Chapter 38

Chapter 38. Offline

The corpse was breathing. It was as if it had walked along the edge of the land of death and then turned back to the Mortal Realm.

The black-robed cultists in the room stared blankly at this scene. Some of them had not even realized that the man in front of them had already “died” once. The moment when life turned to death had been so short that anyone not watching closely could hardly notice it. They only felt that the breath of their dying “companion” had suddenly become steady and strong for some reason, which was very strange.

The next second, the man lying on the ground opened his eyes.

He seemed to have stayed in darkness for too long. Even the dim oil lamp in the room felt harsh to him. He blinked to get used to the light. Then his eyeballs slowly turned, as if he had only just noticed the three black-robed figures gathered around him.

“Thank the Lord for His protection!” A younger black-robed cultist finally reacted and could not help shouting in excitement. “You made it through! I thought you were going to…”

“Wait! No! Step back!” The deep-voiced cultist suddenly realized something. He threw out an arm to block the others and stared hard at the man who had just woken up, his gaze sharp and wary as he backed away. His voice carried a threat as he said: “His breathing stopped completely just now. I definitely did not see wrong… something is not right!”

Duncan finally adapted to his surroundings. The ringing in his ears slowly faded from his mind. He saw the figures gathered around him, and his first thought was: [Why is it still these people when I open my eyes? Why am I still in the sewer?]

Walking the Spirit Realm should have been random. When he chose his target, he had just followed his intuition and tapped at random. Yet somehow, both times he opened his eyes, he ended up in the middle of these cultists. What kind of twisted fate was this?

Then, from their reactions, he noticed that something was wrong, and a second later he became aware of the black robe on his own body.

Duncan stayed silent for two seconds. Then understanding dawned in his heart.

Last time, he had been the sacrificial victim offered up by the cultists in a sacrificial rite. He had closed his eyes as a victim and opened them again… now as a “cultist”.

He really did have a special connection with this group.

“…Something is not right!”

At that moment, a deep, hostile voice cut through the confusion in Duncan’s newly “awakened” mind. He followed the sound and met a cold, wary stare.

The owner of that stare was fixing a cold, divine gaze on him. Beside him, the other two black-robed cultists finally reacted as well. They backed away and took up guarded stances.

Duncan froze for a moment and suddenly realized that, just like last time, he had possessed a corpse.

He had just sat up like a zombie in front of these cultists’ eyes.

Once he understood the situation, their nervous reactions made perfect sense. Duncan’s mind started racing. He could still feel the numbness and sluggishness lingering in this body. It had not fully faded. Moving was difficult. Doing anything under the noses of several cultists would not be easy. For now, he had to calm them down somehow—

And while he was quickly thinking of a way out, scattered, blurry fragments of memory suddenly floated up in his mind.

In those broken memories, he “remembered” many experiences that did not belong to him. He remembered “himself” hiding in the sewers. He remembered “himself” offering all the money from home to the envoy of the Sun. He remembered “himself” joining those dark, mad, bloody, sinful rituals to cure his illness, drinking the blood of innocent people in exchange for “the Sun’s divine blessing”…

At the end of that string of jumbled memories, he “saw” the scene of the sacrificial rite. He saw many people in black robes like his own standing beside a high platform. A young sacrificial victim was pushed up onto it. The young sacrificial victim wore a stiff, twisted expression that threw the entire ritual into chaos…

He saw “the envoy of the Sun” have his heart ripped out in the sacrificial rite. Everyone around the altar fell into madness. cultists began slaughtering each other. Surging flames poured out of the Sun totem. Angry roars and hollow whispers filled the gathering place. The original master of this body and the last few surviving cultists fled in a panic…

Duncan did not know how long he stayed dazed. Perhaps it had only been a moment. The flood of unfamiliar memories in his mind slowly calmed again. A pitiful and hateful life broke apart into pale fragments, lying in his heart like something to be read—like some kind of “nourishment”.

These were the memories of this body’s original master. There was not much left, but the source was beyond doubt.

Duncan blinked. This was something that had not happened during his last “Spirit Realm walk”.

Last time, he had gained no memories from the corpse he possessed. The brain of that “sacrificial victim” had been nothing but a blank… so why had things changed this time?

Was it because the body he had taken over was still “fresh”? Or was it because the pigeon AI had strengthened the power of the brass spirit compass?

Duncan slowly sat up from the floor. No matter what caused this change, now was not the time to stare into space. Those tightly strung cultists had clearly sensed that this “true resurrection” was not right.

As Duncan moved, the three cultists immediately stepped back half a pace. The deep-voiced man broke the silence, one hand pressed to his belt: “Don’t move yet—tell me, what is your name?”

“…Ron,” Duncan said after a brief search through his new memories. The name came out naturally. “Ron Strain.”

“He is called Ron.” The young black-robed cultist opposite him quickly lowered his voice and whispered to the deep-voiced man who seemed to be their leader.

But the deep-voiced man did not relax at all. He still stared hard at Duncan. Then he began to chant in a strange rhythm: “In the name of the Sun, may our Lord’s light shine on all. In the name of the Sun, may our Lord’s divine blessing descend!”

Hearing the cultist across from him suddenly start raving, Duncan was stunned for a second. Then he felt a burning heat in his chest. He instinctively reached under his clothes and pulled out the thing heating up there. It was a golden Sun charm amulet—waves of strange heat were rising from its surface!

The next second, the charm amulet suddenly burst into fierce flames. The fire seemed full of malice and lunged straight toward Duncan’s heart!

“The Lord’s glory is devouring him!” The cultist who had just finished the prayer reacted at once when he saw this. He drew the short sword at his waist and shouted: “His soul has been replaced! Kill this heretic filth!”

The other two cultists were a bit slower to react, but they still moved a heartbeat later. A moment ago they had thought Duncan was their “companion”. Now they drew their short swords and daggers without hesitation, charging at him with murderous intent while shouting: “Kill him!!”

Duncan gripped the Sun charm amulet now burning fiercely in his hand and watched the three figures rush toward him. The next second, another shadow suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.

A bird wreathed all over in pale green flames, like a wraith-like undead creature, tore through the air. Wrapped in a stream of icy fire, it swept over the ceiling. It let out a strange, shrill screech, and with every beat of its wings it scattered invisible ash and feather fragments.

Of course the three cultists had their attention stolen by this “undead bird”. They looked up without thinking and glanced at AI, who had taken on spirit form.

In the next moment, all their movements slowed. Their connection to the Mortal Realm suddenly seemed distant and dull. The three black-robed figures looked like they were being played frame by frame in midair, leaving overlapping afterimages behind them. Their bodies drifted downward in a slow, almost comical way and finally froze less than two meters in front of Duncan.

Terror filled their eyes as they watched the undead bird circle the ceiling once, then land on the shoulder of the black-robed “companion” opposite them. They saw the Sun charm amulet in the man’s hand still burning fiercely, but the next second, the flames turned a dim green, becoming the same fire that burned on the undead bird.

Duncan squeezed the Sun charm amulet in his hand. Tendrils of green spirit-form fire coiled around its surface. The flames shooting out of the charm amulet curved halfway around in front of him, then settled down like a tame pet, curling slowly around his arm in a friendly way.

Holding the Sun charm amulet that had been completely taken over and changed, he walked unhurriedly up to the three cultists. Looking into their horrified eyes, he spoke with a hint of regret in his voice: “It would have been so much better if you had just pretended you knew nothing.”

The next second, the figures of the three cultists flickered violently in midair and then vanished.

The skeletal-looking undead bird wrapped in green flames hopped twice on Duncan’s shoulder. With the crackling sound of burning fire, it let out a sharp, hoarse cry: “Oh no, the page is gone. Try refreshing?”