Chapter 967: Chapter 160: In Bell, Belfast, the Most Prosperous Place in the North of the Ailen Peninsula
“Lu Li…”
The voice called from afar, drawing nearer.
Lu Li emerged from delirium, returning to the cold reality.
Anna watched him gently and worriedly.
“I didn’t…”
The explanation ended abruptly, for it was Ophelia.
“You… don’t seem… well…” Ophelia said, as Lu Li had just been in a daze.
Lu Li didn’t respond to Ophelia, instead, he said to Merchant Anthony: “Contact Vena Ice-Free Port and ask if they have any method to operate during the Fog Tide and Eternal Night… any method.”
While waiting for Vena Ice-Free Port’s response, they returned to the cellar to wait.
No new clues were found during the wait. Before the method was relayed back, bad news was brought back by Merchant Anthony.
Katerina had disappeared.
Just this morning. Sent to the Sanatorium to recuperate, she vanished from the ward, leaving behind a large patch of mud and seaweed from the depths of the sea.
Ophelia was also not at the ship repair yard.
The Tribunal had intervened in the investigation, but it was unclear whether they were abducted by certain beings or left determinedly to find Lu Li.
Perhaps both.
Bad news followed in quick succession.
Hiding in the cellar, Lu Li smelled the stench of dead fish.
The scent didn’t originate from the cellar, as even the ground covered in ice and snow was freezing the smell—
Heretics, infected by the beliefs at Himfast, were in pursuit.
Ophelia couldn’t smell the stench, but could sense an aura more ominous than Himfast.
A charred arm reached out, extinguishing two oil lamps, covering Lu Li’s mouth in the dimness.
Lu Li tilted his head, slightly leaning forward preparing to break free.
Yet in the dimness lit only by fluorescing fluorite, he saw an exquisitely captivating face.
Of course, Lu Li knew this was just a delirium.
The soft palm covering his lips gradually became coarse and hard, the fragrance turning into a burnt smell.
Only the faint fishy stench remained unchanged, intensifying.
When they came, the snowstorm hadn’t ceased, their brief stay likely masking their tracks.
Except for the footprints at Hades’ home and the alley.
But like Puxiu’s aura, it abruptly stopped. Even if found, they would be difficult to track.
What’s uncertain is whether they would discover the magma-encased Gates of Hell and thus step into hell.
The only slight comfort is that the hideous creatures seemingly from the deep sea are wholly unsuitable for residing in the scorching hell.
Just as Lu Li thought. The fishy stench several times clear, several times fading. The heretics loitered in Watch Town, staying long before reluctantly leaving.
When the presence no longer manifested, Lu Li removed Ophelia’s hand.
“A message from Vena Ice-Free Port.”
The merchant broke the silence: “Midnight City provided a method, but it comes at a cost.”
“What method?”
The method provided by Midnight City was something Lu Li had experienced in the old sewers, the worms.
Even rock layers to them are like butter, their bodies extending for hundreds or even thousands of meters.
The crucial point is that no anomalies favor them.
The worms’ texture is like coarse sand, lacking nutrition and humanity, secreting foul-smelling fluids repulsive to anomalies. Starving anomalies would rather devour themselves than take a bite of this—
So the beings parasitizing the Eye Demon Worm didn’t get killed by this colossal entity floating around the Spine of the World Mountains; instead, they became its followers, symbiotically existing with it.
They are a means for Lu Li to traverse quickly through the winter, fog tide, and eternal night.
The price Lu Li has to bear is summoning the worms—thus allowing the worms to appear here.
For the Main Affinity Continent and even Ailen Peninsula, it’s tantamount to a species invasion—no one knows what terrifying changes worms arriving on the Main Affinity Continent would undergo. Because of Vena Ice-Free Port’s decree, worms have never set foot on the Main Affinity Continent.
But Mayor Matteus still conveyed Midnight City’s message to the merchant.
If Lu Li is willing, Midnight City would swiftly deliver several worms.
Lu Li chose to bear the cost.
Midnight City somehow managed to link enough worms to reach Himfast within hours, packed them into a cargo ship, and delivered them to Vena Ice-Free Port,
Many people noticed when over a dozen cargo ships arrived at the port.
To prevent panic, Mayor Matteus didn’t allow the ships to dock, instead letting the merchant board secretly to load the worms, then having Merchant Anthony on the other side release them.
The cellar was obviously not a good place.
They climbed back to the surface, confirmed the heretics had left, and let Merchant Anthony release the worms.
Merchant Anthony stepped into the darkness, awaiting shortly before the earth began to tremble violently.
Lu Li held the oil lamp high, but its shaking light couldn’t clearly reveal the full, surging outlines.
The frozen soil was like sand on the beach, easily split apart, cracks spreading. Ophelia reached out to steady the wobbling Lu Li, but he dodged.
He deliberately kept a distance from Ophelia, to avoid more intense delirium engulfing his sanity.
The intense churning was difficult to hide, yet the presence in the fog and darkness seemed uninterested here. Until the tremors ceased, the rumbling disappeared into the darkness; everything returned to silence, and nothing occurred.
Holding the oil lamp closer to the excavated frozen soil, a squirming Insect Path appeared.
Merchant Anthony took out Yellow Plum Grass, distributing it to Lu Li, Ophelia, and himself.
The leading lady struggled, reluctantly allowing Lu Li to apply the fluid to her body.
Entering the Insect Path, the squirming fleshy walls pushed and squeezed them forward. The worms weren’t end to end, existing several meters of rock layer cavities between them.
These rock layer cavities allowed a brief pause to replenish Yellow Plum Grass and water.
The worms’ corrosiveness was more terrifying than imagined; besides Yellow Plum Grass, almost everything was on its menu, including the vanished earth and stones.
The oil lamp he held was corroded and digested amid the worm’s wriggling for forgetting to apply the body fluid on it.
Notably, the merchant’s thick clothing and backpack had a layer of fluid.
The backpack was part of the merchant’s body.
The scarf and coat too.
…
Gradually, the rock-like hardened frozen soil arched up.
The soil beneath the snow surfaced, breaking and arching into a worm-like tunnel as large as a house.
Several moist contours with adhering mucus and firefly-like glimmers squeezed out from the fleshy wall, exposed to the icy snow.
Ophelia emitted warmth, evaporating the body’s mucus and simultaneously providing a heat source, while Lu Li donned a blanket to wipe his body, preventing frostbite.
“Ahead… pollution.”
Ophelia sensed the dense malevolence in the darkness.
They had reached their destination, and the polluted Himfast lay ahead.
Now, only the search for the Shadow Church’s Sacred Land around Himfast awaited them.
Fog Tide, winter, eternal night, each made the search for the hidden Shadow Church difficult, but Lu Li had to press on.
Anna might be there.
An elegant girl stepped into the darkness, gradually vanishing out of sight.
Lu Li could feel it; he was not far from the answer.