Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 138 Chapter 137

"The Fountain of Youth..."

Bailey's brows furrowed as she listened. "You're really holding this thing that sounds so strange, so peculiar, and so dangerous. Do you really believe that mysterious person?"

Ellis said, "No, I don't believe it."

"The Fountain of Youth, that legendary thing that grants immortality if you drink from it, how could it be so easily obtained?"

"Even if it's true, giving me this thing would definitely mean it contains some secret I don't know... My knowledge of the occult also tells me that something as unbelievable as this is dangerous just by hearing about it."

The three major avoidance rules in the world of mysticism are: don’t look at what you shouldn’t look at, don’t listen to what you shouldn’t listen to, and don’t know what you shouldn’t know.

If you want to survive well in the world of occultism, curiosity is the last thing you should have.

Tang smiled and said nothing.

"After the mysterious man handed the thing to me, I immediately tried to trade it, but..." Ellis stroked his hair in annoyance.

"But now, even those who usually pay no attention to insignificant figures like you suddenly know that you have the Fountain of Youth." Tang took over the topic. "It's a very low-level method, but it can't withstand the instigation of the Beyonder behind the scenes."

Sequence 8 of the Witch Path, the potion is called Instigator.

Even without using extraordinary abilities, the instigation of these witches is still effective.

"No...Okay, you're right." Ellis sighed. "I tried to find the source of the news and search for that mysterious man, but I found nothing. It was as if that mysterious man had never appeared."

"And that mysterious person didn't show up at the agreed-upon trade time... Actually, after noticing something was amiss, I contacted others and planned to trade the Fountain of Youth outright. It would be better for both us and me to throw this obviously problematic item away rather than keep it with me."

Bailey glanced at Tang, who nodded and said simply, "I didn't tell a lie, but I didn't tell the whole truth either."

Ellis glanced at Don.

Don looked back.

Ellis cleared his throat and could only continue, "Then, the organization I contacted that wanted the 'Fountain of Youth' all died."

Having said this, he paused and looked at Bailey.

"Belle, do you still remember the 'Pirate Feast' half a month ago?"

"'Pirate's Feast'? A lot of pirates have disappeared recently, big pirates. People have been talking about this..." Bailey immediately connected the two things. "Did they die at the 'Pirate's Feast'?"

This was a feast for all pirates held on that island half a month ago.

These sea plunderers will display the things they have plundered for nearly half a year that they have not sold, whether they are people or objects, whether they are related to mysticism or not. As long as you can afford the price, you can buy them there during those few days.

It can also be considered a kind of gathering among pirates.

Ellis made this deal with one of the organizers of the pirate feast, a big pirate who owned several large ships and was a mid-sequence pirate himself.

After all, the rumor about the 'Fountain of Youth' is spreading like wildfire on this island. Rather than letting the situation develop and letting some guys who don't know the truth watch covetously from behind, it is better to trade the thing out directly, at least to have some peace and quiet.

After confirming that he could not contact the mysterious man, the news of the 'Fountain of Youth' spread like wildfire. Ellis, who had many years of pirate experience, knew that he had been targeted.

As for the 'Fountain of Youth', no matter whether it is really a panacea that can make people immortal, all the big pirates he contacted are very interested in it.

The Fountain of Youth is deep in the Sonia Sea. Drinking from it can make people immortal... Regardless of whether this legend is true or not, it will make many pirates who like adventure and chase excitement do some irrational things.

For example, when chasing something that sounds wrong as soon as the name is called, there are always people who think they will be the lucky one, or that they can solve this problem.

"We agreed to make a deal at that time, and I took the Fountain of Youth with me."

"Then, when I arrived at the transaction location, I discovered..."

"They're all dead."

The body hung from the sail, hanging alone, swaying in the sea breeze.

The pirate who wanted to buy the Fountain of Youth had his body pierced from top to bottom. He seemed to have encountered something incomprehensible in his life. His expression was twisted and strange. He raised his head and looked at the crimson moon hanging high in the sky above him.

They died on the plank of their ship, that night.

"The rumors of the 'Fountain of Youth' also suddenly disappeared around that time. It seemed that all desire for this item had vanished with the death of that great pirate."

"But I can feel those eyes are still staring at me."

“Death does not end there.”

Ellis lowered his head and narrated dejectedly, "Like a plague, death spread among the pirates. Many who knew about the 'Fountain of Youth' died unknowingly on their ships at night when the sky held a red moon high."

"Their bodies were hanging upside down on the sails, swaying in the sea breeze, making the sound of objects hitting the pillars again and again..."

Bailey's face began to look worse, but Tang seemed to have known it from the beginning. He sat aside and listened quietly to this ghost story in the sense of mysticism.

Suddenly, Tang's head moved and he looked out through the window.

Dark clouds were floating over from a distance, pressing down on the sea, and it seemed that heavy rain was about to fall.

The sea breeze and waves became violent at this time. The gloomy sky, combined with the terrifying and strange stories ringing in the ears, gave people the feeling that those dead pirates would drive a group of ghost ships out from the place covered by dark clouds.
But Ellis's story doesn't end there.

"After that, I always heard strange noises..."

"It seemed like the panting of something, oppressive, painful, and desperate. Something in the distance was calling me, wanting me to go somewhere... Sometimes I think, if I open the bottle of the 'Fountain of Youth' and drink what's inside, I should be able to rest in peace..."

"You drank it?" Belle exclaimed, seemingly not noticing anything unusual outside the window.

A faint light flickered on the monocle worn in Tang's right eye socket as he continued to look out the window.

"Belle, I'm not stupid enough to drink something so obviously problematic." Ellis coughed softly. "After I realized the problem, I used some methods to seal it up, but it seems to have little effect."

He said, "Now I can hear the call from far away every night. It is a very strange feeling..."

"Then, I threw the sealed 'Fountain of Youth' into the sea. I hope it won't cause too much harm."

"And the mumbling has indeed weakened a lot since this thing left... I think it should be no longer a problem after a while."

It started to rain, and the sky became dark, without a trace of light.

What fell on the deck was just a drizzle at first, and then it became a torrential downpour. The waves rolled up, and the lonely wooden boat sailed forward in the storm, struggling to move forward in the violent sea wind and huge waves.

However, the momentum driven by the 'error' clearly wouldn't be halted by a natural disaster of this magnitude. This kind of weather posed no threat to a High-Sequence Beyonder with multiple Sealed Artifacts. Natural disasters, without the influence of Beyonder powers, were unlikely to pose a threat to Tang.

but--

"The boat... has stopped."

At some point, the ship, which was supposed to be driven by mystical power, stopped in the middle of the ocean. Even though the oars were still swinging, they did not move the wooden boat forward even a single step.

Countless things as thick as seaweed floated up from the depths of the ocean, grabbed the bottom of the wooden boat, and bound it in place like an anchor, passively accepting the washing of the waves and strong winds.

The things clung to the bottom of the wooden boat and continued to climb.

"I threw that thing into the sea. It should sleep forever in the depths of the ocean, drifting on the seabed with the ocean currents."

Neither Ellis nor Bailey realized that there was a problem with the ship itself, and their conversation continued.

"It is rumored that the 'Fountain of Youth' originates from the depths of the Sonia Sea and is a treasure unique in the sea."

Suddenly, several black shadows appeared in the distance.

They seemed to be other ships, floating on the dark and deep sea, moving slowly in the storm, approaching the wooden boat.

Tang stood up at some point, walked to the window and looked into the distance.

"But a few days later, the bottle containing the 'Fountain of Youth' returned to me. At first, I saw the familiar bottle and didn't remember it..."

In the distance, there are several ships.

There was no one on the deck, no sailors pushing the oars, and the waves swept in, causing the ship to speed along with the waves and strong winds.

On those ships, there seemed to be something shaking on the masts.

A teeth-grinding sound came from the bottom of the boat, as if something was breathing.

"call--"

"call--"

"But that is the 'Fountain of Youth'. I have not discarded it. Or rather, it was just a dream of mine that I discarded it."

Tang took out the Sun Scepter from the system space. The three-meter-long dark golden scepter still exuded a sense of stagnant decadence in the dark world.

Tang could faintly hear countless souls singing praises to the sun. Ever since the Sun Scepter had absorbed a portion of the Ocean Singer's Beyonder attribute, the singing had grown louder and louder.

"Shut up for a moment. Go sing for those people over there later."

He said in his heart.

Then the Sun Wand really shut down.

This thing has been trained very well by the system.

Tang waved the Sun Scepter in his hand and asked the system to give an appraisal to the other two people present.

After making sure they hadn't suffered irreparable contamination, Tang lowered his gaze below him.

He adjusted his monocle. "The pollution from the Fountain of Youth is transforming this area."

Ellis and Bailey's conversation continued, as if they were completely unaware that the situation had changed.

"The 'Fountain of Youth' sent by the Witch Cult is special."

"The Fountain of Youth itself doesn't possess such a strong polluting property. The reason the Fountain delivered to Ellis is so special is most likely related to the countless spiritual pollutions and the divine powers of various gods mixed in the ruins of the God War."

"And, I'm afraid it has a close connection with a certain place."

Penn West.

Tang thought of this place in his mind.

Binxi Town, later named Banxi Port, was the place where the pollution leaked from the Source Disaster City turned into a ruin swept by the lightning of the Storm Church.

But that place is not close to here, and it is even less so to the ruins of the War of Gods. Apart from the fact that the Witch Sect has nothing to do, Tang doesn't think there is any possibility that the Fountain of Youth would wander around there and then appear in Ellis's hands.

"Furthermore, there's likely more than one Fountain of Youth, and it wasn't just given to Ellis... The Red Angel Three-in-One Hot Pot is suspected to have been contaminated by the Source of the Witch and Hunter's two paths, the City of Disaster. This was only resolved by Adam, or the Ancient Sun God, and turned into the main ingredient for the Blood Emperor potion."

His sight passed over the planks and after turning a fish into a puppet, through the fish he entered the real field of view of Euclidean space and saw the huge shadow under the ship.

From the perspective of a cryptographer, it is a brand new, indescribable monster formed by the twisting together of countless pollution and marine life.

From an intuitive perspective, it was a bloated, huge, humanoid corpse floating on the seabed.

The corpse had no facial features, only four dark holes, which represented the eyes, nose and mouth.

He, who was humanoid, or whose hair was like that of a Gorgon, had seaweed-like hair that wrapped around the wooden boat that Tang was riding, binding it in place. Even with the power of mysticism, it was still unable to move forward even a single step.

In the distance, the shadows that were rushing towards us amidst the storm and waves revealed their true faces one after another.

Those are pirate ships, those are ghost ships.

There were no living people on the boat. Human bodies were hanging from the poles. They had rotted, revealing their white bones. They were facing the living, their mouths opening and closing, as if they were saying something.

But no matter what it is, it is a kind of spiritual pollution, a kind of madness that can make people lose control once they hear it.

After all, skeletons can't talk.

Tang glanced at the two people behind him, then snapped his fingers with the hand that was not holding the Sun Scepter.

On the little finger of his left hand, the ring of "Master" glowed silver in the dark night.

Ellis and Bailey's conversation suddenly stopped.

The two looked at Tang together, and then they encountered a miracle created by a top magician.

They were instantly transferred to the Never-Ending Theater in Tingen, thousands of miles away.

(End of this chapter)