Chapter 790: Awareness (Thanks to Yizhiqian for the Silver Alliance donation)

Seeing "Mirror Divination" end, Lu Mian cast his gaze toward Anthony:

"The *Newins* must have run away. You go to the street and turn around, and learn from the pirates whether 'Giant Shark' and those key figures of the *Newins* managed to board the ship. If not, where are they now."

"Okay." Anthony understood that Lu Mian meant to grasp the whereabouts of "Giant Shark" Jörg and the others as soon as possible, to see if it was possible to "visit" the *Newins* again through them, and learn from Haer Constantine about the current situation of the elf race and which civilization "Lost Newins" belonged to.

In this matter, Lu Mian appearing directly definitely wouldn't work. Pirates would detour when they saw him. Even if they were forced to tell him the answer, it would alert "Giant Shark" Jörg and the others who might still be staying at Banamo Port, making them move to other positions and hide deeper. And if he changed into another appearance, pirates wouldn't be friendly to Lu Mian and tell him so much.

This principle also applied to Franca.

Currently, only Anthony, who had become friends with many pirates, could naturally obtain the intelligence he wanted.

Watching Anthony walk out of the room, Franca sat on the chair in front of the desk, sighing and lamenting:

"Why is the water in this time-travel matter getting deeper and deeper?"

"It's you who thought it was too simple before." Lu Mian mocked.

Franca didn't refute, sat silently for a while, and changed the topic:

"My 'Pleasure' potion is completely digested. I can try to hold the 'Pain Witch' ritual to promote after resting for a few days.

"To be honest, it's like having a dream. Is it digested just like that?"

She clearly still lacked a sense of reality.

Lu Mian smiled:

"Otherwise, what else do you want?

"If the 'Admiral of the Deep' knew our main purpose was to help you digest the 'Pleasure' potion, he would definitely feel this world is too absurd, feeling is this necessary? With the conditions of a 'Pleasure Witch,' directly coming to the door and taking a notarized document to constrain each other's behavior, demanding that both sides not harm each other, he would be very happy to help you with this favor."

"Mainly because I can't pass my own hurdle......" Franca muttered in a low voice, "And I know what you mean. If it were our world, there would be plenty of people saying 'helping a Pleasure Witch digest a potion is too evil, please be sure to find me.' But these are all pleasures floating on the surface, which is a very low-quality digestion. It doesn't embody the point of 'pleasure in pain, sinking in pleasure.' It requires a huge quantity to make up for it. On the contrary, the alternative pleasure targeting Moran Avigny and Haer Constantine is closer to the essential characteristics of the Witch pathway."

Lu Mian was just making a joke and didn't continue this topic.

Franca was silent for a while, looked at Lu Mian, and deliberated:

"I think the plan you mentioned about spreading the plague among pirates at Banamo Port is not okay and shouldn't be considered."

"Why?" Lu Mian raised his eyebrows and asked amusedly.

Franca straightened her back, her gaze didn't dodge, and she said firmly:

"I feel that there's no way to completely distinguish the damned pirates from the innocent passersby. The plague will definitely affect the latter, letting them die in despair."

Lu Mian laughed:

"What I proposed is just a train of thought, a direction. Whether it works or not is something to consider when perfecting the plan and detailing the steps. If there is a way to avoid the problem you mentioned, then move forward. If not, then it can be abandoned. You can't limit your thinking from the beginning and not even think about it, right?

"For example, by then, maybe I have already become a demigod and found a high-ranking substitute for the 'Bottle of Fiction,' and can put the entire Banamo Port into the bottle, setting a condition that only pirates can enter and exit."

"No." Franca shook her head

Lu Mian sighed with a smile:

"Then let's cooperate with the 'Aurora Order' or search for Beyonder items transformed from Sequence 5 'Broker' pathway Beyonders, and screen our targets based on whether they are guilty."

Franca thought about it seriously:

"That won't work either. Don't we also have a lot of sins? Many adventurers have killed multiple pirates; does that count as being guilty?"

Lu Mian was first stunned, then laughed:

"You are indeed suited to switch to 'Provoker'."

"I was just giving an example to show that one shouldn't reject a plan from the very beginning. One must carefully analyze its feasibility and consider future changes."

"Mm." After expressing her opinion, Franca quietly let out a sigh of relief.

She thought for a moment, and in the spirit that good brothers should remind each other and not be afraid of making mistakes in this regard, she said to Lu Mian straightforwardly:

"I feel that ever since you discovered the Vortex plan, your style of doing things has become a bit radical again, as if you've returned to the state you were in when you first arrived in Trier. Or, is it that 'Demon Whisper' from Ciel making your malice constantly surge? Hmm, the 'Traveler's Bag' only reduces its influence; it can't completely eliminate the negative effects."

Lu Mian laughed at himself:

"There are some influences from both."

He immediately restrained his smile and said to Franca quite seriously:

"But more importantly, I've recognized some things."

"What things?" Franca asked in confusion.

Lu Mian nodded:

"Coincidentally, I also intended to remind you. You've been a Witch for quite a long time now; haven't you discovered the essential style of this pathway?"

Franca fell silent.

Lu Mian continued in a low voice:

"Like the 'Hunter' pathway, it is destined to bring disaster and calamity. We are destined to belong to the darkness and represent destruction."

"Think about it, what is the evaluation Beyonders have for 'Hunters' and 'Witches'? It's danger. 'Hunters' are blood-colored danger, and 'Witches' are evil danger. We cannot hope to escape such an impression, nor can we."

"The subsequent digestion of potions and advancement rituals will force us to go deep into the darkness. Unless you give up on improving your strength and choose to remain in your current position forever, we will all have to face things that interrogate our souls."

"You can also consider switching pathways; of course, you can only switch to 'Hunter'."

Seeing Franca's expression change, yet she still didn't speak, Lu Mian suddenly laughed:

"What I want to tell you is, abandon your squeamishness. Don't think about escaping or giving up the moment you hear about evil or dark things. We need to face these things directly. Only in this way can we find a way to avoid evil and find that glimmer of light in the darkness."

"We will all be stained with black; we can only strive not to fall and not to betray the persistence in our hearts."

Franca was silent for a while longer before letting out a long sigh:

"'Pain' and 'Despair' indeed give me some bad premonitions. However, walking in the darkness and pursuing light in the darkness—won't we really be corrupted bit by bit and eventually sink completely?"

Lu Mian laughed:

"Do we have any other choice? We can only constantly fight against our own evil and darkness until we die."

Franca said "Mm," and remarked with feeling:

"Actually, all Beyonders are like this. The divine pathways are destined to be dangerous and inevitably mad, and 'Hunters' and 'Witches' manifest this more obviously and directly."

She didn't even dare to imagine what kind of struggle and pain she would have had, and what kind of present she would have, if she had chosen the "Demon" pathway back then.

When the negative effect of the "Decency" brooch on Jenna disappeared and Anthony returned to the hotel, he informed Lu Mian and the others of the current situation in Port Bansy:

The "Newins" had indeed fled, and "Giant Shark" Jorg and the others failed to board the ship and their whereabouts were now unknown.

Over the next two days, Lu Mian and the others disguised themselves and began searching for the first mate, second mate, and boatswain of the "Newins" in Port Bansy. However, whether through sociological investigation or occult tracking, they had no substantial gains. Instead, they discovered that some people suspected of serving "Admiral Deep Sea" had also disappeared.

This made Lu Mian suspect that "Giant Shark" Jorg and the others had already left Port Bansy through some channel. As for whether they had returned to the "Newins," it was temporarily unknown.

…………

Trier, in an apartment in the Memorial District.

Angouleme de Francois set up the ritual and summoned the messenger of "Seven of Cups."

He saw a rabbit-shaped spirit body emerge from the flames, but it was dressed extremely strangely:

Between its two ears, it wore a miniature top hat, on the bridge of its nose sat equally miniaturized gold-rimmed glasses, its body was draped in a black trench coat that clearly shouldn't belong to a rabbit, and in its hand, it gripped an iron-black revolver with a thick barrel but small enough overall for a large rabbit to use...

"Sleeve Sword's" messenger is actually quite, quite cute, with a unique style... I couldn't tell, she would actually dress her messenger like this... Angouleme picked up the letter he had already written and handed it to the rabbit messenger he found quite cute.

The rabbit suddenly swept a glance at him, its eyes cold and sharp.

Uh... Angouleme retracted his previous evaluation.

…………

Port Bansy, in one of the hotel rooms rented by Lu Mian and the others.

Franca finished reading Angouleme's letter and said in a very troubled manner:

"'007' has a lead on a 'Mirror Person' he wants us to investigate, but we still haven't found 'Giant Shark' Jorg and those people."

Compared to the "Mirror Person," she wanted to know the secret of the Elf race more.

Lu Mian leaned back against the chair, saying in a very relaxed posture:

"The worst-case scenario is that 'Giant Shark' Jorg and the others have already returned to the 'Newins' through a secret channel. If so, we won't have any gains no matter how long we stay here."

"Since that's the case, we might as well leave. Let's see if those people pop up after the alert is lifted. At the same time, we can also make a long-term plan, arranging for some people to keep an eye on Port Bansy. Perhaps after some time, the 'Newins' will come back to resupply?"

"That's fine." Franca accepted reality.

At this moment, Jenna discovered a problem:

Xia Zuotu was still staying in the room.

She hadn't given it the reward for this delivery yet.

PS: Thanks to Yizhiqian for the Silver Alliance donation to Lord of the Mysteries~

PS2: The gold louis from the previous chapter was left over from Jenna's bribery, not Lu Mian's.

(End of chapter)