Chapter 971

Star Dream Grocery Store.

Anthony, carrying Ludwig, received the reply from the Major Arcana from the shopkeeper:

"In reality, Luo Shan is under the strict protection of the Church of the 'Night Goddess.' As long as she is asleep, there are definitely Beyonders monitoring her dream state. In this regard, the Church of the 'Night Goddess' is an expert...

"On the 'Future,' Frank Lee has not shown any further abnormalities for the time being. As before, our bottom line regarding Li Keji in the dream is that he cannot be polluted by the power of the 'Great Mother,' nor can he become a puppet of the Celestial Worthy through death and rebirth..."

Reading this, Anthony seemed to hear the inner thoughts of the Major Arcana:

"When necessary, you can actively kill Li Keji and destroy the body. In short, he cannot be polluted or utilized, and death will not affect the real person in reality."

Lu Mian thought the same... Anthony had never witnessed Li Keji's mushrooms with his own eyes; he had only heard Lu Mian recount the other party's philosophy, feeling that it had some logic but was also overflowing with confusing madness.

He continued to read the content behind the letter:

"We can only confirm that Anderson Hu De is currently in Aissala, the capital of Luenburg, but we cannot find him. We will communicate with the Church of Knowledge later."

Being able to make the Major Arcana of different pathways unable to find him proved that Anderson Hu De was hiding very well; perhaps he had even accepted the protection of a higher-level power... Communicating with the Church of Knowledge was to confirm whether they had provided help to Anderson Hu De? If not, things would be even more complicated and troublesome... Anthony folded the letter and stuffed it into his jeans pocket.

He then dropped the letter he had written in advance into the silver-inlaid black mailbox.

…………

Technology Building.

Lu Mian was already at work. While patrolling the floors, he thought about how to more effectively monitor the problem of Zarathustra, and where to observe the state of this enemy tonight—Lu Mian wanted to see if Zarathustra would still encounter the hostility of the dream at night after Luo Shan reminded Zhou Mingrui again, deepening the latter's impression of Zarathustra.

Walking to the seventh floor, taking advantage of Old Xia's trip to the restroom, Lu Mian took out his phone, clicked on the online shopping platform Seeing Fu Lan Ka mentioned, and typed a few words using the voice input method:

"Pinhole camera..."

He felt that although Zarathustra had also been suppressed to Sequence 7, he was essentially still an angel and possessed many mysterious and strange abilities. It was obviously unrealistic to want to rely on the Mirror World to spy on him all the time; this could only be done occasionally.

Therefore, Lu Mian planned to try a scientific method, trying pinhole cameras and wiretaps. Even if Zarathustra discovered these little things later, as long as the other party couldn't follow the trail to find him, there would be no problem.

After completing the input, Lu Mian didn't click the "Search" button.

He remembered Seeing Fu Lan Ka saying that this was an illegal act and part of the black/gray industry.

"Not to mention whether it can be bought on regular platforms, as a Son of God, why should I personally get involved in the black/gray industry? I am a law-abiding citizen..." Lu Mian closed the app half-jokingly and half-mockingly, switched to WeChat, and entered the chat box with "Intis Group Green."

He input in a calm voice:

"Prepare some pinhole cameras and wiretaps for me, preferably with user manuals.

"Also, give me Zarathustra's itinerary for the last two days."

The safety of Zarathustra in the dream city was jointly managed by the bodyguards he brought with him and the Security Department of the Intis Group. Therefore, Lu Mian knew last night that Zarathustra was likely at the hotel, so he went straight there to observe the situation. Of course, this wasn't entirely certain; Zarathustra could change his itinerary at any time, and he was the one in charge, just like his impromptu decision to go to two tutoring centers to inspect them, which Lu Mian hadn't received a reminder from Green about beforehand.

"Okay." Green quickly replied to Lu Mian.

After Lu Mian finished patrolling the floors and returned to the office, he opened his own drawer and saw the two sets of pinhole cameras and wiretaps quietly placed inside at a glance.

Lu Mian pulled out the paper placed on top of them and kept Zarathustra's itinerary from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM today in his mind.

When the sky turned almost completely black, he found an excuse to go to the restroom and "teleported" away.

He first used the Mirror World to hide the pinhole cameras and wiretaps in a concealed place in Zarathustra's room, wiped away traces of his presence, and relied on the "Mirror Substitute" to complete anti-divination, then returned to the Technology Building and arrived at the 16th floor exclusive to Boss Huang through a mirror.

Tonight, Boss Huang would host a business banquet here to entertain Zarathustra and his entourage.

Lu Mian was very grateful that Boss Huang liked mirrors and gold foil decorations, which allowed him to find the best position easily, overlooking Zarathustra from behind the mirror-like object on the ceiling.

This old man had just had a glass of red wine with Boss Huang and looked completely normal, while outside the window, it was already the true night.

Time passed second by second, and Lu Mian watched them drink, eat, and chat quietly.

Suddenly, Boss Huang leaned back against the chair, raised his head, and cast his gaze toward the mirror-like object where Lu Mian was hiding, as if he were thinking about a problem.

Lu Mian reflexively retracted his body, moving away from the mirror surface.

"Did Boss Huang notice me?

"Can he discover the peeping from behind the mirror?

"He's just a dream projection, not Emperor Roselle... Was that just a pure coincidence, or is it that in Mr. Fool's subconscious cognition, Boss Huang is someone who hides extraordinary power?" Thinking of this, Lu Mian suddenly remembered a piece of information Seeing Fu Lan Ka had told him:

Louis Gustave of the Emperor Party had been very irritable recently because he couldn't contact a key figure, and that key figure was suspected to be Roselle the Great in the mirror.

There was an aura of conspiracy... The intuition of a "Conspirator" gave Lu Mian a suspicion:

Could Roselle the Great in the mirror have also entered the dream?

Had He cooperated with the subordinates of the evil god and the Celestial Worthy before, and was He using the help of the Celestial Worthy's side to enter the dream? After all, He wasn't a true god, hadn't accommodated the uniqueness, and didn't have special items, so it was unlikely He could get in on His own...

Had He joined forces with Zarathustra, attempting to erode and influence Boss Huang, the dream image of Roselle the Great, until He controlled and replaced him?

His essence was a "Mirror Person," so it was perfectly normal for Him to discover someone peeping behind the mirror...

If Zarathustra and He controlled the Intis Group, with the influence and terrifying cash flow of the Intis Group, the scales of victory would inevitably tilt rapidly!

While we were focusing on Zhou Mingrui, Li Keji, and An Xiaotian, Zarathustra quietly stole our home...

Normally, in the situation where Princess Bernadette seemed to still be able to enter the dream, Boss Huang should be on our side...

However, why did Boss Huang look at me so obviously just now?

He could have pretended not to notice and found an opportunity to launch a surprise attack later...

The more Lu Mian thought about it, the more he felt cold sweat breaking out on his back.

Zarathustra wasn't a "Conspirator," but he was better than a "Conspirator"!

Sure enough, my initial thought was right; I have to launch an active attack, assassinate him, or trade one-for-one to kick him out... As Lu Mian's thoughts raced, he stuck to the mirror surface again and looked down.

At this time, Boss Huang had already withdrawn his gaze.

But Zarathustra noticed his behavior just now, glanced at the ceiling, and said:

"What are you looking at?"

Boss Huang gently swirled the red wine in his glass and answered with a smile:

"Thinking about some things."

Zarathustra didn't ask further and turned to chat about other things.

Lu Mian observed for several more minutes, confirming that Zarathustra did not show any abnormalities after nightfall.

"In other words, after being punished once, Mr. Fool's subconscious will think that this person has been completely marionettized. Even if Zhou Mingrui hears the corresponding name again and deepens his impression, it won't alert the dream's subconscious, unless Zarathustra makes new provocations toward him, bringing about new changes?" Lu Mian speculated on the reason for the current situation and left the place using "Mirror Travel."

"Why so long?" Old Xia asked casually when he saw him walk back to the office.

Lu Mian sighed and said:

"Sigh, I'm the type who gets diarrhea if I eat too spicy, and constipation if I eat nothing spicy."

Old Xia chatted enthusiastically about the topic of "spicy."

…………

Late at night, Lu Mian "teleported" to the vicinity of Red Moon Hospital and constantly flashed on the glass windows of different special wards through the Mirror World.

After a minute, he stopped.

Before him was a dark ward with only a little moonlight. His spiritual intuition told him that the person in the ward was the An Xiaotian he was looking for.

Lu Mian looked toward the hospital bed from a high vantage point and saw a person connected to many instruments and inserted with tubes.

That person's head was immersed in the darkness; only the contour of his features could be vaguely seen as quite good, but his beard seemed to have not been shaved for a long time, only trimmed, and it had grown to the upper part of his cheeks, thick and black, in tufts.

Lu Mian observed for a while, walked out of the glass window, and came to the hospital bed.

He saw that the unconscious patient's hair had been shaved clean, and there were multiple giant centipede-like suture marks on the top of his head.

A scene spontaneously constructed itself in Lu Mian's mind:

The head was forcibly split open, the brain was forcibly taken out, and then something unknown was put into the vacated position and sutured...

A symbol? Lu Mian had just had such a thought flash through his mind when he saw the heartbeat on the monitor become intense, with peaks and troughs alternating rapidly, bringing a beep-beep-beep alarm sound.

Lu Mian retreated subconsciously, came to the window, and was ready to leave at any time.

At the same time, he saw that all the monitoring data of the patient had changed, becoming very active.

An anomaly as soon as I arrive? What did I cause this with... There are too many possible reasons; I don't know which one it comes from for a moment... Lu Mian cast his gaze toward the patient himself again.

The patient's fingers suddenly moved imperceptibly.

(End of chapter)