Chapter 235: Experience Settlement

Half an hour later.

Deep in the sewer.

Together with the guards from the Guard Hall, Yun Mu successfully found a room hidden inside the walls that bore clear traces of manual excavation.

If nothing unexpected happened, this should be the base where those cultists who held the Rituals were active on a daily basis.

Click! The bright incandescent light illuminated the entire room. Under the glare of the light, a magic circle drawn in blood appeared before everyone on the floor, which looked somewhat pale.

"This place looks like it's been here for some years."

The middle-aged Guard Team Captain walked around. He looked at the candles hanging on both sides of the walls and the traces left behind by the candles burning over the years, then touched them with his hand and judged.

"Those cultists have been active in Frostfall City for a long time?" Yun Mu, who was following beside him, asked with some surprise upon hearing this.

Perhaps out of a desire to look after a newcomer, or perhaps because he saw that Yun Mu was different from the other guards, this middle-aged Guard Team Captain did not bring his adjutant, but instead let her act together with him.

"Not necessarily." Hearing her question, the Guard Team Captain shook his head.

"Perhaps it was excavated by someone in the past and just happened to be used by these cultists. Of course, the possibility that they have existed for a long time cannot be ruled out."

"We will have to wait for the professionals to arrive before we can make a judgment."

Before he could finish his sentence, accompanied by a burst of footsteps, Leinuode, wearing a guard overcoat, appeared at the entrance of the room.

"It seems the people have arrived."

The middle-aged Guard Team Captain said, walking up to Leinuode to report the information left at the scene.

"None of the cultists survived. Judging by the clothing of those monsters, they were likely infected by the creature that was summoned, and the creature that infected them has currently been killed by the Fifth Mechanized Infantry Regiment."

"Self-inflicted, which is consistent with the usual behavior of those guys." After hearing the Guard Team Captain's report, Leinuode said with a look of being unsurprised.

Dealing with an Outer God often ends up like this; unless one is lucky enough to become the other party's spokesperson in this world, or a god-chosen, one is nothing more than consumable material that can be discarded at any time in their eyes.

"Sigh."

Thinking of this, Leinuode suddenly sighed with a headache.

Those cultists were dead, but they left behind such a mess before dying. The key was that no one survived, so there was no chance to ask for any clues.

No, it was not entirely without a chance. He suddenly thought of something and immediately ordered: "Have the guards protect the scene; do not let anyone destroy the traces here."

"Yes!" The middle-aged Guard Team Captain responded with a serious expression.

"Mm."

Seeing this, Leinuode nodded with satisfaction. He did not say anything else and turned to leave.

Judging by his appearance, he probably had something urgent to do.

Just before leaving, however, he cast a thoughtful glance at Yun Mu.

He always felt a sense of familiarity... As a Beastkin, he was born with instincts far stronger than those of ordinary people.

And a sense of smell.

Unfortunately, the smell in the sewer was far too complex, coupled with the faint, lingering scent of blood permeating the cultist base.

Even though he was very close, he could not smell any scent on Yun Mu that could identify her.

If it were a Kobold, perhaps they could have managed it, but he was an Eagle Beastkin, and his sense of smell was not actually much stronger than that of an ordinary human.

However, that height, and the high probability that it was someone he knew... excluding the possibility of a man disguised as a woman, one could actually guess who it was just by guessing.

Although he did not know what Yun Mu wanted to do by disguising herself as a guard, as long as it did not affect others, then let her be.

Leinuode pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it as he walked, put it in his mouth, and thought to himself.

Had she just been recognized? After Leinuode left, Yun Mu recalled the look the other party had given her earlier and could not help but sigh in her heart.

To think he could even see through the disguise of the Stone Mask that Dunn gave her; he truly lived up to being an Eagle Beastkin.

What a pair of sharp eagle eyes! It seemed she would have to be more careful in the future and not let her guard down just because of this Mask Dunn gave her.

One had to know that Leinuode was only a Second-tier Elite Transcendental. Although it was because the two were familiar with each other and the other party was a Beastkin, the fact that he could recognize Yun Mu...

... meant that the disguise of the Mask was not flawless. If one day she were really done in because of this, she would have nowhere to appeal.

As for now... Yun Mu glanced at the Guard Team Captain walking in front.

Anyway, this guy showed no sign of recognizing her at all. As a Guard Team Captain, his observational skills were not bad, but as an ordinary person, some things were indeed very difficult to discover.

So, should she be wary of those transcendentals with strong observational skills?

Yun Mu made a judgment in her heart.

Two hours later.

Leinuode returned to this room deep in the sewer with Brenna, Bishop Muse, the Church nun Meiyin, and the Second-tier Elite Night Watchman Huoerfu.

"Let the other guards go out. The fewer people for what we are about to do, the better," Leinuode instructed the middle-aged Guard Team Captain.

"Yes."

The Guard Team Captain nodded and turned to direct the guards in the room to leave in an orderly fashion.

"Miss Duo Li does not need to leave."

Just as Yun Mu was about to take the opportunity to leave, Brenna suddenly called out to her.

"Alright." Hearing Brenna's words, Yun Mu's face did not show the slightest hint of surprise.

After all, she had long guessed that she had been recognized by Leinuode, and it was normal for the other party to tell Brenna about this.

Originally, she had thought that since Brenna would probably mention the findings here during the meeting at night anyway, it would be less conspicuous for her to leave given her current identity.

But since Brenna asked her to stay... then she would stay and take a look together.

Anyway, she did not intend to use this identity at the Guard Hall anymore; if they misunderstood something, they could just guess whatever they wanted.

And the middle-aged Guard Team Captain, seeing the familiar way Yun Mu and Brenna acted, had some of his suspicions verified.

He did not ask more, nor did he think too much; he simply took the other guards and left the room with him.

"Are you planning to have Meiyin use her channeling ability?" After the guards had all left, Yun Mu asked aloud.

"That's right," Leinuode nodded and said, "I heard you all talking about channeling earlier."

"I think, since the cultists here are all dead, why don't we try communicating with the dead?" he said. "I think Leinuode is right," Brenna agreed at this moment.

"However," she suddenly changed the subject and said, "Psychic rituals are inherently very dangerous, and even more so when they involve an Outer God. We must prepare protective measures."

"I will leave this to Bishop Muse."

"I will do my best." Bishop Muse reached for the Holy Scripture at his waist and took it down.

Although the power of an Outer God is very strong, the other party has not yet invaded this world, so the power they can exert is limited.

Plus, Meiyin is not in direct contact with it, but rather psychically communicating with the spirits of those cultists. If any real problems arise, Bishop Muse, as a Champion-level individual, can still resolve them.

Of course, this is under normal circumstances; if any accidents occur, it is hard to say.

This is also the reason why he dared not make any absolute promises.

Meanwhile, Yun Mu opened the Game Panel for the first time in a long while and summoned the sleeping Lucy.

Well, it was Lucy in her Ether Body state.

"... How long have I been asleep?" After being summoned, Lucy immediately asked in her mind.

"Not long, just a few days," Yun Mu traced with her finger on her thigh.

"What is happening now?" she asked Yun Mu again.

"Psychic ritual." Yun Mu explained the current situation to Brenna as concisely as possible.

As for how concise, it was concise to the point of only telling her that Meiyin was going to conduct a psychic ritual related to an Outer God, and hoping that if Lucy noticed anything unusual later, she could tell her.

As for the specific details, they could wait until the psychic ritual was over.

After all, communicating by writing on one's thigh with a finger was truly a bit too abstract.

"Mm, I understand the situation." Lucy's Ether Body floated beside Yun Mu's ear; she seemed to be observing Bishop Muse not far away.

"There is a Fifth Rank Champion Transcendental here; actually, there is no point in summoning me," she said.

"If it is a problem that even the other party cannot solve, I probably wouldn't be able to do anything either, just by myself."

"Then just consider it coming out for some fresh air," Yun Mu wrote with her finger.

She didn't know if it was an illusion, but she always felt that Lucy seemed somewhat resistant to being summoned to the modern era by her.

This sense of resistance was not there before, only in the last few days. She didn't know the specific reason, and when she wanted to ask the other party, she didn't know how to bring it up.

"The psychic ritual is about to begin," Lucy reminded her by her ear at this moment.

"Is it starting?"

Yun Mu looked at Meiyin, who had already placed the prepared Painting Board in front of her, sat on the chair in front of the board, and held a Paintbrush.

"Is it like this when others perform psychic rituals?" Yun Mu asked Lucy curiously upon seeing her appearance.

Could it be that everyone who can perform psychic rituals needs to learn how to paint? If someone doesn't know how to paint, can they not bring back the information obtained during the ritual? "Of course not." Lucy knew what she was thinking, so she explained in her mind.

"This sort of thing definitely depends on the personal habits of the psychic. If you can't paint, you can choose to leave text; if you can't even write, you can choose to convey the information orally."

"Of course, the risk of oral communication is very high; one slip and you might contaminate the people around you, so choosing to use a pen to leave text on paper is the safest way."

"Because for that highly contaminated information, the psychic will delete it by intuition after writing it down, which can effectively isolate the contamination."

"Painting follows a similar principle; those images that might cause contamination will not appear on the Painting Board."

While Lucy was explaining to Yun Mu, Meiyin had already begun to paint on the Painting Board.

"Is this... a coffin?"

Yun Mu looked at the pattern on the Painting Board, feeling doubtful, but dared not disturb the other party, so she could only communicate with Lucy by writing on her thigh with her finger.

"It is indeed a coffin. I really want to know what she saw." For some reason, Lucy's tone was a bit strange.

"You know what this is?" Yun Mu was even more confused now. Could it be that what Meiyin saw was related to her?

"Keep watching, you'll know soon enough." Lucy did not answer her question, only saying this to her.

"Alright."

Seeing that she didn't want to talk about it, Yun Mu didn't have the thought of continuing to ask.

Anyway, just as Lucy said, if she kept watching, she would soon know what it was.

"This is..."

When Meiyin had finished most of the drawing, both Yun Mu and Brenna showed expressions of surprise on their faces.

Because in the drawing, there appeared a Young Girl lying in a Stone Coffin with her eyes closed.

Even without color, the face shape, which was eighty percent similar to the person herself, still allowed Yun Mu and Brenna to recognize the Young Girl's identity.

"Lucy?"

"What Meiyin saw was actually Lucy?"

"That is my corpse, the existence marked by Scarlet as an Anchor Point," Lucy said, materializing her body and appearing beside Yun Mu to explain to everyone.

"Let her draw the next picture. The location of this psychic ritual has sufficient spiritual energy and hasn't been dead for too long; it should be able to produce another painting."

As Lucy spoke, she walked to Meiyin's side and tore the drawing directly off from in front of the girl.

And after tearing off the drawing, even with her eyes closed, Meiyin's hand that was drawing paused for a moment.

Subsequently, on a new page, she actually began to draw another painting! And on this painting, there appeared an old man wearing Church robes, holding a Holy Scripture, defeating the cultists who were guarding the coffin in the drawing.

"So that's how it is..."

A flash of insight suddenly passed through everyone's minds; at this moment, everyone understood the beginning of the matter.

It turned out that Lucy's corpse, which was the Anchor Point of Scarlet, was originally just held in the hands of a group of cultists.

Later, probably during the process of clearing out the cultists, Bishop Land snatched Lucy's corpse from the cultists' hands and, tempted by the power of Scarlet, eventually abandoned his faith in the Lady of the Night.

And those Parasites were probably the products of Bishop Land's research on Lucy's corpse... Uh, why does it feel a bit disgusting to say it like that? In short, the Anchor Point of Scarlet is now most likely in the hands of Bishop Land.

As for that Scarlet Messenger, Natavia... Based on the information obtained so far, she is likely not in the same group as Bishop Land, but she is the chosen one of Scarlet.

The logic here is a bit strange; could it be infighting? (End of chapter)