Joan of Arc's Armor—when Lan Mu first encountered her, she had been imprisoned in the Deep Sea Great Prison.
Later, she was stolen by Inverse Light's people. After the Rose Society was absorbed, Joan of Arc returned to the Blue White Society's hands.
Because of this, Joan of Arc had been sealed away for years, so Lan Mu decided to put her to use this time.
Lan Mu had feelings for Helen. He couldn't bear to sacrifice her as bait.
But after thinking it over carefully, the only thing that could replace Helen was Joan of Arc's Armor.
Back when she was in the Rose Society, she had already copied Best Metal's hardness. More importantly, this armor possessed self-awareness as well. Combined with Lan Mu's external Shaping Algorithm, it was enough to pass for the real thing!
Only after Best possessed it and eroded Joan of Arc's consciousness did it realize that this was a fake Golden Cudgel!
Now, Joan of Arc had become Dark Joan of Arc. Thus far, no one besides Lan Mu had been able to resist Best's Demonic Nature. In a sense, she had sacrificed herself for Lan Mu's goal.
Just now, Lan Mu had outmaneuvered Best.
Best, severely lacking intelligence, had never expected this move.
To scheme against Best, Lan Mu had chosen to sacrifice Joan of Arc. Having her masquerade as the Golden Cudgel's consciousness made her the perfect bait!
From the very beginning, Lan Mu had deliberately taken out the Golden Cudgel to smash open space. It had seemed as though he was opening a passage to summon the Abyssal Ruins, but in truth, he could have done that without the Golden Cudgel.
Yet Lan Mu had still used it because he had considered the worst-case scenario. If Best could abandon its body