Chapter 787

Chapter Forty: A Meeting

The clouds drifted across the night sky, gradually obscuring the moonlight. The deep night had arrived.

I stood behind the tavern, raising my head to gaze at the old, dilapidated building some dozen meters away. The building was pitch-black in the night, no longer showing any signs of the lively scene from just moments ago.

After coming out of the cellar, all the drunkards on the first floor had left. They had completely looted the bar, leaving not a single loaf of bread or barrel of beer. Some even took the tables, chairs, and candles, and had long since left the area. No one cared what I saw in the kitchen or what I did there. Only the tavern, standing alone in the deserted alley, remained.

The three girls locked in the cellar for who knows how long were eventually let go as well.

I gave them whatever bread I had left, along with food and water, telling them this was the last time anyone would bring them sustenance down there. If they didn’t want to die, they had to leave.

But if they didn’t know how to live after leaving, or if they had already become accustomed to such things, they could choose to go to the entrance of Leily Alley and find work in those brothels where survival depended on spreading their legs.

Although the three girls were emaciated and looked like they might fall apart at any moment, their appearances were still acceptable. If a boss found them attractive and willing to feed them, as long as they obeyed, then at least they would have a relatively safe place in this polluted city. It would ensure they wouldn’t starve to death, at least for now.

I pointed them towards this path of survival.

As usual, they would lose their dignity and shame, be used by others day and night, but at least they would survive, and their bodies wouldn’t end up as someone’s dinner—perhaps that’s what I hoped.

The maid from the tavern had already died in that dark cellar. Barry was responsible.

He might despise these things even more than I did.

After leaving the tavern, watching the three girls’ weak, silent backs fade away helplessly, I couldn’t help but think that if such things could happen in this remote tavern, they could also occur in many other places.

There were so many hungry vagrants in Aletheon City, including many young women without support, perhaps even men were not spared. The “trade” of selling one’s body was openly practiced. In a situation where the poor were unprotected, ignored, and food was extremely scarce, people eating each other might silently and crazily play out in different places every night.

I didn’t want to delve deeper into this matter.

But suddenly felt—

“In this way,”

Under the dark night, I stood alone in the narrow alley, looking at the tavern, suddenly feeling like laughing. In this way,

didn’t everything lose its meaning? Boom!

My raised palm burst into flames, and a crimson glow flashed in my eyes. Intense light quietly bloomed in the dark alley, and the air temperature became scorching. I heard Barry cry out behind me, but I ignored him. With a gentle wave of my right hand, dazzling flames accompanied by a wind howl shot out and headed towards the tavern—

Boom!

In the dull explosion, the crimson mark spewed forth like a fierce tongue of fire, bursting through the hole made by the broken wall, surging out from the back door and the second-floor windows. Half of the tavern collapsed instantly, countless wooden splinters and tiles flew into the sky, and flames rapidly climbed up the wooden beams and pillars. Warm shock waves mixed with dust rushed back, lifting my hair at the back of my head.

“Punishment… Fire of Sin,”

The boy behind me trembled and stammered. I turned back and looked at him, my gaze calm and indifferent. Seeing his disbelief and confusion, his mouth wide open, not knowing what to do.

Reaction, not knowing what else to say to me.” You, sister…

“Don’t ask.”

I said softly, then turned my head away.

“I didn’t join the Gate of Truth. In fact, the Gate of Truth was completely destroyed almost a year ago, in the desert of East Continent. I saw most of their last desperate struggles, and I roughly understood the behavior and motives of that group of madmen. I felt that with such thoughts and actions, their downfall was inevitable.”

Fierce karma fire burned ahead, the terrifying high temperature instantly engulfing the entire tavern, turning it into a charred ruin. However, the flames continued to spread outward.

I raised my hand again, palm facing forward, the red light in my eyes fading to a bright azure blue. Three loud muffled explosions echoed through the deep alley, and in an instant, a vast expanse of frigid frost mist enveloped the前方视野, massive steam rising from the remains of the tavern, the violent flames quickly suppressed and soon extinguished silently.

“Yet ironically, before the Gate of Truth’s destruction, the disasters related to the Abyss in East Continent were almost all resolved by such a madman.”

It wasn’t until more than twenty years ago when the Church led an army to clear out their stronghold, killing the leader of the Gate of Truth at the time, the man who had declared himself a Great Demon, that these terrible disasters were no longer dealt with. The abyss mud would soon swallow the Epolistra people’s life-sustaining Red River, leaving them nowhere to go. Barry, isn’t this ironic?

…

Three days passed swiftly.

The incident of ‘a tavern at the end of Jasmine Alley being burnt down overnight’ did not cause much of a stir in Alethein City. Like those hungry city dwellers, the reason why a privately-run tavern like this would be destroyed also went unnoticed. There was virtually no law and order in the city, so no one cared about such trivial matters unrelated to themselves. At most, it was just talked about a few times in other taverns.

Of course, I couldn’t hear such voices anymore.

And after that night, Barry never asked me about the sin fire again.

During these three days, I took him with me, having the boy wear my old cloak, while I snatched another one—soon after leaving Jasmine Alley, we encountered a few reckless robbers. After dealing with them, I took their money and cloak and did not return to the tavern or seek help from Lilith. During the day, we hid in various secluded alleys around the city, and only came out at night to look for food.

Thus, three days passed. Although there were some disputes over territory with refugees during this time, I always yielded and did not fight them. We quietly moved to another place, living rather peacefully. No one actively bothered us, nor did we encounter any ‘bounty hunters’ causing trouble again.

On the afternoon of the third day, I brought Barry near the western gate of the city. We didn’t rush over but found a corner under the city wall where few people stayed and which allowed us to observe the situation at the gate from afar. We ate dry bread and drank water, watching the nearby patrolling guards while waiting for Lilith to appear.

As the sky gradually darkened, we saw a carriage with horns slowly coming from the east and stopping along the street opposite the side gate.

This carriage was different from the one Lilith previously rode in; it looked somewhat shabby and makeshift, as if rented temporarily. But when the door opened and a woman in white dress stepped out, looking slightly nervous and scanning her surroundings, I finally recognized her face—it was Lilith.

“Barry.”

I immediately patted the boy still eating beside me: “Put on your hood, walk past Lilith, let her see who you are, but don’t make a sound, don’t touch her. First, go to a quiet place, I will watch you from the shadows.”