Ashes Of Deep Sea

Chapter 19: Underground Gathering Place

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Of course, the hooded figures noticed Duncan, who was standing right in the middle of the sewer.

Duncan still looked the same as when he left the cave. His thin and shriveled body was clad in tattered robes. The rags he hastily draped over his upper half covered the gaping hole in his chest. He stood there brazenly in the middle of the path. He looked as though he was terrified by the hooded figures who suddenly emerged. The latter was also very surprised. They were momentarily stunned. Then, the leader suddenly shouted, “A sacrifice has escaped!”

Next, Duncan saw them running towards him. Another person shouted as he ran, saying, “Quickly! Stop him. Don’t let him get away.”

Duncan shrugged his shoulders. Expressionless, he watched the figures, who were clearly not good guys, as they ran towards him. After weighing the current situation, he had no intention of running at all. Yet, the other party still charged over towards him as one of them shouted, “A sacrifice has escaped.” His companion followed up by shouting. “Don’t let him escape!”

In the end, Duncan remained standing in the middle of the sewer. The fact that he did not run nor evade them made the atmosphere awkward. The shouting hooded figures running over clearly noticed something was up. Their shouting ceased involuntarily, but they continued running towards Duncan. Duncan could sense the embarrassment and anger from these hooded figures as they surrounded him from all sides.

Duncan looked around at the figures around him. After hesitating, he said, “Should I have run away just now? After all, the atmosphere seemed appropriate.”

The hooded figures ignored Duncan’s joke. They merely looked at the latter with vigilant and cautious gazes. They then looked behind Duncan. Two of the figures lowered their heads and had a brief exchange. Duncan overheard their conversation.

One of them said, “How did one of the sacrifices manage to escape?”

The other figure replied, “Could it be that the hyenas of the church have discovered this hiding spot? However, he does not look like he was released by someone else.”

The first figure said, “Whatever it was, we should bring him back first. Something seems off about this escaped sacrifice. We had better deal with him quickly.”

“We will let the emissary decide.”

Duncan did not know where these people originated from at all. He was even less aware of who the other party referred to as “emissary.” However, as he connected the dots between the things he had witnessed on his way here and the word sacrifice mentioned by the other party, he could already guess the truth of this place.

He did not know how to react to being considered an ordinary sacrifice. He had no intention of putting on a show for these people. He was away from the Lost Home and was using a temporary shell. There were clearly very few things he needed to worry about. So, after observing his surroundings for a while, he directly asked them, “Where are you taking me?”

When the hooded figures heard the sacrifice before them speaking calmly, they felt strange. Even though they wore black gauze masks that completely hid their faces, Duncan could still make out that they were surprised. One of the black-robed figures glared at him from beneath his mask. In a low voice, the figure said, “You are not qualified to ask. Take him away!”

A few black-robed figures immediately pressed in on him. However, before they could act, Duncan took the initiative to take a step forward. He declared, “You do not need to do anything. I will follow you.”

The black-robed figures exchanged glances. They must have felt that the sacrifice had a few screws loose. Regardless, the leading black-robed figure waved his hand and said, “That is best. After all, you cannot get away. Follow us, and you might be able to receive glory in dignity.”

A few black-robed figures surrounded Duncan, encircling him from all sides to seal off his escape routes. They then led him deeper into the sewer.

The foul smell of the sewer was nauseating. Yet, these black-robed figures seemed oblivious to it as they calmly walked down the dirty, moldy path. Duncan remained silent, his face expressionless. As he followed these black-robed figures, he paid attention to their conversations. They did not interact much with each other. Nevertheless, he could occasionally hear the words Pland, archon, and church mentioned in their discussions.

“Is this place the City-state of Pland?” Duncan suddenly asked. He said this calmly, as though he was talking to someone he was familiar with.

“Nonsense,” a black-robed figure replied involuntarily. However, he quickly realized something and looked at Duncan as though he had seen a ghost. He said, “You are a rather calm brat. Do you know what is going to happen to you next?”

“I can roughly guess,” answered Duncan as he nodded his head. He even had a smile on his face. To test them, he asked, “It is related to the true Sun God, right?”

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A few of the black-robed figures clearly stopped in their tracks for a moment. They seemed to have misunderstood something from Duncan’s strange reaction. In a low voice, one of the figures asked his companion, “Wait a minute. Could it be that he is also a disciple of the Lord?”

“That is impossible. He is obviously an escaped sacrifice,” retorted the other black-robed figure in a low voice. He then glanced at Duncan and said, “You are quite clever. However, don’t think that you will be spared from being a sacrifice. The Lord has already determined your fate. You had better accept it willingly.”

Duncan did not express an opinion. He knew that his overly calm reaction had caused the hooded figures in front of him, who seemed to be cultists, to overthink and misunderstand. They most likely believed that he was acting calm to pretend to be a disciple in order to survive. However, only Duncan knew what was really going on.

For him, moving around normally in this temporary body of his was already extremely difficult. The muscles on his face were as stiff as dead ends, so he was left with a calm, emotionless expression.

Nevertheless, Duncan did not care what the cultists thought about him. He only wanted to gather as much intel as he could during this one-off exploration. Hence, he then asked, “Do all of you believe that the current sun in the sky is fake? Do you think that it will fall sooner or later?”

“The false sun will finally fall!” shouted the cultist in unison. This was clearly a topic that could stir up these cultists. Just as he wanted, Duncan heard one of them enthusiastically and passionately respond, “Even the church dogs have to admit that, in general history, the current sun in the sky is a twisted and grotesque thing that only appeared after the Great Annihilation! The Sun God truly brought life and order to the world. However, our Lord’s power was usurped by that vile false sun. One day, it will fall from the sky!”

Next, Duncan heard the surrounding cultists chant, “The false sun will finally fall! The true Sun God will soon be resurrected! The excess water of the oceans will be cast back out into the emptiness of space by his might! The land will return to an era of abundance and stability!”

As he listened to the cultists who were clearly beginning to rave, Duncan’s mind raced. He knew that these passionate cultists could not be reasoned with. What they believed in was mostly distorted and tampered information. Nevertheless, the intel they revealed was worthy of reference.

The current sun in the sky was a fake.

The true sun had its power usurped.

They firmly believed that the real sun was a fallen deity and that this deity would be resurrected from blood and fire.

They also mentioned the excess water of the ocean and an era of abundance and stability. What did these terms mean?

Duncan’s mind was flooded with thoughts. The cultists calmed down after a short while. They still remembered their business and that they were escorting an escaped sacrifice. The cultists closest to Duncan reverted to silence while the two members at the back whispered to each other.

“Do you feel that this sacrifice is weird?”

“He seems a bit off. I am not quite sure why.”

“Could it be that when this sacrifice escaped, he spent too long in the lightless underground, and his will was affected by something?”

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“That would be great. The Lord’s might can purify him.”

Duncan was listening to the conversation happening behind him. His attention was especially piqued by phrases like the lightless underground. However, just as he wanted to gather more intel from their discussion, the leading black-robed figure stopped in his tracks.

“We have arrived,” the black-robed cultist said in a low voice as cold as ice.

Duncan felt it was a pity he could not hear more of their conversation. However, his attention was drawn to the scene before his eyes.

Up ahead was the end of the path. It was the intersection point of a few sewers. In this wide space that was like a small underground hall, there was actually a gathering of black-robed cultists!