Chapter 895: Chapter 88: Everything Familiar
Without the protection of a Divinity, Vena Ice-Free Port faces the reality of the world.
For instance, the Mist of Strangeness envelops the city.
A thick fog fills the streets and alleys, the streetlights emit a dim and hazy aura, and the streets soon beco desolate and deserted, with only the guards at the Lord’s Mansion remaining.
“I don’t like the evenings here.” Katerina released the curtains and returned to the fireplace.
The mist spells extre danger for those out in the wilderness, and yet here, it is everywhere, even making the rooms seem as if they are covered by a thin fog.
Moreover, whether in Midnight City or Tang Ge Town, the nights, under the protection of a Divinity, are equally lively.
“This is how humans of the Old Era lived,” Puxiu said. “They didn’t have the protection of a Divinity.”
“And before that? Cities weren’t like this when there was no strangeness, right?”
Katerina said the city made her feel cold. Everywhere there was gray, mist, drizzle, steel, steam, and pipes.
Mayor Matthias Knox visited soon after. He had changed into casual clothes, with no assistant following him, seemingly visiting privately.
“So councillors complained to about you ignoring their invitation to gatherings,” Matthias Knox said to Lu Li.
His subordinates brought the news that there were dozens of gatherings tonight, but none welcod their guests.
“I have no intention of participating in politics,” Lu Li looked up from the sofa by the fireplace, closing the Strange Community Atlas.
“…I can see that, but they won’t give up.”
Mayor Matthias Knox sat opposite Lu Li.
His late-night visit wasn’t only on his way; he also wanted to find out about Lu Li’s political tendencies, but he didn’t expect to receive a straightforward answer.
“What’s keeping Vena Ice-Free Port safe from the strangeness?” Lu Li asked.
Facing Lu Li, Mayor Matthias Knox had no intention of hiding: “Those inscribed weapons. And most importantly: powerful strange entities are not interested in this place.”
Vena Ice-Free Port has never been favored by the strange entities. Since the beginning of the Weird Tis, human gathering places have been attacked by strange entities, the Lennon Islands shattered into nurous fragnts, but here it has remained relatively calm.
“Why is that?”
“I’m not sure. Perhaps there’s sothing unknown to us protecting this place, or maybe they want to reenact the tragedy of the Lennon Islands.”
Investigations into the forr have been ongoing and always kept secret, only spread among the upper echelons, since in the public’s eyes Vena Ice-Free Port is the ‘old glory,’ and the nobles are willing for it to remain independent and not be assimilated by Midnight City.
Even though every noble family has hired Bizarre Powerholders from the Barren Lands.
Mayor Matthias Knox didn’t stay long; City Hall felt like a drafty beehive.
Before leaving, the hesitant mayor left behind a sentence.
“The dirt here won’t be any less than elsewhere.”
After speaking, Mayor Matthias Knox pulled open the door and walked out with the dignity of a mayor of old.
Bang.
The firelight in the fireplace returned to stability.
“What did the Mayor an by that?” Puxiu, lying at Lu Li’s feet, asked quizzically.
“Don’t be deceived by shiny exteriors,” Katerina poured herself a glass of red wine. “Thur Lange told sothing similar.”
They didn’t dwell on the Mayor’s words for long. After a while, the tipsy Katerina asked Lu Li out of nowhere: “What happened?”
Lu Li lifted his dark eyes, looking calmly.
“You seed quite different after you returned… hic.” Katerina, hiccupping with a wine burp, paused for ten seconds: “Your aura…”
“I feel it too,” Puxiu quickly agreed. “It feels more comfortable being beside Mr. Luli.”
Lu Li briefly recounted his experiences in the Plant Habitat, during which a rchant concluded a transaction and returned to the room, silently listening and adding a thousand contribution points to Lu Li.
“So, human nature is similar to a soul…” Puxiu worriedly ntioned another concern, “Does this an Mr. Luli will attract more attention from strange entities!”
“Yes.”
This is unavoidable.
Katerina, who’s not a heavy drinker, soon beca intoxicated and started being curious about what the rchant looked like behind the scarf.
Before she could pounce and pull off the scarf, the rchant left the Outer World, returning to their Inner World ho.
And recalling the seeds, Lu Li opened the wooden box containing decayed flesh, feeding the eyeball to the black crow that flew over, the sa one from the day. The box had so soil in it, and he buried the seed inside it.
Eleven portions of human nature were enough to accelerate the growth of nearby plants.
Just as Mayor Matthias Knox said, Lennon Ice-Free Harbor does not receive the favor of strange entities; even the strange entities in the Mist of Strangeness are unwilling to tread this land, much less approach areas surrounded by light sources.
Katerina returned to the adjacent room to sleep. Lu Li picked up the scattered bottles on the carpet, the labels already blurred—it was wine brewed before the Weird Tis.
The plant disaster took away many things people were familiar with and even people themselves.
Puxiu lay sleeping on the sofa, and Lu Li on the bed also drifted off into slumber amidst the patter of rain and the crackling of matches.
“Lu Li… Lu Li…”
A faint whisper sounded by his ear. Weariness captured Lu Li’s consciousness, dragging him into the abyss called slumber, as if to sink forever and never awaken…
In the depths of nothingness, suddenly a point of light appeared, spreading and engulfing the void—
Amidst the dazzling light, Lu Li awoke.
The clarity that ca first was sound; Puxiu was barking madly, calling out, and the guards outside were knocking hurriedly at the door. Then ca sensation, breath rebounding off sothing cold.
Opening his eyes, a terrifying face hovered just above his forehead.
Lu Li rolled off the bed, tossing aside the figure pressing down on his chest in a confrontation.
It was a human-shaped outline protruding from a wooden board, like falling into gauze, stretched from the ceiling to just half a ter above the bed, motionless.
Bam—
The guards burst through the door, the sight above the bed horrifying them.
“Escort His Excellency Lulian away first!”
Lu Li grabbed the lunging figure, with the guards ushering him and Puxiu out of the room.
Katerina in the room next door was also awakened. Soon, a disheveled Mayor Matthias Knox hurried down the corridor.
Relieved to find Lu Li unhard, he looked toward the guard-surrounded corridor, informing Lu Li that the Bizarre Powerholder was on their way.
“I’m an Exorcist,” Lu Li stated.
“But the only one.”
Mayor Matthias Knox could not afford the cost if sothing happened to Lu Li.
The Bizarre Powerholder arrived quickly, an old woman, leaning on a non-human spine, with skulls strung like a necklace rattling as she walked.
She conford to every image of a witch.
There was still so ti before daybreak.
It wasn’t long before the being in the ceiling would reach Lu Li.
“Exorcist… are you alright?” The old woman stopped beside Lu Li, her cloudy eyes falling on him.
The white light that awakened Lu Li might have co from the lighthouse.
Moreover, this experience indeed brought back mories for Lu Li.
“I’m fine,” he said.
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