Circle of Inevitability

Lumian looked at Li Keji and asked calmly, "What is the essence? What has succeeded?"

Li Keji, with his thick beard and dressed in blue-and-white striped hospital clothes, spread his arms wide and said excitedly, "The essence is that only Mother can bring new life, and only new life can cure your vegetable friend!"

Just as Li Keji finished speaking, a dark iron sword slashed toward him through the air.

The surface of the sword burned with crimson flames, which twisted into a black flame that suppressed madness and brutality halfway through.

After hearing the first part of Li Keji's response, Lumian had already taken out the Sword of Courage from his Traveler's Bag without hesitation.

He swung the sword at Li Keji, whose chest was swollen with milk mushrooms and whose abdomen was entangled by flesh-and-blood mushrooms forming a uterus. He converted the normal flames into Fire of Destruction.

Only this fire could truly kill the Mushroom King Li Keji, who possessed both the unique cognition of Mr. Fool and the power of Mother's new life, preventing him from being resurrected from the ashes!

Just as the black flame of destruction was about to strike Li Keji, the patient room vanished, and in its place appeared a wild, grassy plain.

Li Keji had disappeared as well.

Within the trench, no grass grew.

Next, Lumian saw the soil in the distance loosen as a gigantic mushroom, covered in dark red veins, shot up from the ground like a massive tree, reaching for the sky.

Each of its mycelia was as thick as a branch, white with blood-red spots. Its cap was Li Keji's enlarged, bearded head. On its "chest," tumor-like growths rose, oozing a milky liquid. Its abdomen was covered with a translucent membrane, and beneath it, flesh mushrooms interbred, seemingly nurturing a jellyfish-like smaller mushroom inside.

Seeing this, small, dense bumps appeared on Lumian's skin, as if he had been mildly corrupted.

At the same time, he felt his life force flowing uncontrollably toward the giant mushroom and noticed that the green grass across the wilderness was all bending toward Li Keji, turning yellow.

Li Keji, serving as the mushroom's cap, spoke fervently and sincerely, "If you want new life, the current amount of life isn't enough.

"Give me all your lives, okay?"

By now, Lumian's eyes had taken on a dark, iron-black hue, and he found the pale white mark that represented the weakness on the giant mushroom.

He teleported to Li Keji's side, thrusting the Sword of Courage, engulfed in black flames of destruction, into the giant mushroom's abdomen.

Several branch-like mycelia whipped around, forming a dense net of vines that blocked the dark iron sword's path.

They were instantly set ablaze, turning to ash in the rapidly spreading black flames.

The giant mushroom shuddered violently, cutting off the burning mycelia from its body.

The mycelia fell to the ground, failing to affect the mushroom's main trunk.

Lumian followed through with a downward slash of the Sword of Courage.

This produced clusters of burning black fireballs, which exploded immediately.

Rumble!

The violent shockwaves, mixed with destructive black flames, surged in all directions, engulfing both the giant mushroom that was Li Keji and Lumian's own body.

Lumian activated the black mark on his right shoulder, teleporting out of the explosion's range just in time.

In the next second, he saw the giant mushroom ignited, swaying under the force of the shockwave.

Before Lumian could launch a second attack, the giant mushroom shed all the parts engulfed by the Fire of Destruction as if shedding its skin, discarding them before they could reach the cap or affect the abdomen and the "child" inside.

In an instant, a vast amount of ash floated in the air, and the giant mushroom's deeper layers were exposed—pulsing with sinews, flesh, and dark red veins wriggling like worms, exuding a strong milky scent.

All of these parts were writhing and rapidly regenerating.

Li Keji's head, acting as the mushroom cap, showed no hostility, and he happily said to Lumian,

"See? This is the final product.

"Come join us, and you'll also gain new life!"

As Li Keji finished speaking, Lumian had already pulled out a mirror, reflecting the giant mushroom that had shed its mycelia and outer layer.

Then, he pressed his hand, burning with Fire of Destruction, onto the mirror and wiped it once.

Demoness's curse!

A curse imbued with Fire of Destruction!

The giant mushroom jerked violently, causing all its flesh and liquid to shrink inward, wrapping its body and Li Keji's head, serving as the cap, into a bloody sphere.

On the surface of the sphere, clusters of smaller mushrooms stubbornly sprouted.

At that moment, black flames erupted from within, engulfing the entire bloody sphere.

One by one, the smaller mushrooms fell silently, while the layers of flesh rapidly carbonized.

The bloody mass writhed intensely, and one side suddenly split open, spitting out a wet, newborn mushroom.

This new mushroom was nearly identical to the previous giant mushroom, with Li Keji's head serving as the cap, branch-like mycelia hanging down, and tumors bulging, oozing milk. Its abdomen was covered by a membrane, nurturing new life inside. The only difference was that it was slightly smaller, as if it had shrunk by a full size.

Covered in greasy, gray-black afterbirth, the new mushroom shot out from the mother body's power, swiftly escaping the Fire of Destruction's burning area.

New Life!

Li Keji had used New Life to sever the connection between the Demoness's curse and himself just in time!

Is there still a way to escape the curse? As Lumian's life continued to drain rapidly, his mind tensed, and his gaze followed the flying, spore-scattering new mushroom.

His eyes quickly turned a silvery-white tinged with black.

He intended to use the Eye of Calamity to search for the black thread of fate that bound Li Keji, hoping to destroy this New Life and finally kill the mushroom monster in front of him.

Just as the mercury-colored illusory river of fate composed of countless complex symbols appeared in Lumian's vision, he suddenly felt an itch on his skin.

Instinctively, he lowered his head and saw that the small bumps on his skin had grown slightly, beginning to bloom as if about to sprout tiny mushrooms.

He had been corrupted by observing Li Keji's River of Fate!

Instantly, sinister and silent Demoness's black flames ignited on Lumian's body, consuming the burgeoning mushroom clusters without a sound.

Enduring the pain, Lumian teleported to the edge of Paramita.

He wanted to see if he could lure Li Keji to the police station and use the official forces and the power of the dream's main consciousness to eliminate this mushroom monster.

Paramita did not stop Lumian, allowing him to pass through.

What greeted Lumian's eyes was not the patient room of the psychiatric department at Mushu Hospital, but a spacious, dimly lit room, with half-drawn curtains, a desk, bookshelves, and a sofa set.

Lumian stood at the room's entrance.

From the corner of his eye, he saw that the door was half-open, with a conspicuous nameplate embedded on it. The nameplate bore five words in the local dream city script: "Dean's Office."

The dean's office? Lumian tensed even more and instinctively turned his gaze toward the area behind the desk.

There was a leather executive chair, and leaning against it was a figure.

The figure wore a white doctor's coat, had sparse eyebrows, bright brown eyes filled with a smile, and chestnut hair tied into a high bun. Her features were clean and alluring, exuding an elegant air, while she cradled a chubby, swaddled baby in her arms.

Lumian was momentarily stunned.

He knew this person.

She was one of the few surviving villagers from Cordu—Madame Pualis!

Pualis de Roquefort.

As Lumian's thoughts raced, he didn't immediately teleport away. Instead, he looked at Madame Pualis, who sat behind the desk holding the adorable baby, and smiled.

"So the new dean of Mushu Hospital is you.

"What a pleasant surprise."

As he spoke, Lumian recalled that Matriarch Roland of the Church of Earth Mother, an Angel of the Mother pathway, was only the associate dean of Mushu Hospital, yet Madame Pualis was able to be the dean.

What did this signify?

Was Madame Pualis more powerful, or was she the proxy of the Great Mother?

Madame Pualis looked at Lumian, who was wearing a mask and sunglasses, and smiled.

"I was equally delighted and surprised to find you here.

"And you now have a part of Aurore with you—what a double joy.

"I've recently learned a phrase about life's joys: 'Reuniting with an old friend in a faraway place and celebrating your wedding night by candlelight.' Our situation fits the first."

"Why don't you take off your sunglasses and mask so I can get a good look at you, and then we can enjoy our wedding night together and bring Aurore into the world?"

Do all of you followers of the Great Mother talk about having children as soon as you meet? Lumian didn't get angry or upset at Madame Pualis's words.

Some things couldn't be stopped, so it was best to stay calm, just like when the secret ceremony had brought dangerous power, leading to the mutation of the Blood Emperor's remnant aura and the transformation of the souls of the Cordu villagers into soldiers sealed within.

Following Madame Pualis's suggestion, Lumian took off his sunglasses and removed his mask, revealing a bright face with a hint of a cold smile.

If I don't show my face, how can I Charm her better?

And without better Charm, how can I create the best opportunity to escape?

As he kept an eye on the mushroom monster that Li Keji had become, Lumian shifted his gaze to the little angelic baby cradled in Madame Pualis's arms. "Is she your child?"

"Yes," Madame Pualis answered with a smile, her eyes roaming across Lumian's face.

Lumian instantly thought of the empty crib in the Cordu village ruins and asked, as if casually,

"What's her name?"

With a serene smile, Madame Pualis replied, "Omebella."

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