[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-ring-of-fate":3,"chapter-the-ring-of-fate-the-ring-of-fate-chapter-909":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},2298878,4496,"Chapter 909: Corpse (Beginning of Month, Requesting Lunar Votes)","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-909",909,"\u003Cp>Lu Mi glanced at the emissary Daniz’s deep blue eyes for several seconds and gave Jian Na a signal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Franca no longer needed to digest the “Pain” Elixir.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jian Na instantly understood Lu Mi’s meaning and smiled as she asked the emissary Daniz:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do you have courses suitable for children?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She pointed at Ludwig, making him shudder and turn pale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This made Jian Na sense the clear digestion of the “Pain” Elixir.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Daniz’s eyes lit up and he smiled broadly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course! From foreign language and logic classes for three-year-olds to vocational training for adults—we offer them all!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, his gaze repeatedly flickered between Jian Na and Franca, clearly stunned by their beauty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even many celebrities, after makeup and photo editing, weren’t this beautiful!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jian Na took the flyer, studied it carefully, and smiled:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ll bring the child to check it out someday when I have free time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She remembered Lu Mi’s plan: observe for now, don’t rush to make contact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing Jian Na’s words, Ludwig’s face twisted in obvious distress; he grabbed a skewer of grilled beef, tore off a dozen chunks covered in chili powder and cumin, and devoured them to soothe his inner wounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, remember to mention my name—you’ll get a discount!” Daniz said, marveling inwardly that such a young woman already had a child, surely because she’d dropped out of high school and been seduced by some thug into marriage and motherhood, as he gave his name: “I’m Dan, Ni Zi.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After one last lingering look at Jian Na and Franca’s faces, he turned away without hesitation and continued distributing flyers to new targets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They’re likely dream-figures woven by the Fool’s subconscious,” Anthony declared after silently observing for a while.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi nodded slightly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Indeed, he showed no traits befitting an emissary, and clearly didn’t recognize me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here, Lu Mi smiled:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Since he’s a creation of the Fool’s subconscious, it means that in the Fool’s mind, the emissary is someone who appreciates female beauty but isn’t easily swayed by it—his willpower in this regard is fairly strong.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This conclusion came from Daniz’s reaction: though visibly captivated by the two “Witches,” he made no advances, said nothing extra, and didn’t linger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe it’s not strong willpower—he might just have professional ethics and avoid flirting while working, or perhaps he has someone he loves and chooses to restrain himself,” Franca said, her smile turning suggestive. “Does that mean the ‘Great Adventurer’ series is true?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The rumors at sea say the same,” Lu Mi confirmed Franca’s guess.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the rest of the evening, the four of them mostly observed, ate little, while Ludwig channeled his anguish into appetite—ending up spending four hundred yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Franca shoved the last bite of grilled eggplant into her mouth, chewed slowly, then rose reluctantly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Time to go back.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What a nostalgic flavor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As they circled toward their neighborhood, Jian Na glanced at the bright streetlights on either side, then at the pedestrians walking through the summer night breeze in the dark, feeling a hallucination—that it wasn’t nearly midnight, only just dusk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Triel, before becoming an Exalted, she dared walk the streets at night only because of her reputation as the “Red Boots” mistress and the revolver hidden on her person—but even then, she never dared walk far, always staying at Franca’s place. Yet in this great metropolis of the Fool’s dream, people seemed accustomed to enjoying the night streets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Franca had already adapted to this environment, as if returning to her past life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She gazed comfortably left and right, then suddenly noticed, at the edge of an alley leading to an old neighborhood, where the streetlight failed to reach, a figure hanging from a building’s outer wall, swaying gently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the “Witch’s” superior vision and “Dark Sight,” Franca instantly recognized the figure:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Burnt-yellow eyebrows, hair of the same shade, a red headband wrapped around the forehead, bulging deep blue eyes frozen in agony and despair, a face with shallow contours now twisted, mouth half-open, tongue protruding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Daniz!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The emissary Daniz!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was hanging from the building’s wall, a brownish rope around his neck!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had been hanged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He, who had been handing out tutoring flyers to Lu Mi and the others just over an hour ago, had been hanged!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Franca’s pupils dilated, Lu Mi and Jian Na also noticed the corpse dangling in midair, swaying gently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The emissary’s dead? Murdered?” Jian Na blurted out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who did this?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was this the dream’s natural progression—or the work of the Celestial’s agents?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After confirming the corpse was the emissary Daniz, Franca exhaled:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good—it’s only a dream-figment. His real-world counterpart won’t die.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, Lu Mi’s mind stirred. He stepped into the alley and approached the hanging body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Along the way, he constantly scanned his surroundings, pulled out a mirror, and performed a quick, simple divination to confirm the killer had left and no one was watching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before even getting close, he smelled the stench of feces and urine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Combined with other details, he concluded the emissary was truly dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi condensed ice on the wall, forming a ledge, then climbed nimbly up to the level of Daniz’s corpse and placed both the body and the rope into the mirror he’d just used for divination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You want to bury the emissary?” Franca asked when Lu Mi jumped down, melted the ice, and dried the damp marks with crimson flames.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi glanced around and lowered his voice:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m running an experiment.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What experiment?” Jian Na, holding the gloomy Ludwig, asked curiously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi smiled:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Based on the data and current observations, we know this dream is an evolution of the Fool’s subconscious. If we hide the emissary’s corpse and prevent the Fool from discovering or hearing about it, does that mean the emissary’s death never happened? Will he still be handing out flyers tomorrow night in the same food-stall area?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait—that could actually work!” Franca instantly recalled dream-themed movies and novels she’d read before crossing over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If that’s true, we can exploit it: any major event unknown to the Fool’s dream-self is equivalent to never having occurred!” Lu Mi said with a smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But what if the emissary doesn’t reappear tomorrow night—or if the police already know he’s missing? What does that mean?” Jian Na knew Lu Mi wouldn’t overlook this—after all, there were only two possible outcomes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi smiled slightly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There might be two reasons:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One: Every dream-figment, beyond being drawn from the Fool’s memories and cognition, also carries his subconscious. So anything that happens in the dream is known and recorded by his subconscious.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Franca and the others didn’t grasp his point, Lu Mi gave an example:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The data mentions the Fool is an ancient being who awoke from slumber, gathering power and secrets through his incarnations walking the earth, slowly reviving. One of his incarnations experienced the ascent from Sequence 2 ‘Miracle Worker’ to Sequence 1 ‘Mystic Attendant,’ and to prepare the ritual, established a town called Utopia—where every resident was the Fool’s puppet, each with their own fate trajectory, all played by the Fool himself, interacting and enacting reality.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doesn’t that resemble this current true dream? Aside from external consciousness projections, the other dream-figments are likely the Fool’s fragmented subconscious, shaped by memories and enacted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, aside from us, every person and animal in the dream might be the Fool himself. To truly contact the Fool, we might not need to find his dream-self—this could be one of our future paths to bypass the Celestial’s surveillance and reach him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The data mentioned Utopia?” Franca blinked in surprise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Fool used that term?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She rubbed her temples, pained and confused:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe it’s real—but by the time I read the later parts, I was completely dazed. I seemed to be talking to you, but I had no idea what I was saying…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s real. And the idea I just mentioned? It wasn’t mine—I got it from the Major Arcana cards. But they’ll never get to verify it,” Lu Mi nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Every one of them… is the Fool…” Jian Na recalled the sea of people she’d met after leaving the carriage and the bustling scenes she’d seen earlier—she found it hard to believe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi continued:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The second possibility: the emissary’s death was caused by the Celestial’s agents. The Celestial can control and influence the dream too, and would ensure the Fool’s subconscious learns of it. But what’s the point of killing such a figment?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Even if they wanted to shake the Fool’s will, targeting his emotional weak spot, why pick the emissary? According to the data, the emissary has no close relationship with the Fool in the dream—not even a friend.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Strange,” Franca murmured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They swiftly cleared the scene with the “Witch’s” black flame and left the alley, heading toward their rented old neighborhood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As they neared the gate, they suddenly heard a local man nearby, beside the green trees, whispering in panic:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me go, let me go…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t come closer, don’t come closer!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi turned his gaze—and saw a native man, not bearing the facial features of someone from the Northern Continent like emissary Daniz.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>ps: Beginning of the month, requesting lunar votes~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1534,"2026-06-20T06:22:37.987Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","7ff592bba84f8d0ef3777fb2bbebc49ebf4b00dcc85c6fb8d7c6d0b8fc6ae029","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-910","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-908",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-ring-of-fate-cover.jpg"]