Chapter 941: Recognition |
It was a human being seemingly embedded within an owl. His eyes were perfectly round, with pupils that gleamed in brown and yellow, filled with undisguised malice.
Anyone who made eye contact with those eyes would inevitably experience a jumbled mind, tense emotions, and a soul-deep fear.
The half-owl, half-human abomination flapped its wings and, with a foul stench, swooped down toward Jenna and Franca, who were lying in bed.
Its mouth opened, releasing nearly tangible sound waves.
The sound waves struck the two Demonesses, passed through them, and hit the bedsheets, dispersing in all directions.
The bed was now empty. The air conditioner panel's screen, the glass top of the bedside table, and the dark glass embedded in the wardrobe doors all flickered with a dim, eerie light.
Behind the half-owl, half-human abomination, Franca's figure sprang up, clutching an almost invisible Wintry Blade and stabbing at the target with the speed of a gust of wind.
The transparent triangular spike pierced the abomination's body with precision, freezing it in an instant as if it had encountered an icy spell.
At the bedroom door, Jenna's figure appeared, holding a mirror that reflected the enemy's now stuttering movements.
The half-owl, half-human abomination ignited with an evil black flame from the inside out, but due to the Wintry Blade's effects, it couldn't even let out a wail or scream.
Soon, the abomination burned to ashes, leaving nothing behind.
"A type of spirit creature…" Franca understood that a Demoness's black flame mainly targeted spirituality and life, making it difficult to ignite a physical entity.
She gently descended from midair, as weightless as a feather.
Jenna quickly and quietly said, "That was a Morna, the creature from Luo Shan's painting, and the invader Luo Shan has been fighting."
"Luo Shan's aggressive probe?" Franca responded without hesitation. "We need to go to Luo Shan's room now and try to subdue her as soon as possible, or we might be kicked out of the dream."
Jenna had clearly considered this as well. She nodded and said, "You head to Luo Shan's room. I'll go to that spirit-world-like space. If necessary, I'll take Luo Shan's place and guard the barrier to prevent those invaders from getting through."
She thought Luo Shan might not be in her room and could still be at the semi-transparent barrier. She was also worried that without Luo Shan's protection, the invaders might break through the defense line and cause a disaster.
Franca didn't waste time and, with a slight nod, slipped to the other side of the curtains, opened the master bedroom window, and jumped down to the 15th floor.
She didn't use the Ice Amulet to cross through the mirror world, fearing that Luo Shan, who had sensed Jenna's previous probe, might have set some traps afterward.
Franca's body was as light as a feather, yet the wind didn't push her off course. She landed precisely on Luo Shan's bedroom windowsill and pried open the window with a thin layer of frost.
Franca didn't rush in. Using the faint pre-dawn light, she quickly scanned the room.
The bed was empty, and paintings of various subjects hung everywhere.
Hiding? Franca pulled out a mirror from the Traveler's Bag.
She intended to divine the level of danger and create an illusion of herself using the mirrors inside and outside the room to see if she could lure Luo Shan into making a move.
In the spirit-world-like space shrouded by the frozen storm, Jenna's Astral Projection emerged and immediately looked toward the nearby semi-transparent barrier adjacent to the deep darkness.
Luo Shan wasn't there.
Mornas and other bizarre creatures were attacking the barrier, gradually thinning it and causing the frozen storm to show signs of disintegration.
Jenna looked around, scanning up and down, but still didn't spot Luo Shan.
She sighed inwardly and floated to the area under heavy assault by the monsters. Dangerous black flames and crystalline ice spears formed around her, shooting outward and smashing many of the invaders.
After holding the line for fifteen minutes, the monsters retreated into the depths of the darkness, their attack fully repelled.
After a while, sunlight began to filter into the area, and both the frozen storm and the wandering spirits and illusory buildings faded away.
Jenna's Astral Projection also returned to her body.
Morning had arrived.
Franca had already returned, her expression serious as she told Jenna, "I couldn't find Luo Shan. She either hid early or left."
"Could she have hidden inside one of the paintings?" Jenna quickly suggested a possibility.
Franca gently shook her head in response. "I checked all the paintings. None of them had any human shadows, but the sketch portrait you mentioned is missing.
"There's a painting of a bridge that stretches from the edge of a cliff near the foreground over a bottomless dark abyss to another cliff in the distance, where there's a black forest.
"I suspect Luo Shan entered the painting and escaped into the black forest via the bridge. I couldn't pursue her, and I have a strong sense of danger about that painting. It probably wasn't painted by Luo Shan herself."
Jenna was about to say something when she suddenly realized. "We haven't been kicked out of the dream!"
"Nor have we been restricted," Franca noted, having kept an eye on this matter.
She mused, "Luo Shan was corrupted by that evil god from the Fantasy Association, not controlled by the Celestial Worthy. While that evil god might assist the Celestial Worthy in some matters, it certainly has His own agenda and won't help with everything.
"Perhaps He wants us to stay in the dream to hinder the Celestial Worthy at a critical moment, so it's concealing this matter?"
"This is what Lumian meant when he said that the goals of the evil gods and the Celestial Worthy sometimes align, but sometimes they don't," Jenna agreed with a nod. She then added, "It's also possible that Luo Shan hasn't been completely corrupted and hasn't fully fallen, choosing to deal with us on her own without informing that evil god."
"Struggling and resisting…" Franca sighed before saying, "Let's wait a bit longer and see what happens."
After waiting for more than an hour, the two Demonesses saw Luo Shan leave Building 5, dressed in the standard Intis Group administrative department uniform, heading off to work as usual. It seemed as if everything that happened last night had been just a dream.
Franca and Jenna still hadn't been kicked out of the dream, nor had they faced any restrictions.
"She must have hidden in that painting with the bridge," Franca concluded, withdrawing her gaze. "I'll send a message to Lumian, letting him know what happened last night and that we might be at risk of being kicked out of the dream soon."
"Won't that get him kicked out too?" Jenna worried that contacting Lumian now might leave a hidden danger.
Franca let out a soft laugh. "Isn't there that little app Stiano gave us? The 'Information Shredder.'
"I figure WeChat messages are also information, so they should be shreddable without leaving a trace. I'll shred the message when sending it, and Lumian will shred it when receiving it.
"Although I can't be sure the Information Shredder will definitely fool the Celestial Worthy's subconscious tracking, I think it's worth a try. If it really works as we hope, we'll have more room to maneuver in certain situations."
Jenna pondered for a moment and then said, "Okay."
Franca immediately composed a WeChat message, detailing Luo Shan's probe, her and Jenna's response, and the subsequent developments, finally reminding Lumian to use the Information Shredder to delete the chat record.
…
At the entrance of the Tech Building.
Lumian stood in the lobby, casually reading the message from Franca.
Then he made his way to the first-floor restroom, entered the men's section, and found a stall where he activated a Bottle of Fiction.
He then brought his phone close to his mouth and whispered, "You can try more probes. Franca should also start work as early as possible and get in touch with Zhou Mingrui.
"We can't rely entirely on Luo Shan's struggle or the selfishness of that evil god from the Fantasy Association. They could change their minds in half a day or a day, so you need to gather more information before that happens to prepare for the second or third time we enter the dream."
After sending the message, Lumian waited a few seconds before pulling up the Information Shredder app and selecting the chat history with Franca and Jenna, then clicked delete.
Once he finished, he terminated the Bottle of Fiction and took the elevator to the 13th floor, where the Intis Group's security department was located.
After completing the necessary paperwork, he was led into the security department chief's office.
The office was large, almost the size of a private gym, with space for practicing boxing.
The security department chief was a foreigner with black hair and blue eyes, of medium height, and a muscular build that seemed understated but exuded power.
His name was Grimm. According to the Major Arcana card holders, he had been one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse who served Emperor Roselle faithfully. He died early, before he could witness Roselle's great achievements, and this was his dream manifestation.
"Have you practiced martial arts?" Grimm asked in broken local dialect.
"Yes." Lumian nodded sincerely.
"Then let's have a sparring match," Grimm pointed to the boxing ring on the other side of the office.
Still not in his security uniform, Lumian didn't refuse. He entered the ring and waited for Grimm to approach.
Grimm took off his light suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and stood in front of Lumian.
Suddenly, he threw a punch, the wind whistling as it cut through the air.
Lumian, appearing nonchalant, seemed to have anticipated the move. He sidestepped, avoiding the punch.
Snapping his waist back, he swiftly closed in on Grimm, unleashing a barrage of attacks with his elbows, fists, knees, and toes in a relentless onslaught.
Grimm maintained a tight guard, blocking Lumian's fast but underpowered strikes without allowing them to break his defense or land on his body.
Bang! Bang! Bang! After a few dozen seconds of furious assault, Lumian suddenly stepped back, panting heavily as he raised his hand in surrender.
"I'm out of strength."
Of course, he couldn't knock out his department head on his first day at work. It wasn't just a matter of workplace etiquette—he was concerned that revealing his combat prowess would expose him as a Beyonder.
"Not bad." Grimm nodded.
He walked straight to his desk.
As he passed Lumian, he suddenly lowered his voice as if not wanting the others waiting in the office to overhear and said, "Give my regards to the Mother."
Mother… Lumian's pupils dilated.
Grimm then added in a hushed tone, "I've recognized you, Honorable Child of God."
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