The three of them looked at each other.
Silent and speechless.
"What... what is happening?" Heavy Cannon couldn't believe it.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept the outcome, he had only expected Jiang Lu to be capable of achieving the extent of a last-minute effort, hoping there would be no more tricks.
But in the blink of an eye, had Jiang Lu succeeded?
Could it really be that having high charm allowed one to do whatever they wanted?
"I don't know either." Ghostface Fox shook his head blankly, "Either our experiences and conjectures are off, or he is the one that's off."
Ghostface Fox was also filled with mixed feelings, not expecting that Jiang Lu turned out to be the most reliable one among them.
No wonder he acted so nonchalant yesterday after doing something so unconventional, so this was why?
A person can slack off and mess around, but they can't truly be incompetent, perhaps that's the principle...
Willow Blade still wore an expressionless face, but couldn't hide the shock in his eyes.
"Anyway, we'll know when he comes back."
...
As soon as Jiang Lu confirmed that Haimer had disappeared from the interrogation room, he immediately returned to the archives.
Reopening the records, he indeed found an additional entry regarding Haimer's case.
[8.13; 13:41] [Prisoner No. 09527 entered heaven]
But before that, there was no new record of incarceration.
"So it's true." Jiang Lu was overjoyed, "It was the warden who substituted for the prisoner to enter the detention area and then somehow let the prisoner enter heaven!"
Then the problem arose again.
What exactly was this route?
It was time to take a look upstairs... Jiang Lu put down the records and stepped toward the door.
"Lost souls... repentance and redemption... lost souls... repentance and redemption..."
...
"Messenger, it's time to fulfill your promise."
Jiang Lu looked at the dumbfounded messenger with a smile brimming in his eyes.
"How could it be so fast? What did you do?"
Seeing the messenger's reaction, Jiang Lu's smile gradually faded, and he tilted his head to ask, "You don't know?"
The messenger frowned slightly, "How could I possibly know?"
"I should have thought of this, so stupid." Jiang Lu realized something, speaking subtly and ambiguously, "Well then, take me upstairs, I should meet your superior."
The messenger was taken aback, then gave Jiang Lu a profound look, "I only have one superior."
"I know, the God of Redemption," Jiang Lu waved his hand nonchalantly, "Whatever deity it is, anyway, it's about time."
After a long silence, the messenger finally relented.
She stood up, and then walked outside the office. Jiang Lu turned sideways by the door, making room for her to pass.
"Follow me."
They had just walked a few steps when the messenger's body went limp, then she suddenly turned around, "Don't play with my wings."
"Ah, sorry, they were fluttering in front of me, it was hard to resist." Jiang Lu apologized earnestly, sighing as he withdrew his hand.
The messenger glared at him fiercely before continuing into the darkness.
After a long and silent period, the two on foot finally arrived at a spiral staircase carved out of stone.
Using the map provided by the warden's robe, Jiang Lu recognized this as the junction between the upper and middle layers of the Black Tower, the only passageway connecting the two.
"I'll explore this area another time~"
At the sound of the voice sweet as a young girl's, the messenger was startled, looking around, "Who? Who's talking?!"
But besides Jiang Lu, there was no one else.
"It's called ventriloquism." Jiang Lu coughed twice, changing his vocal tract, his face lofty, "Impressive, isn't it, your 'brother' Jiang?"
The messenger, finally understanding what had happened, darkened her face, but ultimately said nothing.
"Don't do that again."
Seeing her reaction, Jiang Lu twisted his mouth.
A favorability of 100 really does let you do whatever you want!
However, after stepping onto the stone steps for a while, Jiang Lu suddenly couldn't laugh anymore.
For some reason, his body started feeling strange.
Arms, so itchy!
At first, a scratch through his clothes was enough to alleviate the itch, but gradually, he realized the itching was intensifying.
Upon rolling up his sleeve, he saw his arm was covered in red rashes!
The few spots he had scratched at the beginning were starting to form nodules, as they turned from pink to a grayish white.
"You... you..."
Jiang Lu looked at the messenger in disbelief, shaking with fear, "You actually..."
The messenger turned her head, saw the abnormality on Jiang Lu's left arm, and then said, "I already told you, there's a terrible curse in the upper levels, but no worries, as long as..."
She hadn't finished her sentence when she saw the horror on Jiang Lu's face had vanished without a trace.
She was suddenly confused.
I haven't even told him the solution yet, how could he...
"So it's just a curse, huh? You startled me. I thought you had an STD or something," Jiang Lu said, patting his chest in relief.
The messenger suddenly didn't feel like telling him there was a solution anymore.
After all, it couldn't be solved at that moment. It would wait until they met that personage.
They walked up the spiral staircase for a long time, until Jiang Lu began to feel sleepy, but lifting his head, he saw nothing but mist.
"How much longer?"
The curse had now spread from Jiang Lu's arm to his entire body, making him look like he had lupus erythematosus, but he himself didn't seem to be affected much.
"Your stamina is truly extraordinary," the messenger remarked earnestly.
"Is there a chance that I've blocked out my own senses?"
Jiang Lu scornfully said:
"You don't know what features your own issued overseer robes have?"
"..."
Finally, they arrived at the top of the spiral staircase.
At the end of the staircase stood a crystal door, flickering with the emerald light that signified healing and redemption.
It was nearly ten meters high and seven or eight meters wide.
Jiang Lu had reason to suspect that it housed the Hulk inside.
"Let me unlock," the messenger said, and then stepped forward to begin reciting an incantation in front of the crystal door.
Jiang Lu stood still, staring fixedly ahead.
By now, the curse on his body seemed to have become severe. If earlier it resembled lupus erythematosus, now it was like he was covered with burnt snail eggs.
So he didn't dare shift his gaze because he didn't want to see his own body, finding it disgusting.
The only odd thing was, his whole body was swollen except it seemed there were no changes under his trousers.
Should he… take a look?
Curious, Jiang Lu lifted his robe and pulled his trousers open a bit.
Then he breathed a sigh of relief.
The original parts were tough; completely unaffected!
Just then, the messenger successfully opened the door.
The next moment, a thick pink mist burst out of the door like a breached dam, swiftly enveloping both of them at the entrance.
While the messenger was unaffected, Jiang Lu turned into Patrick Star.
After what seemed an eternity, the pink mist finally nearly dissipated, but the vast space behind the door still had an eerie pink hue.
Once he could see the inside clearly, Jiang Lu discovered that it was a palace existing within a cave, as if it had been hollowed out from a giant crystal mountain.
Vast bracket sets, splendid murals, intricately carved beams and pillars, and inwardly rich white jade pedestals...
The palace's furnishings were in perfect harmony with the crystal rock.
However, the greenish crystal and the pink mist truly did not match; after all, there is an age-old saying that green and red are as ill-suited as dogs and farts.
"How ugly."
Jiang Lu, now swollen from the curse to the point of resembling Patrick Star, found it difficult even to speak, but he did not hesitate to express his aesthetic judgement.
But this time, the messenger ignored him, immediately kneeling on one knee and bowing her head toward the center of the palace.
"Master, he has arrived."
Jiang Lu focused his gaze and realized at the center there was a half-crystal statue of a woman.
The reason for saying 'half' was that while her lower body was a sculpture, her upper body was that of a living person.
She was hidden within the mist, seemingly too insignificant compared to the vastness and grandeur surrounding her, which is why Jiang Lu had failed to notice her at first.
"Come in."
A voice full of authority and solemnity echoed through the palace, as if proclaiming her sovereignty over this dark tower.