Chapter 528: Determination (Thanks to Tan Gu for the Silver Alliance donation)

Bartner blurted out in astonishment:

"Your wandering around blindfolded that day actually had an effect..."

The place he stopped at was actually the next target of the "Devil Warlock" Burman!

Without waiting for Lumian to respond, the adventurer muttered to himself in confusion:

"Are you a favored one of luck?"

No, a favored one of disaster... Lumian replied in his heart.

As his thoughts raced, Bartner suddenly had a new guess:

Could this guy be the "Devil Warlock" Burman himself?

He went to the explosion site to investigate to show off by returning to the crime scene, and he wandered around blindfolded to randomly pick his next victim!

Such an explanation was far more reasonable than being favored by luck!

Lumian glanced at Bartner's suddenly tense facial muscles and said with a smile:

"You don't think I'm Burman, do you?

"How many days have I been in Falingang?"

That's right, the incident happened the night he just arrived in Falingang... Bartner didn't dare to say this out loud.

"When the explosion occurred in the Black Pearl District, I was still praying in the church." Lumian amusingly provided an alibi.

Bartner thought for a moment and felt relieved, but the confusion on his face still remained.

Lumian sighed and said:

"I actually didn't think that wandering around blindfolded the day before yesterday would really lead to something related to the 'Devil Warlock'; I just thought it was fun."

This was the truth.

But the result made him have to suspect that the corruption brought by "0-01" might be more serious than he imagined.

Of course, it could not be ruled out that Trier, existing as a Fourth Epoch seal, effectively suppressed the problems that already existed in him.

The excuse of "thinking it was fun" barely convinced Bartner, because he felt that Louis Berry was just that kind of person.

But there were traps hidden in the other party's "fun" from time to time; whoever treated him as a fool would become a fool!

"Perhaps I was really favored by luck the day before yesterday." Lumian reached a final conclusion.

Then, he recounted his speculation about the relationship between the "Devil Warlock" and Fidel in its entirety, and finally said with great regret:

"It's a pity that even I don't believe I could have such luck."

Lumian's reasoning completely convinced Bartner, making him believe that the reason "Devil Warlock" Burman had not been caught and could obtain resources was because he had formed a close symbiotic relationship with the big merchant Fidel, and the reason for the subsequent tragedy should be that the pursuit by official Beyonders put pressure on them, leading to infighting.

This also ruled out the possibility that Louis Berry was the "Devil Warlock"; he had only been in Falingang for a few days, while Burman had been here for a long time.

"What a pity..." Bartner sighed along, "If we had sold the clue that the 'Devil Warlock' and Fidel had a close connection to the authorities in advance, we could definitely have exchanged it for a lot of bounty."

Starting at 5000 Felkins!

Speaking of this, Bartner shook his head himself:

"No, without evidence, the authorities won't believe it. We can't tell them that we really have luck protecting us and found the clue by wandering around blindfolded, right? They won't believe it if we say it; they'll only arrest us as scammers."

Lumian immediately laughed:

"Can't you forge a little evidence to prove the authenticity of the clue?

"Just say you saw someone suspected to be the 'Devil Warlock' appear at the back door of Fidel's house, and let the official Beyonders confirm it themselves. When the time comes, they will naturally discover the problem."

"Th-this, this works too?" Bartner's mouth opened slightly.

"Why wouldn't it?" Lumian smiled, "If they really discover the 'Devil Warlock', you can tell them, don't worry about the details, just say whether the clue is true or not, and whether it helped you catch the 'Devil Warlock'. If you fail to track Burman, that at most counts as minor fraud, and they will only take you to labor for a few days.

"Don't official Beyonders allow adventurers to report some clues they aren't even sure about themselves? This would only lead to them missing real information."

After hearing Lumian's words, Bartner was silent for a few seconds and said:

"You don't have Archipelago ancestry, do you?"

He could be said to be very good at fraud.

Lumian said casually:

"I knew an Archipelago person in Trier; he possessed rich experience and techniques in fraud."

While speaking, Lumian raised his left hand with great interest and pinched his left eye socket.

He looked at Bartner and said:

"How many years have you been an adventurer? How are you still so, so naive?"

"More than a year." Bartner tried hard to defend himself, "I just habitually follow the law and rules when dealing with the authorities. Facing pirates and other adventurers, I have equally flexible methods."

"Aren't those adventurers who provide clues to the authorities in secret also full of lies, cheating whenever they can?" Lumian said amusingly.

He suspected whether Bartner came from a good background and had received a good education, which was why he was rigid and followed the rules.

This could be preliminarily verified from the other party's clothing and appearance.

Seeing Bartner silent, Lumian drank the remaining salted coffee and looked back at the bustling open-air market:

"Try not to go to morgues, cemeteries, and such places during this period."

Bartner just wanted to ask why, but instantly understood the true meaning of this advice:

The "Devil Warlock," having lost the resources provided by the big merchant Fidel, would very likely be forced to take some actions!

…………

At noon, Lumian returned to Room 5 of the first-class cabin on the "Flying Bird," seeing that the master bedroom had already replaced the carpet, bed, wardrobe, desk, and other furniture, and various decorations had been placed back, but the distortion and cracks in the metal walls were only slightly repaired and not truly fixed.

Not long after, his messenger, "Penitent" Bainfer, walked out from the void and handed him a letter.

This was from Franca:

"According to your latest description and my discussion with '007' last night, I preliminarily suspect that the 'Devil Warlock' Burman forcibly switched sequences.

"He should have originally been a 'Warlock', but in order to resurrect his wife, he switched to the non-adjacent 'Death' pathway, becoming half-mad, becoming half-human and half-monster.

"This can actually also be explained by a 'Warlock' obtaining an evil god's gift, but I have observed your situation, and there was no situation of fusion and mutation of Beyonder abilities from two pathways, while this was clearly presented in Burman's battle. The illusory eye you mentioned both has the 'Secret-Keeper's Eye' seeing the true side, and also showed the 'Death' pathway's suppression, and even enslavement, of the spirit body itself.

"As far as I know, the 'Death' pathway has had the 'Death Eye' ability since Sequence 8 'Gravedigger'. Did it fuse with the 'Secret-Keeper's Eye' to form that special illusory eye?"

Seeing this, Lumian suddenly recalled the appearance of that illusory eye:

Embedded vertically in the forehead, illusory and blurry, deep purple near black, with a large number of pale patterns...

This indeed somewhat resembled a fusion and mutation of the "Secret-Keeper's Eye" and "Death" pathway abilities.

Lumian's gaze moved down, reading the content that followed:

"White feathery down, rotting wounds, driving multiple undead creatures, unstable emotional state, extreme behavior patterns all indirectly verified my speculation...

"The origin of those old bloodstains is very strange. I did a few 'Magic Mirror Divinations' and found different objects of inquiry, but only got the answer that they came from the depths of the Spirit Realm, without further information. It seems that Burman, who is half-mad and cannot be reversed, has some other encounters."

Unstable emotions... extreme behavior... half-mad and cannot be reversed... Lumian chewed on these descriptions and sighed inaudibly:

How determined and desperate must Burman have been when he chose to drink the "Death" pathway potion.

Wild Beyonders do not know that they can jump to adjacent pathways at specific sequences; they will only continue to walk down one "Divine Pathway." To them, the sporadic cases and rumors they hear are all telling them that once a "Divine Pathway" is chosen, it cannot be changed. If they forcibly drink potions from other pathways, they will go mad at best, and collapse and die at worst.

Moreover, "Secret-Keeper" and "Death" are indeed not adjacent pathways and cannot be jumped to.

Without the determination not to fear death, without the belief that he would resurrect his wife even if he went mad himself, Burman would not have drunk that portion of the "Death" pathway potion.

Lumian tried to put himself in that situation and state, feeling that he would also make the same choice.

This was the reason for his complicated emotions at this moment.

Franca wrote at the end of the letter:

"You don't need to worry about the subsequent matters. With Burman's mental state, without Fidel's support and restrictions, it won't be long before he appears again. In order to collect materials for the next experiment, even if he can succeed once or twice more, he won't be able to keep succeeding. In a few weeks, or even a few days, he will be cleared by official Beyonders."

Lumian glanced at "Penitent" Bainfer, who had not yet left:

"Help me deliver the reply to the one who sent the letter."

While speaking, he quickly wrote a line of words:

"I will kill Burman as soon as possible."

Not long after, "Penitent" Bainfer brought back Franca's reply:

"Why?"

Lumian wrote on the same piece of paper:

"I want to punish his sins..."

Lumian paused and continued writing:

"And, end his suffering."

After habitually folding the letter paper into a square, Lumian handed it to Bainfer while glancing at this messenger:

"Won't it be very troublesome to deliver letters back and forth like this?"

This was not concern, but confusion.

"Penitent" Bainfer did not leave immediately after delivering the letter, but waited to see if there was a reply.

This time, Bainfer did not remain silent, but answered in a low voice:

"Being busy makes me feel better.

"Having something to do is better than always looking at the darkness."

Lumian listened quietly without responding, watching "Penitent" Bainfer turn and walk into the void.

He actually felt a bit of empathy for those two sentences.

Franca did not stop Lumian, and the reply was concise and powerful:

"Be careful!"

Hu... Lumian exhaled, walked to the window of the living room, and cast his gaze toward Falingang bathed in the scorching sunlight and the distant Andatna Volcano.

PS: Thanks to Tan Gu for the Silver Alliance donation.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 529 =====