"I understand."
Listening to the layered echoes ringing by his ears, Sno vaguely detected a trace of impatience and irritation. Though he knew it was probably an illusion, he could still understand how Klein felt at the moment.
"If this keeps up, I'm afraid I'll become Mr. Fool's most hated believer." Sno grinned, ended the day's prayer, returned to the dining table, and softly said in Ancient Hermes:
"Thank Mr. Fool for granting me breakfast."
"Meow?" Lily lightly jumped onto the table and let out an unusually humanlike cry. Sno rolled his eyes and said:
"You come running the moment you hear breakfast? You may both be cats, but you're still far behind that Klein-cat!"
Though he said that, he still mashed boiled chicken breast and eggs together into cat food and handed it to the little one.
After finishing breakfast, the little one immediately jumped into the cat bed by the bedside. She looked as though she were dozing off, but in truth, she was meditating.
That was right, meditating.
To carve this technique into Lily's instincts, Sno had paid the price of spending three hours every day as a cat.
Yes, possessing Lily was not merely for taking walks outside and flirting with Witches. It was also to imprint "conditioned reflexes" on Lily.
Pavlov's Dog, this Sequence Eight, was quite interesting. Like most Sequence Eights, it did not possess any Supernatural Ability capable of affecting the course of a battle. Aside from strengthening the body, its core ability had only one thing: "conditioned reflexes."
This pathway allowed one to rapidly develop conditioned reflexes, thereby speeding up the mastery of skills that required so-called "muscle memory," such as shooting and fighting.
At the same time, it could apply this ability to animals. Just as he had done before, he projected part of his consciousness into an animal's body, then controlled the animal to train. After enough repetitions, the animal would naturally develop conditioned reflexes and thus learn the skill.
However, due to the existence of A Foot of Rod, Sno could maintain this ability for a long time. That was why he could afford the luxury of borrowing Lily's body to go out.
Actually, he felt that the first thing Lily should have learned was how to speak.
Unfortunately, even though two days had passed since she drank the Assassin potion, Lily still showed no intention of opening her mouth—
Sno even suspected that the little one was putting on an act for him.
Of course, that was only a joke. By drawing in advance on Pavlov's Dog's ability, he had long since carved loyalty to him into Lily's instincts. Otherwise, he would never have fed her the Assassin potion. As for why she had not yet learned to speak, Sno thought it was more likely because language did not have such a direct connection to conditioned reflexes.
After typing for a while longer, Sno organized his manuscript. He had not achieved much else over the past half month, but Phantom Blood was already four-fifths complete. Once he returned to Backlund, he would immediately submit the book—as a well-known veterinarian in Backlund, Sno's connections naturally included editors.
But compared to thinking about that, he had something more important to do today.
Glancing back at the clock, whose hands had already pointed to eleven, Sno put on the double-breasted high-collared formal coat he had not worn in half a month, donned a half-top silk hat, picked up his silver-inlaid yew cane, packed the manuscript into a suitcase, and let Lily perch on his shoulder. Dressed in this exceptionally eye-catching fashion, he stepped out of the hotel room.
The hotel staff had heard a little about this guest who had stayed for half a month straight. Seeing him leave his room, quite a few showed surprised expressions.
But how a guest chose to stay was the guest's business, so no one approached him out of curiosity.
After crossing several streets, Sno saw a place he had previously seen only in a dream. That was not a figure of speech; Dunn had truly brought him here in a dream. Yes, this was the police station on Zouteland Street.
"Sir, may I ask what business you have here?" Whether it was because Sno's attire was too remarkable or because he gave off such an upright air, the young policewoman receiving him was exceptionally polite upon seeing him.
Without question, she had to be a believer of the Evernight Goddess.
"My name is Sno von Pandax. I'm here to see Mr. Dunn. Hmm, if I remember correctly, he should be a senior inspector." Sno revealed a polite smile. That sunny, handsome smile immediately made the rather sweet-looking young policewoman blush—
"Mr. Dunn? Hmm, I'll go ask for you."
The young policewoman clearly was not familiar with the name, but she nodded and left in small, quick steps.
Yet she never returned. Instead, while Sno was idly teasing the cat, Mr. Dunn, with his deep gray eyes, appeared before him.
Dunn did not waste words. He directly led Sno into an office, then got straight to the point. "Mr. Panredax, what did you come to see me for?"
"I merely wanted to confirm whether that really was a dream." The moment Sno spoke, Dunn became alert. His poor memory had finally recalled that when he had questioned this man, it should have been in a dream!
Dunn could not be blamed for being careless. Honestly, if the other party had not come to his door, he would have nearly forgotten that he had ever questioned such a person!
But would an ordinary person really come looking for someone because of a dream?
"Mr. Dunn, perhaps to you, it was only an inquiry, but these past few days, it has been troubling me constantly. That dream was so vivid, and after waking, I discovered signs that someone had tampered with my room. You should understand that I'm currently hiding from trouble. This situation has made it impossible for me to eat or sleep in peace. I struggled over it for an entire week before finally making up my mind..."
Listening to Sno's endless chatter, Dunn roughly understood what had happened. He decided inwardly to go back and criticize Leonard, then nodded and said:
"Rest assured, I mean you no harm..." Dunn soothed Sno, trying to calm him down. Sno turned his head and took a deep whiff of Lily before finally relaxing. He sighed and said:
"Mr. Dunn, I once heard some information about Beyonders in Backlund's circles, though I thought it was merely a story at the time. But your appearance confirmed the existence of Beyonders for me, so I wanted to ask whether I could become a Beyonder?"
"Mr. Panredax, this is not something you should know." Dunn put on a stern expression, his deep eyes carrying a majesty that seemed capable of drawing in one's soul—
"The Beyonder world is extremely dangerous. I do not recommend joining this circle. However, if you have truly made up your mind, you may join one of the Three Great Churches and obtain the qualifications in this regard after passing certain assessments."
"I understand. Thank you for informing me." Sno removed his half-top silk hat and placed a hand over his chest in a bow. Just as Dunn was considering whether he should keep a closer eye on him, Sno suddenly added, "By the way, Mr. Dunn, I've been cooped up in the hotel for half a month. I'd like to find another Seer to give me a reading. Do you have any reliable recommendations?"
Before you continue