A beam of light burst forth from Tix’s body, filled with the power of faith. This beam was Tix praying for divine blessing from the gods.
However, no god descended. Instead, the Pope was summoned. The Pope was originally the human closest to the gods among all believers, but this Pope was somewhat beyond everyone’s expectations.
Boris had been Pope for decades and should have been an elderly man in his eighties or nineties, yet the Pope before them was a handsome blond youth. Could it be that the Pope had obtained some power to remain young, just like Tix?
The enormous illusory figure of the blond youthful Pope nearly occupied the entire sky. He calmly gazed at the crowd below while noisily slurping noodles from a plate, seemingly indifferent to Tix who was already at the end of her strength. He had promised to grant the blessing after finishing his noodles, and it was clear he was comfortably seated in a soft chair, wearing loose pyjamas. From below, one could even see one of his bare legs seductively crossed in mid-air, his toes twitching with each bite.
Even though Ye Chui and the others had seen many extraordinary sights, they were still shocked into speechless silence by this scene.
“Your Holiness the Pope, I cannot hold on much longer. Please, please grant me your blessing quickly,” Tix pleaded urgently, her kneeling figure trembling constantly, hands raised high.
“Mmm, mmm, just wait a bit longer, almost done,” Boris mumbled unclearly.
“Hurry, hurry,” Tix urged. Strands of silver began appearing in her golden hair, and wrinkles emerged on her fair, youthful face. Life was rapidly draining from her body.
“Eating noodles requires slow and careful chewing. I haven’t even had breakfast today,” Boris continued.
Tix was clearly furious. “Your grandfather’s, Boris you little brat, grant me the blessing now!” she roared at the sky.
Ye Chui and his group continued staring in stunned silence.
“Alright, alright, Tix, you still have such a fiery temper.” Boris seemed to have finally finished his noodles. He wiped his mouth with a silk napkin, then folded his hands and placed them on his crossed knees, a mysterious and unfathomable smile on his face as he looked down at the crowd. In that moment, he finally displayed a trace of the authority befitting the supreme ruler of the Church.
Tix showed an expression of anticipation, closing her eyes as she awaited her depleted power to become abundant once more. Controlling undead puppets had already consumed a huge amount of her strength, and the ferocious spirits’ assault had worsened it severely. But as long as her power returned to its peak, even if she could not defeat Ye Chui, escaping would be possible. As long as she could escape, there would be opportunities to slowly kill Ye Chui in the future.
“I grant my blessing upon…” Boris said softly, raising one hand. Points of starlight began drifting down from the high sky, causing Ye Chui and the others to become somewhat wary. But what happened next shocked them all, because Boris finished with, “you.”
The starlight fell, but it did not land on Tix. Instead, it descended upon the countless ferocious spirits surrounding her, unable to approach due to the radiance of faith.
Those ferocious-looking spirits, upon receiving the starlight’s influence, began emitting dense glows from their bodies. Their original resentment towards Tix seemed to vanish instantly, and they turned one by one to face Ye Chui and his group.
“I f…” Before Ye Chui could finish his curse, the ferocious spirits roared and charged towards them.
Boris had not blessed Tix. Instead, he blessed these ferocious spirits, resolving their grudge against Tix and taking control of them, directing them to attack Ye Chui’s group.
Countless ferocious spirits surged forward.
Apart from Mishal, who had evolved into an undead and was unaffected, all the ferocious spirits now desperately wanted to tear Ye Chui and his companions to pieces.
Guibao’s turtle-pattern magic array, originally prepared to prevent Tix from escaping, instantly appeared around the group to resist the spirits’ invasion. The others also grew tense. The BGM of the Undead Overture continued playing relentlessly; its effect was to summon and control the undead. Though ferocious spirits were harder to control than regular undead, Ye Chui had not previously used the Undead Overture to deliberately control their actions. Now, facing their counterattack, he had to exert full effort with the Undead Overture to resist their approach.
Guibao’s defensive array was powerful, but as spiritual entities, the ferocious spirits had very weak resistance to it.
Resha had already taken out her holy bible to attempt purifying the spirits, but with so many, she could not purify them all in a short time.
Ye Chui wanted to use Pure Land of Bliss to purify them, but he was currently playing the Undead Overture. If he rashly stopped the BGM, the endless spirits would likely swarm them instantly.
The situation, with the Pope’s distant blessing, instantly reversed into one highly unfavourable for Ye Chui’s group.
“Purification Spell!” At that moment, the Paper Goddess suddenly shouted loudly. Wearing a smug expression of “it’s time for me to shine at the critical moment”, she stepped forward to the front of the group, raised both hands, and cast a powerful purification divine spell.
Dazzling divine light soared from her body. High in the sky, Boris showed a surprised expression. That white radiance was so holy and intense, nearly enveloping Ye Chui and his companions completely.
“Such powerful holy aura, but this aura feels somewhat strange!” Resha exclaimed in amazement.
The divine light faded, but the endless ferocious spirits did not disappear.
“Eh?” Akuya was momentarily confused. “As a goddess, I am the natural nemesis of undead and ferocious spirits. How could my purification spell have no effect on them?”
“No, your purification spell was very effective,” the undead Mishal suddenly said with a somewhat panting voice. She looked flushed, appearing extremely pleased. “Just now, under your purification spell’s illumination, I felt every pore in my body become incredibly relaxed, as if I had received a full-body massage. My body almost floated up. Can you do it again?”
Everyone: “Ah!?”
Ye Chui also noticed that after Akuya’s purification spell shone upon them, although the ferocious spirits still madly tried to approach, their target seemed no longer to attack Ye Chui’s group but had shifted to Akuya. They desperately wanted to get close to her and feel that full-body massage-like comfort.
Ye Chui suddenly recalled something. “In that case, in Akuya’s world, she has a constitution that attracts undead to approach her.” Previously, during the battle with Eliza, the spirits of faith summoned by Eliza had been attracted to Akuya.
Then Ye Chui smiled and looked at Akuya.
Akuya shivered all over. “What are you doing?”
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“Congratulations, I have discovered your greatest use,” Ye Chui said with a smile.
“Really? What is it?” the intellectually challenged goddess asked with delighted surprise.
Ye Chui winked at Debbie and Guni.
Debbie understood and gently patted Akuya’s shoulder. “Run far away in a moment.”
“Run far away?” Akuya remained confused, but suddenly she felt Guni hug her waist and lift her body. She panicked. “What are you doing? What are you going to do?”
“Here we go…”
Whoosh. With Guni’s monstrous strength, Akuya’s body shot out like a meteor, instantly vanishing from everyone’s sight.
“Aaaaaah…” Akuya’s screams echoed in the air.
After a few seconds of stunned pause, the brutal ferocious spirits all chased in the direction Akuya had been thrown. Even Mishal could not resist wanting to follow, but Irabesha and Stari firmly held her arms.
Around Ye Chui’s group, the ferocious spirits instantly cleared out.
Boris had probably never encountered such an unconventional way of fighting. He stared blankly at the spirits chasing Akuya away, and when his gaze returned, he saw Ye Chui and his companions striking poses, coldly staring at him with expressions of “how about that, scared now?”
Boris: “”
“So, you are the current Pope of the Church? You possess eternal life?” Ye Chui asked calmly, as if nothing had happened, continuing his earlier questioning of Boris.
After a few seconds, Boris recovered and continued. “I am indeed the current Pope of the Church, but do not misunderstand. I have no interest in eternal life. I simply inherited the name of the previous Pope. By the way, is your companion alright?”
“She will be fine. Her presence was an accident anyway,” Ye Chui waved dismissively. Even if Akuya died, he could summon a new one with cleared memories. Compared to the current Akuya who knew the world’s truths, an original Akuya would be far less troublesome. He glanced at Tix, whose hair was now grey and face full of wrinkles, and said, “Your Inquisition nun is about to die.”
“Save, save me…” Tix pleaded weakly, appearing extremely frail.
“She should have died long ago. Having lingered for three hundred years is already enough,” Boris shook his head coldly.
A venomous and furious glint appeared in Tix’s now cloudy eyes. She struggled, trying to stop the pillar of faith light from her body, but found she could not.
“When the Inquisition expended immense effort three hundred years ago to finally capture you, they had already planted a forbidden array deep in your soul. Everything about you has always been firmly under my control,” Boris said to Tix with a smile. “You were never the favoured child of the gods. You were merely a tool in the Church’s hands. Do you know why I agreed to let you come and assassinate Ye Chui? It was because I wanted to use you to personally speak with Mr Ye Chui.”
After saying this, he looked at Ye Chui with an expression ready for deep conversation.
“Mr Ye Chui, you are indeed as I imagined. My eyes are blessed by the gods and can glimpse part of the river of fate’s flow, but I cannot see your fate clearly. You are very interesting.”
Just now, the Pope blessing the ferocious spirits to counterattack Ye Chui should have dealt a massive blow to his group in his calculations, yet Ye Chui had escaped it in an unexpected, absurdly easy way.
Truly unimaginable.
“What exactly do you want by appearing before me?” Ye Chui asked gravely.
“I sent Stan Town to the Divine Sin Continent. I am sure you already know this, and you will certainly want to go save your acquaintances there,” Boris said to Ye Chui with a smile. “Your acquaintances are currently suffering the torments of the Divine Sin Continent. If you cannot bring them out in time, they will remain there forever. I can tell you how to enter the Divine Sin Continent.”
Ye Chui frowned. He absolutely had to go to the Divine Sin Continent, but he also knew it was extremely dangerous, and once entered, escape might be impossible. Now Boris’s words carried a sense that everything was within his expectations. Boris sending Stan Town there was to lure Ye Chui in, which made him feel very uncomfortable.
“This is a trap,” Ye Chui stated.
“An inconsequential trap. Your fate is intertwined with the gods. As the final resting place of the god race, you will enter the Divine Sin Continent regardless. Stan Town is merely the catalyst to hasten your entry,” Boris said with an all-knowing demeanour.
Ye Chui’s fate was closely linked to the god race. The Wealth Goddess’s castle was the starting point of all this, and the Divine Sin Continent would be its conclusion?
“I can personally send you into the Divine Sin Continent,” Boris continued.
“Thank you, but I will find the entrance myself,” Ye Chui refused. Entering the Divine Sin Continent proactively versus being exiled there by the Church would make a huge difference. If exiled, they might be bound by certain rules.
“You will not find the entrance,” Boris shook his head.
“Actually, I know where the entrance is,” Ye Chui smiled. “The Divine Sin Continent is what the Church calls hell, and there is a place in this world said to connect to hell: the dwarf mine beneath the Doomsday Mountains, guarded by tomb keepers. That is the entrance to the Divine Sin Continent!”
After deciding to enter the Divine Sin Continent, Ye Chui had been investigating its entrance. He soon thought of the dwarf mine under the Doomsday Mountains. Thousands of years ago, it was dwarf territory with interconnected tunnels. After the dwarves’ extinction, ghosts and evils appeared there, and people widely believed it connected to the spectral hell.
Although the seven great empires warred with each other, from long ago they had formed a pact to exile the most heinous criminals to the dwarf caves as tomb keepers, guarding the hellish demons.
From Celty and Jarvis, Ye Chui obtained the most crucial information: beneath the Doomsday Mountains indeed existed a passage connecting to the divine realm, called the Path of the Brave, once guarded by the Destruction Goddess Dakins!
Since the Divine Sin Continent was a fragment of the divine realm, the entrance was very likely beneath the Doomsday Mountains!
