Chapter 938: The Contradictions (Thank You, Old Koller, for the Angoulême Silver Chest)

Jian Na did not follow Luo Shan because she knew the woman would take a ride-hailing car, and neither shadow stealth nor invisible tracking could let her chase a vehicle on foot for long, unless the target encountered one traffic jam after another—in this regard, “Witches” excelled in bursts but lacked endurance.

As for taking a car herself and having the driver follow the target ahead, it wasn’t just a question of whether a taxi happened to pass by or whether a booked ride could arrive within a minute; the biggest issue was finding a plausible excuse.

Jian Na believed that if Franca were here, her deep familiarity with the Dream Metropolis would let her effortlessly devise a convincing reason—but she herself could not yet, and one wrong word might cause the driver to call the police on the spot.

Of course, this problem could be solved with “Enchantment,” but once she got out of the car and the effect faded, the driver would recall the events and sense something was off, possibly leading to a police report; Jian Na could not repeatedly use “Enchantment” to make someone fall in love with her over a long period for such a trivial matter.

Leaving the window, Jian Na prepared a bowl of instant noodles, savored every bite, and drank the broth clean.

When night fell and darkness truly descended, she took out Lu Mi’an’s “Ice Mirror Talisman,” holding it in her palm.

As she whispered the ancient Hermes word for “mirror,” the frost-carved talisman glowed with a faint, dim light.

Jian Na pressed her hand against the mirror already placed on the coffee table, and her entire body instantly became insubstantial, slipping inside.

Relying on the Ice Mirror Talisman’s ability to sense mirrors nearby, she swiftly locked onto a mirror-like object in Luo Shan’s home and traversed through a dim, illusory tunnel to reach it.

She intended to search Luo Shan’s home through the mirror while the woman was out, hoping to uncover something.

She had not done this during Luo Shan’s daytime work hours because such probing must proceed gradually; she needed first to confirm whether the level of contact she’d had with Luo Shan the previous evening would draw the attention of the Celestial Lord or provoke investigation by hostile forces.

After a day and night of waiting, she now preliminarily confirmed it would not, and could proceed to deeper contact and investigation.

Jian Na did not leave the dark, illusory region behind the mirror; from behind the hard, cold glass, she gazed into Luo Shan’s home.

The house was also a one-bedroom apartment, identical in layout to her rented unit, and she currently stood at the living room window, immersed in night’s darkness.

Above the window, Jian Na’s face faintly, almost imperceptibly, appeared, her gaze sweeping over the coffee table, television, refrigerator, and other objects.

She quickly noticed sketchboards, canvases, paper, palettes, paint tubes, various brushes, and small scrapers scattered everywhere; on the walls hung one painting after another—some richly colored oil works, some pencil sketches, and some ink-wash landscapes in black and white.

Jian Na’s gaze suddenly fixed on one particular oil painting.

It depicted a strange half-human, half-snake creature: the upper body a beautiful woman, the lower body a massive serpent with lifelike scales.

“The monster I saw last night…” Jian Na’s heart tightened; she then recognized that the other paintings also portrayed the same intruders she had encountered during her astral journey through the “Spiritual Community” the previous night.

Almost simultaneously, she noticed a common element in all these paintings:

Every strange creature was imprisoned within iron-barred cages.

What did this mean? Did it symbolize these monsters being kept outside the world? This resembled the scene I saw during my astral wanderings last night… Were the iron-barred cages drawn by Luo Shan, while the monsters came from someone else’s hand? Or did Luo Shan paint these monsters and then imprison them? As Jian Na pondered deeply, her eyes fell upon a sketch.

It was Luo Shan’s self-portrait: her face smiling, eyes lively, full of charm.

For some reason, Jian Na felt that the Luo Shan in this self-portrait was intently watching the dark living room.

This made her abandon the idea of leaving the window and entering the room for real.

As Jian Na continued observing, the fingerprint lock on the front door clicked, and Luo Shan returned home, carrying a white handbag.

After placing the handbag on the dining table, Luo Shan walked briskly to her sketch self-portrait and stared at it for several seconds.

Then she picked up a brush, dipped it in silver paint, and headed toward the living room window.

Jian Na had already pulled back slightly before the door opened, allowing the glass window reflecting the night to return to normal.

Luo Shan stared at the glass window for a moment, lifted her brush, and sketched a simple door on its surface.

In the mirror’s rear region, Jian Na immediately saw the hard glass surface glow silver, forming a real, tangible, strange portal connecting reality and the mirror world.

She immediately left behind a few remnants of “Witch” black flames, then passed through the dim, illusory tunnel and returned to her rented apartment, emerging from the mirror.

The silver door, insufficiently real, opened where Jian Na had hidden, and Luo Shan stepped into the mirror’s rear region.

The girl in her light, flowing dress surveyed the space with a gloomy expression but found nothing unusual.

Luo Shan gazed at the dense, spiderweb-like network of mirror tunnels, unable to think of anything to draw to exploit them.

After two or three minutes, she withdrew from the mirror’s rear region and wiped away the silver door drawn on the window with her palm.

…………

23rd floor, Room 3.

Jian Na sat on the sofa, murmuring silently to herself:

“Luo Shan is indeed a Follower of the Painter Path… Has the one worshipped by the ‘Fantasy Society’ also subtly infiltrated?”

“Is He present at Mushi Hospital, or does He have His own base?”

“Did He grant Luo Shan supernatural power to control this colleague of Zhou Mingrui and approach the Dream Image of the ‘Fool’?”

Just as she thought this, her phone on the coffee table buzzed.

Jian Na picked it up: a message and an image from Luo Shan.

The girl with the WeChat name “Always Wanting to Go on Vacation” sent a smiling emoji:

“This is my work. You can take a look.”

The image was precisely the self-portrait sketch Jian Na had seen earlier in Luo Shan’s home.

Jian Na opened the image and suddenly felt the illusion that Luo Shan had come alive on her phone screen.

Her heart stirred; she left the phone on the coffee table, unlocked and open.

Then she stood up, walked to the bathroom, and closed the door.

The moment Jian Na sat on the toilet, she fixed her gaze on the bathroom mirror.

Using the Witch’s mirror magic and the mirror on the coffee table, she peered into her phone’s condition.

A few seconds later, Jian Na saw the sketch on the screen make a slight movement—the pencil-drawn Luo Shan cautiously extended a hand beyond the screen, then pulled it back.

Sure enough… Jian Na pressed the flush button, washed her hands under the rushing water, and left the bathroom.

She picked up her phone again, closed the image, and replied to Luo Shan via voice-to-text:

“It’s so lifelike!”

She had not browsed Luo Shan’s Moments yesterday because their chat was “Chat Only.”

“Should I draw you a sketch too?” Luo Shan replied quickly to Jian Na’s compliment.

I dare not let you “Painters” draw me… Jian Na muttered silently, then replied via voice input:

“No, no, don’t bother.”

She immediately changed the subject:

“You probably won’t believe this, but I had a very strange dream last night—I saw you in it.”

“You seemed to be guarding the neighborhood, fighting a group of monsters, while we all couldn’t help.”

If a man had said similar words to her, Jian Na would have assumed he was hitting on her, thinking their relationship too shallow for such intimate talk—clearly inappropriate. But now, she dared this advance only because they were both women.

“Did I leave such a deep impression on you?” Luo Shan sent a “proud” emoji.

A few seconds later, she sent a second message:

“Your dream is wonderful. I’m glad I played that role in it—truly, I’m especially happy.”

As Jian Na prepared to reply, Luo Shan sent a third message:

“Because my father was a true guardian, and so were his colleagues.”

Jian Na immediately recalled the background information on Luo Shan:

In reality, Luo Shan’s father was a “Night Watchman” of the “Goddess of Night” Church, killed in an accident caused by a supernatural case; his colleagues included Deng En, the team leader of the “Night Watchmen” corresponding to Officer Deng, Deng’s fiancée Miss Dai Li, and Senior Neil of Interpol—all died in disasters brought by supernatural forces, yet they protected their respective cities.

“One of the ‘Fool’s’ incarnations is Kleine Moretti, a member of that original ‘Night Watchmen’ team. So, when the ‘Fool’ unconsciously wove his Dream Image, did he graft a similar background onto Luo Shan, making her admire and yearn for the spirit of protection?”

“Although Luo Shan has now been influenced by the ‘Fantasy Society’’s demon god and received illusory blessings, her innermost desire to protect has not been entirely corrupted? Is this why she displays so many contradictory behaviors?”

“On one hand, she paints strange creatures, wanting them to become real; on the other, she cages these invaders… On one hand, she endlessly creates monsters; on the other, she guards the barrier, keeping them out…”

“Does this count as the ‘Fool’s’ unconscious projection battling the ‘Fantasy Society’’s demonic corruption?”

“If so, in a sense, this is a minor clash between the ‘Fool’s’ subconscious and the ‘Fantasy Society’’s demon god…” Jian Na, now understanding, carefully considered how to reply to Luo Shan.

After several seconds, she spoke via voice input:

“Have you ever created a painting with a theme of protection?”

Luo Shan replied to this message after twenty or thirty minutes:

“Not yet.”

“I failed.”

If she hadn’t, then why did she fail? This answer is too contradictory… Jian Na’s pupils froze.

ps: Thank you, Old Koller, for the Angoulême Silver Chest!

(End of Chapter)