Chapter 140: Furina's Doubts

"It should be about time."

Lu Mingfei lowered his head and glanced at the watch. Norton and Constantine had been out roaming around for nearly two hours. Buying them this much time was already a very generous gesture on his part.

Besides, after testing for so long, Chen Mosong was gradually growing accustomed to using the Vision, and he had gathered almost enough data. Ending it now was the best choice; making up excuses to forcefully keep her would easily lead to misunderstandings, and doing so would make him feel uncomfortable as well.

More importantly...

By now, almost everything burnable in the training hall had already been reduced to ashes. This fellow was just like a little kid who had recently learned how to set fires, wanting to burn everything she laid eyes on just to see what would happen. The entire testing area had almost been charred to black coal.

"What a thoroughly exhilarating test!"

Chen Mosong wiped the sweat from her forehead, her face a picture of exhaustion, yet her eyes burned with an unstoppable excitement. She slowly turned her head toward Lu Mingfei and asked, "With the Vision being this powerful, if you manufactured a few more, wouldn't you be able to directly crusade against the Dragon Kings?"

"Are you joking? You want to crusade against Dragon Kings with just this?"

Lu Mingfei instantly burst into laughter. He had fought against Odin, discussed alchemy with Constantine, chatted with Norton, served as junior and senior martial brothers with Chu Zihang, and with Jörmungandr...

Oh shit, that last one actually seemed quite fightable!

Chu Zihang possessed a dragon skeleton and a dragon's heart, and by now he was probably at the sub-adult Dragon King level. Norton had recovered his memories and had some time to recuperate; he was above the infant Dragon King level and was also proficient in all kinds of alchemy.

Although Constantine had just awakened not long ago, he possessed the Evil Eye, and he had even upgraded that Evil Eye into a Promax version. He could even pull off causality separation; an ordinary half-breed holding a Vision stood zero chance against him, dropping dead instantly the moment a causality separation was unleashed.

As for Summer Mi...

Forget it, she was just the strongest generation-two dragon.

"Isn't this enough?"

The excitement on Chen Mosong's face faded quite a bit.

"Not even close. Setting aside generation-two dragons, even the weakest Dragon King can easily cover a few kilometers with their Words. Your meager power is simply not on the same order of magnitude as a Dragon King's. Thinking you can defeat a Dragon King relying on a Vision... you're really overthinking it," Lu Mingfei replied.

"Oh."

Chen Mosong nodded.

She still didn't understand why Lu Mingfei had told her to set aside generation-two dragons. Generation-two dragons and Dragon Kings weren't even in the same league to begin with; why bother mentioning them? How strange.

Reflecting slightly on this, she continued to ask, "If Dragon Kings are that strong, then how on earth did you save me from Odin's clutches?"

"I blew Odin to pieces!"

Lu Mingfei puffed out his chest, lifting his head with incomparable pride as he spoke.

Chen Mosong wore an awkward yet polite smile as she responded, "Ah, yes, yes, yes. You're right."

Compared to Lu Mingfei blowing Odin to pieces, she was far more inclined to believe that Lu Mingfei had been blown to pieces by Odin, and then, driven to desperation, had triggered his weapons, pulling out all his previously treasured alchemic trump cards to use them frantically, barely managing to escape with his life in the end.

And this, too, was the fundamental reason why Lu Mingfei held such deep resentment toward Odin.

Inside the hospital...

The two brothers of the King of Bronze and Fire were playing poker happily, looking just like a pair of ordinary, good friends. Their smiles were clean and pure, making them resemble a pair of companions with an exceptionally close bond.

"I feel like this kind of peaceful and ordinary life is actually quite nice. In an environment like this, I can even learn more knowledge," Norton said as he played his cards.

The knowledge he spoke of wasn't true knowledge, but rather intelligence regarding Cassell College and this world.

"If only I had a pair of fours, playing a double dragon might even yield miraculous results," Constantine looked at the cards in his hand, the smile on his face growing increasingly rich.

The pair of fours he mentioned wasn't actually a pair of fours, but rather a pair of four Sovereigns. He felt that if there were eight Sovereigns inside Cassell College, that scene would definitely be very interesting.

"What, only a pair of threes?"

Norton replied.

The King of Oceans and Waters was already gone, leaving behind only three pairs of Sovereigns.

"Yeah..."

"When you have time, go see our old friends. After all, we don't have many friends in this world. Besides, I'd really like to get to know Chu Zihang. Even though he's definitely a fake Constantine, I'm also a fake Norton, aren't I?" Norton said with a playful smile.

"Yeah, the meeting of a pair of fake-impostor brothers—just thinking about it feels interesting," Constantine replied with a smile, simultaneously flashing a pair of Jokers and saying, "I currently hold the King Bombs in my hand. Would you like to witness the power of the King Bombs?"

"Oh?"

Norton's eyes lit up, and in his heart, he instantly understood that Constantine now held a winning hand. He directly tossed his cards onto the table, lamenting helplessly, "With cards this good in your hand, how am I supposed to win? I'm not playing, I'm not playing. Let's just go straight to the next round."

"Shuffle the cards, shuffle the cards."

The process of the two of them playing cards wasn't actually simple. Because both were top-tier alchemists, before playing their cards, they could use alchemy to alter the faces of the cards, and then, using the cards as a medium, speak whatever they wanted to convey. The other party could easily understand because they were brothers of perfect mutual understanding.

"Do you want to shuffle the cards now?"

Constantine asked after gathering the poker cards.

"Whoever shuffles makes no difference. A game has never been just a game," Norton replied.

Lu Mingfei returned alone to the hotel to continue studying the mysteries of alchemy, while Chen Mosong went back to the hospital to rest her mind. She had used the Vision too much today, leaving her spirit somewhat overdrawn; without a proper rest, she might just pass out right on the spot.

As for Norton and Constantine, they leisurely played cards in the hospital ward next door, looking just like a pair of ordinary friends. Cassell College letting Norton protect Chen Mosong wasn't actually because Chen Mosong needed protection, but rather because they wanted to see what would happen after Norton and Lu Mingfei met.

Both of them were well aware of this, which was why Norton didn't put too much genuine effort into his guarding duties—after all, Chen Mosong herself was in no actual danger.

Before long, however, Norton and Constantine grew tired of playing cards and started playing mobile games instead.

Constantine had just been resurrected and didn't understand much about mobile games. However, that didn't matter; Norton, who had been resurrected much earlier, was very knowledgeable about mobile games. He opened a game with a white opening screen and said to Constantine, "Come and try this game, it's quite fun to play."

"What game is this?"

"Honkai: Dark Descent."

"Dark Descent? Sounds rather formidable."

"Of course. World-class music, top-tier character aesthetics, and third-rate operation and planning," Norton evaluated after a brief thought.

"Third-rate operation and planning? Then how did they even manage to get in? That doesn't sound right; if a game wants to be good, management and operation are definitely indispensable," Constantine asked in confusion.

"Who knows? They probably pulled strings to get through the back door. The gaming circle has changed quite a bit recently; *Dark Descent*, which hadn't optimized its optimization for two or three years, actually started optimizing game content. That can be considered a good thing, I suppose," Norton thought for a moment and replied.

"Then I'll download one to try as well."

"Alright, let's play *Dark Descent* together. Remember, don't pull on the permanent banner, don't use your resin, and save your Stellar Jades to pull for the upcoming version's General Huangquan. The characters in this version aren't easy to use, and I don't like the storyline..."

"Mhm mhm."

Fontaine, Palais Mermonia.

"Lady Furona, this is the latest intelligence route of the Dottore. He hasn't done anything out of line in Fontaine; our informants are watching him very closely."

"Mhm, I know. You may step down."

"Yes."

Furona looked at the documents in her hand, her frivolous gaze gradually growing concentrated. Although she wanted to trust her own people, with the Dottore's abilities and methods, deceiving those informants would still be quite simple. Doing things without a sound was not difficult for him.

Even so, she still had to try her best to observe the intelligence gathered by these informants. If she pushed herself a little harder, perhaps she could find something useful from this information.

*'Cafe... fountain... his movement route looks rather chaotic, and he doesn't seem to have a direct and straightforward target, but this could also be a misdirection he's putting on for me. In short, I must never lower my guard against the Dottore.'*

"Knock, knock, knock."

Just as Furona was deep in thought, a series of knocks suddenly rang out. Feeling slightly puzzled, she nevertheless said, "Please come in."

"Click."

After the sound of the door opening, the figures of the Traveler and Paimon appeared. They hurried over to Furona and said, "While investigating evidence of the Dottore's crimes, we discovered that he seems to have fallen under some kind of curse and is currently being tortured by it. He might be very weak right now."

"Weak? A curse?"

Furona's gaze shifted slightly. Previously, she had already felt that the Dottore's state seemed a bit off, but she had never figured out what was wrong. If it was a curse, perhaps that was genuinely a possibility.

She thought about it for a moment and replied, "Indeed, when I saw him earlier, I also sensed some things that felt a bit off, but at the time I didn't suspect too much. In the vast majority of places, he behaved without any flaws; I even suspected that my feeling was just an illusion."

"You sensed it?"

The Traveler was somewhat surprised, but the look of astonishment on her face quickly smoothed out. As the Hydro Archon, Furona being able to discover his abnormality was completely normal; on the contrary, it would have been strange if she hadn't noticed.

Little Paimon supported her chin with one hand, carefully eyeing Furona as she said, "I feel like you look just like Focalors from my dream."

"I am Focalors," Furona said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Uh, my emergency food supply is just talking nonsense, please don't take it to heart," the Traveler quickly covered Paimon's little mouth, offering an apologetic reply.

The Seven Archons all possessed Demon God names—for instance, Venti was named Barbatos, Zhongli was named Morax, Raiden Ei was named Beelzebub, Nahida was named Buer, and Furona having the name Focalors was completely normal.

For Paimon to say that Furona looked like Focalors was actually already somewhat impolite.

However, this wasn't the real reason behind Furona's tight-lipped smile. It was because she knew that another Focalors truly existed in this world, and she looked just like her, and Lu Mingfei indeed possessed the ability to link dreams.

In other words, Paimon's dream might have been pulled into reality by Lu Mingfei through Focalors.

Yet that didn't seem possible...

Why would he pull Paimon in? Could it be to use Paimon as emergency food? But if not that, why would Paimon see Focalors? Could it be that Focalors wanted to see Paimon? Or was this simply because Paimon had a nightmare? She had a feeling that something was hidden beneath all of this.

"It's fine, I don't mind. After all, I am the Hydro Archon of Fontaine! If I were to bicker over those foolish remarks, even if I had an endless amount of anger, it still wouldn't be enough, right?" Furona answered with a smile.

"Thank you for your magnanimity, Lady Hydro Archon," the Traveler said with a slight bow.

Judging from the descriptions of Furona given by various people, she wasn't a simple deity. Although she seemed overly flamboyant, when facing a deity like this, it was best to maintain sufficient respect; otherwise, no doubt anyone could guess what might happen.

The female Traveler suspected that Paimon had been dragged into the dream perhaps simply because Paimon had eaten Furona's small cake, making Furona angry enough to drag Paimon into her own dream and eat small cakes right in front of her as retaliation.

Although it sounded somewhat absurd, given Furona's current persona setting, she might actually be capable of doing such a thing.

After all, the Seven Archons of Teyvat were all...

Alcoholics, penniless, shut-in tech nerds...

If Furona was one of the Seven, the Traveler wouldn't feel surprised no matter how absurd her actions were. Since all the Seven were like this, her being like this too was completely normal and didn't make her stand out awkwardly among the other Seven.

"How did you know the Dottore was cursed?" Furona continued to ask.

"When I was investigating the Dottore, I met someone in an abandoned testing ground who claimed to be Nibelungen. He turned into my brother's appearance and told me..." The Traveler gradually began recounting the situation.

"Nibelungen?"

Furona's expression turned slightly odd. If she remembered correctly, Lu Mingfei was treated by the Fatui as an existence similar to Nibelungen, and now, a genuine Nibelungen spiritual body had actually popped up inside Fontaine.

Oh no, the bootleg has run into the genuine article!

Still, it wasn't a big problem. Lu Mingfei had never admitted to being Nibelungen anyway; even if she ran into a Nibelungen spiritual body, she probably didn't need to worry too much.

"Paimon even dreamed of him in her dream, and she even turned into the appearance of Focalors," little Paimon continued.

"Sorry, sorry, my emergency food supply just likes to run her mouth," the Traveler hurriedly covered Paimon's mouth once more, offering an immensely apologetic reply.

Little Paimon kicked her legs vigorously, looking at her with heartbreaking sadness, practically saying: Traveler, you've changed.

"In a dream?"

Furona felt a bit puzzled, yet this feeling also felt strangely familiar to her. The scenario felt as though she had seen it somewhere before, though she couldn't quite put her finger on where.

Bootleg Focalors + Bootleg Nibelungen?

Wasn't that just her and Lu Mingfei?

Could it be that Focalors had found the real Nibelungen, so her plan was actually a game centered around Nibelungen?

Perhaps that was it...