Changsheng Building
Chapter 229: Lucid Dreaming
“!”
In an instant, the girl’s pupils were constricted.
Reflected in her amber eyes was the image of a huge spider suddenly lunging at her. Her already pale face turned even paler, the blood draining from it. She opened her mouth, but only a faint, hoarse breath escaped her throat. The next second, all sound was cut off deep within her throat.
Blood-red legs dug into the snow-white back of her neck, disappearing almost instantly.
Like a puppet with its strings cut, the girl lowered her head, her limbs losing strength right after.
Her loose, soft hair fell, covering half of her face, leaving only a pointed chin and colorless lips visible. Her incapacitated body, like a piece of snow-white, soft ribbon, gently fell backward, appearing fragile and easily broken.
One of the team members standing behind her reacted quickly and caught her—
And almost stumbled under her weight.
Team member: “?”
“Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Hahahahaha!]
[Hahahahahahahaha! Bet you didn’t expect it, but what you caught is actually a 1.8-meter-tall strong man!]
“……”
The team member steadied himself, looking down in bewilderment at the soft and slender, seemingly light but heavy as iron, girl in his arms, doubting reality.
Meanwhile, Orange Candy, with an unchanged expression and a slight smile, turned to look at Mu Sen not far away:
“Mu Sen, what are you doing?”
“Are you doubting your props or doubting me?”
Orange Candy tilted her head, smiling cheekily.
For a moment, the dim shop was dead silent.
Those familiar with Orange Candy knew that their captain’s seemingly calm demeanor was actually the prelude to a storm.
“No, no… I don’t mean to distrust your abilities.”
Mu Sen coughed twice, his already pale face turning even more ashen.
Earlier, anger had clouded his judgment, and he almost forgot that the captain he was cooperating with this time was not as easy to handle as the previous ones. Though powerful, she was emotionally unstable and often acted irrationally. Now, within this perilous instance, his survival depended entirely on this temperamental captain, so he had to be cautious and avoid triggering her.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress his fear, disgust, and impatience toward Orange Candy, and explained in an extremely respectful tone:
“The main thing is, we encountered this person on the second floor before, didn’t we? I think, as a prophet, she wouldn’t have approached us on the second floor so easily in her true form. Moreover, that wasn’t one of my props just now, so I had my doubts… I had to use this method to confirm.”
“Oh, is that so…”
Orange Candy stretched out her words, making it unclear whether she accepted the explanation.
She looked at Mu Sen, her expression tinged with almost childlike curiosity:
“This method? Explain it in detail?”
Mu Sen felt a slight shock.
He looked around, suddenly realizing that, in his agitation, he might have revealed too much of his hand.
However…
He quickly calmed down.
Even if they saw it, even if the truth was laid out before them, they couldn’t possibly understand the intricacies.
Reluctantly, but to steady the other side, Mu Sen could avoid the key points and reveal a bit of his secret to Orange Candy to seek longer-term benefits: “I’ve dealt with this prophet before. I remember the smell of blood on him.”
He stopped there and didn’t continue explaining:
“Trust me, the result should come out soon.”
Fortunately, Orange Candy just shrugged and said indifferently:
“Alright, let’s wait then.”
Mu Sen discreetly breathed a sigh of relief.
Although this captain was moody and hard to handle, she was still a child and didn’t seize the opportunity to keep asking questions.
After finally stabilizing the situation with Orange Candy, Mu Sen turned his head to look in Wen Jianyan’s direction.
The other party was being supported to sit down, leaning against the counter at the door and barely staying upright, her head drooping and her fine hair falling down, casting shadows that covered most of her face. The dim light of the oil lamp flickered slightly over him.
He seemed to still be unconscious.
“……”
Mu Sen frowned. Although his face remained expressionless, a trace of doubt gradually surfaced in his heart.
This… is taking too long.
In his explanation to Orange Candy just now, although he didn’t reveal the truly critical information, he wasn’t lying.
He could indeed recognize whether the person was the prophet who had briefly crossed paths with him and escaped by the smell of blood. Generally, after such a long time, he should have already reached a conclusion, but…
Mu Sen lowered his head and looked at his little finger.
There, a faint blood-red thread was wrapped around it, invisible to anyone but himself. The thread, which should have been slightly trembling, was now completely still, like a mud ox sinking into the sea, without any reaction.
Strange…
This reaction is unusual.
Mu Sen’s frown deepened.
At the same time.
Wen Jianyan kept his head down and his eyes tightly shut, hiding most of his face in deep shadows.
Back in the “Pingan Asylum” instance, he and Su Cheng had already experienced the other’s methods, almost getting wiped out due to a lack of preparation. Therefore, before entering this instance, Wen Jianyan had thoroughly investigated this mysterious manipulator through various channels.
Unfortunately, perhaps due to the perfect protection of the Oracle, even someone as skilled in manipulation and interrogation as Wen Jianyan could find very little detailed information—moreover, all information related to the Oracle seemed to be deliberately sealed. Any team that had cooperated with them either kept silent or knew nothing. Wen Jianyan could only gather some relatively superficial, fragmented information.
Although he had some incomplete, vague speculations based on this, without any evidence, all his guesses could only remain at the hypothetical stage.
Wen Jianyan used an appearance to enter the instance precisely because of this.
If he followed Su Cheng into it personally, given the Oracle’s cautious and secretive nature, they would likely give up and wait for another opportunity. However, they might also replace their operative with someone less talented than Mu Sen but less familiar to them.
This was Wen Jianyan’s greatest concern.
Therefore, he spared no expense.
Not only did he spend a lot of points to buy an appearance that could enter the instance, but before entering, he also deliberately created a traceable activity trail. Then he paid a high price to purchase his most commonly used appearance for Ji Guan and covered all of Ji Guan’s high expenses in the anchor hall after he entered the instance to create the illusion that he had not entered the instance himself.
Only in this way could he lower the Oracle’s guard.
Adding Su Cheng’s title of “strongest prophet” and their guild’s clandestine business tactics—Wen Jianyan was very skilled at controlling this balance, neither being too blatant to arouse suspicion nor so low-key that the Oracle couldn’t trace them.
Thus, through multiple strategies, the current situation was created.
Even so, Wen Jianyan was prepared for the possibility that the other party might remain inactive, and he might need at least several instances to lure the big fish.
Fortunately, his luck in this regard was never too bad, and it was clear that the Oracle was not as cautious as he feared… or rather, staying in the top position for too long inevitably blinds one to the dangers. The Oracle could not have imagined that this newly risen rookie streamer would, in such a short time, gain the qualification to negotiate with Nightmare on equal terms.
He even had the privilege of immunity to control; otherwise, Wen Jianyan would not have dared to replace the prophet’s identity and join this team, allowing the other party to place controllable insects in his body.
Perhaps he should thank Wu Zhu for this bug.
However…
Wen Jianyan kept his head down, fine beads of sweat slowly appearing on his forehead.
To avoid alarming the enemy, the other party’s ability was still “effective” on him, but he could take back control of his body at any time.
But now… the situation was a bit different from what he had imagined.
He should be unconscious, but he wasn’t fully unconscious. He could clearly hear the voices of those around him, but he couldn’t move his body.
It was somewhat like… a lucid dream from which he couldn’t wake up.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan was startled.
He realized he could move.
His body regained its ability to move, and his thin eyelids lifted slightly, creating a narrow slit. The large shop was pitch dark, with only an oil lamp providing light, barely illuminating a small area in front of him. Besides this, everything was plunged into a silent blackness.
Wen Jianyan blinked and fully opened his eyes.
He realized that, at some point, he was the only one left in the shop. Both Mu Sen and the Orange Candy team had disappeared.
A strong sense of familiarity hit him, and a strange feeling of foreboding rose in Wen Jianyan’s heart.
Wait a minute…
“What is this?”
A deep voice sounded from the side.
“?!”
Wen Jianyan’s pupils contracted as he jerked his head toward the direction of the voice.
Wu Zhu was standing in front of the counter, the dim yellow light of the lamp casting a glow on his face and sinking into his golden eyes. He lowered his head, frowning slightly, holding a spider between his thumb and forefinger.
The eight thin, pointed legs struggled desperately in the air. Although it couldn’t make a sound, its actions conveyed a strong sense of terror. It wanted to escape but couldn’t break free from the iron-like grip.
“How ugly.”
He calmly commented.
In the next second, his fingers tightened, and the spider’s body suddenly twisted.
“Wait!!” Wen Jianyan gasped and exclaimed, “Don’t crush it!!”
Although, in a certain sense, Wu Zhu was indeed “helping”…
But please don’t cause more trouble at a time like this!!!
He had managed to infiltrate with great difficulty!!!
