This time, I won't be the devil.

At first, Frey once suspected that this island reef isolated from the city was the hiding place of the cultists, but after an on-site investigation, this possibility could be basically ruled out.

The results of the [Identification] were not suspicious, and during the conversation, Frey understood that the natives here were loyal believers in the God of Wind and would not be easily persuaded by the cultists.

There were no signs of excavation on the surface of the islands and reefs. Unless these cultists could live in the sea, they would have nowhere to hide.

Thinking of this, Frey came to the beach and found several people gathered around a dilapidated old wooden house. A huge fish head and fish bones were hung on the house, and an old man was sitting below, muttering incessantly.

Although the old man was old, he was in good health. There were some deep wrinkles on his neck and some brown spots on his cheeks, which were benign skin lesions caused by the reflection of the sun on the sea.

After asking several people in front of the cabin, Frey learned that the old man's name was Santiago, and he was a fishing master among the islanders. He once brought back a huge marlin that was eaten to the point of being only left with a skeleton while being besieged by a group of sharks.

The fish bones hanging on the hut were the spoils of war at that time.

Relying on superb skills and strong willpower, Santiago is also the only indigenous person who dares to go to the thunderstorm area for deep-sea fishing.

The thunderstorm zone is a sea area located between Bondolim and the Demon Territory. Because the Demon Territory has been influenced by the Three Pillars for many years, its environment and magic concentration are different from those in the area where humans live.

Just as the convection of cold and hot air creates thunderstorms, an area filled with thunder and tsunamis has also formed on the ocean boundary between humans and demons. This is one of the reasons why Bondolim was often hit by storms in the past.

But since a few months ago, Santiago's mental state has become increasingly confused and he often talks nonsense.

And just after coming ashore last night, the old man went completely crazy.

"The storm is coming, the gods can't hear, the wind god can't hear..." He kept muttering some meaningless words.

The old man had no relatives, and several islanders around him were discussing whether to call a doctor for him.

Santiago had served as a musician at the Wind Feather Ceremony 40 years ago, before the Federation began large-scale construction of artificial islands. In the eyes of other islanders, he said such crazy things because he recalled the memories of that time and associated it with the storm in the thunderstorm zone.

But after observing for a while, Frey felt that Santiago was not crazy, but seemed to be trying to fight against some unknown fear.

This symptom is very similar to mental pollution.

Frey stepped forward, looked into the old man's eyes, and asked earnestly:

"Old man, what do you mean by the wind god can't hear?"

Hearing Frey's question, the old man looked at him alertly and said:

"I hear the clown singing, and his voice will drown out all the other singing..."

"Where did you hear that, a thunderstorm area?"

Behind the thunderstorm area is the demon territory, which belongs to the sphere of influence of the Three Pillar Gods. The old man may have been accidentally influenced by the God of Joy.

But the old man shook his head and pointed to the shore.

"Right...right there, the singing is carried along by the water..."

Frey activated his shadow perception and detected in the direction of the old man's finger.

There is the sewage discharge pipe for the entire Bondolim into the sea.

……

At the same time, in a remote alley in the red-light district, a suspicious man looked around for a while, and after making sure that no one was following him, he lifted the manhole cover and went into the sewer.

The damp and musty smell instantly filled my nostrils. I climbed down the maintenance ladder covered with copper rust. The splashed sewage left dark spots on my trouser legs. The drainpipe was covered with moss, and gurgling sounds came from it.

After entering the sewer, the man lit the magic stone lamp he carried with him and began to move along the surrounding marks. Every time he passed a mark, he would erase it.

After walking in this dim space for nearly half an hour, the man finally arrived at their hideout, where hundreds of cultists gathered, led by a thin, weak-looking man wearing a black robe.

He is Ivan, the leader of the Demon King Cult. It was he who proposed the great idea of ​​"Eliminate human tyranny, and the world will belong to Hakimi!"

"Master Ivan, the gang has already placed a small amount of supplies at a designated location. According to the notes, they can't make large-scale purchases right now. They'll make another drop tomorrow night, but the total amount still isn't enough."

"It must be the news of the idol's disappearance that scared them so much. What's the situation outside?"

"The city government hasn't organized a large-scale investigation, and the news hasn't been officially announced, so there shouldn't be any problems."

"It's better to be careful. Once we have recovered the supplies, we will move together."

The leader Ivan took the list of goods from the cultists, which mainly contained some food.

A week ago, after kidnapping Midori, they successfully landed on the island on a cargo ship of the Hayek Group and then hid in the sewers.

Without green cards, they cannot travel freely or shop.

At this time, they had been living in the harsh environment of the sewer for seven days. The food they brought with them was almost gone. In addition, they had to move frequently to avoid detection, and the members were already exhausted.

According to the plan, Sherlock, the head of the consortium, will contact local gangs and secretly deliver supplies to them.

However, at the ceremony to confer the title of Player on the Emperor today, an unexpected incident occurred where an idol disappeared, and the city government therefore stepped up its surveillance of the gangs.

"There are only three days left until the festival, so please be patient."

Hearing Ivan's order, the cultist in charge of managing supplies said tremblingly:

"Master, we can still hold on with less food, but we've run out of drinking water."

Sadly, these cultists are basically from the lower class of society, and there are only two people among them who can use first-level water magic. However, their magic power is not enough to create enough drinking water for hundreds of people.

"Water? Isn't there water all around?" Ivan pointed to the drainage ditch next to him.

"But, this water is highly poisonous..."

"No one's going to die right away, so just drink it. If you can't even overcome this little difficulty, how can you save Hakimi-sama?"

After Ivan completed his deployment, the cultists began to distribute the little remaining food.

And in a dark corner, there was a woman whose body was tied up with ropes and her mouth was taped. She was Midori.

The cultists roughly tore off the tape, and at this time Midori no longer screamed like she did in the first few days after being arrested.

Because she was so scared that she became incontinent when she was kidnapped, and there was no way to wash her body in the sewer, Midori was now covered in dirt and smelled bad, completely different from her former appearance.

The cultist looked at her with disgust and stuffed a piece of moldy bread into her mouth.

"Master, do you really want to share the food with this girl? She's just a sacrifice, so as long as she doesn't starve to death, that's enough."

"Have you forgotten how Lord Hakimi treated us prisoners?" Ivan retorted in a serious tone.

"Unlike those hopeless scum, we are new humans who believe in the Demon Lord and are of noble character. Even if this woman is the ex-lover of an unforgivable hero, we must give her the minimum treatment..."

Halfway through his speech, Ivan suddenly spit out blood from his mouth and fell to the ground.

"Master, you should rest early today."

Ivan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth tremblingly, and then said:

"No, we'll just practice the ceremony again today."

"That demon said that the Demon King's power comes from the Three Pillars. As long as the Three Pillars are strengthened through the ritual, the Demon King can be revived."

"For this, the city will be razed to the ground by the storm."

After standing up again, Ivan touched the ring on his left hand and said silently in his heart:

"I hope that before the plan is completed, the Mother Goddess will be willing to favor my body again."

Chapter 57 Masked Clown

Looking at the huge pipe in the distance that was constantly discharging sewage, Frey began to think.

In this small city, there are not many places that can hide a large number of illegal immigrants without green cards at the same time.

After a day of investigation today, there were no traces of cult members at the shipping docks, the city's hotels and hostels, or the red-light district managed by the mafia.

After ruling out Liufeng Reef, an island isolated from the city, there was only one possible hiding place for the cultists, and that was the sewers throughout the city.

As early as when he first landed on the island, Frey had thought of the possibility that the cultists were hiding in the sewers.

The location of the cultists has now been determined, but the environment inside the sewer is too complicated. If we rush in to investigate, we may encounter unexpected dangers.

And Frey was also very concerned about the words of the old fisherman Santiago.

Although his words seemed a bit crazy and lacked basis, he clearly mentioned two things.

The first thing is that a storm is coming.

Didoris once told Frey that outside the island city of Bandolim, there was an invisible barrier similar to a barrier created by the protection of the wind god.

The indigenous people of Liufeng Reef call this barrier the Wall of the Wind God.

The existence of the Wall of Wind God makes the air flow in a large area of ​​sea around the island become smooth and gentle, and there will be no large-scale winds and waves.

Even if a hurricane generated in a thunderstorm area hits the island, it will be continuously weakened as it approaches the Wall of Wind, and will eventually dissipate completely when it contacts the barrier.

Thanks to the protection of the Wall of the Wind God, the island has been spared from storms for hundreds of years. The maintenance of this miracle depends on the faith that the people of the island have given to the Wind God.

The annual Fengling Festival is not only to thank the God of Wind, but also to strengthen the Wall of the God of Wind.

In other words, the period before the Wind Feather Festival is when the Wind God Wall is at its most vulnerable.

Frey originally thought that this group of cultists were planning to follow their traditional practice and break into the festival to launch a terrorist attack.

Now it seems that they may have set their sights on the Wall of the Wind God.

But the Wall of the Wind God is a miracle after all. Even if it has been weakened, it is definitely not something that mortals can destroy.

Unless the God of Wind abandons the island on his own initiative, or unless other gods intervene.

And this brings us to the second point in the old man’s words.

The clown's singing will drown out all other sounds.

When mentioning the Joker, Frey immediately thought of the God of Chaos and God of Joy, two of the three demon gods.

After leaving Liufeng Reef and returning to his room, Frey took out his space ring, found the information he brought out from the Demon King's City, and carefully reviewed it.

As the most active of the three gods, the God of Joy and his followers have been keen on making trouble for a long time.

Unlike Jacob, who passively gained the attention of the evil god and became a "player", whose life was fooled by others, there are some guys in the demon clan who actively worshipped the God of Joy and took pleasure in creating chaos. They imitated the image of the legendary God of Joy and called themselves "Masked Clowns".

If the "actor" is the actor on the stage, then the "masked clown" is similar to the director and screenwriter.

The behavior pattern of the masked clown is similar to that of the Zuowang Dao. What they like to do most is to deceive others and create chaos.

For example, in the early days of the holy war, a masked clown ran to a primitive tribe among humans that was cut off from information, inciting two tribes that were originally as close as one family to hate each other and slaughter each other. When the final winner stood on a mountain of corpses and kowtowed to his ancestors, he would tell him the truth.

If the event is big and fun enough, the masked clown who plans it will have a chance to receive the blessing of the God of Joy.

According to records, a masked clown once released a large-scale mental pollution through a ritual, causing an entire city to go crazy.

The specific details of the ceremony are not recorded in detail in the materials. This is an internal secret of the masked clown.