Underneath the Midnight City, above the old sewer.
Without the shackles of the guardian of the land, the swamp is still restricted and difficult to spread.
But the swamp will not always be silent. Just as Lu Li wants to restrict the swamp, the swamp also wants to get rid of restrictions.
Now, it's starting to do that.
Start with Midnight City.
Lu Li hoped that this was just an accident. For example, the smell of the swamp on the rotting ghoul was accidentally contaminated, or it was just a misperception.
No matter what, Lu Li must approach the pit to confirm the truth.
Returning to the farm, Lu Li and Claire summoned the businessman Anthony in the basement.
The merchant said that there was no abnormal movement at the Midnight City Terminal, the swamp was still calm, or its abnormal movement was not noticed.
In front of the merchant and Ophelia, Lu Li used his dream to guide Claire to the scene she encountered in the pit: the bottom of the pit was filled with surging black water. As Claire circled closer, the thick flowing black water revealed its true appearance: countless
Rotten ghouls crowded at the bottom of the pit, squirming in filth.
The resulting tide lapped at the shore, and the "stranded" rotting ghouls melted and collapsed back into the black tide.
"The Rotten Weird won?"
Their decay marks are too deep, but the ghoul marks are the same, like a weird combination of ghouls and decay.
Lu Li stared at the deep pit covered by the surging black tide. Occasionally they stirred up waves, but they never revealed the bottom of the pit.
There must be something hidden under the pit.
Lu Li recalled the rotten ghoul that was tracking Claire, and took the alienation potion to start shaping it.
A rotten ghoul dripping with black water gradually appeared in front of them. It was hunched like a ghoul, its severely rotten flesh and blood were as black as charcoal, and its internal organs fell into the chest like a bunch of rotten grapes.
"There's something wrong." Claire shook her head and refused, "There's something missing."
"They feel alive to me..."
"Aren't they inherently alive?" Ophelia wondered.
Lu Li realized what Claire was talking about, and controlled his body to stop squirming all the time. The dripping black water seemed to be activated, squirming and reintegrating into the body surface.
"Evil... looks a little disgusting."
Lu Li's new image outlines Claire's shadow.
But there's still something missing - the swampy atmosphere I felt earlier.
Lu Li couldn't imitate it and could only hope that the black tide and the existence at the bottom of the pit would not notice these tiny "seawaters".
Wearing a black robe that shrouded his silhouette, Lu Li walked through the falling dust to the east again and slipped into the deep pit of the Blood Plague tribe.
Scattered obsidian fragments and loose gravel slipped off as Lu Li passed by, allowing Lu Li to truly see the surging black tide, and at the same time alarmed them.
Wow – Wow –
Thick tidal waves lapped at the shore, and rubble sank into the terrifying black tide. The rotten ghouls drifting with the current showed no reaction. Lu Li tentatively approached a stranded shore and squirmed into the deep pit with rotten ghouls.
Ghost. It didn't identify Lu Li, and even took the initiative to stick to it.
Lu Li allowed the rotten ghoul to carry him into the black tide, and was gradually separated by the crowded tide, and merged into the depths.
All he could see was the turbid black tide. As he lost his direction, Lu Li stopped drifting with the tide and sank actively, resisting the squeeze and rejection coming from the "bottom of the lake".
After losing his way, vision followed closely. Only the two evil spirit chess pieces falling naturally in the chest guided the direction.
Lu Li continued to sink, but the crowding and crawling sensation around him reminded him that he had not yet reached the bottom of the pit, and the darkness made it difficult for him to see.
When Lu Li was thinking about whether to temporarily emerge from the pit and bring a fluorescent stone, his eyes protected by his ribs saw a dim light coming from the black tide gap at the bottom.
Lu Li swam toward the only light. Whether it was the core or the trap, there were variables in the black tide of this abyss.
The changing vortex took him closer to the depths. The deep part of the black tide seemed to become sparse, and more and more light appeared in the gaps.
Unexpectedly, Lu Li saw familiar features in the Rotting Ghoul: rotting skin inlaid with iron pieces with inscriptions.
Ghoul Warlock Blood Spirit.
…
"I disagree."
At that time, Lu Li no longer remained silent: "They are all independent individuals just like us. Those who struggle to survive in the dark and cold are human beings, and those who cry and surrender are also human beings. They are only great because of themselves."
Blood Spirit grinned at the corners of his rotten lips and showed a human smile: "...You know, I appreciate your thoughts more than agreeing with mine."
"Arrogance... This is the weakness of our race. We were born from the corpses of other races, thinking that we have inherited their advantages and abandoned their shortcomings... Therefore, we have arrogance. But no matter how small a life is, its existence has merit...
"
"We are strong because of our race, and we are weak because of our weakness. It is like being manipulated by fate... But what if we can change these? We will no longer crawl out of corpses, but be conceived by corpses..."
"Are we still ghouls then?"
"It doesn't matter...as long as we bathe in the grace of the Ghoul King, we are ghouls."
…
Lu Li's consciousness separated from the conversation that day, and he stared at the numb blood spirit in front of him.
It seemed to have assimilated with the rotting ghouls around it, its empty eyes no longer intelligent, and it was swept away by the opposite vortex very close at hand.
Lu Li moved his gaze away, squeezing towards the light that was only a short distance away.
The mottled dim light revealed the outlines of the rotting ghouls, as if light shone through the fence towards them. Soon, Lu Li became one of them, and his eyes covered by his ribs reflected the core of the pit bottom.
Indescribable horror gripped Lu Li's soul.
Lu Li gave up prying and thinking, maintaining an eternal seal and death-like stillness. He allowed the vortex to gradually pull him away from the gap filled with seepage, and drifted with the current. Until the vortex sent him back to the surface of the black tide, where he was surrounded by countless rotting corpses.
The surging ghosts made him stranded, like a beach of dark mud lying motionless on the shore.
After a long period of stillness, Lu Li woke up from a long sleep, crawling slowly and lightly out of the pit like a tired person waking up from sleep.
After spending dozens of minutes climbing up and a few minutes of careful sliding down the pit, and then slowly crawling a few blocks away from the edge of the pit to retrieve the black robe, Lu Li finally regained his speed and quickly moved away from the black tide of the pit.
Afraid of bringing terror to the farm, Lu Li circled half a circle in the east before returning to the south, from the tunnel back to the tunnel, and from the tunnel back to the farm.
"You should leave Midnight City immediately and go to Ghost Town. Tell 'Mother' that Ghost Town may no longer be safe and prepare to evacuate to the west."
Lu Li unpacked his baggage, drank sesame oil, returned to human form, and put on a cloak.
Lu Li's mood made them feel uneasy because they had never seen Lu Li so solemn.
After Ophelia asked what he had found, Lu Li told them the horrific truth he saw at the bottom of the pit:
The Black Tide imprisoned the Ghoul King in the pit, where he was eaten away by the swamp.
