"Who are you?"
Lu Li had so guesses but still asked.
"I am your Divinity... the King of Ghouls."
The coarse voice turned into a low whisper: "Who are you? Among my servants... why is there one who doesn’t believe in ?"
"How can I help you break free?"
Lu Li avoided the King of Ghouls’ question, and a long silence followed.
Just when Lu Li thought the King of Ghouls had lost itself due to consumption, a low echo ca:
"Are you silent, or can I not hear your voice?"
Lu Li realized the conversation with the King of Ghouls was one-sided.
After a long wait, the whisper of the King of Ghouls sounded again: "Whatever it is... go to Haim... find the Spirit Mold, bring it back..."
"Where is Haim, and what is the Spirit Mold?"
Lu Li’s questions went unanswered, and the whisper continued:
"The Swamp has conspired to imprison , bring the Spirit Mold, non-believer, you will get all that you desire..."
The King of Ghouls did not disappear imdiately, whispering as his voice slowly faded.
All clues converged at one point—the presence behind the Rotten Monsters is the Swamp.
The Swamp, not wanting to alarm the Midnight City’s aberrations, drove the Rotten Monsters to silently erode the surface. Ghouls were the first to contact them. Originally, the Ghouls, who planned to retreat from the east, were incited by Lu Li to start a war with the Rotten Monsters, delaying the Swamp’s erosion plan.
Especially after more aberrations joined the Corrupted Monsters of Hell, a deep power erupted, resulting in the current situation: superficially, the King of Ghouls retreated, his roar echoing over Midnight City, with Ghouls and Rotten Monsters perishing together.
The truth was that the fusion of Ghouls with Rotten Monsters gathered at the deep pit, forming a black tide that covered up the truth of the King of Ghouls being consud by the Swamp.
Lu Li distanced himself from the deep pit and summoned rchant Anthony in a secret place to contact the Land of Light.
"Ophelia told everything, you contacted us faster than expected... what happened?"
"The King of Ghouls told sothing through so ans, what are Haim and the Spirit Mold?"
rchant Anthony took Lu Li’s question back, and after a longer wait than expected, the rchant returned with news that even the Land of Light didn’t know.
Lu Li asked the Land of Light to contact Ghost Town, find a way to catch a Ghoul, the higher the status the better, and ask it what Haim and the Spirit Mold signify.
The Ghost Town Church helped Ophelia and her team capture Ghouls, and the long wait brought Lu Li only bad news.
"The nearby Ghouls are dying one after another... what happened?"
Ophelia said they went into the old sewers of Ghost Town, but all the Ghouls they found were already dead.
Lu Li told her that the King of Ghouls is using his people to delay the Swamp’s consumption.
"Then how do we find a living Ghoul?"
"Far away, as far as possible."
"I’ll have those allies look for it. But are you sure? Ghouls are privileged to know the secrets of Divinity."
"He believes ’I’ know Haim and the Spirit Mold, so it’s not a secret."
At least Ghoul Sorcerers are qualified to know.
"What about you?"
Ophelia asked at last.
Lu Li looked back into the distance. The dust covering Midnight City settled, forming an impenetrable forbidden zone beneath the deep space.
He needed to go once more to the bottom of the black tide.
The stench, rottenness, and loathso shapes like mud moved along the silent, dust-covered streets, arriving at the edge of the collapsed ruins, crawling up the steep slope, rging into the lake-like flowing black tide, and gradually lting.
Lu Li seed to beco a part of the black tide, joining them, blending into them. Mixing in the whirlpool rolling towards the depths, quietly leaving before they receded.
Light pierced through the layers of crevices, reflecting in Lu Li’s eyes.
Skirting the gradually sparse cages, Lu Li peered at the King of Ghouls being imprisoned and consud—His feet subrged in the loathso yellow.
Lu Li’s arrival did not disturb Him, nor did it disturb the Swamp.
Surveying outside the cage to confirm the King of Ghouls could endure longer than expected, Lu Li quietly returned to the surface of the black tide, waiting for the waves to strand him on the shore, away from the deep pit.
Lu Li retraced his steps back to his hiding place, a secluded hunter’s cabin built on the hill.
The dust dissipated, this hunter’s cabin stood on the low mountain before Midnight City was built and was preserved—it overlooked the deep pit. The previous owner was scared away by the fall of the Alchemical Tower, the erstwhile one was driven away by Lu Li.
Lu Li simply blocked the door and windows with a wooden chair, lifted the stove from the kitchen, and climbed the dim attic.
Placing the stove aside, Lu Li pushed open the window caked with mud dust and looked afar.
The rotten Ghouls stirring at the bottom of the deep pit appeared like true black water.
Leaving the window open for ventilation, Lu Li returned to the stove, broke off the wooden eaves plank to make a fire, and cooked food.
But the hill cabin was neither a promised land nor considered safe. Before the can on the stove could boil, a noise ca from downstairs as a wooden chair was knocked over.
Lu Li had to temporarily return downstairs to inquire the unexpected intruder: "Are you a local of Midnight City?"
A large maggot sprayed venom at Lu Li, and Lu Li responded with a dream, handing it a Devil’s Contract and telling it to head to Ghost Town, then tidied the knocked-over door and chair, returning to the boiling can on the attic.
Stirring the bubbling broth, Lu Li gazed at the rchant erging from the shadows.
rchant Anthony brought back news: "Haim and the Spirit Mold might be in the Tillage Garden."
The Ghoul Sorcerer knew no more than Lu Li, this fake Ghoul. The Land of Light could only search elsewhere.
Tillage Garden, also known as the Land of Hope, Solaxim. The latter derived from the great adventurer Solacevia Sim who discovered the Tillage Garden, a na which locals gradually twisted into Solaxim.
It sounded sowhat tenuous, and what linked the clue to the Tillage Garden was the Spirit Mold—it’s a term unique to the Tillage Garden, also used to describe the shell of Divinity, sculptures with divinity, and objects once possessed by Divinity.
Does this suggest that the King of Ghouls cos from the Tillage Garden, from the Black Ring hovering over the world?
"Is it accurate? The Tillage Garden is both dangerous and distant."
If Lu Li wasted ti and took risks to reach the Tillage Garden but found nothing, there would be no chance for another move.
"The Mother of the Marsh said it’s the only known clue."
Lu Li planned to follow this lead, while arranging: "Have the Land of Light send letters to all known Ghoul Clans, their king is imprisoned in Midnight City."
"Should we tell them the truth?"
"No need."
The secrecy suggests balance.
The Swamp, not exposed, won’t beco aggressive, continuing the slow erosion.
And the continuous gathering of Ghouls to Midnight City could allow the King of Ghouls to endure longer.
"Where’s Andrea?"
"Arrived at Storm Corner forty-five minutes ago."
"Have her wait for ."
"Where are you going?"
Before the rchant returned to the Land of Light, the Tea Party mbers had already anticipated Lu Li’s answer.
"Tillage Garden."
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