"I..."
Klein felt his eyes sting and could not help closing them for a moment.
He wanted to say his surname was "Moretti," but he knew that was definitely not the answer Morien wanted to hear.
Suddenly, Klein's lips curved into a smile.
He opened his eyes again, looked at Morien, and once more clasped the hand Klein had held out.
"My surname is Zhou." He smiled and replied in Chinese, "Zhou Mingrui."
"I'm very glad to have met you here."
A few minutes later.
Morien and Klein walked out of the "Citrine" room, one after the other.
With both hands in his pockets and light steps, Morien walked ahead. Klein followed behind, carrying his cane and top hat.
"Goodbye, Miss Angelica." Morien greeted the receptionist.
"Goodbye." Klein also raised a hand in farewell.
"Goodbye, Mr. Morien. Goodbye, Mr. Moretti." Angelica, the receptionist, gave a slight bow as she watched the two descend the stairs, feeling rather puzzled.
Strange, when had their relationship become so good...
"So, how did you find me?" Klein asked Morien curiously on the stairs.
"I mean, why did you come looking for me? Why did you think I was a transmigrator like you?"
They spoke in Chinese, so they did not need to worry about anyone overhearing them.
If anyone questioned them, they would say they were speaking a dialect from their hometown.
"Hmm... let me make something up..." Morien rubbed his chin.
"Why are you making it up on the spot..."
"Ah, got it." Morien snapped his fingers. "A month ago, I encountered a pirate at sea. I read his mind and learned about an organization called the 'Tarot Club.'"
"Then I got curious, followed the clues all the way, and ended up in Tingen City."
Morien was not lying.
He really had read Alger's mind.
It was just that, perhaps not quite as Klein imagined, Morien had read it from a book.
Hearing Morien mention the "Tarot Club," Klein suddenly felt a little awkward.
It had felt fine above the Gray Fog, but having someone bring it up right in front of him in reality felt so cringey, so embarrassing...
Klein screamed inwardly.
Mr. Hanged Man! So you were the one who led him here!
Klein instantly identified the "culprit."
To ease the awkwardness, he asked Morien:
"So, you found me with just a few tiny clues?"
"Heh heh." Morien gave two proud hums, then chuckled. "Actually, I stopped being human long ago."
"Human strength has its limits."
"So you're a Vampire now?" Klein looked Morien up and down, then glanced at the sunlight not far away.
He had watched JoJo.
"Of course not," Morien answered.
"I'm probably a giant humanoid bug." Morien answered casually. "Didn't you use Spirit Vision on me? What, couldn't tell?"
"No." Klein shook his head honestly. "In my Spirit Vision, you were just an ordinary person with a powerful spirit body."
"Is that so?" Morien nodded in understanding.
It seemed that under the mask's concealment, he still looked human.
"Say, Old Zhou, that gathering of yours looks pretty fun."
"Pull me in and let me have some fun too." Morien grinned. "I can even help you boost your image."
"Hmm... just say I'm your collaborator, the great Royal Insect."
"That... shouldn't be a problem." Klein estimated his Spirituality. "Remember my honorific name."
Klein had already decided to stop pretending.
Morien had named the gathering and found him already.
What was the point of acting anymore?
"Oh, it's even three-part."
"That's badass, brother."
Soon, the two reached the roadside, where Morien hailed a carriage.
"I'll be off, then." Morien waved. "Let's hang out together next Monday."
"Uh... okay..." Klein replied.
"Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
With that, Morien boarded the carriage and gradually went farther away.
He had successfully slipped into the Tarot Club through the back door.
That was what connections were.
Before long, Morien returned to No. 12 Tussock Street. Humming softly, he unlocked the front door with his key, entered, went up to the second floor, and arrived outside the study.
Knock, knock, knock.
He curled his fingers and knocked three times. A few seconds later, he pushed open the door.
The study was small, with only two bookshelves and a desk. There was not even a chair.
The curtains had long been drawn, and an oil lamp burned in the room.
A thick book lay open on the desk, but no one stood before it. Only a Butterfly as large as a human head rested on the tabletop.
The Butterfly's wings reflected faint colors, covered in crisscrossing patterns that made it look like an eye lying atop the book.
This was an offspring he had fed with a Reader Potion.
Sequence 9 Potions did not seem expensive, and Morien could barely afford one.
This was Morien's first attempt at feeding a bug a Potion.
At first, he had tried to make his offspring absorb Hunter characteristics he had obtained from some "kindhearted" gangsters.
But after several attempts, none had succeeded.
Later, Morien had a sudden idea and used the last of his remaining gold pounds to buy a Reader Potion on Tingen's black market.
This time, the Potion was absorbed successfully.
That was how he created this brand-new offspring.
Morien named her the Qiu Si Mother Bug, and her name was Qiu Si.
He had originally wanted to call her the White Tower Mother Bug, but after thinking it over, he gave up on that idea.
He still did not want his offspring to suffer some unknown divine punishment while flying down the road in the future.
Compared to Fortune-Collecting, who had directly emerged from the abdomen of a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer and then devoured a Cursed Spirit with an incomplete domain, Qiu Si was obviously much weaker and had not awakened a Cursed Technique of her own.
However, Morien was still satisfied and felt that she was a "growth-type" Mother Bug.
The Sequence 9 Reader's abilities enhanced memory, comprehension, and learning. It could use Ritual Magic, and if it read large quantities of books, it would accumulate abundant knowledge.
She had also inherited a small portion of Morien's Cursed Energy and Path Power, and had embarked upon [Propagation].
Now that she had consumed a Reader Potion as well, she had become a genuine Beyonder.
Qiu Si could produce two kinds of offspring.
One kind was ordinary offspring, completely blank slates. They possessed almost no Beyonder Abilities, and their Cursed Energy and Path Power were pitifully scarce. Aside from being able to propagate in large numbers, they were not much stronger than ordinary butterflies. It might take dozens working together to defeat a Grade 4 Cursed Spirit.
These were offspring that every Mother Bug under Morien's command could split off.
They counted as mass-produced.
In addition, Qiu Si could split off a special kind of offspring. They inherited the Mother Bug's learning ability and powers of observation, and could also use some extremely simple Ritual Magic.
This was tied to the amount of knowledge she possessed. The more she knew, the more she could split off.
Since her birth, she had studied nearly two hundred books and split off more than forty similar offspring.
On average, she could split off one after studying roughly five books.