Chapter 673: Opening

Hearing Bunia's words, Ruya was so surprised that she even forgot to be angry.

She was not a young girl who had never experienced things, nor was it her first time facing a similar scene. What surprised her was that a man who had a fairly good image in her mind would reveal such an expression and say such words.

And this was even in a situation where their relationship couldn't even be counted as friends!

At this moment, Ruya doubted whether she hadn't woken up yet, and also kindly guessed whether Bunia had suffered some kind of blow, developed a mental illness, or was suffering from hysteria as the "Dream Festival" approached.

Just when Ruya was suspicious and uncertain, Bunia laughed even more lewdly.

He directly stretched out both hands, across the cooking counter, and grabbed toward Ruya's chest.

Ruya instinctively leaned back, trying to dodge.

And after Bunia failed to touch her, his hands retracted, he supported himself on the cooking counter, jumped up, and amidst the collision of coffee cups and glass jars, directly pounced toward Ruya, who was leaning back.

Such a reaction, such a choice, such a sense of power, were somewhat beyond Ruya's expectations. She didn't have time to take down the hunting bow and arrows from her back, so she took advantage of the momentum to continue bending her waist backward, while her right foot, like the other end of a seesaw, kicked upward with a smack, landing exactly on Bunia's abdomen, kicking this coffee shop boss, whose temperament had changed drastically, directly away.

At the same time, a thought flashed through Ruya's mind:

"Is he really crazy?"

Thump, Bunia fell to the front side of the cooking counter.

Ruya used the strength in her waist and back to stand straight again, then took down the hunting bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed at Bunia, who had just flipped over and stood up.

Bunia immediately revealed an expression of fear, froze for a second, and then said in a pleading tone:

"Don't, don't kill me!

"I suddenly couldn't control myself just now!"

Looking at that face filled with emotions like pleading and fear, Ruya felt that this person, Bunia, was both familiar and strange. The arrow nocked on the bowstring was only pulled back, not released.

On the street entering Tizamo Town from the direction of the primeval jungle, Lu Mian looked at the houses on both sides where lamps were lit one by one and sneered:

"Is this very terrifying and weird?"

It was not the first time he had encountered a similar scene change. In that Trier of the Fourth Epoch, he had witnessed similar things. That time, not only did the dark town have lights again, but the entire Fourth Epoch Trier turned from static to motion, from dead silence to clamor, completely coming alive.

Facing such an anomaly now, Lu Mian was undoubtedly somewhat surprised and had high vigilance, but he did not suffer a strong emotional impact because of it, and on the surface, he had the leisure to observe the surroundings.

He discovered that Lei Yasa and Ma Disi were both gone; the two patrol team members who should have been following closely behind him were both gone.

"Since they could make two Beyonders disappear silently under my nose, they could certainly make me disappear the same way... In other words, I should have also suffered the influence; the daze just now was most likely the external manifestation...

"From an occult perspective, a town that had long entered deep sleep relighting its lamps without encountering significant accidents represents that another scene has arrived, a scene related to the original but different...

"Could this be a forced dream entry?

"Has the 'Dream Festival' officially begun?

"And I didn't sleep in the house 'Ciss,' so why am I still maintaining consciousness?"

Lu Mian combined the problem he was investigating and quickly had a guess about the current situation.

Just then, he saw a figure revealed under the illumination of the light behind a glass window surrounded by wooden boards and weeds diagonally ahead.

That was a local man in his early forties, with dark brown skin, brownish eyes, black hair, and thick lips.

Lu Mian had seen him; he was a hunting guide responsible for taking gentlemen and ladies from places like Port Pylos into the jungle to find prey.

Lu Mian's impression of him was that he always had a fawning smile on his face, answered "yes, yes, yes" to whatever others said, and never got angry because of being punished by gentlemen and ladies.

Seeing Lu Mian, this hunting guide's mouth split open, revealing a smile full of cruelty.

He violently pushed open the window and then raised his other hand, which was holding a double-barreled shotgun.

"Go to hell, Northern Continent dog!"

While cursing, the hunting guide aimed the double-barreled shotgun at Lu Mian and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang!

A large amount of lead shot spread out in a cone shape, covering the corresponding area.

And Lu Mian, at the same time the hunting guide aimed, lunged out sideways, continued rolling, and arrived at the side of the street on the other side.

What came into his view were the cattle, sheep, and horses that had been quite quiet before.

At this time, the eyes of these animals all seemed a bit bloodshot.

Lu Mian supported himself with one hand, jumped up, and amidst the high-pitched calls of "moo," "baa," and "bleat," and the hunting guide's aiming again, jumped to the middle section of the stairs leading to the second floor.

A scream of "ah" erupted suddenly and then stopped abruptly.

The door on the second floor was opened, and what appeared before Lu Mian's eyes was a young man covered in fresh red blood, holding a huge axe that was still dripping blood, with a corpse of a man in his fifties lying behind him, whose shoulder and neck area were already bloody and blurred, with the wound deep into his chest.

Lu Mian, who had been wandering around Tizamo Town for several days, was no stranger to these two people.

Lying on the ground with wide-open eyes was the leather craftsman of Tizamo Town. He would purchase animal furs brought back by gentlemen, ladies, and hunters in the town that they didn't want to process themselves, and then process and sell them.

The one holding the axe was his eldest son, who followed him to learn leather tanning and other leather-making crafts. He was a well-behaved and obedient young man, and his father was not the kind of old-fashioned craftsman who would beat or scold.

This was the characteristic of the people of Tizamo Town: docile, peaceful, with no intense emotional expression.

And now, the leather craftsman's eldest son seemed to have just hacked his father to death.

After seeing Lu Mian, the young man's eyes overflowed with bloodthirsty joy.

He shouted and hacked toward Lu Mian with the axe, while the hunting guide on the other side began to load new lead bullets into the double-barreled shotgun.

Lu Mian's body suddenly blurred, merged with his own shadow, and disappeared into the darkness on the side of the stairs.

"Shadow Transformation"!

Using this ability to sneak toward the Police Headquarters for a few seconds, Lu Mian suddenly heard someone pleading in terror.

He broke away from the shadow, turned back into a human, and saw Ruya aiming at the coffee shop boss, Bunia, with an arrow, but she hesitated for a long time and didn't release the arrow.

Just then, on the top of the house opposite, inside the multi-layered hay, a giant python as thick as a bucket drilled out and hung down.

It opened its cold eyes, opened its mouth full of stench, and the patterns on its scales seemed to be expanding.

This time, Lu Mian did not dodge.

Facing the giant python trying to swallow him, his eyes darkened as he swung his fist upward.

With a "whoosh," scorching white flames ignited from his fist, covering his entire forearm.

Bang!

Lu Mian's fist slammed into the giant python's mouth, blasted open the bloody flesh, and slammed into the inside of its upper jaw.

Before it could complete the action of swallowing a human, the giant python's cold eyes lost their luster, its body fell by inertia, but Lu Mian easily jumped away and withdrew his fist.

Clang!

The giant python slammed heavily onto the ground, and its body covered in slippery scales erupted with scorching white flames from the inside out.

"Weakness Detection"!

Lu Mian walked toward Ruya and saw that this patrol team member was also looking at him, her expression vigilant, her eyes suspicious, not launching an attack immediately.

She... Lu Mian's heart stirred, and he smiled:

"It seems you are still maintaining consciousness."

Ruya, while guarding against Bunia, observed Louis Berry for a while and said hesitantly:

"You said, consciousness?"

"Yes." Lu Mian pointed to Bunia, who was looking at him with hateful eyes, "Did he try to attack you just now, even wanting to rape you?"

"Yes." Ruya didn't ask "How do you know" and said directly, "What exactly happened?"

Lu Mian smiled:

"Perhaps, we have entered a dream again, but this time, it's not just us."

From Ruya's situation, where she was clearly still maintaining consciousness, he made a preliminary judgment:

Sleeping in the house "Ciss" during the recent period and having entered the special dream might be the reason for maintaining consciousness!

This needed to find Camus to make further confirmation.

Hearing Louis Berry's answer, a term suddenly flashed through Ruya's mind.

Before she could say it, she suddenly heard three bell rings: "Dang, dang, dang."

The bell sound echoed throughout Tizamo Town, as if it were summoning the people here.

Ruya listened for a moment, her expression changed slightly:

"It's the church bell!"

Church, Saint Cien Church? Lu Mian immediately thought of Father Cali, who had anomalies, and looked at Ruya:

"Let's go over and take a look."

"Okay." Ruya made the answer without hesitation.

She no longer pointed her arrow at Bunia, the coffee shop boss, and followed Lu Mian as they ran toward Saint Cien Church, which was separated from this place only by the Police Headquarters.

Bunia's expression changed repeatedly, sometimes full of desire, sometimes with hatred, but because of fear, he didn't dare to chase after them to take action.

Lu Mian and Ruya ran extremely fast, and in just a few seconds, they crossed the Police Headquarters and arrived at the small square in front of Saint Cien Church.

Father Cali was already standing at the entrance of the church.

But he was no longer wearing the white-bottomed, gold-threaded clerical robe of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" Church, but had changed into a set of deep black, complex robes.

This priest, with dark brown skin, sunken eye sockets, hard contours, and very short black hair, looked at the empty small square, looked at Lu Mian and Ruya who had just arrived here, held the holy scripture, and shouted loudly with a crazy expression:

"I announce, the Dream Festival officially begins!

"During the Dream Festival, there are no taboos, no constraints, you can do anything you want to do, do whatever you want, including harm, and including killing.

"Celebrate, release all emotions and desires, everyone!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 674 =====