Chapter 1626

"Come this way."

The group of four did not go to the warehouse's office building, but after entering the warehouse, used the keys on the corpses to open the door at the innermost part of the warehouse and came to the basement.

About one-third of the warehouse on the ground was filled with mechanical parts, while the relatively dry basement stored flour and soybeans. The underground warehouse was not small, and after lighting the gas lamps on the walls, one could see bags of grain piled up like mountains filling every corner.

"I'll do it."

Xia De said, blinking his eyes:

"Echo of Blood!"

Extending from the entrance to the depths of the underground warehouse, a clear "road of blood" appeared before their eyes. This meant that blood-stained things were often transported here.

Under Xia De's lead, the four soon arrived at the wall on the left side of the underground granary. There was a secret door on the wall, but they couldn't find the key for the time being. After Megan confirmed that there were no trigger-type detection traps on the wall, the Ringed Shushi destroyed the wall together.

Clatter~

Red bricks mixed with mud fell all over the ground, and a wind with dampness and stench rushed out from the hole in the wall, accompanied by the sound of flowing water. And when the light orb used for illumination flew into the hole in the wall, what they saw was an artificially excavated underground cave, as well as dozens of coffins on display.

These coffins were all made of red copper metal, and none of them had lids on. Looking into the coffins, pitch-black liquid filled the interior, and there were kelp, water plants, and dead fish in the liquid. Of course, most importantly, every coffin was soaking a corpse in the water, but the corpses did not turn into the terrible appearance of giant bloating; instead, fish scales appeared on the surface of their bodies, fish fins grew out of their backs, and their heads began to transform into fish heads.

And at the end of the cave was an underground dark canal that had been dug out, connecting to the Duin River not far away.

"Undead?"

Xia De frowned slightly, covering his nose and retreating from the side of the coffins. He didn't know much about this kind of scene, but Megan saw at a glance what was being done here:

"Cultivating water ghosts; once the water ghosts complete their transformation, they are directly sent to the Duin River, and then let them sneak all the way into Green Lake... So, the water ghosts in Green Lake are not just naturally occurring."

Megan's voice echoed in the cave filled with the stench of corpses, and her voice also awakened the corpses sleeping in the water.

These corpses that had not been completely transformed trembled one by one, and finally seven of them grabbed the coffins and sat up from the water; that appearance would cause nightmares just by looking at it.

But even water ghosts that had completed their transformation were no match for anyone here. The witch's followers, one of the golden-haired girls, blew a breath gently towards the front; as the cold air spread, the liquid in the coffins froze, making those corpses unable to move. Then another lady grabbed the pendant on her chest and prayed softly, and the corpses frozen in the ice stopped moving.

Megan let the followers check the rituals on the cave walls and search for other suspicious places here. Xia De took a pinch of bone powder and sprinkled it on one of the corpses. After casting the miracle, the soul was summoned, and simple questions soon let Xia De know that most of the corpses here were homeless people in the city.

"Compared to using corpses directly, undead created after living people die in huge fear and pain are more powerful... Green Lake City is not short of homeless people."

Megan said, and Xia De nodded, thinking in his heart that when he went back tonight, he must go to see if Little John at the back door of the hotel was still alive. But even if Rotten Eye Bali cultivated water ghosts on a large scale, he wouldn't look for children; after all, the taller the body, the better the quality of the water ghost cultivated.

Next, Xia De and the two six-ring female sorcerers checked the surroundings, while the lady with brown shoulder-length hair stood there watching them search.

There was nothing very valuable here; it was purely a workshop for cultivating water ghosts. The pitch-black lines densely covering the walls and floor were, according to Megan's judgment, a unique ink blended from octopus ink, blood, and magic potions.

These ritual traces together formed the water ghost cultivation room, and the most important part was the evil god's holy emblem on the ground at the bottom of each coffin. That was the holy emblem of the evil god 【God of the Deep Sea Drowning】, a pattern composed of fish, bones, chaotic black lines, and a large number of inexplicable patterns, which made people feel deeply uncomfortable even just by looking at it (Note).

And according to the observation of the ritual, although the daily maintenance of this place was very simple, it was definitely not something that could be set up by a single Ringed Shushi.

In other words, although "Rotten Eye Bali" was a low-tier Ringed Shushi, he had other Ringed Shushi around him. And judging from the professional divine ritual array on the walls and floor, and the holy emblem of the 【God of the Deep Sea Drowning】 at the bottom of the coffins and the top of the cave that would make people feel fear instinctively just by looking at it, the Drowning Cult could not be separated from this matter.

"But what exactly do they want to do? This is not an ocean area; even if a large number of water ghosts are cultivated in Green Lake, what can they do? Could it be that they want to drown half of the Old Continent and turn Green Lake into a coastal city?"

Xia De put forward a hypothesis that he knew was impossible, and the witch also shook her head:

"I don't know much about the believers of that god, but since it's Green Lake, maybe it really has something to do with my family."

Judging from the current situation, any abnormality in this area might have something to do with the Edwards family.

They didn't stay here long; after destroying the corpses and the ritual array, they re-sealed the wall and left the warehouse. Someone would take over here soon, and the police would be notified to handle it by evening to prevent Rotten Eye Bali, who was meeting with merchants, from getting the information in advance.

After confirming in the warehouse that "Rotten Eye Bali" was cultivating water ghosts on a large scale, the next stop was to cross the Duin River and enter the slums in the east of Green Lake City to visit the true core territory of this gang leader.

Although he had many illegal industries locally, just like a legal company would always have a headquarters, Rotten Eye Bali's gang—which seemed to be called something like the Rotten Eye Gang—also had its own core territory in Green Lake City.

That was the area in the slum known as "Gorojie Street"; the outside of the north side of the alley was normal legal shops, but the inside was a gang gathering place like a village in the city. To enter this area, not only did one need a guide, but also a password and code. And once successfully entered, the black market, firearms, physical transactions, and various illegal activities were completely open to those lucky or unfortunate people.

The rain was still falling, and it was near 10:30 in the morning, but the sky was as dark as night; no matter how good one's mood was, one would feel depressed and bored in this weather. Xia De and Megan in the carriage chatted while watching the street scene on the way; the witch's profile was beautiful, and in fact, the beauty of witches was always incomparable.

She suddenly asked Xia De a question:

"What do you think of family and relatives?"

The outsider laughed:

"I don't have any relatives in this world, and the only 'uncle' who left me an inheritance died last summer. So compared to the past, I care more about the relationships I have established now and in the future. Even if... even if some close people make mistakes, I still love these new relationships. After all, people have to look forward."

He knew what the lady in front of him was thinking; the one who raised water ghosts and played with corpses might not just be Rotten Eye Bali. He might be working for one of her elders.

The carriage stopped at the entrance of Gorojie Street; this street was very wide, and under normal circumstances, there should be various vendors shouting and selling on both sides, but in this weather, even the shops along the street were unwilling to put their signs at the door.

There was no one on the street, and the pouring rain kept hitting every puddle; one could see from one end of the street to the other at a glance. After the carriage stopped, Xia De was still looking forward to seeing hundreds of people rushing out from somewhere again to forcibly attack the two closed iron doors on the north side of the street, but this time they didn't need to wait for anyone.

"What are you expecting? If a gunfight involving hundreds of people really broke out, do you think the Green Lake Police Department are all fools? It's currently the period of negotiations between the two countries."

Megan saw Xia De's thoughts and couldn't help but show a wry smile:

"We need to find out Rotten Eye Bali's secrets, but we can't expose ourselves. This is not the warehouse just now; there are many people inside. So, let the two of us do it next. Guess, how many people do we have to deal with now?"

Even without the sound of rain covering the sound of heartbeats, Xia De could not accurately distinguish every person's heartbeat from the heart sounds of so many people mixed together.

He shook his head:

"I bet, the people with combat power are definitely not everyone, so is it... 200?"

"Not that many; do you really think that under the eyes of the border army, anyone can organize an armed force of 200 people with guns? About 40 or so, the others are ordinary people without combat power."

She was the first to get off the carriage, but she didn't take an umbrella. This time there was only this carriage nearby, so no followers came over to shade her from the rain. Xia De poked his head out from the side door of the carriage and was surprised to see a completely transparent spherical force field automatically repelling the rain around her, so that a spherical rain curtain formed around her.

"Have you recovered?"

Xia De asked, and Megan shook her head:

"Of course not, but at least it's better than the first two times we landed on the island, and I can use it casually. I hate rainy weather; the dampness is really heavy."

She waved at Xia De, and as Xia De got off the carriage and was also enveloped by the gentle transparent force field, she took off the small gold and silver book-shaped pendant hanging on her neck.

PS: Turn the holy emblem picture to the back.