Chapter 1173: Chapter 13: Agate Lake Camp Residents
The stars that make every Resident of the Land of Light fearful upon first sight gradually erge deep within the clouds. In stark contrast to sunlight, everyone bathed in the glow feels warmth fill their hearts, yet ascending into the hollow and vast Milky Way only stirs their fear of the unknown—although, after becoming familiar, all forr fears transform into awe of the spectacular and magnificent.
If there were days of rest, residents could lie outside their shacks and gaze at the stars all night without getting bored, including those believers of the Twisted Vine Church.
After breakfast ti is over, residents collect their fluorite lamps and return to their posts. The fluorite lamp is one of the few good things birthed in this terrible world. It requires no fuel, has no pollution, and apart from its dimness, it almost has no drawbacks.
The outdoor lumber yard sponsored by the Vena Ice-Free Port sees carpenters sawing logs into planks, which workers carry to the newly built shacks and the Shore of Agate Lake. The forr provides housing for the soon-to-arrive fifth batch of residents, while the latter repairs the wooden bridge leading to Lake Heart Island from the camp. The few farrs tend to cultivated fields, where the initial seeds were buried three months ago. But just like the rest of the Land of Light and the outside world, sunlight-bathed land fails to grow any plants. People speculate the problem might be the soil, but they can’t find any clean land. The won are also doing the sa work as the n, for the Land of Light lacks population so much that, back in Old Belfast, even one street had more people than Agate Lake Camp. Only the children can temporarily run free and play on the open space before the shacks, releasing their post-al energy and bringing the residents a strange sense of reassurance, even though the entire camp only holds three or four children.
The population of Agate Lake is quite abnormal, with won making up only one-sixth of the population, no elderly, and a pitifully small number of children.
The elderly, won, and children, who are physically weak, were the first to die when disaster struck, and leaving the Vena Refuge and waiting for Andrea along the shore filtered out many survivors.
But balance isn’t needed either—no one knows whether the residents’ descendants becoming adults or the next disaster will arrive first.
After finishing their als, the believers of the Twisted Vine Church begin patrolling around the workers, the shacks, and the wooden walls. Compared to the bright and warm daylight, the bizarre entities prefer wandering in the twilight where they are difficult to detect.
The residents have rather complex feelings about them; the hideous tendrils extending under their spacious church garnts share the sa origin as the disaster creatures that drove them underground, killing their comrades and kin. But at this mont, these monsters, like guardian gods, protect them from other bizarre entities—if these residents ca from the Barren Lands, they wouldn’t be so conflicted.
The farrs in the fields beco uneasy when Lu Li approaches and recognizes him.
“I’m just looking around.”
The calm words did not improve their emotions, and Lu Li temporarily ignored them, stepping into the fertile, soft fields where many seeds were planted daily yet showed no signs of sprouting.
Standing at the edge of the fields, a fluorescent sapling extends its branches behind Lu Li, bathing him in a gentle glow as plants break through the soil at his feet.
The glow flickers away in an instant, leaving the dazed farrs and the green sprouts around Lu Li as the only evidence of what happened.
“Next, observe whether they continue to grow.”
Lu Li says to the farrs, then remains silent as they kneel in the moist, fertile soil, saying, “Stand up, you don’t need to bow anymore.”
However, not all residents revere Lu Li excessively. For instance, Porter and his friends, when they noticed Lu Li approaching with a fluorite lamp, even took the initiative to complain to him about needing dication for night blindness, as many residents couldn’t see anything clearly at night. Poor Old Joel even broke his leg on the pebble beach yesterday.
Although the Land of Light has porridge, which keeps residents regular, nutrition is never related to the people of The Dark Era. To treat people’s night blindness, Lu Li needs to obtain mutated plants similar to carrots from the old sewers, or fish could also work.
It seems neither the Land of Light nor the Vena Refuge lacks fish—it has a coastline, but the surface has long been inaccessible for humans. They cannot risk their lives to fish in the bay and bring back insufficient food for tens of thousands of residents for a single al, while the old sewers, located inland in the Barren Lands, lack fish even more.
But treating night blindness is urgent, so Lu Li can only ask rchant Anthony to buy fish at a premium. Fortunately, over two hundred people don’t consu too much.
Similarly, children do not overly revere Lu Li—two boys, one girl, and a baby born after arriving in the Land of Light.
Children not yet entirely engulfed by the cruelty of the world feel more adoration for Lu Li, jumping around asking if the stories are true, whether Puxiu really has two tails, whether Katerina really turned into a rmaid, and expressing their desire to beco Exorcists like Lu Li to slay bizarre entities.
“All bizarre entities should be dead!”
Little Amy declares with hatred, and Lu Li simply responded: “‘We should not vent hatred on beings as weak as us’; this is what the Giant Tree Academy taught . Hatred is the motivation pushing us forward, but rember not to let hatred consu you.”
Little Amy might not understand now, but he knows that an Exorcist would not be wrong.
After patrolling everywhere except the Land of Light, Lu Li returns to Lake Heart Island. As he passes by the Twisted Cathedral, he sees twisted figures performing a transformation ritual for Old Joel, who broke his leg.
The Land of Light does not abandon residents who lose their minds, beco contaminated, or get injured; they can afford to maintain them, but the territory needs more power.
So they will join the Twisted Vine Church, transforming into sticky, wet believers, living in another form.
After confirming that a thrilled Old Joel voluntarily joined the Twisted Church, Lu Li witnessed the beginning of the ritual and then left. Twisted figures autonomously release contamination during transformation rituals, and Lu Li is rely a normal human.
Back on Lake Heart Island, Annie sways her lush canopy to greet Lu Li, a display of closeness and joy, as well as anticipation.
“Not yet.”
Lu Li observes Annie, who is healthier and taller than a projection, her carved notches reaching near his forehead, and speaks.
While much in the illusion is false, Lu Li’s humanity returns to its initial state—a fraction augnted by the Doomsday Apocalypse.
Annie sways her branches gently like a child acting coy to a family mber, dropping a leaf onto Lu Li’s black hair, then gradually becoming quiet as Lu Li gazes across the camp at the lake’s other side in thought.
“Wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
The sight of the bustling residents brings such words to Lu Li’s mind.
Treasures symbolize not only wealth but also sothing precious in one’s heart, a symbol, an object of desire.
And for the Vena Refuge, Spirit Town, the humans of the old sewers, or anyone aware of this place, they all share a common ‘treasure’:
The Land of Light, without hunger and cold, without strife and danger.
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