Chapter 960: Chapter 153: In Bell, He Lost His Beloved
“You’re here to find her… ”
A low voice suddenly sounded behind them.
A hunched, bulky silhouette cloaked in tattered robes stood deep in the cemetery, watching them.
“Who are you.”
Lu Li turned his head at the tombstone, stepping closer to the silhouette; Katerina saw the color of sadness gradually fade from his black eyes.
“Don’t bring that filthy thing near me…”
The silhouette squirmed backward, widening the distance from Lu Li.
“What do you know.”
Lu Li stopped his steps.
“If you want to know the answer, come inside…”
The mysterious silhouette let out a low laugh, turning and heading towards the dilapidated shanty built deeper within.
“Only you alone, and don’t bring that thing inside…”
Its figure disappeared behind the shanty door, the slow words echoing throughout the cemetery.
“A believer?”
Katerina and the others solidified the vanishing silhouette’s outline, returning to Lu Li’s side: “Are you going over?”
Lu Li didn’t answer, handing the shard to Katerina, and walked towards the shanty.
The snow where the silhouette stood earlier was stained with an eerie blackness, a faint hint of a bloody scent lingered at the tip of the nose, growing clearer as the shanty approached.
Lu Li bent down to enter the low shanty, the stench instantly thick, akin to deep-sea, ink-green sludge, or rotting fish. It’s unclear if it originated from the piled garbage and debris at the corner or the silhouette without its cloak.
It barely qualified as “human” because of the single eye enveloped in its fleshy tumor.
Gray-green shiny skin spots resembled fish scales, its body showing an ungainly bulk.
The hunched swelled back was crammed full of toad-like blisters. These blisters equally parasitized its body everywhere, joints, limbs, seeping out mucus under movement pressure.
Compared to humans, it more resembled a fish-like alien.
These changes probably stem from the pollution here.
It sat at a worn square table, slowly reminiscing: “I… am Himfast people, my name is… Tommy or Jimmy. When the divine gift descended—”
“Where is she.”
Lu Li interrupted its impending rambling monologue.
“Don’t rush!”
The alien roared angrily, mucus squeezing from blisters, heightening the shanty’s stench.
It re-entered its dream-like murmuring: “Don’t rush… don’t rush… will mention it…”
“I… am Himfast people, the name is… Mike. I unfortunately missed the Lord’s divine ceremony. When I hurried back, the ceremony had ended, and I remained here forever…”
The alien lowered its head, its body began to tremble, emitting nearly low sobbing sounds.
“I am the traitor… the Lord abandoned me… no, I betrayed the Lord… yet He still kindly blessed me, this kind of abandoned believer!”
Mucus splattered onto the table, silently corroding the wooden plank, the table’s pits finding their source.
Heretics usually struggle to communicate—they immerse in mental distortions beyond their own awareness.
The self-proclaimed traitor alien displayed this trait, soliloquizing regret and pain, showing Lu Li beneath its skin folds, densely stacked frog-egg-like translucent grains.
It said this was its punishment.
“You spoke of betraying your Lord, yet He still blessed you.”
As the heretic teetered on the brink of delirium madness, Lu Li drew back what little sanity remained, allowing the tale to proceed.
“Yes… yes. He left His scent in the city, enabling me to continue experiencing the Lord’s grace…”
“I recalled more… the divine gift. Yes, the Lord blessed my body, transforming my frail flesh into strong like His servants. But… not quite enough. Just a bit more… just a bit more… just a bit more…”
Pus-oozing mucus accumulated at its feet, the heretic’s lowered head murmured repeatedly the same sentence dreamily.
“Just a bit more… just a bit more… just a bit more… just a bit more—”
“What’s lacking.”
“What’s lacking…”
The heretic’s head slowly raised, the madness receded from the single eye enveloped in tumors.
“Sacrifice.”
“Then, she came…”
“When.”
The heretic immersed in recollection didn’t answer Lu Li, it lifted its head, murmuring whispers.
“Holy, pale, beautiful. When she crawled out of the filthy soil… she shone like the Lord’s Messenger.”
The heretic’s blood-filled single eye suddenly stared dead into Lu Li, its breathing gradually intensified.
“Just like you…”
“She didn’t like me… I saw disgust in her eyes… she… wasn’t… granted by the Lord!”
“All beautiful things are fragile… including her. I consumed her…”
The heretic’s single eye fell upon something in the shanty’s corner.
“That’s her skull. She was too beautiful, I couldn’t resist but keep a part as a collection… until now, I still crave listening to that wonderful scream, the sweet flesh…”
Lu Li silently listened; he felt a part of his body was splitting open, pain and grief flooding from the cracks, occupying his being.
“The Lord’s gift is everywhere. She made me suddenly realize what’s lacking… sacrifice… I… haven’t offered enough sacrifices to the Lord.”
The heretic’s back heaved like a chest; its short neck lengthened towards the table, leaning close to Lu Li, spitting out a snake-like final whisper.
“So, allow yourself to be offered to my Lord… or let me once more savor the delicious flesh.”
The shanty fell into deathly silence.
Only the clear heartbeat sounded.
Face filled with coldness, Lu Li suddenly stretched out his left hand, gripping the heretic’s mutated head, enveloped his entire strength and emotion, forcefully pressed down!
Boom!
The table shattered like thin ice, the heretic’s head smashed into wooden planks, in a muffled thud dropped to the ground.
Drip—drip—
Lu Li released the shattered head of the heretic, retrieved the blood-dripping palm,
The dripping mucus blood water merged in one piece, a thread drawn from the lowered fingertips.
Both his and its.
The foul stench wafted from the blossomed head, mucus sizzled, corroding Lu Li’s sleeve and palm,
Yet it all wasn’t over. A phantom silhouette slowly emerged from the headless corpse devoid of breath.
No unnatural tumors and grotesque blisters, that was the heretic’s original human appearance.
His face carried confusion, as if waking from sleep. When he saw Lu Li and the shattered table, the headless ugly corpse fallen to earth, he realized something.
“I… succeeded! I completed… the sacrifice! Great Lord, Your most loyal believer awaits Your guidance—”
The obscure presence surfaced in the void, seemingly hearing vague sounds of ceaseless ocean waves from the other side of emptiness.
But now, an arm stretched out, choking the neck of the phantom soul in mid-air, drawing a stop sign to his madness and frenzy.
The palm scorched the heretic; his face contorted, emitting uninterrupted shrill screams. Then, at some moment, his soul burst like a bubble instantly.
Serenity returned to engulf the shanty.