Elias shakily handed over six soul coins, each vibrating with an eerie resonance.
“Take them...”
Elias forced the words through gritted teeth.
“Your hard-earned money.”
It wasn’t that he was stingy; it was simply that the stinging pain in his soul made every physical movement a trial.
Guss reached out and snatched the coins.
But in the next second...
The demon actually pinched one and tossed it back into Elias’s lap.
“Hmm?”
Elias froze.
He looked at the soul coin that had fallen into the folds of his clothes, his face full of confusion.
“What is the meaning of this?”
He didn't think an infernal demon from the Abyss understood concepts like “pitying the employer” or “customer cashback.”
“Did you forget, sir?”
Guss bared his teeth in a grin that could almost be described as “honest.”
“You already paid one in advance just now.”
As he spoke, the demon raised his other hand, dangling the corpse he was holding.
Elias realized what he meant.
Damn.
Setting aside the cunning and cruelty typical of infernal creatures that Guss had shown during their first meeting...
At this moment, Elias actually felt the guy was a remarkably honest businessman!
Fair prices for all, never overcharging by a single cent.
He was practically a conscientious entrepreneur of the Abyss!
“Can his soul still be used to mint coins?”
Elias pointed at Luke’s head, which had been crushed like a shriveled soda can, and asked a soul-searching question.
The head was physically pulverized; could the soul still be kept fresh?
“Of course.”
Guss raised an eyebrow as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I only crushed his head. I didn’t touch his spiritual body.”
“My craftsmanship is always steady.”
The moment he finished speaking...
An eerie, dark red spirituality suddenly flared on the demon’s broad palm.
A tangible burst of gravitational force erupted.
A spiritual body emitting a faint white light was ripped out of the mangled corpse!
The spiritual body’s features quickly twisted and took shape.
It was Luke’s face.
“What the hell?!!!”
The moment Luke’s spiritual body left his shell, he let out a deafening, shrill scream.
His voice was filled with incredulous horror.
“Why am I not dead?!”
He struggled frantically in mid-air, looking down at his own translucent hands.
“Why haven't I gone to the Spirit World?!”
According to the common knowledge of this world, when a transcendent died, their spiritual body was automatically drawn toward the Spirit World, returning to that bizarre void.
But now, he was being held firmly in the hand of a demon!
“Friend.”
Elias looked coldly at the collapsing Luke in mid-air and delivered a casual verbal blow.
“That’s just how infernal magic works.”
After savoring the villain’s despair, Elias turned back to Guss.
“Is his soul worth exactly one soul coin?”
Guss nodded, kneading Luke’s spiritual body in his hand like dough.
“This human’s physical body was trash, but the resentment and scheming in his soul are quite sufficient. He barely makes the cut.”
The demon looked down at Elias.
“So, if you ever have this kind of tricky dirty work again, sir...”
“I hope you’ll think of Guss the infernal demon.”
“Satisfaction guaranteed.”
“It’s a deal!”
Elias’s mood couldn't help but brighten.
With such a reliable, clearly priced, and powerful hired gun, walking through Moon Bay with his head held high wouldn't be a dream.
In his happiness...
Even the agonizing soul pain deep in his brain seemed to lessen instantly.
“It seems...”
Elias turned his head and looked at Luke’s spiritual body again, a malicious, cold smile curling his lips.
“Someone won't be escaping that Inferno torture package after all!”
“You damned bastard!”
Luke’s spiritual body twisted frantically in rage, hurling curses.
“You faithless, shameless little man! You won't die a—!”
“Noisy.”
Before Luke could even finish half of his insults toward Elias’s ancestors...
Guss let out an impatient, cold snort.
With a wave of his massive hand, the demon crudely stuffed Luke’s spiritual body back into the chest cavity of the headless corpse like he was shoving away trash.
A forced packaging.
Then, Guss made a swiping motion in the void before him.
A spirit world rift appeared once more.
The pungent scent of sulfur wafted toward them.
“Then, until next time, sir!”
Guss turned, ready to clock out.
“Wait!”
Elias suddenly remembered something and shouted to stop Guss, who already had half a leg through the rift.
“Do you know a ‘Galahad Midnight’?”
Upon hearing that name...
The leg Guss was about to plant in the spirit world rift was pulled back.
A solemn expression appeared on the demon’s face.
“I haven't heard that name.”
He stood at the edge of the rift, lost in thought.
“However...”
Guss changed his tone, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“The surname ‘Midnight’ sounds somewhat familiar.”
Elias’s eyes lit up instantly.
As expected!
The iron-clad man in that dream was definitely no random extra.
“Can you help me look into it?”
Elias threw out the bait without hesitation.
“There will be compensation!”
At the mention of “compensation,” the solemnity in Guss’s eyes was instantly replaced by greed.
“Very well.”
Guss gave a heavy nod of his massive head, his professional attitude becoming extremely earnest.
“Wait for my good news, sir.”
The demon lingered no longer.
With the headless corpse containing Luke’s soul in one hand, he strode into the crimson rift.
The rift slowly closed.
The tranquility of the outskirts returned completely to the woods.
Only Elias remained.
He leaned against a tree trunk and let out a long sigh of relief.
This non-stop, life-and-death race tonight was finally over.
He closed his eyes and probed inward with his spirituality, feeling the 【Gluttonous Stomach】 hanging at his waist.
This thing was the greatest contributor tonight.
Before leaving that makeshift medical camp, he hadn't been idle.
He had stuffed all the spoils he’d scavenged tonight—including the remaining charms and the Soul Pendulum he’d just snatched from Luke—into this leather stomach that radiated an eerie aura.
It was worth noting that the short-barreled shotgun Ms. Cecil had lent him had been taken back while he was unconscious.
But it had to be said.
In this peril-filled world, having a piece of equipment for mobile storage was incredibly useful.
He now fully understood why, in the novels he’d read in his past life, authors always gave the protagonist a “space ring” as standard equipment.
Hands in your pockets, and you have everything you need.
While taking inventory of the items just now, Elias had found an unexpected surprise.
After greedily absorbing his spirituality, this stomach could now change its state according to his will.
Its volume could shrink back to the size it had been when dormant.
Bound to the belt on the inside of his trench coat, it was much easier to carry.
More importantly...
That hot potato—the Soul Pendulum—now lay quietly in the deepest part of the stomach.
He was very at ease with this.
After all, John had used this very Gluttonous Stomach to perfectly hide the pendulum’s supernatural aura.
It had caused the marks on the pendulum to be completely shielded.
Now, this trick of “deceiving the heavens” had been inherited by Elias in its entirety.
At this point, he patted the dirt off his coat and used the moonlight to identify his direction.
Next.
He needed to hurry and check on Charlotte.
The potion had been poured down her throat; whether his sister had transformed into a transcendent or if something else had gone wrong was still a weight on his heart.
In the first place...
When he’d run out of the camp regardless of his own life, his original plan was to find Ms. Cecil.
After all, he didn't know where his sister had been moved.
Plus, knowing Luke had escaped, finding Ms. Cecil directly would have been faster.
Who would have thought?
He hadn't seen even a ghost of Ms. Cecil.
The most critical prize, the Soul Pendulum, had instead made a full circle and jumped into his own pocket.
What was this called?
But what exactly should he do with this pendulum?
Elias walked back, calculating in his mind.
Hand it over to the Seventh Agency?
Forget it; Luke’s words before he died had reminded him.
Wayland Capital’s penetration of the Seventh Agency was already full of holes.
Handing it over would likely be like sending a meat bun to a dog—gone for good.
Keep it in his own hands?
That was also equivalent to carrying a ticking time bomb; anyone who caught a whiff of it would want to take a bite.
Just as he was frowning, feeling conflicted over the ownership of the pendulum...
A series of faint, rapid rustling sounds suddenly came from the bushes not far ahead.
Someone was approaching!
Elias was instantly alert, his right hand instinctively reaching for the revolver at his waist.
“Elias?!”
A female voice tinged with anxiety rang out from the waist-high, withered thicket before the person even appeared.
Then.
Ms. Cecil, wearing clothes covered in bloodstains and dust, pushed aside the branches and strode out.
Her breathing was uneven, clearly having just undergone intense combat and running.
When she saw Elias leaning against the tree...
A flash of obvious bewilderment crossed her grey eyes.
“Why are you here?!”
Cecil’s gaze quickly swept over the empty woods.
Her brow furrowed tightly, and her service pistol remained in a firing position.
“Where is Luke?”
...
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