“Lord Lakin is a magnanimous person. As long as you sincerely repent and bring the Thieves group to him, I will definitely plead for you and ask Lord Lakin to forgive you. Stu, you worked so hard to build the Blue Star Mercenary Group. I hope you understand who you really are!” Alba continued to persuade him. At the same time, she put her hands together in the manner of a nun praying, looking every bit the devout believer.
Stu still looked as if his illusions had been shattered. It seemed he had not listened to Alba’s words at all. He murmured, “How is this possible? How could this be? The Miss Alba I pursued… how could she be this kind of person…”
“Pursued! You calling it that is an insult to me!” Alba’s voice became sharper. “You are nothing but a lowly mercenary, while I am the City Lord’s daughter and have been chosen as Lord Lakin’s substitute nun. When I heard you went to my father to propose, do you know how my sisters mocked me?”
Stu: “…”
Green could not help but whisper, “Now I feel like that brick I hit her with was completely justified…”
Debbie and Ye Chui both nodded in agreement.
Ye Chui walked over to the dejected Stu, pulled him closer a little, and comforted him. “Look on the bright side. Women always change easily. By the way, how did you meet her?”
Debbie, Lisa, Green, and the others all showed gossip-hungry expressions.
“I will never forget that day. The Fearless City Lord held the Vanilla Festival celebration. Our mercenary group was also invited. At that banquet, the City Lord announced to everyone that he had found his illegitimate daughter. Amid flowers and songs, Miss Alba appeared before the crowd. She was so radiant, so breathtakingly beautiful. My heart was stolen by her in that very moment. From that one glance, I decided I would pursue this beautiful person…” Stu recounted with deep emotion.
But Ye Chui sensed something off. “Wait… you had never spoken to Alba before? You only saw her from far away once?”
Stu nodded seriously. “Yes. Today was the first time I ever spoke to her.”
Ye Chui and the others: “…”
“You fell in love at first sight from just one look at her face and caused all this trouble!” Lisa asked somewhat angrily. “Where did you learn this kind of romance!?”
Stu looked at Lisa and explained earnestly, “That is how the bards’ stories always describe it.”
“…”
While they were talking, Alba had been standing to the side with a face full of anger. She had no idea of her true situation. But seeing Stu chatting so happily with Ye Chui and the others seemed to make her even angrier. Suddenly she thought of something. She pulled a book from her bosom—the Church’s holy bible.
Lisa, as a fallen nun and former Church believer, still had a sensitivity toward the bible. She immediately became alert. “She possesses the power of a believer. This Alba has already been baptised. Stop her quickly!”
As she spoke, Green had already acted. The vibranium brick shot forward with a whoosh, accompanied by a cyan teleportation array, and descended toward Alba’s head.
In that split second, the brick was blocked directly by Alba’s hand.
Alba blocked the brick with her hand?
Ye Chui frowned. He suddenly realised something was wrong. He instantly teleported to Green’s side, grabbed Green, and pulled him behind himself. With a crackling sound, the teleportation array Green had used to send the brick suddenly shattered. Streaks of sword-like beams of faith light poured out from it in reverse. Those lights were tangible. A nearby large tree was sliced by the light swords and crashed down with a boom. Ye Chui had already condensed a spatial wall in front of them to block the attack of the faith beams.
This unexpected scene surprised everyone. Alba was actually this powerful?
“No, she is no longer Alba…” Lisa said in shock.
The originally arrogant and haughty expression on Alba’s face had now become utterly cold. A faint halo enveloped her body. She glanced at Green’s brick and casually tossed it aside. Before the brick could hit the ground, it fell into a teleportation array and reappeared in Green’s hand.
Alba had originally been holding the bible. Now she let go, and the bible floated in front of her like a spellbook. Its pages flipped rapidly with a rustling sound.
“It is indeed you. The随意名字 Magic Guild, disguising yourselves as some Thieves group to come to the Morning Wind Empire. What exactly are you plotting?” A hoarse male voice came from Alba’s mouth.
“That is Bishop Lakin’s voice!” Stu immediately recognised it and said in astonishment.
“Lakin? The head of the Church in Fearless City…” Ye Chui looked at Alba’s current state and the bible floating in front of her. A slight smile appeared on his face. “So this is dual cultivation of believer and magister powers. Interesting.”
“You are not the only one who can cultivate both believer and magister powers,” Lakin, possessing Alba, looked toward Ye Chui. He himself had very small eyes, but Alba had a pair of large, lively ones. Now controlling Alba’s body, those big eyes were narrowed into slits. As he spoke, a smug expression appeared on his face.
“All…!?” When Stu heard that name, he looked at Ye Chui in utter shock. His gaze then fell on the brick in Green’s hand. Information about some members of the随意名字 Magic Guild instantly flooded his mind. Only then did he understand, as if struck by lightning, the true identities of Ye Chui and the others!
The随意名字 Magic Guild had been established for less than two years, yet it had risen to become one of the top magic guilds on the continent. As the captain of a mercenary group, he had always regarded them as idols.
The Seven Deadly Sins Thieves group was actually the随意名字 Magic Guild in disguise!
“Comparing with me?” Ye Chui smiled at Lakin. “I can even use swordsman and summoner powers. Can you?”
“Power is not judged by how many things you know, but by how deeply you master them!” Lakin sneered. His right hand swept across the floating bible. With the sound of pages turning rapidly, the bible stopped at a certain page. Lakin coldly chanted, “God punishes the sinful. Heavenly retribution!”
As soon as those words left his mouth, the sky, which had already grown dim with the approach of dusk, suddenly became covered in dense dark clouds. Rolling thunder boomed. Boom, boom. Bolts of lightning began to descend continuously from the sky.
“He can actually summon heavenly retribution directly?” Ye Chui was startled.
Longgui raised both hands above her head. A turtle-patterned barrier rose over everyone’s heads, forming a shield like an umbrella that blocked the endless falling thunder. The twin-tailed little girl had looked tense at first, but after feeling the power of the lightning, she relaxed. “The power of this heavenly retribution is very weak. This is not real heavenly retribution at all…”
Longgui was a Chaos Giant Turtle. After the fall of the gods, the great world had been set with taboo rules. A Chaos Giant Turtle that had reached the peak of ninth tier would suffer heavenly thunder punishment simply by appearing in the world. That was why she had hidden in the Beast Garden world for five thousand years. She was more familiar with heavenly retribution than anyone.
But just as she finished speaking, Lakin suddenly grinned ferociously. His left hand waved toward Ye Chui from afar.
Boom—
A lightning bolt as thick as a person’s waist shot out from his hand. Like a venomous snake striking, it roared toward Ye Chui!
Lakin’s power was not limited to summoning heavenly retribution. He could control it. Every word in the bible could be used by him as a spell!
The heavenly retribution falling from the sky was deliberately meant to mislead Ye Chui and the others. Heavenly retribution naturally made people think of punishment descending from above. But Lakin could unleash heavenly retribution with his hand. The running thunder rolled across the ground, snaking swiftly toward Ye Chui.
“Be careful!” Just as Ye Chui was about to teleport, Stu suddenly shouted and threw himself in front of Ye Chui.
“What the—?” Ye Chui reacted quickly enough. He sensed the heavenly retribution coming and could have teleported away, but Stu’s sudden intervention meant he could no longer take Stu with him.
Boom!
The terrifying bolt of thunder struck Stu fully. Stu’s body flipped twice in the air before falling into Ye Chui’s arms.
“Damn brat!” Seeing Stu block the lightning for Ye Chui, Lakin cursed.
Ye Chui looked at the still-smoking Stu in his arms. A thousand emotions surged in his heart. This kid… how could he be so honest?
“Do not worry…” Although Stu’s body looked miserable—face blackened, hair standing on end—he had not fainted yet. He spoke haltingly, “I am the successor of the Thunder God… Once my bloodline awakens again, I can definitely defeat Lakin…”
He had not thrown himself in front to sacrifice for Ye Chui. He was actually a very calculating captain. Blocking the lightning was to use it to transform at just the right moment. But as he spoke, his body suddenly trembled. He realised something—the Thieves group was a disguise. He knew very well how capable Ye Chui and the others were. The one who had caused chaos in the Fearless City Lord’s Mansion was most likely them, not him. So the Thunder God successor thing…
“I need to ask… is the Thunder God successor… real?” Stu struggled to ask.
Ye Chui sighed with a gloomy face. “Do not worry. I will definitely save you…”
Stu’s head tilted to the side, and he fainted.
“…” Ye Chui quickly handed Stu over to Lisa and Silas behind him for care. His eyes glared angrily at Lakin.
“Hmph!” Lakin looked disdainful. The bible continued to flip rapidly. Green tried once more to teleport the brick to attack him, but it was blocked by the holy light radiating from Lakin’s body. Lakin continued to chant another passage from the bible. “The day when all evil in the world will finally end is called Judgment Day. On that day, the gates of hell shall open wide, and a hundred ghosts… shall walk the night!”
Hearing his words, Lisa, who was casting Healing Word on Stu, trembled. “Those are words from the Punishments section of the bible. Judgment Day, hundred ghosts walking the night—that is a world-ending catastrophe!”
Boom. A massive door descended from the sky in front of Lakin. The door was enormous, carved with horrifying scenes of humans suffering extreme tortures. With a boom, the door opened. Darkness descended. Countless grotesque and ferocious ghosts poured out from within!
Hell—this was a word representing the most evil and darkest place in the world. The God’s Punishment Continent itself was hell. Of course, in the Church’s faith, there were other hells as well. The one Lakin had summoned now was not the God’s Punishment Continent but the prison where countless souls who had opposed the Church over the millennia were confined and tormented.
In that terrifying world, the tormented souls had turned into hideous and ugly monsters—demons far more dreadful than fierce spirits!
According to the bible, when the sins of the world reached a certain level, the world would face Judgment Day. On that day, the gates of hell would open wide, and a hundred ghosts would walk the night.
Lakin could use the bible’s words as spells. He had actually brought a small-scale Judgment Day into existence!
A hundred ghosts walking the night—more than just a hundred ghosts were walking. Back in Clown Town, the Clown Girl had used a clown relic to create a hundred ghosts walking the night, but that was merely a crude imitation. What Ye Chui and the others now faced was the genuine article. Countless ghosts rushed out of the hell gate, roaring as they pounced toward Ye Chui’s group.
“Everyone, be careful—” Ye Chui quickly returned to the others’ side and shouted loudly, but his voice was drowned out by the fierce roars of the ghosts.
For a moment, it felt as if they were caught in a stormy night of raging waves, thunder, and wind. The dry grass on the ground rapidly decayed. Trees withered. An unbearable feeling of impending collapse rose from deep within their hearts.
Lisa hurriedly cast holy words, but she could not resist the ghosts closing in. Longgui’s rain-blocking shield also failed to stop the ghosts from approaching…
Ye Chui cast several BGMs in succession, but those melodies were instantly overwhelmed by the ghosts’ roars. The BGMs he had unlocked could not stand against these terrifying ghosts!
“In that case…”
Amid the swaying shadows of the ghosts, Ye Chui made a decision. He began to pay a huge price to unlock a BGM he had wanted to unlock for a long time.
The ghosts roared.
But soon those dreadful sounds were interrupted by another voice full of Zen-like calm—
“Namo Ratna Trayaya, Namo Arya Jnana Sagara…”
