Chapter 923

The pale-faced female corpse’s phantom answered with a drifting voice.

“Forge a convincing identity, pass the Intis Group’s interview, and become an employee of this company and Zhou Mingrui’s colleague.”

“Contact Zhou Mingrui every day—start with polite indifference, gradually grow familiar, and slowly, subtly charm him through daily interactions until he falls in love with me.”

“I will become his girlfriend, and in the future, marry him—through prosperity or adversity, wealth or poverty, health or illness, whether he is male or female, I will always stay by his side, never leaving, forever and ever.”

Franca, still weakened by illness, listened with her mouth slightly open, growing increasingly bewildered.

Isn’t this character script a bit off?

This isn’t urban supernatural, nor suspense horror—it’s turned into pure romance…

Is this meant to immerse Mr. “The Fool” in a blissful, sweet love life and a peaceful, cozy urban setting, so he won’t want to wake up?

Are you really this down-to-earth, Celestial Sovereign?

Is this giving Mr. “The Fool” a grand Truman Show, isolating him from reality?

When she heard the line “whether he is male or female,” Franca suddenly snapped back to awareness.

There’s a conspiracy here!

Something strange is hidden here—there’s another purpose!

Lumian thought similarly to Franca, but his mind wasn’t as agile; he cared more about another point:

The task to resurrect the female corpse didn’t involve guiding Mr. “The Fool” to drink the “Witch” elixir—does this mean someone else is responsible for turning Mr. “The Fool” into a “Witch”?

At that moment, Franca whispered:

“The method in the script might actually be feasible… To influence Mr. ‘The Fool,’ or rather, Zhou Mingrui—someone so cautious and guarded—only ‘love born of prolonged closeness’ can work; only through quiet, genuine, day-after-day interaction can trust be built.”

“And for such a task, the most suitable executor is indeed the ‘Witch,’ followed by the ‘Little Cupid.’ No wonder they had to resurrect—or awaken—this corpse; ‘Charm’ can blend into countless small daily details without being noticed…”

“Indeed, according to Ms. Su Qian’s reminder, we seem to have no choice but a similar approach to gain Mr. ‘The Fool’s’ trust—though we won’t need to use ‘Charm.’ But then, the risk of exposure becomes far too great,” Jiana carefully added.

Prolonged, repeated contact with Mr. “The Fool” would easily attract the Celestial Sovereign’s notice.

Lumian didn’t respond to Franca or Jiana—he needed to seize the time to “spirit communicate.”

He stared at the floating corpse phantom and asked thoughtfully:

“Are you a puppet?”

Lumian hadn’t experienced the battle with the corpse’s original body, the two disease bombs’ explosions, or Franca’s discussions about the “Puppet Master,” so he hadn’t searched the thirty to forty meters around the surveillance room for hidden adepts. Only during the drive back, after discussing battle details with his teammates, did he realize the possibility of a puppet.

Yet, not actively searching the area around the surveillance room didn’t mean he wasn’t wary of other hidden enemies nearby—that was basic “Hunter” discipline—but at the time, he truly hadn’t sensed anyone lurking.

This made him skeptical of Franca’s and others’ guesses—their suspicions might not be true, just as the resurrected corpse hadn’t carried any “Door” Path blessings.

The corpse phantom, draped in sinister black hair, answered hollowly:

“Yes.”

Yes? Truly a puppet? Lumian was stunned, then urgently asked:

“Who controls you? Where are they?”

This time, the corpse phantom didn’t answer. Instead, it slowly lifted its head, gazing toward the void-dark “sky” behind the mirror.

Lumian and the others may have been influenced by its residual spirit—or perhaps stimulated by the occult shift in the environment—producing faint hallucinations.

Faintly, they seemed to see countless thin, phantom threads emerging from the corpse’s body, stretching upward, while similar phantom threads also rose from their own bodies, floating into the deep darkness above.

They also seemed to see the people of the city, each adorned with dense, phantom threads connecting to some hidden point in the night sky, where clouds obscured the moon and stars.

Lumian was shaken to his core by this scene, yet his “Hunter” observational ability still caught a detail.

The phantom threads emerging from themselves and the corpse differed in one significant way:

Their threads drifted aimlessly, swaying loosely—as if merely drawn toward something above, drifting closer without truly penetrating the darkness—while the corpse’s phantom threads were taut, as if fused with the endless dark above.

As for the threads of others in the city, Lumian could only faintly sense them, unable to make them out clearly.

Combining the current available “The Fool” Path data from the Major Arcana cards, Lumian, Franca, Jiana, and Anthony immediately reached the same conclusion:

The height above represents Mr. “The Fool,” and also the Celestial Sovereign—the resurrected corpse is the Celestial Sovereign’s puppet!

“No wonder we didn’t find the ‘Puppet Master’ controlling her…” Jiana had just thought this when she instantly realized a problem: “Wait—if that’s true, we who directly clashed with the Celestial Sovereign’s puppet should already have been locked onto, kicked out of the dream—even if not kicked out, we’d surely be under restriction…”

A thought shifted in her mind:

“The Celestial Sovereign is also asleep, mostly in a dazed, unconscious state, operating puppets without awareness—only when stimulated or when a puppet actively reports back can it grasp the corresponding situation.”

“But can an unconscious puppet display such behavior? Aside from being extreme and obsessed with confronting us, it didn’t flee early—it behaved no differently from a real human…”

At that moment, the corpse phantom began to fade, about to vanish.

The “spirit communication” was ending.

Lumian seized the last moments, speaking urgently:

“Who gave you humanity?”

Jiana instantly understood—Lumian shared her concern.

He, too, was deeply interested in the resurrected corpse’s—or puppet’s—humanized traits!

The pale-faced corpse phantom grew ever fainter, leaving only a hollow voice echoing:

“It was Mr. ‘The Fool’ and the ‘Great Mother’…”

“Huh?” Franca, weakened by illness and with diminished self-control, blurted out in surprise.

It sounded as if Mr. “The Fool” and the “Great Mother” had given birth to her…

Lumian ended the spirit communication, turned around, and said thoughtfully to his companions:

“I think I understand the meaning of that last sentence.”

“She was once an ‘Despair Witch’ who had encountered Mr. ‘The Fool’ or one of his incarnations. His subconscious instinctively wove her identity, appearance, and personality from memory, and with the ‘Great Mother’s’ awakening—or rather, her gift of new life—she naturally gained humanity, becoming a unique puppet capable of autonomous action according to mission directives.”

“Was the divine emissary’s corpse sent to Mushi Hospital’s morgue to create a similar puppet?”

“Does Mushi Hospital not only house the ‘Tree of Desire,’ but also bear the presence of the ‘Great Mother’?”

“I told you so!” Franca had wanted to clap, but raising her hand exhausted her—“Mushi Hospital probably also holds the power of the ‘End of All Things’ sect.”

Lumian turned his gaze to the tattered yet astonishingly alluring corpse, observing for several seconds before saying:

“No traces of ‘Door’ Path blessings, no decay blessings either…”

“No idea how they did it… She didn’t display any corresponding abilities in battle. Were those two disease bombs pre-made using some artifact? Too bad we didn’t get to ask about the puppet-like traits of one of the disease bombs…” Franca grew even more fearful of Mushi Hospital.

She couldn’t imagine what Lumian might have faced if he’d entered the basement level of Mushi Hospital!

Lumian searched the corpse but found no other items, then stood up and said to Ludwig:

“If you promise to obey Jiana from now on, this corpse is yours as a reward!”

“Done, I promise!” Ludwig’s expression showed he didn’t care what happened afterward.

Lumian’s true goal was to destroy the corpse—after all, it was the Celestial Sovereign’s puppet. It had to be utterly obliterated before the Sovereign’s intermittent brief awakenings, leaving not a single trace, to avoid drawing attention or triggering anomalies.

Seeing Ludwig rush toward the corpse, Jiana supported Franca, and together with Anthony, they quickly exited the mirror’s rear area and returned to the rented apartment.

Lumian stood beside Ludwig and asked calmly:

“If this corpse were real, would eating it restore you to Sequence 4?”

“No, unless you give me the other one too,” Ludwig gazed longingly at Lumian.

He meant the corpse of Vazan Sansong—he’d received an arm two days ago for good performance in studying, exams, and homework, so before entering the dream, he had fully restored to Sequence 5, “The Depriver.”

Lumian ignored Ludwig’s plea and asked instead:

“What’s your Sequence 4 called?”

Ludwig began gnawing on his arm, mumbling:

“‘Sea Monster.’”

…………

The next morning, Franca found her severe illness hadn’t improved—her forehead was hot, her body weak, barely able to get out of bed.

Lumian confirmed with the simplest “Magic Mirror Divination” that this was merely lingering negative effects, requiring another half-day of illness—not a failure of the healing potion—and told Jiana:

“We’ll take turns—you care for her and Ludwig in the morning, I’ll take the afternoon.”

“I’ll drive with Anthony to contact the Major Arcana cards now.”

“Alright,” Jiana had also been somewhat contaminated last night and needed more rest.

Downstairs, in the car, Lumian imitated Franca, placing his phone on a specially bought stand and opening the map app.

Then, under Anthony’s gaze, he used voice input to set the destination:

“Star Dream Grocery.”

PS: Thank you to the temporary worker under The Fool for the silver alliance donation to Kleine Moretti~

(End of Chapter)