City of Sound and the Summoning
The campus was bustling with activity. At Leping City. 2 Middle School, admission notices were sent to the homeroom teachers in a unified manner. This was the last time most students would come to this high school. After picking up their admission notices, everyone would go their separate ways. After a month or two, the students chatted freely about the fun things that happened during the holiday.
The most talked-about topic was naturally the previous black mist incident. Little did they know that the source of this incident was Lu Li walking past them, dressed in ordinary casual clothes, with a fairly upright figure and a typical student hairstyle.
He looked like a fairly good-looking student. After receiving his admission notice from the teacher, Lu Li walked out with the notice without saying anything. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he saw his cousin Ji Yue walking towards him in the distance.
"What are you doing here?" Lu Li asked casually, his eyes carrying a hint of something unreadable.
"I'm going to high school this semester, so I came here today to check it out. Cousin, are you here to pick up your acceptance letter?" Ji Yue smiled brightly and then said, "Is it Miskatonic? I heard their library is really good. Cousin, you should go check it out when you have time."
"The library?" Lu Li nodded and said, "Then I'll be going now."
"Okay, cousin. You'll be all alone out there from now on, without any family around, so be careful..." Ji Yue seemed to be implying something, then said, "We've all lived together for so long, there's bound to be some bond between us. If anything happens in the future, you can come back to us."
"Okay, thank you for your help." Lu Li glanced at the ring in Ji Yue's hand, picked up the admission notice, and boarded the train to the provincial capital. He had packed all his belongings in the Dreamlands, or inside the umbrella, so he was light and carefree.
As the train slowly pulled away, Lu Li looked out the window at the increasingly distant Leping City. In the sky above, he seemed to see a carefree smiling face, and his cousin Ji Yue, still strolling around the campus with a slight smile on her face.
The train journey took more than four hours before finally arriving at its destination, the provincial capital of Jing Province, City of Sound. As soon as Lu Li stepped off the train, he felt the unique hustle and bustle of a big city, with all sorts of people coming and going, including Chinese from the Yue Kingdom and various foreigners from the Federal Kingdom.
"Let's find a place to stay first, and then establish a new base." Lu Li out of the train station, looking at the people coming and going. Finding a hidden base in such a big city would be very difficult, but with careful searching, he should be able to find one.
Lu Li glanced at a small device on the surveillance camera, narrowed his eyes, turned around, and booked a hotel room on his phone to stay there for the time being. The device on those cameras should be the surveillance method of the Countermeasure Bureau.
However, Lu Li's current appearance and skin are completely indistinguishable from a real person's. Underneath his skin, there are a large number of "human" elements mixed in, and his internal structure is no different from that of a human. Unless Lu Li's stomach is cut open and those organs constructed from shadows are dug out, it is generally impossible to identify Lu Li's identity.
Furthermore, Lu Li used Wendigo's living heart to implant in his body, allowing him to regain a heartbeat and blood flow, along with simulated breathing. From an outward appearance perspective, Lu Li is now almost indistinguishable from a human.
Although the Wendigo's heart is also a human heart, it has been Mutation by Wendigo. If a blood sample is taken for testing, it will still cause some trouble. It seems that some methods will be needed.
After booking the hotel, I checked the nearby surveillance equipment. Fortunately, the Countermeasure Bureau wasn't so wealthy as to cover the entire city with surveillance; otherwise, any energy emitted by any ability used here would be detected.
"Looks like they're getting impatient over there." Lu Li on the bed, closed his eyes, and his consciousness returned to his original body in the Dreamlands. At this moment, the seven stars and three suns around the Dreamlands were all emitting bursts of prayers.
[Grotesque, the master of shadows, walks through Dreamlands]
We offer you our respect by sacrificing the seven deadly sins.
[Please lower your will and open the door to our dreams.]
[Please descend upon this place and grant us the right to use shadows.]
Following the mysterious connection of the Dreamlands, Lu Li arrived at the source of the prayer. Lu Li could already sense his surroundings, and then he saw this scene:
Dozens of young boys, dressed in matching robes, formed a circle and recited prayers over and over again. Judging from their fearful expressions and clumsy movements, they were all novices.
Inside the circle they formed, ten masks, representing the three fundamental elements of fear, Hatred, and Destruction, were placed at the center, surrounded by masks of the seven original sins. As they chanted prayers, these masks emitted a faint glow.
Adre is now starting to regret his decision. He's short on money and doesn't want to tell his parents, so he's thinking of doing some odd jobs. Just then, his best friend Herchika asked him if he was interested in earning some pocket money.
So, short of money, Adre followed Herchika to a branch of the Cordila Group. They were given some robes with a strange symbol on them: three suns surrounded by seven stars, and below them a strange, incomplete ship.
Adre and the others were taught some prayers. A large group of people were brought to this place and repeatedly chanted the prayers around ten masks. Although Adre found it strange, they persisted because of the high deposit and the promised substantial income.
Only now, with all ten masks faintly glowing, did they realize something was wrong. These people were just like Adre, temporary workers recruited by the Cordila Group.
When all ten masks finally floated up, the young men in robes were filled with fear. They wanted to escape, but then they saw several spirit messengers from the Cordila Group standing on the perimeter.
"Keep reading, don't stop. This isn't strange. Don't forget you received a deposit and signed a contract. I can guarantee you won't be in danger." A spirit messenger, seeing the mask reacting, said coldly to them.
"No need, the connection is enough." The ten masks came together, spewing out a large amount of Shadow Magic. They merged together, and combined with the mental fluctuations emitted by the young lads outside when they chanted, Lu Li barely managed to condense a Shadow Body.
Taking a robe and draping it over himself, Lu Li picked up the mask of Hatred from the ten masks and put it on his face, covering his faceless features. The other Nine Masks floated around him. He said to the spirit messenger opposite him, "Tell them to pray for an hour every day to maintain my connection. By the way, why don't I see Wu Jianguo?"
"The captain has started that so-called game. I'm representing the company in this transaction with you," the spirit messenger said, none other than the bald, burly man, Colt.
It's past midnight. I'm not feeling well today. I'll see if I can write another chapter before midnight. If I don't update before midnight, please don't wait up, and get some rest.