Ashes of the Deep Sea
Chapter 38

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11mo ago

The corpse was breathing, as if it had wandered to the edge of the kingdom of death and then returned to the mortal world.

The black-robed cultists in the room stared blankly at the scene. Some of them hadn't even realized that the man before them had actually "died" once just now, because the moment of life and death was so brief that it was hard to distinguish without careful attention. They only felt that the dying "compatriot's" breath had inexplicably become steady and powerful, which made them extremely surprised.

The next second, the man lying on the ground opened his eyes.

He seemed to have been in darkness for too long, so the dim oil lamps in the room felt glaring. He blinked his eyes to adapt to the light, and then his eyeballs slowly turned, as if he had just noticed the three black-robed figures gathered around him.

"Thanks to the Lord's protection!" a younger black-robed cultist finally reacted, unable to help but exclaim excitedly, "You made it through! I thought you were going to..."

"Wait! Something's wrong! Back up!" the cultist with the deep voice suddenly realized something. He stopped the others' movements and glared at the newly awakened man with a vigilant gaze. As he retreated, he said in a threatening tone, "His breathing had completely stopped just now, I definitely didn't misread it... something's not right!"

Duncan finally adapted to his surroundings, and the ringing noise in his mind gradually faded. He saw the figures gathered around him, and his first reaction was – why are these people still here when I opened my eyes? Why am I still in the sewer?

Spirit World Walk should be random. He had just randomly chosen a target based on intuition, but he didn't expect to open his eyes twice and find himself in the middle of these cultists. What kind of twisted fate was this?

But then, he sensed something was wrong from the reactions of the people around him. The next second, he noticed the black robe he was wearing.

Duncan was silent for two seconds, and his mind became clear.

In the last round, he was the sacrifice of the cultists. Then, he closed his eyes and opened them again, and now he was a "cultist."

He really had a connection with these people.

"...Something's not right!"

Just then, a hostile, deep voice suddenly interrupted Duncan's confusion after "waking up." He followed the sound and met a cold, vigilant gaze.

The owner of the gaze was staring at him coldly. Beside him, the other two black-robed cultists also reacted belatedly, retreating and taking defensive stances.

Duncan was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized – he might have possessed a corpse, just like last time.

He had just come back to life in front of these cultists!

After understanding the situation, the tense reactions of these cultists became understandable. Duncan's mind raced. He felt that the numbness and sluggishness remaining in this body had not completely disappeared, making movement extremely inconvenient. Causing trouble under the watchful eyes of several cultists seemed difficult, so he had to find a way to stabilize these people first. And as he was quickly thinking of a way out, fragmented, blurry memories suddenly surfaced in his mind!

In those fragmented, blurry memories, he suddenly "remembered" many experiences that didn't belong to him – he remembered "himself" hiding in the sewer, remembered "himself" offering his family's wealth to the Sun's emissary, remembered "himself" participating in those dark, crazy, bloody, and sinful rituals to heal his illness, drinking the blood of the innocent in exchange for the "Sun's blessings"...

At the end of a series of chaotic memories, he "saw" the scene of the sacrifice ritual again. He saw many people wearing black robes like himself standing beside the high platform, and a young sacrifice was pushed onto the platform. That young sacrifice had a stiff and eerie expression, throwing the entire ritual into chaos...

He saw the "Sun's Emissary" having his heart sacrificed, everyone around the altar went mad, cultists were killing each other, raging flames poured out from the sun totem, angry roars and void whispers filled the gathering place, and the original owner of his body and the last few remaining cultists fled in panic...

Duncan didn't know how long he had been in a daze, perhaps only for a moment. The unfamiliar memories surging in his mind subsided again. A tragic and hateful life had become a series of pale fragments, lying in his heart as if for viewing – like some kind of "nourishment."

These were the memories of the original owner of this body – although not many remained, the source was undeniable.

Duncan blinked. This was a change that hadn't happened during his last "Spirit World Walk."

Last time, he hadn't been able to get any memories from the possessed corpse; the "sacrifice's" brain was completely blank... Why was there such a change this time?

Was it because the body he occupied this time was still "fresh"? Or was it because the pigeon "Ai Yi" had strengthened the power of the brass compass?

Duncan slowly sat up from the ground. He knew that no matter what the reason behind this change was, now was not the time to be in a daze. Those tense cultists had clearly realized that his "resurrection" process was not right.

As Duncan made his move to get up, the three cultists immediately took half a step back. Then, the black-robed man with the deep voice put a hand on his waist and broke the silence: "Don't move first – tell me, what's your name?"

"...Ron," Duncan recalled briefly and then naturally spoke the name he had just learned from the memories, "Ron Strain."

"He's called Ron," a young black-robed cultist on the opposite side immediately whispered to the deep-voiced black-robed man who was implicitly the leader of the three.

However, the black-robed man showed no signs of letting down his guard. He just kept staring intently at Duncan, then suddenly chanted in a strange, syllabic tone: "In the name of the Sun, may the Lord's brilliance shine upon us. In the name of the Sun, may the Lord's blessings descend!"

Hearing the cultist opposite him suddenly go mad, Duncan was stunned for a moment. Then, he felt a burning sensation in his chest. He instinctively reached into his clothes and pulled out the object that was heating up. He saw that it was a golden Sun Amulet – a strange heat was emanating from its surface!

The next second, the amulet suddenly burst into flames. The flames seemed to be filled with malice and rushed straight towards Duncan's chest!

"The Lord's glory is backfiring on him!" Seeing this, the cultist who had just recited the prayer instantly reacted. He drew the short sword at his waist and shouted, "His soul has been replaced! Kill this heretical abomination!"

The other two cultists' actions were slightly slower, but they also reacted. These people, who moments ago thought Duncan was a "compatriot," unhesitatingly drew their short swords and daggers, pounced on him with murderous intent, and shouted, "Kill him!!"

Duncan held the Sun Amulet, which had already begun to burn fiercely, and watched the three figures pounce on him. The next second, another shadow suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision!

A spectral undead bird, burning with eerie green flames, tore through the air, sweeping past the roof with a stream of icy flames. It let out a strange, piercing cry, and as its wings flapped, invisible ashes and feather fragments rained down.

The three cultists' attention was naturally drawn to this "undead bird." They subconsciously looked up at "Ai Yi," who had taken on a spiritual form.

The next moment, all their movements slowed down, as if their connection to the real world had suddenly become distant and sluggish. The figures of the three black-robed men seemed to be caught in a stuttering animation, pulling out overlapping afterimages in mid-air. They landed slowly with movements so slow they were comically ridiculous, and finally came to a complete standstill less than two meters in front of Duncan.

Their eyes were filled with immense horror as they watched the undead bird circle the ceiling before landing on the black-robed "compatriot" opposite them. They saw the Sun Amulet in that man's hand still burning fiercely, but the next second, those burning flames turned into a faint green, becoming the same form as the flames on the "undead bird."

Duncan squeezed the Sun Amulet in his hand. wisps of green Spirit Body Fire coiled around the amulet's surface. The stream of flames gushing from the amulet circled half a circle in front of him, then settled down obediently like a pet, slowly coiling around his arm in a fawning manner.

Holding the Sun Amulet, which had been completely taken over and transformed, he unhurriedly approached the three cultists. He looked at their horrified eyes and said with regret, "It would have been so much better if you had just pretended not to know anything."

The next second, the figures of the three cultists flickered violently in mid-air a few times, and then disappeared.

The "undead bird," entwined with green flames and resembling a skeleton, hopped twice on Duncan's shoulder. Amidst the crackling sound of burning flames, it let out a sharp, hoarse cry: "Oops, the page is gone, let's try refreshing it?"

End of Chapter
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