The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 167: Negative Effects

"How could this be?" Jenna was both surprised and confused.

She recalled that after the occult gathering ended, the participants had left at intervals, and there were plenty of routes to choose from. She and Franca had been careful not to leave any traces, so how had they been followed?

Noticing that Jenna had resisted the urge to look back, Franca, while walking casually, whispered as if in a casual conversation:

"Who knows? Maybe one of the participants happened to choose this route, saw someone ahead, and decided to follow, hoping for some unexpected gain. Or perhaps someone with special abilities followed us in a way we didn't anticipate.

"Keep walking, pretend nothing has happened. Once we return to the Underground Arcade, we'll be safe.

"If the stalker attacks before that, immediately drop the electric lamp and hide in the shadows around us. Then decide based on the situation whether or not to engage in the fight."

Jenna nodded lightly, indicating she would comply.

Her left hand, holding the electric lamp, unconsciously tightened a bit.

After walking another hundred or two hundred meters down the dark and damp tunnel, Franca slowed her pace, turned her head, and looked back, muttering, "The stalker is gone."

"Maybe they bypassed the thread I left..."

Before she finished her sentence, a figure appeared at the edge of the dim light ahead, stepping out from the darkness.

Jenna reacted quickly, immediately dropping the electric lamp in her left hand and hiding in the shadows to the side.

Relying on her "Mirror Substitute," Franca didn't rush to hide. Instead, she cast her gaze toward the stalker who had circled in front of them.

It was a man dressed as a wizard, with a hood shadowing his face.

The client!

He looked at Franca and spoke in a deliberately sharp voice:

"I want to make a deal with you."

Behind the "Crisma Night Pillar," Lumian held a new white candle, the dim yellow flame flickering as he followed "Hela" down the worn stone steps, deeper and deeper into the darkness, as if descending into the depths of hell itself.

The rocky walls on both sides gradually receded, revealing what looked like realistic carvings of human heads, their grayish figures densely packed together, reminiscent of the heaps of bones stacked in the upper chamber.

After finishing all the steps and stepping onto the dead-silent fourth layer of the underground tomb, Lumian was suddenly overcome with a wave of irritability, as if he had been trapped in a prison for too long, yearning to escape by any means necessary.

This sensation wasn't unfamiliar to him. He had felt it before as part of the negative effects of the "Armor Phantom" pact, but never had it been this intense!

It felt as though his spirit was imprisoned within his body and had finally realized the truth.

His spirit wanted to break free from this "cage," break free from this world, break everything apart, and attain true freedom!

Whoosh... Lumian exhaled slowly, calming his state of mind.

Even without the blessing of the "Mendicant Monk," he believed he could endure this abnormal emotion, and with the monk's power, he found it even easier to control.

"According to Lady 'Justice,' the higher the sequence, the more accumulated madness there is, and the easier it is to be affected by the hidden corruption on the fourth layer of the tomb... Is this what's happening to me now? But since my sequence isn't high, the effect is mild, so I can bear it and control it?" Lumian quickly speculated about his current condition and instinctively looked at "Hela," who was walking ahead.