his back, stood straight with his hands in his pockets and smiled:

"To give you the safest environment for your advancement."

Combining Franca's explanation and Ms. "Magician's" scattered words, Lu Mian knew that the Sequence 0 of the "Assassin" pathway, the true god worshipped by the Demoness Sect, was originally a man who became a woman, and was very twisted inside.

It is said that this "Primordial Demoness" is immersed in pain and unable to extricate herself, wanting to replicate her own experience generation after generation. Therefore, she deeply hates normal women becoming "Witches," and the Demoness Sect also hunts down female "Assassins," female "Instigators," and true "Witches."

Under these circumstances, Jenna might be affected when consuming the "Witch" potion. After all, even the "Hidden Sage," who occupies a Sequence 0 position, can indiscriminately affect every Beyonder of the "Reader" pathway, whispering to them from time to time and instilling knowledge when they consume potions to advance. There is no reason why the true evil god, the "Primordial Demoness," couldn't affect "Witches."

Although this influence shouldn't be too strong at lower sequences—Aurora was able to advance to Sequence 7 and become a "Witch" even with the "Hidden Sage" whispering and instilling knowledge all the way—caution is better than carelessness. Since there is a way to reduce or weaken such influence, why not do it?

One must know that "Witch" is the first qualitative change node of the "Assassin" pathway, and even the beginning of the core meaning of "Demoness." The "Primordial Demoness," who only wants to see men change their gender, will likely pay close attention to those advancing in this sequence. Neither Franca nor Lu Mian wanted Jenna to take the risk.

Of course, Ms. "Magician" had occasionally mentioned that this evil god's state was not very good.

"The safest?" Jenna looked around, not quite believing it.

The surroundings were pitch black and full of corpses; how could this be called safe?

Only the area around those two mottled stone pillars seemed relatively warm and calming.

Lu Mian briefly introduced the uniqueness of this sacrificial plaza and finally said:

"The peak of the 'Assassin' pathway is an evil god. No one knows if she will suddenly go crazy, and gods of the same pathway have the ability to exert a certain influence when Beyonders consume potions to advance—artificially, no, divinely increasing the difficulty.

"This place can weaken that connection to a great extent."

Jenna listened intently and walked toward the mottled stone pillar engraved with the "Sun Sacred Emblem," opening her arms slightly to pray.

Seeing that she didn't ask why Franca hadn't been affected, nor had she mentioned this matter when discussing precautions earlier, Lu Mian raised his right hand, rubbed his chin, and secretly clicked his tongue.

"Praise the Sun!" At the end of her prayer, Jenna sang the praises of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" quite devoutly.

Lu Mian didn't make a sound, handing the "Witch" Beyonder characteristic and the Shadow Lizard scales and other materials from his black bag to Jenna.

He had exchanged these items from Gardner Martin using the 10,000 gold pounds she had given him.

Jenna glanced at the "gem" that looked like a deep blue vertical eye and the thread-like patterns on its surface, knelt on one knee, and prepared the potion on the exceptionally clean ground of the plaza.

Before long, a dark red potion containing shadows appeared in Jenna's hand.

Jenna calmed her mood, feeling that for the past few months, she had been pushed by various events and moved forward involuntarily, and now she couldn't stop.

Perhaps this is my fate... Praise the Sun! Jenna closed her eyes and secretly added a sentence in her heart:

Praise the Fool!

At this critical moment, for the sake of a smooth advancement and her own survival, the scales of faith in her heart tilted involuntarily.

This was because Franca and Lu Mian both appeared relatively relaxed when consuming potions and increasing their sequences—at least that's how it looked—and they both believed in Mr. "Fool."

Without hesitation, Jenna gulped down the potion with the mindset that she had already died when she assassinated Auguste Artus.

The potion was cold and illusory, like melting white frost. Jenna soon felt an itchy and painful sensation all over her skin.

Her thoughts gradually blurred, as if she were slowly sinking in water.

Suddenly, intense pain erupted from within her body. Jenna woke up a bit, discovering that she was surrounded by black, silent flames, being devoured bit by bit.

Above her, there was a transparent ice layer condensed from white frost, which acted like a mirror, blocking Jenna's efforts to crawl out of the black flames.

The next second, Jenna saw a face and a figure appear above the ice layer.

That face was exactly the same as hers!

That figure was another Jenna, but her dominant hand had become her left hand!

The "Jenna" on the ice layer looked viciously at the figure in the black flames, her face full of anticipation and desire.

Jenna could be considered someone with combat experience. Despite her shock and horror, she immediately gathered all her strength and punched upward.

The ice layer shattered silently, and the "vicious" Jenna also fell into the black flames.

At this moment, in the distance, a python-like black object swayed gently, its front end bearing a deep blue vertical eye.

That strange "python" flashed and disappeared, not entering this area, but casting a black shadow.

Almost simultaneously, Jenna heard a long, painful sigh in her ears.

This illusory sigh was very close to her, as if it came from around the sacrificial plaza, from the corpses nearby.

The black shadow cast by the strange "python" grew wildly, becoming larger and larger, but also increasingly faint.

It instantly covered Jenna and the vicious figure, continuously seeping into their bodies.

Jenna did not give up. Enduring the pain and dizziness, she tried her best to crawl out of the black flame hell and reach the nearby ice layer. The black shadow lacked follow-up strength and did not pursue, only dragging the vicious "Jenna" down into the bottomless black abyss.

Such a scene shattered instantly. Jenna's vision returned to normal, and she saw the mottled stone pillar engraved with the "Sun Sacred Emblem."

Her expression was already twisted, but the pain in her body was easing bit by bit.

Lu Mian saw the black flames on Jenna's body rapidly shrinking and dissipating, while the surrounding frost melted quickly, understanding that this companion had successfully advanced to Sequence 7 and was now a "Witch."

Only then did he cast his gaze toward the edge of the sacrificial plaza, toward the tombs and corpses shrouded in darkness.

Not long after Jenna consumed the potion, he had felt some movement there, but in the end, nothing entered the clean plaza where the two sacrificial pillars stood.

Finally, Jenna no longer had any abnormalities. She climbed up and saw Lu Mian looking into the distance, so she asked in confusion:

"After I drank the potion, I seemed to hear a sighing sound over there."

Lu Mian nodded slowly and said:

"On this level of the catacombs, there is a 'Kriesmana Night Pillar,' which represents a 'Calamity Demoness' who once fell here."

(End of chapter)