Chapter 1049: Chapter 18: A New Commission
Professor Chris did not appear.
Claire replaced her, leading Lu Li to the trunk layer.
Sterling’s temporary laboratory.
The corridor leading to the laboratory had been sealed by the Gatekeeper.
Through the barricade, wearing the Bird Beak Mask, Lu Li and Claire entered the laboratory.
Lu Li saw Sterling.
He was sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace. The fireplace had burned out, Sterling’s head tilted back, a piece of charcoal stuck in his mouth, burning through his throat while it was still aflame.
"Eliminate foul play," Claire whispered.
Their arrival did not draw the Gatekeeper’s attention. They removed the charcoal that fell with residues, manipulating Sterling’s head.
"The head is intact."
A Gatekeeper took out an octopus-like soft body, a writhing mass of flesh, and covered it over Sterling’s head.
The fleshy mass expanded, enveloping Sterling’s head, undulating like waves.
After ten seconds or so, the waiting Gatekeeper removed the naturally curled-up mass, tossed it into a small crucible, crushed it, and poured out the slime.
The slime was poured into a birdcage, inside which a puddle of pitch-black sludge, smelling food, crawled over and was devoured by the seemingly undead rotten flesh.
The flesh that devoured the sludge healed, coalescing into a humanoid shape, like a miniature person jumping erratically in the cage.
The bizarre dance lasted a few minutes, then the miniature person stopped, approached the edge of the cage as if there was a fireplace. A hand reached out, grasping something to retreat, as if holding a piece of charcoal, sat down, as if there was a sofa, tilted its head back, and pushed the charcoal into its mouth.
"The deceased died due to Delirium from low Sanity Value," the Gatekeeper concluded.
A Gatekeeper lit a candle-like incense; the smoke rose more intensely than wood, straight up to the ceiling, spreading to occupy the room.
The scent was not pungent, or rather, it was scentless. Another Gatekeeper released black lines from a wooden box, which, like Cleaners, devoured the smoke occupying the laboratory.
"No anomalous aura,"
The Gatekeeper approached the desk, about to touch the scattered notes when Claire stopped them: "Those are important notes. Professor Chris’s letter requested you keep them."
The Gatekeeper took her letter, confirmed its authenticity, and said, "Then this death case is hereby closed."
Before leaving, the leader of the Gatekeepers warned Lu Li, "Exorcist, we don’t want this to happen again. Keep your dangers far from Giant Tree Academy."
They packed Sterling’s body into a corpse bag and left the laboratory with it.
"Don’t mind it; even if my mother was here, they wouldn’t change their attitude," Claire said.
"Is there a possibility of misjudgment?" asked Lu Li in the now silent room.
Sterling’s death seemed more than a coincidence.
"Not really. This is the Giant Tree, and it’s handled by the Gatekeeper." Claire looked at the desk, "What’s crucial is that Sterling went mad after interacting with the notes... They could be problematic, I’ll temporarily hand the notes over to my mother."
"Sounds good."
With notes on Human Theory and Sterling’s handwritten notes in hand, they left the laboratory, which had returned to an abandoned storage room after Sterling’s death.
"Did he have a family?" Lu Li asked before the corridor split.
"No, don’t be sad. We are used to death by now, if sadness is what you feel."
Claire bid farewell to Lu Li and walked into another corridor.
Lu Li retraced his steps and, as he was about to enter the mixed area, was intercepted by a Gatekeeper.
The Gatekeepers did not let Lu Li pass easily.
"We need to check your Sanity Value."
In fact, the Sanity Value check was not abrupt.
As the safest canopy layer in all of Midnight City, the Gatekeeper prohibits any contamination from being brought there.
They gave no special treatment due to Lu Li’s identity.
As per the Gatekeeper’s introduction: they only follow the rules.
Lu Li was taken from the mixed area to the Gatekeeper’s nest—there were no students around, only the strangely dressed Gatekeepers in standard short capes.
Before entering the dimly lit hut, he saw a student exiting the adjacent hut.
An oil lamp cast a dim yellow glow. After a brief wait, the Gatekeepers arrived.
Two Gatekeepers, one sitting opposite Lu Li and the other lurking in the shadows behind him.
The Gatekeeper in front of Lu Li showed him a painting: a seagull soaring in the blue sky over a blue sea with a lighthouse bordered by rocks.
"What do you see in this painting?"
"The sea, the sky, a seagull, a lighthouse."
The Gatekeeper flipped the painting, revealing the back: winged, hairless anomalies swirling in a sky like a rocky cliff, and an Eyeball Lighthouse overseeing a sea the color of blood.
"The blood sea, rocky walls, anomalies, Eyeball Lighthouse."
"Which do you think is the reality?"
"The former."
"Why?"
"That’s how Old Belfast is," Lu Li replied.
The Gatekeeper paused briefly, handed Lu Li a vial of potion, and asked him to drink it.
"What does it do?" Lu Li asked.
"It induces Delirium; describe your hallucinations in detail... Do not hide anything, Exorcist."
"Don’t you have branches from the Soul Tree?" Lu Li did not swallow the potion.
A strange, muffled voice came from the shadows behind him. "Can you obtain it, the Soul Tree?"
"I don’t know its location."
The Soul Tree, alongside the Exorcists’ Alliance, disappeared in the Old Era.
"Find it, and you will gain the Gatekeeper’s friendship." The Gatekeeper emerged from the shadows into the light of the oil lamp.
Wearing the Bird Beak Mask that obscured his face, the engraved cloak indicated his status as a Gatekeeper elder.
Lu Li did not refuse. Finding the Soul Tree would clearly speed up the Sanity Value check.
But that would take time. Whether confirming its location or finding it.
Lu Li had many tasks left unfinished.
As compensation for fetching the Soul Tree, the Gatekeeper advanced part of the deal: exempting Lu Li from drinking the potion and subsequent Sanity Value testing, releasing him.
Leaving the cold, lifeless Gatekeeper’s nest, he returned to the mixed area. Professor Hagrid, anxiously pacing, appeared in front of him.
Upon hearing that Lu Li had been taken by the Gatekeepers, Professor Hagrid wanted to leave the canopy layer to rescue Lu Li, but was stopped by the Gatekeepers.
Lu Li’s return allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief, returning to the office to prepare for the upcoming Mysticism Course.
Due to Sterling’s death, the matters Lu Li was dealing with were temporarily shelved, waiting for further news from Professor Chris.
The newly received commission to "investigate the Soul Tree’s location" would not happen now...
"Mr. Lu Li... Mr. Lu Li?"
Lu Li was pulled from his thoughts by the calling, as Professor Hagrid on the podium looked on with concern, alongside the surrounding peculiar students.
"Mr. Lu Li, please tell us what the Sanity Value testing method in the Old Era was," Professor Hagrid asked.
"The branches of the Soul Tree."
"The Soul Tree is..."
Professor Hagrid resumed lecturing, and Lu Li, having completed reading the Mysticology textbook, confirmed his next steps.
To undertake the Level 1 Mysticism trial.