The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 121: Chapter 120: The Lost Holy Embryo

Just as Yi Chen had guessed.

The underground river beneath the village was adjacent to the Church’s ritual area, separated only by a wall.

As the Church fell, the seal that was set there ceased to exist, and the flock of chickens easily breached the connection between the two sides with their excellent wall-boring ability.

Traversing the winding underground river quickly brought them to the well at the village center.

Without hurrying to the surface, Yi Chen first asked the chickens,

“Little Pei, did you encounter anyone else while you were in the underground river?”

“No cluck cluck!”

After ten minutes of interaction, Little Pei, having confirmed that Jin indeed would not tear the chickens apart by hand, finally mustered the courage to stand firmly on Jin’s shoulder.

“Hmm.”

It was a bit strange, Yi Chen had clearly agreed with the girl Lene to inform her once the problem was eradicated.

Yet as they approached the well, there was still no sign of her.

“Perhaps it’s an issue with the flock of chickens, Lene has never seen so many chickens before, let alone a flock able to easily break through walls, she might have stayed away out of consideration for her safety.”

At that moment,

the chickens began flapping their wings and one by one, they flew out of the well.

Jin was even more exaggerated, propelling himself nearly ten meters into the air with an internal body explosion from his lower legs and jumping directly out of the well.

The same problem presented itself, the temporary heart issue prevented Yi Chen from reaching the height of the well’s opening.

Just then, Jin suddenly poked his head out from the top of the well,

“William, it’s so strange! We clearly killed the root of the grayification and cleared the disease root from the Church, but the grayification situation in the village hasn’t diminished, in fact, it’s thicker than when we first arrived. @@novelbin@@

According to the knowledge learned from Cesimani, this unnatural Grey Zone should gradually disappear after we cleaned up the root, could there be Severe Patients hiding in the Church?”

“There can’t be any remnants, otherwise they would have come out to stop us when we were dealing with the Holy Embryo.

Maybe it’s ‘environmental delay’, which is also mentioned in the books, some gray aura compressed between the layers of rock needs to wait a few hours or even days after the root is eliminated before it slowly dissipates.

Jin, there should still be some Butchers and Scavengers active in the village, do you want to try and clear them out to make some spare minced meat? Just in case we encounter an accident on the way back to town.”

“Sure, what about you?”

“I’ll take a walk in the underground river to see if there are any Patients hiding that need to be dealt with.”

“Then I’ll see you later cluck!”

To cover up the embarrassment of being unable to ascend from the well and considering Jin’s manic traits, Yi Chen decided to meet the girl Lene alone.

However,

Walking down the familiar limestone cave corridor, the closer he got to Lene’s dwelling, the more solemn Yi Chen’s expression became.

Because the corridor was filled with a black flow that hadn’t been there before, even the air seemed to have become heavier.

Even after getting closer, the water droplets falling from the stalactites turned into black viscous liquid, and the ground began to have sticky black water flowing over it.

This black liquid did not smell foul; instead, it had a rather fresh fragrance, like a special juice that had just been produced.

And it carried an attribute Yi Chen was all too familiar with – ‘rebirth’.

But this black liquid’s rebirth was entirely different from that of the flesh-colored rebirth of Holy Embryo Marcos, it even seemed superior.

The sleeping Little Grape also smelled something, forcing its mouth open, revealing its eyes, and even instinctively trying to replace Yi Chen’s left arm to deal with the impending danger.

“William! We just killed the Holy Embryo, wasn’t the incident over?

Could there be deeper secrets within the Church that we weren’t aware of? That shouldn’t be the case, as all their knowledge was clearly used for the production of the Holy Embryo, and even the mother was there.”

“The situation is a bit different, I am on my way to Lene’s place.”

“That girl… Could it be!” Little Grape guessed something, immediately crawled out from the shoulder, and widened its eyes to observe the situation ahead with Yi Chen.

Not far ahead was Lene’s limestone cave dwelling, which was also the source of the black liquid.

Snap!

As Yi Chen stepped into the cave and the kerosene lamp illuminated the interior,

The image of the girl who used to sit by the bonfire for warmth and food was instantly erased from his mind,

and in its place was a swollen, writhing black mass.

It clung to the center of the limestone cave, with over a dozen pitch-black appendages resembling arms—or more accurately, soft tissue limbs—sprouting from its body, desperately sucking liquid from the stalactites.

The mass was still growing, still expanding,

and at its center, on top, was the head of a black-haired girl.

Seemingly aware of a visitor’s presence,

the head began to slowly turn until it was facing the visitor standing at the doorway.

“Big brother, you’ve arrived! You guys actually managed to cure the disease!

However, about ten minutes ago a strange grey light enveloped me, causing my body to undergo changes, and I didn’t manage to come and greet you, I’m really sorry.”

As she spoke, several mucous-covered tentacle-like arms reached out,

Yi Chen didn’t dodge, letting the soft tissue brush against him, devoid of malice, merely a friendly touch.

The girl’s head was none other than Lene Histera.

The hair that previously covered half of her face now floated upward just like the tentacle arms, revealing horizontally-striped pupils and a forehead with curved goat horns.

‘Single-Horned Goat Eyes’

This feature instantly made Yi Chen think of important information obtained during the investigation of the village—the “Holy Embryo”.

A humanoid form with goat-like features was considered a Holy Embryo, and Church members would personally arrive to take the Holy Embryo away to the deep layers of the Church to conduct the Birth ritual.

The answer was clear,

for some reason, the girl Lene was a Holy Embryo who had been abandoned in an underground area and wasn’t taken to the Church… It was likely her parents’ doing, hiding the child from the Church and throwing her down the well in hopes that she would continue to survive.

“Big brother, I’m really sorry… I might need to ask a favor of you.”

“What is it?”

“My movements have become quite inconvenient, could I trouble you to carry me to the ‘High Wall Base’?”

Yi Chen didn’t ask for the specifics of the reason,

he simply picked up the black mass and moved towards the destination at top speed.

The narrow fissures and passages along the way had been burst open by the Village Chief, allowing Lene’s mass-like body to pass through smoothly,

and they quickly arrived at the edge of their destination. A few dozen meters below was the convergence of giant roots, the meat ponds and mud pits where they absorbed nutrients.

“Big brother, just throw me down there! If you jump down with me on your back, you might get hurt.”

“Alright.”

Yi Chen tilted his body so Lene could fall freely,

Splat! A large amount of mud splashed up, and the girl’s head quickly looked up to express her gratitude to Yi Chen.

Following this, a bizarre scene unfolded.

The surface of the black mass sprouted numerous mouth-like structures, frantically sucking nutrients from the mud pool,

while spikes grew from the palms of the soft tentacle arms, piercing into the thick roots to suck on the plant nutrients despised by the Church,

amid this process, the black mass grew rapidly, even beginning to fill up the lower zone and transforming into a super-sized womb-like structure.

[The Outer World]

The towering tree walls of the enclosed forest ceased expanding and, within minutes, withered, decayed, and even died.

Yi Chen stood on the edge of the deep pit the whole time, observing the situation below,

until a brass-bound “Long Strip Frame” with a starting point engraved with an umbilical cord relief and filled with a black liquid symbolizing rebirth emerged in his line of sight.

Names and titles were also attached above the frame

§The Black Maiden of Palingenesis—Lene Histera§

Seeing such a sight, Yi Chen revealed a mocking smile:

“How ironic… A girl who wasn’t cultivated by the Church, who didn’t accept the so-called instructor’s sacrifices, and who fed on the lowest grade of blood-flesh plants every day, actually became what the Church ultimately wanted to create.

Even more perfect, with a higher level of rebirth.

It seems that these Church members and the supposed ‘Mother of New Birth’ were merely ‘primers’ after all, establishing a connection through the ritual with some ancient entity to receive its bounty.

This bounty will not stop because of Marcos’ death,

the ‘bounty’ will actively seek out the next target,

and Lene, the abandoned Holy Embryo, just happens to be an additional high-quality option.”