Chapter 37: Negotiation with the Ghoul

Accompanied and guided by the ghoul priest, Chen Zi'ang traversed the long white desert, fortunately without encountering any unfortunate divine avatars this time.

As the two crossed the dunes, the towering silhouette of the gloomy and decaying city soon loomed before them.

When he had come here last time, the streets were completely empty. All the dwarf residents had hidden inside their buildings, casting sinister and terrifying glances outward only through the cracks of nailed-up windows.

Now, as Chen Zi'ang passed through the gates of Zubasa once again, he was met instead with a vibrant and bustling market.

Stalls, shops, interweaving pedestrians, and the clamor of bargaining made it look not at all like a plane within the abyss, but rather like a mortal market filled with the warmth of human life.

Chen Zi'ang acutely noticed that these dwarf residents turned a blind eye to him and Salahek—not that they could not see them, but rather that when he and Salahek passed by, the dwarfs ahead automatically parted to both sides, like flowing water encountering river stones that could not be washed away.

Salahek offered no explanation for this, and naturally Chen Zi'ang did not pry, merely guessing inwardly that the city of Zubasa had its own traditional rules... such as the living and ghouls not interacting with one another, or something of the sort.

Following the ghoul priest, they arrived once more at the entrance of the underground black sanctuary, whereupon Salahek asked:

"Judging by your expression, is there something troubling you?"

"There is one thing I don't quite understand," Chen Zi'ang asked tentatively. "Zubasa is renowned as the gloomy and decaying city, but from what I have seen and heard so far, there is not the slightest trace of a gloomy or decaying atmosphere."

"That is only natural," Salahek said in a hollow voice. "Because the true Zubasa does not refer to the dwarf city on the surface, but rather to my people's underground holy city."

"However, I suspect that is not what you are truly concerned about... You are worried about the purpose behind my people inviting you here, aren't you?"

Chen Zi'ang remained silent, taking this as tacit agreement.

"The intention behind inviting you to Zubasa is, of course, primarily to have you as a guest." Salahek paused before the underground steps leading to the black sanctuary, instead of descending further, and continued in a raspy voice, "After all, given that you recently visited the ancient city of Enrank, you must have heard plenty of bad things said about our kind by the nightmare clan."

"If we cannot communicate face-to-face, such misunderstandings can never be dispelled. As you can see, our ghoul clan is not some cruel, evil, and unreasonable lower race. The fact that we can coexist with the dwarfs here in Zubasa proves that we harbor no malice toward lower races like yours—the reason a ghoul attacked you previously was because it was carrying out the orders of my mistress, the witch, not because we have a fondness for slaughter."

"I have already felt your goodwill," Chen Zi'ang said cautiously. "Otherwise, it would have been utterly impossible for me to arrive here safely."

"Goodwill alone lacks trust, doesn't it?" Salahek pierced through his polite rhetoric, stating bluntly, "Trust requires long-term cooperation to accumulate, so let us discuss this further."

"The first matter concerns the blood-stained brooch you seized from my mistress's witch after slaying her."

"My mistress has forgiven your transgression and is willing to bestow upon you the authority resident within the blood-stained brooch. However, the brooch is an identity token of our faction, backed by our great and supreme Mother Goddess. If you wish to join our faction—or in your human parlance, you need a 'pledge of allegiance' to please the Mother Goddess."

A pledge of allegiance... Chen Zi'ang fell into deep thought.

In the past, he certainly would not have been willing to join the flesh-and-blood faction; after all, he had first joined the shadow faction in the ancient city of Enrank, and how could loyalty be pledged to two masters?

Even setting aside values, wandering between different deities as a double agent sounded distinctly like a dangerous path to self-destruction.

However, both of these issues had changed by now: from a motivational standpoint, due to belonging to the same faction, the nightmare high priestess Niko was rather reluctant to provide intelligence on the Saint of Takano, and furthermore demanded a hefty sum of merit points as payment.

In other words, if one remained in a single faction from start to finish, once one subsequently encountered enemies belonging to that faction, not only would slaying them yield no military merit, but no military quests could be accepted either, and even intelligence channels would be restricted—which was considerably unfavorable to him.

As for safety, the "peculiarity" mentioned by Salahek, upon careful consideration, did not seem like mere rhetoric meant to deceive him.

The most compelling evidence at present was that the Ghoul King knew full well of his relationship with the Lord of the Great Deep, and had even resented and cursed him for it, yet had inexplicably gone back on it and "expressed understanding," even forcefully thrusting the blood-stained brooch upon him as a token to compel reconciliation.

Such an occurrence was so utterly absurd that "possessing a certain peculiarity of one's own" actually became a rather plausible and reasonable explanation.

If one accepted this judgment, the danger of walking between the two factions was greatly diminished.

Finally, and most crucially: perhaps among the powers available for exchange within the flesh-and-blood faction, there existed the possibility of curing his younger sister?

Seeing Chen Zi'ang remain silent for a long time, Salahek did not rush him, simply letting him ponder at leisure.

"...Could you tell me what this pledge of allegiance entails first?" Chen Zi'ang asked tentatively.

"Simple. Do you remember when you killed my mistress's witch previously, a divine avatar was unleashed here?" Salahek asked in an eerie tone.

Chen Zi'ang was startled, then recalled that Xia Qingyu had unleashed the seal of "Mist" within the city to eliminate pursuers. He hurriedly explained:

"That was done by my companion; I am not very clear about it."

"Of course," Salahek said. "Given your current depth within the abyss and the authorities you are involved with, it is naturally impossible for you to manipulate a divine avatar. My clan does not intend to hold you accountable for that."

"At any rate, that divine avatar caused us a great deal of trouble. Although it has now been banished from the lingering realm, the countless bodies it devoured here have evolved into an even more troublesome existence within this realm."

"Solve that trouble for our clan, and I can convey your achievements to please the Mother Goddess, granting you the identity permissions for the blood-stained brooch so that you may become a part of our flesh-and-blood faction... In any case, you may consider it slowly; there is no rush to give me an answer."

At this point, Salahek suddenly let out a bizarre laugh:

"If you successfully join our flesh-and-blood faction, we can discuss the second matter."

"The Saint of Takano, the enemy you are currently dealing with, is a witch of the Drowned Nest."

"The Drowned Nest belongs to a group of deities known as the 'Drowned Ones.' They are obsessed with creating vast numbers of the living dead, turning them into ambiguous existences that are neither fully alive nor truly dead—something my mistress cannot tolerate."

"As long as you eliminate this witch of the Drowned Nest, my mistress is willing to issue a corresponding military quest, rewarding you with 2,000 faction merit points."

Chen Zi'ang contemplated for a moment, combining what he had seen and heard previously, and roughly understood the Ghoul King's hostility toward the Drowned Nest.

According to Salahek's earlier words, "gorging on corpses" in the eyes of ghouls meant completely liberating spirituality from decaying flesh, guiding them into eternal death and peaceful slumber.

Meanwhile, the Drowned Nest's obsession with creating "the living dead" trapped spirituality within semi-decayed corpses, creating a fundamental conflict and opposition between their beliefs.

Coupled with the fact that their respective factions did not align, the Ghoul King intended to emulate the Lord of the Great Deep by issuing this as a military quest to him, sending him to cause trouble for the Drowned Nest.

Honestly, 2,000 merit points were indeed tempting, and the merit points he had obtained after slaying Nishikawa Mie earlier were already more than halfway spent...

Yet, would doing this once again result in making an enemy of the deity behind the Drowned Nest?

"I understand." Since the other party had said he could give his answer whenever he wished, Chen Zi'ang adopted an ambiguous posture, speaking with a hesitant expression: "I will give you an answer once I have made up my mind."

"Very well, please give me the blood-stained brooch," Salahek said, holding out a hand.

Taking the brooch from Chen Zi'ang, it aimed the scepter in its right hand at it, chanting a long, obscure, and vicious spell in a low voice.

Soon, a glimmer of light flashed across the surface of the brooch, and black spots appeared within it, looking rather like traces of some foul blood.

"Carry it with you when you teleport to the lingering realm," Salahek's voice was slightly raspy, as if the spell had consumed a good deal of its strength. "As long as you keep Zubasa in your mind's eye, you will be able to be teleported here."

(End of chapter)