Chapter 28: Words of Filth

Chapter Twenty-Eight
Words of Filth

Inside the sitting room illuminated by only a single candle, the atmosphere grew silent, as though it had solidified.

Several seconds later, the man suspected of being an Apothecary muttered, “Why not leave your address? That way, I can at least get something from your corpse.”

It seems like a curse, but it is actually advice…

Klein pretended not to understand and looked toward Black Snake.

“If I do not gamble, I have no chance of surviving. If I do, at least there is some tiny hope.

“I will not sit there waiting for death to descend.”

Hearing this, Mr. Eye of Wisdom, who had been about to speak, closed his mouth, because he could not offer any other hope.

“I admire that character of yours!” Black Snake laughed loudly.

“I admire it too. Several friends I had in the past were all like that. Now, every year, I visit their graves and place a bouquet of flowers,” the suspected Apothecary muttered, openly agreeing, secretly mocking, and in truth trying to persuade him otherwise.

He did not care in the least that Black Snake could fight better than him. He said whatever he wanted to say.

Mr. Apothecary has surely suffered losses because of that temper…

Klein gave him a silent word of gratitude.

He handed the iron cigarette case containing the Hunter Beyonder characteristic to the attendant who had led him inside and watched the man walk to Mr. Eye of Wisdom.

The old gentleman counted out four hundred pounds in cash from the leather case beside him and asked the attendant to bring it to Black Snake.

Black Snake casually glanced over it and said, “I trust Mr. Eye of Wisdom.”

He took a small wooden box from his chest, bent down, placed it on the floor, and pushed it hard, letting the item slide directly to Klein without passing through the attendant.

The moment Klein’s fingers touched the surface of the box, faint auditory hallucinations appeared beside his ears, and he experienced dizziness similar to that caused by violent jolting.

To him, this was not unbearable. Its degree was not even comparable to the illusory voices produced when Justice and the others prayed.

After sitting straight again, Klein cautiously opened the wooden box and saw an “ear” inside.

The ear looked almost real, except that the skin was blackened, and several places had rotted open, leaking green fluid.

“How do I use it?” Klein asked.

Black Snake replied casually, “If you hold it without gloves, that counts as using it. Heh. You had best try after returning home, when you are alone.”

Klein did not ask further. He closed the box, put it into his pocket, and deliberately smiled bitterly.

“This makes me feel dizzy.”

After a brief silence, the man suspected of being an Apothecary suddenly shouted loudly, “I want to buy pith crystals from the Elven Spring. Who has them?”

His voice echoed, but no one answered.

The Apothecary clicked his tongue and muttered, “Really. Every time I ask, there is none.”

“Perhaps you can book a ship ticket to Sonia Island,” Mr. Eye of Wisdom teased with a smile.

The Elven Spring was also known as the Sonia Golden Spring. Its place of origin was evident from its name alone. The spring water itself was a common spirituality-rich material, but its pith crystals belonged to Beyonder materials and were not so easy to buy.

After that, several more transactions at the gathering failed. Mr. Eye of Wisdom clapped his hands.

“That is all for today. As usual, leave one by one, with three minutes between each person.”

Leave one by one… separated by three minutes… This is to prevent someone from immediately following or even robbing other gathering members after leaving?

Receiving Eye of Wisdom’s hint, Klein stood. Under the attendant’s guidance, he left the sitting room and arrived near the front door.

He took off the hooded robe and returned it to the other party. Then, following the road in his memory, he returned to the back door of Bravehearts Bar, removed the iron mask, passed through the kitchen, and amid the noise of barking dogs and shouting men, saw Kaspars standing outside the card room.

“I am very relieved that you could come back,” said the red-nosed old man, visibly letting out a breath. The hideous wound on his face seemed to twitch.

Klein moved closer and lowered his voice.

“Will there be more gatherings like this later?”

“It seems you did not obtain what you wanted. By the Storm, I think there is no need for you to waste more time.”

Kaspars glanced at this troublesome customer.

“Perhaps in a few days. I am not sure of the exact time. It depends on whether you can catch it.”

Klein nodded, then asked, “Is Maric here?”

“You want to try persuading him? No. That will only anger him!” Kaspars warned in a deep voice. “He is in the card room behind you.”

No. I am not planning to persuade him. I intend to stay as far away from him as possible, lest his living corpses rebel…

Klein touched Azik’s copper whistle in his pocket.

“I understand.”

He immediately left Bravehearts Bar, made a circuit through that one-room apartment in the East Borough, and only then returned to Minsk Street.

Inside the card room, Maric went all in with all his chips, full of confidence as he revealed his hole cards.

He had three kings and a pair of nines. The living corpse opposite him showed a pair of sixes and an eight.

Suddenly, the living corpse took the initiative to reveal its own hole cards—a pair of sixes.

This round: four sixes won.

The pale-faced Maric froze there. In the next instant, he felt the gazes of all the living corpses around him turn coldly toward him.

Several minutes later, he walked out of the card room with unsteady steps, almost falling at the doorway, while the subordinates who had usually clustered around him lay scattered inside the room.

“Before midnight, do not let anyone in,” Maric ordered hoarsely, looking at the stunned Kaspars.

He pulled out a white handkerchief and wiped the corner of his mouth. It was quickly stained with a dark-blue color tinged with red.

After receiving Kaspars’s affirmative reply, Maric casually found a chair and sat. He ordered a bucket of Southville beer and stared blankly as he drank, remaining dazed for a long time.

…

15 Minsk Street. Klein followed the usual steps: washed up, returned to his room, and drew the curtains closed.

After waiting for more than ten minutes and confirming there were indeed no spiritual light points nearby, he began summoning himself and responding to himself, carrying that blackened ear and its wooden box together into the mysterious space above the gray fog.

Illusory crimson stars dotted the area below, showing no flicker whatsoever. Klein sat at the head of the ancient long table and opened the wooden box.

This time, he did not experience auditory hallucinations, nor did dizziness arise. The boundless gray fog seemed to isolate all outside sounds.

Klein immediately let out a breath of relief, gaining no small amount of confidence in the coming attempt—confidence in his safety.

With a thought, he blocked his own hearing and performed several experiments to confirm the effect.

Not bad…

Klein nodded in satisfaction and stretched out a hand, grabbing the black ear marked by traces of rot.

A cold, slippery sensation entered his mind, but he did not hear the voice of a great existence described by Black Snake.

“Completely isolated? That will not work… Using it alone is not enough…”

Klein murmured in confusion and began thinking about what method he could use to trigger its effect.

After a dozen seconds, he manifested paper and pen, intending to imitate the previous process through which he had peered at the Eternal Blazing Sun.

That time, I used divine blood and directly looked at the Eternal Blazing Sun. This time, I am using only an item left behind by a Listener. It definitely will not be that dangerous…

Feeling confident, Klein wrote down the divination statement:

“The origin of this item.”

He inhaled, held the blackened ear, leaned back, and silently recited the statement.

After seven times, his eyes darkened, and he entered sleep.

Inside the blurry, fragmented, gray world, Klein saw a man struggling on the ground. The man rolled, screamed, and his eyes bulged outward. His body swelled like a balloon, while countless hairs became blacker and longer.

Immediately afterward, a voice evil to the extreme and filthy to the extreme entered Klein’s ears, jolting him awake in an instant.

Different from the ravings and screams he heard before entering the mysterious space above the gray fog, this voice possessed greater penetrative force, greater purpose, and greater initiative.

Klein clapped his hands over his ears, cutting off what followed, but the voice just now continued echoing inside his mind.

He saw his own blood vessels and veins bulge out, seemingly turning into writhing, thick venomous snakes.

Bang!

His blood vessels exploded. His veins tore free from his body, spreading outward into slick tentacles covered in evil patterns. The gray fog trembled faintly, and the palace like a giant’s residence showed slight signs of corrosion.

Unlike the time with the Eternal Blazing Sun, Klein still retained reason. He did not roll across the floor. Instead, he gripped the armrests tightly and endured with all his might.

After several seconds, the trembling gray fog recovered its calm. The evil voice echoing inside Klein’s mind completely subsided.

Those “tentacles” dropped away, and his wounds began healing at high speed.

“Dealing with deities truly is dangerous, no matter what method is used… Good thing I did not directly face the True Creator this time. Otherwise, some madness and loss of control would likely remain and affect my body in the real world…”

Weakly leaning back against the chair, Klein mocked himself soundlessly.

This process had basically been within his expectations. Overall, it had not exceeded his control.

The only thing that surprised him was that the True Creator seemed to be somewhat stronger than the Eternal Blazing Sun…

Just as Klein’s thoughts were about to scatter, he saw the black ear in his palm suddenly collapse, turning into tiny specks of light—faint-black specks of light.

Returning to pure Beyonder characteristic?

Amid his confusion, Klein’s peripheral vision caught the slick tentacles marked with evil patterns still twitching on the ground. Those were the madness and loss of control stripped from his body.

The tentacles were gradually turning transparent and were about to vanish.

A sudden flash of inspiration struck Klein. He scattered the tiny, faint-black specks of light in his hand toward the slippery tentacles.

Illusory black gas rose, transforming into a sky across which lightning constantly flashed, while the background was darkness so dense it had reached the extreme.

All of this swiftly vanished from Klein’s eyes. On the ground appeared an iron-black charm covered in many symbolic signs, magical markings, evil patterns, and twisted spiritual numbers.

Klein bent and picked it up, feeling that it seemed to seal inside itself a madman who was constantly roaring.

With the aid of divination techniques, he barely interpreted the charm’s use from the revelation: it allowed the target to hear terrifying roars and be infected with madness. As for what result would appear in the end, that depended on the target’s resistance in that regard. If strong, perhaps they might gain benefits—at the price of becoming a devout believer of the True Creator. If weak, they would collapse on the spot and die screaming.

“I will call it Words of Filth…”

Klein whispered, setting the activation incantation.