[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-ring-of-fate":3,"chapter-the-ring-of-fate-the-ring-of-fate-chapter-831":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Ring of Fate",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2298800,4496,"Chapter 831: Duplicity and Deceit","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-831",831,"\u003Cp>Cooperation? You’re trying to use me as cannon fodder, aren’t you? Hmm, perfect—I’ll just play along and extract some information about what items Julie actually has… Lu Mi, with his eyes bound in white bandages, wore an expression of “Is that so? I don’t believe you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How dangerous could it possibly be?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ablis, holding a lantern and likewise blindfolded, leaned against the wall of a burial chamber, using the eyes of dozens of steel automata over twenty meters away to observe every move Lu Mi made.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, he sneered inwardly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You found that broken head but didn’t put it in your bag—you’re carrying it in your hand despite how inconvenient it is. What are you planning?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And your right hand has been resting inside that bag made by a high-rank Acolyte all along…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The upper half of that broken head’s body should already be inside. You don’t want the head and body to reunite yet, fearing what might happen—so you plan to throw it out at the critical moment as a weapon that doesn’t distinguish friend from foe?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’ll give Julie and the others a nice surprise—I won’t bother trying it myself, to avoid wasting my own resources prematurely.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cooperation is great—it lets the dangers gather and cancel each other out…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ablis made one of the automata’s mouth open and close, producing a metallic voice:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The items on that ‘Witch’ were crafted by the Primordial Witch herself, just before she fell into slumber after the Pale Catastrophe of the Fourth Era. There are five of them—each allows the wearer to become a vessel for the Primordial Witch’s divine descent.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Divine descent vessel…” Lu Mi repeated the term.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Do your Witch Cultists really play that big?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d assumed Julie’s special item merely granted her temporary access to the power of Sequence 4, the Despair Witch, without granting her the status of a demigod, thus bypassing the taboos caused by “0—01.” He hadn’t expected her to briefly become the Primordial Witch herself!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even one-thousandth of one percent of her true power would still be god-tier strength!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ablis’s laughter echoed in layers within his metallic casing:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, a divine descent vessel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fortunately, that Witch named Julie is far too unstable as a vessel. If she were an Angel-tier Witch, she could sustain a divine descent for one or two minutes without dying. If she were a Saint-tier Witch, she could hold it for Shiji  seconds—though her spirit and flesh would shatter. But Julie is merely a Pain Witch—she can’t maintain divine descent for more than three seconds, and even then, she’ll be utterly annihilated.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course, even without invoking divine descent, the item grants her many unique abilities, allowing her to briefly wield Sequence 4 power.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If we don’t cooperate, fighting Julie in her normal state will be difficult, but not impossible. But if we push her to the brink and force her to invoke divine descent, neither of us will survive past three seconds.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But if we cooperate fully, unleashing all our hidden cards, we might just endure until her divine descent ends—then we’ll settle things on our own merits.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Endure three seconds before a Witch… Your words are so ambiguous. If you said this in Triel, the gossip reporters from the Boulevard newspapers would splice it into something you’d never want—and demand to know if you’re even capable… Lu Mi, long conditioned by Triel’s publications like The Ghoul Mask and Franca’s vulgar jokes, couldn’t help muttering inwardly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t believe a word of Ablis’s talk of sincere cooperation—he was certain that, at the critical moment, this descendant of the Red Angel would throw him out as a shield against lethal attacks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That might well be the truest card Ablis held to survive Julie’s divine descent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Emperor Rosser once told in his fable: when a common man encounters a bear in the forest, he doesn’t need to outrun the bear—he only needs to outrun his companion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Franca often joked that in any mission, your companion is your strongest shield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Julie and Sarist should already know my true identity—that I’m the lover of one of their colleagues, once a member of the Iron Cross, and that they’ll value me less than they fear the name Medici. So who will be their first target? Who will truly be the shield? That’s still unknown… As Lu Mi’s thoughts flashed, he spoke in a hesitant, distrustful tone:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I sensed Julie’s danger, but I didn’t realize it was this extreme.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Still, I don’t trust you at all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cooperation and mutual suspicion aren’t contradictory,” Ablis replied with amusement. “Even killers of one’s own parents can temporarily ally when interests align—how much more so us?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, Ablis thought inwardly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fighting those two Witches together is better than fighting you now, facing your unknown cards—otherwise, even if I win, I’ll be drained, and how will I handle the Witches and Vanark afterward?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Heh, if a battle truly breaks out with two Witches, you won’t be able to hide your cards no matter how hard you try—the situation will turn chaotic, everyone will fight desperately, the dangers will consume each other, and I excel at winning in chaos…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After weighing his options, Lu Mi gritted his teeth and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then we cooperate until both Witches are dealt with.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A wise choice,” Ablis said without hiding his delight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi lifted the carbide lamp and the severed head of the Pus-Swollen Hand, and began walking slowly forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He adopted the posture of “I’m doing my best to show sincerity”:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Besides the two Witches and Vanark, we have another enemy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Man in the Mirror from the Fourth Era’s special mirror world of Triel—his name in Morola is Gey.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Man in the Mirror…” The automaton ahead chewed the term, then chuckled. “I’m not surprised. This is all one of Arista Tudo’s mad legacies.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How so?” Lu Mi asked, seizing the chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ablis’s smile faded, and he spoke with clear reverence:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You know my ancestor was the Angel King. He told me that this special mirror world was likely created by Tudo.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Red Angel? But wasn’t he killed before Arista Tudo became the Blood Emperor? How could he know the origin of the mirror world?” Lu Mi voiced his confusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do you mean ‘killed’?” Ablis sighed. “That’s why I dislike cooperating with Hunters. If I had any other choice today, I wouldn’t have come to you—Hunters really are terrible talkers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t like cooperating with Hunters either—like you,” Lu Mi agreed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ablis switched to another steel automaton:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Previously, my ancestor entered Fourth Era Triel and confirmed all its problems. He said the mirror world may not be a product of those problems—it may be the reason those problems arose and persisted.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Red Angel meant the mirror world wasn’t created by the Blood Emperor’s fall or the destruction of Fourth Era Triel—it existed long before, and caused the need to bury the drowned Triel under a new one? Could the Red Angel be deliberately spreading false information to achieve some conspiracy?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this roughly matches what I found in the treasure vault of the Blue Avenger—before his fall, the Blood Emperor may have been using the mirror world to arrange his resurrection. Likewise, the Tamara family’s connection to the mirror world predates the War of the Four Emperors… Lu Mi halted, paused for several seconds, then said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did Arista Tudo really leave behind too many troubles?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though the Sword Knight claimed that among the mad ancient gods of the Second Era, the Phoenix Ancestor Grejali was the most chaotic and caused the most disruptions—similar to Fourth Era’s Blood Emperor—Lu Mi had only encountered the Underworld issue tied to the Phoenix Ancestor. But the troubles left by the Blood Emperor? He encountered them almost every few days. In his mind, the Blood Emperor was the most chaotic of all—far more troublesome than the Phoenix Ancestor by countless degrees.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ablis seemed to share the same sentiment. He spoke through the automaton’s mouth:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because he is the embodiment of calamity.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This… Lu Mi suddenly gained a deeper understanding of the Hunter Path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ablis changed the subject:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“As temporary allies, would you like me to share the automata’s vision with you? That way, you won’t need to keep pretending to be blind.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is there such a benefit? Lu Mi instantly grew wary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remembering that Vanark could share only a sliver of power by fully submitting to “0—01,” and that all the automata here were puppets of “0—01,” Lu Mi hesitated for several seconds before saying:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since he didn’t truly belong to Ablis’s group, he feared sharing vision might gradually turn him into a puppet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sometimes, too much caution isn’t a good thing,” Ablis Medici said without further persuasion, his tone carrying a hint of unmasked regret.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the next while, Lu Mi followed his mental map, winding through the underground mausoleum. Ablis occasionally used the steel automata scattered throughout the area to offer a reminder or two, confirming Lu Mi hadn’t fallen behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a while, Lu Mi slowed his pace and muttered inwardly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In ‘Examples of Underground Mausoleum Construction,’ the area ahead is blank—no markings at all…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Isn’t this exactly when Ablis becomes useful?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi no longer hesitated. He passed through what seemed to be a gate and entered the blank zone on his mental map.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next instant, his skin prickled everywhere—as if approaching a violent lightning strike without yet touching it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi instantly recalled the thunderforest from his nightmare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At his ear, Ablis’s voice, carried by the automaton, spoke:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Vanark is coming.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just ten meters ahead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vanark? Lu Mi’s mind flashed with the image of that man—blood-red hair, iron-black eyes—the most dangerous figure in Morola. His spirit snapped taut.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1631,"2026-06-20T06:22:37.987Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","eb33ebd2b94f67dbdeb159286d9bfeadcf62a35afcd20f889a70db929deeb359","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-832","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-830",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-ring-of-fate-cover.jpg"]