Chapter 115: True Calamity

……

The sky was growing dark.

The burly man who was leading the team with the short man took several gray, garlic-like objects out of his pack and distributed them to everyone.

"Councilor, this is gray garlic. It can be used to mask the scent of the Undead. If you eat this, the Undead will ignore our presence," the short man explained.

"A friendly buff?" Mo Fan raised an eyebrow, took the gray garlic directly, and bit into it.

"Pfft!!!"

"Is this shit!?" Mo Fan's short temper flared up immediately.

"This thing just tastes like this. To put it bluntly, it's a temporary corpse buff. How good did you expect it to taste?" the short man said.

"Besides, the quantity of this stuff is limited. I've already brought all my stock this time. You already spat one out; if you can't hold out until tonight, you'll have to figure it out yourself."

Saying this, the short man handed the majority of the gray garlic to Lv Cheng.

"Councilor, just endure it and it will pass," the short man said.

Lv Cheng took the gray garlic and sniffed it. Before he could say anything, the soil beneath everyone's feet, mixed with fine white sand, rapidly showed signs of loosening.

"Eat the gray garlic quickly!" the short man shouted.

Mo Fan hesitated for a moment, but still swallowed the gray garlic in his hand in one gulp. The two attendants beside Asharuiya did not dare to hesitate either; like Mo Fan, they swallowed it in one gulp.

"Councilor, just endure it and it will pass!" the short man looked anxiously at the unmoved Lv Cheng.

"You seem to have a way?" Asharuiya asked.

"Mm." Lv Cheng returned the gray garlic to the short man, casually took out a basketball-sized night-luminescent pearl, and tossed it into the air.

The next instant, the night-luminescent pearl suspended in the air erupted with a radiance like the sun. The ground touched by the light quickly returned to calm, and the corpse-undead that had already crawled out of the ground scrambled away from this light in a panic.

In just a few breaths, the area within a hundred meters of Lv Cheng returned to peace once again.

"This is..." the short man looked amazed.

"A Magic Tool that simulates sunlight. I tried making it before I came to the Ancient Capital. It seems the effect is indeed quite good," Lv Cheng said.

Dao Long knew many things; not only Black Qi Magic, but the old thing also understood a lot of Righteous Magic, and among them, there were quite a few spells for repelling the Undead.

He had learned a few things, and this Magic Tool was actually just a night-luminescent pearl imbued with a "Demons and Ghosts Begone" spell, with a bit of light-attribute and fire-attribute material fused inside to expand the coverage of the Magic Spell.

"Councilor, do you... have any more of these?" the short man asked with an eager expression.

In a hellish place like the Ancient Capital, if one had this kind of special Magic Tool, safety would be doubled!

"I only have this one for now. If you want one, I'll give it to you after this mission is over," Lv Cheng said.

"Consider it thanks for your help this time."

"Thank you, Councilor!" The short man didn't offer any polite refusals; when a big shot like this gives something, one should just accept it gracefully.

Moreover, this wasn't just a Magic Tool; it was a symbol of a Councilor!

He would have plenty to brag about in the Hunter Union later!

"However, this thing consumes quite a bit," Lv Cheng said.

"I don't suggest that anyone below a High-level Mage use it for long periods. Your Magic Energy might not be enough. If you must use it, I suggest you bring more people to support it in turns."

The more powerful the Magic Spell, the greater the consumption. Depending on the level of the Mage providing the support, the effect of this spell would also differ.

Just like him and Shendu; both possessed the Twelve Talismans, but the power of the Magic Spells they could unleash were two completely different concepts.

He was currently using Fire Element Star River energy to power this thing, so the consumption was almost negligible, but others didn't have his terrifying amount of Magic Energy.

"You can also forge Magic Tools?" Asharuiya asked with some curiosity.

"A hobby," Lv Cheng said.

"As for you, why did you run to a hellish place like this?"

"I..." Asharuiya stopped mid-sentence.

"If it's inconvenient, don't say it," Lv Cheng said.

"Kandi said you are an information broker?"

Asharuiya was stunned. "What do you want to know?"

"My parents," Lv Cheng said.

"I feel their identities are very special. Even that old High Priest in the Holy City doesn't want to mention them."

"It's not convenient for me to say too much right now," Asharuiya said in his mind.

"However, you should try your best to stay away from the Holy City. Although your parents were born in the Holy City, because of that incident back then, they are wanted by the Holy City."

"Why?" Lv Cheng asked.

"Your mother went mad in the Holy City and triggered a Space Storm, nearly destroying the Holy City," Asharuiya said.

"Because of Wen Tai?" Lv Cheng said with an amused expression.

He inexplicably felt like his biological father had been cheated on?

"Not quite sure," Asharuiya shook her head.

"But there was no news released by the Holy City regarding that incident back then, and your parents disappeared after that."

"In other words, you don't know if they are dead or alive either?" Lv Cheng said.

Asharuiya nodded, then shook her head. "I truly don't have information on them, but one thing is certain: they are definitely still alive. At the very least, your mother is still alive."

"Why?" Lv Cheng asked.

"Because you are still here," Asharuiya said.

"……"

"What do you mean?" Lv Cheng asked, puzzled.

"The Holy City is more worried about their survival than you are," Asharuiya said.

"If the Holy City had confirmed your parents' deaths, after your identity reached the Holy City a while ago, the Heretic Judgment Mage Corps and those Archangels would have come to capture you."

"But they didn't come, or rather, they didn't dare to come."

"......"

"Didn't dare to come? They're that badass?" Lv Cheng looked puzzled.

Even if those two had already reached the Forbidden Curse level, the Holy City was crawling with Forbidden Curse users, and the Archangels were even Emperor Level combatants; just how overpowered would one have to be for the Holy City to not dare make a move?

"It's not that they couldn't beat her, but that while your mother's strength might not be considered the absolute peak, her destructive power as a Space Element Calamity exceeded the limits of human Mages," Asharuiya said seriously.

"The Space Storm she triggered was a natural disaster on the same level as Sha Yuan."

In recent years, the Holy City's search for those with the Sufferer talent has become increasingly frantic, even changing their primary strategy of taking them in as dogs; once discovered, they are directly sealed, largely because they were terrified by that time Su Meng went on a rampage in the Holy City back then!

That was a threat that surpassed the Forbidden Curse!

A disaster that even Archangel Remiel, who was in the Holy City, could not stop!

It was also the first time human Mages faced a true Calamity head-on!

The Holy City realized that a true Calamity was not something they could control.

"Wait a minute, doesn't the Holy City always view Calamity Users as heretics? How did my mother become a Heterodox Mage?" Lv Cheng looked confused.

Asharuiya wore a mocking expression, "Do you know how many Calamity Users the Holy City has absorbed over the past thousand years? They don't view Calamity Users as heretics; they view powerful forces they cannot control as heretics. Even the founder of the Different Judgment Court was a Calamity User himself."

"Those self-righteous Saints feel that the world is ignorant and unqualified to control that power. Such natural disaster-like power should all submit beneath the feet of the gods, which is why the Holy City searches the whole world for people with the Sufferer talent."

"Because they know best just how terrifying that power is."

"Aren't they worried about the Calamity Users betraying them?" Lv Cheng asked doubtfully.

"Betrayal?" Asharuiya looked strange.

"Do you think those Archangels in the Holy City are just for show?"

"The biggest problem with Calamity Users isn't how strong their power is, but that they themselves are akin to the manifestation of a natural disaster; their destructive power is the primary concern."

"Killing a Calamity User is not a difficult task for an Archangel, but the death of a Calamity User does not mean the disaster they triggered will disappear. In fact, once they lose the control of the Calamity User, the already-born disaster will become even more frantic."

"Moreover, the Holy City's research into Forbidden Arts has always been at the forefront of the world; even if they wanted to betray them, they wouldn't have the opportunity."

"Then what about my mother?" Lv Cheng looked strange.

The Holy City was almost wiped out, and you're saying she didn't have the opportunity?

"Her situation is special," Asharuiya said.

"Furthermore, her status at the time could be understood as the leader of the Different Judgment Court. Those Heterodox Mages, whose brains weren't very good to begin with, almost worshipped her like an Archangel under the throne of God. Before the betrayal, she was the sharpest Sword of the Holy City, and no one had ever even thought she would betray them."

"Even now, the information about your mother in the Holy Judgment Court claims she was deceived by the Judge Lv Chengze, rather than her truly betraying the Holy City."

"Perhaps it is to stabilize those crazy Heterodox Mages, or perhaps it is to save their own face. After all, back then, in order to show that they were not blindly hunting Sufferers without rhyme or reason, the Holy City had revealed to many factions that the Different Judgment Court possessed a Space Element Calamity, and that this Calamity User was even the most loyal believer of God."

"If your mother were judged as a heretic, this so-called most loyal believer of God and Heterodox Mage would also become a heretic that needed to be purged, and the Holy Judgment Court would become a laughingstock."

"In fact, even now, on the surface in the Holy Judgment Court, your mother is still their loyal believer of God; she was merely deceived by your father."

"Archangel Remiel even said personally that he looks forward to her returning to the Holy City with the sinner's head soon, and God will forgive her transgressions..."

"Just like coaxing a child."

(End of chapter)