Circle of Inevitability

At Xinhong District, in the rented apartment.

Franca recounted the results of Luo Shan's observations and the questions she raised, finally saying, "The more I think about it, the more I feel something is amiss. The Major Arcana clearly mentioned in their materials that Mr. Fool went to sleep to fight against the Celestial Worthy's consciousness, so why are they solely focused on awakening Mr. Fool instead of helping to weaken the Celestial Worthy? And we too, with sufficient background information, never considered this direction before. It's as if we've been bewitched, no, as if we've been hit with a spell of stupidity…"

At this point, Franca suddenly paused.

Everyone present instantly thought of one word: Fooled!

In the unspeakable silence, only Ludwig was completely unaffected, munching on his boiled corn.

After serious contemplation, Jenna said, "Perhaps the act of awakening Mr. Fool itself will weaken the Celestial Worthy and strengthen our advantage."

Lumian shook his head. "Even if this symbolism holds true, we shouldn't have completely overlooked the direction of weakening the Celestial Worthy to help Mr. Fool awaken."

"Does that mean this direction is correct? So the dream fooled everyone to prevent us from thinking in this direction." Franca suddenly became excited.

"Not necessarily," Anthony replied, "That Celestial Worthy is the being at the very top of the Swindler pathway. Initially fooling us to prevent us from considering the possibility of weakening Him might be to make us believe it's the only correct path after we've made some progress in our later explorations, causing us to rush headlong into it."

"The enemy's opposition indicates we're doing the right thing, but what if the enemy is deliberately opposing… Feigning weakness when actually strong…" Franca understood Anthony's meaning and said frustratedly, "How should we choose?"

"Why choose?" Lumian laughed, "Awakening Mr. Fool and weakening the Celestial Worthy are two things we can do simultaneously."

He stood up and began pacing in the small living room, speaking as he walked, "Let's re-analyze the possible goals Zaratulstra wanted to achieve with those actions:

"Contacting Zhou Mingrui was likely to find a way to make Zhou Mingrui drink the subsequent potion, become a Witch, thus creating a fixed, long-term Mirror Person, and to some extent shake Zhou Mingrui's self-perception;

"The merger and restructuring negotiations with the Intis Group were to obtain more money and resources, and using the mirrored Roselle to erode and influence Huang Tao was likely for the same purpose;

"Eliminating and replacing the dream manifestations related to Gehrman Sparrow's life experiences might be to weaken The World, indirectly weakening Mr. Fool…

"These actions currently don't show any intent to awaken the Celestial Worthy, though accumulating money and resources could barely count…"

As Jenna, Franca, and Anthony nodded slightly, Lumian began to contradict himself, "No, creating a fixed Mirror Person for Zhou Mingrui could also be for the Celestial Worthy to gain more initiative through the Mirror Person, gradually gain the upper hand, and thus awaken. Eliminating the dream manifestations related to Gehrman Sparrow is to weaken Mr. Fool, but replacing them with his own people and taking away Jia Yu is to later confuse the real with the fake, making The World identity point to the Celestial Worthy instead of Mr. Fool? This is also a kind of awakening…

"However, these awakenings all come with weakening Mr. Fool, the two can't be separated."

Lumian's point was that both weakening the Celestial Worthy and awakening Mr. Fool need to be done, and sometimes they are actually different aspects of the same thing.

Franca concurred succinctly, "But how can we weaken the Celestial Worthy?"

The Major Arcana card holders didn't know about the Celestial Worthy's past situation, nor did they mention which character in the dream city was closely related to the Celestial Worthy. Franca couldn't find a target to weaken the Celestial Worthy, there was no starting point.

"Currently, only Peng Deng is suspected to be related to the Celestial Worthy, but it can't be confirmed yet," Anthony said."What can be confirmed is that Peng Deng definitely has a special status in the dream city," Lumian nodded slightly.

This conclusion was drawn from Anthony's encounter and Peng Deng's rental of the magic mirror Arrodes.

Lumian then said, "Actually, there is one place that can be confirmed to be closely related to the Celestial Worthy."

Seeing Franca and Jenna's thoughtful expressions, Lumian directly gave the answer.

"Mushu Hospital!

"Without a close relationship, without a prior cooperation intention, the Celestial Worthy wouldn't send the corpses of Gehrman Sparrow-related dream manifestations to the underground morgue of Mushu Hospital, letting them 'reborn' there, and that kind of 'rebirth' would also cause the corresponding manifestation to completely become the Celestial Worthy's sole puppet."

"The underground part of Mushu Hospital…" Franca said, unable to help but draw in a sharp breath.

That was where the psychological trauma of a great existence materialized, the key node for other great existences to infiltrate their power, the place where the Celestial Worthy created exclusive marionettes, a place that even Sequence 0 true gods dared not easily intrude!

Lumian chuckled in response. "I'll be contacting an important person from Mushu Hospital tonight to see if I can obtain any useful intelligence."

…

Late at night.

Luo Shan still chose to lie down on the bed, trying to enter deep sleep.

If the world doesn't explode, I won't take a holiday. Even if this is really a dream, before the dream shatters, I still have to go to work when I need to… Luo Shan murmured, half self-mockingly and half self-comfortingly.

Then, she closed her eyes, and after a long while, finally suppressed her troubled thoughts and emotions, falling asleep.

This time, after falling asleep, she didn't immediately enter her Shaman world to continue guarding the semi-transparent barrier, but became muddle-headed, just like when she slept before becoming a Beyonder.

She vaguely heard a voice echoing in her ears:

"Truth can become false, falsehood can become true. The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings…

"Truth can become false, falsehood can become true. The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings…"

…

At the edge of Crimson Moon Hospital, in a secluded corner growing many mushrooms.

Lumian, transformed into a Demoness of Despair and dressed in a blouse, patiently waited for a while. He saw Grimm suddenly appear not far ahead with a person, as if walking into the real area from another world.

"Respected Child of God, this is Lu Yong'an, the dean of obstetrics at Mushu Hospital," Grimm introduced his companion, "She is also a child of the Mother."

Lu Yong'an appeared to be in her forties, with fair skin and a beautiful face, round like the full moon, looking gentle and motherly.

She was carrying a medical box and bowed slightly to Lumian, saying, "Praise the Mother, and praise you, Child of God."

The important person from Mushu Hospital that Lumian had previously said he wanted to meet was precisely this obstetrics dean, Lu Yong'an—Grimm was very true to his word. As soon as the one-week deadline was met, he sent a message to Lumian, reminding him that tonight he should go help Li Keji with reproduction, both mystically and scientifically.

Lumian hadn't rushed to abort the fetus in Li Keji's belly, precisely because he wanted to fool Grimm first, to avoid reaching the point of needing to put on an act to cover up. After this, he would have at least two to three weeks to perform the abortion.

Hearing Lu Yong'an's greeting, Lumian, with his long black hair, nodded slightly and said, "Let's go in and take care of business first."

He didn't rush to inquire about the internal affairs of Mushu Hospital from Lu Yong'an.

This had to be done slowly, with proper groundwork, thinking through which things the Child of God should already know and not need to ask about.

"Yes, Child of God," Grimm and Lu Yong'an responded in unison, their expressions turning serious.

Lumian walked towards them and grabbed their shoulders.

Then, he activated the black mark on his right shoulder, using Spirit World Traversal to appear directly in Li Keji's hospital room.

Li Keji, who had been touching his belly lost in thought, sat up straight, and the jellyfish-like mushroom on the ceiling sank down slightly.

Seeing Li Keji looking at him with slight surprise, Lumian winked his left eye at him, hinting that there was a reason for this and to play along for now.

Li Keji showed an expression of sudden realization. "You're here to help me?"

Hearing these words, Grimm couldn't help but turn his head to look at the Child of God's stunningly beautiful face:

When did she manage to deceive Li Keji?

Grimm and Lu Yong'an had both anticipated needing to use their abilities to control the target.

Lu Yong'an sat down beside Li Keji's bed with her medical box and began a serious examination.

After nearly a minute, she turned her head and said, "The fetus is very healthy and developing well and quickly."

Grimm immediately gave a thumbs up to the Child of God, praising again, "As expected of you!"

Lumian was already numb to this, nodding slightly, focusing intently on watching Lu Yong'an take out a syringe, draw some kind of drug, and give Li Keji an injection in the belly.

Then, Lu Yong'an's maternal radiance became even more obvious as she began to virtually caress Li Keji's belly with both hands.

Lumian saw Li Keji's belly begin to swell and enlarge at a visible rate. In just a minute or two, it looked like a six-month pregnancy.

"I can feel her heartbeat." Li Keji touched his belly again.

Lu Yong'an put away her instruments and drugs, and smiled at Lumian.

"Child of God, come again in two weeks and we can enter the stage of imminent birth."

"Excellent." Lumian nodded insincerely.

I'll abort it shortly! The earlier it's aborted, the safer!

"We'll be leaving now." Lumian gave Li Keji another meaningful look.

Then, he teleported back to the previous secluded corner with Lu Yong'an, who had walked back, and Grimm, who was already by his side.

Lumian didn't give Grimm and Lu Yong'an a chance to say goodbye and leave. He looked at the latter, slightly raising his chin, and said, "How are things going inside Mushu Hospital?"

He planned to ask vaguely at first, in the tone of a Child of God wanting to get feedback from his subordinates, and then selectively delve deeper based on Lu Yong'an's response.

Lu Yong'an replied with a kindly manner mixed with obvious respect, "The underground area is almost finished being renovated, and above ground it's still just us few and those who frequently enter and exit the underground."

The underground is almost "renovated"? Those who frequently enter and exit the underground don't count as people? Lumian raised an eyebrow.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!