CHAPTER 1001: CHAPTER 194: THE EYE OF THE GOD OF THE DEEP SEA

Returning from the Gloxie Station far from the Midnight City Main Station to Luo Kou Station, they didn’t encounter any forces coveting the Crystal Currency.

Perhaps it was because the leader’s mother terrified them, or maybe the Steam Contour held them back—or perhaps both. Partly, it was also because the Worms gave enough aid.

If faction favor existed, Lu Li would be friendly with the forces of the Eye Demon Worm—as passing through the Insect Path no longer subjected them to corrosive, sticky, face-melting stomach acid digestion.

Ophelia guessed that some bizarre hive-like group consciousness existed among the worms, like that in the Elm Forest at Seaview Cliff.

Returning from the branch path to Luo Kou Town, under the wary and peculiar gazes of the local church group, the team—now missing half its members—retreated to the beach and boarded Andrea, waiting.

If enemies pursued from the old sewers, the array on the coast would delay them, allowing Andrea to leave leisurely.

The Tentacle Cultist was enraged that Lu Li returned empty-handed, but that was all. The commission hadn’t failed, and Lu Li wasn’t its subordinate.

During the long wait, Lu Li and the others discussed arrangements for the only additional merchant.

The other newly joined Spider Guide timidly sneaked away as soon as the believers went to Spiral Hall to support, taking with it the several hundred Shillings they had put down at the inn.

Though they hardly had time to retrieve them in the first place.

Ophelia believed the merchant should be sent to Midnight City, corresponding with the merchant from Vena Ice-Free Port. Puxiu hoped merchants could walk the earth in response to people’s calls, like in the Old Era.

Lu Li adopted neither suggestion. The first because their connection with Midnight City wasn’t close enough. The latter because the conditions for merchants to walk the earth in the Weird Times didn’t exist—the Weird wouldn’t allow it.

Most importantly, the merchant had already arranged a destination for itself.

Back to clear the inner layer of the merchant’s Inner World.

At any rate, finding a third merchant meant they were no longer so short-handed.

Then came the believers of the Shadow Church.

Because of Anna, Lu Li trusted them and allowed them to follow, but maintained distance. For instance, he wouldn’t inquire to understand their structure and duties.

Yet on the mission to retrieve the Eye of the Ancient God, Lu Li realized these believers were more loyal than imagined.

The believers regarded Lu Li as if he were their Divinity; the surrounding aura of faith was proof. But Lu Li knew too little about them, even Puxiu knew more.

At least Puxiu remembered each believer’s name and even gave new names to those with only a church name.

Yet communicating with them was a complex and tedious task. Confronting Lu Li, they would use a method not belonging to humans, a complex, lengthy, and cumbersome, prayer-like whispered language.

And the only one who could communicate fluently, Bishop Jone, was missing.

Lu Li found among them a believer intelligent enough, who could speak words barely understandable, and had it lead the believers temporarily until Bishop Jone returned.

On the third day of waiting, no surviving believers returned, but the purpose of this trip had a new development: Merchant Anthony was called by the eye of the Steam Contour.

Except it didn’t want to trade with the merchant but came to see Lu Li for a face-to-face transaction.

They agreed on the coastal array as the meeting place, but disputes arose when discussing the details.

Ophelia didn’t want Lu Li to go for the transaction, while Lu Li knew the reason the Steam Contour insisted on a face-to-face trade was that it wanted to see him.

It would display an attitude towards Lu Li that seemed familiar.

"No, I’ll go too."

...

In the evening tide, the Steam Contour appeared before the coast.

The scorching dark red steam crystallized the sand along its path, but as it approached the Tentacle Cultist’s drawn array, sensing something, it dissipated its terrifying aura, merely obscuring its silhouette as it entered the array.

"Your actions don’t resemble an Exorcist at all, more like a Fallen."

The Steam Contour gazed at Andrea near the sea, and the believers not far away, with the first words unrelated to the deal.

"Before the three major organizations merged, I was an investigator." The sea breeze brushed through black hair, and Lu Li, confirming his inner guess, responded.

"You recognized me?" The Steam Contour’s icy tone revealed emotion.

"No. It’s just that you showed emotion towards the existence of an Exorcist."

Standing beside, Ophelia was surprised: "You... were also... human?"

"Human... I am merely a monster that happened to eat an Exorcist’s soul. Exceptionally delicious and memorable... but the side effects have since haunted me, never allowing peace."

The Steam Contour’s tone revealed a human-like complexity. A chaotic mix of longing, joy, resentment, and anger.

Perhaps this complex emotion is what the Steam Contour referred to as "side effects"?

"Did you bring the Weird Crystal?" The Steam Contour stopped probing into internal secrets.

"Ophelia," Lu Li said calmly.

Ophelia took out a wooden box with newly surmounting crystals and asked the Steam Contour, "Where’s the item."

The steam’s blurred silhouette made a motion, and a faded, murky eyeball flew out of the steam, landing in Lu Li’s hand.

The sensation in the bandaged right palm suddenly spread outward from the eyeball, becoming an invisible organ that could interact with matter.

At this moment, Lu Li realized he could manipulate water, then did so, gathering moist vapor into a water ball before it fell onto the beach as the force dissipated.

"Did you kill that demon?" Lu Li asked, verifying the eyeball’s authenticity.

"Demons are adept at running away; that was merely an avatar."

Or rather, those cunning creatures never showed their true selves.

Thankfully, the item was real.

"She said she’d return to find you before leaving," the Steam Contour added maliciously, then asked Lu Li for several eyeballs.

"If you run into trouble, you can come to me, though the price won’t be cheap."

Watching the Steam Contour vanish at the horizon’s edge, Lu Li quietly contemplated.

It was evident that the Steam Contour bore no malice towards Lu Li. Yet devouring an Exorcist’s skin didn’t unleash these good intentions... It at least gained memories from an Exorcist, or was once an Exorcist.

Ophelia, who thought of the same point, looked at Lu Li’s profile. She hoped it was the latter, which meant Lu Li wouldn’t be alone anymore.

Lu Li returned to the shallows, handing the Eye of the Ancient God back to the Tentacle Cultist.

The Tentacle Cultist became peculiar, a mixture of fear, excitement—two entirely opposite and contradictory emotions. They didn’t say a word, hurriedly burrowing into the deep sea, merging into the lead-grey waves.

Lu Li waited briefly on the beach for their return. But when they hadn’t surfaced after several minutes, preparing to return to the big ship to wait, a silhouette cloaked beneath a veil-like damp sacrificial robe emerged from the sea.

The silhouette stepped onto the sea surface, minuscule yet insignificant, but in perception it was more vast than the ocean, filling the entire space like a deity blotting out the sun.

It opened its arms and solemnly declared its identity.

"I am the Lord who commands the ocean, the God of the Deep Sea."