After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 87.1

Buer excitedly said. “Sixth Sister, so you know about it too.”

Valefor’s head was full of question marks, thinking ‘what do I know?’ But of course She couldn’t answer honestly.

Valefor was silent for a moment, then typed out. “I’ve known for a long time.”

Buer was shocked, thinking consecutively: Known for a long time?

Could it be that the Sisters’ Meeting knew about it before? Ah!

Why didn’t Sixth Sister give me a signal? Made me so anxious for nothing.

Buer laughed. “So Sixth Sister is going to the Roman Kingdom now, right? Barbatos has already gone there.”

Roman Kingdom? Barbatos? Valefor was shocked internally – She didn’t know Barbatos had gone to the Roman Kingdom.

Moreover, what was so special about the Roman Kingdom that Barbatos had to go, and I need to go too?

At this time, Amon saw Buer sitting there chatting with someone unknown, and suddenly asked. “Buer, has the hero Mingjie been healed?”

Hearing this, Buer immediately jumped up and replied to Valefor. “Something came up Sixth Sister, talk later!”

Valefor: “…” Something came up? What came up?

Valefor stared at these chat bubbles for several minutes, absolutely certain there was something fishy going on.

She thought for a moment, then headed straight to the Roman Kingdom.

At this moment, at the banquet, little sister Ayni hadn’t seen a single demon arrive, and was confused and bewildered.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be a Sisters’ Meeting? Eighth Sister disappeared for something, and even Sixth Sister and Tenth Sister who went to find Barbatos are gone.”

“What exactly is going on?”

Nothing like this had ever happened before.

The other demons were one thing, but Barbatos hadn’t stood them up in all these years, especially since this Sisters’ Meeting was called by Barbatos herself.

“Something’s not right.”

Ayni stood up, her twin tails falling naturally, her green transparent eyes containing a faint glow.

“They must be hiding something!”

****

Meanwhile, in the subspace monitoring room.

Bachin was replaying certain surveillance footage, his gaze deep and serious.

****

In the library.

Amon stared at Buer who was happily humming a tune, and asked curiously. “Who were you just chatting with?”

Buer turned around and said matter-of-factly. “Sixth Sister.”

Amon paused, but before he could ask, Buer had already run over to the coffin.

Amon was silent for a moment, turned to look at Vassago who was sleeping on the table, then glanced at Inpos and Botis who were mixed in among piles of books.

The brother demons were all busy.

Forget it, can’t manage everything.

At this time, Buer stood by the coffin, and seeing that Amon hadn’t followed, turned around and called out, “Amon, why aren’t you coming over?”

Call me Seventh Brother!

Amon complained internally.

This library was large enough, and had basically been modified by them now – a hall several hundred meters in radius, letting them do whatever they wanted freely.

Amon walked over, his footsteps very light, almost silent.

Buer said. “Look, he’s better now!”

Justin surrounded the coffin, and when he saw Amon coming over, his eyes changed slightly.

The race exterminator, the Abyss Lord Amon whom humans feared, now looked just like a cold and lonely youth.

The youth stopped beside the coffin, looked down at the person inside, then raised his eyes to Justin and asked, “How is it?”

Justin was stunned for a moment, seeming to be intimidated, and instinctively replied, “The curse is mostly cleared, but he’s different from me. I’m a healer with strong self-healing abilities, so I can recover quickly. He’s a thief – although physically strong, his body isn’t as good as mine at handling curses. So to put it simply, he’ll need at least a month to return to normal.”

Amon raised an eyebrow, showing no expression, and just said flatly. “Is that so.”

At this time, Mingjie inside the coffin could actually speak, but couldn’t find a chance to interrupt.

His mind was still in chaos, trying hard to understand the events of thousands of years.

Being suddenly told that his friend was still alive, and had given birth… no! Created so many Abyss Lords – it would be impossible for him not to be shocked.

He needed some time to digest this.

However, Amon wasn’t such a considerate demon. He knew Mingjie was awake and directly asked him. “Do you have any useful intelligence from when you were confined?”

Justin laughed.

Mingjie’s eyes widened, and just as he was about to speak, his blood surged up and he almost choked.

‘Nephew, I just recovered from a serious illness, can’t you wait a bit?’

Beside them, Buer saw they were going to chat, and it would probably be about things She wouldn’t understand, so what was the point of staying?

She thought for a moment, took a step back and disappeared. Maybe She went to the Roman Kingdom – Amon didn’t say anything.

Justin, being human after all, reached out to help Mingjie sit up, patting his back to prevent him from really choking, and said to Amon. “Take it slow, one question at a time.”

Whether Amon understood or not was unclear, He just kept staring at Mingjie.

His porcelain doll-like delicate features plus those emotionless green pupils, showing no feelings in His gaze, made Him look completely inhuman.

Justin thought internally: it’s hard to imagine He’s actually Xiu’s child, there’s no similarity at all…

While Mingjie seemed to have some feelings about this, and said somewhat off-topic to Amon. “Surprisingly, you’re a bit like Brother Xiu.”

Justin paused. Similar? From which angle?

A flash of surprise passed through Amon’s eyes, then His lips curved slightly upward, clearly pleased with Mingjie’s words, and He proudly said, “Of course, I’m Father’s child, it’s only natural for a child to resemble their father.”

Mingjie laughed, but clearly his breathing wasn’t good, and he almost choked again after just one laugh.

Justin was confused – so what exactly was similar?

Mingjie’s voice was hoarse, carrying a nostalgic tone as he said, “Brother Xiu could be quite inhuman sometimes.”

Justin’s eyes widened, almost asking directly: Are you serious? How was Brother Xiu inhuman?

Amon tilted His head, unclear whether He could understand the concept of “inhuman,” and just said flatly. “Is that so.”

Mingjie smiled slightly, “I think so, although Brother Xiu himself didn’t think so. Often the person themselves is the last to notice many things.”

Amon seemed to understand his meaning, His eyes dimmed slightly, then He nodded, a fleeting look of loneliness seeming to pass across His face.

Justin was even more puzzled, thinking ‘what riddles are they speaking in, am I the only one who doesn’t understand?’

Fortunately, this topic didn’t continue.

Mingjie searched his memories of the thousands of years in the black coffin, recalling while speaking. “There isn’t much useful intelligence, the only thing that might be useful is probably the sound of the ocean.”

Justin’s expression changed – he hadn’t heard anything, yet Mingjie had.

Mingjie noticed his shock and answered. “Justin, have you forgotten? I’m a thief after all – my combat ability might be so-so, but my perceptive ability is definitely the strongest among us.”

Justin was stunned for a moment, “Indeed, so what did you hear?”

Mingjie continued searching his memories, slowly saying, “At the time, I always felt like I was drifting in the ocean, hearing the sound of waves. I would hear it every few hundred years.”

Amon caught the key point and asked. “Is your sense of time accurate?”

Mingjie was confident about this and said seriously. “I dare not say 100% accurate, but at least 98%.”

Justin realized something and turned to Amon saying. “Are you worried he might have been fed false intelligence?”

Amon nodded, analyzing without emotion. “The mastermind now has two choices: first, shed their skin and find a scapegoat; second, fight us to the end; third, give up and wait for death – which we can ignore. I think the first is quite possible.”

Justin showed traces of surprise, but quickly agreed it was indeed so.

Mingjie, who was being questioned, also agreed with Amon’s thoughts and continued. “Regardless of whether it’s true or false, let’s continue – besides the sound of waves, I also heard singing.”

Both the human and demon present were stunned.

Singing?!

Justin exclaimed in shock. “They were singing?”

What kind of nonsense was this.

Mingjie shook his head. “It wasn’t Them singing, there were people singing outside the ship.”

Justin was even more shocked, “Outside the ship?” How did I not sense anything?

Mingjie nodded. “Yes, I felt I was drifting on a ship, and every few hundred years I would hear sounds from outside – wave sounds, singing, and ocean sounds.”

The air grew silent.

So it turned out the heroes were being held on a ship, surrounded by vast ocean, with mysterious singing all around.

Assuming this was correct. But questions arose – was the ocean where the heroes were located part of the continent’s sea, or the sea beyond the continent? Was it a natural sea, or a sea constructed by something else?

Did the mastermind have some obsession with the sea? Otherwise, why hide the heroes in the sea?

It didn’t sound like a good place for secrecy.

Mingjie thought again, furrowing his brows, and said, “I don’t remember anything else. During the curse, my five senses were severely sealed. Even I couldn’t identify many sounds, but I felt there were other coffins beside me – Lingling, Sister Ye, and Brother Wang should have been next to me.”

Amon briefly summarized, “So the place where you were was a sea where singing could be heard.”

Mingjie nodded, “At least that’s what I sensed, unless the mastermind could alter my memories, or used some grand method to fabricate the ‘sea’ – otherwise it would be hard to deceive me.”

To be honest, altering memories wasn’t something very difficult to achieve. But Mingjie was very certain his memories showed no signs of such tampering.

Seeing him like this, Amon unusually didn’t continue questioning.

Justin pondered. “Singing at sea… I can only think of mermaids.”

Mingjie thought of that too, strongly agreeing. “Yes, yes, sea folk. Thinking carefully, that frequency simply couldn’t have been produced by normal creatures. I think sea folk is very possible.”

Justin: “But sea folk are all over the ocean, it won’t be easy to find them.”

Looking at the planet’s area from space, it was eight parts ocean to two parts continent, and in terms of volume rather than area, it was ninety-eight parts ocean to two parts land. The sea folk population was hundreds of times larger than humans.

Let alone which specific sea or which sea folk – now that Mingjie had escaped, surely the mastermind would have moved their base.

However, Mingjie thought optimistically. “But at least we have a clue now.”

While the two were talking, Amon fell silent, His gaze growing cold.

They noticed He seemed unhappy and exchanged glances.

Amon suddenly said. “It’s truly irritating. This kind of progressive investigation through intelligence gathering is about enough.”

So that’s what He was unhappy about.

The two old men were simultaneously shocked.

One piece of intelligence, one step of progress – all investigations were like this, but it was indeed frustrating.

It was a test for any person or demon without patience.

They suddenly realized that Amon was actually quite human-like, despite His cold appearance.

But investigating the true culprit was something that couldn’t be rushed.

Amon rationally knew this of course, so He raised His head and said to Mingjie. “Then rest and recover your injuries first, we’ll search once you’re better.”

Mingjie smiled, “Of course. Being cursed for thousands of years for no reason – I want to tear Them into pieces. Once I recover, my first priority is to take Their life and make Them return everyone else.” As he spoke, he made no attempt to hide his murderous intent toward the mastermind.

Unlike Luo Jie and Justin, Mingjie was genuinely vindictive – an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. After what They did to them, would one life be enough compensation? Not enough!

Amon was slightly surprised, “That’s good then.”

Now with more and more clues on their side, what could the mastermind be thinking?

To be honest, Amon was very curious about this.

“You all stay here and recover first.”

A few minutes later, Amon walked toward the round table piled with books.

Botis was stuck halfway through writing, curled up at the table doing who knows what.

Inpos tiredly lifted His eyelids, His hand seeming cramped from writing, magic symbols flying everywhere, causing the whole space to be filled with the smell of ink.

Inpos naturally knew about the commotion next door, “Hero Mingjie has returned, only three of Father’s friends are left.”

Amon: “We’ve got more clues too. Sooner or later we’ll find them all and let them successfully meet Father.”

Inpos held His pen, His gaze lowered, a small white bird perched beside His hand, bringing a faint light.

Suddenly, Inpos said softly. “What kind of being is the mastermind, and what exactly are Their thoughts about Father?”

They had thought that consciousness would give Them answers, but its answers were too complex.

Currently, the few pieces of confirmed intelligence were: the other party could occupy the divine body of unconscious gods, Their authority might be [Consciousness], abilities similar to dream demons or succubi, Their true form might be a god, or possibly a human who became a god. The missing Goddess of Harmony and the Primordial God of Humans were still suspects, and at the same time, the human sage who presided over the hero summoning magic back then was also very suspicious.

And most importantly, [Despair].

Their strongest emotion right now was likely despair.

So, was Their despair due to Their being cornered step by step, or because Agares had seen through Their identity from the start, or were there other reasons?

Amon felt understanding this point was crucial.

And Their thoughts about Father… Amon felt something was self-contradictory.

Of course, idle speculation was meaningless – They still needed to catch Them.

Amon answered Inpos. “Setting all that aside, let’s wait for Aelioge. If He can find the Primordial God of Humans and Goddess of Harmony, we should be close to the truth.”

Inpos nodded.

“However, can Aelioge handle it alone?”

****

Ten minutes later, Roman Kingdom, ten in the morning.

On the wool carpet, four cats were communicating.

The orange cat put down the small lute in its paws and said to the calico cat. “Barbatos, you’ve come too.”

The calico cat was a bit angry, snorting. “You all kept me in the dark completely.”

The orange cat tilted its head. “We haven’t hidden it for that long, have we? I just found out too. Counting from when They knew, it hasn’t even been a month, right? Isn’t that just the blink of an eye?”

What He said made sense – even a year would be just like a nap to Them.

There really wasn’t much to say about the time. Moreover, from Their respective positions, none of Them had any obligation to tell the others.

They all had Their own selfishness, which They had always acknowledged.

At this moment, the ragdoll cat stepped out of the void, softly jumping onto the wool carpet, and smiled at the four cats saying. “Haha, I’m back!”

The calico cat, upon seeing the ragdoll cat, immediately walked over and patted her sister’s face with its paw. “Buer, did you save the person successfully?”

“Eighth Sister meow!”

The ragdoll cat was unconsciously pinned in place.