Not a coincidence, so it was intentional? Did the original God Almighty see a certain scene while dying and disintegrating, and make corresponding arrangements? Lumian revealed a thoughtful expression.
He immediately said in a satisfied tone, "Thank you for your answer, great Arrodes."
This was the answer he wanted.
This also indirectly confirmed that the Celestial Worthy was trying to use the Mirror People.
The surface of the magic mirror rippled, and blood-red ancient Feysac words were outlined again:
"Based on the principle of reciprocity, it's my turn to ask a question.
"If you answer incorrectly or lie, you will be punished."
Lumian nodded slightly, then saw the ancient Feysac words on the old silver mirror change:
"Are you prepared to be scared out of your wits by that individual?"
What a gentle question, not embarrassing at all... Anthony thought instinctively.
Then, he realized, This seems more like a hint.
A hint to Lumian that the upcoming action might directly face the Celestial Worthy or His consciousness and power?
"I'm ready." Lumian answered with a smile, He also noticed the hint from the magic mirror Arrodes.
Then, he faced the magic mirror, pressed his hand to his chest and said, "I'll ask the other two questions later."
By eleven in the morning, Franca and Jenna had also arrived at the rental house in Xinhong District, each finding a chair to sit on.
"Queen Mystic is maintaining the illusion of Lumiana, preventing the police from discovering that I've left my designated residence," said Lumian, who had resumed his Li Ming identity. He stood up and looked at each companion, "We need to hurry now."
"Okay," Franca had been curious about Lumian's plan since yesterday.
Of course, she inevitably felt a bit nervous and uneasy, because if others falled, they would most likely just be kicked out of the dream, while she had a significant chance of dying.
Lumian smiled and said, "I've been pondering the phrase 'filter out the interference of complex information and see the most fundamental facts' all day yesterday, and finally thought of a few details.
"One of them is that Chief Yagates only has the spiritual imprints of Mr. Door and the Celestial Worthy, with maybe a little bit of Amon's at most.
"If interfered with by complex information, one might deduce that Chief Yagates would likely lean towards the Celestial Worthy at crucial moments, or that he has always been feigning neutrality, and we must avoid encountering him.
"But I did stimulate Mr. Door's spiritual imprint with matters related to the Abraham family and our purpose for entering the dream city, preventing me from being completely kicked out of the dream.
"Moreover, the official forces of the dream city have indeed shown neutrality before, being impartial and following the law, otherwise we would have been finished long ago.
"So, what is the most fundamental fact among this information?"
Franca, Jenna, and Anthony fell into thought, while Ludwig continued to noisily eat from a large bag of chips, occasionally plucking a mushroom from his body to go with it.
After about ten seconds, Jenna said in a quiet voice, filled with doubt and uncertainty. "The Celestial Worthy is too weak?"
Lumian chuckled. "Correct. Unlike Amon, Mr. Door passed away long ago. On Chief Yagates, who is the Uniqueness of the Door pathway, there exists only His remaining spiritual imprint, without external help or subsequent replenishment.
"And it's this remnant imprint, along with a bit of Mr. Fool's cognition and a little of Amon's spiritual imprint, that has managed to resist the spiritual imprint of the Celestial Worthy, this great existence, maintaining balance most of the time and even gaining the upper hand when stimulated occasionally.
"What does this signify?
"It indicates that the Celestial Worthy's current state is much worse than we imagined, and the limitations He's under are far greater than what we see daily!
"This is the most fundamental fact.
"And why is this so?"
At this point, Lumian closed his mouth, clearly not wanting to share his speculations and thoughts.
Hey, you're just going to pique our curiosity and not say anything? Franca felt uncomfortable all over, just like encountering certain authors and storytellers who leave a cliffhanger at the end of a chapter.
But she immediately understood Lumian's intention, which was based on complete trust.
"Some things can be known but not spoken, at most hinted at?" Franca asked carefully.
Lumian showed an expression of satisfaction that made Franca want to hit him.
"Didn't we already conclude earlier that except for outsiders, every manifestation in the dream city is a product of the subconscious cognition of Mr. Fool and the Celestial Worthy combined?"
Lumian extended his right hand, pointing at the green trees outside the window, at the surrounding walls, at the hot wind blowing in from outside.
"What I want to say is, apart from the dream characters, the birds, rats, cockroaches, earthworms, plants, buildings, and even the air in this city are all products of Mr. Fool's subconscious and the Celestial Worthy's subconscious combined.
"In other words, we've been living in the thoughts, cognition, and consciousness of Mr. Fool and the Celestial Worthy all along."
Franca was enlightened. "So the dream city is like the cerebral cortex, with some areas very active that we need to carefully avoid and not stimulate, like Zhou Mingrui's dream manifestation, while most other areas are in a dormant state and normally won't react unless we say key words or key information?"
"Once spoken, it's likely to be immediately noticed by the Celestial Worthy." Lumian raised his right hand and grabbed a handful of air.
With a mischievous grin, he remarked, "This not only brings attention and rejection but might also stimulate the Celestial Worthy, allowing Him to break free from His current unfavorable state.
"Let me give an example. The fundamental facts revealed by the information on Chief Yagates aren't that hard to figure out, but even with Amon's reminders and hints, it took me a long time to understand, and you and the Major Arcana card holders haven't even thought of it.
"Suppose there's a person who's been fooled, always feeling weak and unable to break free from certain limitations. In this situation, if someone suddenly tells him he's silly or stupid, wouldn't that stimulate him to regain clarity and become powerful again?
"This is also why Amon and that individual related to the Aurora Order don't speak directly in and out of dreams, only hinting, letting us understand on our own.
"Some tricks no longer work once the key technique is revealed!"
Jenna finally understood what Lumian was trying to express.
There were two layers to this:
First, everyone who has entered the dream is essentially receiving joint corruption from Mr. Fool and the Celestial Worthy. It's just that due to differences in dream entry time and actions taken, the degree of corruption varies, and the corresponding influence will persist even after returning to reality.
Second, certain words and facts might stimulate the Celestial Worthy under similar corruption conditions, causing Him to "wake up".
"Just assign the tasks to us, you don't need to say anything else." Jenna said with a sigh.
Franca and Anthony also had some realizations and nodded in succession.
Just as Lumian was about to assign the corresponding tasks to his companions, Franca's phone suddenly rang.
Franca picked it up and looked, her expression changing slightly. "It's a call from Luo Shan!"
Has something become so urgent that it requires a phone call?
Franca chose to answer, trying to make her voice sound steady. "Hello, Shanshan?"
Luo Shan's urgent voice came through the receiver.
"Zhou Mingrui suddenly took leave, he asked for it twenty minutes ago, I just found out!"
Zhou Mingrul took leave? Jenna looked towards Lumian.
Lumian couldn't help but frown. Today is Wednesday, Zhou Mingrui's sister Zhou Sasa is arriving in Yangdu, but her high-speed train doesn't arrive until 1:40 pm. Zhou Mingrul doesn't need to take the morning off at all, he would have enough time even if he left after lunch.
Franca forced herself to stay calm and said to Luo Shan, "Don't panic, ask Zhou Mingrui on WeChat to see what happened."
"Right... I can ask him directly." Luo Shan, who was in the administrative department of the Intis Group, quickly hung up the phone.
She rapidly sent a message to Zhou Mingrui: "Why did you suddenly take leave?"
After a few minutes, while Luo Shan was silently praying, Zhou Mingrui replied to her message:
"Going to the high-speed rail station to pick up my sister."
"Your sister is coming to Yangdu? What time?" Luo Shan's heart tightened, as if glimpsing an unpleasant truth.
After nearly another minute, Zhou Mingrui sent a emoji: ?????
"She was originally supposed to arrive on the train after 1:30, but she said she got to her hometown's high-speed rail station early and there were spare tickets, so she changed her booking. She'll arrive just after 11:50."
Why did she suddenly change her booking? Almost two hours earlier... Luo Shan had heard from Luo Fu and Jian Na that there might be issues with Zhou Sasa's arrival in Yangdu, and she immediately became more panicked.
She didn't bother to respond to Zhou Mingrui, quickly took a screenshot of the chat history, and sent it to True Hidden Blade.
At times like this, repeating is a waste of time!
Franca, in the rental house in Xinhong District, quickly scanned the information on the screenshot, and her whole body suddenly tensed up.
"Not good, Zhou Mingrui is almost at the high-speed rail station, and so is Zhou Sasa!" Franca held up her phone vertically, showing it to Lumian and the others.
Lumian glanced at it and smiled slightly. "No need to panic, there's still time. We have some redundancy."
His attitude infected Franca and Jenna, calming their mindset and spirits a little-Anthony and Ludwig didn't need reassuring.
Lumian then began assigning different tasks to each person, only telling them what to do, not why.
When assigning certain tasks, he even deliberately used the Bottle of Fiction, not letting the other companions hear.
Finally, Lumian said to Anthony, "Before taking Ludwig to Crimson Moon Hospital, make a trip back to the real world and relay what I told you to the Major Arcana card holders. Let them prepare, and when the dream city experiences anomalies, seize the brief window of opportunity to complete that matter.
"Of course, the anomalies may not occur, and our plan could very likely fail."
"Understood," Anthony replied steadily.
Lumian then turned his gaze to Franca, smiling again as he said, "Then let's split up and take action."
After saying this, he pressed his hand to his chest and said, "Praise The Fool!"
"Praise The Fool!" Franca stood up abruptly, returning the same gesture.
Then, she said in a deep voice, "You must all be careful..."
Lumian nodded lightly, and together with Jenna, walked towards the door and out of the rental house.
The operation had officially begun.
