He turned to a low whisper: "Who are you? Among my slaves...why are there people who don't believe in me?"
"How can I help you get out of trouble?"
Lu Li avoided the Ghoul King's question, and a long silence followed.
Almost when Lu Li thought that the Ghoul King had lost himself due to cannibalism, a low echo came:
"Are you silent, or am I unable to hear you?"
Lu Li realized that the conversation between the Ghoul King and him was one-way.
After a long wait, the Ghoul King's whisper sounded again: "No matter what it is...go to Heim...find the spiritual sculpture and bring it back..."
"Where is Heim and what is the Spirit Sculpture?"
Lu Li's question had no answer, and the whisper continued:
"The swamp imprisoned me with conspiracy and brought the spirit sculpture. Unbeliever, you will get everything you want..."
The King of Ghouls did not disappear immediately. He whispered, and his voice slowly faded away.
All the clues converge in one place - the existence behind the rotting weirdness is the Swamp.
Not wanting to disturb Midnight City's weird swamps, the rotten monsters quietly eroded the surface. The ghouls were the first to come into contact with them. The ghouls who were originally planning to evacuate to the east were instigated by Lu Li and started a war with the rotten monsters, which delayed the erosion plan of the swamps.
Especially after the scavenging monster Hel added more weirdness, some kind of deep power exploded, resulting in the current result: the apparent ghoul king retreated, roaring loudly over Midnight City, and the ghouls and rotting monsters perished together.
The truth is that the rotten weirdness of the fused ghoul gathered in the pit, forming a black tide to cover up the truth that the Ghoul King was being eaten away by the swamp.
Lu Li stayed away from the pit and summoned the merchant Anthony in a hidden place to contact the land of light.
"Ophelia told me that you contacted us sooner than expected...what happened?"
"The King of Ghouls told me something through some means. What are Helm and Spirit Sculpture?"
Merchant Anthony went back with Lu Li's inquiry. After waiting longer than expected, the merchant brought back news that even the Land of Light didn't know.
Lu Li asked the Land of Light to contact Ghost Town to find a way to capture a ghoul. The higher the status, the better, and ask it what Heim and the Spiritual Sculpture represented.
The Ghost Town Church helped Ophelia and the others capture the ghouls, and Lu Li waited a long time to get the bad news.
"The ghouls nearby are dying one after another...what happened?"
Ophelia said that they entered the old sewers of Haunted Town, but all the ghouls they found were dead.
Lu Li told her that the Ghoul King was using his people to slow down the encroachment of the swamp.
"Then how do we find a living ghoul?"
"Far away, the further away the better."
"I asked those allies to find it. But are you sure? Ghouls are qualified to know the secrets of gods."
"He thinks 'I' know about Heim and the Spirit Sculpture, so it's not a secret."
At least the ghoul warlock is qualified to know.
"And you?"
Ophelia asked finally.
Lu Li looked back into the distance. The dust covering Midnight City had settled, and the black tide under the deep sky formed an inaccessible forbidden area.
He wants to go back to the bottom of the dark tide again.
Foul-smelling, rotten, abominable forms like mud squirmed on the dusty, silent streets, came to the side of the collapsed ruins, crawled along the steep slopes, merged into the surging black tide like lake water, and gradually melted.
Lu Li seemed to be part of the black tide, joining them, blending into them. Mixing into the deep vortex, he quietly left before they receded.
The light passed through the gaps between the layers and reflected in Lu Li's eyes.
Bypassing the gradually sparse cage, Lu Li peeked at the imprisoned and nibbling Ghoul King - His feet were submerged in the haze of hatred.
Lu Li's arrival did not alarm him, nor did it disturb the swamp.
You Yi stood outside the cage and confirmed that the Ghoul King could last longer than expected. Lu Li quietly returned to the surface of the black tide, waiting for the waves to strand him on the shore and leave the pit.
Lu Li returned to his hiding place, a remote hunter's cabin built on a hill.
The dust dissipated, and the hunter's cabin that stood on a low hill before the establishment of Midnight City and was preserved overlooked the pit. The previous owner was scared away by the fall of the alchemy tower, and the previous owner was driven away by Lu Li.
Lu Li simply blocked the doors and windows with a wooden chair, picked up the stove in the kitchen and climbed up to the dark attic.
Putting the stove aside, Lu Li opened the dusty window and looked out.
The rotting ghouls surging at the bottom of the pit look like real black water.
Leaving the window open for ventilation, Lu Li returned to the stove, broke off the eaves planks, started a fire, and cooked food.
But the hill hut was not the promised land, and it was not even safe. Before the cans on the stove boiled, there was the sound of wooden chairs being knocked down downstairs.
Lu Li had to go back downstairs temporarily and asked the uninvited guest who broke in: "Are you a local from Midnight City?"
The fat maggot sprayed venom at Lu Li, and Lu Li responded with a dream, gave it a devil's contract and sent it to the ghost town. Then he packed up the weirdly knocked down door and chairs and returned to the boiling can in the attic.
Lu Li fiddled with the simmering broth and looked at the businessman emerging from the shadows.
Businessman Anthony brought back the news: "Heim and Lingsha may be in the farmland."
The ghoul warlock knows no more than Lu Li, the fake ghoul. The land of light can only be found elsewhere.
Cultivated Garden, also known as the Land of Hope, Solahim. The latter originated from the great adventurer Thorasivia Shim who discovered Cultivated Garden, and in the name of the locals, it gradually evolved into Sorahim.
.
It sounds a bit far-fetched, but what connects the clues to the Farmland Garden is Spirit Sculpture - this is a term unique to the Farmland Garden, and is also used to describe the body of the gods, sculptures with divinity and things that have been possessed by the gods.
Does this mean that the King of Ghouls comes from the Farmland Garden and from the black ring hanging above the world?
"Is that accurate? The Arable Garden is dangerous and remote."
If Lu Li wasted time and risked his way to the Farmland Garden but had no results, there would be no chance of moving again.
"The Swamp Mother says this is the only known clue."
Lu Li prepared to continue following this clue, and at the same time arranged: "Let the Land of Light send letters to all known ghoul groups, and their kings are imprisoned in Midnight City."
"Do they need to be told the truth?"
"Need not."
Secrecy means checks and balances.
The swamp will not be aggressive until it is exposed, and will continue to be slowly encroached.
The steady stream of ghouls gathering in Midnight City will allow the King of Ghouls to persist longer.
"Where is Andrea?"
"We just arrived at Storm Point forty-five minutes ago."
"Let it wait for me."
"Where are you going?"
Before the merchant returned to the Land of Light, the tea party members had already realized Lu Li's answer.
