Chapter 1012: Chapter 205: Sinking into a Dream

The girl’s body became rigid due to the summoning, her eyes as dark as the abyss showing a dazed expression, struggling to dissolve and reveal human pupils.

“…Lu Li…? I’m sorry! I, I… didn’t protect Aunt Mary.” She apologized with tears, remembering something, but there was no time to wipe away her tears: “Quickly…”

The pupils, representing wakefulness, were once again consumed by darkness, and she became the numbed and dazed maid, ready to serve.

“Jojo… Joanna… Oliver… Aunt Mary…”

Subsequent summons could no longer awaken her.

Lu Li did not wash his body. Leaving Jojo, he went to the corridor, locked the door behind him, and knocked on others’ rooms.

No one responded.

“Where are the others?”

Lu Li asked a servant dressed in bizarre human clothing, prostrating in a bow.

“The Divine Envoys have already gone to the hall.” The servant answered.

Furrowing his brow slightly, Lu Li followed the red carpeted corridor to its end, finding everyone gathered around the long table in the hall.

“Mr. Luli, you wash so slowly.” Puxiu, seated on a carved wooden chair with a red bow tie at his chest, joked, the tail under his tailcoat swaying.

“Lu Li… after all… is an adult, too.” Ophelia, with a charcoal-like body, wore a deep pink evening gown, long lace gloves covering her unsightly skin, also wearing a flaxen wig, reminding one that she had always been in an unclothed state.

Ophelia let out a crow’s harsh laugh—her first time laughing.

“How long has it been?”

“Including the time waiting for Mr. Luli, almost an hour.” Puxiu, cleaned so thoroughly even his freckles seemed to glow.

The time did not match.

Lu Li recalled what happened after they parted; the corridor was continuous, only the room might have had memory loss.

The differing time flow within the room was also a possibility.

At this moment, a giant frog crawled in slowly in a devout, strange prostrate posture.

To it, regardless of the God of the Deep Sea or its companion Divine Envoys, were existences far superior, regardless of strength.

“I have a question.” Lu Li said to it.

“Please complete the ritual first…” an indistinct voice came from the face buried in the carpet, unseen: “Please, Divine Envoy, take your seat at the table.”

“I’ve lost part of—”

“I said: sit.”

Like frog croaks rippling across water, an inexplicable obfuscated force urged Lu Li forward, pushing him to sit, suppressing his thoughts.

“Mr. Luli, it is, of course, annoying to pry into others’ privacy like this…” Puxiu, sat beside him, whispered with someone else’s memories.

Lu Li glanced around those at the long table. The God of the Deep Sea was indifferent; Ophelia regretted that Lu Li sat opposite her.

The problem was not sensed by the spirits or the gods, was it himself?

Ophelia and Puxiu’s clothes fit perfectly, as if prepared beforehand; Jojo, who remained consistent with the memory of the girl even 24 years later, said her first words regarding Aunt Mary; Ophelia could identify each famous painting and sculpture; Puxiu yearned for the people’s attire… a devout believer still worshiping the God of the Deep Sea, inextricably.

Including Jojo’s anxious, unfinished words.

“Would you like to start with the main course, or the appetizer first?” The giant frog asked the God of the Deep Sea, seemingly still reverent.

“Main course. I need to reclaim my missing body parts as soon as possible.” The God of the Deep Sea spoke with dignified murmurs.

“Then… very well.”

With a trembling sound, the giant frog slowly lifted its head, revealing a face neither ugly nor disgusting, but one belonging to a human filled with zeal and excitement.

In the next moment, the God of the Deep Sea lying on the dining table, while the giant frog squeezed into the main seat, humorously wearing a napkin, wielding knife and fork.

“I will devour you carefully, devoutly, respectfully.”

The God of the Deep Sea was the imminent main course.

Ophelia, wanting to do something, was suddenly shackled by obfuscated power, frantically looking at Lu Li: “Lu—”

Lu Li, originally in his seat, was nowhere to be seen.

…

Hiss—hiss—

In the distance, waves licked the beach.

Lu Li gradually awoke.

The wet, cold sea breeze brushed the deck, Lu Li glanced around him, Puxiu, Ophelia, the God of the Deep Sea, all believers lay asleep on the deck, only Merchant Anthony with his ragged backpack standing.

“Have we reached the island?”

Lu Li turned his head toward the island, the mist still enveloped there, casting shadows of rocky mountains.

Why did the location of the God of the Deep Sea’s missing body contain the dream power of its adversary, the Lord of the Deep?

“No. Approaching the island, everyone fell asleep.”

“Andrea too?”

“Yes.”

Jojo was not telling to escape quickly.

But to wake up quickly.

Lu Li shook Puxiu, calling names that might wake him, hurting Puxiu, yet none worked.

The force capable of putting the gods to sleep evidently couldn’t be counteracted by external means, Lu Li awakened due to his Cursed Title [Lighthouse] and the Dreamwalker, sharing the same source with dream power.

The God of the Deep Sea’s power slowly weakened, being devoured in the dream realm.

“You take the God of the Deep Sea and Ophelia on the wooden boat away from the island, if they wake up, have them find me.”

Lu Li manually pushed the wooden boat off the railing, waiting for the boat to hit the water, grabbing the hemp rope, instructing Merchant Anthony before jumping into the wooden boat, rowing towards the rough brown beach.

Some footprints not yet washed away by the rising tide extended to the distant town: two pairs of human footprints, paw prints of a small animal, also scratches as if washed by seawater.

Those were their footprints.

Reality and dreams tightly intertwined at this moment.

[Plankal Town: Facing the Barren Lands, never alone again; backed by rock mountains, like a small Belfast; beautiful environment, enjoying the unique golden sandy beach; possessing refuge caves, fearing no tsunami or storm; neighbors… nobles, professors… scholars…]

Lu Li saw that poster sign, identical to reality.

The dream would also follow facts—a part of the facts.

At least when Lu Li picked up the oil lamp, gripping the Spirit-Calling Gun stepping into the cave, reentering the mansion corridor-like passage red carpet, nothing abnormal blocked his advance.

The corridor was not as bright as in the dream, yet still beautiful. Hanging oil paintings, standing sculptures, outside the window the underground garden showed a corner of dusty fabric plants.

Passing by a room, Lu Li pushed the door open, unfortunately, Jojo’s figure was not there. According to memory, reaching the end of the long corridor, he forced open the tightly shut hall door.

The long dining table was covered with a thick layer of dust, the seats empty, the far master seat shrouded in darkness.

Clap—clap—

A pair of hands suddenly extended from the impenetrable dark edge, gently clapping.

“You’ve come too late… luckily escaped the dream realm… kinsman.”

The owner of the hands sitting at the head of the table leaned forward, revealing a face and body identical to the giant frog person.

He was answered by the echoing roar of gunfire.