Chapter 41: Underground World (Second Update)

"Truly unexpected, there is such a place beneath the docks."

Inside the cave, it was not a dead silence void of all things.

The walls were covered in glowing moss, and the ground underfoot was a slightly uneven, flat rock surface.

Along the way, they could even pick up burnt-out torch heads, and the ground was scattered with messy footprints, some of which were clearly quite old.

This was not good news.

"... There are traces of someone passing through here."

This was undoubtedly the worst development; if someone had truly used this passage, they certainly wouldn't have done so just once.

Then, at the end of this passage, there might truly be another escape route.

"There is the sound of water." Talia, having pressed her ear to the wall for a while, offered an even worse possibility.

This meant there was very likely an underground river, or even an underground cargo canal.

This was not an overly abrupt guess; the further they went along this passage, the more it resembled a smuggling tunnel secretly dug by smugglers.

"Which way?" Li En asked.

Moving forward, they encountered a fork without surprise.

A full four passage branches appeared before their eyes; trying them one by one was clearly impossible, and who knew how many forks a single branch could split into once they went deeper.

Larry fumbled with the operation of the "Compass," hesitantly looking toward the two on the far right.

Judging by the direction, these should be the most likely.

But underground passages were winding and twisting; guidance of this degree was unreliable, so they could only choose the most likely? Yet missing one intersection might mean getting completely lost.

"The one on the far left."

Talia, with her eyes closed, pointed to the passage on the far left.

Up to this point, her demonstrated tracking ability had far exceeded that of a normal hunter.

At this moment, within the spatial vision of her closed eyes, there were only phantoms composed of "particles."

The children were lined up, hopping and skipping as they moved forward, and at the very front was a tall, thin nun.

【Unstoppable Silent Slaughter (Silver-grade Soul Ability): Lock onto a life, use blood scent to restore its existence to the maximum extent, and feel everything about it.】

【The more you crave its blood, the clearer her phantom image will become, but if you fail to drink blood for a long time, you will fall into a very dire state: anxiety, irritability, fever, obsession, madness... And once you succeed in drinking blood, you will become stronger, but next time, you will also lack patience even more.】

This was an ability rooted in her most basic racial talent, blood scent; it was the ultimate manifestation of her past life of slaughter, and it vaguely revealed her desire for self-destruction.

She had never been a good police officer, but she was a top-tier slaughterer.

The Tailers had been right to avoid her; otherwise, once she locked onto them in a direct encounter, she was destined to hunt them to death.

But now, using the ability for a long time without drinking the target's blood had plunged her into a severe state of anxiety and trance.

She could not stop gnawing on her own thumb, unaware even as blood dripped down.

"... I should have searched the orphanage."

"From the very beginning, I should have suspected her."

"Those children... it was all my fault." Numerous stray thoughts entangled her; in her hallucinations, the dead who could not close their eyes surrounded her.

Among them, there seemed to be some of her own past blood debts, climbing up.

Was the karma of the past finding her at this moment? Was it her own karmic retribution, all her own blood debts...

"Talia!" A low male voice exploded in her ears.

"I... I'm fine, I can still hold on." The female officer's dazed eyes focused once more.

This was not the time for weakness and self-pity; the current her was not a cold-blooded killer... She was a savior of children, and even if there was karmic retribution, it would not be now.

Li En's call brought back her sanity and led the squad to step into the most correct path without hesitation.

And ahead of them, the bastards from the slave market who had entered first were not so smooth.

Too many divergence points forced them to helplessly and realistically choose to split up and search.

Perhaps, in their eyes, this was nothing major; they were just chasing down a vile killer who could only slaughter ordinary people in the shadows... A rat in a cage, where could it run? Who in the entire Radiant City could stop the slave market?

In their eyes, any one of their small teams catching up to them would smoothly retrieve that package of treasures and establish a great merit; of course, privately losing (and hiding) a piece of Hero's Blood Gem would naturally be acceptable too.

But from the very beginning, they had underestimated what they would encounter.

Their prey was never weak, nor was there only one of them.

"What is this?" Before the many small teams that had entered the cave depths ahead of time, a strange beast appeared almost simultaneously.

A snow-white, dog-like creature appeared before the crowd.

It appeared without a sound, silently looking at the outsiders before it.

——

"Helping me is helping yourselves; you wouldn't want to expose yourselves so soon, would you?"

Deep within the cave, there was a cozy small house.

Nun Maria, while combing and dressing herself before a mirror, spoke to the water mirror on the wall.

And behind her, the children who had been lively and jumping around before were all standing there silently.

Their pupils were blank, as if half-asleep and half-awake.

But inside the water mirror was a person draped in a strange cloak and mask.

On the mask that only revealed his eyes, a large eye was painted, and two curved large horns on the left and right were particularly striking.

The black long robe obscured his figure, but he should not have been tall or strong; his outline looked like an old man.

Her words received no response; the masked person opposite merely watched silently, as if looking at a dead man.

You are just an experiment, an outsider; even if you wanted to leak information, what could you leak?

"... Worshippers of the Ancient Beasts, the legendary Beast Cult. If the Royal Family knew about the Ten, their bounty has never stopped." She actually knew more than anyone else.

The nun smiled; even though she seemed forced into a desperate situation, she still wore a pleasant and gentle smile.

It was as if this were another midnight heart-to-heart with the children.

And the person opposite still looked at her with the gaze one reserves for the dead.

Reveal? Reveal to whom? To the rulers of this city's thoroughly rotten noble circle?

But Maria continued, "I know the ones most likely to betray me are certain masked Horned Ones, after all, you have taken root in the upper echelons of this kingdom's noble circle. If the slave market moves against me, it is equivalent to you moving against me."

The nun took out a bag, gave it a slight shake, and it jingled.

That full bag seemed to be filled with gems.

At this moment, she saw with satisfaction the glint of greed in the eyes opposite her.

"In the end, isn't it all for these? Save me, and they are all yours. Otherwise, you will just slowly scoop them up in the underground rivers and caves. Perhaps I could let them flow down the underground rivers into the sea; by then, if you manage to retrieve one-tenth, that would be impressive."

The other party fell silent for a moment, and finally squeezed out some words.

"I have already awakened the 'cubs' in the cave; you can control them with the 'medal'. Within half an hour, several Horned Ones will arrive from the underground river; follow them."

Speaking thus, the priest wearing the horned mask looked at the children behind the nun.

"The ship's capacity is limited; harvest and bring back these 'little horns'." He, too, made no attempt to hide his greed.

The Beast is loving; it loves nothing more than such innocent children, especially high-quality specimens tamed by maternal love.

"These are my children; they all call me Mother..." The nun still smiled.

"I will arrange for you a passage on a large ship abroad to leave this kingdom. I will also give you enough travel funds for your retirement."

"Ah, the cruel reality is truly heartbreaking; such a brief mother-child relationship." The woman still smiled gently.

The figure in the water mirror vanished, and the smile finally disappeared; Nun Maria sighed.

The bag of "gems" fell onto the table with a crackle.

What spilled out was a floor covered in shards of glass.

The "Great Horn Priest" cannot be trusted; the ship ticket was never obtainable from the start, but at least now their power can be utilized to shake off the stray dogs behind.

She looked at the children behind her and smiled happily again.

"Mother has sold you all for a good price." The nun smiled as she walked toward her "children."

On her outstretched hands, one side held a pitch-black turbid liquid, the other a short-handled harvesting sickle.

But before she could act, the vibration of the magical token on the table drew her attention.

"So soon? Those stray dogs from the slave market..." The alert barrier she had set had been triggered, meaning the intruders were already very close.

However, having obtained control of the "cubs," she felt no fear.

"Perhaps I should first accumulate more 'horns' and scoop up more travel funds." Compared to the children, those transcendent beings were actually more valuable.

The cult worshipping the Beast was not limited to just this city's "Great Horn."

Before departing, she glanced back at the children, her eyes filled with affection.

"Children, wait; Mother will be back soon, and then I will take you away from this filthy, dirty world..."

(End of this chapter)