In the folk customs of the Kingdom of Velen, kowtowing indeed represented submission and awe.
This made Elias feel exceptionally satisfied.
The dust had settled.
Elias raised his head with difficulty and looked around.
Among the personnel from the Seventh Agency, besides Branch Manager Guardian, Blaine, and Finn, the remaining three agents were now all collapsed in the blackened sewage.
They had not even reached Scale Two.
Just by catching a glimpse of those eyes of Abysis when they appeared, they had directly suffered a devastating mental impact.
At this moment, the three were lying face down in the foul smelling puddles, their bodies twitching unconsciously as if struck by lightning.
A large amount of thick saliva mixed with white foam and nosebleeds leaked from their faces, staining the water beneath them murky.
Fortunately, Aaron, who had been hiding in the shadows, finally moved.
The little boy came rolling and crawling out from behind a collapsed red brick barricade.
His small face was filled with lingering extreme terror, but upon seeing the injured on the ground, he gritted his teeth and quickly raised his hands.
A soft but not warm faint white light lit up in his palms.
Aaron pressed the light over the heads of the three agents and began to do his best to use his spells to help treat the wounded.
As the branch manager, Guardian showed extremely cold and efficient execution.
Splash... splash...
He waded through the newly accumulated sewage with uneven steps.
Although the power of Abysis had been cut off, those black tentacle meat chunks that had fallen from the rift just now had not died immediately.
They were twisting frantically on the murky surface of the water.
Guardian crushed all these meat chunks to death under his feet.
For those he could not stomp to death, he directly pulled out the revolver at his waist.
He sent them back to Abysis's side with pure silver bullets.
On the other side, the heavily injured Blaine staggered back into that beam of cold moonlight.
He began to use the power of the Moon Lord to recover from his injuries and replenish his nearly depleted spirituality.
This spell only lasted twenty minutes, and if he did not use it now, the effect would end.
As for Finn, he used both hands and feet to climb onto a relatively dry platform, sitting directly on the ground with his back against a rusted iron pipe, panting heavily.
A few minutes later, Guardian methodically handled all the remaining pollution in the area.
After confirming there was no risk of secondary mutation, he stepped through the murky splashes and went straight to Elias.
In Guardian's remaining eye, emotions of extreme complexity flickered.
"Can I see that gun?" Guardian asked in a raspy voice, his gaze locked on Elias's left hand.
Elias looked down.
At this moment, the elemental revolver that had repelled Abysis had completely lost its previous cold hardness.
After overloading on high level pollution and forcibly releasing it, its physical structure had undergone an irreversible collapse.
The black mud connecting the metal parts no longer writhed, and the entire gun lay limp in his hand.
It was clear this thing was now useless.
Elias did not hesitate and handed it over.
Guardian took the gun and carefully stroked the owl pattern on the grip.
"Midnight Owl."
Guardian whispered a name, his tone carrying a rare sense of gravity.
"Among antique dealers on the black market, this pattern alone makes it quite valuable."
"What?" Elias was stunned for a moment.
A mere pattern had such a history?
"You heard me right, this pattern is very valuable." Guardian looked up, his single eye staring at Elias.
"Engraving it on anything can directly increase its occult value."
"The number of craftsmen who can carve this pattern today could probably be counted on one hand."
Guardian lowered his head, looking at the limp body of the gun, murmuring to himself as if realizing something.
"No wonder... no wonder it could absorb that one's power without instantly shattering."
"Oh! That is the Midnight Owl!"
Just as Guardian's voice fell, Old Ed sounded as if he had discovered a new continent.
"I had only heard of it in forbidden texts before and never seen it, so the real thing looks like this!"
'Is there some kind of story behind it?'
"In short, it is very ancient! It is passed down from an ancient family."
Old Ed marveled incoherently.
Hearing the word ancient, Jiang Huan's radar as a modern soul immediately went off.
In this damn world full of indescribable monsters, anything associated with ancient or hidden usually meant a terrifying curse.
Cherish life, stay away from ancient families.
Elias could not help but silently reach a conclusion in his heart.
He did not care if it was a Midnight Owl or a Daytime Owl, as long as it did not provoke anything more troublesome.
"Mr. Batman."
Guardian's steady call pulled Elias's wandering thoughts back to reality.
"If it is convenient, once the cleanup here is finished, come back to the department with us to collect your bounty."
As Guardian spoke, he flicked his wrist and threw the ruined gun back into Elias's hand.
"Keep it safe. Even though the structure is destroyed, with this pattern, you might be able to sell it to a collector who knows its worth for some money."
Then, Guardian turned his head, casting his gaze toward the massive siren corpse not far away.
"As for this big guy... this Scale Three siren, the spiritual materials and transcendent characteristics on its body are very complete. According to the headquarters' recovery standards, it is worth about 3,000 gold crowns."
"Holy shit?"
Elias's pupils constricted violently, and he almost cried out loud, even the severe pain in his body being tossed to the back of his mind at this moment.
How much?!
3,000 gold crowns?!
Elias's brain began to work frantically.
He had never seen so much money in his life.
This old fellow who had been hunting him down was truly valuable!
It came all this way just to give him money, he was truly moved to tears!
However... once he heard about going back to the Seventh Agency's department.
Elias's feverish head was instantly doused with cold water.
Thinking that Ms. Cecil also seemed to be an investigator for the Seventh Agency, he felt a rejection from the bottom of his heart.
Who could guarantee that if she saw him, she would not reveal his whereabouts and his identity as a transcendent to Charlotte?
Even if people from the Seventh Agency should keep transcendent matters secret from ordinary people, the thought of that woman's close relationship with Charlotte made Elias feel it was not safe.
Better not. He would take the money, but he would never enter the department.
"This... is indeed a bit inconvenient..." Elias frowned slightly, pretending to be a lone wolf in a difficult position as he made a low voiced excuse.
"No problem!"
Guardian was understanding and waved his large hand.
"I can place the bearer check directly at the post office by the train station, and you can pick it up at any time."
"We understand. After all, making a living in the Society of Freemen always comes with its own difficulties."
Elias breathed a long sigh of relief in his heart and nodded gratefully.
What a good man!
Today's brush with death also served as an extremely stern wake up call.
He still had too few cards in his hand and desperately lacked enough self defense measures.
That elemental revolver was ruined. After getting this huge sum of money, his primary goal was to go to the black market to get some powerful self defense items and a large number of basic books on mysticism.
Old Ed, while knowledgeable, was sometimes unreliable.
In this mad world, knowledge was power, and it was important to systematically learn common mystical knowledge himself.
Just as Elias was calculating in his mind how to squander this huge sum of money.
A burst of extremely hurried and chaotic footsteps suddenly came from deep within the unknown sewer fork on the left.
The atmosphere that had just relaxed slightly instantly dropped to the freezing point!
Everyone became alert like startled birds, and the weapons they had just put down were raised again at the fastest speed.
With the sound of splashing water, two figures rushed out of the dark fork, panting for breath.
They wore brown trench coats and worn felt hats, exactly the two Scale Two members of the Mist Veil Society who had been missing earlier.
But when these two people clearly saw the scene before them—
The massive corpse of the Scale Three siren lay on the ground like a small mountain, charred all over, with four holes still steaming.
The lingering high level spiritual fluctuations in the air made their very souls tremble.
The ground was covered in the mashed remains of their lord's deep sea delicacies.
And in the center of all this was a group of murderous elites from the Seventh Agency, staring at them with eyes that looked at dead men.
The charging steps of the two Mist Veil Society members stopped dead in their tracks.
The air in the sewer became quiet to a ridiculous degree at this moment.
One of them swallowed hard and forced a dry smile that looked worse than crying.
"If we said... we just got lost, would you believe us?"
Elias immediately raised his left arm that was still aching and pointed at the two.
"Get them!"
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