American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Xiu En patted his chest forcefully, the black magic markings on his neck fluctuating violently with his movement.

"Water of resentment? A mass grave?"

Xiu En is performing the madness of someone driven to the brink of despair.

"High Priest, do you think I'm one of those rookies who trembles even when killing a chicken? As long as you can suppress what's inside me, I'll bring you back everything, not just a bottle of water, but all the bones of every dead person in that swamp!"

He took the ceremony diagram, turned around, grabbed the withered succulent plant from the wooden box, and stuffed it into his arms.

"interesting."

Ivy's voice echoed in Xiu En's mind.

"The Eastern Swamp? That nutrient-rich environment might allow me to find a few mutated carrion plants."

"You'd better pray there's some grass there that will satisfy you."

Xiu En responded in his mind.

"I'm only responsible for fetching water; you do the weeding yourself. The air here is disgusting; I can't stand it anymore and I'm about to purify it."

High Priest Malik looked at Shuen's fanatical appearance, a satisfied glint in his eyes.

With a gentle wave of his white bone staff, a wisp of red light split off from the dark red energy sphere in the center of the hall and landed precisely at Xiu En's feet, transforming into a blurry coordinate rune.

"On the edge of the eastern district, follow the abandoned sewage pipes deeper and deeper."

Malik's voice regained its lofty and refined elegance.

"The water there is not only murky, but also filled with the resentment of those abandoned by the world. Ordinary people who get close will be swallowed by despair. I'm giving you three hours. If you don't come back, or if the water you bring back isn't pure enough, well, you know what I mean."

Malik merely glanced coldly at the succulents in Shuen's arms.

"The Holy Word Society has no need for waste, and your relics will be recycled by us."

"Three hours? That's too long."

Xiu En snorted coldly.

"Prepare what you're going to give me. When I come back, I don't want to hear any excuses."

Xiu En didn't look at the kneeling believers in the hall anymore, turned around and strode towards the door.

The gatekeeper quickly bowed his head and opened the door for him, his attitude much more respectful than before.

Stepping out of the factory.

The cold morning wind still smelled unpleasant.

But compared to the nauseating sour smell of black magic in the hall, this was relatively fresh air.

Xiu En stood on the street and looked up at the gray sky.

He suppressed the urge within him to purify everything and headed towards the East District, following the coordinates given by Malik.

He followed the coordinates given by Malik, wandering through the narrow alleys of New York's East Side where even sunlight couldn't penetrate.

The surrounding buildings became increasingly dilapidated, and the lingering smell of human society in the air was gradually replaced by the stench of decay.

"Disgusting! The air in this swamp makes me nauseous."

Xiu En subconsciously made a sarcastic remark.

"Hey Xiu En, do you have some misunderstanding about swamps?"

"What do you mean by 'the air makes me nauseous'? Swamps are nature's greatest digestive system, the cradle of life. The decaying remains and stagnant sewage, fermented over time, will become the finest humus."

Xiu En twitched the corners of his mouth and mentally retaliated.

"That's for someone like you who can make a living in a fertilizer pile. To me, that place is just a natural garbage dump. You'd better pray that you actually find the mutant grass you're looking for there, or this trip will be a huge waste."

"Hmph! You don't know how to appreciate things!"

Ivy snorted coldly.

"These swamps on the edge of megacities constantly absorb all sorts of industrial waste and gang resentment, plus the low-level black magic radiation leaked by that so-called Crimson Holy Word Society. The plants that grow in this extreme environment must be much more interesting."

The two bickered all the way, and the surrounding scenery had become completely desolate.

At the end of the highway lies a vast wetland shrouded in thick fog.

The dead trees twisted their branches, like desperate hands reaching out from the mud.

Unidentified duckweed floats on the dark green water, and occasionally a murky bubble bursts out.

Xiu En stopped and stood at the edge of the swamp.

He could clearly sense that the air here was thick with negative emotions.

Those are the resentments and hatred left behind by countless lives that died silently here.

"That pretentious charlatan wasn't lying after all."

Xiu En squinted, surveying the lifeless mud pit before him.

"The resentment here is certainly pure enough. However, asking me to take a bottle and scoop up this murky water is absolutely out of the question."

The succulent in my arms trembled slightly, and a few green roots quietly emerged from the bottom of the pot, tentatively digging into the soil beneath their feet.

"Wow..."

Ivy seemed very happy.

"Shuen, you'd never guess what's down there! The soil here is like a pot of magical broth simmering for hundreds of years! I can sense spores of at least three types of mutated fungi, and a strange vine that's devouring dark magic energy! They're all excellent samples!"

"Whatever makes you happy."

Xiu En placed the flowerpot on a relatively dry rock at the edge of the swamp.

"You play for a while, but don't go too far. I still have to finish my work."

Although this clone doesn't have the same exaggerated destructive power as the original, it's more than enough to deal with a mud pit.

Clearly, Xiu En didn't want to go through that initiation ceremony.

Xiu En extended his right hand, palm facing up.

A faint golden flame flickered at his fingertips.

He planned to use the simplest and most direct method to distill out the negative emotions contained in this swamp.

He controlled this power, preventing the Golden Crow Divine Fire's domineering purifying properties from fully erupting.

Under his guidance, the flames gently covered the murky surface of the swamp.

The dark green water began to boil violently, and plumes of visible black mist rose up with the steam.

Those were the negative emotions that had accumulated in this swamp over millions of years, now exposed under the pressure of the high temperature.

Xiu En flipped his left hand, and the kettle appeared in his palm.

The rising black mist was directed into the kettle.

In just a few minutes, the shriveled kettle became heavy, filled with highly pure resentful water.

The water was a nauseating black color, and just holding it in your hand, you could feel a chilling malice trying to creep up your wrist.

Mission accomplished.

Xiu En weighed the kettle in his hand and said to Ivy.

"This water is so pure it could be sold as poison. Have you finished digging the mud over there? We should go back and ask that charlatan for our reward."

"Wait a minute! Xiu En, look at this!"

Ivy's voice rose, filled with barely concealed excitement.

Xiu En turned his head and looked at the succulent plant placed on the stone.

The once withered plant was now stretching out several thick vines, digging into the mud like tentacles.

Ivy pulled a plant, as thick as an adult's forearm and entirely purplish-red, out of the mud.

That thing looked extremely bizarre.

The upper part could barely be identified as the shape of a radish, but the lower part branched into more than a dozen constantly wriggling tentacles, and the surface was covered with disgusting bumps that looked like suction cups.

A strong, sour smell of dark magic emanated from it.

"Look at this perfect mutated form!"

Ivy's vines wrapped around the purplish-red tentacle radish and thrust it directly in front of Xiu En.

"The chaotic magic of the Crimson Dimension, combined with industrial waste from the New York sewers, has actually given rise to this carrion-eating root plant with animalistic characteristics! This is absolutely a miracle in the history of botany!"

The radish seemed to sense Xiu En's presence, and its dozen or so tentacles immediately began to wave excitedly, trying to entwine Xiu En's arm.

"Want to try some?"

Ivy's voice was full of seduction.

"This thing has absorbed the essence of dark magic; it's definitely potent."

Xiu En stared expressionlessly at the mutated radish that was almost touching his nose, his lips twitching slightly.

"Truly a masterpiece of nature."

Xiu En praised him in a flat tone, but his body betrayed him by taking a half-step back.

"Its colors are incredibly vibrant, and the vitality of its tentacles is astonishing. But this thing looks way too much like Cthulhu's toes. I'm not picky about food, but I do have my limits. Take it away."

"Tch, you don't know how to appreciate things."

Ivy lost interest when she saw that Xiu En wouldn't take a bite.

The vines dismissively tossed the mutated radish back into the stinking puddle.

With a soft thud, the radish sank into the mud.

"Alright, that's enough playing in the mud. There's not even anything to eat in this godforsaken place."

Ivy complained in her mind, retracted the vines, and turned back into the half-dead succulent plant.

"What should we do next? Throw this bottle of dirty water in the high priest's face?"

Xiu En stuffed the water bottle into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and picked up the flowerpot again.

"Smashing it in his face is too lenient on him."

Xiu En gave a cold laugh.

"I want him to draw that magic circle that can summon rats himself. When that Sithon crawls out, I'll eat that takeout dish in the pot right in front of him."

He turned around, left the stinking swamp, and headed back the way he had come.

"You'd better pray that the person who comes is fat enough."

Ivy complained.

"If it's not Xisorn but something else that comes, this errand will be a huge loss."

Xiu En, on the other hand, was very confident.

"Little Flower, trust my intuition, Sithon will come!"

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