Chapter 917: Occultism Must Keep Pace with the Times

Mingyue Mall, surveillance room.

Lumian brought Furanka, Jianna, Anthony, and Ludwig back to the mirror-like object, gazing through the mirror at the two security guards and the large screen.

Compared to when they had left, nothing here had changed; everything looked perfectly normal.

Furanka pondered for two seconds and said:

“Has she not arrived yet, or has she already come and passed us?”

If the female corpse had previously accessed the surveillance footage, she would most likely have noticed Lumian and his group—after all, the “Witch’s” traits were unmistakable, and a beautiful woman alongside handsome men were especially eye-catching; as long as the resurrected corpse was willing to spend enough time reviewing the footage frame by frame, guided by spiritual intuition, she would not miss the corresponding scenes.

If so, Lumian and his companions would have to consider changing their identities, altering their appearances, and relocating their residence.

For a family already impoverished, this would be nothing short of adding insult to injury.

Furanka could only pray to Mr. "Fool," hoping the female corpse wouldn't arrive until midnight—after all, unlike themselves, she lacked precise knowledge of time and location and couldn't target her search; she had to sift through over a dozen minutes of footage covering the entire mall, and if luck ran poor, the time required might stretch into hours.

——The “Witch’s” spiritual intuition had also been suppressed to Sequence 7 level; the resurrected corpse clearly could not rely on this for highly precise filtering.

“Both are possible,” Lumian stared at the world beyond the mirror.

Through a mirrored surface and across separate spaces, he couldn't directly determine whether the surveillance room currently contained a "Mirror Maze."

And the resurrected corpse, as far as could be judged, strongly resembled a half-god of the “Witch” path, likely possessing anti-divination abilities.

Jianna was also observing the surveillance room, and asked in confusion:

“Does the resurrected corpse even know what surveillance is, or how to operate the surveillance system?”

She felt the resurrected corpse was a projection of some external force, much like themselves—only differing in how they entered. She and Lumian’s group had only learned what surveillance was, its function, and how to avoid it thanks to Furanka’s explanations; and none of them except Furanka could operate the surveillance system!

We can’t do it—how can a newly resurrected corpse?

Furanka thought and replied:

"Perhaps the resurrected corpse is also part of the dream—a 'Witch' once encountered by one of Mr. 'Fool's' incarnations—and the Heavenly Sovereign, using Mushi Hospital, made this 'Witch' undergo the process of death and resurrection, turning her into a completely obedient subordinate—or rather, a puppet."

As part of the dream, everyone except those whose identities were set as children, fools, madmen, or illiterates “naturally” understood the concept and existence of surveillance.

“Even if she’s part of the dream, she wouldn’t naturally know how to operate the surveillance system unless she previously worked in this field, or studied it in advance like you,” Jianna objected.

“True,” Furanka suddenly had an insight, pulled out her phone, and prepared to search apps like Weibo, Zhihu, and Tieba for recent similar questions—perhaps the resurrected corpse was browsing her phone, using “waiting online” phrases to urge netizens to answer how to operate a certain company’s surveillance system, while trying to retrieve the desired footage based on their suggestions.

To Furanka’s disappointment, the world within the mirror had no signal—she couldn’t access the internet!

Lumian then said:

“There’s another possibility: the corpse has a guide too—someone like you, Furanka.”

“Uh…” Furanka slipped her phone back into her pocket.

She understood what Lumian meant:

The living member of “April Fools’,” Loki!

Wasn’t it said that Loki might be reborn after being possessed by an angel of the “Fortune Teller” path?

Well, whether it was Loki or that angel of the “Fortune Teller” path, both were servants of the Heavenly Sovereign!

“When we checked the surveillance earlier, we didn’t notice anyone resembling Loki near the resurrected corpse,” Furanka recalled.

“Sequence 7 level ‘Faceless’ ability,” Lumian had already considered this: “And this is inside a mall—he can change clothes whenever he wants.”

Furanka slowly nodded and continued observing the surveillance room beyond the mirror, hoping to wait for the resurrected corpse—and perhaps Loki.

After watching for a few seconds, she suddenly wondered:

“Do these screens, this surveillance scene, count as a mirror world?”

“From a mystical perspective, I don’t think so—it’s not a reflection or inversion of the current scene,” Lumian answered instinctively.

Jianna and Anthony were momentarily confused by Furanka’s question.

“Mysticism must evolve with the times to keep up with modern social scenes,” Furanka muttered, “Surveillance isn’t a reflection of the current scene, but it is a reflection of another location—it shares partial functions and characteristics of a mirror, only the reflection and display are separated into different places.”

Lumian didn't know how to refute it, so he simply voiced his own opinion:

“I think it’s closer to a painting world, perhaps mixed with the informational qualities of the ‘Secret Seeker’ path at high levels.”

“So it’s a hybrid of mirror world, painting world, and information world!” Furanka, whose main focus remained on observing the surveillance room, didn’t want to dwell on questions that couldn’t yet be answered accurately, and swiftly made her deduction.

Lumian half-closed his eyes, sensed briefly, and said:

“Indeed, it has a trace of mirror world’s traits—it can be traversed.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Anthony, who had remained silent until now, spoke in a low tone:

“Don’t you two find the two security guards outside a bit strange?”

“It’s been two or three minutes—they haven’t moved at all, like they’ve turned into statues…”

Statue? Furanka’s heart stirred; she pulled out a mirror and carefully extended it beyond the current mirror surface.

She quickly adjusted the angle, using light reflection and the mirror’s most basic function, and caught the side profile of one guard.

On the dim, screen-reflected makeup mirror, half his face showed no expression—part hidden in darkness, part faintly lit, the two blending and shifting.

His eyes remained fixed on the surveillance screen, deep within their pupils lay a cold, ashen hue.

He appeared alive, still possessed of spirituality—but only barely alive, only barely spiritual.

“Partial organ petrification?” Furanka murmured, frowning.

Lumian gave no reply, glanced around:

“The resurrected corpse has indeed been here—after I and Furanka finished reviewing the footage and left.”

“I’ll go out and search for clues—stay alert for surprises.”

Jianna and the others nodded without objection.

Lumian pressed his hand against the mirror surface and stepped out as if passing through a curtain of water.

In his male form, he circled in front of the two guards and found they had become warm statues, expressionless, staring straight ahead, utterly motionless—eerily so in the surveillance room lit only by flickering screen glow.

Lumian’s gaze shifted from the guards’ ashen-tinged eyes to the large screen displaying dozens or hundreds of video feeds.

Nothing seemed amiss—but the human-machine interface below was frozen at a specific operation.

And Lumian remembered that Furanka had reset it to its initial state before leaving.

“Fled in haste?”

“Did the corpse sense the disturbance in the mirror world and escape urgently through the screen itself?”

“Could she circle back to see who entered the surveillance room?”

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Lumian suddenly turned his head toward the mirror-like object through which he had emerged.

Almost simultaneously, on the surveillance screen, a pale but alluring hand emerged from a dark corner, extending beyond the screen.

Behind the mirror, as Lumian probed the surveillance system, Furanka suddenly heard Ludwig making slurping sounds.

Eating something again? Furanka instinctively turned back toward the boy.

She saw Ludwig with his mouth open, continuously inhaling air, chewing and swallowing.

Uh… Furanka suddenly felt a pang of guilt.

“Why are you eating air?” she asked.

Ludwig answered, satisfied:

“Delicious. There’s a lot of spiritual stuff in it.”

Air contains a lot of spiritual matter? Furanka froze, then felt a strong sense of danger.

The Witch’s mystical pathogen?

“Mirror Double!” she shouted aloud, immediately activating her “Mirror Double.”

Jianna, upon hearing Ludwig’s answer, also received a danger signal from her spiritual intuition.

Without Furanka’s warning, she activated her “Mirror Double” as well.

Anthony was one second slower than the two.

At that moment, at the edge of a spiderweb-like illusory tunnel, a figure rapidly took shape—wearing a white dress, her hair loosely pinned, her face radiant, her aura pure—clearly the resurrected corpse.

In her hand she held a mirror, already reflecting Furanka’s figure; her other hand burned a quiet black flame, swiftly spreading toward the mirror surface.

Without sound, Furanka’s form, having reverted to a mirror, erupted from within with sinister black flames, rapidly losing its spirituality, then shattered and fell to the ground.

Seeing her assassination had failed and that there were four enemies, the resurrected corpse immediately stepped back and vanished at the edge of the illusory, shadowy tunnel.

This caused Jianna’s seven “Witch” black flames and Anthony’s “Chaos” to all miss their target.

In the surveillance room, Lumian spun around, ice crystallizing instantly into a straight sword in his hand.

He slashed the ice blade toward the hand protruding from the surveillance screen.

The hand jerked back sharply; Lumian’s ice blade struck the screen’s surface.

It vanished strangely, pulling Lumian along with it into the screen, drilling inside.

(End of chapter)