Chapter 72: Gathering in the Gutter

Chapter 72 – Gathering in the Gutter

The moment Duncan took out the Sun Amulet, there was a few seconds of silence on the scene – his words “one of us” floated flatly in the air, which brought about a dozen pairs of eyes looking at each other unexpectedly and cautiously, and then the tall and thin man who looked like a small leader suddenly lowered his voice and said in an urgent tone: “Take it away! Only then did the tall and thin man who looked like the head of the group suddenly lowered his voice and said in a sharp tone: “Put it away quickly! Beware of Church eyes in the neighborhood!”

This talisman really works? Is this thing so persuasive among the Sunists?

Duncan was happy in his heart, but on the surface, he still maintained the mysterious posture of covering half of his face with no expression, and said faintly while putting away the talisman, “If there really are eyes of the Church around here, such a large group of you can be more eye-catching than my talisman.”

As soon as his words fell, there was a bearded man on the opposite side who subconsciously spoke, “No, the most we can do by gathering together is to lure the sheriff to us, and give us the charge of disturbing the public peace ……”

“Shut up!” The tall, thin leader immediately stopped his men’s blind pussyfooting around, and then his eyes fell on Duncan, “It’s a necessary precaution – after all, the city is very unsafe right now. You walk over here and don’t make any unnecessary moves.”

Duncan frankly walked towards the opposite side, while the other man carefully looked him up and down, and after half a day of looking at him, the tall and thin man asked in a low voice, “Are you a believer living in this city?”

Duncan thought for a moment and nodded, “Yes.”

The original owner of this body did live in the city, and he lived in the city now, and he decided to be truthful when it came to the obvious questions.

His plan was simple, find a way to fish around and get in the middle of this group of cultists, then see if he could find out anything, listen and ask more if he wasn’t exposed, and if he was exposed, have Aey transform and pigeonhole them all.

Tall and thin man did not notice this “church compatriots” in front of him in the heart of what dangerous thoughts, but then asked: “As far as I know, the Deep Sea Church a few days ago attacked …… “

“A few days ago, the Church of the Deep attacked the assembly hall in the sewers, where a sun ritual was taking place, the ritual got out of control, and we lost a lot of people – but I escaped,” Duncan said without any psychological burden, at the same time, he paid attention to the reaction of the surrounding sun worshippers, and he could feel the tense atmosphere of these people clearly. The tense atmosphere on these people had obviously relaxed, while only the tall and thin little leader in front of him still maintained caution, “There were three others who escaped with me, but we got separated, and now I can’t contact the church at all – until I met you, and the sun gave me guidance. ”

The tall, thin man gave a noncommittal hmmm, and immediately afterward his gaze fell on Duncan’s shoulder, “What is this?”

“A pet I keep,” Duncan said casually, “Can’t you tell? It’s just a common pigeon.”

Aye bobbed his head in time, making a loud ‘cooing’ sound.

“This pigeon is really loud ……,” the tall thin man seemed to finally relax his guard, probably subconsciously also felt that the church’s group of strict adherence to the rules and regulations of the guys would not have the habit of running all over the city with a bird on top of them, he nodded, ” Come with me, it’s not safe to talk outside.”

Duncan’s heart was relieved, he felt that the first step of muddling through seemed to have succeeded.

He then followed the group of cultists and followed them deeper into the alley.

The alley was deeper than he had expected, and it seemed to lead to the darkest and most forgotten hinterland of this dilapidated urban area. The group of cultists led Duncan around and around, passing through old piping systems that constantly released steam, through sewage-lined paths, and finally into a cluster of low-rise and dilapidated buildings, and the further they went into its depths, the darker and more dilapidated aspects of this thriving steam capital became apparent in Duncan’s face. The deeper he went, the more the darker and more crumbling side of the prosperous steam city became apparent to Duncan.

He had thought that the place where he and Nina lived was already the bottom of the city, but now he suddenly realized that the dingy antique store was actually the “decent place” in the lower part of the city.

Most of the dilapidated houses on both sides of the road looked like they had been abandoned for quite some time, but in the shadows of a few houses, it seemed that they could feel either numbness or gloomy stares, as if there were homeless people hiding in this forgotten part of the city, looking indifferently at the uninvited guests who had trespassed on their way here.

But in the end, all of these gloomy sights quickly retracted – the dozen or so people that the tall, thin man had brought with him were clearly enough to put fear into the hearts of the homeless people who snailed around here.

“See, this is the most prosperous city-state on the Boundless Sea, Prand,” the dark man who had initially caught Duncan’s attention grunted, as if to himself and as if speaking to Duncan, “It’s the same everywhere, Lunsar is the same, Cold Harbor is the same, and even the elves’ place known as the ‘Paradise of Peace and Justice’ is the same …… They claim that that so-called ‘sun’ shines fairly on the world and brings light and order to all things, but are there any more of these guttering much sunshine to talk about?”

Duncan didn’t respond, just looked up and saw the steam and fuel pipes spreading from the Upper City as well as the Industrial City crisscrossing over the buildings overhead, huge valves and whole pressure structures coiled like so many lighted behemoths atop the heads of the low, dilapidated buildings around them, sunlight spilling down through the cracks in these pipes and giving the sewage between the buildings an unpleasant stench. Much of the sewage was condensed steam leaking from nearby pipes, and as the city operated, it mixed with chemicals from the factories and piled up in the lower city day after day.

Duncan didn’t have to live in the city for long to guess how this “urban pustule” came to be.

Duncan silently glanced at the indignant man in black, his expression still bland.

Whether compelled by the children of the sun, or forced by the harshness of life, these cultists were born for a reason – but so what?
These cultists who thought they were forced by the city-state and had to live in the gutter ended up coming to this lower city to capture the poor people who had no one to turn to as living sacrifices – none of the countless ragged people in that cave were decent people from the upper city.

As a “foreigner” who didn’t know enough about the world, Duncan didn’t feel the need to judge the city-state, but at least as a former sacrifice, he felt that the cultists were pretty bad.

In silence, he finally reached the stronghold of these cultists.

The stronghold was underground in an abandoned factory.

These cultists who dug around in the gutters always seemed to have a way of finding suitable gutters to transform into their gathering places, or maybe this prosperous steam capital already had countless gutters that were suitable for breeding something dark and profane.

The group crossed the half-collapsed courtyard wall of the factory and opened the iron door leading to the underground structure. Duncan had planned to take a good look at the factory to satisfy his curiosity about the “Age of Steam”, but he didn’t get the chance to do so, and he was taken directly to a staircase tilting down to the ground floor, and arrived at the “secret” place of the cultists. The “secret base” of the cultists.

It might have been a factory warehouse or a machine shop, but now it had been emptied, and all that was left in the large space was the remnants of the piping system on the roof and the gas fixtures on the walls, which could no longer be lit – dark spaces are dangerous, and even the cultists knew this, so they lit up the underground with Oil lamps fueled by whale blubber, and in the light brought by the mass of oil lamps, Duncan saw that there were actually a dozen or so other cultists gathered here.

After the Church had destroyed a sacrifice site, there were still so many Sun believers gathered together? Where did these cultists come from? Could it be that they are just like mushroom moss that grows out of the gutter?
Duncan was a bit surprised to see the figures gathered in the wide basement, while the cultists were also looking at him curiously and warily as a stranger who suddenly appeared, and then the tall and thin man walked over again, followed by several strong and tall looking cultists, standing around Duncan.

Duncan frowned, “What, do you have to search me again after I come in? I didn’t know there was such a rule.”

“If you’re really the Church’s eyes, frisking you won’t do much good,” the tall, thin man said, fumbling something like a strip of cloth out of his pocket and handing it to Duncan, “Relax, a more rigorous verification is all it is, just a necessary caution- -We’ve lost a lot of compatriots over the years for various reasons. Take it and read after me.”

Duncan glanced at the thing the other handed over and saw that it was a dirty strip of cloth, something that even looked like it had been torn from an old shirt, with dark brown stains on its surface as if it were dried blood.

This was another prop of the Sun Believers to validate their fellow man?
Duncan was a little surprised in his heart, sighing that this is really worthy of a group of professionals who are hunted all day long, although the combat power is not seen much, but this external defense penetration and internal defense of the inner ghost’s skills are indeed point full.

He then took the things handed to him by the other man and heard the tall, thin man begin to mumble some sentences in a low voice: “In the name of the day, may the light of the Lord shine ……”

It instantly sounded familiar to Duncan – he’d heard a cultist recite this to himself only a short while ago!

That cultist had even given him an amulet for it.

Duncan lifted his finger without moving, and an unnoticed green flame seeped into the plain-looking cloth in his hand, before he grimaced and recited the prayers after the tall, thin man in front of him.

The cloth, which seemed to be soaked in blood, stayed honestly in his hand, seemingly unresponsive.

The tall, thin man’s eyes fell on the cloth for a long time before he finally nodded softly and smiled as he reached out to retrieve the cloth from Duncan’s hand, “Welcome back to the glory of the Lord, compatriot.”

(End of chapter)