Chapter 937: Chapter 130: The Real Elena
Lu Li and his group encountered no trouble on their return journey.
The twisted and peculiar Land of Vortex seed like a peaceful and serene town, without hindrances or hostility.
To be safe, they took extra ti to make their way through the corridor, reaching the outermost ring of the Long House and following the outer circle back to the direction they had entered Vortex Town that morning, retracing their steps.
While traversing through the woods filled with vortex patterns, they saw no sign of young Pav, who had likely already fled the Land of Vortex.
Katerina was more anxious on their return than when they arrived. The omnipresent spirals were nearly twisting her composure, and Elena’s transformation into a vortex form unsettled her — even Elena, who possessed a more powerful pendant, couldn’t resist the forces of the Land of Vortex.
In this aspect, she was the sa as Pav. She would rather die than beco such a disgusting at sauce on a forked tangle.
But as they were about to reach the edge of the Land of Vortex, Elena suddenly resisted, unwilling to move forward.
“I… Elena…”
“What?”
Katerina frowned in understanding, while Lu Li listened quietly.
“I… am…”
“Are you worried your sister won’t recognize you?” Katerina guessed.
“… No… it’s…”
Katerina began to feel a faint headache again, this voice was twisting her mind. She stepped back, distancing herself from Elena, and asked Lu Li, “What is she trying to express?”
Lu Li’s dark eyes quietly observed it.
“You’re not Elena?”
Katerina exclaid in astonishnt, “How can that be, it—”
“Answer us with action. Step forward if you’re Elena, step back if you’re not.”
The Vortex Person disguising as Elena stepped back in response to Lu Li.
“Oh no…”
Katerina painfully held her forehead.
“Why do you have the pendant?” Lu Li continued to ask it.
The Vortex Person uttered twisted words, and through repeated phrases, Lu Li pieced together part of the truth.
The one who opened the door for them, argued with them, and finally watched them leave was the real Saintess Elena.
So details seed to align. Like why Elena paused for a mont when she opened the door, and why Elena only argued with the Vortex Person.
“We have to go back again, you go and tell them about the situation here,” Lu Li said to Katerina, who was a few ters away, staring at the gloomy clouds in a calm state.
“No need… I’m fine.”
Katerina withdrew her gaze and returned to Lu Li’s side.
“I’ll go back with you.”
The surroundings turned dark, and soon night would fall.
They quickened their pace to make it back to the Vortex Town shrouded in shadows before nightfall.
Vortex People didn’t need light, nor were they hard by darkness.
The only place where firelight glowed was at the top of the outer ring of the spiral Long House, where they were constructing the Long House and expanding outward.
Katerina’s face, illuminated by the oil lamp in Lu Li’s hand, appeared shadowy and uncertain.
“Are we lost?”
Vortex Town lacked reference points, especially at night when things were invisible.
“Do you rember the way?” Lu Li asked the Vortex Person.
“… Follow… …”
The Vortex Person led them through the corridor of the Long House, returning to the equally dark house.
An oil lamp emitting a glow was placed on the dining table, barely lighting up the outline of the small house.
Astonished by their return, Elena and the Vortex Person whispered for a mont, then the Vortex Person turned around and spoke coherent content that could be understood: “You… were sent by sister…”
Katerina’s face suddenly turned ugly: “I can understand its words…”
“So can I.”
Katerina, who was feeling her body, paused.
“The language… was found… by the vortex… the pattern… can be restored.”
Elena spoke, then the Vortex Person translated and explained.
This was a pattern Elena discovered. The Vortex People’s language correlated to their degree of vortex transformation. The more circles, the more twisted.
It’s like reversing the order of spoken language, but more difficult.
Elena could barely find the regularity of the language twisted three circles.
Although communication was slow, it beca aningful.
Elena said she still rembered Lu Li and was glad to see soone familiar again, but she couldn’t leave to et her sister. The vortex forces had deeply eroded her, preventing her from leaving this Land of Vortex.
Unless her sister had a way to resolve the Land of Vortex, resolving the twisted forces inflicted on her.
Elena took out a notebook from beneath the tree stump-like layered bed, on which a large portion of content was written in twisted script, indecipherable. She asked Lu Li to deliver it to her sister, which could also prove they had found her.
“Is the pendant still useful to you?”
Lu Li asked. The pendant could serve as better evidence than the notebook.
“… She said… it can…”
The Vortex Person replied. But then Elena scolded it for a few sentences, and had to recount: “… I didn’t… say that… The pendant can… resist the change… in forces, family… needs it… to delay, can’t… give it to you.”
“Do we need to wait until daylight to leave?” Lu Li asked again.
Elena replied that they could leave anyti, as the Land of Vortex was isolated from anything outside of it, except stronger calamities.
Having confird this, Lu Li and Katerina did not linger here much longer.
Lu Li picked up the oil lamp, pausing briefly on the oil lamp handle that was beginning to twist.
The directions in the dark Vortex Town were hard to distinguish, but Elena and the Vortex Person were willing to escort them to the edge of town.
Bidding farewell to Elena, Lu Li and the others stepped into the pitch-black woods.
“Will the church people be waiting for us outside?”
Katerina worried about encountering peculiarities.
“They should be. If not, we’ll retreat.”
Aside from its inherent pollution, the Land of Vortex was indeed a place of tranquility.
Just then, a rustling disturbance in the distance, a fleeting silhouette darted out towards the rchant.
The rchant’s outline faded, the pouncing silhouette passed through, pausing briefly before striking at Katerina.
Caught off guard, Katerina was knocked over, reaching to pull out the Homogeneous Item, but the creature cried out in agony, breaking free from Lu Li’s grip and fleeing into the depths of the woods.
Listening to the rustling of shrubs fade away, Lu Li extended a hand to help Katerina up.
“What was that?!” Katerina asked, still shaken.
“Pav.”
Lu Li saw Pav’s inverted head; his body was folding from the chest, already starting to vortexify.
Hesitating, Katerina stood up by herself, “I shouldn’t have given him food… Fortunately, the little brat attacked the rchant first.”
Lu Li withdrew his hand, waiting for Katerina to check her condition and resu their journey.
After a while, they reached the edge of the Land of Vortex, stepping into the mist.
Having walked a distance, Lu Li suddenly felt sothing missing, pondering as he turned back.
Only the silently following rchant was behind him; Katerina was nowhere to be seen.
“When?” Lu Li looked at the rchant.
“After entering the mist.”
Lu Li retraced his steps and found Katerina standing in a daze at the edge of the mist.
Holding fluorite in her hand, she looked up at Lu Li as he returned, revealing a pained expression, tearing open the leather armor on her chest, then pressing her palm against the seemingly tangible fog.
Her palm bent unnaturally.
Her chest was empty.
Where there should have been a pendant.
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