Cursed Object, Rebirth, Slaughter

"Respected Collector, if it is truly you, please accept my sincere apologies..."

The hooded man took a long look at Li Fan before finally pulling back his hood, revealing a face covered in scars.

He appeared to be of mixed heritage.

His skin was as smooth as a baby's, yet massive, jagged scars crisscrossed his entire face, as if it had been stitched together from the remains of different people.

The hooded man's expression was deeply sincere as he smiled and said:

"Let me introduce myself first. I am Huo Lei of the Unity Society."

His smile radiated confidence, clearly certain of his own reputation.

He waited for the other party to show surprise.

To his dismay, the members of the Cleaning Association present merely exchanged blank looks upon hearing the name, all of them completely bewildered.

Old Sun lowered his voice and asked Auntie Zhang:

"Who is Huo Lei? Does the Unity Society even have someone like that?"

Auntie Zhang replied:

"Maybe he's just some minor member. The Unity Society is a small organization to begin with. I only know their leader is Eisen and their head chef is Tiago; I haven't heard of anyone else."

Mother asked Father earnestly:

"Old Li, have you heard of him?"

Father shook his head immediately, his eyes filled with confusion.

Seeing that the group opposite him had never even heard of him, veins bulged on Huo Lei's forehead. He struggled to maintain his composure on the surface and said:

"I am the Third Chef of the Unity Society."

Hearing this, the members of the Cleaning Association narrowed their eyes, finally beginning to take Huo Lei seriously.

Li Fan raised an eyebrow, his own vigilance spiking.

According to the philosophy of the Unity Society, all of humanity—and indeed every living creature on Blue Star—was merely food for the Lord of Unity.

The entire world was the Lord of Unity's kitchen.

Every member of the Unity Society was, in essence, a chef offering delicacies to the Lord of Unity.

The combat hierarchy within the entire Unity Society was structured accordingly.

Aside from the leader, the ten strongest members were ranked from Head Chef and Second Chef down to the Tenth Chef.

At first, it sounded bizarre and laughable, but once one witnessed the atrocities these "chefs" committed, it became very difficult to laugh.

Anyone who fell into the hands of the Unity Society rarely escaped the fate of being reduced to a pile of mush.

It was said that everything they did was to offer sacrifices to the Lord of Unity, to please the deity, and to trade for power and the deity's eventual descent.

Li Fan spoke in a hoarse voice:

"To me, there is no difference between you and a restaurant cook... Answer my question."

Huo Lei was not angered by Li Fan's words; instead, he continued to smile:

"The reason I know you died is that I have planted agents within the Advent Society. A month ago, you nearly destroyed their headquarters. I went there afterward and retrieved the eyeballs of one of my subordinates."

"I then used the secret arts of the Unity Society to extract the images he saw before he died. Tsk tsk, it was truly a brutal slaughter. I finally understood where the Collector's reputation as the top of the wanted list truly came from."

"However, I also saw something interesting. Before the thirty-five Spirit Descenders of the Advent Society died, they injected the 'Life Curse' within them into your body. Even if you are the Collector, it is difficult to resist so many powerful curses."

"When you left, I noticed your pupils had already begun to dilate. You were relying entirely on your remaining powerful mental strength to hold on. Your consciousness had been completely destroyed—or rather, what walked out of there was a corpse..."

Having said this, Huo Lei looked at Li Fan and asked:

"I wonder, who is standing here? Is it the powerful Collector, or a cursed object of the Advent Society?"

His gaze swept toward the members of the Cleaning Association at the same time.

Sowing discord.

Auntie Zhang snorted coldly and said:

"The power of the Collector is not something a tiny organization like yours can even imagine! A mere cursed object of the Advent Society couldn't hurt the Collector in the slightest!"

"Master, let me kill him!"

"Even the dead dare not offend the majesty of the Collector!"

Thoughts raced through Li Fan's mind as he quickly considered every possibility.

Since the Unity Society possessed the combat footage from the Advent Society, killing Huo Lei now would be useless.

The reason the Cleaning Association members were reacting so intensely was that the seeds of doubt had already been planted in their hearts!

He had to clear those seeds away; he only had this one chance!

Without hesitation, Li Fan spoke slowly in a low voice:

"That is correct. The Collector is indeed dead."

His tone was frank and sincere, causing the eyes of the sinister-faced Huo Lei to widen in shock.

Auntie Zhang and the others beside her cast looks of shock as well.

Li Fan continued, "When I slaughtered the trash of the Advent Society and my mental power plummeted to rock bottom due to the backlash of their Life Curse, I heard the call of the Lord of the Abyss!"

Upon hearing this, expressions of pleasant surprise appeared on the faces of the Cleaning Association members.

As devout followers of the Lord of the Abyss, they naturally understood what this meant.

It was the summoning of the Lord of the Abyss; it was said that many pious believers had experienced such perceptions in their dreams or on a spiritual level.

"Thanks to the grace of the Lord of the Abyss, my mental power was able to break through once more. The Collector of the past is dead; the current me has attained a new life."

"Everything for the arrival of the Lord of the Abyss."

Li Fan's voice was deep and magnetic. Infected by his words, the Cleaning Association members beside him immediately whispered in unison:

"Everything for the arrival of the Lord of the Abyss!"

Seeing Li Fan shatter his linguistic trap with just a few words, Huo Lei immediately grew vigilant. His gaze shifted, and he laughed, "As expected of Lord Collector. So you had already cracked the Advent Society's Life Curse long ago. Since you are the genuine Collector, we can discuss cooperation."

Li Fan said expressionlessly:

"In ancient times, a general named Zhuang Qiao led troops to conquer this region. With his path home cut off by enemy states, he remained here and established the Tuo Kingdom. The Gutuo Kingdom practiced slavery and was rife with human sacrifice and ritual slaughter, cruel beyond measure..."

Hearing Li Fan's account, a flash of surprise crossed Huo Lei's eyes again. Clearly, he had not expected the Collector of the Cleaning Association to be so well-versed in the history of the Gutuo Kingdom.

"I suspect that the fear the people of the Gutuo Kingdom once held for the Dian King caused their spirits to coalesce into some powerful anomalies. What you are doing is utilizing the panic of the populace in modern Gu City to stir up people's fear of the Gutuo Kingdom and awaken those slumbering anomalies."

"The cooperation you speak of is for us to help you awaken these ancient anomalies, turn Gu City into a hell of Amalgams, and summon the arrival of the Lord of Unity. And what we would receive in return—perhaps a chance to call upon the Lord of the Abyss? Or maybe the sacrifice of a million people in a certain district of Gu City to the Lord of the Abyss?"

Li Fan recounted everything calmly; these were all conclusions he had drawn from the information he had gathered during this time.

Judging by the shocked look in Huo Lei's eyes, his deductions were essentially spot on.

They matched the facts.

Huo Lei's face revealed astonishment, clearly not expecting the Collector to have deduced his plan. He gave a dark chuckle, "As expected of—"

"Kill him," Li Fan said.