Sneaking into the Tarot Club Through the Back Door

"I..."

Klein felt his eyes sting, and he 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 curled into a smile.

He opened his eyes again, looked at Morien, and once more took the hand extended toward him.

"My surname is Zhou." Smiling, he answered in Chinese, "Zhou Mingrui."

"It's a pleasure to meet you here."

A few minutes later.

Morien and Klein left the "Citrine" room one after the other.

Morien had his hands in his pockets and walked ahead with light steps. Klein followed behind, carrying his cane and top hat.

"Goodbye, Miss Angelica." Morien greeted the receptionist.

"Goodbye." Klein raised a hand as well.

"Goodbye, Mr. Morien. Goodbye, Mr. Moretti." Angelica, the receptionist, dipped slightly as she watched the two walk down the stairs, feeling somewhat puzzled.

Strange, when had their relationship become so good...

"So, how did you find me?" Klein asked Morien curiously as they descended the stairs.

"I mean, why did you come looking for me? Why did you think I was a transmigrator like you?"

They were speaking Chinese, so they did not have to worry about anyone overhearing them.

If anyone questioned them, they could just say they were speaking a dialect from their hometown.

"Hmm... let me make something up..." Morien rubbed his chin.

"You're making it up on the spot?"

"Ah, got it." Morien snapped his fingers. "A month ago, I ran into a pirate at sea. I read his mind and learned about an organization called the 'Tarot Club.'"

"Then I got curious and followed the clues all the way to Tingen City."

Morien was not lying.

He really had read Alger's mind.

It was just that, perhaps unlike what Klein imagined, Morien had read it from a book.

The moment Morien mentioned the "Tarot Club," Klein suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

It had seemed like nothing above the Gray Fog, but hearing someone mention it face-to-face in reality felt so cringe, 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?"

"Hehe." Morien hummed proudly, then chuckled. "Actually, I stopped being human a long time 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 read JOJO.

"Of course not." Morien replied:

"I'm probably a giant bug in human form." Morien answered casually. "Didn't you use Spirit Vision to look at me? What, you couldn't tell?"

"No." Klein honestly shook his head. "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 beneath the mask's concealment, he still looked human.

"Hey, Old Zhou, that gathering of yours looks pretty fun."

"Let me join in." Morien said with a grin. "I can even help you look more impressive."

"Hmm... just say I'm your collaborator, the great Royal Insect."

"That... won't be a problem." Klein estimated his Spirituality. "Memorize my honorific name."

Klein had already decided to just go with the flow.

Morien had already named the gathering and tracked him down.

What was the point of keeping up the act?

"Oh, it's even three-part."

"Damn, brother, that's impressive."

Soon, the two reached the roadside, where Morien hailed a carriage.

"I'll be going now." Morien waved. "Let's have fun together next Monday."

"Uh... okay..." Klein replied.

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

With that, Morien boarded the carriage and gradually disappeared into the distance.

He had successfully slipped into the Tarot Club through the back door.

That was what connections were for.

Before long, Morien returned to No. 12 Tussock Street. Humming softly, he unlocked the front door and went inside. He climbed to the second floor and stopped before 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 was lit in the room.

A thick book lay open on the desk, but there was no one sitting before it. Only a butterfly the size of a human head rested upon the tabletop.

The butterfly's wings reflected faint colors, crossed by interwoven patterns that made it look like an eye lying atop the book.

This was an offspring he had fed a "Reader" Potion.

Sequence 9 Potions did not seem too expensive, so Morien could barely afford one.

This was Morien's first attempt at feeding a Potion to an insect.

At first, he had tried to let his offspring absorb the Hunter characteristic he had obtained from those "kind-hearted" gangsters.

But after several attempts, he had failed every time.

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 entirely 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 decided against it.

He still did not want his offspring to suffer some unknown divine punishment while flying down the road in the future.

Compared with Fortune-Collecting, who had emerged from the abdomen of a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer and even devoured a Cursed Spirit with an incomplete domain, Qiu Si was obviously far weaker and had not awakened her own cursed technique.

Even so, Morien was satisfied. He felt that she was a "growth-type" Mother Bug.

The Sequence 9 "Reader" enhanced memory, comprehension, and learning ability. It could use ritual magic, and extensive reading would provide a rich reserve of knowledge.

She had also inherited a small portion of Morien's Cursed Energy and Path Power, and had stepped onto [Propagation].

Now that she had taken a "Reader" Potion as well, she had become a genuine Beyonder.

Qiu Si could breed two kinds of offspring.

One kind consisted of ordinary offspring, completely blank slates with almost no Beyonder Abilities. Their Cursed Energy and Path Power were pitifully low as well. Aside from being able to propagate in large numbers, they were not much stronger than ordinary butterflies. It would probably take dozens of them working together to defeat a Grade 4 Cursed Spirit.

This was the kind of offspring that every Mother Bug under Morien's command could split off.

They were meant for mass production.

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 use some extremely simple ritual magic.

This was tied to the amount of knowledge she possessed. The more she knew, the more offspring 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 around five books.

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