[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-ring-of-fate":3,"chapter-the-ring-of-fate-the-ring-of-fate-chapter-936":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},2298905,4496,"Chapter 936: The Guardian (Thanks to Lao Kele for the Ludwig Silver Alliance)","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-936",936,"\u003Cp>Faced with the sudden darkness, Jianna’s first instinct was to vanish or hide in the shadows, but she ultimately restrained herself, refusing to reveal any extraordinary ability the moment night fell and anomalies emerged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She leveraged her acting skills, pretending to be an ordinary person, and groped her way out of the bathroom toward the window, despite clearly being able to see.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the living room, thanks to the glow of urban light pollution seeping in, the outlines of the coffee table, sofa, and other furniture became visible; Jianna immediately quickened her pace, reaching the window in seconds and gazing outside—she found that not only did the distant buildings, tall and low, remain brightly lit, but other buildings in the same residential complex were also not fully swallowed by darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jianna glanced downward and sensed that other floors seemed to have their lights on too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is it just my place that’s down? Hmm, power outage?” Jianna pulled out her phone from her jeans pocket, intending to call Franca and ask how to handle this situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She then remembered she was supposed to act independently these two days and couldn’t contact her teammates, so she switched from calling to searching online.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With clumsy fingers, she used voice-to-text to input “What to do if the power goes out at home,” then tapped the search option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, remembering Franca’s warning, she skipped the first several search results and went straight to the later ones:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“First, check the electrical panel…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The specific steps are…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After reading for a while, Jianna’s brow slowly furrowed:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is too hard!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These were all areas she didn’t understand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she scrolled, she spotted one answer:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Call the property management!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...” Jianna froze. “You can do that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had registered with property management when she checked in that afternoon and added their number to her contacts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She dialed, gave her room number and the problem, and the on-duty staff immediately assured her that an engineer would come right over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long after, the doorbell rang; a property engineer arrived on her floor, carrying a tool bag.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he saw Jianna, his eyes lit up and his demeanor turned warmly enthusiastic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jianna, extremely wary, let him into the apartment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She remained ready for any anomaly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The property engineer quickly inspected and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s a tripped breaker.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He flipped the switch back on, and the room instantly flooded with light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So simple? Jianna kept her ignorance from showing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After seeing the engineer off and relocking the door, she couldn’t help but sigh:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Life in this dream city is so convenient…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...though the property fees aren’t cheap…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jianna quickly washed up, got into bed, and fell asleep like an ordinary person—but her spirit remained taut, never relaxing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a daze, her spiritual intuition delivered a warning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She snapped awake to find herself floating above the residential complex in her Star-Spirit form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many spirits wandered here—apparently all residents of Dechuang Garden—while layers of storm above had frozen solid, completely enclosing the area in a semi-transparent barrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Near the barrier stood a figure: Rosanna, dressed in a light green casual dress, her hair dyed brown. Before her, one after another bizarre forms emerged from the darkness, hurling themselves at the frozen storm and the semi-transparent barrier, trying to enter the “complex.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some were half-human, half-snake: upper torsos of beautiful women, lower bodies thick, scaled, serpentine tails; others resembled shrunken humans embedded between owl wings, sprouting claws; still others were young, naked women with long hair, flaunting their full figures…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Facing these strange creatures’ assaults, Rosanna pulled out a thick oil painting brush and rapidly sketched patterns onto the semi-transparent barrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She drew a sun surrounded by birds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the simple drawing took shape, the sun within blazed with golden, radiant light, forcing all the monsters to shut their eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, each bird burst into golden flames, flew out of the barrier, and soared toward different monsters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this, Jianna was stunned—and filled with intense confusion:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This situation didn’t match her expectations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rosanna seemed to be fighting those strange creatures, preventing them from entering Dechuang Garden’s corresponding spirit realm—she looked like a guardian.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the power she displayed clearly belonged to the “Painter,” a gift from the Xieshen  of the Fantasy Society!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Rosanna should be aiding those strange creatures’ intrusion into the spirit realm of the complex—why is she guarding the barrier instead?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And earlier, in Xinhong Garden, I, Lu Mi, Franca, and Anthony never noticed any similar intrusions… Was this a change triggered by Lu Mi’s formal contact with the Fool’s dream image, or does Dechuang Garden itself have some special quality?” Confused, Jianna saw Rosanna’s defense holding steady, so she suppressed the urge to help, pretending to be another resident’s spirit, drifting aimlessly within the barrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This continued until dawn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…………\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xinhong Garden, rental apartment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Franca, who had woken early out of concern for Jianna, saw Lu Mi carrying a small cage from the shoe cabinet to the dining table—inside was a gray-white old rat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—Ludwig’s presence had driven all rats and cockroaches out of this rental apartment; to test the effects of the magic potion drink, Lu Mi and the others had wandered the complex before dark yesterday and finally caught one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Franca sat down and watched as Lu Mi, wearing gloves, pulled the rat—terrified into a trembling ball by Ludwig’s watchful gaze—and forced it to drink the Insomniac Potion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rat drank only a sip, then the rest of the potion surged into its body like a flood, ignoring whether it could contain so much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the blink of an eye, the rat swelled violently; its short gray-white hairs bristled like porcupine quills, turning black.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath its armpits, across its chest and belly, flesh writhed—as if new limbs were growing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lost control? Lu Mi and Franca simultaneously thought the same thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ludwig opened his mouth in delight and swallowed the mutated rat whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crunch crunch crunch—he closed his eyes in satisfaction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Won’t eating this cause problems?” Franca looked at Ludwig with concern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This food had extraordinary properties!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ludwig mumbled:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No problem. Digestion? Not yet. Just… storing…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi nodded, picking up the empty Insomniac Potion bottle:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This really is a magic potion.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Franca sighed deeply:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s only moments like this that I truly feel this is a dream.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Daily life was too real!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking up at the morning sky, Franca asked Lu Mi carefully:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You have your interview this morning—want to go to the lottery center together this afternoon?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You go this morning,” Lu Mi said with a smile, cutting off Franca’s question before she could voice it. “But I’m keeping the ticket.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Franca instantly understood:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You mean the bad luck—or the dream’s resistance—targets the ticket itself, not us?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Makes sense. If the Lord’s resistance could precisely target us, we’d already have been kicked out of the dream.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So you and Anthony go to the lottery center like tourists, and when you reach the point where you need to present the ticket, I’ll send it over through the Mirror World, finishing redemption before the resistance kicks in?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly. And this also tests whether your theory about the dream’s tendency is real—and if so, what its rules are.” Lu Mi nodded lightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…………\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After breakfast, Lu Mi changed into a white shirt and black trousers, took his printed resume and other documents, and boarded public transit to the tech building housing the Intis Group; Franca drove Anthony and Ludwig to the lottery center.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the front of the tech building, Lu Mi glanced up at the slightly outdated sixteen-story structure, then walked in openly among the white-collar workers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He encountered no problems along the way—no bus breakdowns, no traffic accidents—his destination was opposite the lottery center.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi didn’t rush to his interview; instead, he approached the display board listing floor information and studied the building’s corporate composition:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The building’s ownership belonged to the Intis Group; floors one through five were allocated to Intis subsidiaries; floors six through nine were rented to other companies; floor ten was half-owned by Intis Group’s headquarters, half-leased to “Aurora Company”; floors eleven and twelve were also rented out; floors thirteen through fifteen housed other Intis Group departments; floor sixteen was exclusively reserved for Luo Saier’s dream image, Huang Tao, the General Manager.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s exactly as Franca said—this building has obvious issues… Intis Group could recall all departments and subsidiaries to occupy all sixteen floors—why rent out several? And why do the headquarters’ administrative and technical departments share a floor with ‘Aurora Company’? In Franca’s words: something’s off—twelve out of ten things are wrong…” Lu Mi pondered deeply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Franca first obtained the building’s data, she’d glanced at it once and sensed something abnormal:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t match her memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi thought for Shiji  seconds, muttering silently:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is this symbolic?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Does this building symbolize the Intis Republic? The rented floors symbolize infiltration by cults and other forces? Is this the Fool’s perception of the Intis Republic?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi didn’t linger long; he Shouhui  his gaze and stepped into the elevator.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He occasionally glanced at the metal mirror surface, waiting for Franca or Anthony to call his phone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the elevator floor numbers slowly changed, another person appeared beside Lu Mi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A middle-aged man with chestnut-dyed hair, handsome and stylish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Zong? Lu Mi’s peripheral vision caught the figure—he recognized him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dream image of Emperor Luo Saier, the Intis Group’s CEO, who often skipped his private elevator and rode with employees—Huang Tao, the General Manager!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>ps: Thanks to Lao Kele for the Ludwig Silver Alliance!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1593,"2026-06-20T06:22:37.987Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","9a68c04913bcd7884ac442a20f661e698dd38b340fc0155659d01a1e392df5f5","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-937","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-935",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-ring-of-fate-cover.jpg"]