Chapter 528: Determination (Thanks to Carbon Bone for the Silver Alliance)

Bartner was stunned and blurted out:

"Your random walking while blindfolded that day really was effective..."

The place where he stopped happened to be the next target of the "Devil Wizard" Bulman!

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

"Are you a favored one of luck?"

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

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

Could this guy be the "Devil Wizard" Bulman himself?

He went to the explosion site to investigate as a way to return to the crime scene and show off, and his blindfolded wandering was a random selection of the next victim!

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

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

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

"How many days have I been in Faling Port?"

That's right, the incident happened the night he arrived in Faling Port... 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." Lu Mian amusedly provided an alibi.

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

Lu Mian sighed and said:

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

This was the truth.

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

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

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

But there were traps hidden in his 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." Lu Mian made a final conclusion.

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

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

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

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

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

Starting at 5,000 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 the protection of luck and found the clue while blindfolded, right? Even if we said it, they wouldn't believe it; they would only arrest us as scammers."

Lu Mian 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 Wizard' 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?" Lu Mian smiled, "If they really discover the 'Devil Wizard', 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 Wizard'. If you fail to track down Bulman, it would at most be considered minor fraud, and they would only arrest you for a few days of labor.

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

After listening to Lu Mian'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.

Lu Mian said casually:

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

While speaking, Lu Mian 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?"

"A little over 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 means."

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

He suspected that it was because Bartner came from a good background and had received a good education that he was rigid in his actions and followed the rules.

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

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

"Try not to go to places like the morgue or cemetery during this period."

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

The "Devil Wizard," who no longer had the resources provided by the great merchant Fidel, would very likely be forced to take some action!

…………

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

Not long after, his messenger, "Penitent" Bayinfeier, 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 Wizard' Bulman forcibly switched sequences.

"He should have originally been a 'Wizard,' 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 the 'Wizard' obtaining a god's gift, but I have observed your situation, and there was no situation where the Beyonder abilities of the two pathways fused and mutated, and this was clearly presented in Bulman's battle. The illusory eye you mentioned both has the 'Seer's Eye' seeing the real side, and also shows 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 'Seer's Eye' to form that special illusory eye?"

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

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

This indeed looked a bit like a fusion mutation of the "Seer's Eye" and "Death" pathway abilities.

Lu Mian moved his gaze down and read the content that followed:

"The white feathery fluff, the rotting wounds, driving multiple undead creatures, the unstable emotional state, and the extreme behavioral patterns all indirectly confirmed my guess...

"The origin of that old bloodstain is very strange. I did several 'Magic Mirror Divinations' and found different objects to ask, but only got the answer that it came from the depths of the Spirit Realm, with no further information. It seems that Bulman, who is half-mad and cannot be reversed, has had some other encounters."

Unstable emotions... extreme behavior... irreversible half-madness... Lu Mian chewed on these descriptions and sighed inaudibly:

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

Wild Beyonders don't know that they can jump to adjacent pathways at specific sequences; they only continue to walk down one "God's pathway." For them, the sporadic cases around them and the rumors they hear are all telling them that once a "God's 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, "Seer" 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, Bulman would not have drunk that portion of the "Death" pathway potion.

Lu Mian tried to put himself in that situation and state, and felt 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 what happens next. With Bulman'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, he won't be able to keep succeeding. In a few weeks, or even a few days, he will be cleared out by official Beyonders."

Lu Mian glanced at "Penitent" Bayinfeier, who had not yet left:

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

While speaking, he quickly wrote a line of words:

"I will kill Bulman as soon as possible."

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

"Why?"

Lu Mian wrote on the same piece of paper:

"I want to punish his sins..."

Lu Mian paused and continued to write:

"And, end his suffering."

After habitually folding the letter paper into a square, Lu Mian handed it to Bayinfeier while glancing at this messenger:

"Is it troublesome to deliver letters back and forth like this?"

This was not concern, but confusion.

After "Penitent" Bayinfeier delivered the letter, he actually did not leave immediately, but waited to see if there was a reply.

This time, Bayinfeier was not silent, and he replied in a low voice:

"Being busy makes me feel a little better.

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

Lu Mian listened quietly without responding, watching "Penitent" Bayinfeier turn and walk into the void.

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

Franca did not stop Lu Mian, and her reply was concise and powerful:

"Be careful!"

Hu... Lu Mian exhaled, walked to the window of the living room, and cast his gaze toward Faling Port, which was bathed in the scorching sun, and the Andatna Volcano in the distance.

PS: Thanks to Carbon Bone for the Silver Alliance.

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