Lord of Mysteries: The Cultivator - Chapter 1

“My God, what happened here?!”

In the center of the lush, dense forest, the ground for tens of meters around seemed to have been flipped over, as if it had undergone a terrifying and drastic change in a short time.

In front of him, a man dressed in a priest’s robe lay on the ground, his left chest bearing a gruesome bloody wound, which was utterly empty inside.

His clean white priest’s robe was stained red with bl00d, and his pupils were clouded. Not far away, several rows of messy footprints stretched into the distance…

A few specks of green light, like fireflies, slowly precipitated out. His body felt as if it was being controlled by another, and Quinn walked towards the light involuntarily, unable to take his eyes away.

When the green light completely precipitated and condensed into a sphere the size of a human head, a sudden change occurred!

It abruptly rushed towards Quinn, melting into his body like salt dissolving in water! In an instant, Quinn felt an indescribable pain, a pain he hadn’t experienced in both of his lives combined.

“Cough, cough, ha… Ga ah ah ah!!”

He realized with horror that his perspective was constantly changing—sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes bright, sometimes dim—obscured by the constantly appearing green light.

He looked down and saw his own flesh: the flesh and bl00d of his hands were gone, leaving only interwoven vines slowly wriggling! He felt as if he was gradually turning into a monster.

After an unknown period, he collapsed to the ground, his vision gradually sinking into darkness. A group of people dressed in clean white priest robes rushed towards him.

“May the Mother Goddess bless you…” This was the last thing Quinn heard before falling into darkness.

Quinn Flitt suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from a deep darkness. Before him was a small cabin with four double beds, and many people, some lying, some sitting, and some snoring rhythmically.

“Damn it, that scared me to death. Why would I suddenly dream of the scene where I absorbed the Beyonder characteristic before?”

Quinn breathed lightly, reaching back to touch his back. His clean white bishop’s robe was unknowingly soaked with cold sweat.

“What’s wrong, Quinn?”

The boy in the upper bunk, Snow (or Sno), was startled awake and rubbed his eyes dazedly. The boy’s face was fair, topped with short, straight black hair, and he looked to be about fifteen.

“Snow, I had a nightmare…”

Quinn hesitated for a moment, feeling a bit embarrassed, and couldn’t help but scratch his soft, light cyan long hair, which was different from ordinary people’s.

“Judging by the fact that you didn’t die in the dream, there shouldn’t be any problem…”

Snow, the young cleric who was sent to Loen with Quinn, mumbled a line and lay back down.

“Want to know what I dreamt about?”

“Not particularly.”

“I dreamt that a Coiling Baboon was lying on your…”

“Blegh…” (Onomatopoeia for a disgusted sound, like throwing up)

Although Quinn couldn’t see Snow’s expression from the lower bunk, he knew his goal was achieved and felt a special kind of pleasure.

“Knock, knock…”

The cabin door was gently knocked twice, and the low, orderly voice of a crew member came from outside: “Gentlemen, please pack your luggage. Our ship will dock soon.”

“RUA!” (An excited cheer/war cry)

Hearing this, Quinn and Snow sat up straight in unison, cheered in lowered voices, and flipped out of bed.

Quinn quickly straightened his collar, picked up his cowhide suitcase with his left hand, and picked up a long staff-like object with his right. The long staff was wrapped in layers of white cloth strips with some yellow and black stains, making its true appearance unclear.

Snow clambered down the ladder, dressed in a slightly smaller priest’s robe, and pulled his own suitcase out from under Quinn’s bed.

“Go! Don’t wait for us to dock; we’re going home now!”

After more than ten days of life at sea, although they had food and drink and calm seas, the two still found it unbearable. Unable to resist their longing for home, they prepared to use some special methods to get off the ship early.

“Woooo!” The two figures, one tall and one short, gently pushed open the cabin door and transformed into two shadows, darting towards the deck.

Under the deep night sky, the red moon was hidden in the clouds, quietly overlooking the land. Not far away was a pier built of logs, and the noisy commands and chantey songs of the sailors could be heard.

“I’m finally back! I will never come back and forth to the Church headquarters again until my next advancement!” Quinn stood by the iron railing, spreading his arms and silently shouting in his heart.

“Quinn, we can see our church from here!”

Snow leaned on the railing, pointing towards a place farther than the pier. From this position, they could indeed see, vaguely in the crimson moonlight, a golden spire standing tall over the port town shrouded in night.

“Why can’t I see it?”

Quinn strained his neck but could only see rows of red roof tiles.

Snow looked at him and smiled mysteriously: “Bishop Quinn, Emperor Roselle has a famous saying called ‘The higher you stand, the farther you see,’ and I’m giving that saying to you.”

Quinn paused for a second, then reacted and rolled his eyes, as he was used to it, saying: “Say I’m short again, and I’ll let Denzin bite you.”

“Aow…” A clear bird call came from the clouds. A large bird with black and blue feathers flew out from the layers of clouds and landed on the railing by the deck. Its small black eyes looked at Snow in confusion.

The bird’s feathers looked extremely unusual; the edges of each feather were round, overlapping like scales, as if showing a turbulent sea.

“I’m not waiting for you.”

Before the words fell, Quinn turned into a puddle of mud, flowed out through the gaps in the railing, sank into the sea, and transformed into a shadow, darting towards the nearby port.

Under the cover of night, no one saw this strange sight on the empty deck.

Soon, a puddle of mud appeared on the pier. In a place where no one was paying attention, it re-condensed into a human form, becoming Quinn, who was draped in a clean white bishop’s robe and holding the long staff.

“Now that’s what I call a professional Druid…”

He took out a few gold coins from his pocket, which were rarely seen in the Loen Kingdom, and, ignoring Snow who was still on the deck, he expertly walked towards the center of the small town, towards the golden spire, and gradually disappeared into the crowd.

Before long, Snow’s figure also appeared on the pier. He looked up at the position of the moon, mumbled something under his breath, straightened his clerical hat, and also walked towards the distant golden spire.

The lights of the port were not bright. Those large and exquisite reception halls did not belong to a small ship that wasn’t specifically for passengers. A large, wide wooden plank was laid from the deck to the pier. Sailors, arms around each other’s shoulders, joyfully rushed towards the tavern, and passengers disembarked one after another.

On one side of the pier hung a wooden sign. On the sign was a string of handwritten, ornate script. In front of the sign, a sailor pulled his companion and asked, “Caterpillar, what’s the name of this port?”

His companion looked impatiently in the direction of the tavern, then looked at the wooden sign, and said, “Bi… Ji… Ni… This place is called Bikini Beach!”

Behind them, a man with a semi-tall silk top hat and a cold expression widened his eyes.