Shadow of the Evil God

"Dress up as a local porter and get me a few to eat." He whispered.

According to the local social order, has he already transformed from a social hooligan into a professional thief gang? But life is so difficult. When it comes to filling your stomach, grassland tribes attacking cities or cult sacrifices seem to be something far-fetched and unrealistic.

This is how people’s moral standards decline step by step.

He should always consider his life first, as the god of non-creation Analik cannot fill his stomach.

The sturdy, dark-skinned porter left Cesar's side. Not long after, the slender, pale-skinned dog sneaked back. Cesar sat on the ground for a long time, stunned. Now he finally looked up and looked at her for a while. He first looked at her empty hands, then studied her gray clothes that looked like rags.

"Where's my fish?"

The dog blinked, and suddenly a strange smile appeared on his face, which looked a little creepy. Cesar thought that she felt that this place was crowded with people and wanted to take him to where the fish was hidden, but she actually knelt down, held his shoulders, and pursed her lips.

A mouth with a faint trace of a fish tail pressed its lips to his...bird feeding?

Chapter 10 Nine Silver Coins

Unfortunately, her second kiss in this world was given to this grotesque arthropod creature masquerading as a human. But excluding that, the thin lips she mimicked were indeed quite charming: soft, delicate, and with a dizzying fragrance.

Considering that she had just returned from a place filled with the smell of fish, this feeling might not be natural. It was probably a pheromone specifically designed for human senses, with a confusing effect.

She parted her lips, breathing softly, as she pushed the fish hidden within her body into his mouth. It looked as if she had used her hundreds of sharp teeth to cut the fish into tiny pieces, removing even the bones. It was like prepared sashimi. Although it inevitably carried the salty taste of her saliva, it masked the fishy smell, as if it had been pickled with salt.

At first, Cesar was resistant to this bird food, but after chewing it twice, he felt less offended. The texture of the fish meat was far superior to the cheap smoked meat in the restaurant. He hadn't enjoyed such a tasty meal since arriving in this damned Lower Neuen.

As the last piece of fish was swallowed, he was reluctant to let it go, almost instinctively chasing her taste. He first licked her white teeth, then picked up that fragrant, bright red tongue and sucked it to stir it. This tongue was not only nimble, but also delicate and soft to the touch. Sometimes it wrapped around him like a snake, and sometimes it split down the middle and swirled around in his mouth. It felt like it would melt in his mouth, making him reluctant to spit it out.

He felt a stream of stuffy, foul air being exhaled from his lungs, entering her body, and then returning to his lungs from her mouth, bringing with it a dizzying feeling that made him intoxicated, as if his mouth was full of wine.

Before Cesar could savor it for long, he suddenly noticed that her cheeks were cracking uncontrollably, like a white porcelain vase shattering. The splintered segments of her mouth touched his mouth, clenching his teeth and pulling him forward. Her arms also tightened around him like ropes. Cesar pondered and quickly reached out to close her face, kneading it back and forcing it into a normal human face.

This thing actually went into heat? And it uncontrollably tore itself apart, its limbs flaring open? What was she trying to do? Theoretically, could this thing be both male and female, or even possess multiple sexual characteristics?

Cesar coughed twice, took a deep breath, and said, "What did you exhale?"

She looked at him innocently. "I didn't breathe out anything, it was just blood that flowed out."

Cesar considered the meaning of these words, then realized what was happening. What she had passed into his mouth wasn't a hallucinogenic gas, but rather her own stored blood. This species stored blood, keeping it for later use. When someone like him, who had mastered the Tao, needed it, she would secrete it and feed it to him.

This feeling also showed one thing - he couldn't clearly distinguish between drawing blood and breathing. At some point in the future, drawing blood might replace his normal breathing.

While Cesar was still pondering his own problem, he heard footsteps approaching, seemingly with ill intentions. Was it because his chosen observation point was too remote? He looked in the direction of the sound and saw three strong men walking into the alley from the port. Two more strong men blocked the way on the other side. One of them was throwing a reward of two copper coins to a child at the alley entrance. The person receiving the reward was the imp who had taken half a loaf of bread from him.

He had no idea where this copper coin came from, he thought subconsciously. There were so many different types of coins here, with varying diameters, thicknesses, and weights. He might as well die trying to figure out their specific origins.

As for the child, he threw the bread over just to relieve his boredom, without expecting anything in return. However, the result was still too absurd.

Although we can't expect the locals to have much conscience.

"It's a small gang formed by the local porters," said Gouzi, who bought it for two copper coins, thoughtfully. "Some gangs don't want to just be porters, so they try to make extra money in other ways, like selling beautiful children and women to special traveling merchants."

Cesar pondered the implication. "Could these special traveling merchants possibly be of noble status, or could they possibly have a way of avoiding searches before leaving the port?"

"I don't know!" She regained her innocent and cheerful tone.

"Are you answering me like this because no one else can answer me for you?"

"Kill the leader, so I can make him answer." She opened her mouth, her blood-red pupils dilating. Sharp teeth emerged from her soft, bright red mouth, filling the entire mouth like a shark. "At least cut off the head and dig out the brain."

Cesar wanted to say that this place was not suitable for bloodshed, as it was too close to the port and too close to the residential area, but when he saw her hungry expression like a hound that had seen blood, he was stunned for a while.

The problem now is that this alley is quite remote, there is no way around it, and climbing up along the outer wall of the building is not practical.

It's already blocked, so there's naturally no hope.

The scriptures say that the Faceless Ones are evil creatures shrouded in the desire for flesh and blood, and they crave violence and abuse at all times. In reality, this is indeed the case. However, after seeing this guy's reaction, Cesar reacted.

He wanted to restrain her instincts to some extent. The reason was not complicated. The main difference between humans and animals was that they suppressed their instincts. As a cursed person standing on the edge of a cliff, he hoped that he could guide her instead of being led by her and the fleshly desires she represented.

On the other hand, this place was crowded with people and he was still a fugitive. If he did something out of line and the news got out, he would have to take the witch and flee to a more remote place.

At this moment, the boy looked at them quietly, stretched out his dirty little hand, and took the two copper coins. Seeing Cesar looking at him across the gang of porters, the boy was frightened and hid at the edge of the alley to look out.

If Cesar had been in the mood, he might have laughed at this cunning little creature, who was clearly as timid as a mouse, yet never missed any opportunity to make a profit. However, he didn't have any thoughts at the moment. He just looked at the gang members and wondered if there was any possibility of changing the venue, at least not causing bloodshed in this place of the port.

The porters slowly approached, blocking the alley entrances on both sides. Though not physically imposing, each was tall, their bodies draped in rags of gray and black. One was missing two fingers on his left hand, as if chopped off by a knife. Another looked as if his head had been pierced by a burning coal stove. A large patch of hideous scar tissue covered the right side of his face and neck, and his right eye was blind. From their appearance, they were certainly quite intimidating.

Seeing that the atmosphere was getting increasingly awkward, Cesar raised his eyebrows and asked, "We're just looking for something to eat. Do you have anything you can recommend?"

No one responded. The two porters walked a step behind him, stopped, and crossed their arms, as if to emphasize their muscles and facial scars. The burn-covered porters faced him, expressionless and silent, staring at him with their cloudy left eye.

The conversation went more awkwardly than expected, perhaps because his accent didn't sound like a local.

"Maybe I shouldn't be looking for food here?" Cesar asked again, "Is this area your territory?"

Still no one answered. Cesar was sure they understood, but no one was willing to say a word, or even express a clear attitude. The scarred porter took a step forward, separating him and the dog. Two other porters reached out their hands, trying to pull her away from him as if she were their own child.

Now he saw that, no matter how these people viewed him, they believed he could not communicate with them. No matter what he said to them, no matter how clever his words were, he was just a man speaking human language to wild beasts, a hunter trying to negotiate with a pack of hungry hyenas. And they were indeed a pack of hungry hyenas.

On the other hand, in the eyes of these porters, Cesar was probably just a drowned dog barking at people, making some meaningless pleading sounds from his throat, and was not worthy of attention.

From a life perspective, this situation is actually quite normal. There was no malicious beating for fun, no insulting verbal provocation, and even no effective communication.

It was just a numb job. People trapped in poverty clung to each other, formed gangs, tied up some two-legged sheep and sold them in exchange for money to provide food and shelter for their families, and they did not feel guilty at all.

In many stories, the perpetrators are always unique, either with twisted mental illnesses or traumatic pasts, so that the victims are also unique in their eyes. They often discuss the reasons for their evil deeds at length when inflicting violence. They can talk to the victims for as long as they want and will cooperate to answer any questions the victims want to ask.

However, from a broader perspective, the vast majority of perpetrators are simply doing a dull job, viewing their victims as cargo to be handled. He doesn't know about Earl Thane, but these gang-based porters are all like this. When they talk to their own people, they are usually good friends, kind elders, and hardworking parents. Once they step out of this scope, they will carry out their business as a cargo carrier in a field where morality does not exist.

Moving people from one place to another can roughly be considered a kind of porter.

Seeing the children at the alley entrance still around, and people peeking out from windows on either side, Cesar realized this place was attracting too much attention. As a fugitive, there were some things he couldn't do in public. Using his old language, he told Gouzi to calm down and wait until they were in a secluded area to see what would happen.

She laughed happily, and soon became even happier, like a foolish girl, oblivious to her own predicament. However, for a monster consumed by the lust of flesh and blood, understanding the world wasn't necessary. Her reasons for happiness were also different from those of humans; judging by the current situation, they contained a lot of cruelty and sadism.

.......

The five porters surrounded the two of them and walked through alleys and lanes, including some small roads that Cesar had no idea about. He thought he knew the downtown area well enough, but now it seems that his knowledge is still far behind that of the locals. It felt like he had found five local guides along the way.

She showed him the way, introduced him to the hidden places in the city, and even considerately shielded him from the biting cold wind.

It's not his fault that he lacks a sense of tension. It's just that these five porters, apart from their ferocious looks, have little actual deterrent power.

Such as the white eyes and an arm.

The damp air filled the alleys, making the air heavy and heavy. Breathing it felt like being wrapped in dirty bedding soaked in sewage. For a while, Cesar thought it was snowing nearby, but a closer look revealed that it was just coal dust and smoke everywhere, which merged with the dampness of the port to make it look like heavy snow.

As the porters wheeled them into a tightly enclosed courtyard, he realized these five people were merely the first link in a human trafficking chain. The porter, missing two fingers, scrambled up the scaffolding with the agility of a monkey, knocked on the second-floor window, and pointed toward the girl they'd brought. As for Cesar, he was probably just an extra laborer, ready to do the dirty work.

As they negotiated with the man behind the second-floor window, Cesar couldn't help but wonder: if they were using him as an additional bargaining chip, why were they even trying to separate them? Was it just a formality? Did they not know there were ways around it because the experts had only taught them this?

There were many possible reasons, but they were all insignificant details, meaningless to dwell on. Just as he was about to wait it out, he saw someone from the window throw out nine silver coins. He didn't know if nine silver coins were considered expensive, but if the porters weren't a gang in the strict sense, but just a small group working together, with no status difference between them, then wouldn't these nine silver coins be enough for five people to divide equally?

Indeed, the whispered discussions were soon drowned out by the porters' frantic shouting. Gouzi blinked, bewildered, as the two sides engaged in a quarrel. The porters, silent to him, now spoke rapidly, hurling obscenities and repeatedly emphasizing that nine silver coins couldn't be divided evenly among five people, so they demanded an extra one for the bonus.

The person on the other side of the window also shouted a few words, saying that a man like Cesar was worthless. If he was given money, wouldn't it be like kidnapping a random miner from the dog pit and making him worth a silver coin?

The porters refused to listen, growing increasingly frantic, their shouts growing into roars. The porter with the burned cheek leaped directly at the shelf and climbed up like a monkey. His half-burned mouth opened and closed like an epileptic, and spittle rained down on the soot-covered second-story windows.

As a victim, Cesar shouldn't have taken this as a joke, but it was such a rare sight that it was hard not to be curious.

"Shut up, you dung picker!" the man at the window also shouted, "What the hell are you yelling about? These are silver coins minted by the Kasar Empire. Can't you just figure out how to divide them yourself?"

"You monster, you lame dog, you scoundrel pig!" the porter with a burned cheek howled at the window. "What nonsense are you talking about? You know we don't recognize this money, but you still want us to go to the currency exchange dealer and let him make a profit from the difference? What can we do if he says the Kasar Empire is finished and tries to lower our price?"

"Aren't you just a garbage collector? What do you think you know?"

"What did you say? You insulted me! I'm going to kill your mother. I'm going to teach you a lesson, so you can teach a beast like you, who takes money you can't share and oppresses those of us who work hard to support our families, what conscience is!"

"Are you even worthy enough to talk about conscience?"

"The lame dog on the chair! You old bastard!" The porters below also raised their voices, howling heartbreakingly. "All you do is steal and take bribes. Do you think we don't know that you once crippled goods that were meant to be sold at a good price, so people couldn't sell them and had to solicit customers at the port? Everyone already knows your little deeds!"

The man on the other side of the window was almost furious: "How dare you spread rumors about me here? Shut up, you bastard! I'll whip you until you roll on the ground, or I'll drive my carriage and break you in two. I'll take you and your—"

The movers' howling grew louder, drowning out the people on the other side of the window. Their obscenities grew increasingly nasty, but it didn't attract as many people peeking through the windows as it had done then. Judging from this, the buildings nearby were probably all filled with their people, and their rules were very strict, making them a large gang.

Just then, three men finally pushed open the courtyard gate and emerged. They looked like thugs. Their clothes weren't rich or fancy, but they showed they were a class above the residents of the dog pit. The leader waved his hand, signaling the porters to calm down.

The persuasiveness of his words clearly came from the two gangsters behind him. Their thickened black leather vests looked quite protective, and the mace and sharp one-handed axe they carried also indicated their ill intentions.

The porters' foul language subsided a bit, and the one with the missing finger was still complaining loudly, but when he saw the person coming, he jumped from the second floor. As he jumped, the porter with the scar on his face did not forget to throw a stone through the window, hitting the wooden furniture with a loud clang.

Although I really want to know how they will resolve the conflict, the thugs have already pushed them both into the courtyard covered with coal slag, and the worthless Cesar and the dog who was bought for two copper coins and resold for nine silver coins have no choice but to go in.

There was nothing unusual about the courtyard, but after being pushed into a house on the side, Cesar found that it was filled with rolling

Smoke rolled in—not the choking smoke from cooking, but a strange, sweet, sticky smoke. He pinched his throat, feeling uncomfortable and his eyes a little irritated. The place was dim and quiet, with light coming from the colorful hangings on the wall.

The light from the lamp cast various mottled patterns on the wall, and different colors intertwined with each other, giving people an extremely psychedelic feeling.

As he walked through the corridor, Cesar saw someone lift a dirty curtain and enter a room on the side. In that moment, he saw many people lying on wooden beds in the dim light, most of them were disheveled, unconscious, and surrounded by swirling smoke, looking decadent.

Although this place was located in the slums of Lower Neuen, near the Dog Pit, the guests were all elegantly dressed. Some were accompanied by partners of both the same and opposite sex, but most simply enjoyed the surrounding smoke, occasionally twitching and making strange noises, as if they were caught in some bizarre daydream.

The atmosphere of this place is dark and eerie.

Chapter 11 The Earl's Bastard Falls in Love with a Witch

After crossing the corridor, they entered the innermost room. This room, shielded from the smoke that filled the corridor, made breathing much easier, but the atmosphere was far more tense. Seven people of varying skin colors and physical features gathered together, discussing their respective interests and the shady business of Lower Neuen.

Judging from their tone, Count Thane of Upper Neuen was a reformist nobleman who was particularly tolerant of business. Neuen itself was also a city with an extremely large commercial scale.

In the eyes of those who could vaguely glimpse the upper class, the earl, while open-minded, also had a penchant for amassing wealth. A vast amount of wealth poured into his castle, but only a portion was used to defend the border and expand the military. Today, while this fortress may be called a frontier fortress, it is actually more like a large-scale trading city.

Of course, Cesar knew that the old man spent his days feeding living people to the demons beneath his castle, pouring money into the bottomless pit of the evil god's ritual, and collecting piles of rewards. These rewards were so abundant that he couldn't spend them all, and he used them as gifts to win allies. His life was much more interesting than hanging out in the entertainment industry.

The thug led them to a stop in front of the door of a side compartment, reached out and lifted the curtain, revealing a dark doorway. After Gouzi walked in nonchalantly, the thug reached out to stop Cesar, meaning that the girl should go in alone.

Is this really appropriate? She has the look of someone walking into a self-service butcher shop.

"This little sister needs to be alone with Libio for a while," someone joked behind him. "Just wait, my friend. The more happiness she brings to Libio, the better your situation will be in the future. You have to understand that you are worthless here and are just an addition to her. Your only use is to prevent her from completely breaking down."

Even though he was making fun of others, this chatterbox was still cuter than the porter who treated him like a beast. "Is Libio the boss here?" Cesar asked.

"Very comfortable?" The man walked around to him, skillfully playing with a dagger, letting it move back and forth between his fingers. The man was thin, dressed in leather armor, with a head of gray hair, and looked surprisingly ordinary, even kind.

Maybe people in this profession should look a little more friendly. If you have to look so fierce everywhere you go, you'd be better off being a gatekeeper.

"You know we don't usually welcome strangers here, little brother?" another man laughed. "And you're just beggars pulled from the street. Tell me, who is that little fellow who suits Libio's tastes? What's your relationship to him? Let me see if you'll bear a grudge."

Cesar knew that making fun of those lower down the social ladder was a way for those caught between nobility and commoners to affirm their own status, even for some aristocratic sons whose fortunes had fallen on hard times. In a society where power was extremely scarce for the common people, devaluing those lower down the social ladder was both a way to enjoy one's own status and position and a way to psychologically compensate for the hard work of struggling to reach a higher social class.

"I'm here to find a meal." Cesar responded to their expectations with dullness and ignorance. "She and I are both homeless, so we came here to see if there are any job opportunities." He pointed in the direction of the door, acting like a newcomer to Noyen. "The porters introduced us here. So what can I do?"

The man who'd asked if Cesar held a grudge immediately turned away with a look of boredom, clearly unwilling to engage in the young man's conversation. However, the thin man with the dagger persisted. He stood before Cesar, observing his expression and eyes with curiosity, as if trying to discern the underlying meaning of his performance.

It wasn't surprising that this man was so persistent. He'd been the one to instigate this, using this prank to amuse his colleagues. To that end, he'd even paced a few steps in front of Cesar, displaying genuine interest. If he didn't find a way out, he'd be the one being laughed at.

Cesar knew that even if he couldn't expose his own acting, he would soon find excuses to cause trouble for himself. He could only complete this routine of amusing himself when his target showed fear as expected, becoming panic-stricken and embarrassed.

It's just so absurd and meaningless, like most things in the world.

So why was he trying to calm them down like a child? Why couldn't things be simpler? Why?

He couldn't tear them apart, dig out those rasping tongues, pick out those beating hearts, break the limbs that showed off his metal toys painfully, and let this guy struggle on the ground like a bleeding stick.

Crawl? Then ask him...

"Let him in, Gregor." A particularly hoarse voice suddenly shouted.

“It’s so annoying…”

The man put away the dagger, muttered something, turned and left, looking as if something had suddenly broken his nerves.

Cesar paused, savoring the frenzy that had suddenly overwhelmed his mind. He felt his pupils dilate, his breathing quicken, and his pulse race. Was this his own impulse and desire? If so, was this impulse, influenced by the so-called Dao, swelling and intensifying within him?

A primitive animal impulse, he thought, but it was enough to affect his mind. Flesh and blood desires were subtle and profound. If he couldn't find a viable way to resist them, it would sooner or later dominate his thoughts, prompt his actions, and make his habits become almost the same as those of the Faceless.

The emotions that humans can bear are limited. The more mental space this flesh and blood desire occupies, the less mental space is left for other mental states.

After catching his breath, Cesar lifted the curtain and walked through the dark doorway to the compartment. He first glanced at the few bloodstains on the carpet, then saw a bald man with a belly that looked like he was pregnant standing by the bookshelf. The man was grinding the bones in his mouth into powder and debris.

The fake Libio grinned, revealing rows of shark-like fangs. The face of the other Libio in her throat slowly sank, like a carcass sinking into a swamp. "What do you do now, Master?" she asked. "Shall we tear those people over there apart for fun? Turn every breathing being into a rotting mass of skeletal remains and flesh?"

Cesar frowned at the curious scene. "No," he said.

Fake Libio looked lost.

"Is it always this easy?" Cesar asked her the same question again.

"It's always easy." Fake Libio immediately cheered up. "How could it be difficult to tear open the prey trapped in the cage?"

A quarrel erupted at the door, and someone seized the opportunity to mock the man wielding the dagger, saying he was out of his mind for arguing with a fool. Cesar felt that if the man lost control of his temper, he would probably come back to cause trouble for him. Some grudges were so inexplicable and absurd.

"This Libio...does he know what the murder case in the Count's Castle is?" he asked.

"There are rumors that the Earl's illegitimate son fell in love with the young witch and eloped with her, and the Earl himself has not denied it."