Chapter 837: Pollution Source

Lu Mian's finger had just touched the pitch-black, lustrous bone ring when he felt a burning pain spread from the point of contact to his entire body.

He lowered his head and saw strands of blue-purple sulfur flames emerging from every pore, making the nearby skin charred bit by bit and emitting a pungent odor.

Lu Mian was so familiar with such pain that he only frowned slightly, bit his teeth, and didn't even show an obvious change in expression.

He then took out the "Demon's Whisper" bone ring, put it on the middle finger of his right hand, and adjusted the twisted, painful demon face to face upward.

Lu Mian's gaze began to turn cold, and deep in his blue pupils was a pitch-black area that light couldn't illuminate.

The malice in his body surged rapidly, overwhelming the "Monk's" endurance, and the excess part unfolded a fierce tug-of-war with his own will, forming a fragile balance.

Lu Mian, while taking out some "Lemon Fish Slices" from the "Traveler's Bag" and stuffing them into his mouth to chew and swallow, to temporarily increase his resistance to flame damage, sensed the malice around him.

He was looking for the "Mirror Person" Gei!

One of the negative effects of "Demon's Whisper" was that it made the wearer and those within a hundred meters of him more prone to evil thoughts and impulses, and the "Mirror Person" himself belonged to the biased and distorted kind, so he would definitely be more obviously affected.

Under this premise, "Demon's Whisper" also had the ability "Malice Perception," which allowed the wearer to detect whether those around him had malice toward himself. Although it couldn't discover the brewing danger in advance like a real "Demon," it still belonged to mystical perception.

As long as the "Mirror Person" had malice toward himself and was within a certain distance, Lu Mian felt he should be able to find him by relying on this "Malice Perception" ability!

Lu Mian, with sulfur flames burning on his body surface, swept coldly across the surrounding area and saw dead bodies wearing iron-black full-body armor lying everywhere in the wilderness, with residual flames burning in many places, just like a war that had just ended.

Similarly, there were near-invisible flames burning in different positions on the mountain of corpses.

They illuminated the wilderness and the sky, so that this place wasn't ruled by darkness, allowing Lu Mian, Albus, and Céleste to not disappear directly even though they had lost the carbide lamps and lanterns they were holding.

After just a second or two, Lu Mian's corners of his mouth curled up slightly, revealing a cruel and cold smile.

He felt strong malice toward himself from ten meters behind him!

That came from a dead body, no, from the smooth-as-mirror pitch-black breastplate on the dead body.

Found you... Lu Mian didn't turn around, but suddenly "teleported" to the side of that dead body while moving slowly, and activated the "Mirror Brooch."

Inside the pitch-black breastplate, the "Mirror Person" Gei was peeking at the situation outside through the metal mirror surface.

After discovering that the two "Demonesses" had arrived in this area with the help of the Mirror World by utilizing the power of the special Mirror World, he had quietly retreated, leaving this place to Zhu Li and Céleste.

He wasn't worried that this would let the two "Demonesses" get "0-01" first, because according to the knowledge he had mastered and the information he had collected from field exploration, he believed that before Te Wanake, the agent of "0-01," was eliminated, no one could get the recognition of "0-01." Regardless of whether it was violent means or taking shortcuts with loopholes, only when that "Throne" was vacant and chaos was generated would others have a chance.

Gei was very glad that he had made such a wise choice. He had truly felt the destruction of the world projection closely related to the special Mirror World just now.

That was an apocalyptic scene where a little aftermath could turn him into ashes.

He confirmed Te Wanake's death through this, and then relied on the ordinary Mirror World to sneak back to the vicinity of the mountain of corpses, looking for an opportunity to obtain the recognition of "0-01" and take it away.

He saw Zhu Li turn into dirty blood and fall, saw Albus Medici transform into a flame spear to stop this, saw Céleste cursing Albus Medici with a painful expression, and saw Lu Mian Li putting on the ring unhurriedly, wanting to appear last to reap the fruits of victory.

Gei suddenly produced strong malice:

"It's all of you! It's all of you who stopped me from completing the mission!"

Since entering "Morora," as a rare "Reader" pathway "Mirror Person," Gei had originally been quite confident. He had gone to the Church of Knowledge to supplement his knowledge while doing field exploration, collecting information for the final action.

But after observing the performance of Albus Medici, Te Wanake, Zhu Li, and Lu Mian Li in the dark, Gei gradually doubted himself:

Can I, who can use the power of the special Mirror World, win against any of them? I'm afraid I can only deal with Lu Mian Li, the guy the leader specifically told me to pay special attention to...

If it's a competition of learning, although my learning efficiency is much higher than Lu Mian Li's, the pollution my body can bear seems to be far less than his...

Am I, the one with the least hope among these few people?

Such a blow made the "Mirror Person" Gei formulate a plan to rely on his own special nature to hide in the dark, waiting for those powerful guys to target each other and hurt each other, and then come out to clean up the mess at the end.

So far, his plan had been advancing quite smoothly:

The biggest obstacles to this action, Te Wanake and the most dangerous opponent Zhu Li, had already died, and even their souls had been completely annihilated, unable to return in the form of undead by relying on the power leaking from "0-01"!

"Wait until Albus Medici and Céleste decide the winner, and I can participate in the competition, kill the remaining one, and single out the weakest Lu Mian Li...

"Should I, should I take advantage of Lu Mian Li's lack of defense now and sneak attack him? He's not a 'Demoness,' nor is he a 'Mirror Person,' and has no substitute to use. Once hit, he will really die..."

Such a malicious thought gradually became clear in Gei's heart, becoming stronger and stronger.

He hadn't made a decision yet when Lu Mian in his vision suddenly became larger and arrived at a place close at hand.

Then, Lu Mian disappeared before his eyes.

A pool of sticky, illusory black liquid that seemed to be condensed from the most sinister desires in the depths of the human heart surged under his feet.

"Avatar of Desire"!

This pool of black liquid surged upward violently, wrapping Gei inside.

Crack!

The sound of glass breaking rang out inside the illusory black liquid, and Gei's figure was outlined at the edge of this dark, void area behind the metal mirror.

He saw that pool of black liquid quickly condense into Lu Mian's appearance, and he laughed in a low voice, acting like a good teacher:

"Don't you know I have a 'Mirror Substitute'?"

Such a direct attack can only consume one of my mirrors.

Gei hadn't finished speaking when an abnormally violent emotion suddenly surged in his heart.

He instinctively touched his neck and touched bright red blood.

The pain immediately pierced into his mind from there.

Crack!

Gei actively used "Mirror Substitute," letting countless glass fragments scatter on the ground.

His figure was outlined again in another corner of the area behind the mirror, but a thin, deep bloodstain remained on his neck.

His emotions had become completely irritable, fierce, and crazy. The skin on his face aged and withered rapidly, as if it had turned into one piece of brown bark after another. The sound of "my child, my child" echoed in his ears. The flesh and blood on both sides of his shoulders wriggled, as if they were about to grow a head each.

His abdomen was bulging bit by bit, his pupils were stained with silver-white and black luster, his aura was dissipating rapidly, his body was visibly collapsing, and flesh and blood were falling off in lumps, wriggling like maggots...

Lu Mian saw the pollution on himself in a direct way.

This is simply a hodgepodge!

After he used "Avatar of Desire" just now, that pool of illusory black liquid contained not only his own emotions and desires, but also the emotions and desires brought by the pollutions that were closely connected to him and deeply influenced him.

For any creature that didn't possess divinity, this was pollution that was difficult to resist. Even for a Saint, it would suffer relatively serious influence!

And facing these high-level pollutions, as long as one didn't actively use "Mirror Substitute" to avoid it at the first time, and waited until the illusory black liquid stained oneself before passively activating "Mirror Substitute," it was too late; one had already been polluted!

Now, Gei was a monster with heavy pollution.

Seeing this "Mirror Person" developing in an indescribable direction, Lu Mian had the intuition that if he continued to watch, he would also have similar changes.

He immediately took a step back, broke away from the metal mirror surface, and returned to the

He immediately saw wisps of black gas seeping out from the surface of the mirror-smooth breastplate, illusory and shadow-like, seemingly trying to grab him.

Lu Mian turned his body rapidly and sprinted toward the mountain of corpses.

He would occasionally transform into a searing white flame spear to fly a distance forward, and occasionally "teleport" a few dozen meters, constantly climbing toward the summit of the mountain, which was composed of individual corpses and skeletons and scattered with many embers.

He wanted to lure the "Mirror Person" Gei, who had lost control and collapsed due to contamination, to Albus Medici and Celeste, and say to them, "Don't mention it."

Regardless of whether Lu Mian was climbing using his hands and feet, relying on his contract ability to "teleport" short distances, or ascending in the form of a flame spear, a powerful sense of oppression always came from behind him, and an indescribable, constantly changing black shadow was projected onto him and reflected in front of him, which inevitably filled Lu Mian with fear.

Now, he had no way of knowing what the monster chasing him from behind had become or what state it was in; he only knew that it was absolutely not something a normal human should observe or distinguish.

Suddenly, Gei's low voice rang in his ears:

"Mommy..."

Mommy... Lu Mian's mouth twitched, discovering that even though he had so much strange contamination on his body, the one from the "Great Mother" and the Omebella bloodline was still the most outstanding one; after all, what Mr. "Fool" left behind was a seal, not contamination.

Lu Mian fled even faster.

Finally, he saw the summit of the mountain of corpses, and he saw Celeste and Albus Medici.

(End of chapter)