Circle of Inevitability - Chapter 1001: Choice
Chapter 1001 Choice
Mushu Hospital, in the corridor leading from the first floor lobby to the emergency center.
Luo Shan slowed down to allow Jenna to lead her.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Jenna ran quickly, finally seeing Zhou Mingrui wearing a loose sky blue T-shirt.
At the same time, her gaze swept outside the emergency center, taking in the deep night.
Jenna’s footsteps suddenly stopped, and she turned sideways, moving closer to the wall area.
This way, she could no longer see Zhou Mingrui, and he could not see her either.
“What’s wrong?” Luo Shan, who had also stopped, asked in confusion.
“It’s night now,” Jenna replied in a low voice.
“Is that a problem?” Luo Shan was even more bewildered.
Wasn’t it established from the beginning that it was night? Otherwise, why would I be dreaming?
Jenna didn’t have time to explain to Luo Shan that Zhou Mingrui might have something special hidden at night, and that they hadn’t yet had a chance to experiment whether just normal contact with Zhou Mingrui at night would kick them out of the dream.
She said directly to Luo Shan, “It’s not convenient for me to talk to Zhou Mingrui at night. You go alone to ask for his help for Luo Fu. Don’t worry, I’ll observe the situation from the shadows. If anything goes wrong, I’ll come out immediately to save you.”
Luo Shan knew this wasn’t a good time to ask questions. She nodded firmly and said, “Alright!”
After Jenna’s figure disappeared into the shadows by the wall, Luo Shan quickly ran into the emergency center.
She immediately saw Zhou Mingrui approaching the exit, seemingly about to leave.
Luo Shan felt a sudden urgency and blurted out, “Zhou Mingrui!”
Zhou Mingrui turned around in surprise, seeing Luo Shan in her short-sleeved pajamas and thin pajama pants.
Why is she here too? Zhou Mingrui’s first reaction was that Luo Shan had also come for emergency care—pajamas weren’t out of place in the emergency center, but rather fit the situation.
Then, Zhou Mingrui thought that Luo Shan should also be a Beyonder, associated with words like Reporter and Painter, and normally wouldn’t have a sudden acute illness.
Not a coincidence? Puzzled, Zhou Mingrui cautiously took a few steps towards Luo Shan.
After approaching Zhou Mingrui, Luo Shan didn’t give him a chance to ask questions. She took a breath and said in a low voice, “Save Luo Fu, she’s trapped at the bottom of the hospital.”
As she spoke, Luo Shan looked around to prevent anyone from eavesdropping.
Luo Fu? Bottom of the hospital? Zhou Mingrui caught the two most crucial pieces of information.
He still remembered the intense fear he felt when observing the downward elevator earlier, suspecting it led to hell or doomsday.
Before gathering enough intelligence, he didn’t dare take the elevator down!
Now, Luo Fu had gone in there and was trapped? Zhou Mingrui instinctively asked Luo Shan,
“Me? Me saving Luo Fu?”
Is this a mistake? I’m just an Assassin with a small amount of supernatural abilities. Both Luo Fu and Luo Shan should be stronger than me, yet they want me to go to the bottom of Mushu Hospital to save Luo Fu?
After hearing the conversation between Franca and Jenna before Franca consumed the Despair potion, Luo Shan had basically confirmed that the current world was indeed a dream. So, she believed that Zhou Mingrui, as the master of the dream, could do anything as long as he “wanted” to!
Luo Shan couldn’t start by explaining that this was a dream. She feared it might bring unknown, drastic changes and waste precious time.
She could only ponder for two seconds before saying, “You don’t need to go and save her directly. You just need to enter B2 and stand there. That should be enough.”
“That works?” Zhou Mingrui was stunned.
Isn’t this way of saving someone too frivolous?
I just stand in the corridor of Mushu Hospital’s B2, and it will allow Luo Fu to no longer be trapped, able to escape from that area that gives me a sense of hell?
What’s the principle behind this?
Finding a male Assassin to serve as a formation node?
Or…
Thinking of this, Zhou Mingrui suddenly had a flash of insight.
Could it be that there’s something special about me?
…
In the B2 elevator lobby.
“To save someone from there, one can only beseech the Mother’s help?”
Lumian mulled over the words he had just heard, his gaze falling on Lu Yong’an’s face.
That face, like a full moon, was covered in shifting light and shadow, unclear and indistinct.
Lumian looked deeply at Lu Yong’an for a few seconds, then said calmly, “I have other methods. For now, I don’t need to seek the Mother’s help.
“You should return to the obstetrics department. If I really need to beseech the Mother’s help, I know what to do.”
Lu Yong’an didn’t try to persuade him, but slightly bowed her head and said, “Yes, Child of God.”
The next second, she turned into the emergency stairwell, heading up the stairs.
Lumian didn’t wait for Lu Yong’an to finish climbing the stairs. He quickly turned around, took a few steps to the edge of the elevator lobby, and gazed into the dark abyss that was now within reach.
He then reached into the Traveler’s Bag and took out an item.
The item was a pale yellow with red, semi-solidified candle in a glass bottle.
Corpse wax candle!
Lumian hadn’t lied to Jenna and Lu Yong’an earlier. He had truly envisioned what to do if he had to raid the bottom of Mushu Hospital and attempt sabotage, and had come up with an initial plan, though without much confidence.
The core of this plan was the corpse wax candle obtained from the Tudor treasury on the Blue Avenger.
Lumian had used a corpse wax candle once before, completing the corresponding secret contract, “seeing” a strange city and sensing an indescribable horror.
He believed that the city and the horror should be some kind of object, will, or existence that could potentially drag all the true gods down with Alista Tudor, occupying the top positions of both the Hunter and Demoness pathways.
In other words, it should be roughly on the same level as Mr. Fool, the Great Mother, the Mother Tree of Desire, and The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.
Lumian’s plan was to light the corpse wax candle here, in B2 of Mushu Hospital, next to the bottomless darkness formed by the combination of the dream subconscious psychological traumas and the abyss symbol of the Mother Tree of Desire, to complete a secret contract and establish a certain connection with that strange city or that horrifying will.
At that time, that will should also be interested in the bottom of Mushu Hospital and the dream city, and this place itself was a key node where great existences had infiltrated some of their power.
Lumian smiled.
He was looking forward to the chaotic situation that would follow.
He wasn’t so concerned about what might happen to himself.
Lumian rubbed his fingers together, producing a black flame that suppressed madness and violence.
Unlike last time when he chose to use the Hunter’s flame to light the corpse wax candle, or relying on the ritual fire produced by the friction between the Demoness’s black flame and spirituality, this time he used the Flame of Destruction, a flame formed by the amalgamation of the Hunter and Demoness pathways!
This was almost identical to the essence of the corpse wax candle.
The corpse wax candle was made from the corpse oil of the Iron-blooded Knight, a demigod of the Hunter pathway, and the Demoness of Despair, a demigod of the Demoness pathway, blended with other substances.
Using the burning Flame of Destruction, Lumian lit the black wick of the corpse wax candle.
After glancing at the jumping, slightly black candlelight, he turned his gaze towards the dense, dark, heart-chillingly terrifying illusory abyss. With a stunningly beautiful smile on his face, he said calmly, “I’m not here to join you, I’m here to destroy this place.”
…
Franca fell deeper and deeper into the dense darkness of the boundless void, unable to find any footing.
Her emotions and spirit seemed to be falling into another abyss, becoming increasingly depressed, despondent, and desperate, gradually giving rise to a touch of malice.
Suddenly, a spreading mass of grayish-white fog appeared below her.
This fog was in a semi-merged state with the dense darkness, indicating that it might also be a psychological trauma rather than a real object.
Franca looked left and right, feeling she couldn’t continue falling any further, as she sensed she was about to be bound, becoming a slave of the abyss, just like those orderlies.
She no longer avoided it, falling towards that half-dark, half-light grayish-white fog, constantly muttering,
If it’s fortune, it’s not misfortune; if it’s misfortune, it can’t be avoided… If it’s fortune, it’s not misfortune; if it’s misfortune, it can’t be avoided… If it’s fortune, it’s not misfortune; if it’s misfortune, it can’t be avoided…
As she muttered, Franca made contact with the grayish-white fog, penetrating into it.
Soon, her feet touched soft, fluffy clouds, and she was suddenly filled with shock, sadness, despair, and pain.
She knew this wasn’t actually her inner feelings, but rather the intense emotions permeating this area that had enveloped her, eroding into her mind, making her feel as if she had been corrupted.
Next, Franca saw a blurry, brilliant door of light tinged with a bit of blue-black. The door of light seemed to be composed of countless layers of light orbs, and each orb seemed alive, slowly writhing, some transparent, some semi-transparent.
Franca also saw that black thin lines hung down from above the door of light, suspending one after another nearly transparent and invisible “cocoon”.
Those “cocoons” were gently swayed by wind from an unknown source, lightly swinging, sometimes turning.
Franca carefully discerned for a while and found that different “cocoons” contained different people. There were black people, Asians, white people, some wearing jeans, some in bright and gorgeous clothes, some in anime-style outfits, some holding phones. They all had their eyes tightly closed, as if not completely dead yet.
This is very similar to the first psychological trauma we encountered in the corridor, except there was no door of light or “cocoons” before… Franca, still being eroded by the surrounding emotions, suddenly associated it with the hall where Huang Jiajia, Ai Nana, and others were suspended, gaining some understanding but also feeling confused.
She looked carefully again and noticed that three of the “cocoons” were empty. They had split open, and the people inside were nowhere to be found.
Were they sent out?
Where were they sent?
Franca vigilantly guarded against possible details, instinctively moving a few steps to the side.
Another invisible wind blew past, and those “cocoons” swayed again, some turning towards Franca.
Franca’s gaze swept over them, her pupils suddenly dilating.
She saw a familiar figure.
It was a man standing upright inside a transparent “cocoon”, his head slightly bowed, wearing clothes belonging to the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed II.
It was herself!
It was him before the transmigration!