Chapter 372: Another Heart
Although Augustus had a vague sense that something bad had happened, he ultimately suppressed his unease.
After all, this strange right leg was the foundation of his revenge. He didn’t want anything to go wrong here. If hope were to be extinguished before his eyes, he feared he might completely break down, unable to go on.
On the other side, the chains in the cell had already been severed by Loseweisse.
Saintess Phyllis’s body slumped, leaning against Loseweisse.
Her slender arms gently embraced her beauty. A faint smile touched Loseweisse’s lips. This was much better. She was clean, without any stench, not a speck of dirt on her.
Even her hair had been neatly combed, falling naturally.
It had taken her half an hour. It was tiring work.
But after all, this was her mother. It was perfectly acceptable to work a little harder for her mother’s appearance.
With such a gentle and considerate daughter, her mother must be very happy. She must be. After all, her mother was no longer screaming like before. Her mother was very quiet now.
She glanced down at Phyllis’s pale face, and her expression grew even more intense. “Mother, I’m taking you away from here now. You haven’t seen the sun in a long time, have you?”
Heigh-ho!
Loseweisse made a strange sound as she lifted her mother’s body, carrying her up the blood-soaked stairs, step by step.
As she did, she kept adjusting the expression on her face.
A trail of bloody footprints marked the staircase.
Upstairs, in Augustus’s bedroom, Douglas and two other Archbishops waited anxiously.
They had been waiting for a long time, and the absence of their Goddess made them restless and worried.
They could smell the thick stench of blood from the entrance. Deadly traps and wards must have been laid throughout the secret passage. Douglas even felt the urge to rush in and help.
But he knew his duty was also important. If Augustus suddenly returned, at least someone would be there to hold him back.
Although their Goddess had taken control of a large portion of the Holy See, this operation was still highly unusual. Many powerful individuals had been mobilized to control those loyal to Augustus. Currently, there were very few people they could rely on.
As the sun outside gradually shifted, and the Goddess still hadn’t emerged, Douglas couldn’t take it any longer. He instructed his two companions and was about to enter the passage.
But just then, a faint light appeared in the dark and deep entrance.
Then, the sound of footsteps, tap, tap, echoed.
After a while, Loseweisse, carrying Phyllis, finally emerged from the secret passage.
Seeing this, nearly everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The boulder weighing on their hearts was finally lifted.
Douglas’s eyes lit up, and he was about to greet them when he noticed that Loseweisse’s face was devoid of joy, only endless sorrow.
Saintess Phyllis’s body leaned weakly against her, her delicate wrists dangling by her sides.
Behind Loseweisse, no other clerics could be seen.
A bad feeling arose in Douglas’s heart.
He felt his throat go dry, and he swallowed with difficulty: “Your Holiness, the… others?”
Loseweisse’s lips trembled: “Sacrificed. Everyone, they’re all sacrificed.”
“This passage is full of traps. They sacrificed themselves to clear the way to the cell.”
Two clear tears rolled down her fair cheeks. It seemed that due to extreme sorrow, Loseweisse’s body trembled slightly.
Douglas felt his throat growing increasingly uncomfortable, itching, making it difficult to bear: “Then, then Saintess Phyllis…”
“My mother…”
At this moment, Loseweisse seemed to reach her limit. She could no longer hold on. Her legs buckled, and she knelt on the ground, cradling her mother’s body, her voice filled with deep sorrow as she wept:
“She’s dead, too. That bastard Augustus… he seemed to have sensed something and killed my mother in advance… boo hoo hoo…”
In an instant, the faces of those around them paled.
They had made preparations for so long, suffered so many casualties, and yet, this was the result?
Dozens of clerics had died, and even Saintess Phyllis had been killed beforehand.
Augustus, that despicable scoundrel.
Almost everyone’s hearts were instantly filled with rage, their eyes burning with a cold fire. They wanted to judge Augustus’s crimes, to make that shameless man pay for his actions.
Only Douglas and two other Archbishops looked exceptionally strange, their expressions a mix of shock and even fear. They exchanged glances, seeing the same thoughts in each other’s eyes.
It was a lie.
When the passage had just opened, they had clearly heard sounds coming from deep within.
At that time, Saintess Phyllis must have been alive. Why was she suddenly dead now?
And a woman who had been imprisoned in a cell for over two decades, why was she completely clean, not a speck of dirt on her, her Saintess robes spotless?
Why had over sixty clerics died, including several powerful Bishops? Were they truly killed by the traps in the underground passage?
And why did the deceased Saintess Phyllis’s face show not only fear but also confusion?
Thump!
The three of them swallowed almost simultaneously.
Could it be that Her Holiness, Loseweisse, wasn’t truly a daughter of a god?
Why would a daughter of a god be so cruel, even killing her own mother…?
Old foxes were indeed old foxes.
Although Loseweisse was cruel and sinister by nature, she still lacked experience compared to these men.
…
Above the Imperial City of the Auville Empire.
A dark figure floated past.
Beneath the black veil, her slender legs were tightly wrapped in leggings.
This was a beautiful woman, with long legs accentuated by the leggings.
She was well-suited to stockings, as if this type of clothing was made for her.
This was the Daughter of Death, Ireta.
Her name was similar to the Blood Elf Iyeta’s.
Here, a large number of souls were awaiting purification.
And she could sense that in the future, there would be… even more.
Her slender figure floated in the night sky, like a goddess walking in the darkness. Suddenly, a building caught Ireta’s attention. It resembled a place Qin Chu had once described to her, seemingly Qin Chu’s residence.
After a moment of thought, Ireta’s figure flew towards Qin Chu’s residence.
…
Meanwhile, in the canyon.
After days of effort, the once hundreds of meters tall heart had shrunk to the size of a person, its shrinking frequency and speed increasing.
By this point, the heart was no longer as immovable as before.
The sapling’s roots were tightly wrapped around it, and the translucent, chain-like objects emanating from Qin Chu’s mouth were pulling the heart.
The heart moved across the ground, carving deep furrows.
With each inch it moved closer to Qin Chu, the heart shrank further.
Whoosh!
With a final, deep inhale from Qin Chu, the suction from his mouth intensified. The heart finally couldn’t resist any longer and lifted off the ground, rapidly flying towards Qin Chu in mid-air.
As it flew, the heart shrank at a visible rate.
By the time it reached Qin Chu’s mouth, it had shrunk to the size of a cherry, and he swallowed it in one gulp.
The arduous task had finally been accomplished. Qin Chu took a deep breath, closing his eyes to examine his body.
The Evil God’s heart was positioned below his Battle Origin and Mana Core. The sapling’s roots, which had previously wrapped around his Battle Origin and Mana Core, had shifted their target, now tightly encircling the heart.
Additionally, the Gluttony Divinity was also wriggling, like a gluttonous beast, permeating the Evil God’s heart.
The special ability granted by the Gluttony Divinity, “Hungry Wriggling,” had also begun to take effect, greedily devouring the abundant energy within the heart.
It seemed that although he had swallowed the heart, completely digesting its power would still take a considerable amount of time.
Moreover, Qin Chu discovered something very strange. After the Evil God’s heart was swallowed, besides being entangled by the Gluttony Divinity and the sapling’s roots, it also formed a faint, peculiar connection with his own original heart.
This heart, which had been extracted over a thousand years ago and only beat once every nine years, now seemed to faintly follow the rhythm of his own heartbeat, slowly pulsating.
It was hard for Qin Chu to describe the feeling. It was as if… he had grown another heart. This Evil God’s heart seemed to have become a secondary heart, even capable of providing a constant and inexhaustible supply of energy to his body to some extent.
Although he was puzzled, for now, it seemed harmless. Qin Chu made a mental note to pay more attention to this strange heart in the future.
Having calmed down, Qin Chu stretched his limbs, making cracking sounds.
After remaining in the same position for so long, his body felt stiff.
Although a lot of time had been wasted, and a strange thing had been added to his body, Qin Chu wasn’t disappointed. Somehow, he didn’t want to hand this heart over to anyone else.
“Let’s go back.”
He waved to Shaye, Anthea, Iyeta, and Heloise, and activated a spatial teleportation scroll. With a buzz, their figures vanished.
Just moments after they disappeared, another woman in a black dress slowly descended from the sky.
It was the other Shaye.
Looking at the empty, completely collapsed canyon, she shivered.
Her face was still flushed, her breathing rapid, her crimson eyes filled with a mist.
The Super Perception made her body extremely sensitive. Over the past few days, she didn’t know how many times she had been tormented.
That sensation of floating in the clouds constantly eroded her mind.
When her body had almost adapted to that feeling, it suddenly disappeared, not appearing for many days.
Shaye initially thought she could finally relax and not endure that torment anymore.
But then, another, even more unbearable feeling of suffering followed.
Her body felt inexplicably uncomfortable!
What had that guy done to her body?
Chapter 373: Athena Has a Bold Conjecture
She felt a sense of shame for her body’s strange reactions.
Although the sensation brought her immense pain and torment, once it subsided, her mind couldn’t help but replay those moments.
Shaye even couldn’t understand why she had followed him so diligently.
Was it just to teach this scoundrel a lesson?
No, it was more than that.
He must have done something shameless to her body. She needed to remove all the shackles that bound her and would no longer be affected by that guy.
Moreover, if she really wanted to do that sort of thing with him, couldn’t he just come to her and ask her directly? Why use such shameless means?
Hmph, he won’t get away with it.
Shaye shook her head. If that guy really dared to come to her and make such a request, she would definitely slap him across the face and then drag him to her lab for a good “education.”
What angered Shaye the most was that when she finally caught up to him, he was nowhere to be found.
Only the collapsed canyon remained, with faint traces of magic fluctuations still lingering.
A spatial teleportation array.
Again, this magic.
After sensing it for a while, Shaye bit her lip. The current location of this array was actually the Imperial City of the Auville Empire?
Damn it, how far do you want to push me before you’re satisfied?
However, don’t think you can escape. I’ll definitely catch you.
…
Within the Demon King’s Palace.
Nagath’s body swayed violently, and he collapsed to the ground.
The fluctuations from the divine skull had finally subsided, and this unprecedented earthquake had also ended.
He was like a drowning man who had just crawled ashore, gasping for breath.
But it wasn’t long before he climbed back to his feet. He knew he didn’t have much time to rest. The previous fluctuations had nearly destroyed the magic restrictions he had placed here. He needed to re-establish them to contain the power of the divine skull.
In the Imperial Palace of the Auville Empire.
Wadsworth was laughing maniacally, his expression almost twisted. His power wasn’t as great as the Demon King’s, but it seemed that he hadn’t been greatly affected.
His eyes still shone with an eerie gleam.
This divine right hand was his. No one could take it away.
Beneath his coarse skin, countless long, slippery things seemed to be wriggling.
At the Church of the Earth Mother Goddess, Saint Monique was giving orders, directing the knights to rescue the wounded from the ruins.
On Sage Mountain, the twelve old men finally released their magic. The prolonged exertion had exhausted even these Grand Mages. Their mana was almost completely depleted.
Their already aged bodies seemed even more decrepit.
Meanwhile, in the laboratory, Augustus was also on the verge of collapse.
He couldn’t even muster the strength to move a finger. Although he had managed to suppress the fluctuations of the divine left leg with various restrictions, the consumption was still terrifying.
But he understood that he didn’t have much time to rest.
He had already been away from the Holy See for too long.
He crushed a Saint Quartz, quickly absorbing its magical power to replenish his nearly depleted body. Then, controlling a stream of light, he swiftly flew towards the Holy See.
Phyllis.
He hoped everything was alright.
…
Within the Imperial City.
At the Hero’s Residence.
Because of Norma’s presence, the tremors hadn’t damaged the residence.
As a dazzling light flashed, Qin Chu, Shaye, Anthea, Heloise, and Iyeta appeared in the courtyard. With more frequent use, Qin Chu’s control over this ability was growing stronger.
As long as he had precise coordinates, the location wouldn’t deviate too much.
Just as Qin Chu returned to the living room, he found that there seemed to be more people than he had imagined.
Athena and Sylph had already returned.
In addition to those familiar faces, there was also the Daughter of Death, Ireta.
A crystal was placed in Ireta’s palm. It was Jie Luo’s soul fragment. She seemed to be sensing the information recorded within the fragment.
Seemingly noticing Qin Chu’s arrival, Ireta slowly opened her dark eyes and nodded slightly at Qin Chu, smiling in a very ladylike manner.
With a gentle toss of her hand, the soul fragment flew towards Qin Chu.
“Miss Athena has, as expected, the most resilient soul I’ve ever seen. Her perception of the imprint within the soul fragment is without any omission.”
Athena and Sylph’s faces were still noticeably gloomy and depressed. It was clear that the contents they had deciphered from the soul fragment had dealt a severe blow to the two women.
However, at the same time, Sylph seemed to have relaxed, as if she had finally shed a heavy burden.
In contrast, Athena’s lips were pursed in a cold smile. To Athena, this matter was definitely far from over.
However, Qin Chu had a feeling that Athena and Sylph’s gazes towards him were occasionally a little different from before.
Vaguely similar to Ekaterina’s in the past, but he wasn’t sure why.
Shaye, on the other hand, was perched on Qin Chu’s shoulder, smiling smugly.
Although she had a lot to say, Athena quickly composed herself and relayed all the information she had gleaned from the soul fragment, along with her various speculations, to Qin Chu.
After their last contact, Athena had thought for a while, making more detailed deductions and considerations.
She told Qin Chu about the other information she had deciphered from the soul fragment.
When Qin Chu learned that there was a talent called “Power of Virginity” in this world, he was completely stunned.
Isn’t this just a Sunflower Manual without the need to self-castrate?
However, this talent’s power shocked Qin Chu. It ignored the Heavenly Continent’s rules, required no training, and could directly break through the level 100 limit, reaching a height that countless geniuses couldn’t achieve even after a lifetime of hard work.
If the Second Jie Luo was truly a man of his word, as long as he remained a virgin for a few hundred years in the Heavenly Continent, it was hard to imagine what level his strength could reach.
Unfortunately, the Second Jie Luo had inherited the First Jie Luo’s memories and personality. As for the First Jie Luo… being able to have an affair with his girlfriend’s best friend, Qin Chu couldn’t say whether he could withstand the negative effects of this ability.
“Currently, there are three possibilities.”
“First, Jie Luo replaced Nagath’s consciousness and became the new Demon King.”
“Another possibility is that Jie Luo and Nagath reached some kind of agreement, with Jie Luo residing within the Demon King’s body. After all, it’s very strange that Nagath agreed to a duel with Jie Luo.”
“The third possibility is that Jie Luo and Nagath’s souls have completely merged.”
After a pause, Athena continued: “The third is the worst-case scenario. If the two have merged, then the current Jie Luo, or Nagath, will possess the soul strength, Authority, talent, and power of both. This would be a very terrifying enemy.”
Qin Chu’s expression also gradually became serious.
He tried to recall his encounter with Nagath in the first loop… Unfortunately, in the first loop, he was too focused on completing the main storyline and skipped through all the dialogues.
Even if he racked his brain now, he couldn’t remember any particularly distinct scenes, let alone determine Nagath’s current situation.
“Do you have any other deductions?” Qin Chu decided to temporarily put this issue aside and asked Athena, handing her the soul fragment.
Athena’s slender fingers caressed the soul fragment, and her eyes suddenly flashed with a cold glint.
She had an urge to crush it, but she restrained herself. This soul fragment was still useful.
“Regarding Loseweisse’s Resurrection spell.”
Qin Chu perked up: “Is there a problem with the spell?”
Athena shook her head: “No, the problem isn’t with the spell, but with the person who gave it to Loseweisse.”
Qin Chu sat across from Athena, waiting for her to continue. This woman was very intelligent, and when she was being helpful, it felt great.
Many things that Qin Chu hadn’t considered, Athena could.
Qin Chu’s attention made Athena’s face flush slightly. She felt strange about her reaction. She had never been like this before. She turned her gaze away, cleared her throat, and then spoke:
“At first, I speculated that the spell might have been given to Loseweisse by Jie Luo’s soul controlling someone.”
“After all, the writing on the scroll is very similar to Jie Luo’s.”
“But I quickly dismissed this possibility. After all, Jie Luo devised so many plans, even faking his death. His only goal was to escape the gaze and shackles of the Void. If that’s the case, why would he want to resurrect himself?”
“Once he’s resurrected, he’ll immediately be noticed by the beings in the Void again. All his efforts would be in vain. I can’t think of any reason for him to do this.”
Athena’s mental state was gradually stabilizing, regaining her seductive and confident demeanor.
Qin Chu nodded. Athena’s analysis was sound.
After all that trouble to fake his death, why would he want to be resurrected? That would be pointless.
Qin Chu had some doubts about the source of Loseweisse’s Resurrection spell.
“Then who do you think gave her the spell?”
Athena took a deep breath: “I have a bold guess.”
“Could the Resurrection spell have come from… the Evil Gods in the Void?”
