Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 911: Contact

Roy's face was ice cold as he opened the door to the cell. As soon as he walked in, he saw a woman in the corner of the room. She was covered in wounds, seemingly on her last legs.

Li Lu's face and body were covered in bruises and bloodstains. She had no clothes to cover herself, so she was shivering violently from the cold.

She once had beautiful curly hair, but a big chunk of her hair had been torn off her scalp, leaving behind multiple bald spots. Her remaining hair was matted with grime and dry blood as it covered her face, which had become unrecognizable.

Roy stood motionless as he looked down at the woman before him. He couldn't help but muse, Is she really 8? I can't say for sure. If she's 8, how can I extract useful intelligence from her?

The surveillance camera blinking with a red light made Roy wary of standing still for too long, as it would attract unwanted attention.

Roy grabbed a whip soaking in seawater and struck Li Lu with all his might. Each lash left another wound on Li Lu, and the seawater made the wounds sting with extreme pain, making her convulse.

"I'm sorry," Roy said as he lashed out with the whip. "I don't want to do this either, but for my daughter's sake, I have to abandon everything, including compassion!"

The semiconscious Li Lu was awakened by the lashing, and she curled up, wrapping her arms around herself while trembling in pain.

"Just speak. There's no point in hiding anything. Only by abandoning darkness for light can you find salvation on the day of His awakening," Roy remarked.

Despite Li Lu's miserable state, her eyes remained remarkably calm. Her eyes shifted downward, noticing a sharp knife beside the branding iron on her right.

This place had tools that she could use to fight back or end her life if necessary to protect her secrets. However, suicide was a last resort. In addition, the ongoing torture session was childish to Li Lu, who had received professional training.

Li Lu's plan was to wait and see. She was planning on waiting if she'd meet a horrible fate before the headquarters could rescue her.

"Are you going to talk or not?! TALK! Who sent you here?!" Roy roared, and his lashing became fiercer upon receiving no response. He switched from a mere whip to chains, and soon, Li Lu was bleeding profusely from her head.

"Wang Sheng, send someone to keep an eye on the door to D24," Anna said into the microphone inside the monitoring room. She had painstakingly captured the traitor, and Anna had no plans of letting Roy kill her.

Roy looked down coldly at the woman on the ground. Her head was swollen, making her skull resemble a bloody gourd. At the gruesome sight, Roy finally put down the chains in his hands.

He stood in a daze for a while before crouching down and stroking her calf gently.

His hand gradually moved upward, and his breathing grew heavy as if he were a bull in heat.

"Are you going to talk or not?" Roy asked.

Arriving at the deck, he found Anna surrounded by a crowd of devotees.

Anna took out a golden dagger and dismembered a male corpse. She then used the corpse's bones, organs, and flesh to draw something on the ground. It was a gruesome sight, and the air became thick with the smell of blood.

What is she going to do now? Roy thought.

Soon, a grisly array made out of human organs, bones, and flesh was drawn on the ground. Two Fhtagnists walked up to Li Lu and dragged her away from Roy. They then propped her up in the middle of the array.

Black candles were lit around the array, and for some reason, their flames were pitch-black as well.

Three red-robed Fhtagn priests prostrated in a triangle outside the array, and their arms were spread wide open, seemingly attempting to embrace the array made out of flesh and blood.

Anna stood at the outer layer of the array and began chanting an inscrutable incantation.

"Stell...bsn...Nilgh...ri..."

"Wk...hmr...nythlloigor... Sk'shgn."

The chanting grew louder, and in addition to the chanting voices of the priests and Anna, there were also strange voices as well as intermittent eerie noises.

The black candle flames surged, igniting the bones and entrails on the ground. The array transformed into a sea of black flames, scorching Li Lu in the middle of the array.

Li Lu seemed capable of withstanding any form of torture out there, but she seemed unable to withstand this pain. Her face distorted into a horrible grimace, and she let loose heart-wrenching howls.

Before long, Li Lu was covered in flames, and she rolled around inside the array.

The flames emanated a horrifying aura that instilled a primal fear in everyone, and everyone retreated involuntarily in the face of it. Those with weaker constitutions rushed to the railings and began vomiting over the sea.

Roy gnashed his teeth briefly at the miserable sight of his colleague.

He truly wanted to kill these crazy cultists but knew that he couldn't make any move right now. He also knew that as a shadow, he had to strictly control his emotions.

The flames burned fiercely, and a cloud of black smoke began to rise from Li Lu. She seemed to have become a ball of burning plastic as black smoke billowed out of her nonstop.