——In other words, this fog is not as strong as Pharaoh’s.
——That’s right, I remember that the Arabian bronze hand seemed to be a product after the first year of the Christian era.
——And Djoser was the pharaoh of the Third Dynasty of Egypt more than two thousand years BC.
The further into the Dharma Ending Age, the weaker the power of those with super powers becomes, and the weaker the souls left in the magic weapons become.
That's what I thought.
——Of course, I should have become stronger. So this kind of thing should be easy to deal with.
At this time, Masha felt a heat rising in his chest.
——This feeling... is it something they did? I guess Baiquan was in charge of giving me all kinds of medicine.
——Sure enough, Baiquan is a smart guy, and he is in sync with me, so he can definitely be the second in command.
With the support, Masha fired at the black fog with even more powerful mouth cannon.
Gradually, Masha began to feel something was wrong.
——I always feel like something is trying to enter my mind.
The moment Masha had this realization, it became visualized. He saw a large number of thin black threads that had wrapped around his hands and feet.
——You can’t defeat me with pure strength, so you’re trying to invade my mind?
——Come on, don’t you see how smart I am!
With one effort, Masha tore off a bunch of black threads.
But more black lines stretched out from the fog.
As Masha kept pulling, new black lines kept coming out.
——Play a protracted war!
Masha resumed his mouth cannon attack, while constantly pulling the black line to protect himself.
The fierce attack continued for a while, and Masha began to feel tired.
——Does this black fog want to drag me down?
——Without the five points of intelligence added by Jeanna's wine, it is indeed not as strong as before in mental confrontation.
Based on his previous experience of fighting against the Pharaoh, Masha judged that this black fog also had something as its core.
As long as you use your mouth to blast the core out and then swallow it, you should be able to win!
——Wait a minute!
Masha suddenly had an idea.
——The black line connected to my body should theoretically be connected to the core of the black fog, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to invade my mind, right?
——I had successfully devoured the Pharaoh’s soul fragments and obtained the Pharaoh’s memories. By the way, I learned some ancient Egyptian language and writing, and also obtained an entry.
——Although the entry has been idle until now, I did win the entry.
——Since I can devour the Pharaoh’s soul fragments, I should be able to devour this thing as well.
Masha made his decision almost immediately.
He opened his mind to the black mist that tried to invade his body.
——Come on! Let’s see who devours whom!
The black fog seemed to have misunderstood Masha's actions. It expanded itself and rushed towards Masha from all directions.
Masha allowed the black mist to devour him.
After a period of complete darkness, Masha's vision gradually returned and he found himself standing in an endless desert.
——This should be the memory of the previous owner of the Bronze Hand.
——It’s exactly the same as the time with Pharaoh Jocel!
As Masha thought about it, he turned his head and saw the majestic temple behind him.
He observed the temple carefully and felt that it was very similar to the architectural style of the ancient city of Petra where he had visited before.
Since there was no other place to "visit" around except the temple, Masha took a step forward and began to climb the steps of the temple.
After climbing the steps, he saw an old man sitting on the ground in the center of the temple.
The old man opened his eyes and looked at Masha.
He said, "Who are you? You are not on the causal line I see!"
"You can still see the line of cause and effect? Are you Tokiwa Sougo? Do you also want to become the supreme and benevolent demon king?" Masha asked three questions in succession.
Then he found that he was not speaking Chinese, but some unknown language.
——I see. I have already devoured at least a portion of the black mist and gained the ability to use this ancient language.
The old man stared at Masha, his face full of shock: "Who are you? According to the cause and effect line I saw, I should have been resurrected with a new body now!"
"You really want to take away my girl's body, so I have to jump out to stop you!" said Masha.
The old man was even more surprised: "Girl? Impossible! What I saw was not a girl!"
Masha thought about it and said with certainty, "It's a girl. I slept with her. She is a real girl."
Old man: "Impossible! My predictions have never been wrong!"
"You have the ability to predict the future!" Masha was delighted. "Great! I really need this ability. I've found a treasure this time! However, there is such a big problem with your prediction. It seems that this is not a very strong ability."
The old man stared at Masha and said, "It seems that my prediction is indeed wrong. I want to understand the situation. Excuse me, future visitor, do you know an organization called Shadow?"
"I am the boss of Shadow." Masha shrugged.
The old man looked thoughtful. "That is to say, this part of my prediction was not wrong... only the details have changed..."
"Maybe. I can't tell you. Why don't you tell me what kind of prediction you made? I'll see how big the gap is with reality."
Masha sat down directly in front of the old man.
He stared at the old man with an extremely sincere look.
Old man: "Before that, let me ask you something. You can't speak my language just because it still existed in your time, right?"
"I don't know if it exists, but I'm Chinese and I'm pretty sure I never spoke the language before."
Masha told the truth.
"China... could it be that mysterious country that produces silk, further east than Persia?"
"Yes, that country."
"...It seems that a part of my soul has been devoured by you." The old man came to the conclusion directly.
Masha speculated that in the Dharma Ending Age, it was quite common to devour other people's souls and acquire their memories and skills, so the old man could come to this conclusion directly.
The old man continued, “I don’t know if this skill has been improved in your time, but in my time, by devouring souls, I cannot obtain the complete memories of the devoured, I can only obtain some fragments.
"I can choose to remain silent and take the truth to the grave, but I am very interested in the history that has changed. Come, tell me about the current situation, in exchange, I will tell you my prophecy..."
Masha was about to speak, but suddenly stopped.
—Wait a minute, this isn't right.
——Why do I feel like this guy is trying to trick me?
Masha couldn't help but recall how he used the dream spinning top to trick other people into talking.
——This is a bit similar to what I did before!
——Based on my experience of using the Dream Gyroscope, there is only one way to verify my guess!
Masha focused his attention on his surroundings.
——If this is a dream, I want to regain control of it!
**
A handsome young man nicknamed "Sherlock Holmes" was sitting by the window of his attic, looking at the beautiful girl lying on the bed.
The boy nicknamed "Moriarty" stood next to him and also looked at the girl.
"It looks like everything is going well," said Moriarty. "But I don't know which level of cadres she has contacted. We gave up the opportunity to steal the Arab Bronze Hand in vain and set up this situation.
"That bronze hand, if the record in the Addington Atlas is correct, should be a very powerful weapon. You are really willing to use it as a medium."
"Sherlock Holmes" smiled and said, "There is an old Chinese saying that you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb. Besides, our supporters should also want to find out the truth of the shadow. If you use this reason to convince them, they will accept it."
"Last time when Notre Dame was burned, you also said that they would accept it, but in the end you were severely scolded, right?" Moriarty sighed, "It was Watson and I who had to appease those old men."
Holmes shrugged.
"Moriarty" looked helpless and turned his gaze to the girl on the bed.
"Is she sweating a little too much? Could something be wrong? Should we wake her up?" "Moriarty" asked three questions in a row.
"Don't worry. In dreams, Boule de Suif is invincible. Unless the opponent is also good at manipulating dreams, or has had the experience of having dreams invaded, no one can resist her ability.
“Most people barely realize they are in a dream and are completely fooled by her.
"She's sweating a lot right now, probably because the opponent's defense is more difficult to break through."
Despite what Holmes said, Moriarty was still worried: "Has she ever sweated so much before?"
"Yes, of course. When she invaded that SSS-level... the one codenamed 'Forest Witch', she was sweating like rain, her pillow was soaked, and she almost fainted in the end."
Holmes replied calmly.
"This little bit of sweat now is nothing compared to that time."
Moriarty frowned, "That would be great. But the other party is Shadow. I always thought we were the largest and most powerful secret society in the world, but we didn't realize Shadow's existence at all.
“Even the old men seemed to be caught off guard by the shadow that suddenly appeared.
"Maybe Ying can handle this kind of 'attack'. To be on the safe side, let's wake her up."
"Moriarty" was about to step forward after saying this, but was stopped by "Holmes".
"When she starts sweating as much as last time, we'll wake her up."
"Moriarty" hesitated to speak, but finally agreed with "Holmes's" approach.
The two continued to focus on the girl sleeping in the bed.
**
In a dream.
Marsha was also standing in the attic, looking at "Holmes" and "Moriarty". Of course, Marsha didn't know their nicknames yet.
Masha used his previous experience in manipulating dreams to modify the dream.
Of course, he had never seen the two people in front of him, nor had he ever visited this attic. These were all things that Masha naturally guided out from the memories of the other "owner" of this dream through his experience in controlling dreams.
The other party probably never thought about being the host, so he was not prepared at all.
The girl on the bed woke up. For the girl, she had just obtained a lot of information through her dream and successfully woke up from the dream.
Everything seems to be a natural continuation of reality.
Masha waited, intending to see how much the girl had learned.
The girl stretched and began to report to the two people in front of her bed.
Masha was in a dilemma because he couldn't understand French.
——Strange, why? Why could I just talk to the old man in my dream?
——Could it be that this girl also learned that ancient language from something left in Tong's hand?
——Or, do they have other magic weapons from the same civilization, and learned the language through those magic weapons?
——There is another possibility, that is, this girl already knows this ancient language.
——And then she somehow made me learn this language as well?
——There are too many things I don’t understand.
Masha observed the girl who was still chattering away.
——It’s not a good thing to go on like this. What if she really wakes up from her sleep and leaks some key information to these two guys? That would be terrible.
