[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-ring-of-fate":3,"chapter-the-ring-of-fate-the-ring-of-fate-chapter-985":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},2298954,4496,"Chapter 985","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-985",985,"\u003Cp>Gazing at the door to Room 2303, Francia suddenly recalled everything:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Considering that successfully shooting Zarathustra would inevitably draw police investigation, and given that Zhou Mingrui had already gained extraordinary abilities and his dream-subconscious awareness had reached the Sequence 7 level, the authorities, as official representatives, must now possess mystical power enhancements—so Lumian and the others had already planned how to evade follow-up investigations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Based on the fact that the main officers of the Dream City Police Department were modeled after the Night Church’s “Night Watchers,” Lumian reasonably deduced their most common and publicly convenient method of gathering clues was forcibly dragging targets into dreams and interrogating them directly within the dream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To that end, he had Antoni plant a psychological suggestion in Francia beforehand: once she drank the healing potion, she would immediately forget all related events, and the suggestion would only fully lift upon returning to Dechuang Garden and seeing her rented room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, even in the dream, Francia’s behavior would be flawless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If her own subconscious didn’t believe she had shot Zarathustra, then no matter what happened in the dream, she would show no anomaly!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rosan and Zhou Mingrui’s observations of Francia’s behavior stemmed from her instinctive reactions, not acting—only her pallor had been enhanced by the negative effect of the “Gun of Necessity,” leaving no trace of deception.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Phew… that shot of mine was so cool—calm, relaxed, natural, composed—this is what an assassin should be! Half-delirious from fever, Francia proudly praised herself in her mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, Rosan had already pressed the doorbell and saw Jiana open the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was about to whisper, “Did you kill Zarathustra?” when she suddenly spotted a little boy scribbling furiously beside the dining table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who’s that?” Rosan swallowed the question she’d meant to ask.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Francia broke free from Rosan’s support, glanced at Ludwig, and smiled weakly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My godson.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Theoretically, that’s it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No sooner had Francia spoken than she began gasping for breath, looking as if speaking exhausted her—Jiana hurried to support her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this, Rosan waved her hand and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Rest well. You won’t need to work overtime tomorrow—stay home and recover.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the big client dead, why work overtime at all!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back in Room 1502, Rosan pulled out her phone and sent Jiana a WeChat message:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is Rosfu okay? Does she need to go to the hospital?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She intended to use this to open the topic and then ask Jiana whether Zarathustra’s death was connected to them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiana replied quickly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Took fever-reducing medicine. Let’s observe for now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I heard there was a shooting at the hotpot restaurant you ate at?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She turned around and asked about Zarathustra’s shooting… What did that mean? Could it really not have been them? Rosan hesitated, doubting her own deduction again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She briefly told Jiana what had happened at the hotpot restaurant and waited to see how the other would respond.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiana sent a “terrified” emoji:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No wonder Rosfu got sick—she always falls ill when frightened, but recovers quickly; she’ll be fine in a couple days.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unscientific… She’s a powerful extraordinary being from the edge of the apocalypse—she must have witnessed countless deaths—how could a single shooting scare her into illness? Just as Rosan formed this doubt, she suddenly understood what Jiana truly meant:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’ll tell you the truth in two days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The police are in the middle of their investigation—they’re worried that if I knew the real killer, I might slip up or panic and reveal it to the officers? Rosan nodded in sudden understanding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She felt a surge of delight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past, she never caught such hints—sometimes people mocked her for being slow to notice sarcasm, and she’d miss it entirely—but now, she grasped the unspoken meaning behind words!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, I’ve grown.” Rosan leaned back contentedly against the sofa and scrolled through her phone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, she saw a police notice seeking key clues, part of which read:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This woman is involved in the case. We urge the public to actively provide information…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside this text was a photo: the woman who had stepped out of the screen alongside Zarathustra.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rosan could clearly tell the photo came from someone’s phone at the scene, not a surveillance camera—it captured the woman’s refined, elegant features, her bewildered yet alluring gaze, and her blood-smeared face with startling clarity, making her dangerous beauty leap off the screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at it again, she was still beautiful—even more so than Rosfu or Jiana without their disguises… Rosan sighed as she scrolled through the comments:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You were once a beauty—why become a thief?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not judging by looks, but how could someone kill without reason?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sister, shoot me!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are all the commenters letting their morals follow their eyes?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Isn’t she prettier than today’s female stars? She’d easily rank among the top tier!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She’s my dream lover—her face stained with blood, gun pressed to my skull, forcing me to surrender my heart.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So who exactly got killed?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Smiling, Rosan scrolled for a few minutes, then suddenly remembered something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She’d forgotten to check the room’s details.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ever since Rosfu and Jiana warned her to be wary of Zarathustra’s group secretly attacking her, every time she returned home, she used her extraordinary ability to inspect every corner, avoiding ambushes or assassinations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rosan stood up, walked to the oil painting of the parrot, and reached out her hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The colorful parrot poked its beak and upper body out of the painting, chirping clearly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No one came in.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rosan stroked the parrot’s feathers, then turned to the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She gazed outside, raised her right hand, and pressed her fingertips against her eyelids.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She intended to activate the “Journalist” ability to observe and uncover the world’s truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn’t because she distrusted the parrot—some intruders simply eluded its detection.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, she dared not observe the truth for long; each use of this ability made her feel danger, and she limited herself to roughly ten seconds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was only useful for checking “corners” the parrot couldn’t reach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next instant, Rosan’s vision shifted—different scenes layered strangely atop one another, chaotic and overlapping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She swiftly saw the glass window connecting to the dark realm, the oil paintings pressed against it, the stacked rooms like building blocks, the people in each room doing different things yet intermingled, and the thin, grayish-white mist clinging to the edges of all these scenes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What exactly are these mists…” Rosan instinctively frowned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every time she used the “Journalist” ability to perceive truth, she saw these thin gray mists—but she’d never understood what they symbolized, represented, or originated from.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Rosan noticed a man in one room moving with a slight stutter, the colorful parrot flapped its wings within her line of sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Immediately, she saw Rosfu lying on the sofa, cooling herself with an ice pack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then she heard Rosfu’s weak voice:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So this is what happens after being kicked out of the dream as a woman?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kicked out of the dream… Rosan froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her vision shattered instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She instinctively ended her observation of “truth.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rosan stood by the window, expression blank, replaying the words she’d just heard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kicked out of the dream? Was Rosfu implying this place was a dream? Was that why she acted that way last time—because she’d been kicked out? Rosan’s gaze grew hollow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After several seconds, she whispered softly to herself:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If this is a dream… then what am I?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…………\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deep in the night, the door to Francia and Lumiana’s bedroom opened soundlessly—a figure slipped out without making a sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was Lumiana, clad in a nightgown, her eyes like highland lakes—both confused and agitated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lumiana moved silently along the darkest shadows to the door and disengaged the deadbolt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then she placed her hand on the handle, attempting to open the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The handle didn’t budge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Broken lock? Just as Lumiana’s expression flickered with surprise, Jiana’s voice came from behind:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where are you going?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lumiana spun around, facing Jiana:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Didn’t you take Li Lu to Andred’s place?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I came back, but you were both asleep—I didn’t want to disturb you, so I just slept on the sofa.” Jiana rose from the sofa, puzzled. “You want to go out? It’s midnight.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I… I feel suffocated, oppressed—I just want to take a walk.” Lumiana explained. “But the lock’s broken.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She gave a self-deprecating laugh:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Isn’t this just bad luck?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bad luck was normal, inevitable—it was the negative side effect of using the “Man of the Ring” ability… Jiana didn’t explain, only shook her head:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The hotpot incident isn’t over, your body isn’t fully recovered—if you go out now and someone sees you, it’ll be trouble.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright.” Lumiana pressed her lips together. “I… I keep hearing voices, impulses pushing me to go out.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Voices?” Jiana frowned, growing more alert. “Where to?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lumiana didn’t hide it:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“On one hand, I want to go to the rooftop, feel the wind, see if there are stars, just zone out. On the other, I feel drawn to a certain place—it’s calling me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What place?” Jiana pressed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lumiana strained to recall:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s like… it’s like…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She paused, then remembered:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mushu Hospital.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mushu Hospital.” Jiana’s pupils dilated slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She suddenly recalled: Lumian, that is, Lumiana, truly carried the bloodline of Oumibera, the Divine Child of the Great Mother.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is not a disguise fabricated to deceive Gelin  and others!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1550,"2026-06-20T06:22:37.987Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","7b2d71ec83052a1a53e1d56d6e39b5cf417a5eb792c8427423ac208c33f1b20e","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-986","the-ring-of-fate-chapter-984",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-ring-of-fate-cover.jpg"]