They arrived at the observation port leading to the surface ruins.
"There’s no exit from the refuge; you’ll have to go back the way you ca."
A faint light shone from the deep cave dug by sothing strange, as if the wind from the surface was blowing.
Creak—
The Sanity Value Counter slowly emitted a noise.
Pollution pervaded everywhere on the surface, and the residents of the refuge couldn’t remain in the shallow layers for long.
"Off you go." Aileen said to Katerina, who was preparing to take off the Sanity Value Counter and dagger.
"Thanks. Ophelia, let’s go up first, let this pair of old lovers say a few more words." Katerina picked up Puxiu by the neck, stuffed the fluorite between its claws, and burrowed into the hole leading back to the surface.
Ophelia’s charred silhouette remained motionless, showing no intention of giving them space to be alone.
"It’s ti to part again..."
Aileen ignored Ophelia’s presence, thinking of the last farewell. Back then, Anna was still there, and she still had... oh, she had already lost her legs.
"Will you establish a new gathering site?"
"Why do you ask that?"
"You hide yourself with indifference, but we all can see you’re a good person. Don’t tell you have no thoughts about the current dire situation."
Aileen thought Lu Li would say he wasn’t capable enough, but his deep black eyes fell slightly as he answered, "Right now, I just want to find Anna."
A gaze of slight concern vanished with Lu Li’s words.
"Let know when you find her."
Aileen’s pale hand left the wheelchair armrest and waved goodbye to Lu Li.
"I will."
"Wait, there’s sothing I need to ask you." Aileen called out to Lu Li, who was about to bow down into the hole: "The observation port above has so dirt, help wipe it off when you’re outside."
It sounded sowhat ambiguous with double anings, and Aileen’s red lips curved as if indicating she did it on purpose.
Lu Li said nothing, burrowing into the cave with Ophelia like a warm stove.
Lulu pushed Aileen to the side of the observation port, a mottled tal pipe extending down from the top of the cave.
Aileen used a handkerchief to wipe the periscope smudged with dust, the other end of the mirror still only showing a faint light.
"You seem to have suddenly lost interest in Lu Li?" Aileen retracted the handkerchief, waiting for the mirror’s surface to be cleaned.
"I thought we were once alike, emotions were just the detritus of thought, only reason is truth. But now he’s no different from others."
"I disagree with you."
Aileen squinted her long eyes, seeming to be savoring sothing.
"What makes us believe in Divinity is not its godhood, but the part of it that has humanity."
"Only non-believers can join the refuge."
"Just a taphor, you boring woman."
Lulu was silent for a while, then spoke after the rustling from the cave wall ceased: "Are you feeling sad?"
"Why do you think that? On the contrary, I’m very happy. The refuge’s crisis has been resolved, and we’ve successfully made contact with the outside world, and those we know are still active on the surface."
The end of the periscope beca faintly bright, Aileen leaned forward, bringing one eye closer to the lens.
"I ant that Lu Li is still young, and you’re already an old woman." Lulu spoke then.
"So you’re using answers to retaliate against my saying you’re a boring woman?"
Through the cleaned lens, Aileen glimpsed the ruined remnants and the distant coastline, the Black Ring hanging in the void.
The scarred earth looked tragic, but the scene was still precious.
She looked again at the figures leaving the refuge. They stepped out of the ruins and vanished among the trees of the Silent Speech Forest.
...
"What did you just wipe?"
Stepping over the decayed shrubs buried in soil, Katerina asked Lu Li, with a rustling sound.
"A periscope."
Lu Li was observing their footprints.
The dampness near the coast left the forest soil soft, so their footsteps were clear and might last for months.
But aside from their footprints, there were no other traces in the forest.
The Silent Speech Forest went unnoticed.
Ophelia said it was barren here, with nothing existing, no strange phenona, no life—which made it even less likely for anything strange to set foot here, allowing the forest to beco a sanctuary.
On the map provided by the refuge, the outline of Silent Speech Forest was a long ellipse, like a long loaf of bread extending from the coastline into the land. In narrow places, one could even see the wilderness on either side through the trees.
This ant it wouldn’t take much effort to find survivors who had left traces here—approaching the forest’s deeper edges, they saw a wooden watchtower that had collapsed behind the treetop, and a gathering site enclosed by wooden fences.
Lu Li and the others entered the gathering site.
It had long been abandoned. The collapsed fences and wooden houses silently told the tale of the disaster that had struck this place.
"Can you sense it?"
The gathering site’s diater was only a hundred ters, but finding a "corpse" among it wasn’t easy either.
"Not before it awakens." The rchant responded.
"No quicker way?" Katerina asked.
There were two hours until nightfall. But they needed to reserve ti for the return trip and guard against the Mist of Strangeness descending early; at most an hour, and they would have to return to the coastline and back to Andrea.
"The Exorcist’s approach can awaken the rchant." The rchant added.
This saved so effort, as Lu Li only needed to circle around the gathering site a few tis to find the rchant.
If it was indeed at the gathering site.
Letting Lu Li move around the gathering site, Katerina and Puxiu explored the remaining uncollapsed wooden houses, but everything inside had long lost recognition of its original form.
When Katerina erged from a wooden house, she saw a silhouette crawling out of the center clearing of the gathering site.
It was buried under campfire charcoal and ashes, with soil-covered black charcoal and dust falling from its body, a large backpack made it recognizable—
The second rchant crawled out of the ground, standing silently beside the rchant.
"Aren’t you going to reminisce?" Katerina, who had returned, asked.
"It’s already done." The rchant replied.
The swarm consciousness made their mories shared.
"It, like , has lost everything."
No one was surprised by this. Knowing the rchant had been taken by the gathering site residents, they were aware the backpack wouldn’t contain any goods.
Having smoothly found the second rchant, before nightfall, they left the Silent Speech Forest back to the coastline.
Passing by the ruins, they saw the hole behind the statue had already been filled, with the color of the dirt nearly indistinguishable from its surroundings. In a few days, no one would be able to tell there had been a hole leading to the refuge.
Not staying at the ruins, they returned to the beach to row back to Andrea. As they stood on the creaking old deck, a fleshy mountain was surfacing from the sea.
The nauseating flesh mountain inhaled and exhaled, birthing the mist of strangeness.
The swirling fog drifting towards the land gradually enveloped Andrea, leaving the exterior of the Captain’s Cabin in darkness.
As the Mist of Strangeness shrouded the land, nightfall arrived simultaneously.
"The statue has awakened."
The rchant answered the gaze Lu Li had cast.
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