Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 516 - 12 Deep Sea Church
Li Yan didn’t linger in the city for long but immediately took the railcar down the mountain. He had just finished the first act of Dorothy’s "Giant Lake" when trouble came knocking.
"There’s been an accident; you need to come here." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
That’s what Cha Xiaodao said in the communication.
On a rugged and craggy seashore, Cha Xiaodao built a bonfire and steadied two half-cooked fish over it. Sitting to one side, he used a small knife to gut the fish, stuffing them with seasoning before propping another one over the flames.
On the shimmering beach lay bodies splattered grotesquely with blood, most of them partially soaked in the seawater. At a casual glance, one might mistake them for discarded marine debris. A lone wooden boat drifted aimlessly at sea.
A silent blue flame streaked across the night sky as a Dodge Tomahawk in sprint mode came hurtling across the rockbed, drifting to a stop by the fire. Li Yan inserted the Tactical Spider onto the motorcycle, took one look at the corpses in the water, and asked, "What happened?"
Cha Xiaodao was calm and unhurried as he pulled a roasted fish from the fire, sniffed it near his nose, then skewered it back in place, before pulling out a metal flask and splashing it forward!
The flames burst forth, the taut fish skin cracked, and the trembling white flesh surged out, emitting an enticing aroma.
He handed Li Yan one, took one for himself, and only then did he begin to explain, unhurried:
"My Star-Towing Skill is now at 40% proficiency. Panning for gold here gets me twice the result with half the effort. But no matter what, I could not find so much gold. Today, my Wealth Palace should be catching Quhuo and Zhangsu’s fire; according to the southeast direction, I should have encountered an unexpected fortune. Unfortunately, my skill isn’t fully polished, and I didn’t expect it to be a fierce fortune."
"Okay, you’re starting to sound a bit like a charlatan."
As Li Yan’s words fell, the tide receded, revealing the full extent of the corpses, much to one’s shock. Most were male, their clothes tattered and torn, their skin a dark green, with scales growing on their ears and necks. Besides that, there were plenty of damaged steam weapons scattered around the bodies.
Li Yan withdrew his gaze and continued to listen to Cha Xiaodao.
"There were two groups of them; one with gold, the other with goods. I got here before them, and as soon as they spotted me, they opened fire without a word. They morphed halfway through the fight; yes, just like this. They relentlessly pursued and attacked me, and I ended up killing them all. I wanted to capture one to interrogate but he took his own life."
After a pause, Cha Xiaodao added, "When they first died, they were bigger than they are now. Their clothes were all stretched out, and they had fish heads and gaping mouths full of teeth. Now that they’ve been dead for a while, they’ve reverted back quite a bit. I reckon by dawn, these bodies won’t look so special."
"Where are the gold and the goods?"
Cha Xiaodao flipped his hand and produced a box the size of a human head.
Inside a case see blocks of gold, approximately five hundred ounces.
"The goods are on the boat. I’ll show you a sample."
Cha Xiaodao shifted his seat and revealed he was sitting on a leather suitcase all this time.
Opening the suitcase, he uncovered whole pieces of cowhide paper marked with anchor and hook symbols; a cowhide paper bag had been torn open, revealing black lumps inside.
"Opium?"
Cha Xiaodao nodded his head.
Li Yan tore off a piece of paper marked with an anchor and a hook, addressing Cha Xiaodao, "I’ll find a way to investigate the origins of this group. The lead on the Terrifying Mermaid might just lie here."
"The gold should count towards my share, right? That should complete at least half my mission, shouldn’t it?"
"It’s hard to say, with the way things are these days, US dollars are pretty valuable. Another box like this might not even sell for a hundred thousand US dollars."
On this point, the requirements of Yan Fu were not stringent. As long as it was gold, once the ownership was confirmed, it was welcomed.
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Zhen Lian stared at the piece of torn parchment in her hand, her expression unreadable.
"Do you recognize it?"
"It should be the symbol of the Deep Sea Church."
"What makes you say that?"
"They are also among the heretics nearby San Francisco but, unlike the Red Lantern Association and the Taiping Song Society, the territory of the Deep Sea Church isn’t located in the Chinese district."
Li Yan took the parchment back and asked with raised eyebrows, "Why didn’t you mention this church when I spoke of the Terrifying Mermaid?"
Zhen Lian knelt on the ground, "Sir, before you asked me to mobilize the congregation to look for clues, I had mentioned the matter of the heretics, including the Deep Sea Church, but you didn’t seem very interested."
Because of the lingering cruelty of Great Yog, Zhen Lian showed great reverence and fear for the so-called "gods."
The contradiction amongst the various heretics was extremely complicated, but without exception, the deities they worshipped had no interest in the conflicts of mortals.
Even when Great Yog was present, Zhen Lian didn’t dare stir the tiger to swallow the wolf, using Yog to launch wars against other heretics; at most, she would whisper rumors such as "your vessel has been stolen by the Taiping Song Society" and the likes.
Li Yan was the only "Outer God" Zhen Lian had ever seen who possessed both human nature and divine power; she was very afraid that her small actions would be seen by Li Yan as deceit and manipulation, leading to irreparable consequences.
Although the "Terrifying Mermaid" and the "Deep Sea Church" sounded very much related, she also pretended not to know.
However, speaking of which, Zhen Lian indeed had her own ulterior motives. Recklessly provoking the Deep Sea Church, whose members were poor whites, might trigger a series of chain reactions she didn’t want to see.
Actually, in her heart, Zhen Lian hoped that Li Yan would turn her attention to "competitors" like the Taiping Song Society and the Seagull Cross Flag who were recruiting followers in the Chinese district.
Li Yan blinked and uttered "oh," then said, "Come and talk to me about the Deep Sea Church, and the other heretics you mentioned. I’ve become interested in them."
Li Yan said.
Zhen Lian’s face revealed a bittersweet expression, but she still respectfully said, "I shall keep nothing from you and will tell you everything I know."
Thus, Zhen Lian faithfully began to recount the sprawling heretical beliefs of San Francisco to Li Yan.
After about an hour or so, Li Yan had roughly understood the origins of these heretics.
They were nothing more than a disorganized rabble.
The so-called "Red Lantern Association," "Taiping Song Society," and the like, were often organizations that flocked together when some revelers read some incomplete tomes and strange tales, and the gods they worshipped were mostly fierce and selfish, unable to grant their followers any real power.
Zhen Lian was a representative of them; she was originally a prostitute and, due to poverty, took up the work of a witch, clumsily summoning a one-eyed deity that claimed to be "Great Yog" with an incomplete Taiyin Secret Tome.
Her ability to keep the Dragon Head of Hesheng in check didn’t come from any divine power but rather from the use of intoxicating incense and herbs, causing Liang Hui to experience the illusion of youth returning. As for that "Great Yog," apart from telling Zhen Lian and her colleagues to find the so-called "vessel," it never provided any real benefits to her.
But Zhen Lian still relished it; she could maneuver between deities and worshippers, using her smooth words to attain a level of power she never dared to dream of before.
The terrifyingly shaped monsters with strange powers were her best amulets for maintaining that power.
From the beginning, the idea that the gods of the heretics would protect their followers didn’t exist; they were merely terrifying monsters on the brink of extinction, at odds with the steam age.
Zhen Lian knew this well, and Liang Hui might not be unaware, but the intriguing part was that they still desired, or were already drawing nourishment they yearned for from these monsters.
