Chapter 83: Key (Second update, seeking monthly votes)

Beside the small river winding past Cordu village, under the bright sunshine.

Aurora, sitting on the ground wearing that light blue dress, closed her eyes and finished listening to Lu Mian's feedback and speculation.

She didn't speak for a long time, as if falling into deep thought.

After nearly a minute, Aurora spoke deliberately:

"If the twelfth night ritual really had a change, causing the power descended by that hidden existence to dissipate and bringing about the time cycle for the entire Cordu village and surrounding areas, then I believe that people, and even spirits, who were in this area at that time, couldn't be spared."

"What do you mean?" Lu Mian, who was also sitting on the ground, didn't quite understand his sister's logic.

Aurora explained in detail:

"I mean, that is both power and pollution. Once it dissipates, everyone in this area will bear this pollution relatively equally. Only those with the protection of the black thorn symbol or other high-level existences can barely remain unaffected.

"Think about it, wasn't that situation like a dam collapsing, with the flood quickly submerging the entire place, including the roofs? Unless one had a boat prepared in advance, the body would inevitably get wet."

Lu Mian imagined such a scene and hesitated:

"In other words, everyone in the village was polluted by the dissipated power, equivalent to a part of the cycle?"

The "part" in his mouth didn't mean joining the cycle and being affected by the cycle, but more accurately expressed as one of the components constituting the cycle.

Aurora, eyes closed, blonde hair lightly pinned up, nodded gently:

"I suspect that not only will killing the assistant parish priest lead to a restart, but killing other villagers in Cordu will also lead to similar situations. This is equivalent to trying to destroy the components of the cycle, and there will inevitably be stress changes."

"But we killed that midwife yesterday afternoon..." Lu Mian didn't finish this sentence and stopped voluntarily.

He instantly thought of many things and said hesitantly:

"Is this because people in the castle received the protection of other high-level existences?

"Is this also the reason why Madame Pualis said she could leave the cycle at a specific moment?

"She wasn't polluted by that power, isn't a part of the cycle, belongs to the people affected, and can leave by borrowing loopholes or opportunities?"

Aurora sighed gently:

"So, she said she couldn't save us and couldn't take us away, because we have already been polluted and are one with the cycle."

Speaking of this, she smiled bitterly:

"Or rather, we have already died and are currently living in the form of cycle components.

"No wonder that mysterious lady said that forcefully breaking the cycle would lead to everyone here dying, because we are the cycle itself that is being forcefully broken."

Lu Mian was silent. He wanted to refute his sister, saying it wasn't so pessimistic, but this confirmed the mysterious lady's words very well.

What he had always been unable to understand was that with that lady's performance of freely entering and exiting the cycle, and with her daring to mention the hidden existence's rank, even if she couldn't break the cycle without damage, protecting two or three people to leave should have been an easy thing.

For this problem, there was now a more reasonable and more desperate explanation.

After a few seconds, Lu Mian looked for counterexamples:

"Ava, Raymond, and Naroka all died, and it didn't lead to a cycle restart."

Aurora, still with her eyes closed, said with a complicated smile:

"Maybe before the cycle started, they had already died and didn't participate in the twelfth night ritual, so they weren't polluted."

Her meaning was very clear: in the world line before the cycle, Naroka died before the Festival of Offerings, and Ava and Raymond were sacrificed at the celebration. None of them waited until the twelfth night and didn't belong to the cycle.

She thought for a while and added:

"The Jean Mori who went missing today might be this situation. According to normal development, he should have discovered the abnormality after the Festival of Offerings and before the twelfth night, tried to escape, and ended up being silenced. Our investigation just made this matter happen early.

"The only thing I don't understand is, wasn't Raymond's corpse sacrificed? He shouldn't have existed from the beginning of the cycle..."

Hearing his sister's words, Lu Mian instantly associated it with what happened in the church underground.

That "invisible person" wearing the black robe was composed of the spirits of Raymond and the others!

Lu Mian combined the occult knowledge he had already mastered and tried to speculate:

"Maybe the sacrifice at the Festival of Offerings wasn't directly sacrificed to that hidden existence, but to that altar, belonging to a part of the twelfth night ritual. So Raymond's spirit appeared under the church. His corpse didn't have any effect, but in the development before the cycle, Pons Bery and the others could leave Cordu. To prevent people downstream from discovering the corpse, reporting it upward, and attracting investigation, they might have fished the corpse back after completing the 'drifting with the current' part of the ritual.

"And after the cycle started, that power had its own limits and didn't cover the place where Pons Bery and the others fished the corpse. They were affected by the pollution in their bodies and couldn't generate the thought of leaving this area."

Aurora thought for a moment and nodded in agreement:

"In so many days of the cycle, except for you who retained memories, those three outsiders, Madame Pualis, and her subordinates, other villagers didn't even have the thought of going into the mountains to hunt or collect wild fruits.

"If it weren't for your reminder, I would have been like that too."

Speaking of this, Aurora revealed a desolate and self-deprecating smile:

"We are already a group of monsters, relying on the cycle to barely live as humans."

"No, there must be a way to save it. That lady said there is!" Lu Mian interrupted his sister's self-pity.

Aurora exhaled slowly:

"Can't you let your sister be fragile for a few minutes?"

She then said:

"According to this line of thinking, we can only rely on ourselves. External forces breaking the cycle is equivalent to killing us."

Lu Mian felt a bit emotional:

"It's a pity that this speculation can't be verified for now. We have to wait until the twelfth night to be sure."

"Verification can be verified, but it will waste a lot of our time, and I can't bring myself to do it." Aurora replied.

That's true... Lu Mian roughly understood his sister's meaning or plan:

Kill a villager who is currently not in the assistant parish priest's team to see if it will lead to a restart. If it does, then think of a way to kill one of the three outsiders to see if it will trigger the cycle. If it can't, then it verifies Aurora and Lu Mian's speculation—most people in Cordu village had already been polluted and were part of the cycle, while later people were just affected by the cycle and had the opportunity to use loopholes or external power to escape the cycle.

But doing so would waste the waiting of the previous days, and Aurora wasn't the type to kill innocent people, especially those who had already had good cooperation.

Lu Mian didn't have this moral obstacle. In his view, dying in the cycle wasn't really dying, and there would likely be some legacy problems, which was much better than being trapped to death in the cycle.

Of course, if he really wanted to do this, he wouldn't try to murder or trap Franca and the others, but would directly reason with the three outsiders.

With the fanaticism and piety Valentine showed, he had a good grasp of "persuading" this guy to commit suicide and try.

The siblings looked at each other, falling into silence for a while, not knowing what to say.

After a while, Lu Mian changed the topic:

"Sister, where do you think the key to breaking the cycle from the inside is?"

Aurora had been thinking about this question just now, and said while thinking:

"Breaking the cycle from the inside can't just be simply breaking the cycle. It must borrow the matter to remove the pollution in everyone's body; otherwise, what's the difference from suicide?

"Hmm, according to the previous speculation, the ritual had a change, causing the entire village to enter the cycle, and the reason the ritual had a change was because you had the mark of that great existence on you, it was stimulated, and the corresponding power descended on you, sealing the heavy pollution on your body in the heart position..."

Saying this, Aurora looked her brother up and down.

Lu Mian instantly understood:

"You mean, the key to breaking the cycle is me?"

Aurora nodded:

"The source of the change is with you, so the key to breaking the cycle naturally might also be with you.

"Of course, this is just a speculation. Maybe the key to the cycle is the carrier that bears the power descended by that hidden existence at the twelfth night ritual, for example, the assistant parish priest or someone else..."

Aurora suddenly fell silent, looked at her brother for a few seconds, and said:

"Is there a possibility that these two speculations are equivalent? You are that carrier? Otherwise, as a scrap sacrifice and a polluted person, even if any change occurred, it wouldn't have caused the ritual to fail completely and the power to dissipate uncontrollably."

Uh... Lu Mian thought more and more that his sister's speculation had a certain reason.

He muttered to himself in a low voice:

"So, the black thorn symbol on my chest is deeper in color than the assistant parish priest's...

"So, when the assistant parish priest dealt with me, he suddenly showed signs of losing control and was killed by me...

"So, that mysterious lady never pointed out where the key to breaking the cycle was, just let me explore the dream ruins and solve the secrets there..."

Aurora felt a bit excited:

"Right, that might be a hint!

"The dream ruins might directly originate from the pollution in your body, or be closely related to it. Therefore, when you are there, you can rely on the black thorn symbol to suppress every monster you encounter.

"And once you master the secrets there, you can control or safely stimulate the power in your body to a certain extent, recover the pollution on everyone in Cordu village, and the cycle will naturally be broken.

"Hmm, this might also have to be done at a specific time, for example, at the twelfth night ritual."

Lu Mian stood up with a swish:

"I'll go back and dream now!"

"No need to rush." Aurora supported the ground with her hand and stood up slowly, "Aren't you injured? Don't you want to rest for a while?"

Lu Mian patted his chest:

"That kind of water Madame Pualis sprinkled made all my injuries heal, and my spirituality has fully recovered."

"Uh, is it Willow nectar... Child-sending Goddess of Mercy..." Aurora whispered a sentence.

"What?" Lu Mian didn't understand at all. The language his sister spoke was very strange.

Aurora closed her eyes and smiled slightly:

"I mean, go home, fill your stomach, take a nap, and go explore in your dreams!"

PS: Second update, seeking monthly votes~ Thanks to Zhu Ri Yi Ran for the Golden Alliance reward.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 84 =====

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