Chapter 241: Language of Foulness
There was only a single candle that illuminated the room. The atmosphere
in the living room was so silent that it was as if everything had
frozen.
A few seconds later, the suspected Apothecary finally muttered, "Why
don't you leave an address? That way, I can get something out of your
body."
*He looks like he's cursing me, but he's actually persuading me
otherwise...* Klein pretended not to understand and said to
Black Snake, "I don't have any chance of survival if I don't gamble.
There'll be that sliver of hope if I gamble on it.
"I won't sit back and wait for death."
Hearing this, Eye of Wisdom, who was about to say something, shut his
mouth because he couldn't offer any other hope.
"I really admire your character!" Black Snake laughed.
"I also admire you. In the past, I had quite a few friends who had such
characters. Now, I visit their tombstones every year and place a bunch
of flowers there," the suspected Apothecary mused in a mocking but
actually persuasive manner.
He didn't care that Black Snake was a better fighter than he was. He
said whatever he wanted to.
Mr. Apothecary must have suffered because of his temper...
Klein was secretly grateful.
He handed the iron cigar case containing the Hunter Beyonder
characteristic to the attendant who brought it to Eye of Wisdom.
The old gentleman counted out 400 pounds in cash from the suitcase
beside him and got the attendant to pass it on to Black Snake.
Black Snake casually took a glance and said, "I believe in Mr. Eye of
Wisdom."
He took out a small wooden box, bent down, and placed it on the ground.
He pushed the box so that the object slid to Klein without going through
the attendant.
The moment Klein's fingers touched the surface of the box, he heard
faint illusory sounds and immediately felt a strong sense of dizziness.
For him, this wasn't something he couldn't handle. It wasn't even
comparable to the illusory voices of Justice and company when they pray
to him.
After sitting up straight again, Klein carefully opened the wooden box
and saw a "ear" inside!
The ears looked real, except that the skin was dark and there were a few
green areas where it had rotted.
"How do I use it?" Klein asked.
Black Snake casually replied, "Grasping it without gloves is the same as
using it. Heh, you'd better go home and try it when you're alone."
Klein didn't ask any further questions. He closed the box and put it
into his pocket. He deliberately smiled bitterly and said, "This makes
me dizzy."
After a short moment of silence, the suspected Apothecary suddenly
shouted, "I want to buy Spring of the Elves marrow crystals, who has
it?"
As his voice echoed in the air, no one answered.
The Apothecary smacked his lips and mumbled, "Seriously, there's no
answer every time this is asked."
"Maybe you could book a cruise to Sonia Island," Eye of Wisdom quipped.
The Spring of the Elves was also known as the Sonia Golden Springs, and
one could tell from its name where it came from. The Spring of the Elves
was a commonly seen liquid and was an object with rich spirituality.
However, the marrow crystals were considered Beyonder ingredients and
not easily purchasable.
After that, there were a few failed transactions at the gathering. Eye
of Wisdom clapped his hands and said, "Let's end it here today.
According to the convention, we leave one by one, each separated by
three minutes."
*Leaving one by one... Each separated by three minutes... This is to
prevent the Gathering members from being tailed and robbed?*
When Klein received the signal from Eye of Wisdom, he stood up and,
guided by the attendant, left the activity room, and went to the door.
He took off his hooded robe and handed it back to the attendant before
following the path in his memories back to the back door of the
Bravehearts Bar. He then removed his iron mask and walked through the
kitchen to see Kaspars standing outside the card room, over the barking
of dogs and clamoring of people.
"I'm delighted that you could come back." The red-nosed elder heaved a
sigh of relief, the nasty wounds on his face seemingly trembling.
Klein leaned over and said in a low voice, "Are there such gatherings in
the future?"
"It seems like you didn't get what you wanted. Holy Lord of Storms, I
don't think you should continue wasting your time." Kaspars scanned this
customer he felt worried for. "Maybe it'll take a few days. I don't know
the details. Let's see if you can make it in time."
Klein nodded and asked, "Is Maric here?"
"You're still trying to convince him? No, it will only anger him!"
Kaspars warned him in a deep voice. "He's in the card room behind you."
*No, I'm not going to convince him. I'm trying to stay as far away from
him as possible so that his zombies won't go into mutiny...*
Klein touched Azik's copper whistle in his pocket.
"I understand."
He left the Bravehearts Bar at once, went to the one-bedroom apartment
in East Borough to relieve himself before returning to Minsk Street.
Inside the card room, Maric had gone all-in and confidently flipped open
his cards.
He had three Kings and a pair of Nines, and the zombie opposite him had
a pair of Sixes and an Eight.
Suddenly, the zombie took the initiative to reveal its hidden cards, a
pair of Sixes!
This round, it won with four Sixes!
The pale Maric sat there blankly and immediately felt all the
surrounding zombies coldly staring at him.
A few minutes later, he staggered out the card room on shaky feet and
almost collapsed at the door while his usual entourage of subordinates
inside the room fell to the ground.
"Don't let anyone in before dawn," Maric ordered in a hoarse voice as he
looked at the stunned Kaspars.
He took out a white handkerchief and wiped the corner of his mouth. The
handkerchief was quickly dyed with a dark blue tint with some redness.
After receiving Kaspars's acknowledgment, Maric found a chair to sit and
asked for a barrel of Southville beer. He stared blankly as he drank.
At 15 Minsk Street, Klein followed his usual routine of washing up and
returning to his room before he drew the curtains.
After waiting for over ten minutes and confirming that there were no
specks of spirituality around, he started to summon himself. He
responded to himself and brought the wooden box containing the black ear
into the mysterious space above the gray fog.
The illusory crimson stars didn't twinkle at all as Klein sat at the
seat of honor of the long ancient table and opened the wooden box.
This time, he didn't hear any murmurs or feel dizzy. The boundless gray
fog seemed to isolate all external sounds.
Klein let out a sigh of relief. He was now much more confident with his
impending attempt and much more confident about his own safety.
With a thought, he blocked his own hearing and performed a few
experiments to confirm the effects.
That's right... Klein nodded in satisfaction, reached out, and
grabbed the black ear with signs of rot.
He felt its coldness and slipperiness, but he didn't hear the voice of
the great being that was described by Black Snake.
*Completely isolated? This won't do... It's impossible to use it
alone...* Klein muttered to himself, puzzled as he thought of
the methods he could use to stimulate an effect.
After a dozen or so seconds, he conjured a pen and paper, intending to
emulate the process he used to spy on the Eternal Blazing Sun
previously.
*That time, I looked directly at the Eternal Blazing Sun through the use
of divine blood. This time, I'm only using the remains left behind by a
Listener, so it definitely isn't that dangerous...* Klein wrote
down a divination statement without any hesitation:
"The origin of this item."
He took a breath, held the black ear, and leaned back as he recited the
divination statement.
After reciting it seven times, his eyes darkened as he entered a deep
slumber.
In this blurry, shattered, and gray world, Klein saw a man struggling on
the ground. He rolled, screamed, and his eyes bulged out. His body
swelled like a balloon, and countless hairs on his body turned black and
long.
Soon after, an extremely evil and foul voice rang in Klein's ears,
waking him up instantly.
It was different from the ravings and howling that came from the
mysterious space above the gray fog. This sound was more penetrating,
more purposeful, and more active!
Klein covered his ears and isolated any fallout, but the same voice
echoed in his head.
He saw his vessels and veins bulge out as if they had become thick
squirming venomous snakes.
Bang!
His blood vessels burst, and his veins broke off from his body,
spreading out into slippery tentacles filled with sinister patterns. The
gray fog slightly swayed, making the giant's palace look like it was
about to corrode.
Unlike the incident with the Eternal Blazing Sun, Klein still retained
his sanity and didn't roll over on the ground. He gripped the handrail
tightly and endured the pain.
After a few seconds, the slightly swaying gray fog regained its calm,
and the evil voice that echoed in Klein's mind completely died down.
One "tentacle" after another fell to the ground, and his wounds began to
rapidly heal.
*Interacting with deities is truly a dangerous matter, regardless of the
method... Thankfully, I didn't face the True Creator directly this time.
If not, I'll have remnants of madness and signs of losing control and
would affect my body in the real world...* Klein weakly leaned
back into his chair and silently mocked himself.
This process was within his expectations, and it didn't go out of his
control.
The only thing that surprised him was that the True Creator appeared to
be slightly stronger than the Eternal Blazing Sun...
Just as Klein's thoughts were about to wander off, he saw the black ear
in his palm suddenly crumbled, turning into tiny specks of black light.
It has become a pure Beyonder characteristic? Amidst his
confusion, he saw through the corner of his eyes that the
sinister-patterned tentacles were still twitching on the ground. They
were the aspects of madness and loss of control that had been stripped
from his body.
These tentacles gradually turned transparent and were about to
disappear.
A flash of brilliance came to Klein's mind. He scattered the tiny black
light specks in his palm at those slippery tentacles.
An illusionary black gas rose up and turned into a sky that constantly
streaked with lightning. The background was extremely dense and gloomy.
All of this quickly disappeared from Klein's eyes. On the surface of the
iron-black charm on the ground were many symbols, magic labels, sinister
patterns, and twisted path numbers.
Klein bent down and picked it up, with the feeling that what was sealed
inside were howling maniacs.
With the help of his divination techniques, he was able to barely
decipher the use of this charm from its revelation. It was to let the
opponent hear a terrifying roar, infecting them with madness. As for the
final result, it depended on the target's ability to resist such
attacks. If the target was strong, then they might benefit from it, but
the price was becoming a devout believer of the True Creator, and if he
was weak, he would collapse on the spot, dying amidst tragic cries.
I'll call it Language of Foulness... Klein muttered and set an
incantation to activate it.