Although Gao Fan was not an expert in the myths, folklore, and legends of various regions like Ai Shiping, he was still an educated man born in the Internet era.
Hearing Ming Po's words, Gao Fan sank into deep thought.
"Mistletoe—
"According to Greek mythology, Aeneas carried the Golden Bough to the Underworld to seek the guidance of his deceased father, Anchises. That Golden Bough might have been mistletoe.
"If we look at Celtic culture, mistletoe was considered a heavenly herb, said to be an essential ingredient for a panacea. People in so regions even believed it could boost fertility, placing it in their hos to help with conception—"
He paused mid-sentence.
The hazy gray fog in his mind seed to be blown away by sothing.
"And if we go by Norse mythology—it refers to the incident where Baldr, the god of light and son of Odin and the goddess of love, Frigg, was killed by mistletoe."
His mind suddenly cleared, and he spoke faster and faster. "Frigg asked everything in the world to swear an oath not to harm Baldr. Bows and arrows, long swords, poisons, daggers, diseases, stones, and all things in the world swore the oath. Only the mistletoe was overlooked by her because it was too small and weak.
"Loki, however, selected a sharp branch of mistletoe and handed it to Baldr's brother, Hodr, the blind god of darkness, tricking him into shooting it. Hodr, suspecting nothing, shot it exactly as Loki asked.
"In the air, the mistletoe transford into a sharp sword, dealing Baldr a fatal blow. That was Mistilteinn, the Silver Mistletoe Sword. And the very aning of the na Mistilteinn is—"
Gao Fan looked at the grim-faced Gao Song and enunciated every word, "—Mistletoe."
When they finally realized the true aning of the mistletoe, the fog clouding Gao Fan and Ming Po's minds was completely swept away!
Ming Po nodded slowly.
The mythological details he knew basically matched Gao Fan's.
That ant—just as expected, once he realized the aning of 'mistletoe,' this veil over his common sense was lifted!
The fact that he had not recalled this earlier was proof that Mistletoe was at work. It was not until Gao Fan unconsciously asked, "What does mistletoe an?" that the cognitive fog surrounding Ming Po instantly shattered.
He looked at Gao Song and spoke slowly, "The power of the Title 'Mistletoe' must be to make people overlook you—and perhaps it also holds the power to sever immortality, who knows.
"It creates blind spots in the mind. Anything you fail to think of during your initial train of thought will be directly forgotten and completely ignored afterward."
Ming Po stared at Gao Song. "And this—is obviously where your true confidence in starting this ga cos from.
"Because the very format of the Twenty Questions ga represents 'selecting a range.'
"If sothing is ignored in the questions, it will be forgotten entirely. In other words—the more questions asked, the more blind spots are ignored."
"Finally figured it out?"
Gao Song smiled. "I never expected to keep it hidden from everyone anyway."
His expression did not look too terrible—in fact, he appeared sowhat arrogant.
He spread his hands, the corners of his mouth turning up. "Because it's already too late.
"You only have one question left, and no matter what—this question won't help you lock onto the correct answer.
"The power of Mistletoe lies in the fact that even if you realize its chanics, you will still be affected by the blind spots. What you have uncovered right now is rely the blind spot of the Mistletoe title itself. As long as you didn't pay attention to the title's ability at the very beginning, you will continue to overlook it.
"But—that's not the only thing you have overlooked."
Gao Song raised his arms as he spoke. "Take a look—
"When I said, 'The item is within this space'—
"Did either of you, even for a split second, look up and glance around?!"
Hearing this, Gao Fan abruptly threw his head up.
When he heard 'the item is within this space,' he imdiately realized another wisp of gray fog had appeared in his mind—
It was not until Gao Song frankly revealed the answer that the fog finally dissipated completely.
Only then did he notice—their ga arena was different from a typical Ga of Deception.
Normal duel-type gas in the Ga of Deception usually took place in narrow, enclosed spaces. There would not be anything in these spaces that could severely interfere with the players during the match.
In fact, in most gas, players could not even leave their seats, nor could they attack others.
Precisely because of this, after hearing the ga's rules, Gao Fan and Ming Po subconsciously ignored everything beyond the table.
Under normal circumstances, Ming Po would have definitely looked around.
If he had just glanced up for a second, he would have seen the sofa and television behind Gao Song, as well as the water bar and lounge to the side.
And most crucially—
There was blood on the floor near the water bar.
That was the blood Ming Po had shed earlier when he pierced Gao Song's heart with a dagger!
Which ant—they had not been teleported to so other space. They were playing the ga right inside Gao Song's palace!
Twenty Faces had deliberately included the rule "do not leave your seats" to create a cognitive inertia, making them think this was just like a regular Ga of Deception. But in reality, they were still in his palace—
That ant the question itself was completely aningless, because there were simply too many things that could fit inside a palace.
Yet even Ming Po, upon first hearing 'that item is within this space,' had subconsciously assud the intel pointed to sothing belonging to a player or carried by a player!
An answer that had originally been narrowed down to a single focal point.
Now it was liberated, instantly expanding into absolute chaos.
The only thing they could be certain of—
Was probably the fact that Gao Fan was definitely not the correct answer.
But paradoxically, that piece of information was aningless.
Because Gao Song was clearly soone terrified of death.
He was not like Ming Po, who would willingly throw himself onto the gambling table—nor did he enjoy the thrill of balancing life and death by a thread like Ming Po did. Exposing the real answer on purpose and then gambling that Ming Po and Gao Fan would not dare to guess or choose it—that was far too risky for him.
Therefore, their entire logical deduction had to be completely overhauled.
—'Yes' and 'Yes and No' would both light up, while 'No' and 'Uncertain' would not. Did this affect the answer too?
And—
Reaching this point, Ming Po suddenly realized sothing was wrong.
He was mistaken.
He had fallen into the fog again!
While pondering this issue, he must have overlooked sothing else again—
So that was how it worked—
Was this the result of combining it with the Luck prefix?
Using Luck to instinctively force anyone whose luck he suppressed to choose the wrong line of thought.
And once their initial direction was wrong, the influence of Mistletoe made it impossible to turn back and find the correct path.
anwhile, Silver Crown protected him from ntal pollution, mind control, and mind reading—
What a perfect title combination.
Since that was the case—
Ming Po took a deep breath.
He had to use his final trump card as well.
[Madman (Slaughter - Pseudo-Gold)]
[Equip Effect: Immune to all fear effects. Clears all ntal abnormal statuses after sleeping. Grants permanent status: ntal Anomaly (Mild)]
[Active Effect: Temporarily restores sanity and grants greatly increased all attributes for three minutes. Each ti this effect is used, the severity of the ntal anomaly increases]
—He was betting everything on this, the restoration of his sanity and the three minutes of greatly increased all attributes!
Because—
["—Is Luck also considered an attribute?"]
That was the question Ming Po had once asked the Red Queen.
And the Red Queen had given him an affirmative answer.
Yes, Luck was also an attribute—
Therefore, the three-minute all-attribute boost also included a boost to his Luck!
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