Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 854: Chapter 98: The Mainland of Lies (Part 1)

Due to the “gas leak” that caused an explosion, the location of the ‘Flaming Red Lips’ Bar has turned into a dilapidated building—of course, that’s the official explanation.

The sky was somewhat gloomy. In the underground basement of the destroyed ‘Flaming Red Lips’ Bar, a few figures appeared.

Charlotte, Wolfgang, and Noah, who had his face covered by a hood.

When Wolfgang brought this friend to visit, Charlotte made a point to observe this person from the Transcender Organization. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see through the person’s true appearance.

All she knew was that this person’s name was Noah, and nothing else. To Charlotte, Noah’s existence was somewhat eerie—as if although the person stood in front of her, he was separated by countless worlds… an extreme sense of distance.

“What exactly did Lord Lucifer encounter…” Wolfgang examined the environment of the bar’s basement.

This is the first site where Lucifer’s power was vented, the place closest to bearing Lucifer’s power. Wolfgang picked up a piece of marble from the ground, and as soon as his fingers touched it, the entire marble fragment instantly turned to dust.

Wolfgang gave an exclamation, stood up, brushed off the dust from his palms, shook his head, and then looked towards Noah, “Noah?”

Noah nodded, then stepped past Wolfgang and Charlotte, into the basement after the great battle. He extended a jade-like hand from his robe, slightly spreading his fingers.

A uniquely bound book floated before Noah’s palm, quickly opening. At the same time, ripples began to emanate from beneath Noah’s feet. The ripples spread out, circle by circle, reaching the edges of the entire basement.

The entire environment of the basement began to change rapidly… restoring!

Broken stones, rotten sofas… all restored to their original state. Charlotte couldn’t help but exclaim, while Wolfgang said, “This isn’t restoring things, it’s just turning back time to before, the residual effect of time.”

That is, tracing back to what had happened, akin to a projection technique—but even so, it was enough to astonish Charlotte about Noah—without some grasp of the Time Law, it would naturally be impossible.

This guy, even within the Transcender Organization, might be quite an exceptional member, right?

So thinking, the basement had completely returned to its original state: bright, soft, luxurious, and filled with colors that enchanted Charlotte, filled with memories of her and Lucifer.

Suddenly, the basement door opened, revealing ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Charlotte’, both wearing red dresses, walking in.

They walked straight through the bodies of Wolfgang and the other two, finally coming to the center of the basement, discussing something.

The residual shadow of time!

At this moment, before the strength of Noah, Charlotte suddenly felt a sense of fear—if even time could be peeped into, then for this mysterious guy, what secrets does this world still hold?

Charlotte was inevitably tense—but the tension didn’t last long. In the impression of the time shadows, ‘Lucifer’ was taking out a page of document obtained from Wolfgang, discussing with ‘Charlotte’.

Charlotte inwardly exclaimed not good because she clearly remembered that Lucifer should have been discussing how to trick Wolfgang with her at this time—and now, the person in question was right here.

Charlotte couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Wolfgang, secretly reaching behind her back—however, at this moment, Noah suddenly waved his hand, and the strange book before his palm instantly flipped a page.

The time shadow before them, like a fast-forwarded film, skipped much of the content, moving to a few seconds before ‘Lucifer’s power erupted.

Charlotte couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief… whether Noah intentionally or merely intended to directly obtain the most vital information.

At this time, within the residual shadow of time.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you intend to target my prey, aren’t you planning to pay a little price?”

After ‘Lucifer’ said this, it was a scene from Charlotte’s memory… the great Queen of Hell, after this, directly spat blood, collapsing to the ground.

What followed was no different from Charlotte’s memory, ‘Lucifer’ began revealing a fraction of her true power. Next would be the contest between ‘Lucifer’ and those mysterious chains.

However, what made Charlotte feel incredible was that at this moment, the image within the time shadow differed somewhat from what had occurred…

‘Lucifer’ had disappeared, and those mysterious chains had vanished as well! Yet the basement was still undergoing intense destruction, ‘Charlotte’ too, impacted the wall due to some force!

“How could this be!” Charlotte couldn’t help but exclaim.

If one were to compare the time shadow before their eyes to a recorded videotape, then in this tape, the existence of ‘Lucifer’ and those chains seemed to have been directly edited out, turning the destruction into the bizarre image of ‘Charlotte’ suddenly hitting the wall!

Regarding such a bizarre image, Wolfgang frowned silently, while Noah waved his hand again, turning a page of that peculiar book.

The time shadow returned to before ‘Lucifer’ spat blood and collapsed, then continued to play sequentially.

Even on replay, in the subsequent image, the presence of ‘Lucifer’ still directly disappeared.

“Hmm?” Noah made a puzzled sound, once more rewinding the time shadow—but after several repeated operations, it still couldn’t change the fact that ‘Lucifer’ was erased.

“Hmm…” Finally, Noah closed his book, remaining silent.

“Noah?” Wolfgang waited for a moment, ultimately a bit impatient, “What exactly happened?”

Noah slowly said, “Someone erased this segment of reality… erased it from the temporal plane.”

“Divine Sanctuary? Who could it be?” Wolfgang suddenly became somewhat grave.

Time and space, even within the Transcender Organization, are quite precise and important topics, which most Transcendents cannot touch.

They call time and space Forbidden Areas.

The Time Forbidden Area, the Space Forbidden Area, and the Life Forbidden Area—these three collectively referred to as the Three Forbidden Areas, ultimately delineated into the realm of gods.

This is the true definition of gods, not those beings imaginable within human consciousness today.

“It’s not necessarily a true Divine Sanctuary.” Noah pondered, “For example, my Gem Sword can also achieve similar effects, but it’s used on slicing space. So, some unique secret treasures of origin might also be able to do it, or even individuals inherently possessing time power might manage it.”

“Could the chains Charlotte mentioned be such a secret treasure of origin?” Wolfgang spoke solemnly at this moment.

However, Noah only gave a shaking head in reply, “Throughout history, I’ve never encountered chains capable of manipulating time… Any trace of Lucifer here has been erased, this isn’t something an amateur of the Time Forbidden Area could achieve.”

“So, it’s impossible to find Lucifer, is that it?” Charlotte wasn’t in the mood to care about these things, just concerned about Lucifer’s whereabouts, her tone carrying some dissatisfaction— wasn’t Wolfgang capable of amazing things, and yet ultimately remains clueless?

“Let’s leave here first.” Noah unexpectedly waved his hand.

Wolfgang realized something… Transcendents are constantly monitored by the will of the world, and although they used special methods to exempt themselves from the gaze of the world’s will for a short period, it’s not a long-term solution.

Especially if Transcenders use their power within the main world, it greatly reduces the exemption time, so the time Transcenders can act with their own power in the main world is very brief.

This time, Noah directly used the power of the “Book of Void” to leave a time imprint, probably having provoked the reaction of the world’s consciousness…

Wolfgang quickly nodded, then he and Noah rapidly fled from that place, not even bothering to say goodbye to Charlotte.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Charlotte was bewildered by the sudden departure of the two, standing in place dumbfounded.

Wolfgang’s voice called from afar, “Miss Charlotte, don’t worry, we’ll come to find you again soon.”

“What the …?” Charlotte found herself speechless — these Transcendents are completely unreliable, not even as effective as her own divination techniques!

Charlotte sighed and got out her crystal ball.

Just then, a burly man wearing a wrestling mask walked quickly from the ruins to stand before Charlotte, lowering his head: “Lady Charlotte, I still haven’t found my brother and Qiqi, they have also disappeared…”

“What?”

The other wrestling mask-wearing strongman and the three-headed dog Qiqi had been sent by Charlotte not long ago to search for a missing Three-Star Demon, but surprisingly, they too lost their tracks upon arrival — this made Charlotte feel the severity of the situation.

With Queen Lucifer missing and her demons disappearing one after another, Charlotte suddenly felt as if something was manipulating from within the darkness.

Charlotte gritted her teeth and suddenly declared, “Summon all the demons back, tonight I will perform a blood ritual… I will use the Great Divination Technique!”

The wrestling mask-wearing brother froze, opened his mouth, but dared not defy Charlotte’s orders, and could only leave quickly.

The so-called blood ritual uses the life of demons as offerings to greatly enhance the accuracy of divination, though it’s uncertain… whether the Great Divination Technique can compete against Lady Charlotte’s innate “Guiding Light” attribute.

“It feels like there’s an abyss ahead…”

The wrestling mask-wearing brother sighed and started gathering the demons hidden in the city.

…

…

The sound of water from the shower head overshadowed the speaking voices.

Inside the dormitory’s bathroom in room 403, Arno was on a call with Boston; due to university exams these few days, and needing to constantly observe Caroline, Arno hadn’t switched identities with Harry — but he couldn’t ignore the Boston Gang.

Arno knew very well what kind of people were in the Boston Gang: they were impulsive, not too bright, and prone to mistakes.

Arno didn’t want to see his efforts wasted due to the momentary laxity of these guys.

Currently, Arno had ordered the Boston Gang to do two things. The first was to temporarily stabilize the bath salt sales, letting those powerful bigshots mutually check and destroy each other, while they temporarily lay low waiting for an opportunity — in fact, Arno was already considering whether to fabricate some conflicts among these bigshots to speed up their depletion of power.

The other task was to follow Lawyer Carlo’s lead. Because there was significant wealth involved in high-end apartment sales on this side, Lawyer Carlo planned to swindle away Nia’s lifesaving money, while Arno intended to conduct black-for-black and swallow it whole.

“In these past few days, Lawyer Carlo has visited numerous places and met many people. Judging by the situations, the property sales should be wrapping up soon.”

The person reporting to Arno was ‘Big Cousin’ sent to follow Lawyer Carlo.

Arno nodded satisfactorily, then gave ‘Big Cousin’ a couple more meticulous instructions before calling Boston to inquire about Harry’s current situation.

Upon learning that Harry’s emotions have become increasingly unstable these days, Arno said nothing — Harry had violent tendencies, or he wouldn’t have accidentally killed their father back then.

In fact, Harry’s episodes occurred periodically, so as long as he was confined for a while to let his frenzy quiet down, it’d be fine.

Arno recalled stabbing Harry’s palm with a knife last time in the classroom, triggering unpleasant memories from the past, which had a massive impact, meaning it wasn’t odd he would need some time for recovery.

Thus, he said to Boston over the phone: “Keep him locked up, it’s not the first time, wait until he calms down then talk.”

Boston on the other end casually agreed, then suddenly asked: “Boss, are we really not selling drugs lately? The brothers have spent a lot recently, the leftover cash is near exhaustion, maybe you could…”

“I said, don’t sell for now.” Arno frowned, understanding the need to control Boston’s people, a balance of pressure was required, and so promised, “I got it, later I’ll transfer fifty thousand over, you distribute among the brothers. Spend wisely, once we get through this period, we won’t have to worry later, patience is key to success.”

“Understood, Boss Arno.” Big Brother Boston answered weakly.

After a couple more brief instructions, Arno closed the call. He then started cleansing himself and stepped out of the bathroom.

At that moment, Caroline stood before the table holding an apple pie just out from the microwave, and laughed seeing Arno emerge: “I followed the recipe for this, not sure how it tastes, could you come try it?”

Seeing the flour still stuck on Caroline’s nose, Arno laughed and walked over, “Sure.”

Watching Caroline cut the apple pie with a knife, Arno narrowed his eyes — unclear on what transpired between Harry and Caroline while impersonating him, but evidently, Caroline held certain affection towards the identity ‘Arno.’

It might be temporary feelings formed during rough times or maneuvers Caroline applied to gain better support — women always favor emotional ties to bind men.

Regardless of which, Caroline now seemed reliant on the identity ‘Arno’… thinking this, Arno picked up a tissue and gently pat her shoulder.

Startled, Caroline watched as Arno carefully wiped the flour off her nose with the tissue.

Suddenly the campus broadcast announced a notice that an exam scheduled for tomorrow would be postponed for a day, replaced by a memorial event at the auditorium.

Unfazed by the exam’s abrupt cancellation, Arno raised a brow, for Harry’s instability coupled with unfinished business extracting desired information from Caroline rendered his urgency mute.

Whereas Caroline was clearly taken aback.

Because she heard the broadcast mention the memorial honoring… Dr. Ferenc.

The elderly gentleman who exchanged woeful tales by the artificial lake… was already deceased?

“Caroline, what’s wrong?” Arno observed Caroline’s response, curiously inquiring.

Caroline shook her head, “Say, is this your college? I recall one of your degrees belongs to the Mechatronics Engineering department, right?”

Arno nodded wearily, “Yes, they’re taking attendance; seems compulsory. Anyway, a memorial wouldn’t hurt, given Dr. Ferenc’s lessons, which I attended occasionally. He was undeniably talented.”

“So… you knew him?”

Arno casually replied, “Just electives, face seen amid large lectures. We knew him; he didn’t know us… enough about this, let me sample that before it cools off.”

Caroline smiled sweetly, then forked a slice, offering it to Arno’s mouth.