Me! Cleaner!.

Chapter 1183 The Ring Script and Frederica's Secret

Despite all her precautions, she still couldn't prevent it and was tricked... But it wasn't all for naught; at least her dream was preserved intact.

Seeing the old ox in the dream struggling to make a cigarette for ages, staring at its hooves in frustration, Leon deliberately stepped into the dream, taking a step behind it and observing for a while before finally offering some pointers:

“You can’t just roll it like that. You have to wait until the tobacco leaves are completely dry, then cut them into thin pieces along the grain before you can roll them. Also, you can’t choose leaves that are too dry, as they are easy to break. It’s best to choose leaves that can be crumpled into a ball but then fall apart.”

Oh! I see!
Hearing the instructions from behind, the old ox suddenly realized that he had thought rolling a paper tube was no big deal, but he hadn't expected there to be such a trick to it. No wonder he couldn't roll it no matter what he tried...

Who the hell are you?

Seeing Leon suddenly appear behind him, the old ox, startled, slipped and knocked over the table Leon was rubbing with a crash. It then glared at Leon with its two bull eyes and mooed loudly.

You're not from the Holy Land! Who are you?!

"I am Lyon."

"???"

Lyon? You're Lyon?
"Correct."

Since Frederica had already left the dream, Leon did not use the [Dream Butterfly] to enter the dream this time, but instead used the power of [One Thousand and One Nights] to enter the dream directly.

Therefore, regardless of appearance, physique, attire, or temperament, the current Lyon is quite different from before, and is vastly different from the "little pervert who peeked at Frederica taking a bath" that Old Huangniu remembered.

Although his appearance and demeanor had changed quite a bit, he was still a person after all. After trying to recognize him for a while, the old ox still mooed twice with some doubt.

You...you say you're Lyon, so what proof do you have?

"As for evidence... wait a minute."

After thinking for a moment, Leon searched around the house in his dream and then pulled out a thin, hand-twisted hemp rope from a crack about the thickness of a thumb on the side of the wardrobe. He then smiled and asked:
Does this count as evidence?

Ah! So that's where it was hidden!

Looking at the cigarette box hanging from the thin hemp rope, a clear look of surprise appeared in the old ox's eyes. Then, it looked at Lyon suspiciously and mooed for a while.

What have you been up to these past two months? You've changed so much! You look like a completely different person.
Because it's just a "different person".

Faced with the old ox's question, Leon smiled but didn't answer. Instead, he asked in return:

"Where's Frederica? When did she leave?"

"Moo... Moo moo? (She just left... How did you know she left?)"

"I guessed it."

After opening the cigarette box and picking through the cigarettes, Leon selected the best-looking one, rubbed one end of the cigarette to light it, and then handed it to the old ox.

“Let’s talk as we walk… Where did Frederica go during the two and a half months I was gone? Could you take me to see her?”

"Moo~~~ (Go~~~)"

After sticking the cigarette into his mouth with his tongue, the old ox, his nicotine craving relieved, nodded with a look of bliss, then hummed and led Lyon up the mountain.

"Moo moo moo?"

"Why did I leave so suddenly...? Was I invited to a banquet outside?"

"Moo?"

"Whether it's delicious or not... it's hard to describe the exact taste. You could say it's as delicious as a dream?"

"Moo!"

"What should I bring you? Aren't you supposed to eat grass?"

During their casual conversation, Leon followed the old ox and climbed step by step to the top of the sacred mountain. Guided by the old ox, he bypassed the pterosaur colony that inhabited the mountaintop and stopped beside a cliff.

"Moo, moo moo (This is the furthest we can go; only the Saintess can proceed beyond this point)"

After leading Lyon to the edge of the cliff, the old ox bellowed for a while towards the sheer cliff face, indicating that there was no way for the two of them to walk there anymore. Only the saintess of each generation could walk out of the cliff and go to the true deepest part of the holy land.

Is it only the saintess who can go?
Looking at the misty cliff in front of him, Leon pondered for a moment, then his figure suddenly became slightly shaky, and in the old ox's almost bulging eyes, he transformed into Frederica.

"Moo moo moo?!?"

"What do you mean by perverted? I'm just... imitating! Do you understand imitation?"

After glaring at the old ox who was talking nonsense, Leon, who had temporarily created a dream called "Frederica," tried to gather his will and become a "suit" man. Using Frederica's appearance, he attempted to take a step over the cliff.

This dreamlike sanctuary, "replicated" from Frederica's memories, doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between real and fake like a true sanctuary. The clouds outside the cliff only hesitated for a moment before forming jade-like steps at "Frederica's" feet, leading deeper into the sanctuary.

What the hell!!!
Seeing that she had suddenly transformed into Frederica and then stepped onto the cloud-shrouded steps towards Lyon deep within the holy land, the old ox wanted to chase after her and stop her, but dared not follow her onto the cloud-shrouded steps. He could only anxiously circle around the edge of the cliff.

After Lyon's figure disappeared into the clouds, feeling like a ox that had caused trouble, he stomped his hooves and turned to head towards the village at the foot of the mountain, bellowing as he rushed back.

I guess they went to call for help... But it doesn't really matter, it's just a dream copied from my memories anyway.

After glancing at the old ox that was galloping wildly, Leon turned his head back and continued walking into the depths of the clouds, still disguised as Frederica.

……

Because she had always felt that Frederica was unreliable, she had used the Root Flower to enhance her Heart Lake authority several times, but she still couldn't see through her disguise. The only one capable of doing so could be the Root Essence, which was even more "condensed" than the Root Flower. Therefore, if Ivangeline's memories were correct, and if Number 1 was currently the only Root survivor possessing the Root Essence, then Frederica must be Number 1's person.

Furthermore, given her ability to "snatch food from the tiger's mouth" and secretly take away 25% of the dream source from herself and the Dream Master, there is a greater than 90% chance that she is the original No. 1.

But if Frederica is indeed number 1, then many things conflict. For one thing, the timing doesn't match up.

Her identity as a "remnant of the old land" doesn't seem fake, but the Four Pillars Gods, driven by Number 1, attacked the original humans, and her branch voluntarily separated, pursuing hope deep into the old land, becoming the current remnants of the old land. The chronological order is completely wrong.

Secondly, there is the issue of "race". According to Evangeline, all the Root Remnants are destined to be born from different races, and the "slot" for the human race has already been taken by William. Therefore, even if Number 1 is not born from the "god" she imagined, he should definitely not be human.

As for himself, who knows almost nothing about Number 1, he can only hope to find the answers to these two questions in this dream that is based on her memories and replicated as realistically as possible.

Driven by a desire to find out more, Leon continued to descend the steps formed by the mist, still disguised as "Frederica," until he finally entered a dark canyon.

The cliffs on both sides of the canyon are high and close inward, their tops swallowed by thick white mist, leaving only steep rock walls that seem about to collapse inward, forming a secluded canyon that stretches into the depths without end.

The lower cliffs on both sides are covered with green moss and countless overlapping ring-shaped carvings. The carvings are vaguely recognizable as a kind of writing, but they do not seem to follow a fixed writing pattern. Instead, they are scattered like stars in the sky, in circles here and there.

Good news! There are actually records in this holy site, and they might even contain the answers to those two questions.

Reaching the nearest rock face, Frederick...Ang frowned slightly, revealing a somewhat helpless expression.

Bad news, I don't recognize what's written on this... It feels like this script was probably lost many years ago.

After struggling to decipher the circular writing on the rock face for a long time without being able to make out its meaning, Leon had no choice but to temporarily abandon his plan to read the records and instead headed deeper into the canyon.

As he ventured deeper, the rock walls on both sides of the canyon became increasingly steep and gradually tightened with a suffocating aura, while the ring-shaped "words" on both sides of the cliff became increasingly menacing.

The circular characters, whose meaning was unclear, gradually changed from regular and neat arcs into "ratchets" full of thorns and barbs. Their positions also gradually moved closer together, like gears meshing together densely.

As Lyon ventured deeper into the area, the circular inscriptions carved on the walls began to rotate slowly and visibly, shrouded in white mist. With each step Lyon took forward, the surrounding rings would rotate about half a circle clockwise, and they seemed to be accelerating.

When Leon reached the end of the canyon, he found a carving knife stuck in the center of the rock wall. When he stood in a circle covered in blood, the circular text on the rock walls on both sides started spinning wildly, leaving behind blurry afterimages.

As Lyon reached out and touched the carving knife on the rock wall, grasping its white-yellow bone handle, the afterimages on the rock wall all merged into one, transforming into a clear image that pierced through the wall, like a slideshow on some spiritual level, directly projecting into the depths of Lyon's soul.

It seems that these rings are not ideographic "writing" but rather a kind of spiritual "image," a writing system exclusive to human ancestors who could communicate through the spirit.

Looking at the girl in the white dress reflected in his mind, Leon vaguely understood how to "read" the words on both sides. He then tentatively rotated half a circle counterclockwise around himself in front of the blood-stained ring in front of the carving knife.

As Leon moved, the white-dressed girl reflected in his soul seemed to reverse time, spinning back towards the entrance of the canyon, and finally disappearing into the clouds.

This thing actually needs to be rotated to view... and it seems like it can also be "rewound"?
After twisting his body back into place and recreating the white-dressed girl who looked seven-tenths like Frederica, Leon followed her steps, walking back in rather abstract movements.

As Lyon began to spin in circles, the circular text on the walls on both sides immediately began to "flow," piecing together clear scenes that strangely entered Lyon's mind.

Hope is the lighthouse hidden in our hearts, guiding voyages toward their ultimate mission; will is the anchor that spans time; and exchange will bring back revelations from the future.

As two proverbs suddenly flooded his mind, the world in Leon's eyes blurred. One after another, girls in white dresses, who looked similar to Frederica but were somewhat different, walked into the valley with expressions of excitement, hesitation, fear, or elation.

These white-dressed girls, whose appearances were always remarkably similar, regardless of their previous expressions, would eventually pick up the deepest carving knife after walking with strange steps into the depths of the valley. They would then forcefully plunge their hands into their hearts and collapse onto the open ground deliberately left in front of the carving knife.

So that's how those bloodstains came about?

Looking at the "corpses" falling with blood flowing from their chests, and recalling the circle in front of the carving knife covered in dried blood, Leon couldn't help but frown.

However, at that moment, in countless identical scenes, the stone walls with their varying circular inscriptions lit up almost simultaneously.

Attracted by some strange force, the densely packed circular characters surged wildly toward the handle of the carving knife, and flowed into the hearts of the girls in white dresses through the wound. Finally, they spewed out again from the blood-stained rings beneath them, scattering chaotically back onto the original stone wall.

After this process is over, the white-skirted girls who "died" on the ground with chest injuries will wake up again with somewhat blank eyes, sit in the same spot for a while, and then turn around and leave with different expressions.

After they staggered away from the canyon, a new ring would appear in the blood-stained ring, carrying the image of the girl in the white dress "committing suicide" to the nearest cliff, becoming one of the countless rings.

So each ring on the cliff face represents a white-dressed girl who has "died and come back to life"?

Following in the footsteps of the girls in white dresses, Leon returned to the entrance of the canyon, completely bewildered. He pondered for a long time but still couldn't figure out what they were doing.

Completely baffled, Leon returned to the deepest part of the canyon and, following the countless images he had just seen, searched among the densely packed rings on both sides of the cliff, eventually finding the ring that belonged to Frederica.

"Buzz!"

It seems that because Leon has found the knack for "reading" this kind of text, after Leon tried to reach out and touch it, the ring belonging to Frederica responded directly this time, unfolding a clear picture again.

To Lyon's astonishment, the image displayed by the "Lotus Ring" did not disappear after Frederica left the canyon, but instead continued to move towards the "future".

In the video, Frederica tightly purses her lips, clutching her still-bleeding heart as she walks down the mountain, seemingly wanting to return to the small village located halfway up the sacred mountain.

But when Frederica reached the mountainside, the blood flowing from her chest had completely stained her white dress red. So she hesitated for a moment, then turned around and walked towards the pool on the other side.

However, just as she took off her white dress and jumped into the pool to wash away the bloodstains on her chest and was about to get ashore, a figure that Lyon knew all too well rolled down the steep hillside amidst the gloating mooing of the old ox, and finally fell into the cold pool with a splash.

"..."

Damn! So this has to do with me?

　Two-in-one... Or 2...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)