Ignoring his companions' covert jibes, Harvey said earnestly, "This place is without a doubt the handiwork of a necromancer. At least of the Sanctuary... no, perhaps even of the Legendary realm! The Mermaid Fish-Mint Farm he set up is indeed ingenious, but his intentions were vicious, his methods ruthless, and he has completely apostatized from the necromantic teachings of Haagen-Dazs... I look down on him."
As expected, naked hatred exists only among peers; the two-winged necromancer's tone was brimming with contempt.
"Although necromancers use corpses and souls as spellcasting materials, corpses are generally sourced from people who are already dead, and souls are captured from wicked spirits clawing their way out of hell. Necromancers like those of the Blood Saint clan are basically armchair practitioners; they even have hospitals deliver the corpses to them.
"Even brutes who prefer them fresh and piping hot merely kill someone to procure materials on the spot, manufacturing corpses themselves, that's all."
Yaxiu and the others let out a collective sigh of relief—understated qualifiers like "even," "merely," and "that's all" were enough to prove that Harvey remained that same perverted necromancer at heart.
"Yet this place is different."
Harvey continued, "If we necromancers are chefs preparing cooked food, then this place is a heretical restaurant serving raw sashimi. Every one of these mermaid fish-mints reeks of the stench of living people."
Everyone froze, turning their gazes toward Annan one after another.
Annan touched her earring and said noncommittally, "Let's talk as we walk."
The members of the Funeral Agency walked across the vast plaza, gingerly steering clear of the mermaid fish-mints in their various poses. If their previous caution had been born of fear, their movements now carried a trace of protective care, as though terrified of shattering such fragile goods.
"You still remember that the family reincarnation dreamscape exists to suppress the rising threshold caused by the clansmen inhaling Beauty Mist every day, right?" Annan asked. "You've experienced the dreamscape yourselves now. Do you feel your thresholds were suppressed?"
"Yes," Igola said affirmatively. "I monitored the hormonal changes in my body with the Book of Gospel. Every time I left the dreamscape, the secretion of various hormones returned to normal."
"Well, it can suppress it for a day, a week, a month, a year," Annan said. "Do you think the dreamscape can suppress it for a hundred years?"
The outlanders blinked; they understood Annan's underlying implication.
"No matter how effective the family reincarnation dreamscape is, the threshold still creeps upward bit by bit. Physiological lesions in the organs also accumulate over time until they become irreversible, and one day, the progress bar will fill up," Annan explained. "Because physical conditions vary, the progress bars for different races fill at different rates. For instance, a human's progress bar is full around age sixty-five."
Yaxiu swallowed hard. "Once the progress bar is full... what happens?"
"They no longer need to work. Instead, they come here to spend the rest of their lives... They are permanently retired."
"So you Fanmulans actually have a pretty nice old age," Igola sneered. "After all, there is no old age."
Annan replied calmly, "You saw earlier those Fanmulans who 'broke' because the concentration of white mist dropped. When a Fanmulan's threshold progress bar reaches maximum, their physical condition is equivalent to 'all parts shattered.' Even if you condensed the white mist into liquid and injected it into their veins, you couldn't 'repair' them.
"Beauty Mist is no miracle; the euphoria it brings comes at a price. For the organization, the pleasure delivered by Beauty Mist dampens human desire, thereby reducing the rate of cultivating sorcerers. Sorcerers, after all, are almost the greediest creatures in existence. If the heart has no longing, who would bother training and studying hard?
"In all of Gospel, Fanmula has the lowest proportion of sorcerers. There are a mere three Sanctuary Sorcerers, including Qinna—less than half of Azula's.
"For individuals, Beauty Mist destroys most of their subjective agency. The majority are willing to become pawns of the clan head, toiling like beasts of burden in reality, living like infants in the dreamscape.
"After a lifetime of bliss, they are like machine parts pushed beyond capacity every single day; overloaded, their bodies are scrapped ahead of time.
"In the beginning, when these clansmen broke, they were just broken, buried directly to serve as fertilizer. But there was a brilliant necromancer—whether because he felt burying them like that was a waste, or because he genuinely cared about these broken clansmen—who eventually developed a miracle that allowed Fanmulans to 'retire with dignity.'
"'The white mist emitted by mermaid fish-mint can no longer satisfy your threshold? Then let's convert you directly into mermaid fish-mint—no middleman taking a cut.'
"'Too old to work? Then don't work at all; immerse yourself permanently in your own dream, and let the excess euphoria diffuse outward as mist.'
"'Permanently retired, permanently happy, permanently detached from reality.'"
Yaxiu muttered, "It actually sounds pretty great..."
Lisi smacked the back of Yaxiu's head.
"Of course it's great; this is a 'miracle,' after all." Annan spoke with emphasis, her tone unreadable between derision and wistfulness. "The Book of Gospel can accurately estimate who is about to max out their progress bar. Before that final day arrives, these aged and frail clansmen, prompted by the Book of Gospel, will come to the farm on their own initiative. The moment their progress bar maxes out and their bodies completely break down, their crests trigger the miraculous ritual within the farm, transforming them into mermaid fish-mint.
"As a side note, their appearance as mermaid fish-mints has nothing to do with their original bodies. Rather, it reflects the image they most desire to become in their hearts, which is why most of them here are young, handsome men and gorgeous women."
Yaxiu glanced around. "Wait, something's off. There's an overwhelming majority of beautiful women here. If the male-to-female ratio is roughly equal..."
"Wanting to become the opposite sex is a very normal desire," Igola said. "Sex-reassignment surgery has always been wildly popular in the Blood Moon."
Yaxiu stared at Igola in shock. "Igola, why would you know about that? Don't tell me you used to be a literal pure Veela?"
Igola rolled his eyes at him. "Many people change their sex, but their mindset doesn't make the shift. 'Correcting Self-Gender Perception' is practically a booming specialty in the psychological counseling industry. Interested, Yaxiu? I can give you a twenty percent discount."
"I am interested. I've never fully perceived myself as a handsome, kind, approachable, humorous, radiant, powerful, super-invincible mega-hunk. Please correct that for me."
"Drop it, Yaxiu. The obnoxious little girl on your back is about to throw up."
"So can we get out of here any faster?"
Harvey, looking like a cockroach that had fallen into a perfume bottle, felt thoroughly uncomfortable. "Alice told me he feels awful."
"We're almost there."
Annan led them into a passage on the periphery of the plaza. Unlike the plaza, this passage bore no trace of artificial masonry whatsoever, looking like a natural cave.
The moment they stepped inside, both Lisi and Yaxiu shivered. After walking for a moment, Yaxiu couldn't help but say, "What is this place? I feel itchy all over."
Annan cast a surprised glance at Yaxiu. "You're actually adept in the time faction as well?"
Igola's eyes flickered, and he immediately summoned the Book of Gospel to check the time, his pupils instantly constricting.
The stopwatch on the Book of Gospel was spinning rapidly. For every second Igola perceived, a full thirty seconds had elapsed on the Book of Gospel!
"I forgot to mention that the Mermaid Fish-Mint Farm was built inside the Abyss, and this is a passage between Abysses. Both time and space are compressed here," Annan said. "Once we cross this passage, we will have left Fanmula and reached the Abyss of another city."
Chapter 360