[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-ring-of-fate":3,"chapter-the-ring-of-fate-the-ring-of-fate-chapter-968":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},2298937,4496,"Chapter 968: Different Treatment","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-968",968,"\u003Cp>As time ticked away, Lu Mi saw office workers gradually leaving the Tech Tower, while unobtrusive spots along the roadside saw carts arrive, selling stir-fried rice noodles, stir-fried wheat noodles, braised delicacies, fried skewers, and grilled meats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cars with headlights on passed through these areas, still bustling and busy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing’s happening for now… Lu Mi had long lost sight of Zhou Mingrui, yet he felt no anomaly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, Old Xia walked in:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Go check again, or Officer Xu will say we’re slacking off in the office.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright.” Lu Mi nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he saw Old Xia turn his body with an awkward motion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s wrong? Did you hurt your back?” Lu Mi stopped walking, still standing close to the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Old Xia turned his head, his expression unchanged:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not—what—ah…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, his lips occasionally froze mid-movement, and his accent shifted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Lu Mi could respond, Old Xia withdrew his gaze and continued toward the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His knees, his ankles, his arms, his shoulders—each joint felt as if filled with lead blocks, heavy, stiff, and sluggish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi suddenly recalled the puppet show he’d witnessed in the basement of the “Alone” bar in Trier, feeling as if every joint of Old Xia were tied with invisible threads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Old Xia now seems more like a puppet than a human…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Has he been, puppetized?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My thoughts… also feel stuck… like they’re buffering…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Am I… being puppetized too?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi startled, lowered his head, and tried to raise his right arm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his vision, his own arm lifted, paused, lifted again, paused again—like a video stuttering from slow internet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sure enough… Lu Mi’s first thought was that the Celestial Lord was puppetizing him, yet he felt none of the agony described by Fulanca—the sensation of a fish out of water, a man ripped from air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He immediately considered another possibility:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zarathustra or another subordinate of the Celestial Lord was hiding in the shadows, trying to strike at him!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi subtly shifted his neck, glancing out the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He noticed all vehicles on the road had paused simultaneously, yet none lurched forward as if brakes had failed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a brief freeze, the vehicles resumed moving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two seconds later, they stopped again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It made Lu Mi feel as if he were watching a surveillance video, frame by frame!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not just the vehicles—vendors selling stir-fried rice and noodles, and their customers, also displayed similar unnatural stutters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A dream, this large-scale puppetization across the city… only the Celestial Lord or Mr. ‘The Fool’ could accomplish this…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The anomaly… has come…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi forced his focus, preparing to actively exit the dream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he didn’t understand why his experience differed from Fulanca’s, the current situation and surrounding changes told him he couldn’t escape or resist this alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only solution was to exit the dream before he became a puppet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Lu Mi didn’t act immediately—he didn’t need to use the “Information Shredder” to delete important contacts from his phone; he’d already done that. He still had time to observe the changes, to see if any hidden clues emerged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After several seconds, Lu Mi’s thoughts suddenly flowed smoothly again, the thick, muddy sensation in his mind gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is it over? No more puppetization?” Lu Mi, already watching outside, saw the vehicles no longer froze unnaturally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The vendors and pedestrians had returned to normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why you still standing there? Thinking about what?” Old Xia turned sideways again, urging Lu Mi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi’s eyes flickered, and he grinned:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh man, I’ve got a stomachache—I’m going to the restroom.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saying that, he ran past Old Xia and dashed into the building’s public restroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Old Xia watched his back, chuckling as he muttered:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lazy ox, lazy horse—so much piss and shit!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi entered a stall, locked the door, and immediately activated “Spirit World Transit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He “teleported” to another public restroom, appearing midair in the men’s section.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing no one in the stall below, Lu Mi floated down gently and locked the door from inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the hotel where Zarathustra stayed. Before going to Li Keji’s ward at Red Moon Hospital to wait, Lu Mi had come here to scout—though his plan to ambush and assassinate Zarathustra was temporarily shelved in favor of using Li Keji to trap potential enemies, he still prepared extra contingencies while time allowed, in case Zarathustra chose to eliminate Li Keji indirectly, making this backup plan viable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi took out a mirror and placed it atop the toilet tank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he pressed his right hand against it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His figure suddenly leaned forward, rapidly fading, slipping into the glass surface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through the mirror world, he passed through into the glass window of Zarathustra’s suite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath the night, this was unquestionably a real mirror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi did not press his face close to the glass; he observed the room from a distance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wasn’t sure if Zarathustra had returned to the hotel—perhaps he was still out networking—and he dared not use divination to locate him, fearing alerting the true “Diviner.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next moment, he saw a figure hanging from the main light—wearing a black suit, white hair disheveled, swaying gently like the corpse of a hanged man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zarathustra!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This… Lu Mi was stunned:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Zarathustra is being hanged by Mr. ‘The Fool’—just like he hanged the Divine Messengers?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did my subtle hint to Zhou Mingrui this afternoon actually work?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I only hoped to get Zarathustra kicked out of the dream—and I was ready to sacrifice one of my own entries into the dream as payment…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Lu Mi’s thoughts raced, he saw writhing, translucent worms—twisted, crawling—fall from Zarathustra’s body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment these creatures touched the bed or floor, they faded and vanished instantly, as if mere illusions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi then saw a figure emerge from the void.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The figure wore a black suit, had entirely white hair, a thick beard, and eyes so deep blue they were nearly pure black, devoid of light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zarathustra!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another Zarathustra!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A living Zarathustra!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zarathustra lifted his head, expressionless, gazing at the figure hanging from the chandelier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hanging figure quickly faded and became transparent, like the worms before, until it vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Was the one hanging just a historical fissure image of Zarathustra?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Zarathustra sensed danger in advance and summoned a historical image to take his place? Otherwise, at Rank 7, historical images couldn’t last long…” Lu Mi withdrew his gaze, avoiding further observation of Zarathustra lest he be noticed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The data provided by the Major Arcana cards described the abilities of the “Diviner” path up to Rank 3, “Ancient Scholar,” in detail; for Rank 2, “Miracle Worker,” it only briefly explained what a wish and a miracle were; beyond that, the Major Arcana mentioned almost nothing—terms like “grafting” and “deception” were only later introduced to explain specific events.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Standing in the dark, void space behind the mirror, Lu Mi, combining his own experience with Zarathustra’s, formed a tentative theory:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m certain it was my daytime hint to Zhou Mingrui that triggered the anomaly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“On my end, pedestrians and vehicles across the area were affected by puppetization—not just me. This means my hint to Zhou Mingrui did draw the Celestial Lord’s attention, but since it happened during the day, the Celestial Lord couldn’t pinpoint me precisely—only roughly narrow down a zone?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In this mass puppetization, if I used my supernatural ability to resist or struggle, I’d be instantly locked onto by the Celestial Lord. But if I chose to exit the dream to avoid danger, the Celestial Lord’s goal would still be achieved—he’d make me waste one of my entries into the dream… How cunning…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My hint to Zhou Mingrui was also perceived by Mr. ‘The Fool,’ and the name Zarathustra was acquired—so Zarathustra suffered targeted, rapid puppetization, but the burden fell on the historical fissure image…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why is Zarathustra so calm now? Is this the ‘Faceless One’? Or does he believe that before any new change occurs, Mr. ‘The Fool’s’ attention will come only once—and if he dodges it, he’s truly safe?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tomorrow, I’ll have Rosan test Zhou Mingrui—see if he still remembers Zarathustra’s threat. If he does, and Zarathustra isn’t puppetized or kicked out of the dream again, then the Celestial Lord must have intervened, using a single death of a historical projection to resolve this incident…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Could we also use a similar method to avoid being kicked out of the dream?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Or perhaps threats spoken by others differ from direct confrontation—so Fulanca’s and Zarathustra’s experiences aren’t identical…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking this, Lu Mi quietly glanced again beyond the mirror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw Zarathustra walk to the door as if nothing had happened, open it, let several subordinates enter, and discuss tomorrow’s business negotiations with them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mi felt a pang of regret.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d just been considering whether to strike a surprise assassination while Zarathustra’s historical projection was hanging and his true body appeared!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His curse still possessed the trait of not being transferable by the “paper substitute”—as long as it affected the true body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After glancing at the subordinates and assessing the likelihood that any of them were supernaturally gifted, Lu Mi silently left the glass window that served as a mirror and transited back to the restroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just two seconds after he left, Zarathustra and his subordinates either half-turned their bodies or tilted their heads, all simultaneously fixing their gazes on the glass window at the edge of the living room, reflecting the night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…………\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a cheap hotel room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anthony, having isolated himself after contacting Peng Deng, sat on the edge of his bed, waiting for possible anomalies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1594,"2026-06-20T06:22:37.987Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","4e63886ed1e2635f75a1c1cd44c88c91877ce1de3c07806ec7c2951cea30e63e","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-969","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-967",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-ring-of-fate-cover.jpg"]