Chapter 88: Changing the approach (Asking for monthly tickets)

The silver-black short blade fell to the ground and bounced a few times.

Lu Mian breathed a sigh of relief and muttered to himself in a low voice:

"Without the protection of the half-triggered black thorn symbol, this thing is just a bomb..."

Fortunately, he already knew how to avoid the negative effects of this evil short blade.

Walking to the middle of those gray-white lumps of flesh, Lu Mian picked up the black robe left behind by the "Blacksmith" monster.

He tore off quite a few strips of cloth with a *rip* and wrapped them around his right hand, as if performing a complete bandaging.

Only then did Lu Mian use this hand to pick up the "Fate Hunter Blade."

That silver-black short blade showed no abnormal reaction throughout the process.

Lu Mian, who was ready to throw away the object in his hand at any time, felt relieved and muttered in a low voice:

"I need to get it a scabbard so it's convenient to carry on my body.

"Does this mean that in the future, my left or right hand will always have to be wrapped in bandages, so that in an emergency, when I want to draw the blade, I won't be too late to provide protection?

"This thing is dangerous, but it's also truly powerful. Aside from the very short usage life, it crushes those extraordinary weapons Aurora mentioned. Hmm, many Level 3 sealed artifacts might not even be comparable to it."

Lu Mian muttered to himself while wrapping the "Fate Hunter Blade" layer by layer with the remaining black cloth strips.

After wrapping it for a full three layers from top to bottom, he then confidently tucked this evil short blade into his left belt.

After finishing this matter, Lu Mian rubbed his temples and, bearing the exhaustion of body and mind, walked into the room where the "Blacksmith" monster had come out and searched it seriously.

Except for the stove where fire was still burning, he didn't discover anything else.

At this point, Lu Mian's exploration this time came to a complete end. He walked all the way back, being very cautious and careful along the way.

No longer interfered with by fate, he successfully left this area of ruins, crossed the desolate wilderness, and entered his own semi-underground two-story building.

He didn't rush to go to bed, leave this place, put away the "Fate Hunter Blade," and rested for a while. After his spirituality recovered to meet his needs, he performed that absurd dance in the bedroom that was sometimes manic and sometimes twisted.

He wanted to lure the strange creatures in the surrounding area, let one of them possess him, and try to see what negative effects it would have.

After noticing the fear and awe the fire monster, the three-faced monster, and the "Fate Hunter Blade" had for the black thorn symbol, he was no longer so afraid or fearful of letting certain things possess him.

The pollution he already had on him was much more powerful than these!

Moreover, he was quite exhausted now and would soon be able to fall asleep. By then, even if the possessed strange thing was unwilling to leave or brought very serious negative effects, he would recover after resting for a day in the real world.

"Is this what Aurora often calls 'cheating' and 'using external hacks'?" Lu Mian flashed such a thought while dancing.

With the intensity of the dance, his spirituality gradually spread, combined with some kind of natural force he had pried, and radiated out in all directions.

Gradually, Lu Mian, who seemed to have merged with his surroundings, felt that something had entered this area.

Lifting his leg, stepping, turning, without opening his "Spirit Vision," he directly saw three transparent figures on the glass window of the bedroom.

They were still the skinless monster, the hunting rifle monster, and the mouthpart monster.

It seems my inspiration isn't strong enough, or my status is too low, and I can only "summon" them... Lu Mian didn't mind either. He pulled out the ritual silver dagger Aurora had given him and stabbed a wound on the back of his left hand.

A drop of bright red blood quickly seeped out but didn't spread to the surroundings.

It condensed in place, stained with an eerie luster.

Those three transparent figures outside the window immediately became restless.

Lu Mian then used the ritual silver dagger to pick up that drop of blood, which looked like it had solidified, and accompanied by the last few dance movements, pointed the blade at that mouthpart monster.

He was asking the other party to possess him.

The monster with three black marks on its upper body opened its vortex-shaped mouthpart wide, seemingly having heard Lu Mian's summons, but it didn't make any further moves.

Right, the window is still closed, and the monsters in the dream ruins don't dare to enter my house... Lu Mian probably understood something. Following the rhythm of the dance, he half-jumped and landed next to the desk by the window.

He then stretched out his left hand, opened the tightly closed glass window, and handed the ritual silver dagger picking up the blood to the outside of the house.

Not only did the mouthpart monster not come to swallow that drop of blood and enter Lu Mian's body along the ritual silver dagger, but instead, amidst the *whooshing* wind, it retreated seven or eight meters, floating in mid-air, staring blankly at the continuation of the dance.

"Hey, come here!" Lu Mian, who had already danced to the last movement, couldn't help but urge urgently.

Those three blurry transparent figures outside the house floated even further away in unison. By the time Lu Mian's dance stopped, they had completely disappeared from there.

"..." Lu Mian looked at this scene in a daze, not understanding why the mouthpart monster was unwilling to possess him.

He recalled it carefully once and confirmed that his dance and the process of stabbing out blood had no errors at all.

"Could it be that it remembers in its obsession that I killed it, so it's unwilling to possess me?

"But the knowledge attached to 'Dancer' didn't mention this. Logically speaking, it should be even more eager to possess me to take revenge..." Lu Mian fell into deep thought.

Associating it with the three-faced monster's performance of fleeing as soon as it saw him, he had a new guess:

"I have the pollution of an evil god in my body and the seal of a great existence on me. These strange creatures are scared to death and don't dare to possess me at all?"

This belonged to a very rare situation, and it was normal that the occult knowledge corresponding to "Dancer" didn't mention it.

The more Lu Mian thought about it, the more he felt it should be the reason, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became:

"You guys just watch me dance and aren't willing to possess me?

"What is this called? In Aurora's words, it's 'freeloading'!"

What made Lu Mian disappointed was that in this way, before reaching "Contractee," the ability of "Dancer" was equivalent to being wasted; there was no way to lure strange creatures to possess him and utilize some of their traits or abilities.

He could only comfort himself that perhaps only the strange creatures in the dream ruins were like this; after all, they were closely related to the owner of the black thorn symbol.

"I don't know what kind of things can be lured in reality, and whether they dare to possess me..." Lu Mian muttered a sentence, walked to the bed, and lay down.

Looking at the "Fate Hunter Blade" wrapped in layers of black cloth on the cabinet next to him, his mood improved instantly.

This was a quite powerful extraordinary weapon that could help him better explore the dream ruins and uncover the secrets here. The only drawback was that it couldn't be brought into the real world.

"I don't know if that mysterious lady can help bring it out, just like how she brought the potion and ritual materials into the dream ruins...

"But for the next exploration of the dream ruins, I would have to trouble her to bring the 'Fate Hunter Blade' back...

"Providing help repeatedly like this, she definitely wouldn't be willing. She has shown obvious fear of trouble and likes to be lazy..."

With such thoughts, Lu Mian fell into a deep sleep.

When Lu Mian woke up, the sky was unusually dim, with only a trace of sunset red remaining in the distance of the mountains.

Such a scene made him uncontrollably become depressed, as if he had been abandoned by the whole world.

Adjusting his mood, Lu Mian left the room and went down to the first floor.

Aurora was busy making dinner there.

"Is your eye okay?" Lu Mian went over to provide help.

Aurora tucked her golden hair behind her ears, turned her face, and opened her eyes wide:

"Almost."

Lu Mian looked at her eyes and saw that apart from some bloodshot eyes in her light blue pupils, there were no other anomalies.

Aurora continued to fry the lamb chops and asked casually:

"Did you discover anything in the dream ruins this time?"

Lu Mian started the cutting work for the dish behind, and told his encounter exactly as it was.

"That blade is indeed very powerful." Seeing that her younger brother was fine, Aurora restrained her concern and laughed, "If it were me, I definitely wouldn't give it the name 'Fate Hunter Blade'; it's too straightforward and lacks enough charm."

Lu Mian asked curiously:

"What would you name it?"

Aurora smiled and said:

"I would call it 'Fallen Mercury'!"

"Okay, from now on, it's called 'Fallen Mercury'!" Lu Mian nodded immediately.

The name his sister chose must be used!

Aurora laughed instantly:

"This name actually isn't that great either, but the time was too short, and I could only think of it.

"Hmm, the performance of those monsters further proves our speculation. The black thorn symbol on your chest, or rather the pollution in your body, is not simple at all. It can suppress things with quite high status that are closely related to that hidden existence.

"Perhaps the key to the loop really is on you."

"Hmm." Lu Mian nodded, "Now it depends on what secret is hidden in the dream ruins, and then, wait patiently for the twelfth night."

Up to now, they had basically investigated all the anomalies, and only the tomb where the owl was located hadn't been visited.

That place was very, very dangerous. Aurora didn't think that she and Lu Mian, plus the three outsiders, could face it. The only hope was to move Madame Pualis, but this lady clearly didn't intend to meddle in other people's business and only wanted to wait for that special time node to arrive.

Lu Mian said without much hope that the dance to lure strange creatures was blocked by the two major symbols on his body and could not succeed, and finally said:

"Sister, do you have any ideas, ideas to bypass this restriction?"

Aurora shoveled up the lamb chops, thought for a while, and said:

"Asking a 'god' to possess you doesn't seem to work. Why don't you try, commanding?"

"Commanding?" Lu Mian's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Aurora nodded gently:

"Since those strange creatures are afraid of the pollution in your body and the seal of that great existence, then you should borrow the tiger's might, utilize their fear, and directly command them to possess you. Hmm, use Ancient Hermes at that time."

"This is an idea..." Lu Mian understood what his sister meant by "borrowing the tiger's might."

PS: Asking for monthly tickets~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 89 =====