After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 38.1

“Yes, I heard about it too. A major incident occurred in the Imperial City. It’s regrettable that I couldn’t return in time.”

“Did Mr. Xilin just get back?”

The two were chatting idly in the antique shop.

“I vaguely sensed something was wrong, so I ended my adventure early and returned. I didn’t expect such a big event to really happen in the empire.”

As he spoke, Xilin turned his head, half his face hidden in darkness, looking at Xiu Si with a gentle smile. “And it was such a major incident too, almost destroying the country.”

“The military should be restoring order by now. It’s just unclear how long it will take,” Xiu Si replied.

“It should be quick. After the natural and man-made disasters decades ago, they’ve made significant improvements in risk warning and post-disaster management. This is also thanks to Empress Anna’s tireless efforts in governing the country.”

Xilin analyzed the national situation, speaking as if deeply familiar with it. He seemed to understand the Aust Empire intimately, not just through knowledge, but through lived experience.

“Is that so?”

Xiu Si took note of Priest Xilin’s condition. Everything else seemed normal, but for some reason, something felt off. Perhaps it was because he had just returned from outside, so there was a chill about him that made one shudder imperceptibly.

“By the way, how has your stay here been?”

Xilin set down his teacup, his pupils dilating and contracting. He folded his hands on the table as the lamplight illuminated the face of a middle-aged man.

His features were rugged, with rare purple eyes that left a deep impression. He was well-known throughout the Imperial City of the Aust Empire. Wherever Xiu Si went in official institutions, simply mentioning Xilin’s name and saying he was taken in by Priest Xilin would open doors without hesitation. The strength of his reputation and connections often surprised Xiu Si.

In Xiu Si’s view, this was almost saintly prestige, difficult to achieve without constantly doing good deeds and helping people.

When everyone believes and constantly repeats that someone is a good person, unless you have a god’s-eye view, you’re very likely to believe it too.

“Very well. Thank you, Mr. Xilin, for providing temporary accommodation. Life here has been very convenient for me,” Xiu Si answered frankly.

Xilin asked with concern. “You haven’t been lacking anything?”

Xiu Si: “No, I can manage what I need. It’s just a pity that not many customers came while I was watching the shop.”

Xilin laughed heartily, seemingly unconcerned about the shop’s clientele. He said nonchalantly. “Never mind the customers. These are all cursed items here. Few people come specifically for them. Usually only those who aren’t afraid of trouble visit.”

At this point, Xiu Si remembered someone. “A gentleman came looking for you earlier.”

Xilin made an “oh” sound. “Did he have something blessed by the Goddess of Fortune?”

Xiu Si nodded, “Yes, but he didn’t find you and left disappointed.”

Xilin smiled again, “I’ve made quite a few friends during this time.”

When he said “friends,” he seemed to hesitate slightly, almost saying the word “humans” instead.

Xiu Si noticed this but didn’t mention it, only saying. “Indeed, Mr. Xilin has many friends in the Imperial City.”

Xilin’s expression was gentle, but his eyes seemed dark, perhaps due to the lighting or something else, making him appear somewhat gloomy.

He changed the subject, looking into Xiu Si’s eyes. “By the way, Mr. Xiu Si, have you recovered your memories?”

Xiu Si almost forgot about his amnesia story. After a few seconds of silence, he answered. I’ve remembered some, but not much.

Xilin seemed to take interest and pressed further. “Then do you remember how you fell into the abyss?”

Xiu Si turned his gaze, looking into Xilin’s curious eyes. After another moment of silence, he said vaguely. “I can’t recall clearly. It was probably an accident.”

Xilin appeared somewhat fixated on this answer and continued to probe. “Was it really an accident? Nothing strange about it?”

“Strange?”

Xiu Si’s eyes flickered slightly as he involuntarily recalled.

Back then, the seven heroes had descended into the abyss to fight monsters. He had little combat ability, so he often hid behind Chen Lingxi.

Chen Lingxi’s class was a heavily armored tank, with the highest defense among them. As long as he stayed within Chen Lingxi’s protection range, he was almost impossible to get hurt.

Until that point, he had never been in danger, even when facing gods.

But… later, something went wrong.

Xiu Si frowned slightly, continuing his recollection.

At that time, they had just come to explore the abyss, fighting monsters on the uppermost layer. They weren’t fighting any special monster, just a relatively strong Abyss Priest.

The “Abyss Priests” were servants of the Abyss God, obeying and serving the Abyss God. There were roughly several dozen of them, with high health but low defense, easy to defeat but time-consuming. They were fighting a level 83 Abyss Priest, which wasn’t particularly strong for their team at the time, but could still be dangerous if they weren’t careful.

At that moment, the hero squad had clear roles: Wang Chang’er and Ye Qingyi were the main damage dealers, Ming Jie and Luo Jie were responsible for flexible attacks, Justin controlled health and sometimes played the aggro role, while Chen Lingxi advanced and retreated as needed.

He was behind them all, and in most cases, attacks wouldn’t reach him.

Indeed, he didn’t receive any direct attacks, because the danger came from beneath his feet.

While they were all busy killing monsters, suddenly the ground beneath his feet collapsed.

It happened in an instant, without any warning.

He couldn’t react at all, and without any means of flying or gravity magic, he could only fall, with nothing to grab onto.

Chen Lingxi sensed something was wrong and reacted quickly, turning around. But she didn’t have time to reach out, because the heavy armor class had the slowest movement speed among them. She dove towards him, activating several skills, but still couldn’t save him.

Luo Jie was the second to react, but just as he was about to save him, he was blocked by monsters and couldn’t break through.

Justin turned back, his face pale with fright, almost forgetting his magic incantations. He not only bit his tongue but also nearly tripped over himself.

Ming Jie, as a rogue class, was the fastest, but he was suddenly attacked by a nearby monster and couldn’t manage to save him.

Ye Qingyi at the front turned her head, witnessing her companion fall. Her eyes widened as she rushed to act, releasing her magic to the fullest, but Xiu Si had already fallen thousands of meters, almost out of sight. In the chaotic space, she couldn’t even locate his position.

Her urgency couldn’t overcome the distance, especially as the Abyss Priest behind them had just been defeated and revived with full health.

Despair was just three meters behind her!

Wang Chang’er observed everything, gripping his sword tightly. He also chose to burst into speed to save Xiu Si, but the Abyss Priest’s sudden attack was imminent. If he didn’t act, not just Xiu Si, but all seven of them would die. Wang Chang’er’s choice was obvious.

That time was the first and last time Xiu Si saw Wang Chang’er lose his composure.

The collapsed land quickly restored itself, completely cutting them off.

In the terrifying free fall, Xiu Si’s heart nearly stopped. It was Baal and Agares in the box who reacted in time – one cast an extreme slowing spell to protect him, while the other materialized to successfully catch him.

It’s worth noting that Xiu Si was almost scared to death at the time. The free fall lasted two to three minutes before landing, and he truly felt his soul nearly leaving his body. It took several days for him to recover to normal.

Speaking of that experience, it left an indelible impression on Xiu Si. He would never forget it, and the occasional falling dreams he had recently were likely due to the impact of that incident.

After landing, Agares quickly set up a magic defense barrier for him, otherwise he might not have been able to breathe in the abyss.

So, overall, in Xiu Si’s recollection, that fall was just an accident. Ground collapsing during battle wasn’t unusual; in fact, it was quite normal. The abyss had multiple layers, one after another, and his accidentally falling through could only be attributed to extremely bad luck.

Regarding Mr. Xilin’s question, whether he wanted to tell the truth or not, the answer was still that it was an accident, at least according to his current understanding.

Xiu Si glanced sideways at Priest Xilin beside him, a hint of contemplation flashing in his eyes, but his thoughts were unreadable. He answered, “It was an accident.”

Priest Xilin’s expression remained unchanged, only his eyes shifted slightly, giving no indication of his thoughts.

The atmosphere became subtly quiet.

Xiu Si felt that Priest Xilin seemed quite concerned about this matter, but why would he care about it for no reason? Was he trying to find some clues to help him recover his memory?

It didn’t seem to be that way. Xiu Si felt puzzled, his gaze slightly suspicious.

Xilin suddenly broke the silence, “Is that so? That’s truly unfortunate.”

After saying this, he turned back, meeting Xiu Si’s gaze, and smiled, “In any case, it’s good that Mr. Xiu Si is safe.”

His gaze was very caring, almost saintly.

But for some reason, Xiu Si felt an inexplicable chill from it.

This chill was… Xiu Si couldn’t help but frown.

Meanwhile, the small light entity in the system box squinted its eyes, as if drowsy and wanting to see the world.

Just then, Xilin suddenly stood up, “It’s getting late, I have to go now. I came back to check during my adventure, now I need to return.”

“Alright.”

Xiu Si bid farewell to Xilin, seeing him off from afar at the door.

The small light entity rubbed its eyes, its vision blurry, only seeing darkness outside. Its foster father seemed to be deep in thought.

It was still an infant, without much of a mind, unable to think, only able to stare blankly.

It saw its foster father come back after closing the door, checking that the lock was secure, then going back to sleep.

Nothing happened.

It turned its head again and saw two birds sleeping with terrible postures in the box next to it.

It seemed like nothing had happened.

Hmm…

It felt sleepy again, ready to go to sleep.

At this moment, the door was suddenly blasted open, and a human and a demon rushed in.

It was stunned.

Inpos immediately checked on Xiu Si’s condition, finding that nothing had happened to him and he was fast asleep, which finally put him at ease.

Meanwhile, Luo Jie stopped at the doorway, activating his system identification and using magic detection skills.

It seemed someone had come and then left, leaving no trace of their presence, or perhaps the house itself was full of their aura.

“Priest Xilin, what kind of person is this guy really?”

Unable to find anything, Luo Jie turned to examine the antique shop carefully.

He had just been here, but due to the joy of reunion, he hadn’t noticed the condition of this house.

This room was full of cursed items. Even with magic arrays suppressing them, it wasn’t a place where normal people could live.

An ordinary person might not be able to stand it for one night and would run away, or in worse cases, might die violently.

If you found an amnesiac person outside, would you let them live in such an eerie house, and prepare everything so thoughtfully?

Claiming it as a good deed, yet leading to death.

Luo Jie frowned, his gaze sweeping over various items, examining them carefully. He discovered that many of them had been blessed by gods.

Goddess of Fortune, Goddess of Wisdom, Goddess of Harmony, God of War, God of Sky and Sea, God of Wind and Drought… and so on.

They had once been blessed by gods, yet also cursed, because conflicts existed between gods. Where one god blessed, another cursed.

The Goddess of Fortune often blessed and often cursed. She had conflicts with the Goddess of Wisdom, was friends with the Goddess of Harmony, and disliked the boring and rigid God of War.

The Goddess of Harmony had good relationships with all gods, but conversely, she had no particularly close relationships, except for the Goddess of Fortune and the rarely appearing Goddess of Virtue.

In the later period of the Gods Era, humans listed the Goddess of Harmony, Goddess of Fortune, and Goddess of Wisdom as the three great goddesses, without including the Goddess of Virtue. It was said that this was because they felt the Goddess of Virtue was the most noble and pure, and shouldn’t be involved in such rankings.

The details were unclear. Luo Jie remembered that the Goddess of Virtue rarely appeared and seldom blessed any person or item, but he hadn’t expected to find one in this small room.

The divine nature was so faint that he could barely detect it. If he hadn’t seen it once from afar before, he wouldn’t have been able to identify it as the divine nature of the Goddess of Virtue.

And that object was a ring.

A ring blessed by the Goddess of Virtue, yet cursed by several other gods.

This mixed combination was truly rare. Was the Goddess of Virtue’s divine fate that poor?

Luo Jie glanced at the black ring, finding nothing special about it, and it was almost out of energy.

Thinking of this, he quickly withdrew his thoughts. Investigating this house and its items was one thing, but the key issue was still Xilin.

At this moment, Inpos came out, looking at Luo Jie, “It’s fine, that guy didn’t do anything.”

If anything had been done, or even if just hostility or killing intent had arisen, the bracelet he had given to his father would have immediately sensed it and initiated defense and counterattack, while also teleporting him to the scene.

Strictly speaking, unless it was a powerful being on the level of Baal or Agares, no one could hide anything they did to his father from him.

Even so, he still felt somewhat worried.

Luo Jie said, “I guess he just came to check on the situation.”

Inpos snorted coldly, thinking: Plotting against Father, he’s asking for death.

“Who exactly is he?”

“It’s hard to say if he’s even human.”

Luo Jie said, “The Church of Dawn is both a pantheon and a polytheistic religion, with all gods on their list of worship, like ordering from a menu, all depending on human needs. He’s a priest of the Church of Dawn, but which god he specifically worships would require investigation to know.”

Inpos’s eyes were extremely cold. “Mere priest, how dare he covet Father?”

Luo Jie paused, then said, “It’s hard to say. Perhaps ‘Priest Xilin’ is an identity he forcibly occupied. Priest Xilin might have once been human, but not anymore.”

In other words, that thing killed Priest Xilin and took his place, wearing Priest Xilin’s skin.

Inpos hesitated. Like Morax, he didn’t like thinking about overly complex matters. These conspiracies and schemes might have to wait for Aelioge and Beelzebub to return before they could be understood.

“Hmph, him running away like this means he doesn’t dare to act rashly. He’s wary of something.”

Luo Jie looked at him, wanting to speak but stopping himself. He thought, of course he should be afraid. Brother Xiu carries three gods with him, and two more are sleeping in the house, potentially waking at any moment. Which god would dare to casually provoke him?

Moreover, if the opponent is too strong, you could just shout for Demon God Baal when in trouble. With the boss descending immediately, what god couldn’t he destroy?

It’s just that you privately don’t want the boss to know, right?

However, Luo Jie also understood, because Demon God Baal’s personality was indeed troublesome – a conqueror, control freak, and obsessive-compulsive. If he knew that the father he had been searching for eight thousand years had returned, he would surely want to protect him thoroughly. At that point, it would be questionable whether Brother Xiu could live a normal life.

Unlike the rational and gentle Agares, Boss Baal had an emperor’s personality – dignified and cold, brooking no opposition. When angered, all of heaven would tremble.

Luo Jie also agreed not to tell Demon God Baal, unless the situation became urgent and they had no choice but to call for him.

In any case.

“Alright,” Luo Jie confirmed the situation inside the house and turned back, “You protect Brother Xiu well. I’ll go investigate the specific situation of Priest Xilin.”

Seeing him about to leave, Inpos casually said, “Take care of yourself. If you die, Father will be sad.”

He was being quite impolite to Luo Jie, a world hero.