Hearing He Ao's words, Vels's expression shifted slightly. He stared at He Ao's aged face and slowly said, "Mr. Lynn, it seems you know more than I imagined."
"Or perhaps your very form of existence..."
He Ao looked at Vels calmly. "Is too unusual."
"It seems you've figured out the source of Verus's power."
Vels looked calmly at He Ao. "But I'm rather surprised that you know of the Abyss."
"There are always all kinds of ways to obtain information in this world."
He Ao replied evenly, "And I don't actually know that much."
A slender Eagle Claw Blade fell into his palm and unfolded in his hand. Looking at the Youth, he slowly asked, "But I'm curious. Why did you come to this city directly in human form? Because you didn't want to be constrained by the limitations of human thought?"
The moment he had seen the Youth, he had placed a mark on Vels.
Unlike the muddled mixture of two sets of thoughts in the Thin Man's mind, Vels's mind contained only one kind of thought. There were no traces of human thoughts whatsoever, only an incomprehensible alien consciousness, like background noise.
"Mr. Lynn, you're very smart."
Vels looked at He Ao, his tone calm.
"Attaching ourselves to humans can reduce the cost of leaving the Abyss. But in exchange, we have to give up part of our capacity for independent thought. We can only influence the host's mind, not control it, and may even passively merge with the host's thoughts and lose ourselves.
"For low-level Abyssal lifeforms that possess little intelligence to begin with, this doesn't matter much."
"But for someone like you, who possesses advanced intelligence, it's unbearable?"
He Ao looked at Vels and picked up where he had left off.
"Yes. I prefer to experience