With fairly good visibility, smoke could be seen faintly rising from the horizon in the distance.
Lu Li and Kate walked slowly but firmly along the inlet.
Hopefully the smoke rising isn't a building or something burning.
According to the order, the interval from the disappearance of the Immortal Giant to the loss of contact with the Cultivated Garden was only a few days, and the interval from the loss of contact with the Cultivated Garden to the rise of the black ring spanned almost the entire rainy season.
So at this time, Cultivated Garden is not that bad for the time being - at least it is not facing catastrophe yet.
As Lu Li headed towards his destination, he was thinking about another thing: just like the pure black stone allowed him to return to before the destruction of the Lennon Islands. What was the existence of the farmland that allowed him to return to the farmland where nothing had happened yet?
A pure recorder like a pure black stone, or does Lu Li need to do something?
Kate, who was following Lu Li, gradually shrank her shoulders. The rapid inlet dozens of meters away brought abundant moisture. Her hair was already covered with dew, and her damp skirt clung to her body.
The aristocratic etiquette she had received told her that a gentleman would take off his clothes and put them on himself at this time, but Lu Li in front did nothing.
"cough……"
An uncontrollable cough awoke Lu Li's attention from his surroundings and thoughts. He noticed that Kate, whose nose was reddish, shrank her shoulders and hid behind her to avoid the wind. He took off his windbreaker and threw it to her.
"……Thanks."
Kate wrapped herself tightly in her windbreaker, and the cold gradually faded away. The warmth brought about the fatigue of the whole night, and dragged her into a drowsy state.
The smoke was rising farther away than imagined, but the good news was that it did come from Bay Town, and the town was not burned down or attacked.
After leaving the broken down car and walking for nearly two hours, Lu Li and Kate finally got out of the desolation and saw the townspeople wandering outside the town.
The town is fine, they are fine.
In fact, when they heard that a large ship encountered something strange on the sea, and that Lu Li and Kate were the survivors, and what happened on the Immortal Giant, these locals showed even more surprise, and then gathered young people to rush to the rescue.
There were dozens of miles of flat fields, enough for them to reach the stranding before dark and bring back the survivors.
Lu Li then asked the locals about Heim and the Spiritual Sculpture. He didn't have any hope, but the town's guard captain showed a very taboo expression.
"Do you know what that is?"
"...Follow me."
The guard captain led Lu Li and Kate to a large round house covered with old feathers and hair.
"Tell mother, guests are coming." The captain of the guard said to the dwarf outside the door.
The dwarf got into the round room with a felt roof, and soon raised the knitted door curtain to signal them to come in.
"Mother." The guard captain respectfully addressed an old woman with a thick braid sitting cross-legged on the blanket, "They want to know about Heim and... the spiritual sculpture."
Gray cloth covered her eyes, but when the old woman raised her head, Kate felt that she was "looking" at her.
"Why, child."
"A friend asked me to find them."
"...Friends won't let you do this." A pair of scrutinizing eyes seemed to be piercing Lu Li through the gray cloth.
"Enemy and friend."
"No one will let you look for it..."
"He is indeed not human."
After the lie was exposed, Lu Li did not show any emotions other than calmness, nor did his "mother" drive him away.
"Child, Heim is not special, and neither is the spirit sculpture, but when they are connected..."
Heim represents many meanings, and the spirit sculpture is the statue of the god. What connects them is a distant legend: the place where gods descended called Heim will bring destruction to the world.
The purpose of the Ghoul King is revealed: He wants Lu Li to find his spiritual sculpture in Heim.
"Mother" did not stop Lu Li from going to Heim, but only warned him that it was dangerous and that the friend who asked him to find the spiritual sculpture might have evil intentions - "Mother" had no way of knowing what happened to Lu Li, but her guess might be different ways.
"Go to Wanghai Cliff...your answer may be there..."
Kate also had problems. Before leaving, she asked her "mother": "We encountered heavy fog on the sea, and there are monsters lurking in the fog."
"Hassan Takana..."
"Mother" whispered the native dialect of Weird Mist, and said to Lu Li tiredly: "Go quickly...you don't have much time..."
Kate was still thinking hard about the meaning of "time is running out", but Lu Li had already asked directly: "What does time running out mean?"
"dark……"
"Mother" let out a long sigh. The dwarf stood in front of them and sent them away from the big house. Kate's dwarf hairstyle at this time had no tongue and was mute.
Meeting the guard captain waiting outside the house, Kate said to him: "Our car broke down on the road."
The captain of the guard said that he would let the townspeople take it back.
"That's a steam car."
"Steam what?"
"Steam car."
"What car?"
"Leave it there." Lu Li said.
The guard captain's reaction showed that no one in Bay Town knew how to repair the steam car.
Lu Li asked the captain of the guard to help guide the direction of Cape Hope, and asked for a map and a carriage - Lu Li in this era had no money to pay, so Kate mortgaged her necklace.
It is about 200 miles from Bay Town to Heim. If the road is flat and gravel, you can reach Heim before evening.
After buying some food and clothes, Lu Li put on his windbreaker and asked the tired Kate: "Are you still following me? It will become more and more dangerous next time."
"Um."
Pulling up the reins, Lu Li drove towards the south of the farmland.
The land was lifeless under the gloomy sky. This kind of boring, sleepy journey was something people in the weird era didn't dare to hope for. The only thing that hindered Lu Li was the turbulence itself, which was more serious than the one on the Immortal Giant.
Kate vomited all the food she had eaten. The severe motion sickness and soreness caused by the bumps made her almost unable to hold on. Finally, the bumps temporarily ended - they passed an abandoned village.
The village had been abandoned for a long time, and nothing was left. The only thing that aroused interest was the wooden bed that reminded Kate of it.
Lu Li searched around and found nothing, but when he was about to leave, he found a cave - there was a rotting corpse in the cave.
Before setting off, Lu Li asked the guard captain about the local legends. There was indeed a legend similar to that of a ghoul. What appeared in front of him looked like the prototype of a ghoul - it was a human corpse that transformed into a ghoul.
The ulcerated skin revealed the receding gums, and the palm placed on the abdomen where the wound appeared became sharp and elongated.
Lu Li observed the posture of the corpse. It seemed that he wanted to cut open his stomach before he died.
Picking up the ax next to the corpse, Lu Li began to cut open its leather-like tough skin. Kate, who was holding an oil lamp next to her, looked at Lu Li as if she were looking at a murderer.
The belly was cut open, and Lu Li did find something in the ghoul's belly - a piece of parchment with brief scrawls filled with despair and fear:
【That rain brought everything】
"That rain" refers to the rain of abnormal changes, one of the three major disasters, or is there something else?
