Cthulhu America, I can see the kill line.

Kong Jiu's hand was suddenly gripped by Betty, her rough leather glove slowly rubbing between the lines of his hand, as if deciphering some kind of hidden rune.

"interesting."

A hoarse and ethereal female voice drifted out from the swirling smoke above her head.

Betty pressed almost her entire face—if the smoke could be considered her face—on to Kong Jiu's hand, a few wisps of tobacco probing his skin like tentacles.

"It does indeed contain traces of blood magic."

She whispered, a hint of amusement in her voice, but also a glimmer of hope: "If the Red Team could gain one more Bloodline member, the tide of battle would definitely turn dramatically."

As she spoke, she released her grip, and Kong Jiu quickly withdrew his wrist as if burned, looking at Betty's smoke with some fear, wondering if showing off this emblem was a good idea.

Fortunately, Betty looked herself over again with that scrutinizing gaze.

This time, a hint of seriousness appeared in their gaze.

"You have potential. Just the fact that you know blood magic might make you worth recruiting."

She paused, then her tone suddenly turned cold. "It's a pity your foundation is too shallow, your spiritual power is almost as weak as an ordinary person's... How could Viper bring someone like you in? Pathetic."

As she spoke, she turned around and pulled over the rotary dial phone on the bar table.

This kind of dial telephone, which Kong Jiu had only seen in blackboard TV dramas, is an old object made of black iron and brass, which fits the heavy old-era atmosphere of the entire "Lixin Township".

Betty's gloved fingers turned the dial slowly and deliberately, clicking and clicking, each sound striking Kong Jiu's taut nerves.

Then she picked up the microphone, gently held it deep into the cloud of smoke above her head, and whispered a few words, causing the smoke to swirl slightly.

A moment later, Betty turned her head to the side, and it seemed as if someone in the smoke was watching her face.

"You're lucky."

The first sentence made Kong Jiu breathe a sigh of relief.

"Xiao Su and Abi are performing a ritual to help the souls of the dead in the upper city. There's no war going on in their area right now, so they'd be happy to teach you some witchcraft or the basics of magic."

Her tone was as flat as if she were stating the arrangement of a tool, devoid of warmth, revealing only the cold hardness of sharpening a weapon.

"Mastering blood magic in a short time is absurd, but you must at least learn to channel spirits into your body and strengthen your physique. I will arrange for someone to improve you so that you can at least barely circulate blood magic, which would give you a chance to survive for more than ten seconds when facing Mina."

"Promote me? Really?"

An unexpected joy ran through Kong Jiu's spine like a gentle electric current, and his heart skipped a beat.

Seeing Betty nod without any hint of mockery, Kong Jiu was overjoyed, and the tempting urge that had been simmering in his palm for days subsided somewhat.

And so, after his body became no longer transparent and gradually solidified like a normal person, Kong Jiu pushed open the door leading to the upper city.

After a brief but dizzying glide, he fell onto a dry, prickly haystack.

Unfold the map Betty had given him before he left, and a small crimson dot quietly appeared on the paper.

This map is a magical object, with functions similar to a mobile phone, capable of displaying the holder's current location.

In Betty's words, "It's gratifying that Lixin Township has given these old relics a chance to be useful."

About three blocks away, there were a few scattered markers.

According to Betty, that was the Red Team's stronghold in the Upper Town.

"Damn it," Kong Jiu muttered, staring at the constantly shifting red and blue blocks on the map. "I came here to take Mina's clan emblem, but it seems like I'm becoming a pillar of support..."

The map not only marks locations but also displays the areas occupied by both sides in real time using red and blue colors. The red side is clearly at a disadvantage, with its territory being squeezed to almost nothing by the blue side.

In the upper city, the Red team only controlled 40%, and the situation was deadlocked; the lower city was almost lost, and they couldn't even spare high-end combat power to deal with Mina; the middle city was also deadlocked, with the main forces of both sides restraining each other and unable to move.

"No wonder Liu Kang once said, 'Should we help him and tip the scales a little...'" Kong Jiu murmured, his fingers gripping the map tightening slightly.

The map clearly shows the Red team's disadvantages, especially with almost the entire lower city area falling to the enemy.

He put away the map and headed toward the outpost that Betty had marked.

As he approached, the system detected two targets:

[Strength 1 (+1), Agility 1 (+1), Intelligence 1, an unresurrected saint.]

[Strength 0 (+3), Agility 1 (+3), Intelligence 6, shouldn't be a witch.]

A simple little building then came into view.

In front of the door, there were rows of pale yellow, semi-transparent figures.

Those were the souls of the dead, lining up in a long queue, quietly entering the building one by one.

"Next!"

A clear, bird-like girl's voice came from inside the door, and one person in the queue moved forward in response.

Kong Jiu, intrigued, put away the map, brushed aside the fleeting ghostly figures in front of him, and stepped into the house.

Instantly, the fresh, fishy smell of fish soup, mixed with the warm aroma of baked wheat cakes, wafted over and filled the entire room.

Inside the room, a plain-colored tablecloth was laid out, and countless ghosts sat on the floor, each holding a bowl of milky white fish soup. They sipped it with broken pieces of flatbread, and then their forms gradually faded and disappeared.

It turned out to be a fish soup shop?

Kong Jiu paused, inexplicably recalling his own little stall that smelled of mutton fat.

Beside the hearth, a petite girl with freckles on her face, who looked no more than thirteen years old, was waving a willow branch as a walking stick.

With a slight twist of her wrist, an exquisite light portal opened on the tablecloth, sucking in empty bowls that transformed back into clean bowls and were stacked back next to the large pot.

Beside the pot sat a man in a white robe, his long, wavy hair falling over his shoulders.

His eyes were full of weariness, but he still scooped up fish soup spoonful by spoonful, carefully tore the wheat cakes into pieces and sprinkled them into the bowl, which the girl then served to the souls in line.

"Next one..." The girl was about to pick up the bowl when she looked up and saw Kong Jiu at the door.

"Huh? We have a different kind of guest!"

She put down her bowl, turned her head, and called out in a lively, clear voice, "Uncle Estherus! Someone's here!"

"I see, Abby. You're always so energetic."

The man called Estherus, holding a piece of bread, looked up and met Kongjiu's gaze.

In that instant, Kong Jiu vaguely caught a glimpse of a familiar figure.

It wasn't a face, but a kind of aura deeply etched into the soul, as if one knew this person.

"Oh, Kong? What are you doing here?" A faint glimmer appeared in the man's tired eyes.

"Do we...know each other?" Kong Jiu hesitated, but he could feel a strange sense of familiarity.

"We don't really know each other, at least we've never met. But in this dimension, you've seen other 'me's'."

As Ethersus spoke, a barely perceptible golden glint flashed in his eyes, and a phantom image of a laurel wreath flickered across his forehead.

Kong Jiu was suddenly jolted, and fragments of memory flashed back.

Wait, it's him!

"My God, Ethersus, is this the name of your body?... And you still say you're not a 'god'?"

Kong Jiu's voice tightened, almost screaming, "What's the meaning of this body's name? And what does 'the unresurrected saint' mean?"

"Literal meaning."

Ethersus sighed and continued to toss the bread into the fish soup. "Resurrection is troublesome, being caught resurrected is even more troublesome. I don't want to see people fighting over whether those who have been resurrected are gods."

"So I voluntarily sealed away my psychic powers and was stabbed to death by a soldier named Langshiyaonu with a spear... Anyway, it doesn't matter anymore."

He raised his eyes, a faint smile appearing on his tired lips.

"By the way, just call me Xiao Su."