Circle of Inevitability

Time passed minute by minute. Lumian saw office workers continuing to leave the Tech Building, while carts appeared in less conspicuous places along the road, selling fried noodles, stir-fried rice noodles, braised dishes, fried skewers, barbecue and other foods.

Cars drove by with their lights on, still busy.

Nothing's happened yet… Lumian had long lost sight of Zhou Mingrui, but he didn't feel anything unusual.

At this moment, Old Xia walked in.

"Let's go patrol again, so Team Lead Xu doesn't say we're hiding in the office slacking off."

"Okay." Lumian nodded.

Then, he saw Old Xia turn his body somewhat awkwardly.

"What's wrong? Did you hurt your back?" Lumian stopped, still close to the window.

Old Xia turned his head, his expression unchanged as he said, "I'm not… What… ah…"

Before Lumian could respond, Old Xia looked away and continued walking towards the door.

His knees, ankles, arms, and shoulders seemed as if filled with lead, heavy and stiff, with a sense of sluggishness.

Lumian suddenly recalled the puppet show he had seen in the basement of the Alone Bar in Trier, feeling as if invisible strings were tied to all of Old Xia's joints.

Old Xia now looks more like a puppet than a human…

Has he… been… marionettized?

My thoughts… also seem to be… lagging…

Am I also… being marionettized?

Lumian was startled. He lowered his head and tried to raise his right arm.

In his view, his arm lifted, paused, lifted again, and paused again, as if watching a video with slow Internet speed.

Indeed… Lumian's first reaction was that the Celestial Worthy was marionettizing him, but he didn't feel the painful discomfort of a fish leaving water or a person leaving air that Franca had described.

He immediately thought of another possibility: Zaratulstra or other subordinates of the Celestial Worthy were hiding in the shadows, trying to deal with him!

Lumian slightly moved his neck, turning his gaze to the window outside.

He found that the vehicles on the road all paused simultaneously, but without the forward surge that would occur with sudden braking.

After a brief freeze, these vehicles started moving again.

Two seconds later, they stopped again.

This made Lumian feel as if he was watching surveillance footage, frame by frame!

Not only the vehicles, but the vendors selling fried noodles and their customers also showed similar, abnormal stuttering.

Such large-scale… marionettizing… in the dream… city… can only… be done by… the Celestial Worthy… or… Mr. Fool…

The anomaly… has come…

Lumian tried hard to concentrate, preparing to actively exit the dream.

Although he wasn't sure why his experience was different from Franca's, the current situation and the changes around him made him feel this wasn't something he could escape or fight against with his personal abilities.

The only solution was to actively exit the dream before becoming a marionette himself.

Of course, Lumian didn't immediately put this into practice, because he didn't need to use the Information Shredder to delete important contacts from his phone—this had already been done in advance. He still had some time to experience the current changes and see if he could observe any hidden information.

After about ten seconds, Lumian's thoughts suddenly became smooth again, no longer feeling as if his head was stuffed with paste.

It's over? No more marionettization? Lumian, already looking outside, noticed that the vehicles on the road no longer had strange pauses.

Those vendors and pedestrians had also returned to normal.

"Why aren't you moving yet? What's on your mind?" Old Xia turned around again, urging Lumian.

Lumian's eyes moved slightly, and he said with a grin, "Ouch, my stomach hurts. I'm going to the bathroom."

With that, he ran off, passing Old Xia and rushing into the public restroom on this floor.

Old Xia looked at his back and cursed amusingly, "Lazy cattle and horses shit and piss the most!"

Lumian entered a stall, locked the door, and quickly used Spirit World Traversal.

He teleported to another public restroom, appearing in midair on the men's side.

Seeing no one in the stalls below, Lumian floated down lightly and locked the door.

This was the hotel where Zaratulstra was staying. Before going to "wait" outside Li Keji's ward at Crimson Moon Hospital, Lumian had come here to scout around—although he had temporarily shelved the plan to actively attack and assassinate Zaratulstra, changing it to using Li Keji to ambush potential enemies, when time allowed, he would still make more preparations, in case Zaratulstra chose to finish off Li Keji indirectly. At that time, the backup plan might become the primary one.

Lumian took out a mirror and placed it on top of the water tank.

Then, he pressed his right hand on it.

His figure suddenly leaned forward, rapidly becoming ethereal, entering the glass mirror surface.

Using the mirror world, he traversed to the glass window inside Zaratulstra's suite.

Under the night sky, this was undoubtedly a real mirror.

Lumian didn't bring his face close to the glass surface, but peered into the room from a distance.

He wasn't sure if Zaratulstra had returned to the hotel yet, maybe he was still out socializing. He also didn't dare use divination to find the other's current location, fearing it might alert a true Seer.

The next second, he saw a figure. The figure wore a black formal suit, with slightly messy white hair, hanging from the main light, swaying gently, like the corpse of a hanged man.

Zaratulstra!

Wh— Lumian was a bit shocked:

Zaratulstra was hanged by Mr. Fool, just like he hanged the Oracle?

Was my afternoon hint to Zhou Mingrui really effective?

I originally only thought about getting Zaratulstra kicked out of the dream, and I was prepared to pay the price of one entry chance for the dream…

As Lumian's thoughts raced, he saw twisted, writhing, transparent maggots falling from Zaratulstra's body.

These worms quickly faded and disappeared as soon as they fell onto the bed and floor, as if they were just illusions.

Lumian then saw a figure walk out of the void.

The figure wore a black formal suit, with all-white hair, a rather thick beard on his face, and eyes so deep blue they were almost pure black without light.

Zaratulstra!

Another Zaratulstra!

A still-living Zaratulstra!

Zaratulstra raised his head, expressionlessly looking at the "himself" hanging from the chandelier.

The hanging figure quickly faded and became transparent like the maggots that had fallen earlier, until it disappeared.

Was the one hanging just now Zaratulstra's Historical Void image?

Did Zaratulstra sense the danger in advance and summon a historical image to replace himself? Otherwise, at Sequence 7, a historical image couldn't last long… Lumian withdrew his gaze, no longer looking at Zaratulstra to avoid being noticed.

The information provided by the Major Arcana card holders about the abilities of the Seer pathway up to Sequence 3 Scholar of Yore was quite detailed. For Sequence 2 Miracle Invoker, it only briefly explained what wishes and miracles were. Beyond that, the Major Arcana card holders hardly mentioned anything. The terms Grafting and Fooling were only briefly mentioned later to explain specific events.

Standing in the void black area behind the mirror, Lumian combined his own experience with Zaratulstra's different encounter to make some guesses about what had just happened.

It's preliminarily confirmed that this was an anomaly brought about by my daytime hint to Zhou Mingrui.

On my side, pedestrians and cars within the range were all affected by marionettization, not just myself… This indicates that my hint to Zhou Mingrui did indeed attract the Celestial Worthy's attention, but because the hint was given during the day, the Celestial Worthy couldn't accurately lock onto me, only roughly circle out a range?

During a collective marionettization, if I resist or struggle using Beyonder powers, I would be quickly locked onto by the Celestial Worthy. If I choose to exit the dream to avoid danger, the Celestial Worthy's goal would also be achieved, making me consume one chance to enter and exit the dream… How cunning…

My reminder to Zhou Mingrui was also perceived by Mr. Fool, and the name Zaratulstra was grasped by Him, so Zaratulstra encountered targeted rapid marionettization, but this was borne by the image from the Historical Void…

Why is Zaratulstra so calm now? Is this what a Faceless is? Or is He certain that before new changes occur, Mr. Fool's gaze will only come once, and if dodged, it's truly dodged?

Tomorrow, we'll get Luo Shan to probe Zhou Mingrui to see if he still remembers the threat of Zaratulstra. If he remembers, and Zaratulstra doesn't encounter marionettization again or end up kicked out of the dream, then it should be that the Celestial Worthy provided help, using the death of a historical projection to resolve this incident…

Can we also use similar methods to avoid being kicked out of the dream?

Or, verbal threats from others and face-to-face stimulation are still different, so Franca and Zaratulstra's experiences are also quite different…

Thinking of this, Lumian quietly looked outside the mirror again.

He saw Zaratulstra walk to the door as if nothing had happened, open it, let several followers in, and discuss tomorrow's business negotiation matters with them.

Lumian felt a bit of regret.

He had just been thinking about whether to take the opportunity to attempt an assassination when Zaratulstra's historical projection was hanging and the real body appeared!

His curse still had the characteristic of not being transferable by paper figurine, as long as it affected the real body.

After glancing at those followers and weighing the possibility of Beyonders among them, Lumian silently left the glass window that could serve as a mirror and traversed back to that bathroom.

He had just left for two seconds when Zaratulstra and his followers in the room either half-turned their bodies or turned their heads, all casting their gazes towards the glass window at the edge of the living room reflecting the night scene.

…

In a cheap motel.

Anthony, who was self-isolating after contacting Peng Deng, sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for a possible anomaly.

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