Chapter 765 - 439: Strange Corpse
When Xue Dili left the volcanic lake, it had already been cordoned off by a chubby Italian.
The reason was that someone had seen the bodies here and reported it to the police. Soon after, the few police officers near the small town rushed over and were at a loss staring at the five bodies of cave divers.
One body was accidentally caught, and after receiving the report, the rest of the bodies were all retrieved.
This place is not actually connected to the mainland; it’s a small island not far from the mainland, with only a few thousand permanent residents. Despite its profound mythological heritage, outside tourists are forbidden due to the excessive sulfur gas from the "Nether River" here.
But unexpectedly, five bodies appeared here today, troubling the local chubby police officer, who sat on the grass and was perplexed.
Xue Dili could only say "I’m sorry" and quietly left.
Who would have thought there would be cave divers here, what were they thinking, diving in an area full of sulfur and toxic gas? Even Xue Dili just noticed plenty of signs in different languages saying "Forbidden to approach."
After all, this is a volcanic lake, part of an active volcano providing constant geothermal energy. Even getting close could make one faint from sulfur gas, leading to death here. Thus this area became a forbidden zone for locals and is also considered to be the Nether River in mythology.
Yet there are still outsiders who don’t believe...
"Your local culture sure has an adventurous spirit..." Mimic Venerable King commented again. As soon as He interacts with Earth’s writings, He can instantly decipher them. After looking at the local environment and the five recently retrieved bodies of cave divers, He couldn’t help but comment again.
Xue Dili: "..."
He strolled to the small town on the island. During the Divine Era, it was bare, with no permanent residents at all. But now it’s covered with vegetation, except for the area around the volcanic lake. Other areas show traces of human activity.
A restored temple stands on the other side of the volcanic lake. Xue Dili went forward to take a look, and surprisingly, there’s a sculpture of "Hades" here.
Not just in this temple. In the town center, the bearing of the man, Xue Dili initially thought it was Ye Gezi, but turned out to be Hades. The town’s basic infrastructure is quite average, full of rustic charm, yet they surprisingly respect the Netherworld’s recluse.
Because of the recent retrieval of the five cave diver bodies, a rare big news in the town, many are discussing it. Students who just finished school start planning to skip school to watch the excitement.
Xue Dili stood ghost-like in front of the statue, as if he had no presence at all, watching the few people in the town pass by, seemingly not noticing him.
"You seem to know the person in the statue?" Mimic Venerable King said.
"Yes, an old acquaintance. Though we only directly faced each other once in the end, you should remember too. He’s Hades, the one who helped me before. But now he should be with those Divine Era creatures surviving in some subspace wilderness." Xue Dili shrugged, the disappearance of the Divine Era was so sudden.
"Is this the Hades you experienced? Why does it look completely different from what I’ve seen in your videos?" Mimic Venerable King then commented.
The Celestial Thunder Chronicles from Xue Dili were translated, while here it’s written in Italian. Even though the pronunciation is the same, Mimic Venerable King, unfamiliar with the local culture, couldn’t grasp the quirks of the translation and different semantics.
Xue Dili, upon killing Zeus, saw Hades last, a robust, normal Ancient Greek man. This was Xue Dili’s only impression of Hades.
However, looking at this statue, if it wasn’t labeled Hades, Xue Dili would suspect it was Dracula, gloomy, emaciated, filled with hostility, nothing like the Hades in his memory.
"It’s normal for statues to differ; besides, thousands of years have passed, deviations are common." Xue Dili remarked.
"Let’s leave," Xue Dili said. In an instant, they left.
The nearby pedestrians seemingly didn’t notice Xue Dili, even as the teleportation gate opened boldly under the statue, nobody knew and instinctively avoided it.
Until, Xue Dili completely left, the statue’s eyeball seemed to move slightly, emitting a crisp, pleasant sound in the scarce hollow eye socket space.
"Was that an earthquake?" someone suddenly said.
For this town next to the volcano, the statue is not just a cultural symbol, but also an earthquake warning device. The hollowed eye socket with a movable ball for the eyeball, not only aesthetically pleasing but upon sensing slight tremors, the ball hits the socket, making sound. Thus, it becomes a local method to sense earthquakes.
It seems as if Hades is always protecting here, issuing warnings when an earthquake is about to strike.