The strange creatures on the plain ceased their slaughter; the light-averse viscous fluid flowed into the deep sewers; the tribes competing for territory gradually quieted; the Evil Spirits wandering among the ruins looked up at the receding darkness; the barely surviving survivors stared blankly at the sky they’d dread of; the strange creatures beneath the sea eyed the light spilling into the twisted ocean.
From the distant Tillage Garden, the shattered Lennon Islands, Ailen Peninsula, Main Affinity Continent, and Barren Lands—the retreating darkness returned the world to its original state.
...
"This is different, Fred, this is different... This is unlike all the strange creatures we’ve killed before! This is a beginning! The strangeness is receding! Do you see? The darkness is receding!"
"It’s no big deal. We’ve killed so many monsters, has the number of monsters decreased around us? They’re like there’s always a sow birthing endlessly. Perhaps it’s just a stronger strange creature forcing it out, it has happened many tis."
"Do you an the darkness will co back?"
"I don’t know, but sothing stronger will definitely erge."
The quarrels in Coal Mountain Town are a microcosm of many predominantly human Spirit Towns.
Whether hopeful or pessimistic, the disappearance of the primal darkness is bound to change sothing.
The location of Vena Underground City delayed news, and only after several minutes did the assistant burst into the City Lord’s office with the news.
"Lord Matthias! It’s daylight outside!"
"What are you talking about?"
The excited assistant stamred, unable to form a complete sentence: "The Exorcist passed by a few days ago, and just now the darkness disappeared..."
Patience is a virtue of those in power, but seeing his carefully chosen assistant so discomposed disappointed Matthias sowhat.
Thud, thud—
Matthias knocked on the table: "Always remain calm, don’t let panic seize your reason. Speak slowly, what happened to the Exorcist, what about the darkness?"
The young assistant cald under admonishnt: "The Exorcist passed by Unfrozen Harbor but didn’t enter a few days ago, crossed Bread Ridge northward to the Abyssal Sea... The primal darkness was there, and then just now the darkness retreated..."
Matthias stood abruptly, the desk skewed by the bump, tea splashed, wetting his trouser legs.
"Really?!"
"I just ca back from above... It’s bright outside!"
Matthias, though not losing his composure, wanted to confirm with his own eyes, his face flushed with excitent as he said: "Go confirm with the Land of Light, have all newspapers ready... no, have them stop all work, I want to see a full-page newspaper in the warehouse imdiately!"
The confirmation didn’t take long. The assistant quickly returned and told the City Lord, who hadn’t had ti to change his pants, "Lu Li resolved the primal darkness!"
"Start all the printing presses! I need rchants to deliver newspapers to every ally, every town! Let everyone know it was the Exorcist who did it!"
The assistant noted excitedly but didn’t leave imdiately.
"Do you have sothing to say?" The extrely cheerful Matthias indicated the assistant to speak directly.
"City Lord, I want to know... will we return to the surface?"
Matthias’s mood gradually subsided.
"...We can’t go back." he sighed and said, "But this is a beginning..."
"One day, our descendants will return to the surface."
...
Just as a sailor is destined to die on a ship, a Hunter is destined to die in the wilderness.
He imagined many ways he could die, commonly being polluted, torn by strange creatures, falling into madness, even bizarrely choking on writhing flesh or dying on the belly of a creature mimicking a woman...
But it didn’t include being knocked out by a Heretic disguised as a Hunter, being sent to a Cultist’s lair as a sacrificial offering.
And unlucky Hunters like him, bewildered and unadapted due to the sudden retreat of darkness, were being captured successively.
What are these Cultists, who use human bones as decoration, chanting?
Their Divinity heard the prayers of believers, retracting the darkness that scattered ti. Grateful for the beauty granted by Divinity, they plan to hold a grand blood sacrifice.
Humans slaughter each other, strange creatures shafully lower their heads.
The Cultists do not permit sacrificial offerings to desecrate their gaze, they are blindfolded, thrown on the altar, listening to prayers hovering around, the unknown malice descends pervadingly.
A gentle breeze licked his face.
"Is the Evil God tasting ?" he thought, awaiting death and darkness to descend.
At this mont, he heard a distant howling from the sky, the Cultists scread and scattered in a run.
He lifted his head, catching a faint glimpse through the partial brightness of the followers scampering amidst the approaching howl, collapsing one after another as though suffering backlash.
Splashes—splashes—
A piece of paper fell on his face, he hesitated, his blade-like arm sliced through the ropes, pulling off the blindfold, and picked up the fallen piece.
"The Shroud of the World Resolved by the Legendary Exorcist!"
He couldn’t understand the words above, only starting blankly at the distant receding bones on the horizon.
...
"Big Sister, do we really have to do this?" the Spirits and Monsters shouted, hiding in the pit of the "Mother’s" bones.
"Making a splash! Making a huge splash!" The Big Sister scattered newspapers downward, creating a floaty paper ribbon.
"Mother" and Big Sister were helping Lu Li in their own way; however, they avoided the wilderness.
A teor is but a montary brilliance, darkness is the world’s eternity.
...
"You have accomplished an unimaginable feat."
The admiration of the Mother of the Marsh echoed in his ears.
"I rely pressed the button, the real resolution of darkness was done by the Exorcists Association."
For Lu Li, he hadn’t truly done much.
The Exorcists of the past prepared everything so that Lu Li only needed one answer to let the primal darkness retreat from the earth as miraculously as a chanical Deity Descent.
Just like soldiers conquered enemy nations before the King’s arrival, people waited, bracing for Lu Li to enter a new palace, present the crown and scepter to coronate him.
"Can I leave now?" the voice of the Undead Spirit sounded like an elderly man craving alms.
"Not yet."
Lu Li refused the Undead Spirit, passing through the silent dark hall to go upstairs.
"What is expensive yet worthless, precious yet useless, everyone desires it yet loathes its existence, turning foundations into buildings, turning beaches into breakwaters, making people repeat each day?"
When the riddle echoed, Lu Li gave another answer: "Ti."
Lu Li, addressing the silent and refused Undead Spirit, said: "Record the Undead Spirit’s account, then you can go wherever you want."
"...Really?"
"Yes."
"You truly let leave...?"
Lu Li had no intention to repeat the sa answer: "If you get tired of wandering and need a safe, quiet dwelling, the Land of Light can offer these."
Allowing the Undead Spirit to choose for itself, Lu Li returned downstairs in the shimr.
"You should co back soti."
Delayed communication across the Abyssal Sea then echoed from the Crown of Thorns:
"The Bloodline Family Alliance contacted us, after you did such a miraculous thing they finally couldn’t resist."
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