Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 664 - 277. Lonely Rock

Chapter 664: 277. Lonely Rock

"Got it!"

Piere shouted impatiently, watching the retreating figure and spat out:

"Pah, what a show, a bunch of lapdogs."

He held a cigarette between his fingers, grumbling to himself:

"I’ve been alive all this time and never once heard of something called rock and roll. It’s probably just another new term the Church coined to persecute people."

"Uncle Piere?"

Xia Beiluo took the opportunity to approach, greeted him, then asked curiously:

"Did those from the Black Snake Gang come to hassle you?"

"Oh, it’s you—well, I suppose they did."

Piere removed his cap, scratched his balding scalp, and said:

"Their brains are as smooth as marbles, not a wrinkle to be found. They come here saying I’ve got a casino and that I’m hiding rock and roll? Heh, that’s laughable. Look—this is my scrapyard, just 800 square meters, you can see it all in one glance, and they claim there’s a ’casino’ here?"

Piere’s complaints came out in rapid succession, but Xia Beiluo only caught on to the unfamiliar term he mentioned.

"What is rock and roll?"

Xia Beiluo asked curiously.

"I don’t know, this is the first time I’ve heard the term—maybe it’s a kind of music that requires rolling around to play?"

Piere was also clueless:

"I really don’t know what these people want... coming in so abruptly, it will take me a long time to clean up."

"After all, since the Master of Souls Church seized power, we all have to live according to the Church’s rules."

Xia Beiluo consoled him:

"Otherwise, we can only turn to the powers of the other two churches, or just wait for a new church to come to power and see what happens."

"Tch... Followers of the Primeval Heavenly Sovereign and the Void Emperor aren’t any better."

Piere took a drag of his cigarette, complaining:

"The Church of the Primeval Heavenly Sovereign prohibits free love; everything from your personal life to your marriage must be arranged by the Church. The Void Emperor strictly limits business hours. Going to a place like that, I might as well be dead."

"But after all... only the Church can bring order, they are authorized by heaven, bestow the Pathway of the ’Mysterious’ to people, are the law, the law enforcers, the witness to marriages, the warriors and teachers. Without the Church, wandering souls and evil ghosts would wreak havoc—I can’t even imagine how terrible it would be if the world were without the Church!"

Piere just became more disdainful after hearing Xia Beiluo’s words.

"The Church is indeed great, but there are places in this world beyond its reach. You and I can speculate about the Church here; they won’t hear unless we tell them. If they can’t hear our thoughts, then how can they claim the gods are omniscient and omnipotent? And if gods are all-knowing and all-powerful, why do they need people to worship them?"

After saying that, he flicked the ash from his cigarette, glanced at Xia Beiluo, and asked:

"You’re early today? Got something new?"

Xia Beiluo shook her head:

"The car broke down, the luggage got ruined, the house flooded. I just cleaned myself up; otherwise, I’d still reek of sewage, which would be too impolite for public appearances."

"Oh, sounds like you’ve had a rough time, too."

Piere said indifferently.

"A bit," Xia Beiluo said. "How about it? Uncle Piere, do you have any work for me? I’m a hard worker. No pay needed, just a meal and a roof over my head for sleep would do."

"Hmm..."

Piere glanced at Xia Beiluo’s slender figure, then at his scrapyard turned upside-down by the Black Snake Gang.

"I didn’t really need help."

Piere exhaled a cloud of smoke, pulled out a pocket watch to check the time, and waved his hand:

"I’ll be busy trotting around for business in the coming days. You might as well stay and watch the gate for me, sort things out, and clean up— for sleeping, you can crash in the garage for now. As for food, there’s a bit in the kitchen; you’ll have to figure that out yourself."

Xia Beiluo was overjoyed, promptly rolled up her sleeves, made a gesture of the Stigma, and thanked him reverently:

"Thank you! You truly are a conscientious good person. May the Lord’s holy name be with you; you will be rewarded."

"Alright, take care of things yourself. Remember to lock up the main gate before 10 p.m. every night."

As Piere spoke, he continued to explain the precautions, leading her into the scrapyard.

The scrapyard wasn’t very big: an old building, heaps of steel rebar, rust-streaked carriage bodies, and several bundles of cables.

As Xia Beiluo entered the garage, she helped Piere guide the beaten-up pickup truck out. The weary wandering soul inside the engine sighed as it struggled to get the motor turning. She noticed the Spiritual Electricity Converter flashed blue light several times, fearing that the wandering soul might strike and collapse in the garage.

Luckily, in the end, Piere managed to start the pickup, loaded with a small crane, and clattered away from the scrapyard.

This way, she also temporarily had a place to stay.

"I need to work hard."

Xia Beiluo didn’t rush to find a place to rest; first, she needed to get a handle on the entirety of the scrapyard.

First, she checked the Spiritual Power Supply Station. The souls of the three imprisoned criminals were in good shape. Having been purified by The Church, they could maintain a stable mood continuously, eliminating concerns about triggering a power trip.

Then she moved on to her workbench, where a small magic puppet was situated. It might have once been a mascot in an amusement park, but now its bear costume was rotten, revealing the cotton stuffing and mechanical workings inside. Fortunately, the attached Spiritual Body was unharmed, and she could control it to flatten the steel plates.

Inspecting the kitchen was also a top priority. When Xia Beiluo pushed the door open, the cockroaches scuttling across the floor and flying in the air didn’t deter her. She used a flamethrower to incinerate some nests brazenly presented before her eyes, then rescued the clean ingredients: half a bag of flour, four pounds of bread, a piece of cured meat, and cans of beans.

For the next few days, she would have to use the outdoor kitchen. She just hoped the doves wouldn’t conduct an airstrike while passing by.

The garage, serving as her resting area, was left to tidy up last. Although the air was thick with the scents of bone ashes and rouge, the temperature here was significantly lower than outside due to the long-term parking of Ghost Cars. But Xia Beiluo found two thick blankets and unearthed a cotton coat from a pile of trash.

Her bed was easy to make. She found a wooden board, placed it on several oil drums, and then spread the coat over it—immediately, there was no need to worry about cockroaches crawling into her nostrils while sleeping.

"Hey, I’m actually quite clever, huh!"

Xia Beiluo wiped her nose, suddenly feeling an itch in her throat and a bit of blockage in her nasal passages.

Perhaps she was catching a cold, but it was no big deal—a bit of hot water would do the trick.

"There’s still some time before night falls... better clean up the junkyard quickly."

Piere had so generously taken her in, not for her to freeload. To secure a steady income long-term, she needed to prove her capabilities.

After gulping down two large cups of hot water and gnawing on a piece of bread that tasted like rubber, she immediately plunged into sorting through the waste materials.

As a woman, her physical strength wasn’t great. Often, she needed to activate the magic puppet with Spiritual Power to carry heavy objects. However, the output of Spiritual Power was limited. If overextended, one might faint.

Therefore, Xia Beiluo rarely relied on the puppet for direct transport. Instead, she first cut and folded the large waste materials into smaller pieces, which made it easier for her to manage. She only needed to tie them with a rope and drag them by physical strength.

Xia Beiluo couldn’t say she possessed any great enthusiasm for work; she just tried to do each task at hand as well as possible.

And to solve problems during labor, people often burst with an intelligence beyond their own expectations.

"These two cars have crashed into each other... If I cut them directly, I’ll damage the Spiritual Electricity Converter, and wrecking their internal structure could cost me a lot of money," she mused.

Xia Beiluo looked at the vehicular tragedy before her and clicked her tongue.

The two sedans were stuck together as if joined by mortise and tenon, fitting just right. The red car, like an arrow, had its front end piercing through the purple car’s body, completely destroying its cabin.

From the red rust and the dead seaweeds, it seemed they had been salvaged from the seabed—it was anyone’s guess how many years old they might be.

But even if these were cars from a hundred years ago, it was hard to see any difference in design from the modern models.

After all, under The Church’s dominion, technology had long since stagnated.

Though the bodies of the vehicles’ owners had surely been dealt with, Xia Beiluo still cautiously scattered a handful of salt to drive away any resentful spirits from the accident.

As for how to proceed, Xia Beiluo came up with a good solution.

She was petite, not even reaching one meter sixty without her shoes, so she could easily knock out the windshield from the backseat. Then she could crawl inside the car body, sit in the cockpit inserted into the middle of the car, and work from inside to cut open the roof. This would keep the engine of the middle car from getting damaged.

It was risky since she needed to work in a cramped space for an extended period.

Although the parts were severely aged, luckily there were no mid-process collapses, sparing her from being crushed underneath.

With the middle car’s Spiritual Electricity Transformer dismantled and inspected, finding it mostly unharmed, everything proceeded smoothly.

"Next is dismantling the chassis," Xia Beiluo sighed in relief—today, her luck had been good.

She controlled the magic puppet to slowly lift the front end of the red car and then carefully took apart the collapsed rear seats and chassis of the purple car.

But what appeared before her wasn’t the car’s driveshaft.

As she dismantled the rear seats, what came into view was a sealed containment space—and inside it, a peculiar large box was preserved.

"It’s actually vacuum-sealed? My god, this car was specially modified just to hold this box?" Xia Beiluo was somewhat excited. Modifying Ghost Cars indicated that the car’s owner had ventured far on the "Mysterious" Pathway in life.

There was a good chance they were a member of The Church clergy—which generally signified nobility and high rank.

This was definitely a treasure find!

A smile immediately spread across Xia Beiluo’s face.

She carefully removed the box. The vacuum seal had preserved it in a stable condition underwater for countless decades, but fortunately, there was no damage.

That spoke volumes about its Quality.

Seeing the undamaged box reinforced Xia Beiluo’s belief even more.

This kind of item... it might fetch a good price. Piere might even offer her a long-term job because of her discovery.

She had struck it rich! Struck it rich!

"Speaking of which, what exactly is this thing—eh, there’s some writing here."

She placed it before her, and the label bore an unfamiliar term.

"Is this a guitar? What is a guitar? Perhaps some kind of weapon?"

As Xia Beiluo pondered, she found another line of characters etched with a knife below and softly read aloud:

"...Cui is still alive."