Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

What's more, Lund was lying on the other side.

Death is so close that even the question of "who gets the body" has lost its original weight.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Lady Black Crow continued, "But it's not possible now, someone beat us to it."

She looked at Xilun, and the laziness in her eyes lessened somewhat.

"The power of this evil god's remnant has become inextricably linked to your life. You are no longer simply living, but living on its regenerative instincts."

If I forcibly expel it, your body will decay rapidly, just as it was supposed to happen last night, rotting away inch by inch.

As she spoke, she raised her hand and flicked it lightly.

Xilun suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, as if he could really see his bones and flesh falling apart, his fascia decaying, and his whole body turning into gray-black fragments within a few breaths.

"So—" Lady Black Crow paused, a hint of displeasure finally creeping into her voice, "I didn't come all this way, I can't be expected to lose money, can I?"

The complaint was made very softly, almost like casual conversation.

But Xilun knew very well that this was not something that could be easily fooled.

He looked at her, remained silent for a moment, and then spoke.

"What should we do then?"

His voice was hoarse and calm.

He genuinely didn't know what else he could offer the other person.

He was lucky to survive, his body was half-dead, he had no decent bargaining chips, and there was a whole circle of government officials, churches, and various forces outside who dared not come in.

Throughout his life, he had relied on ruthlessness, his life, and perseverance to reach the third tier. Yet, faced with such a powerful being, he suddenly realized that he was utterly penniless.

Ms. Black Crow looked at him for a while, resting her chin on her hand, as if seriously considering how to make up for the deficit.

The sky outside the window grew darker, and there were no lights in the room. The light fell on her profile, making her faint smile appear indescribably cold.

After a few breaths, she slowly spoke.

"Then we'll just have to leave it for now."

Xilun looked at her.

"Should we leave it for now?"

"You owe me money," said Mrs. Black Crow. "Anyway, you're not going to die anytime soon."

She tapped the armrest of the chair lightly, her eyes seeming to have already recalculated the accounts for the rest of the time.

"You can pay me back when you're more capable."

Xilun did not breathe a sigh of relief because of those words.

On the contrary, he knew that being told "I'll pay you back later" by such a being was no small favor.

The way Lady Black Crow looked at him the next moment confirmed this.

"However," she said, a slight smile playing on her lips, "I'll decide how this debt will be settled."

A light rain began to fall outside sometime earlier.

The raindrops were light, tapping on the old courtyard window frame like countless tiny, damp fingers repeatedly patting the long-old house.

The sound brought to mind many rainy nights from long ago, the drafty courtyard in the southern suburbs, the hard wooden bed that hurt my bones, Lund coughing as he sat under the lamp sharpening his gun, and also the damp, cold years I had lived through, years that felt like I was always walking in mud.

Xilun leaned against the headboard, his chest rising and falling very gently.

After saying, "I'll decide how to pay this debt," Ms. Black Crow didn't continue immediately, but instead seemed to be giving him some time to process it.

However, this short period of time does not mean an easy time for Xilun.

He glanced at the white sheet on the other bed, his voice still hoarse.

"What do you want me to repay?"

Ms. Black Crow tapped the armrest twice with her fingertips, as if finalizing a number.

"Your body."

Xilun's eyes narrowed.

Lady Black Crow looked at him calmly.

"Don't look at me like that. Not now, not tomorrow. I have little interest in a half-crippled body."

She said in a calm tone, "When you truly cultivate this evil god power that is parasitizing your body into your own power, when you can refine it from 'pollution' into 'tool' and then from 'tool' into 'rules,' then I will allow your consciousness to leave peacefully and return this body to me."

She spoke with utmost naturalness, as if leaving one's body to someone at the end of life was merely a postponed transaction.

Xilun listened and remained silent for a long while.

"You mean," he said slowly, "that once I've mastered it, I'll die, and then my body will belong to you?"

"Pretty much," said Lady Black Raven. "Or if you think you can live longer, that's fine too. I'm not in a hurry; after all, the lifespan of a high-level extraordinary being is always a bit more troublesome than that of an ordinary person."

Xilun twitched the corner of his mouth, a very small movement, like a cold laugh forced on by a person on the verge of collapse.

"Looking at me now, it doesn't sound like I'll live much longer."

"That's your own business." Lady Black Crow raised her chin. "I'm responsible for telling you how to pay your debts, not for carrying your life to the end. I have no interest in doing something like last night a second time."

If you get killed, swallowed by contamination, or lose control and turn into a breathing lump of rotten flesh along the way, then it's just that I had bad judgment.

Xilun did not respond to that sentence.

He looked down at his palm.

Fine cracks still remain between the lines of the palm, like porcelain that was burned and forcibly pieced back together.

"Power..." he repeated the word softly.

This wasn't the first time he'd heard this word.

In the records of the Link family’s old residence, he had seen snippets about high-ranking extraordinary beings, about ducal bloodlines, and about divine revelation; in the pages of the Great Universe Dojo, he had also vaguely grasped the outline of “external forces returning to oneself.”

But those places are all too far away, like lighthouses standing on the other side of a foggy sea. You can see a glimpse of them, but you don't know how to get there.

Now that Lady Black Crow had bluntly presented it to him, the previously obscure path suddenly became sharp.

The cost then becomes clear.

"There are other problems." As if annoyed that he was thinking too slowly, Lady Black Crow added fuel to the fire. "You'd better leave this city as soon as possible."

Xilun looked up.

Ms. Black Crow looked out the window, her tone still languid, but her words were anything but joking.

"After last night, in many people's eyes, you are no longer an ordinary third-order mutant."

Some may see you as a chosen one of the gods, some may suspect you are a vessel left behind by some being, and others may believe that you possess some high-level power that can be divided, studied, and exploited.

"The government will be watching you, the church will be watching you, the nobility will be watching you, and those things that usually hide in the gutter and behind the hall will also be watching you."

She glanced at him sideways, a subtle cruelty in her eyes.

"Moreover, not all of these people who are watching you are afraid of me."

The room immediately fell silent.

Xilun knew she was right.

Last night's epic battle certainly frightened many people, but fear and retreat can only be suppressed temporarily.

Once the initial panic subsides, the probing, prying, scheming, and deduction will soon regenerate layer by layer.

That's just how people are.

The more fearful you are, the more you want to know what lies behind that fear.

And he is that "something".

"Furthermore," Lady Black Raven continued, "the consciousness of the evil god will continuously erode you."

It's just dregs now, temporarily held together by your chill, my remnants, and your meager life force.

But this balance won't last forever. If you don't have new forces to suppress it, tame it, and replace it, sooner or later it will seep into your weakest spot.

"In your dreams, in your wounds, in your anger, or in a moment when you feel like you can't hold on any longer."

Xilun's eyes darkened.

He took those words to heart.

Because he knows all too well where his weakest point is.

It's not bones, not flesh and blood, but things that have been suppressed for too many years and are never easily brought to light.

The torrential rains of his childhood, his mother's verbal abuse, the night he died of illness in the slums, the people who died along the way, the shot that nailed Lund to the clock tower...

These are like undercurrents hidden beneath thick ice; they may seem calm at first, but once they crack, they can drag a person down with them.

He paused for a moment, then asked, "What power?"

Lady Black Crow seemed to have finally waited for him to ask this question, and a faint interest flashed in her eyes.

"you do not know?"

Xilun looked at her, his brows furrowing little by little.

Lady Black Crow smiled.

"The power of the Storm God."

The moment those words were spoken, Xilun's breath visibly paused.

Lady Black Crow continued, "Your tidal perception, thunder patterns, water-dividing instincts, and even some extraordinary adaptability are not just things you earned by risking your life."

That thing is in your blood; it's always been there.

It's just that it was too scattered and too thin before, so you didn't really recognize it yourself.

"This line of communication must have come from Duke Storm."

The rain outside seemed to suddenly get heavier.

Xilun leaned against the headboard and remained motionless for a long time.

Duke of Storms.

This was certainly not the first time he had heard this name.

Victoria, no, anyone in the Lower City with even a modicum of knowledge of secrets, would have heard of the Seven Dukes.

Moreover, he had reviewed the records of the old nobility and knew that those families who controlled the upper echelons of the order were related to divine revelation, the succession of power, and the true source of power for the entire empire.

But the words "Duke of Storms," ​​which he associated with himself, still made his heart sink.

That feeling was neither warm nor glorious.

It's more like a nail that's been buried under an old wound and never pulled out, finally being pointed out in front of everyone at this moment.

He thought of his mother's past, which she never spoke of, and of his childhood impressions of the word "father," which were almost blank yet vaguely averse to it.

He also thought about why he was so sensitive to things like ocean tides, thunder, and water flow, and why the Great Thunder Breathing Technique could penetrate him more deeply than that of ordinary people.

It wasn't a coincidence after all.

At least, not entirely.

Xilun's throat felt tight.

How can you be so sure?

Lady Black Crow said calmly, "Because I've seen something even stronger than yours. The scent on you is too mixed, a jumble of cold, thunder, water, death, and pollution. Others might not be able to tell the difference, but I can smell the storm at the very bottom."

She paused, her gaze sweeping over him as if she had casually torn open a part of his life that had always been covered by a cloth.

"Besides, do you think a kid like you, who grew up rolling in the mud in the lower city, can become so close to Hai Chao and Lei Ming so quickly? Do you really think you can rely on your own hard work?"

That's very impolite.

Ke Xilun did not refute this.

Because he knew that what the other party said was not the whole story, but it was definitely not false either.

His hard work, his ruthlessness, and his life force are, of course, the foundation for how he got to where he is today.

But if there truly is something left behind from a higher realm in the blood, then that is also a fact.

The truth doesn't disappear just because he doesn't like it.

Seeing that he understood, Ms. Black Crow finally steered the conversation back to the most practical matter.

"Let's go to the Sea of ​​Chaos."

Xilun looked up at her.

"There's nothing more I can give you," said Lady Black Crow.

"This city will only get tighter and tighter. The church, the government, the nobles, and all the dirty stuff behind the Black Death will all be looking at you."

"If you want to climb even one step higher here, you have to step over layer after layer of eyes watching you."

"But the Sea of ​​Chaos is different."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it was as if she was slowly unfolding a brand new map in front of him.

"The order there is loose, the class system is chaotic, and there are not as many rules and regulations at sea."

People like you who have worked your way up from the bottom are actually more likely to climb the social ladder in that place.

More importantly, the roots of the Storm God are actually closer to that sea.

If you truly want to extract the essence from this blood, to seize control of the remnants of the evil god within you, and to continue your ascension, then there is a place more suitable for you than this city.

As Xilun listened, the idea that had been vaguely forming in his mind was finally revealed.

go away.

This wasn't the first time he'd thought of those two words.

After escaping death in White Cliff Town, after being hunted by Fowles in the Snow Mountain Wonderland, and after witnessing the Black Death Cult using the poor and sick to build their cocoon, he became increasingly clear that Victoria was no longer just a foothold for him, but more like a net that was tightening ever tighter.

He grew up in this network, and he also fought his way up from within it.

But once he reaches the third tier, or even half a step further after the God War, he is no longer someone that this net can safely contain.

If you stay, you'll only be held down by more hands.

Leaving might actually save your life.

But this "job" is never easy.

Because when he left, there were still too many unresolved issues in the city.

Lund is dead.

Fowles is still alive.

The tacit approvers behind the Black Death cult are hiding even higher up.

The church closed its archives, the government shut down the streets, and the nobles withdrew their claws. Everyone seemed cautious and yielding, but Xilun understood better than anyone else that the poor people who died in the camp last night, the patients who were turned into petri dishes, and those who were dragged into hell by the plague would not be wiped out of the city's filth just because of a "failed descent".

He'll come back sooner or later.

It's not for nostalgia.

It was for settling accounts.

Xilun remained silent for a long time before finally nodding slightly.

"I see."

Ms. Black Crow looked at him, as if to make sure he wasn't just giving her the runaround, before slowly standing up.

When she stood up, her black dress fell down without making a sound.

The dim light from the window swept across her, like a passing shadow over a real night.

"That's good," she said. "You can decide what to do next. Those people outside won't dare to come in for now, but I won't guard the door for you forever."

Once you can get out of bed, you'd better tidy up as soon as possible.

She took two steps, then suddenly stopped and looked back at Xilun.

"Also, don't place too much faith in the 'recovery' that's currently happening in your body."

It can save you, and it can kill you. Don't take every survival for granted.

After she finished speaking, she raised her hand and waved it, causing the black bone whistle on the table to vibrate slightly, its cracks becoming particularly clear in the dim light.

"I'm leaving this with you for now, not so you can find me, but so I can locate you."