Lu Yan withdrew his fingertips from the other's grasp and took a step back, instinctively glancing at his palm. The Kingfish had been unconscious for a long time, but when it was alive, it was always docile and obedient. If not for his brother's admission, it would be hard for Lu Yan to believe that it could have devoured its master in the final stages of evolution. Yet, considering the system's repeated warnings, this wasn't too hard to understand. His expression gradually calmed: "What do you intend by summoning me here?"
My brother slightly tilted his head, his eyes a deep red that seemed impenetrable: "It wasn't me calling you, brother. Along with Shen Qingyang. Only the last part remains, and then you can return to your place." "Perhaps, it's time to tell you the truth." He snapped his fingers.
R'lyeh seemed to hit the rewind button, with time flowing strangely. The giant dragon corpse in front of us gradually reverted from damaged to intact until, at a certain point, it vanished.
In the distance, the sound of a ferry approached, as if we had arrived at a dock. The person in front of me extended their hand, their tone gentle: "Hold on to me, brother." After a moment's hesitation, I grasped my brother's palm. "This is 28 years ago, where everything began." The gentle surge of the sea carried us to the city's entrance.
I saw a whaling ship, the "Noah," captained by the Octopus Captain. Now, this ship was moored at the edge of R'lyeh.
"We've arrived," the young Lu Cheng said excitedly at the bow, "My precognition was right, this is the place, this is it!" Luo Yi, not yet transformed into an octopus, took out a waterproof camera, "We've finally reached R'lyeh, let's take a photo, boss!"
The merchant, cradling his large belly, cheerfully emerged from the cabin: "The Ocean Shipping Group has invested billions, and finally, we see some results." He was Andrew, the owner of Kroman Manor and Luo Yi's employer.
As they prepared for the photo, hundreds of people emerged from the cabin, lining up in front of the Noah with radiant smiles. Luo Yi was about to press the shutter when he noticed someone missing from the lens.
He looked towards a person shrouded in a black robe not far away. Luo Yi asked, "President, aren't you joining?" A woman's voice responded, "I dislike being recorded." She was the president of the Deep Sea Church, a woman whose age was unknown.
This voice was all too familiar to Lu Yan; it was his mother, Jiang Yue. In his memory, she was a petite, gentle woman who couldn't bear Lu Cheng's domestic abuse and ended her life. Yet, here, everyone's attitude towards her was of utmost respect, even veiled fear.
"Confused, right?" my brother's voice came from behind, "It's easy to understand if you know about Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave.' The world is a vast prison, and all your knowledge of reality comes from shadows cast by firelight on the wall. What you see is merely what they want you to see."
Luo Yi took the photo for the disciples of the Deep Sea Church. This was the origin of the photo Lu Yan found behind the painting in Kroman Manor.
In front of us, the city solemn and majestic, constructed from stone pillars, Lu Cheng licked his lips, "Let's go inside." A group of over a hundred people, armed with various weapons, cautiously entered the town. They dared not speak, their eyes wide with amazement at the incredible and massive masterpiece.
The city had no residences, only towering stone pillars carved with exquisitely strange reliefs, a bizarre and beautiful sight. These pillars were connected by white umbilical cords leading in the same direction, to the city's center.
Lu Cheng's expression turned fervent as he spread his arms, breathing in the free sea air, nearly trembling with excitement: "This is R'lyeh... the birthplace of gods! We've arrived before the descent of the gods! Like in a dream, we can obtain the embryos of the gods..."
Without human intervention, these embryos would mature and drift with the ocean currents to various parts of the world, eventually growing into powerful Pollutants.
Light gleamed in Lu Cheng's eyes: "Gods indeed exist! Combining the embryos will form a complete god!"
The merchant squinted, playing with a metal sphere in his hand: "I want an embryo. Jennifer and I can hardly wait to have a child."
Behind him, other voices chimed in: "I want one too." "We've paid such a great price to get here. We can't leave empty-handed."
The senior members of the Deep Sea Church revealed their cold and greedy nature. They had spent countless time and money searching for R'lyeh, not for charity.
Lu Cheng's expression was one of shock. He couldn't fathom why humans would be so arrogant as to think they could control gods, his face showing a hint of anger: "This is the city of gods. Be careful with your words, or you might invite disaster!"
At this moment, the president coughed lightly: "Lu Cheng, lead the way. We worship the ancient gods, believing them to be the origin of everything and the source of power. Our greatest purpose is to bring god back into the world."
Lu Cheng, still young at the time, was finally pacified.
He led the way, flashlight held high, moving forward in silence.
As the group ventured deeper, the followers' faces began to show slight distortions, their appearances gradually shifting towards that of fish people. Yet, none of them noticed the changes, calmly continuing forward. Even if someone did notice, they wouldn't alert the others.
These ordinary followers were intended sacrifices to the gods by the Deep Sea Church.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Lu Cheng finally stopped. He looked up at a huge tumor floating in mid-air, dripping blood and emitting a strange, fishy smell. The surface seemed alive, bulging with small blisters from which fish eggs occasionally burst. However, these transparent eggs didn't hatch but were carried away by the currents to different parts of the world.
These eggs bore no life. What emerged from them was a mass of black mist, the original source of pollution in this world.
The ocean had quietly begun to mutate over a hundred years ago.
Countless umbilical cords fed the tumor nutrients, pulsing as if breathing.
Everyone heard the tumor's dull breathing, like a slumbering beast.
Jiang Yue quietly asked, "What do we do now?"
Lu Cheng looked bewildered: "I don't know. I only saw this scene in a dream."
A foreign mercenary was the first to speak up: "Didn't you say the embryos are inside? Let's bring down this meatball. What's it going to do, eat us?"
"Don't be hasty."
"Then what? Just wait here?"
Various interest groups quarreled, like beggars who saw a mountain of gold but had no shovel, wandering restlessly.
Their proximity to the pollution source magnified the worst aspects of their personalities.
During the dispute, a trigger was accidentally pulled, hitting a bas-relief on a pillar.
In that moment, everyone froze as if paused, and the moss-covered ground trembled slightly.
This sleeping city seemed to awaken in an instant.
Jiang Yue's device suddenly alarmed, her expression changing: "Retreat!"
But her warning came too late.
The white umbilical cords, sensing blood, reached for the people on the ground. Ordinary humans stood no chance and were quickly turned into a mass of flesh, then absorbed into the tumor as nutrients.
Additionally, large volumes of seawater erupted from the moss, quickly rising above ankle level.
The crowd was scattered by the water, and Jiang Yue grabbed Lu Cheng's wrist: "Let's go get the embryo!"
With that, Jiang Yue spread her wings and flew into the air.
The scene turned chaotic, with many followers transforming into Pollutants due to the sudden increase in pollution levels.
They thought they were fully prepared. Only when faced with absolute power did they realize how insignificant and fragile they were.
Jiang Yue and Lu Cheng flew to the tumor, which pulsed like a beating heart.
Jiang Yue, her face deathly pale and body trembling, drew a knife and stabbed it into the tumor.
Her expression was of immense fear, yet her hand remained steady.
The tumor was cut open, revealing a large slit, and Lu Cheng, determined, said: "I'll go in and find it!"
Jiang Yue turned and screamed: "Those with talents, stop hiding! Do you want to die here?!"
Luo Yi chuckled, his body morphing to sprout octopus tentacles, entangling with the umbilical cords. The other Apocalyptics also drew their weapons.
As the water level rose, Jiang Yue urgently called out: "Lu Cheng! Are you done? We're running out of time!"
Inside the tumor, Lu Cheng's voice emerged: "I didn't find the embryo, I..."
He emerged covered in blood, his expression one of shock: "I only found this."
He held up a fetus with a reddish complexion. The fetus's features were blurred, without eyes, appearing as an underdeveloped premature infant of about six months, with a small tail at the coccyx.
Most importantly, the fetus wasn't breathing; it was a stillborn with underdeveloped organs visible through its thin, semi-transparent skin.
Inside the fetus's stomach were seven small orbs, resembling fish eggs.
Lu Yan instinctively covered his abdomen, near the stomach, where there was a scar as if he had been sliced open.
He had been abused since childhood, with Lu Cheng patching him up so frequently that Lu Yan had grown accustomed to various scars on his body. Since acquiring the regeneration talent, many of his wounds healed on their own, except for a shallow cut above his navel that always remained.
My brother placed his hand on my shoulder, whispering in my ear, "This is the truth you sought. We were extracted from your stomach, growing into distinct individuals. And you, you are the source of it all."
"Are you satisfied with this truth?" he asked, "Brother."
This revelation left Lu Yan in a state of profound shock and contemplation, marking a pivotal moment in his understanding of his own identity and the mysterious, interconnected destinies that tied him to the other characters in this complex narrative.
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