Miss Luo Yan’s Feet Are Buried With Corpses v3c82

Witch’s Night: Chapter 82 The Gods’ Dream

The three known Bishops of the Church of the End Gods, Hamid, Marytis, and the mysterious Bishop who blocked Luo Yan from taking Cecilia to Noah, basically all appeared after the War of the Witch of Absolute Death.

Then, what about before the War of the Witch of Absolute Death?

That was the most prosperous period of the Church of the End Gods, even reaching the point where a single church could rival all of humanity.

Although the current Church of the End Gods was troublesome, it was at most only equivalent to two and a half Dawns.

The extra half was because the Church of the End Gods had a much larger number of followers than Dawn.

Their actual mid-to-high-level combat power wasn’t much different from Dawn’s, at most just more difficult to deal with because they used demonic powers.

Demonic powers were indeed powerful, but even the most powerful abilities depended on the user’s will and control.

Just like Luo Yan’s “Envy,” which had been developed into something like a life assistant, other possessors of “Envy” couldn’t reach her level.

“Red Butterfly” in the Yan City Flower Street incident, because she was directly possessed by a remnant of the Witch of Envy’s consciousness, had a much higher level of control than ordinary followers of the Church of the End Gods, but that was her limit.

In summary, when the Church of the End Gods was exposed, this cult had already lost at least one-third of its threat level.

But… these estimations were all based on the assumption that the Church of the End Gods only had this much strength. No one knew how much unknown power this ancient cult, coexisting with the human civilization of the New Era, truly possessed.

Noah’s worries weren’t unreasonable. The Church of the End Gods’ several actions were all targeted at Luo Yan.

Although they all ended in failure, there was no guarantee that their next action would be the same. The best solution was to keep Luo Yan in the Sanctuary.

Even if this meant bringing Luo Yan closer to the Witch of Absolute Death, the risks were foreseeable, while for the Twelve Saints… the Church of the End Gods’ contingencies were still unknown.

The unknown was the greatest fear.

“I don’t mind.”

Luo Yan nodded. There were many books in the library, enough for her to pass the time.

“…What about you, Lord Noah?”

Shadow asked in a low voice, looking at Noah, an uncontainable sorrow welling up in her heart.

She finally understood how the members of Dawn felt when they learned that Mister Nine was about to die.

From birth until now, they had heard about him, witnessed him, accompanied him… a legend that seemed to stretch into eternity, was about to die before her eyes.

This desolation and sorrow, if one hadn’t experienced it personally, it was difficult to understand.

But the First Saint was very old; he had personally seen off countless companions.

After countless years of seeing those younger than him die, the juniors who died heroically in the War of the Witch of Absolute Death were still vivid in his mind. Noah’s heart was filled with pain, the torment of countless days and nights.

Now… it was finally his time to depart.

“I want…” Noah twitched the corners of his mouth, seemingly trying to show a relieved smile, but it only trembled slightly. “To go out and walk around, to take another good look at this world.

“…This world that I love.”

The old man stood up tremblingly and walked towards the library gate step by step.

Shadow didn’t follow, just silently watched his gradually receding, aged figure.

At this moment, he seemed to be no longer the legendary Saint known throughout the world, but just an ordinary, dying man calmly facing his end.

“Lord Noah…”

Shadow suppressed the urge to cry, and Luo Yan was also somewhat affected, some vague memories seemingly surfacing in her mind.

“Haxton.”

Luo Yan called softly.

The old figure paused slightly.

“Save… the world with me.”

After a long silence, a raspy, aged voice, with a hint of crying, replied,

“Alright.”

He walked into the night alone.

Illusion, arriving late, quietly watched this scene, but didn’t say anything.

Along with Luo Yan and Shadow, she silently watched the old man leave.

It was this First Saint who brought her back to the Sanctuary, allowing her to eventually become one of the Twelve Saints, the current Fourth Saint.

At some point, Shadow had already stood beside Illusion, the two figures, one tall and one short, inexplicably harmonious.

“Did it work?”

“…Mm.”

“Very well.”

Illusion, who was usually taciturn, wasn’t good at small talk, and Shadow, usually playful, was also in a subdued mood.

Only then did Luo Yan notice Illusion’s presence, but she looked at Illusion with a puzzled expression,

“Saint Illusion, shouldn’t you be dealing with the matters outside…”

“That was a phantom, my true body never left the Sanctuary.” Illusion said softly, “You can think of it as an avatar, although it’s very different from an avatar.”

“But I meant your phantom… Wait, aren’t you a phantom now?”

Luo Yan’s eyes widened slightly. This was the first time she had seen Illusion’s true form, and even with her calm nature, she was still a little shocked.

Simply put, Saint Illusion looked… really young.

Luo Yan had been secretly criticizing Illusion’s taste when she saw the previous phantom, actually creating such a little girl, but only after seeing her true body did she realize that Illusion had just modeled it after herself.

It had to be said that the real Illusion looked even younger than Cecilia, but the problem was that Cecilia’s real age was less than ten…

Luo Yan’s expression turned strange.

“Ahem, Illusion is actually quite old, she just can’t grow taller—don’t look at me like that, Illusion, the first time we met, you could barely reach my shoulder, and now I can practically carry you under my arm!”

Shadow even gestured slightly, and Illusion’s eyes instantly looked murderous.

Luo Yan imagined the scene of Shadow carrying Illusion under her arm… Although a bit comical, with Shadow, it seemed quite plausible.

Because she could actually do it…

Whether intentionally or not, after this little interlude, the three of them slightly recovered from the previous sorrowful atmosphere.

The death of the First Saint was indeed saddening, but like the Saint, he had chosen this ending with his own conviction.

“Miss Luo Yan, Lord Noah should have told you about the peak of the Holy Mountain.”

Illusion composed herself and looked at Luo Yan,

“The reason I didn’t take you to the peak of the Holy Mountain immediately, besides needing to inform the other Saints, is also because we can’t go there at any time.”

“It needs… a flaw?” Luo Yan blinked.

“Did Lord Noah tell you that? Mm, that’s his understanding.” Illusion nodded, then looked up at the starry sky, “In my perception, this false starry sky… is more like a dream.”

“A dream?”

Luo Yan frowned slightly. This was the first time she had heard this.

Both the Church of the End Gods and Saint Noah believed that this was a cage meticulously woven by the Gods.

Preventing humanity from exploring beyond the starry sky, while also protecting them from the threats beyond it.

“It’s just my own mystical feeling, you don’t have to take it seriously.” Illusion said softly, “A dream formed by the slumbering Gods. The reason They are still slumbering is probably to maintain this dream that must never awaken.”

“When the dream awakens… the starry sky will shatter?”

Just imagining this scene made it a bit difficult for Luo Yan to breathe.

And this was without her having personally witnessed the situation beyond the starry sky. If she knew the truth…

Luo Yan suddenly understood the Church of the End Gods’ thoughts a little.

“In other words, there are times when a dream murmurs and struggles, and a fleeting crack will appear in the perfect dream. This is the flaw that Lord Noah mentioned.”

Illusion brought the topic back and continued, “Although our understandings are slightly different, the result is the same—only by reaching the peak of the Holy Mountain at the right time can you fully experience the descent of the truth.”

“…I understand.”

Luo Yan nodded slightly, her expression serious.

“Alright, why are you two always so serious? You both look so young, but your personalities are so rigid.” Shadow put her hands on her hips and said, “Making me, who looks like the older sister, seem to have the youngest mentality—no, I’m only eighteen years old.”

“Eighteen years and how many months?”

Illusion asked abruptly.

“Heh, that’s a secret.”

Shadow turned her face away.

“Three thousand eight hundred and twenty-one months.” Ms. Lana, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said, “Age determination method provided by Haxton Laboratory, margin of error within eighteen months.”

“…”

Shadow looked incredulous,

“What the hell, the Haxton Laboratory even does this kind of thing?”

“The Haxton Laboratory was in charge of 216 research projects, 18 key projects, and 1 top priority project, covering fields including biology…”

“Stop, stop, stop, don’t read anymore… I didn’t expect the Old Era research organizations to be so large. Just managing one department in the Cardinal Council gives me a headache.”

Shadow sighed. She once again felt the huge gap between the technology of the Old Era and the New Era.

Although the New Era had also lasted for over a thousand years, and the Old Era was only a little over three thousand years, logically, they should be at about one-third the level, but in reality, even one percent was an exaggeration.

Besides the harsh living environment of the New Era, a more important point was that technological development wasn’t linear, but exponential.

A breakthrough in a certain key technology could lead to a rapid leap in technology, perhaps ten years of development could surpass the previous hundred, or even thousand years.

Unfortunately, the current New Era hadn’t seen such an opportunity yet.

“Anyway, it’s finally over for now.” Luo Yan quietly dismissed Ms. Lana, lest Shadow be stimulated again, and walked towards the nearby bookshelves. “During this time, I’ll just stay in the library, I won’t go anywhere.

“There are many books here, enough for me to read for a while.”

“It’s best if you understand that…” Illusion’s gaze followed Luo Yan, “But you’re going the wrong way, the books there might not be to your liking.”

“…Why?”

“You’ll see.”

Luo Yan picked up a book from the shelf with a puzzled expression, saw the title, and immediately put it back,

“…Indeed not the type I like to read.”

“Third floor, Section D, the books there are similar to what Hua Qiling likes.”

“Actually, what Hua Qiling likes to read isn’t necessarily what I… forget it, I’ll go and take a look.”

Luo Yan nodded, then instantly vanished—Ms. Lana could directly teleport her to any corner of the library, at least her positioning was quite accurate.

“What kind of book could cause such a reaction…”

Seeing Luo Yan’s lightning-fast movements, even Shadow couldn’t help but become curious. She walked over, picked up the book Luo Yan put back, and her expression instantly changed,

“Postpartum Care for Sows?”

“Because this is the agriculture section.”

……

After the eventful night of Holy Communion, Noah became busy.

Now was the most crucial time. Humanity had reached a consensus on their shared destiny, determined to do their best to fight against the possibly approaching second Calamity Tide.

The Ten Cities Council would put this cooperation into practice, assigning tasks to each mega-city.

Making the Free Federation, composed of thousands of mega-cities, emulate the World Federation of the Old Era, becoming parts with different functions, forming a giant machine operating at high efficiency.

This was the first time humanity had cooperated like this since the War of the Witch of Absolute Death hundreds of years ago.

At least at this moment, everyone hoped to overcome this unknown disaster.

—Except for the Church of the End Gods.

The consecutive failures caused the Church of the End Gods considerable losses, and the mega-cities, starting to take things seriously, began purging the followers lurking within their walls.

Noah was even stepping up research and development of identification devices targeting the Church of the End Gods. Thanks to the experience provided by Chris, a prototype was quickly completed in the past few days.

After being severely weakened, the number of followers in the Church of the End Gods quickly dwindled to less than half.

However, these were just peripheral members, mostly ordinary people brainwashed by the Church of the End Gods using forced mental control, and very few exposed ability users.

The core members basically didn’t suffer any losses. Hamid valued the Church’s core strength very much; he had even lowered himself to ask Marytis to save Wen Hua precisely because of this.

Unfortunately, not many in the Church of the End Gods were as fully dedicated to the ideal of world destruction as Hamid. Most joined with their own selfish motives, even the other two Bishops… were no exception.

“Why, Marytis?” Hamid stared at the silent Marytis. “Why did you deceive us?”

“…It’s just because you didn’t ask.” Marytis said indifferently.