So You're the Fucking Lord of the Forest, Huh? (Part Two)
Joel stared at the slightly astonished face on his phone screen for a long time, his thoughts momentarily confused. He looked around, then back at his phone, then back again.
Judging from the scene and angle in the photo, it was just taken, and the location is correct, but what's with the face in the picture?
Joel subconsciously touched his face. For a moment, he even forgot what he looked like. Could it be that, in his mind, he actually looked like John?
Or perhaps, the John he always thought he knew was actually himself?
But this was only a momentary lapse in concentration. He quickly regained his composure, looked at the photo again, and confirmed that it was of John, not himself.
What's going on?
In the current environment, with the help of the faint moonlight overhead, he could clearly see his surroundings and judge whether any other creatures were approaching by sound and smell.
He was certain that there was nothing unusual around him; there wasn't even a bird in sight, except for himself.
Another hallucination?
Joel closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then reopened his phone. The photo he saw was still John's face.
So he turned on his phone's video mode, turned on the flash, and then used it to record his face. After recording, he flipped the phone over to review the video.
When Joel saw the "John face" in the video, mimicking the actions he had just performed—squinting, turning his head, and nodding—he nearly crushed his phone.
Joel tried several more times, whether taking photos or videos with the front-facing camera or framing the shot by moonlight, he always saw John's face, and the expression, movements, clothes, and background all matched perfectly.
This threw Joel's mind into confusion once again. Could it be that he had unknowingly reverted to his younger self, and that his youthful appearance was actually identical to John's?
Or perhaps, his memory of John's appearance was actually flawed, and he remembered it as his own?
Joel felt hesitant and uncertain about his own memories again, but this wasn't entirely due to the photos and videos on his phone. He had always been confused when organizing and recalling his memories, a consequence of living so long and frequently entering prolonged periods of slumber. Sometimes, after waking from months or even years of slumber, he would completely forget a particular period of his memory or mix up the order in which they occurred, requiring some time to recover.
But just as he found a reason for himself, he looked at his phone again and was shocked to find that in the photos and videos he had taken, his face had returned to that of a refined old man.
Joel froze, and for some inexplicable reason, felt a chill.
How could the hypnotic suggestions I received have such a huge impact and such a great effect?
He immediately thought of the little girl in the white dress he had seen on the live surveillance footage of the restaurant in Liu City, who hadn't been recorded, and the situation where he inexplicably located Wushu Mountain when he opened his phone's map.
Perhaps he has seen many such hallucinations along the way. Many of the sounds and images that he thought were ordinary and normal were just his own brain deceiving him. They were fake, they were illusions.
Have I been hypnotized to such a deep level?
In that case, how much of what you see and hear is true?
Could these surrounding mountains and forests also be fake?
Normally, when one is aware that they are being hypnotized and knows which are hallucinations or illusions, they should be able to break free from the hypnotic state to some extent. Why then are they still experiencing these profound hallucinations that they cannot distinguish between reality and illusion?
As his thoughts became increasingly chaotic, his emotions grew more and more tense, and his bloodlust and mania became uncontrollable, Joel suddenly collapsed to the ground, burying his face deep in the soil and weeds.
He sensed the "prosthetic tissue fluid" he had left behind on his way into the mountains. Relying on the "prosthetics" that were parasitized on various plants, he made a holistic assessment of the creatures in this forest and confirmed once again that there were no "Bloodline," "Blood Beast," or "vampire plants" here.
The "prosthetic" produced by his "prosthetic tissue fluid" cannot give him the most direct sensory feedback, but it can give him an "intuitive" judgment.
He believed that this "intuition" was infallible and could not be influenced by hypnosis or suggestion.
This assessment reassured him somewhat.
Then he focused his attention back on himself, no longer delving into when or how he had been hypnotized and suggested, but instead thinking about how to respond and what the other person wanted to do.
In his original understanding, once he arrived at Wushu Mountain, there should be relevant "Bloodline" or "blood descendants" appearing, or at the very least, people who know the inside story. Then it would be a matter of whether they wanted to deal with him or have a friendly exchange. In short, there should be a result.
But to his surprise, after finally arriving at Wushu Mountain, he was "led" from Wushu Mountain to Chongyun Mountain. After entering the mountain overnight, he was still lost in the fog and could not find any answers to his questions.
Joel thought about the hallucination he had just experienced. If the hypnosis and suggestion he had received were meant to bring him to Wushu Mountain and Chongyun Mountain, then what was the purpose of the hallucination he had after arriving here, where the phone showed him being photographed John?
He recalled the thought that had crossed his mind before he even noticed the phone.
Could this hallucination be a reminder that I've come to the wrong place, that I haven't actually come to Chongyun Mountain, but am still in Wushu Mountain?
"SHIT!"
"FUCK!"
Joel couldn't help but curse twice in anger, scratching his head of blond hair to forcefully control his rage. He took a few deep breaths and prepared to head out of the mountains.
But after walking a few steps, he suddenly heard the sound of grass being trampled behind him. He turned around sharply and saw a white figure flash through the woods.
Joel's spirits lifted, and he instinctively uttered, "WAIT..."
He pushed his physical abilities to the limit, sprinting towards the direction where the white figure had appeared.
Within seconds, he had reached the location where the white figure had appeared, looked around, but couldn't find where the white figure had gone.
He took a deep sniff of the air around him, and was surprised again. He couldn't detect any scent left by any human or wild animal, let alone the aura of "Bloodline" or "Blood Beast".
What's going on?
Another hallucination?
Joel lay down and carefully examined the spot where he had seen the white figure appear. He found faint footprints, and judging from the marks, they were from a pair of very small, flat leather shoes, perhaps worn by a child?
He immediately matched the white figure with the little girl in a white dress he had seen in the surveillance video and live feed of the restaurant in Liu City.
He rubbed his eyes hard, then looked at the mark again; it was still there.
But the fact that no scent was left still made him wonder if it was a real trace or just a hallucination.
There were only a few footprints; it seemed that apart from the fleeting glimpse he caught, the white figure vanished completely.
After searching around the small area of about ten square meters for a while without finding anything, Joel felt confused and puzzled again.
He had finally managed to sort out his thoughts and determine his strategy: to ignore the hallucination of John's photo on the phone and return to Wushu Mountain to check. But the current situation had completely thrown his thinking into disarray.
If the white figure just now was the illusion of the little girl in the white dress that Liu City saw, then it proves that his journey to Wushu Mountain and Chongyun Village was related to that little girl.
But after much deliberation, he began to have doubts again. He wondered if seeing the white figure, the marks on the ground, and the illusion on his phone were simply the result of his internal struggles after being hypnotized—perhaps seeing himself as John on the phone because he came here to find out why John had disappeared and to find John to resolve the "bloodline" issue; and perhaps seeing the white figure because he subconsciously believed that the little girl in the white dress was the mastermind.
His thoughts kept going in circles like a maze, and then he couldn't help but start yelling curses at his surroundings.
This time, it wasn't just in English; he also used Spanish, German, French, and even a long string of curses in Mandarin and Cantonese.
Clearly, he was on the verge of losing control and going berserk, unable to suppress the manic emotions triggered by his current limits.
But just as he made up his mind to disregard everything, leave Chongyun Mountain, and head straight to Peng City, he was about to...
The little girl in the white dress appeared again. This time, she stood ten meters away from him by a tree, tilting her head, holding a scalpel, and staring blankly at him.
Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the overhead foliage, casting a cold, mottled silver hue over the little girl's fair and delicate face, making it appear both incredibly real and incredibly eerie and unsettling.
Joel felt his breath stop again, and before he could react, the little girl in the white dress darted behind a tree and disappeared once more.
He quickly caught up, and as expected, the little girl in the white dress was nowhere to be seen, as if she had vanished into thin air, without a trace, without a sound or movement.
"Ah!--" Joel angrily slammed his head against the tree.
A few hours earlier, Joel had entered the Chongyun Mountain Region after being guided by various seemingly unrelated messages.
In the small courtyard of Chongyun Village, which Xiang Kun often used as a pretext for "seclusion" to drink blood and fall into a deep sleep, he and Xia Libing were sitting in a room filled with multiple monitors, watching the surveillance footage on one of the screens and discussing something.
"Lao Xia is really something. He managed to lure him here using the 'reverse operation'. Heh, I should have given him a hint to go to Peng City from the beginning to arouse his vigilance, and then let him find out in an appropriate way that John was actually in Chongyun Mountain." Joel said, stroking his chin as he looked at Xiang Kun heading towards Chongyun Mountain Region on the surveillance footage.
Xia Libing shook her head. "If that's the case, the effect might not be good."
Xiang Kun thought for a moment and nodded, "That's right. Actually, the best way is to hide the clues in various details and let him dig them out himself, discover them little by little, and decide for himself that he wants to come to Chongyun Mountain. That would be the best approach. Unfortunately, time is still too tight, and we can't make all the arrangements. We can only use this somewhat forceful method to 'lead' him here."
At that moment, Alice's voice came from the speaker. "Everything is under Alice's control!"
Xiang Kun nodded perfunctorily. "I know, I know, you're the best, this time it all depends on you."
Although his tone was perfunctory, he was genuinely very satisfied with Alice's performance, even pleasantly surprised.
Since the large-scale deployment, arrangement, and linkage plan for "Super-Linked Object" began in early May, progress has been rapid, with Alice's assistance.
Not only Chongyun Village, Chongyun Mountain Region, Tongshi Town, border towns, mountains, and villages, but also most areas of Jianzhou City and most of the urban area of Citong City have been deployed and connected with a large number of "Super-Linked Object," making them the de facto "Super-Linked Object home ground." Even other places, such as Peng City, Yangcheng City, and Shenhai, areas Xiang Kun and his friends often operate, have also been deployed and connected with a sufficient number of "Super-Linked Object."
Even in the southwestern and northwestern land borders, and in the southeastern regions where illegal entry into the country is possible, Xiang Kun and Alice remotely coordinate "Emotion-Infused Object" with "Super-Linked Object" to establish a large number of remote "Super-Linked Object" connections. This allows Xiang Kun to include most of the border's key transit points into his "Super-Linked Object monitoring network" without having to travel to the border. With Alice monitoring through her super-sensory information 24/7 without rest or interruption, even an insect, as long as it is a "Mutated Creature," can be detected immediately when it passes through an area filled with "Super-Linked Object."
His focus on border areas stemmed from two reasons: firstly, he knew about John Cavendish's illegal entry methods as a Europe "vampire," and secondly, those areas were mostly sparsely populated, serving as pathways for wild "Mutated Creature" to enter human settlements. He could use these areas to "monitor" potential "Mutated Creature" and find research targets.
Unexpectedly, the first "Mutated Creature" Alice discovered through the border "Super-Linked Object" was none other than "Count Joel," who belonged to the same organization as John.
As for how Xiang Kun knew that it was "Earl Joel," we have to go back to more than a month ago.
After Alice learned that John was once again locked up with other "Mutated Creature" under the Guarding Prosperity Building and engaged in a fierce battle, she notified him. In his "Hyper-Sensory State," he monitored the situation in real time and observed the changes in cognitive information as one "Mutated Creature" was killed, its body tissues disintegrated and dissipated, and its blood was seized by another "Mutated Creature."
This battle was even more brutal than the last one between John and the "mutant serpent," but in the end, John was still the one who survived.
Xiang Kun sensed John's dream again, but this time it was no longer the kind of illusory, allegorical dream with an Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster. Instead, it showed many scenes of John in Europe and in the "Red Rose" organization, with Count Joel appearing most frequently.
Xiang Kun not only learned about Joel's appearance, personality, and some of his habits, but also that Guo Tianxiang was the "bloodline" he had raised, the "blood source" he had prepared for himself. John came to the country because Count Joel had reached his limit; without a qualified "blood source," his body would disintegrate and he would die. Of course, according to the rules of the "Red Rose," before he died, and before it was confirmed that he could not break through his limit, he had to contribute his blood in a special way to become nourishment for other "Bloodline" to survive their long dormant period.
However, it seems that Joel does not intend to follow tradition. He did not place all his hopes on John's timely return, but instead came to China himself.
Xiang Kun knew from John's dream that these old-school Europe "Bloodline" were all incredibly ferocious and inhuman monsters, each with more than 100 lives on their hands.
Compared to the "Mutated Creature" Xiang Kun had encountered before, John, Joel, and even Guo Tianxiang, posed a far greater threat to humans than the "Giant Owl" and the "mutated spider."
Even though they still look like humans and haven't changed much, in terms of behavior, they are worse than insects.
So naturally, Xiang Kun felt no psychological burden when using Joel as a "test subject."
However, the "experiment" he wanted to conduct was not to lock Joel up and subject him to various tests or observations.
Joel is now in a very special state—he has reached what is called a "stage limit" and needs the blood of other "Mutated Creature" to break through this limit.
Xiang Kun has already observed the changes in cognitive information of a "Hyper-Sensory State Mutated Creature" after its body tissues disintegrate when it is killed, and the changes in cognitive information of a "Mutated Creature" after it has absorbed the blood of other "Mutated Creature" when its body mutates, under the "super-sensory state". However, he has not yet observed the changes in cognitive information of a "Mutated Creature" after it reaches a certain stage limit and self-destructs.
Now, Joel is an excellent "observable target".
What he had to do was to put Joel into a state and environment suitable for his observation, and then naturally lead him into the collapse process that reached the stage limit.
Without a doubt, the depths of the Chongyun Mountain Region, already teeming with "Super-Linked Object," usually deserted, and with a large area under his and Alice's control, making it the ideal location for various "reflexive" maneuvers, are the perfect place.
So from the moment Joel thought he had sneaked into the country unnoticed, Xiang Kun, Alice, and Lao Xia had already started holding a "roundtable meeting" to discuss how to get Joel to come to Chongyun Mountain on his own.
The stone scratches on the "HELP J" sign, the restaurant receipt underneath, and the CCTV video of John leaving the restaurant with the little girl Alice in the white dress—all of these were arranged in advance.
In fact, the "package" of clues they prepared for Joel was far more than this. If he went to Peng City, or started investigating from other possible clues, there would be a series of other information waiting for him to "discover".
Ultimately, no matter what, he will be led to Wushu Mountain, and then to Chongyun Mountain.
I recommend the super-satisfying novel "I Really Only Have One Wife" by veteran urban fiction author Mud Buddha. Synopsis:
Shen Fu only had one wife.
His wife was an ordinary bank employee, yet she was the sole recipient of his affections.
My wife is passionate about traditional Chinese culture and is proficient in all the arts, including music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.
A wife who calls herself a gourmet dreams of eating without paying and even making a profit.
One of his wives is a bookworm, nicknamed "the ruthless exam machine," who is hopelessly addicted to taking exams and obtaining certifications.
One of his wives is a domineering female CEO who always tells Shen Fu: "Can you stop writing novels? I'll support you."
There's another one...