Chapter 1086: Chapter 55: The Second Theory
Whoosh—whoosh—
The waves crash against the beach day and night.
Andrea sails past the shattered golden rays on the waves, carrying the third batch of survivors praying devoutly on the deck, to the shore.
The leader of the survivors, the elderly Loben Val, steps onto the dilapidated pier, reverently asking the big ship, "Honorable Messenger, what shall we do next?"
Andrea did not respond, or perhaps did. The sound of the steam whistle echoed in the sky as the big ship departed the harbor, shedding a faint light as it sailed back into the darkness.
The sunlight cast upon the bewildered survivors’ bodies brought warmth, dispelling decay. The outline of someone in a clerical robe emerged from the harbor workers’ cabin, guiding them into Worm Cottage, and through tunnel-like Insect Path to the mountaintop.
Survivors helped up the stumbling Loben Val, emerging from the cottage covered in slime.
The shimmering Agate Lake captured their gaze; in the sunlight, it was so sacred and pure.
The old wooden boats from the Old Era were stranded on the shore, and benches and streetlights had long since rotted away, unusable. Not many single houses along Agate Lake remained intact, and most were inhabited.
In the center of Agate Lake, an island bare and eerily crimson like flesh was planted with a peculiar, vibrant green sapling.
There was also a church under construction on a distant shore.
The reserved third batch of survivors huddled in front of the Worm Cottage door, waiting.
They saw workers bustling around the church; were those the survivors who had arrived in the first two batches?
They saw some residents of the Land of Light passing by, dressed cleaner and warmer, without the tattered patches on their burlap clothing. These newly arrived residents were equally emaciated and malnourished — but only in body.
These people radiated smiles, friendliness, and optimism, an emotion akin to the rays piercing through the clouds.
A clergy member arranged them: craftsmen to the left, farmers to the right, civilians stay put.
"Leader..."
A strong man, wearing only a burlap coat despite the frigid temperatures, hesitantly looked at Loben Val.
"We have reached the Land of Light. I am no longer a leader, but like you all, a lamb of God... go on." Loben Val gently waved his hand.
The third batch of survivors hesitated before dispersing, some to the left, some to the right, while the elderly and children were left behind.
They don’t know what to do, fearful of being abandoned.
"Friends, chant with me." Loben Val led the chant of the ballad spread across the land.
"Under the foot of the world’s spine, walks the black-haired, black-eyed Exorcist, brambles obstructing the path, dissolving in his glow, webs drift down from the overcast sky, the mask of illusion and reality flickers with eerie light, a monster toying with illusions greedily watches, companions are buried in ice and silence, a young Demon Slayer halts due to setbacks, but after a brief confusion and reflection, seeing the suffering endured by people, he decides to help those tormented by pain..."
The gathered whispers attracted believers from the Twisted Vine Church.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
The remaining people stopped praying, and Loben Val said, "Praying to Lord Lu Li."
"You don’t need to pray to anyone; only you can save yourselves." the believer said. "This is what the Lord says. Wait here; someone will take you to your place."
...
"If we find the specific contamination frequency of certain weird entities, we can create Homogeneous Items or potions that counter the corresponding contamination, granting immunity, or perhaps radiation."
In the dim Solitary Cell, Lu Li paused in writing, waiting for the ink to dry gradually.
Sterling’s radiation theory had a specific aim. Its target was neither the weird entities nor their groups, not even the Weird Leader.
But the Evil God, and disasters.
Lu Li thought about the Silent Moments. Being isolated outside by the power of the Lady of the Silent Night, it was evidently a contamination too. If humans could decipher the frequency of the contamination, it would not trouble them anymore — they could even enter the edge of silence and eradicate its core.
Except the difficulty is like a nightmare. Lu Li had once wondered why no one solved the Silent Moments and already got the answer: The area where the edge of silence lies is the center of the Barren Lands, surrounded by countless Weird Towns and nests.
Moreover, people have not yet found the source of plant disasters and darkness disasters, so deciphering contamination is meaningless behavior because people have long found ways to avoid plant disasters.
Light Thief?
After the primordial darkness enveloped the earth, it merged with eternal gloom like night. It still arrives every so often, dimming the outside world at midday without a trace of light, but its detrimental effect is even less than the Shadow Thief of Fire during the age of evil spirits.
Only in the Land of Light, where there is a lack of power to guard the sunlight, will it be obscured by it.
Thus, the radiation theory is now more useful against the Evil God, as well as other derived functions like warning.
Recording the specific frequencies of known weird entities, warning upon their appearance — the ghost broadcasts of the Old Era and the conch of the Weird Times are prototypes.
Perhaps the radiation theory was inspired by the heritage of the Exorcists Association that Sterling received.
Unfortunately, even if the radiation theory is formed, it is just a theory.
Rather than focusing on how to eliminate the weird entities, people need to eliminate their power.
Continuing to perfect the radiation theory, Lu Li extended a new conclusion: Humanity itself is also a kind of radiation.
But it is a positive radiation. When Lu Li once had 20 portions of humanity, the places he stayed for long would make seeds germinate, trees grow.
In any case, on the fifteenth day of his solitary confinement, Lu Li almost completed the theory of humanity, handing over his nearly finished notes with only the ending missing to Professor Chris.
"Dear, what do you want me to do?"
As one of the finest alchemists in human civilization, Professor Chris was not surprised by what the radiation theory could bring.
"Nothing for the time being."
It was no surprise. On the third day after the radiation theory was completed, the newspaper published it again. Although Lu Li requested that Sterling and he be co-authors, the newspaper emphasized Lu Li in both the title and content, while the name of the scientist Sterling was hidden in an unnoticed corner.
Thanks to the birth of these two theories, the criticism of Lu Li’s confinement earlier took a turn. The public expected Lu Li to introduce new theories, including the newspaper waiting in anticipation.
However, no theories awaited Lu Li’s completion anymore.
There were still two weeks left until the end of solitary confinement, and next, Lu Li’s attention would return to the Mysticology Level 6 trial.
The difficulty of the Mysticology Level 6 trial corresponds to the hardest mission in the middle grade, that is, a task with 4 credits and 4 team shares of rewards.
For comparison, the reward for Lone Ranger patrol cleaning is one-third of a credit.
High-difficulty tasks typically lack hints and involve tragedies like someone dying. Despite this, the Gatekeeper’s protection ensures the trialists do not die.
Kiluat provided Lu Li with some information: the five failures and the six missions she experienced during her Level 6 trial.