Chapter 695: Backstab of the Historical Projection

Deep in the Spirit Realm, a massive three‑mast sailing ship cloaked in pure black sped forward as if sailing on the open sea, unimpeded.

It belongs to the King of the Five Seas, Naste, and is the Black Emperor! On the Black Emperor, many of the lanterns hanging on both sides have gone out, the hull bears damage and charred marks, and the three towering black sails are riddled with holes burned by flame, as if it has just endured a fierce battle and been baptized by countless cannon blasts.

On the deck, Naste, wearing a proportionally miniaturized spire crown and a black‑backed, silver‑trimmed robe, stands at the prow, his gaze deep as he looks down, as if surveying the mortal world through the Spirit Realm.

Behind him, a pair of eyelash‑less eyes filled with countless glittering stars, cold and indifferent, materialized out of thin air.

A torrent of massive, pure data surged forth, rapidly coalescing to reconstitute Rekton's body.

He stepped up beside Naste and calmly asked, "Did you encounter someone from the Steam Church?"

"Huo Lamik Hai Dun." Naste nodded calmly, uttering a name.

Rekton nodded; in his mind the other's image already formed—a gentle, kindly elder clad in a white priest's robe and wearing a soft clerical cap.

He is not only the head of the Steam Church's Beikeland Parish, but also a member of the Divine Council and the Steam Church's Archbishop.

Regarding Naste's plight, Rekton could only say that the True Creator's script was too well written; neither he nor Luo Sai'er sensed anything beforehand, until A Meng produced the Black Emperor (Item).

He sighed, then asked, "Besides that Steam Church Archbishop, who else took part in your battle?"

Naste's voice sounded wistful as he said, "A 'Prophet' or a 'Seer'; I can't confirm his true rank, and it may have been achieved with the aid of some mysterious artifact."

"He likely isn't from the Knowledge Church, nor any saint I know, though he may have disguised himself; he seems acquainted with that Steam Church Archbishop, happened to meet, and chose to help."

"If one does not possess the Black Emperor (Item), one cannot briefly elevate to an angelic tier using its stature and power; I couldn't withstand their assault."

"If you didn't have the Black Emperor (Item), you wouldn't have run into them."

Rekton sighed once, gave no further explanation, and his body instantly dematerialized, breaking into streams of data that surged swiftly toward Beikeland.

According to Adam's habit, the 'Prophet' or 'Seer' Naste encountered is most likely a member of the Twilight Hermit Society.

He obeyed the True Creator's will, pre‑contacted Huo Lamik Hai Dun, ambushed Naste in the Spirit Realm, and had one of A Meng's avatars sense the aura of the "Black Emperor," snatching the Black Emperor (Item) from Naste's hand.

Even if I head to Beikeland now, A Meng has surely already left with his loot, but Cha La Tu may not have; I don't know how He intends to renege on the wish He owes me.

As thoughts flickered, Rekton's inspiration suddenly erupted, conjuring an image of a dark‑hued spire church, its roof swarming with cawing ravens.

Rekton, without hesitation, altered course and moved toward the location of that mental image.

"Still buying A Meng time, fearing I'd disrupt Their plan, so they used Cha La Tu as bait?"

Muttering under his breath, the surging data stream suddenly dimmed, cloaked in a thin, hazy starlight.

It is a self‑imposed veil to evade the Diviner's spiritual intuition.

In a hidden spot somewhere in the mortal world, Rekton used the information left by Luo Sai'er's historical projection, summoned earlier by Cha La Tu, to locate and lock onto this place.

Fragments of brilliant starlight flew from the void, swiftly constructing a gate adorned with mysterious patterns and magical sigils.

The moment the door formed, it warped briefly, emitting faint sounds of storm and surf; Cha La Tu linked this side's exit to a spot in the raging sea, diverting any entity trying to breach through the gate elsewhere.

Outside the darkened spire church, one illusory tome after another floated up; beneath each lay pools of black, liquid‑like shadow that writhed slowly, spawning countless eyes.

Those eyes and tomes together formed an illusory tower, each level composed of thick books and eyes flashing pure light, stretching endlessly into the sky as if enclosing the whole world within.

The higher one ascended, the darker and more saturated with madness, destruction, ominousness, and disaster the atmosphere became.

Silently, the illusory tower enveloped the entire spire church, its eyes born of black shadow constantly scanning, seeking and decoding every secret construct of Cha La Tu.

Rekton, in the form of an information torrent, surged and circled within the illusory tower, using it to evade Cha La Tu's manipulation of his spiritual thread.

Information beings lack a spiritual thread, so Cha La Tu must summon his own former thread to control; given the disparity in stature, this is not swift. As Rekton's information torrent slowed, three silhouettes materialized almost simultaneously: Luo Sai'er from the Great Emperor era, "Divine Scion" Si E A, and an angel bearing twelve pairs of golden wings, blazing like a sun.

Luo Sai'er's historical projection stared blankly for a moment, then his eyes sharpened and became lively.

From his eyes streamed deep‑blue‑purple radiance, coalescing into one complex, illusory sigil after another.

The next second, the corpses selected within the spire church and the ravens circling its roof all fell into a bizarre rigidity.

Projecting his consciousness, Luo Sai'er directly assaulted all of Cha La Tu's secret constructs, flooding them with massive, useless knowledge that left them briefly immobilized.

Freed from the spiritual thread's interference, Rekton drew near to launch a fierce assault.

A clear, pure, misty glow seemingly composed of countless illusory things erupted instantly, forming a terrifying information storm that swept everything around.

Boom! Boom! The corpses hanging above the church and the circling ravens had their heads explode in shards—red, white—scattering across the ground.

In less than two breaths, Cha La Tu lost all of His secret constructs.

Deprived of his constructs, Cha La Tu instantly lost his influence over reality, and the three historical projections he summoned vanished as well.

A brilliant, flickering starlight streamed down from the top of the illusory tower, piercing the spire church and enveloping everything around.

Under the starlight's influence, the headless, fallen corpses continuously birthed transparent, twisted worms.

They are Cha La Tu's spirit worms; bathed in the starlight, they writhe, struggling to break free and burrow into the historical mist.

A few breaths later, the spirit worms ceased moving, dead through and through, while gray‑white specks emanated from their bodies, gathering under the starlight into a mass that Rekton, now materialized, clasped in his hand.

Capturing the extracted essence of the spirit worms, Rekton snapped his fingers; the surrounding starlight rippled outward, solidifying into countless invisible arms that gathered the dead worms and tossed them into the starlight‑forged "gate."

Having done all this, Rekton looked around and entered the spire church.

His gaze calm, he scanned the surroundings, using his command of information to reconstruct the scene and search for traces left by Cha La Tu.

"No wonder the cowardly Diviner, after promotion to Mysterious Secret Attendant, has reset his resurrection count; still so afraid of death that He won't even dare emerge from the historical mist."

He muttered a low scoff, walked to the stone chair at the front of the hall, sat down, and patiently waited for Cha La Tu to appear.

Where one enters the historical mist and where one emerges are the same place, and with no constructs here, Cha La Tu has no chance to slip away from before his eyes.

Just as he sat, Cha La Tu's figure materialized in the hall; He bowed his head to the corpses with heads scattered on the ground, then, expressionless, looked at Rekton and said, "Resurrection counts aren't infinite; even a Mysterious Secret Attendant must curb senseless deaths."

"You taught me a lesson; I didn't expect the historical projection to betray me on its own—Luo Sai'er truly never died."

As He spoke, the headless corpses around rose one by one, becoming Cha La Tu's constructs again!

The surrounding temperature gradually dropped, fog began to thicken and seep into the church.

The dim fog resembled night sea water, light as air, blurring scenes two or three meters away.

"A meaningless act." Rekton sighed softly.

One radiant beam after another spilled from the illusory tower, converging into a majestic Light Giant Pillar that enveloped everything inside.

Whether Cha La Tu's constructs or the ones He recreated, they were inexorably dissolved by the starlight, collapsing rapidly.

Under the black robe, Zhalatu's eyes, deep and dark like a lightless water surface, flickered, as if struck by a blow impossible to see with the naked eye.

After a moment, He exhaled heavily:

"You seem to know the Mysterious Secret attendant well, always able to deliver the strongest and most effective blow in the simplest, easiest way."

(End of chapter)