The Tesla family, belonging to the Exorcist clan, has long vanished with the Royal City of Arlen.

Yet, the Tesla family still exists in various places, including the Vena Ice-Free Port.

Michael is a member of the Tesla family, even sharing the name with Michael Tesla, which is why Matthias sent him to the Vena Ice-Free Port to assist Lu Li.

Only the process encountered some deviations.

"You never mentioned it."

"I didn't want to be overshadowed by an uncle I've never met."

Michael might regret it; if he had told Lu Li this, he and his teammates might not have met misfortune.

"Has Tesla contacted you?"

Michael knew what Lu Li was asking: "No, maybe that uncle doesn't even know we exist..."

After a moment of silence, Lu Li asked, "Do you know Rod Tesla?"

"Is that also a family member? I don't know." Michael expressed his unfamiliarity with the name.

Even if the Tesla family of the Vena Ice-Free Port and the Exorcist family of the Royal City of Arlen share the same origin, they've long lost contact, leaving only the surname "Tesla" to tell their history.

"Do you want to become an Exorcist?"

Lu Li asked before leaving.

Michael was stunned, his damp, sticky voice tinged with surprise: "Can we?"

"Strange residents and human residents are equal."

Lu Li reiterated their differences or rather lack of difference: "Human residents can become Exorcists, and so can strange residents."

"Can we have some time to consider..."

Lu Li nodded and walked out of the mansion.

Michael walked to the window, watching the silhouette returning to Lake Heart Island.

The voice of Knight Retinue Matt sounded from behind: "Captain, I want to become an Exorcist."

His Knight Retinue should now have the prefix "former".

Scholar Lena, also mutated with scales and tentacles, echoed: "I support Matt. Now that we are no longer knights, losing our creed will lead us into oblivion, and becoming Exorcists is a suitable replacement... no, the best superior alternative."

"Let me think... let me think..."

Michael only spoke slowly.

...

Lake Heart Island.

Lu Li entered the wooden hut, took off his coat in the slightly warm noontime, and hung it on the rack.

He pulled open the curtains, letting the unblocked warm breeze blow into the hut as he sat at the desk, picking up the notebook that remained warm after sunbathing.

He opened the report on the Knight Squad's current situation, and the next page recorded Exorcist Langeler's suggestions on salt making and trade.

The current salt for Agate Lake Camp and Vena Underground City comes from the Earth Dwellers' Trading Company's mined salt, coarsely filtered into products, appearing as irregular, slightly bitter brownish-yellow granules. It's consumable but much inferior to industrially processed, especially post-processed sea salt.

Moreover, everything is ready-made. Just recapture the industrial area and get the machinery inside working. The power plant may be difficult to repair due to age and strange damage, but the military and civilians can manually produce salt, though with decreased output and increased time consumption.

Salt is not scarce but is considered a strategic resource, so it's best if they can be self-sufficient.

The next page is Valendo's proposal: he suggests making badges for Exorcists.

Perhaps in the future, the badge could symbolize identity, spread fame, highlight status, but for now, it only represents honor—the honor of being an Exorcist.

Lu Li approved this proposal. The Vena Underground City holds the Exorcist badges from the era of the old Exorcist Association, which can be directly used, including their appearance and the hierarchy of the old days.

Exorcist, Demon Slayer, Demon Hunters, Legendary Exorcist.

Lu Li had not obtained the defunct Exorcist Association's consecration, nor did he meet the Exorcist's promotion requirements—his title as the Legendary Exorcist was merely an Uncrowned King recognized by the people.

Continuing to turn the page, the reports afterward were financial and resource income and expenditure records, made clearer by Valendo using red and blue ink.

The fresh red of financial expenditure and the dark blue of resource acquisition corresponded with each other.

And no human from the Dark Era would resent the satisfaction brought by resources piling up in the warehouse.

The next page was Valendo's suggestion for the expansion of internal affairs—as the camp expanded outward, he found it increasingly difficult to handle the heavy tasks alone.

Lu Li noted below for Valendo to choose personnel independently and flipped through, finding it was the last page.

The reclamation of the Land of Light and the actions of the two deities were not yet included in internal affairs.

Lu Li turned back to the first page, marking approval or rejection under the proposals requiring confirmation, and summoned Merchant Anthony to take away the notebook.

"Take a break..."

The gentle voice of the Twisted Shadow rang out.

"Not necessary for now."

The bed in the corner could still remind Lu Li of the shadows of nightmares, so he did not rest, gazing afar at the Twisted Cultist pouring into Old Belfast like ants, dragging prey from their nests and piling them at the "slaughterhouse" fenced by Banyan Tree Guardians.

Realizing that a catastrophic disaster was near, the strange ones fled from the dark, escaping to the shadows beyond the Land of Light.

The status of humans and strange ones seemed to reverse—the Twisted Cult could be placed within the human camp.

Later, Lu Li left Lake Heart Island to the slaughterhouse to harvest humanity.

Soon, the returning residents once again heard the comforting rhythmic gunshots, occasionally with brief pauses.

They didn't know what the pauses meant, only wondering why it no longer echoed when the gunfire had been silent for a while.

...

Lu Li looked down at the strange creature praying at his feet.

A filthy burlap sack covered its body, with humanoid, weak legs extending from the shadows. That wasn't a burlap sack but a flesh sac as part of the body.

The arm holding the Spirit-Calling Gun dropped, returning it to the holster.

"Let it pass out."

Lu Li spoke with the Mother of the Marsh.

Slender roots reached out from above Lu Li's head, entwining the trembling yet unresisting strange body, thorns piercing the bulging and contracting flesh sac.

The strange creature lost its resistance, collapsing as the Banyan Tree Guardian retracted its roots.

Lu Li leaned back beside the tree roots, entering a dream, diving into an insignificant light mass amid a patched, dark color palette.

The strange creature trotted with comical legs, like a drunkard given a chance to escape while wrapped in a burlap sack by thugs, down a long street, black shadow closely trailing behind.

Lu Li watched the shadow with a shape similar to his own, altering the dream.

The strange flesh sac jolted awake from a pile of straw.

Lu Li observed its lair. It had made a home beneath the attic of a collapsed ruin, with wooden racks hung with dried meat, symbolically meaningful but practically useless broken wooden doors, straw on bed frames serving as bedding, all silently narrating certain habits.

Bang bang bang bang—

The girl appearing outside the makeshift door for help frightened the flesh sac strange creature just waking from a "nightmare", causing its flesh sac to swell and contract intensely, then—

It screeched, driving the girl away.

Lu Li awoke from the dream at this moment.

"What do you want to do?" the Mother of the Marsh asked him.

"Make it the sixth strange resident."

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