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"Yes, I didn't expect to stay here for forty-two years."
"I showed no signs of losing control, yet they considered me quite dangerous, likely to turn into a Monster at any moment."
The old voice chuckled.
Derrick frowned slightly and asked curiously,
"What exactly happened forty-two years ago?"
At that time, his parents hadn't even been born.
The old voice fell silent for a moment, then, just as Derrick thought he wouldn't answer, he spoke again:
"I was once the captain of an exploration team. The team I led discovered a ruined City half a month away from the City of Silver."
"That City, similar to our City of Silver, clearly bore traces of being ruled by giants and worshipped the Lord Who Created Everything, the Omnipotent and Omniscient God."
"Unfortunately, they were destroyed, countless years ago."
Derrick was not unfamiliar with such things; over such a long period, the City of Silver had explored and found many ruined cities.
Derrick pressed his ear against the thick metal wall, listening carefully to the other party's next words.
The old voice gave a 'heh' and said,
"After we explored the core area, we found that City was trying to change its faith, creating some deities they imagined could save them."
"However, it was useless; even the statues of those deities were destroyed."
At this point, his tone suddenly became heavy:
"These aren't important, actually. The City of Silver has found quite a few such City ruins in its past explorations."
"What truly surprised us was that we met a person there. This was the first living person not belonging to our City that the City of Silver had encountered in over two thousand years!"
"In that boundless Darkness, there really are people still alive."
Derrick's attention was drawn to the person they met, and he subconsciously asked,
"Did you bring him back to the City of Silver?"
On the other side of the metal wall, there was a long silence before the old voice continued:
"Don't you feel shocked and surprised?"
"We painstakingly explored the surroundings just to find humans like us, and forty-two years ago, we finally found one!"
Derrick was stunned. Having frequently attended gatherings on the Gray Fog, he had learned some things from Miss Justice and others.
Derrick subconsciously scratched his head, feigning a shocked tone with little experience, and said,
"I, I didn't notice that just now. That truly is incredible!"
The old voice fell silent for a while again, then after a moment, said, "Has the education in the City of Silver become so poor now?"
The old voice sighed, and without waiting for Derrick to speak, continued on his own:
"We cautiously invited that person to be a guest in the City of Silver, and after considering it, he agreed."
"We monitored and escorted him back along the way, until just before reaching the City of Silver, he suddenly disappeared."
"We searched everywhere but couldn't find him, and after returning to the City of Silver, my team members, one after another, went mad, lost control, all of them! Every single one!"
"The Council of Six suspected that we were all corrupted by something, suspecting that person was not human at all, but an evil spirit or a Monster."
Derrick exhaled heavily and said,
"So you're locked up here, and they won't let you out until they truly figure out the problem?"
Derrick's mood was somewhat complex and anxious. He feared he would end up like this old man, imprisoned at the Round Tower Bottom for decades, or even centuries.
After a long silence, Derrick readjusted his emotions and continued to ask,
"Do you still remember what that person looked like?"
The old voice recalled for dozens of seconds before speaking with a hint of pain:
"...He looked very ordinary, with no distinctive features, and dressed similarly to us. Aside from him being male, I completely can't recall his appearance... I remember he told us his name was... Amon!"
On Sunday morning, a gray homing pigeon fluttering its wings landed on the study window.
Under Leyton's gaze, the gray homing pigeon immediately convulsed and fell onto the windowsill, its eyes rolled back until only the whites were visible, and blood and foam coughed out from the corners of its mouth.
Inside its beak, flesh continuously distorted, growing a mouth full of teeth.
"Cough! Good morning, Envoy of God~"
Mr. A's somewhat sickly voice came from the gray homing pigeon's body. With each word he uttered, the pigeon's body trembled, as if it could disintegrate into a mass of flesh at any moment.
Leyton's voice was flat, without any discernible emotion, as he said,
"What do you want from me?"
"Cough~ Envoy of God, I received an oracle from the Creator. We will re-spread the faith in Backlund's East Borough, Dock District, and other places, in a brand new way and image. This matter will be handled by you, cough!"
"The Creator's oracle revealed that when the new faith spreads, He will return in a brand new form!"
"Cough! This concerns the Aurora Order's new doctrine, and the subsequent descent of my Creator!"
Mr. A's voice said, coughing as he spoke.
Leyton frowned slightly, not caring if Mr. A could see him through this pigeon. After a moment of contemplation, he nodded gently and said,
"No problem! I will go to those places and look for a suitable plan to develop believers!"
After receiving Leyton's reply, the gray homing pigeon, lying on the windowsill, twitched like a Zombie, stiffly crawled up, then fluttered its wings and flew away.
Leyton glanced in the direction the pigeon had left, pondering for a while in his mind.
With me as the Creator? ...However, is this oracle from the mad True Creator, or the rational Sasrir?
Leyton took down his coat from the coat rack, put it on, and then tucked his bone staff at his waist, disguising it as a small cane through an illusion.
Turning around, he stepped into the Spirit World, and after a Spirit World wander, Leyton's figure emerged in an inconspicuous corner of the East Borough.
Leyton quietly walked along the streets of the East Borough, his spirituality wrapping his mind to create a peculiar field around him, suppressing his sense of presence to an extremely low level.
Unless someone with high spirituality or Leyton actively approached them, the people around would not even notice Leyton passing by them.
Walking in the densely populated East Borough, it was Leyton's first time observing the residents here closely; they could barely even be called residents.
Even in the cheap East Borough, they didn't own their own houses; five or six people crammed into one room was normal.
In the poorest parts of the East Borough, a common bedroom could sleep ten people, with precise divisions for floor mats, daytime usage rights, nighttime usage rights, and so on.
Filthy, crowded, and malodorous were the most direct impressions. The people here worked to extreme exhaustion every day just to barely afford food to fill their stomachs, with no savings. If they lost their jobs for a few days, they would fall into an Abyss from which it was difficult to rescue themselves.
Leyton walked through many parts of the East Borough and also visited the Dock District, where workers gathered.
Everything he saw was just a small microcosm of this era.
Only by truly observing and contemplating would one realize how tragic the lives of the common people in this era were.
Leyton's right hand gently rested on his left forearm, and he murmured to himself,
"This is the best of times, this is the worst of times!"
"What do you plan to do? The common people here are so busy that they don't even have time to pray for their faith. All they can do is a casual 'May it be with you!'"
Sasrir, who was residing in him, gave no response. Leyton smiled indifferently, shrugged, and turned to walk into the Workers' Association behind him.
As Leyton arrived, a middle-aged man dressed as a worker, who had been waiting there, immediately approached him, bowing slightly in an inconspicuous manner, then lowered his voice and said,
"Envoy of God, Mr. A asked me to wait for you here. If I saw you arrive, I was to take you to him."
Leyton nodded slightly, motioning for the other party to lead the way.
Keeping half a step behind the other party, Leyton followed him deeper into the Workers' Association. From time to time, simply dressed dock porters or textile workers passed by.
As Leyton surveyed the workers around him, observing their facial expressions and physical conditions, he spoke casually,
"Are you also a worker? How many believers are there here?"
The middle-aged man leading the way raised a hand to press down on his canvas hat, his eyes scanning the surroundings. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, he deliberately lowered his voice:
"Yes, I was once a dock porter, one of the most inconspicuous people here."
"It wasn't until I listened to the Creator's teachings that I finally found liberation."
"More than a third of the people in the Workers' Association here have developed faith in my Creator…"
"However, most can only be considered shallow believers. These people, immersed in their numb lives, find it difficult to even squeeze out time to listen to the doctrine and pray for their faith."
Leyton watched the eloquent worker in front of him, nodded slightly, and remained silent.
Perhaps due to Sasrir residing within him, Leyton could clearly see the mark of the True Creator on him.
In a sense, he could be considered a True Creator's Blessed.
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