Chapter 2422: Chapter 2423: Whereabouts and Goals

After a while, the Nightmare Illusion Hand transformed into light and shadow and dissolved away.

"Is he alright?" Dangross poked his head out and asked softly.

"His physical condition is not good, but fortunately, I didn’t sense anything abnormal inside him."

In other words, either the Mist Shadow was hiding very well, so well that even Angel couldn’t detect it; or it had already left his body.

Angel personally leaned towards the latter.

Because the consciousness of the Mist Shadow is not affected by the host’s sensory functions.

The sensory effects here include pain perception and the brain’s self-protection. That is to say, even though Reynaud’s body fell into a coma due to self-protection, the Mist Shadow could still control him and move freely.

And at this moment, Reynaud’s body clearly had lost its ability to move and judge, and without the autonomous consciousness to manipulate it further, this basically showed that the Mist Shadow should have left Reynaud’s body.

As for why it left?

The answer isn’t complex either. Even though the Mist Shadow isn’t affected by the host and doesn’t mind if it’s injured, it’s clear to anyone with eyes that Reynaud’s series of injuries was very odd.

Such a continuous coincidence, causing a chain of bad luck, is evidently unusual. If the Mist Shadow didn’t believe in so-called "coincidences," what might it think of?

Some sort of power is interfering with luck.

And this power clearly involves an inexpressible aspect of fate.

Faced with this scenario, even Angel would feel a chill up his spine, not knowing the truth.

The Mist Shadow was clearly not foolish and would be concerned as well.

Perhaps at this moment, the bad luck only affected Reynaud, but what about the future? Could stronger bad luck arise that might reach its original form?

Moreover, the Mist Shadow could also see that the bad luck emerged only after it possessed Reynaud.

Reynaud’s body clearly had issues.

Come to think of it, would a problem-free ordinary apprentice be hidden in such a secretive room by No. 01?

In this scenario, the Mist Shadow could either gamble that the bad luck wouldn’t spread to its true body and continue possessing Reynaud; or it could directly distance itself from Reynaud.

Does Reynaud have any significant consequence for the Mist Shadow? For now, it seems not.

Therefore, the Mist Shadow couldn’t bear such a significant psychological burden to continue possessing Reynaud. The wisest move would be to let go of this hot potato.

Angel had another reason for making this judgment.

The Mist Shadow would definitely need a body to affect the Material Realm. On the fifth floor, choosing Reynaud’s body was a forced decision because it was the only usable body there.

But on the first floor, it’s different. There’s a Magical Beast Garden. The Fire Scale Summoned Demon the Mist Shadow initially controlled came from this garden.

The Mist Shadow could very well go to the Magical Beast Garden and select a new body.

Most importantly, this place is very close to the Magical Beast Garden, indicating that the Mist Shadow’s original route was indeed heading towards the garden.

It’s highly likely that the Mist Shadow has reached the Magical Beast Garden by now and possessed a new body.

In fact, this could be considered a good thing.

At least, their previous worry about Reynaud being "brain-exploded" by the Mist Shadow no longer exists. And the person who resolved this hidden danger is not an outsider but Reynaud himself. If Angel were to resolve the "brain-explosion" issue, he probably wouldn’t have a solution, so it’s still Reynaud’s body that’s strong.

After figuring out the general situation, Angel prepared to first gather Reynaud’s body, and then see whether it was necessary to go to the Magical Beast Garden to search for the Mist Shadow.

However, before collecting Reynaud’s body, some treatment was necessary.

The backlash of bad luck caused significant damage to Reynaud himself, and without treatment, he would soon perish.

Angel gently laid Reynaud’s damaged body on the ground, conducted a brief examination, and then released two level-2 spells: Isolation Spell and Vitality Activation.

Neither of these spells is a conventional healing method. The reason for selecting these two spells is that Reynaud’s condition is not suitable for direct wound healing, and there is still a considerable amount of energy residue within him.

Judging the situation, it was necessary to first use the Isolation Spell to separately isolate the residual energy toxins in his body.

As for choosing the Vitality Activation spell, it’s to temporarily delay his body’s exhaustion through the consumption of life essence. However, Vitality Activation has side effects, including the consumption of lifespan—although lifespan itself is hard to quantify, it is indeed true.

The side effects are significant, but at this moment, they shouldn’t be minded. Consuming lifespan is better than death. Moreover, lifespan is essentially life essence, which isn’t immutable. When life essence is elevated, it grows continuously. For instance, when promoted to an Official Wizard.

After completing all of this, Angel took out a "Healing Ice Coffin" Magic Rune Scroll and placed Reynaud into the ice coffin.

Next, Angel lightly tapped the ground, causing his shadow to begin to surge continuously, until, after a while, a head slowly emerged from the shadow.

Earl Mi.

Angel intended to place Reynaud with Earl Mi. After all, there is a slight chance that the Mist Shadow hadn’t actually left Reynaud; just to be safe, the bracelet shouldn’t be placed there, as Earl Mi is the best choice.

Earl Mi nodded, without any words, laying a layer of surging shadow on the ground as it began to engulf the ice coffin on the ground.

Just as the Healing Ice Coffin was about to vanish into the shadows, Dangross suddenly muttered, "Why are Reynaud’s cheeks so puffed up? Just like my little brother, the Traveling Frog."

Dangross’s words prompted Angel to subconsciously focus his attention on Reynaud’s face.

Previously, he hadn’t paid much attention to Reynaud’s face, mainly because... it was too unbearable to look at.

The former handsomeness was completely gone, large patches of skin like charcoal, flesh and yellow-green mucus intertwined, truly an eyesore.

Now, for the first time, Angel seriously examined Reynaud’s face.

Upon examining, Angel discovered some strange aspects.

"Earl Mi, wait a moment." Angel stopped Earl Mi’s devouring, walked to the Ice Coffin, opened the lid, and gently pressed the puffed cheek of Reynaud.

The skin was fragile and fell off directly. But underneath the skin, Angel felt a layer of hardened feedback.

This didn’t feel like fascia.

Angel hesitated for a moment, then parted Reynaud’s lips.

With a light pinch of his fingers, he extracted an item from his mouth.

"It can be done." Angel said to Earl Mi after closing the coffin lid. Earl Mi immediately rolled shadows over, swallowing the transparent Ice Coffin from sight.

Once the rolling shadows returned to normal, Angel picked up the item he extracted from Reynaud’s mouth.

It was a transparent small bottle.

The bottle was small, easily held in the palm, containing some slightly yellow cold liquid, and at the center of the liquid, a purple-black crystal was immersed.

"This thing, why does it look so familiar?" Dangross was also examining the item in the bottle; the crystal inside gave it a strong sense of déjà vu, seemingly seen somewhere before.

"Hmph, chirp chirp." Toby chirped a few times, casting a sidelong glance at Dangross. Even though Dangross couldn’t understand Toby’s bird language, it was clear that Toby seemed to be mocking it.

"Toby’s right." With Dangross’s puzzled yet slightly aggrieved expression, Angel spoke: "The thing inside here is likely Seathe’s."

Previously, outside, they had encountered Seathe’s cub, which had numerous purple crystals growing on its body. Although the crystal in the bottle was darker in color, its overall appearance remained the same.

Therefore, Angel deduced that this should be something from Seathe.

However, what concerned Angel the most was not this purple-black crystal but the bottle itself and the cold liquid inside.

This cold liquid, he had seen it before; all the containers holding organs in the Exhibition Room were equipped with the exact same cold liquid.

This made Angel a bit suspicious — could this be a transplantable organ too?

But if it’s an organ... hasn’t Seathe’s cub not been captured yet? How was this obtained?

It’s known that separating organs with transcendent traits is not as simple as plucking the crystals from its body; special spell techniques are required for that. Bloodline wizards or biological alchemists possess similar techniques.

Thus, if the internal part is a transplantable organ, it seems odd.

Or is it possible there are actually two Seathe cubs? One has already been captured?

It seems unlikely.

Angel was unable to figure it out for the moment, so he temporarily set it aside, shifting his gaze from the cold liquid to the exterior of the bottle.

The physical bottle was something Angel had seen for the first time, but not long ago, he saw velvety marks pressed by similar bottles in Room 01’s hidden room.

With a casual wave, Angel conjured a box using illusion techniques in front of him.

This box was precisely the hidden box he had previously discovered, inside which was divided into two parts, each containing an item. However, when Angel found it, the box was already empty.

Angel compared this bottle to the velvety press marks inside the illusionary box.

Sure enough, it matched one of the pressure marks.

This bottle was likely one of the bottles missing from Room 01.

Presumably, it was stolen by the Mist shadows, as it cannot directly affect the Material Realm, it could only be placed on Reynaud.

As for why it was in Reynaud’s mouth instead of on him... Angel speculated that perhaps the Mist shadows feared being linked with bad luck, and placing it on him would cause it to spoil quickly; keeping it in the mouth is safer.

If this is true, the Mist shadows evidently value the contents of this bottle highly.

"Could it be that the Mist shadows’ real target on the fifth floor was this bottle? Then why did it set fire on the fifth floor earlier?"

Angel was somewhat puzzled by the Mist shadows’ actions, but looking at the bottle in his hand, another thought arose in his mind.

Given how much the Mist shadows value this bottle, should it possess a new creature in the Magical Beast Park, would it come back to retrieve this bottle?

Earlier, Angel considered going to the Magical Beast Park to hunt for the Mist shadows, but now it seemed that perhaps there’s no need to actively seek it out, just wait here like a rabbit at the stump and catch it when it returns?

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