Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 572: Permeating the depths
The tall, thin, vulgar man on the opposite side muttered softly as if talking to himself, which made Shirley instantly control the urge to hit someone with a dog.

She reacted immediately. The skills of observing words and disguises that she had learned from childhood to college made her expression instantly flawless. While looking at the middle-aged man opposite, she slightly loosened Agou's chain and made a confused and nervous expression. Like: "What's wrong?"

The sinister man opposite heard this and raised his brows, waving his hand to Shirley: "Don't be nervous, compatriots, we don't know all the rules of this unknown person's dream. It's normal for some deviations when entering the dream, but... …”

The other party paused after saying this, and looked at Shirley with a hint of doubt in his eyes: "I didn't expect that a compatriot as young as you could appear here. Is it really okay for you to enter the Dream of the Nameless One like this? "

"The connection with Yousu has nothing to do with age." Shirley immediately shook the dark and sturdy chain in her hand, and Agou next to her also immediately let out a tame growl, "I am an experienced summoner. Don’t be fooled by my appearance.”

"...Okay, I'm rude," the Annihilation cultist opposite seemed to have dispelled his doubts. A stiff smile appeared on his sinister face. Then he raised his head and looked at the surrounding situation. His eyes quickly Landing on the "dividing line" not far away, he looked thoughtful, "Eroding the border... I'm lucky. It seems that we are not far from that 'wall'."

Seeing that the other party's attention was diverted to other places, Shirley breathed a sigh of relief. Then she noticed the strange words like "eroding boundaries" and "wall" that the other party inadvertently mentioned. She controlled the expression on her face. With an expression on his face, he silently memorized these words, and then continued to use his long-unused but still proficient acting skills while casually mentioning: "The boundary was spreading crazily just now. To be honest, it was quite scary."

"Did you catch up with the expansion of the erosion area?" The shady man raised his eyebrows, "Ah, it sounds really unlucky—but as the dream of the nameless one continues to develop, there will always be more and more cases like this. According to the group of 'preachers', the corruption and collapse of this dream is destined to happen, so we have to find the wall of silence as soon as possible... don't waste time."

While speaking, the Annihilation Cultist raised his right hand slightly, and a dark chain appeared in the air beside him, and the smoke and dust at the end of the chain condensed into a half-rotted body made of bones and shadows. Become a "death bird".

Immediately after this dark demon appeared, it let out a sharp and unpleasant cry, then flapped its tattered bone wings and flew into the air, as if it was sensing some breath flowing in the dream. A moment later, it landed on the shoulder of its master. , I don’t know how this chaotic and unintelligent demon completed the communication with his “master”. The latter quickly determined a general direction and looked up into the depths of the forest: “Let’s go this way first.”

Shirley didn't say anything, and followed the tall, thin and sinister cultist with Agou, and walked towards the depths of the forest with him.

But under the calm appearance, her brain has begun to spin rapidly - she is thinking about the other party's purpose, thinking about how to inquire about something without arousing his suspicion, and thinking about how to make herself behave more like a person. A normal Annihilation cultist is also thinking about what posture he should use to get rid of this guy as soon as possible if his disguise fails.

She felt her mind quicken—as if, after finally not thinking about those drowsy letters and numbers, all kinds of ideas came back to her mind.

She carefully controlled the distance between herself and the cultist——

Don't get too close, otherwise it will arouse vigilance and suspicion.

Don't be too far away, a dog can't reach it - you have to make sure the other person is within a dog's range.

"My name is Sarah. What's your name?" After a few seconds of silence, Shirley made up a name for herself and asked.

She grew up cheated and abducted in the slums, so she is familiar with such little lies.

"Richard," said the cultist who was walking in front without looking back, "the Holy Lord has given us a shortcut to the 'essence'. Names are not important, young compatriots."

"Oh... you're right, I just asked casually," Shirley nodded quickly, and then asked as if inadvertently, "Are there many people 'coming in' this time?"

"There are more than a dozen church brothers and sisters who acted with us. They came from different city-states—but I don't know the specifics. The saints above arranged everything. I, like you, only carried out the orders conveyed by the messenger. .”

"...Hey, they thought I was young and didn't tell me anything. They just asked me to come in to inquire about the situation," Shirley muttered casually, with a sincere tone of complaint. "And when I first came in, the erosion zone was expanding. Today What a bad luck – thanks to the Holy Lord’s protection.”

The cultist who called himself Richard looked back slightly, and there seemed to be no doubts in his expression.

After all, the Nether Hound walking with this girl is the most powerful "proof of identity" - the only people in this world who can coexist with the Nether Demon are the Annihilation Cults, and as long as this identity is clear, then this must be a "comatriot". .

At most, he is a compatriot with little experience and a lot of problems.

After realizing this, Shirley became a little bolder.

She began to use her impression of being "young and inexperienced" to ask indirect questions one after another from time to time.

Agou's slightly puzzled voice sounded from the bottom of her heart: "Xue Li, why do I feel that you seem to be quite excited?"

"Nonsense, can you not be excited if you want to make meritorious service!" Shirley chatted with the cultist in front of her face calmly, and whispered to Agou in her heart, "Just a few more words It’s useful, and the captain will definitely reward me when I turn back—maybe I won’t have to memorize words for two days... Agou, Agou, you said I’m going to catch a job and go back, can I use it for my math homework?”

"How do you catch people back in the dream?" "Ah... well, I forgot about that."

……

In the depths of the block, vines and giant trees that seemed to grow and spread from the dream world wrapped around every building in sight, turning the entire block into a silent and dark strange forest.

Dark-colored vines cling to the nearby high walls, tiny thorns wrap around the lampposts of street lamps, towering trees block the entrance to the alley, the tree crowns cover the roofs of the buildings, and there are crisscrossing trees criss-crossing the trees. The branches passed directly through the dead buildings, and merged directly into the solid cement walls as if they were integrated into one body, presenting a strange scene of merging with the buildings in the city and twisting and coexisting.

In this strange and dead scene, the footsteps of Duncan and Alice seemed particularly abrupt, and even... seemed to be a tearing and discordant noise in this "dream", echoing in the deserted streets. .

Duncan frowned and glanced at the lifeless street in front of him.

The towering tree canopy blocks the sky. Whether it is the "sunshine" that diffuses from the sea outside the city-state, or the cold glow of the world's creation that vaguely emerges in the night, they are all blocked by the lush plants above the block, making the streets It presented an unsettling dim atmosphere, and in this dimness, he and Alice never saw any human figures along the way.

Of course this is not normal.

There is a curfew in the city after dark, but even on the streets under curfew, you should still see patrolling church guards.

But there was no one - not only was there no one on the street, but when passing some houses facing the street, Duncan and Alice didn't see anyone in the house.

Even if the lights in those houses are on, even from the layout, it seems that there were people active in the living room just a moment ago.

"No one can be seen in the block covered by the 'forest', including on the road and inside the buildings." Duncan turned his head and said to the puppet head held in Alice's arms, "It seems that everyone has disappeared, just like You are the same."

"Like us?" Lucretia's voice came from the puppet's mouth, sounding slightly distorted. "Could it be that... the entire city has been transferred to this 'dream'?"

"It's hard to say, but at least everyone disappeared wherever Alice and I walked." Duncan shook his head. "Didn't you meet anyone else who entered the dream from the real world?"

"No," Lucrezia replied immediately, "I'm still working with this elf who calls herself 'Shirin', and I haven't met anyone else along the way."

Duncan listened quietly, then turned to look at Alice: "Can you see the 'line' near here?"

"No," Alice shook her head, "I didn't see it along the way."

Duncan nodded grimly.

The threads of the spirit body can't hide from Alice's eyes, no matter how clever the hiding technique is, as long as the "person" is still in the real world, Alice will see those "threads" floating in the air, and now even this puppet can't see it. He said that nothing was found... This can only mean that at least in the streets where the changes occurred, "people" are indeed missing.

This is different from what happened to Taran El or the elf girl from Purend before.

Although it seems that this incident is still related to the "Dream of the Nameless One", it is obvious that... the scale and power of this dream have grown to an incredible level.

Duncan raised his head and looked towards the center of this strange neighborhood in the darkness.

Suddenly, a shadow in the darkness caught his eye.

It was a structure that meandered between the buildings, as if it were a giant vine, or some kind of structure extending out from its exposed roots.

It was dormant quietly in the darkness, as silent as everything around it, but I don't know why...

Duncan always felt that the huge "vine" was a little different.

(End of this chapter)