Circle of Inevitability

Jenna didn't follow Luo Shan, knowing she would call a ride-hailing service. Whether using shadow stealth or invisibility, Jenna couldn't keep up with a car by running for long—unless the target encountered repeated traffic jams. In this respect, Demonesses excelled at bursts of speed but lacked endurance.

As for taking a taxi herself and having the driver follow the target, leaving aside whether a taxi would happen to pass by or if a booked ride could arrive within a minute, the biggest problem was finding a reasonable excuse.

Jenna believed that if Franca were here, with her understanding and familiarity with the dream city, she could easily find a convincing reason. But Jenna herself couldn't yet—she might say the wrong thing and cause the driver to call the police on the spot.

Of course, this problem could be solved using Charm, but after she got out of the car and the effect gradually faded, the driver would recall what happened and likely feel something was off, possibly reporting it to the police. Jenna couldn't repeatedly Charm someone over such a small matter, making them fall in love with her for an extended period.

Leaving the window, Jenna made a bowl of noodles and enjoyed eating it completely, drinking all the soup.

When night truly fell, she took out the Ice Mirror Charm made by Lumian and held it in her palm.

As she uttered the word "mirror" in ancient Hermes, the mystical charm carved from frost lit up with a somewhat dim glow.

Jenna placed her hand on the mirror she had put on the coffee table earlier. Her entire body suddenly dematerialized and entered it.

Using the Ice Mirror Charm's ability to sense surrounding mirrors, she quickly locked onto a mirror-like object in Luo Shan's home and traversed through a dark, illusory tunnel.

She wanted to take advantage of Luo Shan being out to search her home from within the mirror, seeing if she could discover anything.

The reason she didn't do this while Luo Shan was at work during the day was that such probing had to be gradual. She first needed to confirm whether last evening's level of contact with Luo Shan would attract the Celestial Worthy's attention or provoke investigation by hostile forces.

After waiting a day and night, she now tentatively confirmed it wouldn't, so she could proceed with further contact and investigation.

Jenna didn't leave the dark, illusory area behind the mirror. Through the hard, cold glass, she surveyed Luo Shan's home.

This apartment was also a one-bedroom, with the same layout as the one she rented. She was currently positioned at the living room window immersed in the night.

Above the window, Jenna's face faintly and indistinctly appeared, her gaze sweeping over the coffee table, TV, refrigerator, and other items.

She quickly noticed easels, canvases, paper, palettes, paint tubes, various brushes, and small palette knives scattered in different places. Paintings hung on the walls—vibrant oil paintings, pencil sketches, and black and white freehand landscapes.

Jenna's gaze suddenly stopped on one of the oil paintings.

It depicted a strange half-human, half-snake creature—the upper body a voluptuous woman, the lower body a giant snake with lifelike scales.

The monster I saw last night… Jenna's heart tightened as she successively recognized other paintings depicting bizarre creatures she had seen invading the "spirit residential district" woven from psychic energy during her astral projection last night.

Almost simultaneously, she noticed a common element in these paintings: All the strange creatures were confined in iron-barred cages.

What does this represent? Does it symbolize these monsters being kept out of the world? This is close to the scene I saw during my astral projection walk last night… Did Luo Shan paint the iron-barred cages, while the monsters came from someone else's hand? Or did Luo Shan paint these monsters but then lock them up? As Jenna pondered seriously, her gaze fell on a sketch.

It was Luo Shan's self-portrait, her face smiling, eyes spirited, quite charming.

For some reason, Jenna felt the Luo Shan in this self-portrait was intently observing the dark living room.

This made her abandon the idea of leaving the window glass and truly entering the room.

As Jenna continued observing, the fingerprint lock on the front door made a sound, and Luo Shan returned home carrying her white handbag.

After placing the handbag on the dining table, Luo Shan walked lightly to her sketch self-portrait and looked at it for a few seconds.

Then, she picked up a brush, dipped it in some silver paint, and walked towards the living room window.

Jenna had retreated a bit before the door opened, allowing the glass window reflecting the night to return completely to normal.

Luo Shan stared at the glass window for a while, then raised her brush and outlined a simple door on its surface.

In the area behind the mirror, Jenna suddenly saw a silver light shine on the hard glass surface, forming a very real, strange door connecting reality and the mirror world.

She immediately left a few Demoness black flames to burn away any residual traces, then traversed the illusory dark tunnel herself, returning to her rented place and emerging from the mirror.

Where Jenna had originally been hiding, the not-quite-real silver door was pushed open, and Luo Shan entered the area behind the mirror.

The girl in a casual long dress looked around with a gloomy expression, finding nothing unusual in the area.

Luo Shan gazed at the dense spider web-like tunnels in the mirror, unable to think of what to paint to utilize them.

After two or three minutes, she exited the area behind the mirror and wiped away the silver door outlined on the glass window's surface with her palm.

…

23rd floor, Room 3.

Jenna sat on the sofa and silently muttered to herself, Luo Shan is indeed a Beyonder of the Painter pathway… Has the deity worshiped by the Fantasy Association also infused some power?

Is He also at Mu Shu Hospital, or does He have His own stronghold?

Did He give Luo Shan Beyonder power to control this colleague of Zhou Mingrui and contact Mr. Fool's dream image?

Just as she thought of this, Jenna's phone on the coffee table began to vibrate.

Jenna picked it up and saw that Luo Shan had sent her a message with an image.

This girl, whose WeChat nickname was "Always Wanting to Go on Vacation", said with a smiley face emoji: "This is my work, you can take a look."

The content of that image was precisely the sketch self-portrait Jenna had seen earlier in Luo Shan's home.

Jenna opened the image and suddenly had the illusion that Luo Shan had come to life on her phone screen.

She had an idea and just left her phone on the coffee table without locking the screen.

Then, she stood up, walked to the bathroom, and closed the door.

As soon as Jenna sat on the toilet, she immediately turned her gaze to the vanity mirror.

Using a Demoness's mirror magic and the mirror on the coffee table, she peered at her phone's situation.

A few seconds later, Jenna saw the sketch portrait displayed on the screen seem to make a tiny movement. The Luo Shan outlined in pencil lines tentatively reached out a hand beyond the screen, then withdrew it.

As expected… Jenna pressed the toilet's flush button, washed her hands amid the rushing sound, and exited the bathroom.

She picked up her phone again, closed the image, and used voice-to-text to reply to Luo Shan: "It looks so lifelike!"

She hadn't checked Luo Shan's Moments last night because they were set to "Chat Only".

"Want me to sketch you too?" Luo Shan quickly replied to Jenna's praise.

I wouldn't dare let you Painters draw me… Jenna silently muttered, using voice input to respond to Luo Shan: "No need, no need."

She quickly changed the subject.

"You might not believe this, but I had a very strange dream yesterday, and you were in it.

"You seemed to be guarding the neighborhood, fighting a group of monsters, while we couldn't help at all."

If a man had said something similar to her, Jenna would definitely think he was trying to flirt, feeling their relationship was too shallow for such intimate talk, clearly inappropriate. But now, relying on the fact of both being women, she dared to probe a little.

"Did I leave such a deep impression on you?" Luo Shan sent a "smug" emoji.

After a few seconds, she sent a second message: "Your dream is very interesting. I'm also very happy to play such a role in your dream—really, extremely happy."

Just as Jenna was about to reply, Luo Shan sent a third message: "Because my father was a true guardian, as were his colleagues."

Jenna suddenly recalled the background introduction of Luo Shan in the files:

In reality, Luo Shan's father was a Nighthawk of the Church of Evernight Goddess, who died in an accident brought about by a mystical case. His father's colleagues included the Nighthawk team captain Dunn corresponding to Officer Deng, Officer Deng's fiancée Miss Daly, Old Neil from Interpol, and others. They all died in disasters brought by Beyonder powers but also protected their corresponding cities.

One of Mr. Fool's incarnations is Klein Moretti, a member of that Nighthawk team back then, so when Mr. Fool subconsciously wove his dream image, did he add a similar background to Luo Shan, making her admire and aspire to the spirit of protection?

Although Luo Shan has now been influenced by that evil god of the Fantasy Association and received an illusory boon, has the protective obsession deep in her heart not been completely erased by the contamination? Is this the reason for her many contradictory behaviors currently?

Painting strange creatures on one hand, wanting to make them real, while adding cages to these invaders on the other… Constantly creating monsters on one hand, while guarding at the barrier on the other, not letting those monsters in…

Could this be considered Mr. Fool's subconscious projection onto Luo Shan fighting against the corruption of that evil god of the Fantasy Association?

If this is really the case, in a sense, this is a confrontation between a small part of Mr. Fool's subconscious and that evil god of the Fantasy Association… Jenna pondered with some understanding how to reply to Luo Shan.

After about ten seconds, she used voice input to say: "Have you ever created any paintings with a protective theme?"

It took Luo Shan twenty to thirty minutes to reply to this message: "Not yet. Failed."

If you haven't, then why did you fail? This answer is too contradictory… Jenna's pupils suddenly froze.

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