Chapter 947: A New

After a while, Yu Jianna also arrived at Room 1502 by climbing through the window, seeing Luo Shan who was controlled by three different methods.

"Have the invading monsters been beaten back again?" Fu Lan Ka asked with concern.

Yu Jianna gave a hum of affirmation.

"They should launch one more attack just before dawn."

She then recounted the things Luo Shan had said after Fu Lan Ka left that space, picking out the key points.

Hearing that becoming a "Shaman" would cause one's spirit to sense other spaces and worlds at a higher level, thereby attracting the invasion of various strange creatures, Fu Lan Ka couldn't help but mutter:

"What kind of 'Outer Heavenly Demon' is this..."

Yu Jianna could understand every word Fu Lan Ka said, but she didn't grasp the specific meaning. However, she had long since grown accustomed to Fu Lan Ka occasionally spouting such strange terms, especially since arriving in the Dream City, so she didn't pursue it, continuing to recount the intelligence she had gathered from Luo Shan.

Just as she finished speaking, the doorbell rang.

Yu Jianna walked outside the bedroom, and out of caution, she didn't approach the main door. She took out a mirror and used two reflections to make the scene outside the peephole appear before her eyes.

It was Ma Ding and Lu Lu Dewei Xi, whose head was the only thing visible in the frame.

Only then did Yu Jianna open the door, pointing toward the bedroom as she whispered:

"The patient is inside."

Ma Ding had driven to De Chuang Garden himself—after several days of observation, he had initially learned how to drive.

Then, he "persuaded" the patrolling property management to help him park and swipe the card, pressing the button for the 15th floor.

As Ma Ding walked toward the bedroom, Lu Lu Dewei Xi's gaze fell upon the paintings Luo Shan had created.

"Can, can I eat them?" he asked, looking at Yu Jianna with longing as he licked his lips.

Yu Jianna, who hadn't seen the child for several days, felt a warmth in her heart upon seeing he was still the same, and she smiled.

"They are just paintings."

"But they also represent a certain reality." When it came to eating, Lu Lu Dewei Xi was always mature.

Yu Jianna thought for two seconds before saying:

"You may."

She felt that these paintings were created by Luo Shan previously, and since Luo Shan's state at the time was unknown, there might be hidden corruption or hints left on them. If Ma Ding went through all the trouble to improve Luo Shan's condition, only for the problem to flare up again when the patient saw certain paintings from before, it would be a waste of her companion's efforts.

Receiving permission, Lu Lu Dewei Xi cheered and stuffed the paintings that hadn't been framed and hung up yet into his mouth in a crumpled ball.

"Does eating these allow you to gain different traits or abilities?" Yu Jianna asked curiously.

Lu Lu Dewei Xi answered vaguely:

"I can temporarily acquire them, but the duration is very short, and there's no one to deal with right now.

"Eating these mainly helps increase my spiritual limit..."

Yu Jianna nodded in realization, then looked at Lu Lu Dewei Xi, who was eating with his back to her, and asked lightly:

"How have your studies been these past few days?"

Lu Lu Dewei Xi's back stiffened for a second.

Inside the bedroom.

Ma Ding had already learned the whole situation from Fu Lan Ka, lit a candle, and dripped pure dew onto it.

After making all the preparations, he signaled to Fu Lan Ka that she could withdraw the "Blade of Coldness."

Because she had held the transparent, nearly invisible triangular dagger for too long, Fu Lan Ka's body had lost quite a bit of warmth, and her lips had turned pale. Hearing this, she hurriedly put the weapon back into the "Traveler's Bag."

Of course, she was still far from turning into a spirit, and the negative effects of the "Blade of Coldness" were suppressed to the Sequence 7 level within the dream.

As the "Blade of Coldness" was withdrawn, Luo Shan's eyeballs twitched beneath her eyelids before she slowly opened them.

She quickly recalled her encounter, and her expression twisted violently, becoming extremely ferocious.

Then, she saw a pair of deep brown eyes that resembled a dark, bottomless lake, and she saw those eyes reflecting the flickering, yellowish candlelight.

At the same time, she smelled a scent that brought peace to her nose.

Luo Shan instantly became calm.

Seeing this, Fu Lan Ka clicked to enlarge the words she had typed in her memo pad and displayed them to Ma Ding:

"Do not attempt to guide or suppress the corruption hidden within the patient's Beyonder powers. Trying to eradicate them is unrealistic and dangerous for us right now.

"What you need to do is treat the patient's mental issues, resolve the personality alienation, or reduce the impact caused by it.

"If the patient relapses later, follow the current plan until we find a way or a helper to thoroughly resolve the corruption problem."

Ma Ding gave a nearly imperceptible nod and began to communicate with Luo Shan's mind.

On the way, the quietly burning black flame that bound the destruction slightly illuminated the depths of the Mirror World, as if warning all unknown things that dared to covet the lottery ticket.

—If Ma Ding's state showed any signs of abnormality, she would immediately interrupt the treatment.

After Lu Lu Dewei Xi finished eating all the paintings in the bedroom, leaving only the one depicting the bridge, cliff, abyss, and black forest, Ma Ding finished the treatment, extinguished the candle, and led Lu Lu Dewei Xi out of the bedroom and the 1502 room.

After another dozen seconds, Luo Shan's long eyelashes fluttered, and her gaze gradually returned to normal.

She looked at Fu Lan Ka and Yu Jianna, her expression remaining somewhat dazed as if she had realized everything:

"I feel like I've just woken up from a long nightmare..."

"We found a professional doctor who initially treated the issues caused by the corruption in those Beyonder beverages. Of course, this is just the end of the first course of treatment; subsequent courses will be decided based on the situation," Fu Lan Ka explained vaguely, withdrawing her long hair and lifting the invisible spider silk bindings.

"I knew you would help me. Even if you couldn't cure me, you would handle that demon properly," Luo Shan said, her body, mind, and spirit returning to the youthful and lively state she had been in before drinking the "Reporter" beverage. She smiled at Fu Lan Ka. "Actually, I noticed you seemed a bit 'unreal' at the time, but I suppressed that feeling and deliberately didn't look at you again, lest 'she' discovered it too."

'She'? Luo Shan had already started referring to the alienated personality as 'she'... Hmm, that alienated personality also referred to her that way... The situation seems even more serious than we previously anticipated. Fortunately, we controlled her in time and provided treatment... Fu Lan Ka nodded in relief.

Yu Jianna asked curiously:

"Were you able to tell, um, that Luo Fu had turned into a mirror illusion because of the 'Reporter's' ability to observe, investigate, and unearth the truth of the world?"

They hadn't known enough about the "Painter" pathway beforehand, and their plan had nearly failed.

"Yes," Luo Shan nodded quickly, looking at Fu Lan Ka. "Your name is Luo Fu? It sounds so nice, nicer than mine. You are both so beautiful!"

"We both have the surname Luo; perhaps we were one family five hundred years ago," Fu Lan Ka joked.

Yu Jianna thought for a moment, then looked at Luo Shan:

"Why do you go out every evening?"

"Sometimes it's to find something delicious to reward myself, sometimes it's to go shopping with friends, and sometimes..." Luo Shan's expression changed slightly. "Sometimes it's to go to a bed-and-breakfast hotel that is still under renovation and hasn't opened yet. That was the recent request of 'that voice.' It said that once the hotel officially opens, it will grant me a 'Literary Enthusiast' beverage."

Hearing the request to open a hotel, Fu Lan Ka and Yu Jianna simultaneously recalled a term:

"Hostel"!

To the "Fantasy Association" evil god, does a hostel have a strong symbolic meaning? Does this reflect in the dream as wanting to open a hotel? Fu Lan Ka pursued the line of questioning:

"Did you pay for opening the B&B, or was there another source of funding?"

"I paid for a portion of it, spending all my savings. Fortunately, I had already bought this apartment, so I didn't have much money left. However, I've been considering lately whether to mortgage the house to get a loan so the hotel can open as soon as possible." As she spoke, Luo Shan looked terrified.

Money... Opening a hotel requires money... To the "Fantasy Association" evil god, money is not given directly, but rather the recipient is made to offer it... In the "Fool's" dream city, money indeed has a strong symbolic meaning, and even evil gods have to worry about it... Fu Lan Ka asked thoughtfully:

"You only paid for a portion; who paid for the rest?"

"It was people similar to me, but I haven't met them. Different people go to supervise the hotel renovation every day, and they don't run into each other. They aren't even on the shareholder list, and neither am I. The ownership of that hotel belongs to a person named Anderson," Luo Shan explained in detail.

"Anderson? Anderson Hu De?" Fu Lan Ka and Yu Jianna asked in unison.

"How did you know?" Luo Shan asked in surprise.

Fu Lan Ka laughed:

"We know far more than you imagine."

She asked for the name of the B&B, opened her phone, searched for it, and saw the name Anderson Hu De clearly listed in the shareholder column of "Colorful Painting Hotel."

This was too direct and conspicuous, giving Fu Lan Ka the feeling that the other party was provoking them or showing off the success of a prank.

This needs to be told to Ma Ding so he can probe Anderson... It just so happens he hasn't had an excuse to communicate with Anderson, and that "Hunter" hasn't sent any messages... Yu Jianna took out her phone, hesitating whether to contact Ma Ding now.

She was afraid of waking him up; after all, even if they knew this, they could only probe him during the day.

After a brief deliberation, Yu Jianna chose to walk out of the bedroom and use voice input to inform Ma Ding about the Colorful Painting B&B.

She couldn't let her inner softness hinder the communication of key issues. Perhaps before dawn, she and Fu Lan Ka would be kicked out of the dream!

Luo Shan followed her into the living room.

She looked around:

"Where are my paintings?"

"We handled them all." Yu Jianna truthfully explained her previous concerns.

"Hmm." Luo Shan agreed. She pointed to the remaining painting. "Why didn't you handle this one? It's the most dangerous!"

Seeing Fu Lan Ka and Yu Jianna both looking at her, Luo Shan's expression shifted:

"I didn't paint it. Not long after I drank the 'Reporter' beverage, I suddenly received this painting. I don't know who sent it. I feel, I feel that the 'other me' inside my heart is also in the black forest of this painting!"

"Conventional methods can't handle it," Yu Jianna didn't hide it from Luo Shan.

Fu Lan Ka thoughtfully changed the subject:

"What about that sketch self-portrait?"

"When you deleted all the photos, it spontaneously ignited, so I knew you had a problem," Luo Shan said, feeling both worried and curious.

Fu Lan Ka was immediately eager to try. She pointed to the painting with elements like the black forest, cliff, and bridge, and asked Luo Shan:

"Have you tried taking a photo of this painting? Did any abnormalities appear at the time?"

If it could be photographed and the abnormality didn't manifest immediately, they could consider using the "Information Shredder" to handle it!

"I can't take a photo; the image comes out blank. I even tried throwing it away, but it eerily came back," Luo Shan shook her head.

As expected... Fu Lan Ka wasn't too surprised by this. She pondered and said:

"Can you give this painting to us? We have a way to handle it, but we need to wait until daytime."

(End of chapter)