Eternal Life, A Return Gift

Seeing that they meant to keep going upstairs, Wei En suggested, "Um, I should go with you after all..."

If he was going to die, he wanted to at least know why!

When that wisp of despair power had pierced through just now, he really had felt a little wronged...

He had clearly been hiding downstairs, so why had he been the first unlucky one?

Just because he was the weakest?

"All right, but wait until we go in first," Lacy agreed with a nod. "Ariana?"

"No problem. The heroic spirits are very excited."

The tentacles around Ariana had swelled by a whole size; clearly, that despair power just now had fed them well.

With that, the two of them flashed straight to the second floor and charged through the iron door.

"Let's go, Wei En. We'll head over too."

Marco carried that staff, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "I was worried you'd be affected. Didn't expect you to recover so quickly."

"No. I'm just afraid of being thrown to the ground again."

Wei En looked at him expressionlessly. What he wanted to convey was already obvious.

"Uh, haha..."

Marco gave two awkward laughs, pointed at Lacy, who had stopped by the iron door ahead, and said, "I'll go take a look first. There might be some discovery."

With that, he ran off like smoke.

Wei En watched him "flee" and curled his lip. "Tina, don't you think Big Brother Marco is a little unreliable?"

"Tina thinks Wei En is reliable."

"Oh? What a coincidence. I think so too."

After Wei En brought the white-haired girl upstairs, he saw that all of them were standing motionless inside the door. "What's wrong with you..."

...Fuck?

With just one glance, his eyes were locked firmly onto the horrifying scene behind the door.

It was as if the time around him had frozen, and an icy chill struck straight at his heart.

In the empty, silent room before him hung one dried corpse after another, like air-dried sausages, tied to the ceiling with ropes.

Their bodies were abnormally withered, their skin clinging tightly to their bones, as if the last drop of blood had been drained from them.

At the same time, these dried corpses all maintained the same posture—

Their hands were crossed over their shoulders, their feet together, presenting an eerie sense of ritual.

On each dried corpse, a bright red eye pattern had been carved, the bloodred color forming a stark contrast with the gray-white husks.

Under the dim yellow oil lamps on the walls, their shadows flickered indistinctly, making the scene exceptionally sinister and terrifying.

Wei En murmured, "Is this... the abyss of hell?"

Even that enormous eye had not struck him as hard as the real scene before him.

"Three hundred and twenty-six."

Lacy's voice turned low and hoarse, carrying a bone-piercing chill. "Looks like we've already found the three hundred-plus people who went missing..."

Ariana's face was ashen, and his tentacles whipped about violently, letting out whooshing sounds.

"Was this done by the people of the Despair Cult?"

"Most likely. Look at the floor."

Marco used his staff to push aside a dried corpse in front of him, then pointed at the ground and said, "A sacrificial ritual. It's a rune array the Despair Cult commonly uses."

A sacrificial ritual?

A rune array?

Wei En looked in the direction he indicated.

The floor of the room was covered with complex, twisted runes. Dark red symbols seemed to seep through it like bloodstains, and several grooves connected those runes, forming an intricate pattern.

At the center of the array stood a statue—that of a ferocious eye, with countless twisted arms carved around it.

They coiled together, crossing over one another and merging into that eye, like vines crawling all over the statue's surface.

These arms were ugly and distorted, shriveled and gaunt, just like those dried corpses.

The entire statue was shrouded in darkness, giving off an air of distortion and madness, as if it were the source of all evil and despair.

"The faith totem of the Despair Cult... Looks like there's no mistake."

Lacy took a deep breath and walked inside.

She used her two-handed axe to push aside the withered corpses overhead, as if the things hanging there really were just sausages.

Only when she had walked all the way to the statue in the center of the room did she stop.

"I'm really jealous of the cases your First Division gets. You're going to make a fortune again this time," Ariana said sourly when he saw what she was doing.

Make a fortune?

Wei En quietly pricked up his ears. How?

Marco curled his lip. "Captain Ariana, don't forget, you get a share of the profits this time too."

"These are the same."

Ariana pointed at the dried corpses. "They've all been corroded by the power of despair. Sell them to those guys from the Shadow School, and each one will fetch at least five shillings."

"According to the department's rules, assisting in solving a case earns you ten percent of the proceeds."

"You're really good at calculating."

Marco tossed out the jab, then stopped paying attention to him and instead watched Lacy's movements inside.

So that was how they made money...

Wei En swept another glance over the room. If you made too much money like this, wouldn't you really have nightmares?

Before long, Lacy dug out the statue, hugged it in her arms, and walked out.

"Lacy, does this mean my mission is complete?"

The tentacles around Ariana withdrew back into his body, and he returned to his original appearance. "About those proceeds..."

Lacy glanced at him. "You won't be shorted."

"That includes this statue too?"

"Everything according to the rules."

Ariana rubbed his hands together, a smile appearing on his face. "Oh, you really shouldn't..."

"Shut up!"

"..."

Ariana hurriedly closed his mouth and made a few gestures, indicating how the dried corpses should be handled.

Lacy looked back and said flatly, "Marco, go back and notify the city guards to come over and help move these 'spoils.'"

"Right away."

Marco waved the staff in his hand. "Rosuo, Manda." (Gale.)

A whirlwind circled his body. Then he took a step and vanished from the spot.

A spell?

Wei En thought with no small amount of envy, When would he be able to use such a cool spell too...?

Just then, Lacy beckoned. "Wei En, Tina, let's wait outside. Leave this place to Ariana."

"Huh? Lacy, I'm assisting personnel..."

"Mm?"

Ariana looked at her icy expression and stammered, "I meant to say, no problem."

Lacy glanced at him, then went straight out of the room.

"Captain Ariana, I'll leave it to you." After tossing out those words, Wei En took Tina with him and followed her out of the house.

"Damn it!!"

Hearing the roar from inside the room, Wei En hunched his neck. "Tina, do you think Captain Ariana will go crazy?"

Tina was as direct as ever. "Tina says, he doesn't dare."

Wei En looked back, and when he saw Ariana hadn't poked his head out, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Next time you say something like that, you can put it a little more tactfully."

"Tina was very tactful. He doesn't dare."

"All right, you call the shots."

Wei En looked at the expressionless white-haired girl and shook his head helplessly.

For now, he gave up on teaching Tina what worldly wisdom was.

When the two of them left the house, they saw Lacy leaning by the door, lighting a cigarette and smoking it as she stared blankly at the sky.

Seeing her like that, Wei En guessed she had been moved by the scene inside.

He really hadn't expected that someone as carefree as Lacy would have such a tender side too.

"Captain, those people inside really did have it too miserable. Don't take it too much to heart. Even though this is the first case I've come into contact with, I..."

Lacy turned to look at him and asked blankly, "What are you talking about? Take it to heart? Me?"

Wei En froze for a moment. "Uh, no?"

"Haha..."

Lacy burst out laughing and kept patting him on the shoulder. "I, I was just calculating how many gold pounds we could make from this case..."

Wei En's expression turned awkward. "Uh, well."

After laughing for a while, the smile Lacy had worn when they first met appeared on her face again. She looked at him and said, "Still, thank you for comforting me, Wei En."

"No need to thank me."

Who the hell would know that look on your face meant you were doing the accounts?

Wei En asked wordlessly, "Then have you worked out the profits from this trip?"

"Not bad. This statue alone is worth thirteen gold pounds. If we run into someone who knows its value, the price could rise quite a bit."

Thirteen gold pounds?

Add in those dried corpses—at five shillings each, that made eighty gold pounds.

Then all together—that was nearly a hundred gold pounds?

So much money!

Wei En instantly threw that embarrassment to the back of his mind. "You seemed to say just now that everyone who took part in the mission gets a share? Do I get one too?"

"Of course. As a participant, you get five percent of the profits. But..." Lacy looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile. "It seems someone still owes me two gold pounds."

Wei En's expression turned awkward again. "Then, um, can you deduct it from this round's profits?"

How much was five percent again?

Five gold pounds...

That was more than enough to pay her back.

The smile on Lacy's face grew even brighter, her eyes curving into crescent moons. "Then it's settled."

"..."

Wei En looked at her smile. Was she urging him to pay back the money?

Forget it. Earning something was good enough!

On the other side, after several city guards gathered up the corpses, they stood to one side and watched Wei En and the others.

"Captain Giuseppe, you're on such good terms with Marco. Can you get him to open up a few more spots?"

"You brat, you want to attend too?"

"Heh, I heard there are quite a few rich girls from Dumitru District at the reception. We want to tag along and have a look..."

Giuseppe looked at him, then at the others. "You all want to go?"

"Boss, we want to go too."

"Yeah, Captain, take us along too, will you?"

Giuseppe raised an eyebrow and pretended to think. "I'll consider it. Depends on how you perform."

"Say no more. First thing tomorrow morning, I'll bring a few pieces of cheese from home..."

"Me too..."

Just then, a figure flashed out from the shadows. "What are you chatting about? You seem so happy."

Giuseppe's body first tensed, but when he saw who it was, he could not help laughing and cursing. "Marco, you nearly scared us to death."

"Looks like you weren't talking about anything good."

Marco looked at him with a wicked grin, walked to his side, and said, "Tell me too."

"Of course we were talking about the reception you're holding. We..."

Hiss!

Giuseppe looked at the dagger that had pierced through his chest and asked blankly, "M-Marco, you, you... why?"

"The reception? I'm not too interested..."

"Captain!! Marco, I'm going to kill you!!"

Marco looked at the city guards charging at him with weapons raised, the corners of his mouth pulling into an evil smile.

"Sure. I happen to have had enough of living too."

Eternal Life, return gift!

P.S. Thank you to the great patrons Wu Pingsheng, Fengliu Kuaile Shaonianlang, Ai Laohu Zouzou, Xinbuliaoniu, and Zetian Chengquan for your tips. Thank you so much for your support.