Chapter 51: Time Point

The thing that crawled out from the mouth of the deputy parish priest, Michel Galigou, was slightly slender, covered in brownish-green scales, resembling a transparent, blurred lizard.

As soon as it left Michel's body, its dark green vertical pupils turned left and right, sizing up the surroundings, appearing very vigilant.

During this process, it even looked out the window, but didn't discover "White Paper," instead making Lu Mian and Aurora feel the coldness and indifference of its pupils.

"What is this?" Lu Mian asked.

Aurora shook her head:

"I don't know. It looks like a type of special spirit."

Lu Mian immediately made a judgment:

"It doesn't look like a good thing!"

Even through "White Paper" and the mirror surface, that lizard-like creature still made him feel uncomfortable all over, and the hair on his body stood up quietly.

Aurora turned her head to look at him and reminded:

"This 'lizard' seems to carry a certain degree of mental corruption, making people feel physically and mentally uncomfortable just by taking a look from afar. If you stare at it for too long, you might even develop mental problems. You must be careful. If the uncomfortable state becomes serious, close your eyes immediately, try meditating, and look again after a while."

"It's fine for now." Lu Mian said "Mm." "What about you? Don't you feel uncomfortable?"

Aurora smiled:

"As a 'Reader,' I've seen things more corruptive than this. My corresponding resistance is much higher than yours."

"Besides, don't I go crazy occasionally? Being a bit crazier and more frequent doesn't seem to matter."

"I think it's necessary to check your mental state when you said that last sentence." Lu Mian said, half-concerned and half-joking.

Aurora "hehe"-ed:

"This is called self-mockery."

"Sometimes, it's not that I don't want to look, but the specialty of a 'Reader's' eyes can't be fully sealed; I can only barely keep it from affecting daily life."

As the siblings spoke, the blurred "lizard"-like creature crawled along the wall and floor all the way to the ground floor of the house, moving extremely fast.

On the wall facing the main door on the first floor hung several animal skulls, coming from a wolf, a deer, and a wild boar—the deputy parish priest, Michel Galigou, was not a local of Cordu and should have lived directly in the church, but was rejected by Guillaume Bénet using an excuse and could only rent a place in the hunter Sabaté's house.

That "lizard" burrowed into the wolf's skull, going in and out of the eye sockets.

Not long after, it switched to the wild boar's skull, continuing to do the same thing.

After coming out of the deer's pale skull, the "lizard" crawled toward the outside of the house at several times the speed of a running horse, while "White Paper" floated quietly in the night sky, tracking it.

The "lizard" crawled all the way out of the village and finally arrived at the square.

It bypassed the church, arrived at the cemetery, and plunged headlong into a certain grave.

Ten seconds later, it crawled out and entered another grave with a tombstone.

Just like that, that strange "lizard"-like creature moved between different graves. Lu Mian could even imagine the scene of it going in and out of different human skulls inside the coffins.

That kind of scene made patches of tiny goosebumps rise on Lu Mian's skin, and he couldn't help but ask:

"What is this guy doing?"

Incomprehensible!

Aurora shook her head slowly:

"This is in my blind spot of knowledge."

After "touring" the cemetery, the transparent "lizard"-like creature returned the way it came and entered the room of the deputy parish priest, Michel Galigou.

With two rubs, it burrowed back into Michel's mouth and disappeared.

After twenty or thirty seconds, Michel Galigou opened his eyes, sat up, and began gulping down water from the cup on the bedside table, appearing extremely thirsty.

Putting down the cup and wiping his mouth, he lay back down to continue sleeping.

Aurora turned her head and looked at Lu Mian:

"How about it? He does have some problems, right?"

"This isn't just 'some' problems, this is a huge problem!" Lu Mian didn't hide his emotions in front of his sister. "Pierre Béry who herds humans, the deputy parish priest who is the key point of the time loop, Madame Pualis who makes men give birth, Naroka who went to the Other Shore World, the owl that has lived for who knows how many years, plus the deputy parish priest who has a 'lizard' living in his body—are there too many outstanding talents in Cordu village?"

In the previous loop, he had complained that the three official investigators, Ryan, Lyra, and Valentine, hadn't played any role. Now that he thought about it, how could that be blamed on them? The anomalies in Cordu village were truly extraordinary!

They might have done something, but the outcome was likely not good.

Aurora looked at her brother and said, half-reminding and half-teasing:

"You haven't mentioned the most outstanding talent yet."

"The only person in the whole village who can maintain memory in the loop and possesses a unique dream ruin."

"..." Lu Mian was speechless for a moment, only feeling a headache.

Aurora turned her head straight, looked at the mirror on the table, deliberated for a moment, and said:

"There shouldn't be any other changes here with the deputy parish priest. Although I could look deeper into his 'Astral Projection' state, that likely carries no small danger."

"It wouldn't matter if I had an accident because of this; the next loop would just be another living 'Witch.' But we currently lack too much intelligence. It's better to wait until we've gathered enough information before making further prying, so as not to cause the loop to restart early and waste time on explanation and communication."

Lu Mian had no objections; this was also his thought.

Aurora then said:

"I intend to let 'White Paper' go observe the parish priest now."

"..." Lu Mian was stunned for a second. "Didn't you just say not to pry deeply and not to trigger anomalies early?"

The parish priest is the key among keys, the problem among problems, and we're just going to rush over like this?

Aurora swept a smiling glance at him:

"I'm sure there's a certain degree of certainty that there won't be any problems by doing this."

Seeing Lu Mian both bewildered and worried, she explained in detail:

"You said yourself that on April 1st in the loop before last, you overheard the private exchange between the parish priest and Pons Bénet. At that time, the parish priest said he was still an ordinary person, but if I, a Beyonder, were to deal with him, he had a way to solve it."

"Considering the corresponding scene, and considering that there was no point in lying to you, an ordinary person, at that time, but instead self-detonating the anomaly, I tend to believe that the parish priest before April 1st was really just an ordinary human and hadn't obtained extraordinary abilities yet. And today is March 29th, and it's not yet midnight, so prying into him shouldn't cause problems."

"That's true." Lu Mian set his heart at ease.

Aurora continued:

"From the conversation between the parish priest and Pons Bénet, it can be analyzed that he might have already mastered a method to quickly obtain extraordinary abilities by April 1st. As soon as he discovered something was wrong, he could immediately become a 'Beyonder.' Of course, perhaps he could just utilize a certain item and felt he could handle me."

"Combining the strength the parish priest displayed at the Lent festival, which was completely unlike Sequence 9, I suspect he is following a path outside the divine path mentioned by that mysterious lady, which is praying to a certain existence, hoping to obtain a gift. Otherwise, he wouldn't have such a large change in strength in just a few days, and there were no obvious signs of losing control."

Lu Mian listened quietly to the end and suddenly thought of something:

"In that loop, on the morning of Lent, I had just become a 'Hunter' and met Pons Bénet. I wanted to beat him up to practice, but he ran away as if he had known in advance that I had become a Beyonder."

"Perhaps he also obtained some kind of gift and could smell the aura of danger..."

As he spoke, Lu Mian added another key point:

"It was probably April 3rd, at Naroka's funeral, when I stole a look from not far away and saw Pons Bénet enter her house."

"If Pons Bénet had already obtained a gift, with the sharpness he displayed on the morning of Lent, he wouldn't have failed to discover my prying as an ordinary person."

Aurora nodded:

"In other words, the parish priest and his group likely became Beyonders between Naroka's funeral and Lent."

That is, from the afternoon of April 3rd to the early morning of April 5th.

"Of course, the possibility of obtaining gifts in batches cannot be ruled out." Aurora added another sentence.

After such a discussion, the thread of events became a bit clearer. Lu Mian slapped his head forcefully and said "Ah."

"What's wrong?" Aurora asked doubtfully.

Lu Mian praised sincerely:

"I really should have communicated these things with you sooner. Your analytical ability is much stronger than mine!"

Aurora giggled:

"You, you only know how to praise me in different ways. You actually have less experience and not enough knowledge, which is why you didn't think of it the first time. You'll always discover these details slowly."

Regarding her brother's praise, she was hitting him verbally, but her expression was very much enjoying it.

Receiving Aurora's intent, "White Paper" flew toward the Bénet house.

In the entire Cordu village, except for the church and the administrative officer's residence converted from a castle, the Bénet house was built the highest and most luxuriously.

It was a grayish-blue three-story house with a chimney towering at the top.

As the head of the Bénet family, the parish priest Guillaume lived in the room on the east side of the top floor. At this time, the dark gray curtains were tightly closed, and the owner seemed to have fallen asleep.

This couldn't stump "White Paper"; it passed through the wall and merged into the darkness in the corner.

Inside the room, Guillaume Bénet, who had finished having an affair with Madame Pualis, had long since returned home, changed into silk light blue pajamas and pajama pants, and was sitting in an armchair, quietly, almost blankly looking at the curtain in front of the window.

Aurora's eyes became a bit deeper, and Guillaume Bénet's aura state was revealed accordingly.

The red, green, purple, and blue colors made Lu Mian feel dizzy for a while.

Recalling the knowledge his sister had taught, he tried hard to distinguish and discovered that apart from having a relatively hyperactive desire, the parish priest was still relatively healthy.

"What is he contemplating? Which mistress to date tomorrow?" Although the parish priest couldn't hear, Lu Mian still mocked him.

Just at this moment, Guillaume Bénet stood up, punched the air in front of him, and said hatefully:

"It's all your fault!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 52 =====