Chapter 565: Try Again

After hearing the content of the cooperation proposed by Louis Berry and the promises he was willing to make, Juan Oro again doubted whether something was wrong with his ears.

This wasn't because the other party's demands were too excessive or ridiculous, making one feel like he was telling a joke; on the contrary, the cooperation he wanted was something the Fishery Society could do without much difficulty, and without paying any substantial benefits.

This was completely beyond Juan Oro's expectations.

Before he came to find Louis Berry, he had actually prepared himself psychologically to be heavily "blackmailed." After all, the other party and the force behind him had very easily controlled Lato Giallo, showing strength sufficient to confront the Fishery Society. Who knew Louis Berry would be much easier to talk to than he had imagined.

This instead made Juan Oro feel like the other party was deceiving him, and would suddenly turn hostile during the cooperation and break their promises.

Lu Mian watched the old man with deep wrinkles quietly, not explaining his intentions, because explaining might expose his truest purpose, and it wasn't the time yet.

After weighing it for a moment, Juan Oro sighed with the appearance of an old man:

"We can agree to your request."

But in the process of cooperation, we will also increase our vigilance and prepare backup plans.

Lu Mian smiled, stood up from the backrest chair floating in the void, and extended his right hand toward Juan Oro:

"Happy cooperation."

Juan Oro shook it virtually with him and said:

"You aren't as crazy as you appear..."

Lu Mian pondered for a second, curled his lips slightly and said:

"Of course, I have always been an adventurer with brains, reason, and manners."

Juan Oro didn't have the mind for small talk, nodded to Louis Berry and said:

"Since you don't want our cooperation to be known by others, I should leave now, otherwise I will be discovered to have been here."

Lu Mian thought for a moment and said:

"I will send my companions hiding in the shadows to Milo Village tomorrow night. You should bring all the sailors who survived last year's ceremony to your main house in advance and control them initially."

"Good." Juan Oro didn't refuse; this was one of the cooperation contents agreed upon just now.

Seeing the old man leaning on a cane about to turn and leave, Lu Mian called him to a halt and said thoughtfully:

"I am very trustworthy. I promised Georgia that I wouldn't tell others the content of the commission, so I definitely won't say it.

"But I want to ask you one thing: has any 'Child of the Sea' from the Paco family gone missing recently, or not appeared for a long time?"

He hinted that his question was related to the commission from the Paco family.

Juan Oro's expression became solemn. He recalled for more than ten seconds and said:

"Those 'Children of the Sea' from the Paco family have all appeared recently.

"I initially thought that Rubio's mother, Marta, had some changes that were inconvenient for us to know, but it turned out she was fine, just seriously injured."

No "Child of the Sea" from the Paco family is missing? Then where did that humanoid lizard come from? Lu Mian was shocked.

His first thought was that the Paco family was dealing with other "Children of the Sea," and his second thought was whether some "Child of the Sea" from the Paco family had been replaced?

A fake family member is active in the appearance of the original, while the original turned into a humanoid lizard and died at the hands of the great adventurer?

Thinking of replacement, thinking of being active in the appearance of the original, Lu Mian couldn't help but associate it with a Sequence name:

"Faceless"!

That is the Sequence corresponding to the "Lie" earring, that is the Sequence before the "Marionettist" "Loki"!

Could it be that after "Loki" was resurrected, he came to Sangtagang, quietly replaced an important member of the Paco family, and lurked down, with the goal of setting a trap for me, and doing something during the Sea-Praying Ceremony to continue what was left unfinished last year?

Thinking of this, Lu Mian felt both excited and inevitably felt a certain fear.

But in a flash, he excluded this possibility:

If it were really "Loki" who replaced an important member of the Paco family, then there wouldn't be a humanoid lizard appearing at all. He could quietly solve the problem and clean up the traces without leaving such an obvious loophole!

Besides, the Paco family doesn't only have Rubio Paco as a "Child of the Sea," and Marta, this old grandmother, as a "Handmaiden of the Sea," also has the residual power of the sea in her body. How could they not handle a humanoid lizard whose strength level doesn't reach the middle Sequence, and have to risk leaking secrets to invite the great adventurer Louis Berry from outside to handle it?

As Lu Mian understood the Sea-Praying Ceremony more and more, and understood these "Sea Kin," he became increasingly confused about the Paco family's previous choice, believing that very important information must be hidden within it.

He looked at Juan Oro and organized his language:

"Is it impossible for descendants of the same 'Handmaiden of the Sea' to attack each other?"

"There is no such thing." Juan Oro denied Lu Mian's guess.

Lu Mian deliberately muttered to himself:

"Then why did the Paco family specifically find an outsider like me to handle that commission, instead of having the Beyonders in their own family do it?"

Juan Oro maintained the solemn expression from before:

"It is precisely because I have such confusion that I sent people to monitor the Paco family, sent the 'Little Devil' to ask you, and insisted on seeing Marta."

You call that wrinkled monster that looks like a little old man "Little Devil"? Lu Mian nodded gently and said:

"The Paco family must be hiding a not-so-small secret."

He didn't ask again, watching Juan Oro turn his body and walk away leaning on his cane.

Soon, the "void starry sky" around him receded, and he "returned" to the master bedroom of the suite with the curtains drawn, "returned" to the backrest chair in front of the desk.

Lu Mian smiled, turned his body halfway, grasped the curtain, and pulled it open with a 'shua'.

The morning sunlight shone in instantly, bright and brilliant.

…………

The next night, Milo Village, inside the Oro family ancestral house, which was only one floor shorter than the "Sea Viceroy" mansion.

This building, which had undergone many renovations, had both ancient and modern, old and trendy, with concrete-poured pilasters beside black-gray stone walls, and red cylindrical tiles under a roof covered with seaweed.

The bedroom door of the small living room on the first floor had been closed, leaving only Juan Oro, the old man leaning on a black cane, his most valued grandson Fernandez Oro, and seven or eight Milo Village villagers who had fainted on the ground.

Suddenly, in the corner of the room, shadows floated, and a figure walked out.

That figure was a little over 1.7 meters tall, with an ordinary face and no special features. He wore a brown-green narrow-sleeved short jacket on his upper body, loose brown-yellow long pants on his lower body, stepped on leather shoes without laces with ventilation holes, and wore a felt hat with a low top and round brim.

"Who are you?" Juan Oro asked in Intis.

As one of the most powerful sea merchants in Sangtagang, he had gone to sea to do business many times between the ages of thirty and fifty; how could he not understand Intis?

That person replied in fluent Highland language:

"I am Louis Berry's companion. You can call me Chanem."

Doesn't look like the spirit-type Beyonder Lato encountered... Louis Berry really has more than one companion hiding in the shadows... Juan Oro felt a bit fortunate that he chose to negotiate first to try.

As thoughts turned, he glanced at Fernandez, whose face was still a bit pale, knowing that he was not very willing in his heart.

Young people, this is normal; they always care about who suffered a loss and who took advantage, forgetting what the most important goal is.

"You can start questioning them," Juan Oro said to the man who called himself Chanem. "Actually, over the past year, we have used many methods to determine if they were lying, and even utilized the specialties of other Sea Kin, but all results show that they told the whole truth without concealment, and the failure of the Sea-Praying Ceremony has nothing to do with them."

Chanem curled his lips and responded with a smile:

"How would you know if it works without trying it yourself?"

He walked to the fainted sailors, took out a dagger, pricked their fingertips one by one, and smeared the corresponding blood on different places on the back of his own hand.

In such pain, those sailors woke up one after another.

Chanem took out a mirror in front of them and said to them with a smile:

"Your blood will tell me if you are lying, if you are the person yourself. Whoever deceives me, his blood will burn on the mirror, and he himself will have the same ending.

"Alright, answer in turn."

While Chanem was speaking, he unhurriedly moved the blood on the back of his hand onto the mirror, letting all the sailors see that the blood strangely seeped into the glass.

The sailors glanced at Juan Oro, simultaneously understanding that this was still an investigation into the cause of the failure of last year's Sea-Praying Ceremony, so they very skillfully told their experiences without any omissions.

After Chanem finished listening, he asked thoughtfully:

"Was it Iru and Sara who were responsible for transporting the lamb offerings?"

"Yes," all the sailors answered in unison.

Chanem asked further:

"Did they both die in the Sea-Praying Ceremony?"

The surviving sailors nodded one after another, indicating that the two companions were thrown off the ship in the giant waves of the ceremony's failure, fell into the sea, and never floated up again.

Chanem turned his head to look at Juan Oro:

"Are there any relics of Iru and Sara? Clothes worn many times, toothbrushes that haven't been discarded, etc., etc.

"I want to try to summon their spirits. Although a year has passed, their spirits must have dissipated a lot and can no longer remember effective information, but the state of their spirits themselves will also reveal some things, such as deep resentment and hatred, etc."

Juan Oro shook his head:

"After the Sea-Praying Ceremony, we tried, but couldn't summon their spirits. People swallowed by the raging sea also have their spirits swallowed."

Chanem smiled and said:

"Try again. Trying won't lose anything."

Juan Oro thought it was the same, and immediately instructed Fernandez to take the diseased tooth of Iru and the clothes of Sara that had been used for spirit channeling.

Then, they saw Chanem set up an altar and hold a summoning ceremony:

"I!

"I summon in my name:

"The sailor of Milo Village, Sangtagang, a man named Iru Edra, the owner of this tooth..."

A whistling wind blew, and the altar's candle flame was dyed with a gloomy green color.

A blurry figure soon stood out.

Succeeded? Actually succeeded? Fernandez's pupils dilated as he looked above the candle flame.

That figure vaguely presented Iru's appearance, but there was no manifestation of drowning such as being soaked all over or having pale, bloated skin; instead, his face was full of blood shadows, and there was an obvious wound on his forehead.

The eyes of this ghost were full of pain and hatred.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 566 =====