Chapter 58: Arrangement (Request for April Guaranteed Monthly Tickets)

Aurora recalled the situation at the time and believed it should be as her brother said.

She sighed sincerely:

"Just knowing of Him could bring such terrifying corruption... The hidden existence worshipped by the shepherd Pierre Béry and the others is truly terrifying. Many evil gods in ancient notes don't have such performance."

"Otherwise, why would we be trapped in a time loop?" Lu Mian didn't feel surprised.

Aurora thought more and more off-track, muttering:

"It wouldn't be that by the Twelfth Night, we need to face that hidden existence directly and beat it down to break the loop, right?

"And this requires you to gather materials in loop after loop, digest potions, and become a god..."

Seeing his sister saying things that were more and more outrageous, things that even a guy with guts as big as his didn't dare to think about, Lu Mian interrupted her train of thought:

"Stop!

"It shouldn't reach that degree."

Aurora said "Mm" and nodded slightly:

"That's true. At most, we have one more loop. Becoming a god in twenty days is obviously impossible."

She then spread her hands:

"No hope, just wait for death."

"..." With a brain that could always come up with all kinds of excellent pranks, Lu Mian couldn't keep up with his sister's train of thought at all.

"Phew." Aurora exhaled and looked at her brother. "Alright, I've finished venting. Continue."

"Huh?" Lu Mian's face was full of bewilderment.

It took him a few seconds to figure out what his sister meant by "continue":

"The sheep that those three people turned into seem to have been sent back to Cordu as sacrifices. No wonder we didn't wait until early May."

"Is the Twelfth Night actually the day for a large-scale sacrifice to that hidden existence?"

Aurora's eyes turned, and she said:

"I originally guessed so too, but before the Lent festival, how did the parish priest and his group obtain gifts of different degrees together? According to my understanding, this should be exchanged through sacrifice."

Lu Mian started from the perspective of doing bad things and, combining the things that happened in the loop before last, guessed boldly:

"A small sacrifice, a big ritual?

"At the end of the Lent festival, the parish priest, who had obtained extraordinary power, no longer hid his own anomalies. He was clearly going to do something big!"

Aurora pondered for a while and said:

"The Lent festival might be part of the big ritual."

"Before the big ritual, the parish priest finally made up his mind to sacrifice his heart to that evil god and, in cooperation with certain sacrifices, exchanged for a large amount of gifts, completely revealing his true face."

"Looking at it this way, from the Lent festival on, everyone in Cordu will be involved, and no one can escape."

The siblings looked at each other, both believing that the guess just now was very close to the truth.

But the problem is, if it really starts from the Lent festival, the anomaly will break out completely and stretch to the Twelfth Night. How can they "wait honestly" until the final ritual to find the key to the loop?

Everyone in the village, except for those who died or became sacrifices, will likely be corrupted!

"I'm only a Sequence 7..." Aurora couldn't help but raise her hand to cover her face. "And you are only Sequence 9."

We have to face such things!

According to Lu Mian's description of the battle at the end of the Lent festival and his recent experience of hunting black-mark monsters, Aurora believed that she definitely wasn't the opponent of the parish priest after obtaining the gift. Even the shepherd Pierre Béry, she felt she had to prepare in advance to fight.

At that time, Lu Mian was able to kill the mutated parish priest one-on-two. He didn't know what kind of dog-shit luck he had walked.

And to prevent the parish priest and the others from obtaining extraordinary power in advance, the Twelfth Night might not come, and the loop will likely restart early.

"Hell difficulty! Hell difficulty!" Aurora patted the dining table in front of her with grief.

Before Lu Mian could respond, she raised her hands and rubbed her golden hair, as if venting something.

After finishing the set of actions, Aurora restrained her expression and said calmly to Lu Mian:

"Tomorrow morning, you go find those three outsiders. You can appropriately reveal the anomalies in the village to them. You don't need to hide the fact that we are Beyonders too much."

"This is very dangerous..." Lu Mian replied subconsciously.

Don't wild Beyonders naturally have guilt when encountering officials?

Aurora exhaled slowly and said:

"Under the current circumstances, we can't care about that much anymore."

"Except for that mysterious lady, the three of them are likely the people in the village with the fewest problems and who can be trusted the most, and each of them possesses strength not much worse than mine, perhaps even stronger."

"We are all grasshoppers on the same rope. Don't dislike each other. Whether it's wild Beyonders or official Beyonders, we must unite."

"As for whether we will be hunted by the officials in the future, worry about that later. Now, consider the matter of escaping the loop first."

Lu Mian had heard his sister say the phrase "grasshoppers on the same rope" before, knowing it meant everyone was in the same predicament facing the same problem, and if something really happened, no one could run away, so they had to unite.

"Good, I'll go find them tomorrow." He agreed.

Aurora then said:

"I suspect there is another person behind the parish priest and the shepherd Pierre. He is the beginning of everything, the source of corruption."

"Madame Pualis?" Lu Mian guessed. "She is not only powerful but also the parish priest's lover. She can quietly control him and use him to influence others in the village."

"But she has no relationship with the shepherd Pierre on the surface." Aurora looked at her brother and frowned in thought. "From the encounter of those three sheep, when Pierre and Nior transferred to the plains last October, they should have already possessed extraordinary power, or at least mastered corresponding knowledge, because they didn't return in between and had no way to obtain it."

"This means the anomalies in the village can be traced back to last July or August. Uh, did you notice any problems?"

Lu Mian shook his head slowly:

"No."

He originally thought he was very familiar and understood Cordu village very well, but now he discovered that the undercurrent had existed for more than half a year, which made him feel very strange here and filled him with fear from the bottom of his heart.

Where exactly is the problem? Lu Mian only felt that there were layers upon layers of fog in front of him. Even if one layer was eliminated, there was another, and he could never see the true face of things.

Aurora continued:

"It could also be that owl."

"The wizard who died in the legend might not have truly died. He might still be hiding somewhere in the village, or he might be someone we see often."

"He might have discovered I'm also a 'Witch' early on, so he deliberately covered up that legend so I wouldn't know. For an ordinary person like you, there are no restrictions in this regard."

Speaking of this, Aurora ordered solemnly:

"Next time that owl comes to look at you, notify me immediately. I'll let 'White Paper' follow it to see where it flies."

Lu Mian said "Mm," indicating that he was also waiting for that owl to come again.

Next time, I'll pluck all your feathers! He cursed hatefully in his heart.

Aurora thought for a moment and made a third arrangement:

"Tomorrow afternoon, I'll invite Madame Pualis to our home as a guest. At that time, the administrative officer will still be working, and only the butler and servants will be left in the castle. You take the opportunity to sneak in and see if you can find some clues. Hmm, if you can convince those three outsiders in the morning, you can ask them for help this time."

When Madame Pualis was at home, she didn't dare to release "White Paper." When Madame Pualis was by her side, she couldn't be distracted, so she could only rely on her brother.

Lu Mian nodded first, then suggested:

"It's best not to be alone with Madame Pualis. I'm afraid she'll take the opportunity to deal with you."

"Invite Naala, Yiza, and the others for afternoon tea?"

The more people, the higher the safety factor.

"Good." Aurora felt this was a better choice.

She then said, half-concerned and half-teasing:

"You also be careful after sneaking into the castle. I don't want to be an aunt right now."

Lu Mian didn't dare to counterattack, only using his eyes to express "I'm more worried about you, because Madame Pualis is on your side."

During dinner, Aurora released "White Paper" to monitor the sheep pen and discovered that those three sheep had licked the blood off their faces clean themselves, not letting the shepherd Pierre Béry discover any anomalies.

After that, until falling asleep, Lu Mian accepted mystical education again and mastered several Hermes words, including "I," "name," "summon," "need," "light," and "sun."

"Light" was the incantation to open the "Honest Brooch," with a total of three segments in pronunciation.

…………

In the room filled with faint gray fog, Lu Mian woke up.

He walked to the window and looked again at that dark red "mountain peak" and the circles of building ruins surrounding it.

I wonder what secrets are hidden here... Lu Mian muttered.

As he watched, he suddenly had an idea:

There were too many dangerous areas in that ruin that he couldn't or didn't dare to approach, such as the area where the three-faced monster wandered. But if he could summon a Spirit Realm creature like "White Paper," sign a contract with it, and let it help him sneak in and observe, he should be able to harvest more intelligence.

—His vision, sense of smell, and hearing all involved the enhancement brought by extraordinary characteristics, which theoretically belonged to a type of supernatural power and could allow "White Paper" to carry one of them.

As he pondered, Lu Mian muttered silently:

"The problem now is whether a Spirit Realm creature can be summoned in the dream ruin...

"If not, summon it in reality, sign a contract, and then see if it can be brought into the dream through the connection between each other...

"What impact will adding a new contract creature have on the loop? Can the corresponding Spirit Realm be newly added? If not, when the summoning time is up, the contract creature will return, and the loop will restart..."

Lu Mian felt his head grow bigger the more he thought about it, feeling deep awe for mysticism, only hoping to master a small amount of language sufficient to complete a summoning ritual as soon as possible.

Without delaying any longer, he took the hunting rifle, brought the remaining lead bullets, tucked the sharp axe, left his home again, crossed the wilderness, and entered that ruin again.

PS: Request for April monthly tickets~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 59 =====