I, the leader of the esoteric sect, am doing great things in the infinite world!

Li Lin's Oripathy is like a dormant volcano. As long as he doesn't use secret techniques or invisible magic, his lifespan will not be shortened, and the degree of Oripathy infection will remain stagnant.

Once the safe number of attempts is exceeded, his lifespan will be shortened, and his life limit will also be reduced.

Both involve casting a skill, but while others consume their spiritual energy (mana), Li Lin not only burns his health bar, but more importantly, he burns his maximum health bar.

It's like guiding someone; the product gets smaller the more you guide it.

Li Lin turned his gaze back to the dark green desktop. Several new cards had appeared on the previously empty desktop. He had gained something from his first visit to Dreamland yesterday.

First is the woodland. As the darkness surrounding the Mansor, the woodland is the first barrier for all those who enter the Mansor. The vast majority of unfortunate people get lost in the woodland, their souls and spirits either wrapped in the roots of darkness or become food for the alien species.

Only a few learned or fortunate individuals are able to traverse the darkness of the woodland and delve into a fraction of the truth of Mansour, and without exception, these individuals have etched the path back to the woodland into their spiritual bodies.

Some memories are sketches of dreams, but others cross the boundaries of dreams and reach the woodlands and the houses there.

It was a bright green card with a faintly glowing circle in the very center. Within the circle grew an abstract pine tree, composed only of lines and triangles, yet it trembled slightly with remarkable realism.

That was the scene in a corner of the woodland, what Li Lin saw in his dream: dark and verdant trees casting deep shadows under the pale moonlight.

[Roads: Woodland]

Sleepless nights, I listen intently. A gentle breeze whispers through the branches. Houses, lost in their own dreams, howl loudly. This is the path traversed by chaos.

I have learned the path to the woodland—that darkness that grows around the walls of the forest. I can return to the woodland through dreams.

If I had enough passion, I could walk the dreamlike path to the woods. If I had the right knowledge, I might find a way further to other places.

Considering that Li Lin acted rudely in the woods yesterday, ambushing and beating an old alien species whose age was unknown, and openly mocking the gods of the woods, he probably shouldn't go to the woods for quite some time.

This day trip to the woodland also generated new income, a new first-order influence of the moth phase.

When using the Secret Technique to cast Invisibility, adding the correct influence can not only reduce the cost of casting the Secret Technique but also increase the effect of Invisibility.

Coincidentally, Li Lin also had a brand new copy of the Secret Manual of Moth Appearance, "Mottled Mimicry".

The process of experimenting with the new secret technique can be discussed later; Li Lin focused his attention on another card.

On the cobalt blue card surface, clouds float like veils, while in the very center stands a towering mountain peak, with the ruins of a collapsed temple atop its flat summit.

Everything was made of abstract lines, yet Li Lin recognized it at a glance—it was the place where they had gathered yesterday.

[Road: A Desolate Sanctuary]

Here, weeds grow rampant. Once, some praised the secret of the radiance here. Times changed, the sun split, but the secret itself remained unchanged.

[Characteristic: Location. Everything has its place, and this thing is here. This place is located somewhere on the edge of Manjusaka, surrounded by a night mist of the same color. Without the permission of the sanctuary's master, outsiders can only lose themselves in the downward dream.]

[Characteristic: Secrecy. This location is extremely difficult to spot; using it as a headquarters will cause one's reputation to vanish at regular intervals.]

[Characteristic: Sanctuary. A place for meditation and finding peace. Using this place as your headquarters can protect you from madness.]

[Currently owned by: Abraham Leyen.]

[Using it to enter a dream allows you to quickly return to the headquarters in the Mansor. You can also try to recruit acquaintances or believers, but the first mark can only contain a maximum of seven people.]

Li Lin suddenly realized that it was just like a chat group having a maximum number of members; you couldn't increase the maximum number of members without spending money.

"But crazy..."

Li Lin suddenly remembered the trouble he had caused Talulah to go crazy: Dark Night Horror. He opened Xiaolongnu's card for a closer look and found that the madness in the lower right corner of her card had disappeared, and her personal status was marked with the words "Promotion Available".

If you gather the right influence, artifact, secret technique, and appropriate ritual, Talulah can successfully advance to the second mark.

The rituals and secret techniques are easy to arrange, but where can she find suitable artifacts and influences in the mysterious and scarce world of Arknights?

Li Lin completely forgot that even in his most destitute state, he was still a rising star in the Reunion Movement. And over the long course of time, Terra had developed a number of items with unique effects, which were worlds apart from him, this intermittently ill, amnesiac, and foul-mouthed troublemaker.

The sun had already risen, and its still-chilly light pierced through the clouds, dispelling the lingering coldness on the long street. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door downstairs.

Li Lin scratched his head, put on his pants, and walked down the escalator to open the door.

Outside the door stood a middle-aged woman with an anxious expression. When Li Lin opened the door, she was still in the act of knocking. After Li Lin opened the door, she walked in without any politeness.

"You're the hunter?"

They appear to be visitors from the civilized world.

Li Lin flipped through the few remaining notes of the Key Hunter, which recorded some of his experiences. He learned that although he was frantically pursuing the unrealistic key that could open the door to the Manor and allow people's flesh and soul to fully enter the Manor, he would also often take on other commissions to make a living.

These commissions come from both the civilized world and the mystical world, and what distinguishes them is the way the visitors address them.

56 Press f

Their titles determine their status.

If they are "key hunters," it means they are connected to the mysterious world; if they are merely "hunters," then it is just a case in the civilized world.

Upon seeing Li Lin, the middle-aged woman relaxed slightly; Li Lin's composed and handsome appearance gave her a great deal of confidence.

"Please have a seat." Li Lin gestured for her to sit on the sofa in the center of the living room. "Coffee or black tea?"

"Coffee, thank you." The middle-aged woman forced a smile. "No sugar needed, I'd like it quick..."

"Madam, please calm down." Li Lin got up and brought two glasses of water, placing one in front of him and the other in front of him as well.

"Didn't you mean coffee...?" The middle-aged woman looked at Li Lin in surprise.

Li Lin picked up the glass of water on the left and drank it all in one gulp: "Making coffee takes time, and I'm afraid your anxiety won't last that long."

The middle-aged woman suddenly realized what was going on and secretly felt convinced and grateful to Li Lin, completely unaware that Li Lin had simply lied about not knowing how to make coffee.

When a new customer arrived, Li Lin, who was temporarily no longer having an attack, sat opposite the middle-aged woman, his fingers interlaced on his crossed knees. His eyes, behind his black-rimmed glasses, were deep and dark, indicating that the client could now state her request.

"Okay, okay."

The middle-aged woman calmed her thoughts. At first, her narration was fragmented and disjointed, but it quickly became fluent.

"...At first, handprints were found on the window of one apartment, then severed fingers were found in their closet, and blood was flowing from the sink. The family quickly moved out of the apartment, but a week later, the bodies of the entire family were found in their old room."

Li Lin did not comment on this, but simply picked up another glass of water and took a sip.

"Then the residents across the street from me experienced the same thing. Just yesterday, when I turned on the tap, I found that instead of clean water, what came out was... what came out was..."

The middle-aged woman's voice gradually choked up, and she began to tremble all over. It was clear that she remembered the tragic scene of the entire family who had died suddenly.

"What did the Vienna police say?" Li Lin wasn't trying to shirk responsibility. He knew that the middle-aged woman had come to him because she had encountered a supernatural event that the police couldn't solve. And after their meeting yesterday, Li Lin knew that there were at least two level-two superhumans in the Vienna police force.

It could be even higher, since there can be many first-level sheriffs.

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged woman's face showed a typical look of disappointment: "They didn't say anything. They just came once and said that everything was a problem with the sewer pipes, and that the reason the whole family died was because they ate an excessive amount of poisonous mushrooms and died from hallucinations."

"Red umbrella, white pole, after eating the whole family, they lie flat on the board."

"What?" The middle-aged woman didn't hear Li Lin's humming clearly.

"It's nothing." Li Lin coughed. Since the Vienna police hadn't found anything unusual, there was probably no mystery involved. "How much are you willing to pay for this job?"

The middle-aged woman gritted her teeth: "Ten pounds."

During World War I, Britain briefly abandoned the gold standard, but this was because the war caused the gold standard to collapse, and the exchange of gold coins was stopped. After the war, the pound sterling returned to the gold bullion standard.

This is an incomplete gold standard system, characterized by the fact that gold coins no longer circulate domestically, and only banknotes with a certain gold content are issued, with a minimum amount required to exchange these banknotes for gold bullion.

Therefore, in the 1920s, the pound sterling remained pegged to gold with limitations. As the legal tender circulating in continental Europe, it still enjoyed the prestigious title of "gold pound." One pound sterling contained approximately 7.32238 grams of pure gold, equivalent to 20 shillings or 240 pence, roughly equivalent to $5 at the time, or 10 silver coins with dragon designs from the Ming Dynasty.

Ten pounds is a considerable sum, even for a civil servant family whose annual income is only around four hundred pounds.

Converted to modern prices, 1 pound has the purchasing power of nearly 2000 RMB, and 10 pounds is close to 20,000 RMB. Even if we take into account the post-World War I world context and halve the purchasing power, it is still around 10,000 RMB.

In that era, a tailor's annual income from hard work was only 16 pounds.

Of course, Li Lin didn't know any of this. The Key Hunter's notes wouldn't include such common sense. He just compared it with the check Dickens had written and was certain that it was a generous reward.

Even if it's just for the money, he has to make the trip.

Li Lin excused himself to go to the restroom, took out a crowbar, and held it in his hand. A moment later, he put on a brown trench coat and a gray woolen beret, which made the middle-aged woman's eyes sparkle.

“I think we should go. The sooner we deal with this, the more at ease you will be, and the more I can get my payment. Every minute that passes is a loss of sixty seconds. Time is money, and money is life.”

Li Lin's excuse was so perfect that it was impeccable. Ever since his trip to Mansu, he felt much lighter.

The middle-aged woman's apartment was at 54 Ward Street, a block away. It was a relatively upscale apartment building, where most of the residents were respectable lawyers, doctors, or government officials. When Li Lin saw the street sign not far from the apartment, the middle-aged woman's body began to tremble violently.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."

She whimpered softly, "Why did this happen...the Sirius family—"

At the entrance of the apartment building, the entire Sirius family—the middle-aged woman's neighbors—was carried out of the building and neatly laid into a black coffin specially made by the church. Besides the priests and clergy dressed in solemn black robes and holding rosaries, there were also several serious-looking police officers in uniform.

Li Lin reacted quickly and caught the middle-aged woman's handbag, which she dropped in fear.

The police officers standing next to the priest, their faces serious, all turned their gazes toward Li Lin and the middle-aged woman. One of the officers quickly walked toward the middle-aged woman.

“Hello, Mrs. Boris.” The unfamiliar police officer glanced at Li Lin. “We still have your previous police report; you don’t appear to have been present at the scene this time…”

"What do you mean?" A middle-aged man with brown hair and a receding hairline rushed up from behind, glanced at Li Lin warily, then stood in front of his wife, his expression stern. "Are you trying to say that we killed the Sirius family? This is baseless slander!"

“That’s not what I meant.” The policeman waved his hand and turned his gaze back to Li Lin. “Then who is this? He seemed to be with your wife just now.”

Upon hearing this, Boris cast a suspicious and dangerous glance at Li Lin.

"Hey, you guys can argue all you want, but why are you looking at me like that?" Li Lin retorted stubbornly, "I have no interest in driving tanks."

The translation module faithfully translated Li Lin's meaning to everyone present. The policeman looked at Li Lin's face, then glanced at the still-shaken Mrs. Boris, and nodded involuntarily.

"Makes sense."