Chapter 1240: Chapter 80: Saint Elena (Part 4)
The whirlwind brushed past the swirling branches, twisting and swaying the curled trunks.
Each tree seed like countless intertwined rings, stretching into a prival forest, like a habitat for giant snails.
The land was no longer monotonous, with rocks covered in spiral patterns resembling fossils. The wind brought vortices, drawing the soil into layers of circles, elliptical and overlapping, while crops curled like sunflowers swayed clockwise in fields cultivated along circles in the dawn light.
The Vortex Town, which once had only a dozen or so streets, had long since expanded into a real town along with the Land of Vortex. The spiraling streets ford an endless maze, and the endlessly connected Long Houses ford a dizzying vortex, spiraling up to the Spiral Tower soaring into the vortex clouds.
Even the painter claiming divine inspiration could not capture one-tenth of this strange scene.
This land was more sickened than it was months ago when we ca here.
So Exorcists, no longer re apprentices, found themselves suffering from low Sanity Value syndro, trapped in this vortex world.
“Don’t let the pendant leave your body.”
Lu Li reminded his increasingly breathless companions as they set out for Vortex Town.
The Exorcists followed one by one. As the whirlwind blew past, their footprints dissolved into tiny vortices, becoming part of this fantastical sandy landscape once more.
Passing through the distant farmland, the figures of the Vortex People could be seen in the curled low crops. They also noticed them — if they hadn’t experienced the dreamscape constructed by Lu Li, the Exorcists might already be avoiding the gazes of the Vortex People by now.
The distant Land of Vortex provided clear guidance for them. As they drew closer, more details erged in the dizzying vortex.
Lu Li paused briefly here. Porter and others observed the outermost newly built Long Houses, while so followed Lu Li to count the current rings of Vortex Town: a total of fifty-five rings of Long Houses sprawled ahead.
This was bad news — worse than bad. The dreamscape of Vortex Town they experienced when Lu Li infiltrated a few months ago had only a dozen rings.
Back then, Elena was in the fifth ring.
And this ant if Elena hadn’t moved, they had to penetrate forty layers into Vortex Town.
Moreover, the pendant only pointed the direction, not the distance, and since Lu Li entered the Land of Vortex from a different direction this ti, they probably had to traverse more than half of Vortex Town.
With these thoughts, Lu Li resud his journey, approaching the outskirts of Vortex Town. Perhaps due to their clashes with the Twisted Cult and Ashes District, the number of Vortex People in sight was few, and their corruption was mild — only so had folded waists with heads and feet on the ground or hunched bodies, not as nauseating as in the dreamscape.
Though aware that these loathso figures would view them as new residents, stepping into the town and brushing past them still made the Exorcists instinctively tense their bodies and minds.
Especially when a Vortex Person, wearing a tattered shirt missing the left sleeve, took the initiative to speak to them.
Bizarre language ca from this Vortex Person with a hunched waist, the only discernible content being friendliness.
Lu Li shook his head to indicate he could not understand or refused, and following the pendant’s guidance, he familiarly passed through the gaps between Long Houses, entering the second layer of Long Houses.
The external world was blocked by Long Houses seemingly untouched by the ravages of ti, and the wandering figures on the narrow streets could now be called Vortex People — they were now inwardly spiraled the second or third ring.
Lu Li stopped and told the Exorcists following him: “We’ll split up from here, one team moving along the town’s edge to locate Elena. I and the remaining people will wait for your ssage in an empty house.”
“Aren’t we directly following the pendant’s direction?” Wenger asked in confusion.
“Foolish Wenger.” Langeler understood Lu Li’s intention: “We are like the tip of clock hands, Elena is the root. We need to go to the root but avoid getting too close to the dial’s center. The problem is the hands are misaligned, so we might have to cross the entire dial to reach the root, thus we need to move the hands first to find where the root is.”
Porter understood Langeler’s analogy: “I’ll identify the position, but how will we communicate?”
“Summon the rchant,” Lu Li replied.
The Apprentice Exorcists all carried multiple eyeballs.
They split into two teams. Porter led his team with five companions and rchant Anthony along the outer circle to determine Elena’s location. Lu Li and Langeler, with five others, went to wait for news in an empty house, regaining Sanity Value temporarily lost due to the environnt.
Watching outside through the narrow back window, the number of Vortex People on the streets had noticeably diminished, likely most gathered at the battlefield.
After a few dozen minutes of rest, the hallucinatory sounds bouncing in the Apprentice Exorcists’ minds gradually faded.
No news ca from Porter’s side, neither good nor bad.
During the ongoing wait, Lu Li saw a “familiar” outline: the sa Vortex Person they had earlier conversed with who was missing a sleeve.
In less than two hours, its contamination had worsened to near folding.
The pollution in the Land of Vortex had deepened.
However, the pendant was sufficient to protect them from infection.
Not long after, rchant Anthony returned with news from Porter’s side: their direction was correct.
The rested team prepared to set off, and Lu Li tied strips of wood to the door handle as guidance for Porter and others returning, then departed for the deeper layers of Vortex Town.
The deeper they went into the vortex, the more contorted the Vortex People in the streets appeared, twisting like tentaculate creatures. The Exorcists dared not gaze at their blasphemous bodies for too long, as even peripheral vision would cause dizziness and nausea.
They hoped “Elena” hadn’t beco like this, but it was evidently a vain hope. They were everywhere, making them despondent about whether the Twisted Shadow’s sister could really still be rescued…
As ti passed and they delved deeper into the town, distinct from the surrounding grotesque forms, they began to be watched by eyeballs embedded within the spiral patterns and even followed by several Vortex People. Whenever this happened, Lu Li would lead the Exorcists into an empty Long House, lock the door, and escape through the back window before the Vortex People broke in.
Reaching the thirtieth ring, the cramped streets seed bizarrely non-human.
The Apprentice Exorcists overca the hallucinations echoing in their minds and the fleeting visions, avoiding the Vortex People who seed like mud sculpted into humanoid forms, clumsily coiled and mimicking humans.
Finally, they followed the pendant’s guidance to an old Long House. Lu Li pushed open the door and looked inside at the only Vortex Person present.
Indescribable language emitted, seeming to convey caution and hostility.
She didn’t recognize Lu Li. Had the vortex twisted her mind, or was she not Elena?
Lu Li took out the pendant, opened his palm, and reached toward “Elena.”
“Elena” hesitated, raising what might have been her fingers in curled tendrils and gently touched the pendant in Lu Li’s palm.
Not a trace of human semblance could be found within her.
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