Chapter 1093: Chapter 62: Regathering
Yege turned back to confront the villagers: “What’s going on… are you going back on your word?”
Margaret raised her ethereal hand to stop Yege, silently and calmly saying something.
“Perhaps her soul has been away from her body for too long,” said Fudote.
Kiluate examined Margaret’s body. Her shell was still alive, with faint breathing and a heartbeat, but her soul was absent.
“Can you restore her?” asked Lu Li, addressing the villagers.
[We don’t know]
The villagers gathered to answer in written form, seemingly to prove their truthfulness, the power enveloping Margaret’s shell dissipated. Kiluate caught the collapsing shell, indicating for Margaret to make contact again.
The ethereal arm still passed through the shell, this wouldn’t work.
The Holy Light Squad didn’t know how to handle ‘resurrection,’ and Kiluate raised his head in panic: “Her body is dying!”
Without the underground city’s power shrouding it, the soulless body was heading towards death.
“You go to the Alchemy Office to find Professor Chris,” Lu Li confirmed through Merchant Anthony that she was there.
“Margaret is now a ghost… the Giant Tree won’t let her in!” Naxi looked at Margaret in panic. Emitting a cold, moonlight-like glow, she remained calm as if it wasn’t her who was dying.
Fudote released a parasitic worm from her insect pouch to let Margaret’s soul temporarily reside on it, avoiding detection by the Giant Tree and the Gatekeeper.
“What about you?” Kiluate asked Lu Li, who wasn’t planning on leaving.
“To complete the remaining part of the cooperation.”
Before completing the cooperation, they wouldn’t let Lu Li leave.
“Be careful.”
The Holy Light Squad quickly left the underground city with Margaret’s soul and shell.
When the team’s figures disappeared behind the crevice in the rock, Lu Li had Merchant Anthony summon a worm to burrow a passage leading to the Swamp Forbidden Zone.
This process was bound to be lengthy. Dozens of minutes later, the worm dug through a small house wall, emerging from the underground. The already alerted underground city awareness did not repel the appearing worm.
The chill from the outside world dispelled the underground city’s haze, and the villagers gathered unanimously around the pit dug by the worm, vaguely glimpsing the faint light from the Swamp at the end.
For a closed underground city, the Swamp Forbidden Zone was the ‘outside world’ and the necessary route to the old sewers.
Undoubtedly, this underground city was composed of a collective consciousness. Margaret’s shell also became part of the collective consciousness, but her soul was inexplicably spared. Perhaps the collective consciousness needed Margaret’s wisdom, or perhaps she had another secret.
Lu Li and the underground city consciousness completed their cooperation with each other. They let Lu Li leave without obstruction. As for whether they stayed in the underground city or abandoned the underground city sandwiched between the Giant Tree and the Swamp and chose migration, that was up to them to decide.
The solitary Lu Li returned to the entrance, slipping through the crevice without looking back. Soon after he exited, the entrance suddenly collapsed and closed off.
They had their answer.
…
Knock knock knock—
The tree trunk level, Alchemy Office for senior students.
When Lu Li arrived, Professor Chris was blending potions at the Alchemy Stand.
Margaret’s body was placed in a recliner, surrounded by others and her soul.
“Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news?” Kiluate looked at Lu Li.
“Both.”
“The good news is Margaret can come back to life. The bad news is her soul has been separated from her body for too long and will take a long time to recover… maybe not in time to earn enough credits for promotion in less than two months.”
The joy on Kiluate’s cheeks suggested the bad news was trivial compared to the good news.
What could be more delightful than regaining what was lost?
Lu Li approached the recliner. Margaret’s body bore slight abrasions from the rock walls, aside from the tattered dirty clothes and calloused hands.
After all, before Lu Li rescued Margaret from the underground city, her shell had been a ‘villager’ for over a month.
“Did you destroy that underground city?”
From the shadow of potion-making, Professor Chris asked.
“No. I left after clearing the Swamp passage, and then the underground city sealed the entrance.”
“It seems they want to escape the fate of becoming an underground city, but I’m curious… they didn’t even think to bite you once.”
Resisting Lu Li’s ‘charm’ required great restraint—especially for the unregulated weirdness.
“Perhaps they fear the power of Giant Tree Academy and the Tarot Cards.”
“Tarot Cards?”
“Light Tarot Cards, the treasure extracted from the underground city.”
“You guys were lucky,” Professor Chris commented.
“Is it famous?”
Currently, the Light Tarot Cards were in the hands of Fudote, the only one who could use them.
“Count Hunter’s substantial reward for it has been hanging on the Midnight City task board for three years.”
The properties of the Homogeneous Item made it difficult to measure power, just like many weirdness cannot be measured: “So I guess aside from the Light Tarot Cards, the rest are just trash, right?”
“A few batches nearing a hundred Sequence Potions,” Lu Li replied.
Professor Chris, holding the prepared potion, returned to the recliner, poured the aloe vera-like viscous transparent potion into Margaret’s opened mouth.
Without swallowing, the potion poured down the throat.
“What’s this?” Kiluate, slightly less apprehensive, asked.
“Glue.”
“Uh…”
“Glue to reattach the soul and body together,” Professor Chris handed the remaining half-cup potion to Margaret’s soul: “Drink the rest.”
Margaret’s luminescent soul, initially unable to interact with the external world, caught the potion and drank it. She lay on the recliner as Professor Chris instructed, merging with her body.
“Close your eyes, imagine you’re trapped in a nightmare, breathe, feel your heartbeat, need to wake up…”
In Professor Chris’s low whisper, they heard the faint heartbeat, the chest beginning to rise and fall, eyelashes gently trembling… a pair of non-illusionary, lake-like tranquil eyes opened.
Lu Li asked Merchant Anthony to bring a wheelchair.
Having had a similar experience, Lu Li knew how to avoid symptoms of soul detachment.
“Stay still, the glue is taking effect, then get used to your regained body,” Professor Chris took the wide-brimmed hat off the coat rack, turned to bid farewell to Lu Li: “Dear, I have things to do, remember to tidy up the office when you and your team members leave.”
Click—
The door closed, and the Alchemy Office fell into an eerie silence.
Lu Li broke the silence with his footsteps as he began to tidy up the disordered Alchemy Stand.
Kiluate and others watched, not daring to help.
“Thank you,” Margaret’s whisper pulled them back to reality, Kiluate gently stroked her forehead: “You are our companion…”
Lu Li quickly tidied up the office. They didn’t stay long, waiting for Margaret to be able to slowly move, Kiluate gently lifted her, placing her in the wheelchair.
“Let’s go home.”