As the grotesque sounds of chewing ceased, Anna tossed the remaining mangled artery on the floor. She wiped the corners of her mouth, and with a hint of disdain on her visage, she muttered, "What a terrible taste. Life on the surface is surely great. Even the blood vessels are clogged with fat."

The blood stained Anna's lips with a crimson hue as though she was wearing lipstick, adding a touch of eerie, seductive allure to her.

With twelve people hunched over and drawing on the floor, the sacrificial ritual circle was completed in no time. Anna did an inspection and adjusted a few details before she instructed everyone to stand in the circle.

"What is this? What are you doing?" The blond-haired man, Wang Sheng, muttered in a trembling voice. The bizarre array made him uncomfortable and he felt something terribly amiss. However, he dared not run.

Li Long grabbed Wang Sheng and pulled him into the array.

"Don't worry. I've done this before. Nothing bad happened. Come on in. I'll join you guys," Li Long reassured.

Anna took a glance at Li Long but remained quiet. The next moment, she unsheathed a dagger and slashed her palm open. Pressing her wound against the drawn array on the ground, she began chanting.

The alien incantation without any audible consonant resonated through the room, blanketing the hall with an air of eeriness.

Wang Sheng's heart raced and pounded hard against his ribcage. It wasn't just from fear; he felt as though he was about to trigger some forbidden taboo.

"It's fine, really," Li Long continued to reassure everyone. "Once Boss is done with her chanting, we'll be able to get out. Just relax, alright?"

Seconds dragged into minutes, and minutes turned into hours. The faint light of dawn began to creep in through the gaps in the curtain, but nothing had happened. Everyone began to relax slightly. Some of them watched Anna, still focused on her chanting, but their hearts were already slowly filling with hope.

I need to put my phone on silent and quickly call my dad!

Wang Sheng thought.

Just as the group exchanged anxious glances, a strange, almost mosquito-like buzzing entered their ears.

They weren't the only ones who heard it. Anna heard the same. A smile played on her lips, and her chanting grew louder and more fervent.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

As the murmurs intensified, everyone trembled involuntarily. Their knees buckled, and one by one, they collapsed within the glowing sacrificial circle.

The blood-drawn patterns on the ground began to lift off the ground, emitting a malevolent light. The shadows of the sacrifices rose along with the sacrificial array. Like a viscous liquid, they merged into each other and eventually formed a writhing octopus tentacle.

The dark tentacle grew and wrapped itself around all the sacrifices. Instantly, the same vision infiltrated everyone's mind. It was an impossibly grotesque creature; the creature barged its way into their brains, altering their perception and digging deep into their emotions.

As the tentacle tightened its grip around the group, the more evident the despair became on their faces. Suddenly, the tentacle lifted them off the ground and tried to pull them toward the ground.

Thud!

Everyone fell to the floor like ragdolls, and the sacrificial array in the air exploded, causing the blood to splatter onto the walls and floor. Dazed and disoriented, the sacrifices sat up, clutching their heads in confusion and pain.

Anna ceased her chanting; she knew that her sacrificial ritual had failed once again. Her face darkened with apparent frustration and rage. There was clearly a response from her ritual, but something had gone wrong during the final step.

To make matters worse, it would still be futile even if she were to offer more offerings.

Sacrifices are not working. I'll need to find another way.

Anna thought. A bitter expression surfaced on her face as she sat up straight.

"What was that? What was that earlier?" Wang Sheng practically crawled over to Anna. His earlier fear could no longer be seen in his eyes. Instead, it has been replaced with an overflowing desire.

All his life, Wang Sheng had gotten everything he wanted. He had even thought that he already possessed everything life had to offer. In fact, he was starting to get bored of life and decided to seek thrills from depravity just to feel alive.

However, the sight he had just witnessed moments ago shattered everything he believed in. He had been completely convinced, and he seemed to have found a renewed purpose in life. He wanted that mysterious power—that bizarre yet supernatural power!

Anna noticed the burning intensity in Wang Sheng's gaze. She temporarily dropped her plan of killing all of them. It seemed like the ring that Charles had left her with wasn't the only card she had on hand. The Subterranean Sea had left her with more cards than she had realized.

"How interesting. Are you not afraid of me?" Anna asked as she aimed the gun at Wang Sheng's forehead.

"Please believe me! It's far more worth keeping me alive than killing me! No matter what you want to do, I can assist you! Like today's event, for example—I can even bring you three hundred people if you need them!"

A glint of appreciation flickered across Anna's eyes. The man before her sure appealed to her liking.

"Sure," Anna said as she lowered the gun. "I look forward to seeing what you're capable of. I'm never stingy when it comes to rewarding my useful subordinates. A reward like immortality, for example."

If anyone else had made such a preposterous claim, Wang Sheng would have scoffed and brushed them off as a lunatic. After what he had just witnessed, however, he became certain that Anna could indeed offer what she had just said.

Just then, Anna noticed tat the sky outside growing brighter. She walked over to the window and drew the curtains. Gazing out into the horizon, she watched as the first rays of sunlight pierced through the darkness.

Anna stood still and watched the sunrise before her in silence. The warm light gradually bathed her alluring figure in its glow.

"How beautiful," Anna whispered.

***

The Subterranean Sea's Hope Island remained as lively as ever and was bustling with activities. Its exclusive fruit trade, coupled with its strategic position in the Northern Seas, made it one of the wealthiest and most stable places in the region.

While the islanders carried on with their daily routines, a sense of unease was spreading among the upper echelons of Hope Island. Their governor had gone missing. It wasn't entirely unusual for Hope Island's governor to disappear for periods of time every now and then. Perhaps he could have gone on an exploration expedition, but the duration of his absence this time had stretched for far too long. Moreover, his ship, the Narwhale, had never left the docks.

Speculations ran wild, and some tried to exploit this opportunity to consolidate or expand their influence. However, not everyone on Hope Island was interested in playing political games.

Bang!

Dipp's webbed right hand slammed down onto the table. He shot up from his teeth and spat through gritted teeth, "This is impossible! Captain is not the type to run away! He would never abandon us!"

Seated at the head of the long table, Bandages spoke in his usual slow manner of speech, "How many… times… do I have to… repeat myself? I saw it…with my own eyes…He… has returned home…"

"Something must have gone wrong somewhere!" Dipp countered. "Captain is not that type of person! If he's really returning home, he'd have said it clearly to us in person!"

Sensing the tension in the room, James stepped in, trying to ease the mood. "Dipp, let it go. You know that for the past decade, Captain has always been searching for a way to return home. Think of all the sacrifices he had made just to go home. Now that he's finally home, we should be happy for him."

Dipp clenched his sharp teeth. He pondered for a brief moment before he whipped his head toward the corner of the room.

"Lily, you were there too. What did you see?"

All eyes in the room turned toward the young woman.