Chapter 3312: Chapter 3312: Return

There was only one picture within the cabin. A wisp of flame was gracefully depicted on the Starry Roc-fish.

Zen's judgment was based on such simple logic after all, and it needed further evidence to prove it to be true.

The Primeval Lord of Heaven spoke quietly, “It's highly likely. But how can you prove it?”

“Prove it?” Zen looked out of the window as he considered the question.

His gaze pierced through the thick soul cloud, and fell upon the city gate in the distance.

The gate would open or close every 132 hours; open for 132 hours and then closed for 132 hours.

He believed it would not be difficult to prove his theory. He simply needed to wait for another 132 hours.

The souls wandering around outside the cabin could not enter it. Zen couldn't help but worry that something unexpected would happen as he was waiting.

He turned around to look at the Starry Roc-fish again. His expression became grave, and with little hesitation, he blew out the flames of the golden pot with a puff of air.

A deep rumble shook the ground.

His eyes shifted back to the window to watch the gate of the Soul City slowly swing closed.

Zen had opened and closed the gate to the Soul City too frequently. Maybe that was why the Souls of Light paused at the sound before crawling from the walls and flooding the city streets.

Meanwhile, outside the city gate...

Libby, Elvinia, Gabriel and the others watching the gate from the outside were confused.

“Zen can freely open and close the city gate...”

“Why would he close it now, though?”

“Do you think something is wrong?”

Despite her look of worry, Elvinia was trying to remain as calm as she could.

It seemed the souls could not enter the cabin, so Zen must have had his own reason for doing so. She decided to wait patiently here.

They could still see light from within the cabin, but it looked to be just the candle that was shining.

Zen kept a watchful eye on the candle. He needed to be able to protect it at a moment's notice. If the light were extinguished, he would most likely lose the chance to leave.

He watched as the souls within the walls and in the soul cloud began to move, one after the other.

Zen knew there were many souls residing in the Soul City, but the longer he remained here and watched, the more souls he noticed. The city was practically swarming with souls. Ȓ𝘈ɴǒBÈs

The souls hidden within the walls acted like water that gushed out of a mountain ravine nonstop.

They were all densely packed together, overlapping and falling over every inch of the Soul City.

Zen could feel his scalp begin to tingle as he watched the densely packed souls from the window.

The sharp sound of a large object whistled through the sky.

Zen watched as several predators burst through the soul cloud, their golden light reflecting eerily off the mist. They devoured thousands of souls in their path. The lowest level souls had piled up, so it was impossible to know the true number eaten.

An hour had passed before the pair of dark blue eyes appeared again.

The monster whose true face was obscured by the soul cloud was the strongest of the predators. It stretched out its hands and aimed to capture those light golden souls.

Zen watched with blank expressions for more than sixty hours, the scene the same all throughout the city: the large fish ate the small fish, and the small fish ate the shrimps. And then it all stopped.

The souls in the square had become fewer, and only a small portion of the light golden souls floated around corners to avoid being eaten by the massive eyes.

When it was full enough, the pair of menacing eyes focused their piercing stare on the cabin. Zen knew that it could tell he was in here. His suspicion was confirmed when it reached out a hand towards the cabin to gently tap the window with a finger.

It tapped three times, 'knock, knock, knock'.

The creature seemed to be taunting Zen, reminding him of its existence.

In fact, Zen had paid the most attention to it, so he didn't need to be reminded.

Although he knew it could not enter the cabin, he couldn't help the nervousness creeping up his spine.

The soft sound of singing made its way to Zen's ears.

When the knocks subsided, Zen could make out a bit more of the song. It was a harmony of a variety of voices coming from within the cloud.

The song was fast paced and exciting at first, and then it gradually slowed to take on a smoother, melodious sound. After a moment of the beautiful sound, a tinge of sadness began to creep into the voices.

“Could it be the monster singing this song?” Zen muttered under his breath.

The Primeval Lord of Heaven hummed in acknowledgement, “Yes, I believe so.”

“So it knows the Sanskrit words?�� Zen asked.

The Primeval Lord of Heaven was silent for a moment before saying, “That seems to be the case.”

It seemed that the monster had been simply trying to communicate the only way it knew how, by singing that strange song.

However, neither Zen nor the Primeval Lord of Heaven could understand a single word.

The singing continued for several more hours until the sound became slow and listless before it finally gave up and fell silent.

Time continued to drag by as Zen waited patiently.

Once 132 hours had passed, the colorful lights on the walls began to shimmer and fluctuate.

Zen's eyes grew wide as he watched the change.

The Starry Roc-fish on the wall began to move. It twisted its tail and swam along the wall. Suddenly, it peeled itself from the wall and jumped straight for the golden pot.

Atop the tiny horn on its head, an orange flame danced and wiggled.

It paid no mind to anything within the cabin as it made its way to the golden pot, but when it came close it realized that the pot had disappeared.

An odd cooing sound fell from its fishy lips.

The strange sound seemed to be it questioning the lack of golden pot.

For countless chaotic eras, the position of the golden pot had never been changed. Where could it have gone?

Its head turned to and fro before it realized that Zen sat in the corner.

“Woo?” it cooed once more.

The Starry Roc-fish felt a little uneasy at the appearance of a stranger.

Zen could feel its nervousness that was slightly edged with fear, so he slowly pushed the golden pot a little further out in front of him. “I-I don't wish to harm you. I would just like to speak to you,” Zen said softly so as not to startle it.

As Zen spoke, the eyes of the Starry Roc-fish flashed with multicolored lights.

It took a moment for it to comprehend his words before words started to spit from its mouth.

“Fire...” The voice was small and raspy with disuse.

“World...”

“You, I...”

The series of words didn't make any sense until Zen's eyes widened with surprise. “It, it seems to be...”

“It is adapting to our language,” the Primeval Lord of Heaven cut in.

“But I only said one sentence...” The shock in Zen's voice was obvious.

“Some creatures have different methods than ours,” the Primeval Lord of Heaven said. “Perhaps with a single word from you, it is able to learn our entire language. It must process information differently from us.”

After uttering what seemed like an endless stream of random words, the Starry Roc-fish finally spoke a full sentence. “You returned too late. You did not come while he was waiting. You returned too late...”

Despite the fact he could now understand what was said, Zen still found himself confused. “What do you mean by that?”

“He has been waiting for you to return!” the Starry Roc-fish repeated in a sharp tone.

“Return...”

The Primeval Lord of Heaven and Zen suddenly thought of something.

When Zen had broken through the soul cloud and obtained the nine Holy Soul Imprints, he went about it a very different way than others did before him.

He hadn't suffered too much pressure to the point it had all seemed too easy. The feeling was just like going home, so the Primeval Lord of Heaven guessed that it might have something to do with the mysteries in Zen's background and origin.