Chapter 2416: Chapter Thirty-Eight: All the Secrets of Cursed Town

A giant skeleton froze in place, a short figure burst out from within its eye flames, wielding a polearm.

The boundary line contracted, Su Xiao had already lunged to the front of the giant skeleton's eye socket, the sudden appearance of the short figure caught people off guard, the figure used the giant skeleton's eye flames to completely conceal their aura.

Su Xiao was within two meters of the short figure, a stinging sensation came from his throat, if this continued, the opponent's polearm would pierce his throat, he could also pierce the opponent's skull.

No blood appeared, the two simply passed each other, Su Xiao disengaged from the spatial penetration state, at this moment he stood on the white bone at the giant skeleton's eye socket.

The short figure landed on the ground, surrounded by high walls, his height was about 1.5 meters, various golden ornaments hung from his waist.

"Church's lackey."

The short figure flicked the polearm in his hand, his eyes were not cloudy, only anger remained.

"..."

Su Xiao said nothing, seeing this short man and hearing the words "Church's lackey", many doubts in his heart were resolved, even feeling that he now understood what Cursed Town was all about.

No need to continue fighting, Su Xiao had a way to deal with the giant skeleton and the short man below.

The giant skeleton was not transformed by the short man Ziserman, the short man below was Ziserman, as for the half skeleton seen on the high wall, that was deliberately placed by Ziserman to make people think he too had been completely eroded by ancient god power and turned into a giant skeleton.

Ziserman was a genius, this giant skeleton was constructed from the bones of town residents, later ancient god power was infused into its interior.

Ziserman was one of the few in Cursed Town who saw the true situation, so he was afraid, afraid of someone inside the Redemption Church.

The Redemption Church's purpose was to oppose ancient god power and to save Cursed Town, restoring it to its original state.

The Saintess and the Blacksmith held this belief, but someone inside the Redemption Church did not.

"The nun died."

Upon hearing Su Xiao's words, the short man Ziserman trembled while gripping his polearm, if observed closely one would see his neck veins bulging, as for his expression, it was blocked by a dark gold mask.

Su Xiao sat on the giant skeleton's eye socket, the Dragon Slayer Flash returned to its sheath, no need to continue fighting, the situation in Cursed Town was like a riddle, either solve it or brute force it.

With this world's lv. 67 highest difficulty, Cursed Town's difficulty was naturally maxed out, brute force would make even immortals hard to deal with, facing Ziserman in complete form, only strategic retreat was possible.

The polearm-wielding Ziserman looked at Su Xiao, eyes full of doubt, this outsider had already joined the Redemption Church, that bastard's lackey, why did he suddenly stop fighting.

"The nun died horribly, even while in the statue, she was smashed together with the statue."

Su Xiao exhaled a faint green smoke, Cursed Town could not be forcibly entered with his current strength, otherwise, after the fourth loop of the main quest ended, the Reincarnation Paradise would not open a gap, and would use light-dark talismans as mission rewards.

Even the female contractor who opened the way entered the light-dark world for this reason, her mission was to open the path, after Su Xiao obtained some item in Cursed Town, it would be the final 150-point barrier assessment.

The 150-point barrier assessment could only be done with one's own combat power, before that, direct confrontation was not necessarily needed, as long as the layers of mist were solved, Su Xiao need not fight desperately with most seventh-rank bosses in Cursed Town, such gains were indeed high, but required him to advance to seventh rank and accumulate some time of strength before achieving it.

"Foreign god's lackey."

Ziserman tilted his head to stare at Su Xiao, eyes thoughtful, he had been sleeping within the giant skeleton's eye flames to maintain his sanity.

"The immortal died."

"Leke."

Ziserman's eyes showed a hint of sorrow, but soon let go, everything had passed too long, the immortal's erosion was inevitable.

"The church interior was sealed by crystal walls, if I'm not mistaken, your friend the Blacksmith is behind that wall."

"You..."

"I'll continue speaking, you continue listening."

Su Xiao looked at the sky, the moon and sun still coexisted, only the sun's light was brighter than the moon's.

"According to someone's arrangement, after someone killed Elvis Gru, they could obtain the 'Redemption Tablet', following this line would lead to Emperor Ozark's tomb, where there is a way to enter Cursed Town."

"Emperor Ozark?"

The short man Zis's eyes flickered with doubt, then suddenly recalled, the Redemption Church indeed once had such a member, that was long ago, if not mistaken, it was a minor lackey.

Su Xiao understood many things, seeing the Saintess and hearing the short man Zis say "Church's lackey after", he understood everything.

The initial changes in Cursed Town are not discussed for now, only discussing the plan arranged by someone after Cursed Town was eroded by ancient god power.

Emperor Ozark and Elvis Gru had huge external influence, one established the Light-Dark Empire, the other destroyed the Four Kingdoms.

But in someone's arrangement within Cursed Town, these two were merely pawns, not even important ones, used as background pieces.

This person was inside the Redemption Church, and in its deepest part, his name had long been forgotten by people, if not for the Saintess seeking help from Su Xiao, Su Xiao would not have discovered this person's existence.

Correct, the Saintess was seeking help, but she dared not say many things, only vaguely mentioning a title, Archbishop.

First, a thousand years ago, the Archbishop deliberately let Emperor Ozark gain power in Cursed Town and gain the Redemption Church's support, Emperor Ozark successfully established the Light-Dark Empire abroad.

As an ageless old man, the Archbishop had plenty of time, Emperor Ozark was merely one of his several backup pawns.

The Archbishop needed the outside world pacified, so that strong ones could appear to enter Cursed Town and help him complete his plan, this guy was just a heartless old man.

Years later, secret patterns emerged out of nowhere, this was the Archbishop's doing in Cursed Town, secret patterns originally belonged to the ancient gods.

Many years later, an organization that had been passed down for a thousand years surfaced, its leader was named Elvis Gru.

Gru's organization was very mysterious, because it was founded by the Archbishop, the support of the hyena wolf tribe was merely a pretense, making the Archbishop's existence more hidden.

The Archbishop resided within the Redemption Church, unable to step out of the church, but he used some method, as a spiritual body breaking through the surging darkness, to reach the outside world.

The Archbishop established a mysterious organization both out of boredom and to complete his plan, so he gave each generation's leader the title of heartless old man.

Secret patterns were dangerous, civilizations had been destroyed by them, Cursed Town was the end result, etc., these false secrets made the generations of leaders of that mysterious organization swear to eliminate secret patterns spreading in the world, their lack of understanding of Cursed Town was their greatest weakness, also allowing the Archbishop to remain invincible.

After who knows how many generations of heartless old men, the Archbishop finally waited for the opportunity, in this generation two people stood out most, Elvis Gru, and the lame gentleman Asaz.

Gru was the 'villain' in the plan, Asaz was the 'redeemer' in the plan.

The Archbishop gave Gru the Redemption Tablet and the polluted World Seed, letting him begin reclaiming secret patterns, that is, destroying the Four Kingdoms and the Council Hall.

The one responsible for defeating Elvis Gru should have been the lame gentleman Asaz, Asaz had this strength, and his ambition was not great, he had always followed the old senator.

According to the Archbishop's plan, the outside world would be occupied by the Tree Clan, Gru would surely lose, be slain by Asaz's hand, this was inevitable, Gru could not possibly resist.

Gru's body would die, his consciousness+soul would be dragged into Cursed Town, this was the ultimate bait, used to draw resentful orphans to a certain place.

After Gru's death, the outside world would descend into chaos, the Tree Clan would die out within half a month, thus the outside world could not possibly interfere with Cursed Town in the slightest, entering the Archbishop's plan's 'pure state', this was when he began wrapping up.

Gru and Asaz were 'arch-enemies', one had great intelligence and stopped at nothing, the other had great strength, aged yet full of gentlemanly demeanor.

They shared one point: both obtained ancient god power from their parents through inheritance, and turned this uncontrollable force into a controllable one.

If this world had a protagonist, it would be Gruel and Azazel, with the Archbishop transcending the protagonist, everything being his creation—the Light and Dark Empire, the Four Kingdoms' destruction plan, and the impending fall of the God's Orphan, all orchestrated by the Archbishop alone.

The elder senator is being eroded by the power of the Old God, and Azazel, who shares a brotherly bond with him, will naturally seek a cure.

If following the Archbishop's plan, at this time Azazel would have already killed Gruel and obtained the Redemption Tablet, after which he would guide Azazel into the Doom Town, the method of entering Doom Town being located within the tomb of Emperor Okaz.

After some exploration, Azazel will enter Doom Town, at which point the Old God's power within him will fully awaken, making him at that time a man-made 'Chosen One'; the Immortal One and the dwarf Zephos are fundamentally no match for Azazel.

Azazel must confront the Immortal One to enter Doom Town; after defeating him, he can obtain the Church Key from the Immortal One, and based on the clues on the Redemption Tablet, Azazel will surely find the Redemption Church.

Inside the church, fourteen statues have been shattered, thirteen of them destroyed—this is all the Archbishop's doing; he even baptized the Saintess, and no matter how she wept, he still pushed her into the baptismal pool. Once powerful, she was nearly drowned to death; after surviving, she regarded her life's Holy Lance as broken, becoming a tool—a tool for healing others.

Azazel's path to the Redemption Church is as follows: first, ask the Saintess how to save the elder senator; she will tell him the blacksmith might know; to see the blacksmith, he must open the Crystal Wall, which requires first killing the dwarf Zephos and obtaining his bracer.

The dwarf Zephos only knows that something is wrong with the Redemption Church, but not where; to obtain his metal bracer, one must kill him—this is the friendship token of the Redemption Church's Three Close Friends (the Three Close Friends: the Immortal One, the dwarf Zephos, and the blacksmith).

Azazel, with the Old God's power fully awakened within him, has the ability to kill the dwarf Zephos, after which he will meet the blacksmith.

The blacksmith is not privy to the hidden truth; he can only tell Azazel that to save the elder senator, only the Archbishop can do so, and to awaken the Archbishop deep within the church, one must first defeat the Resentful Orphan, whom the Archbishop is currently 'restraining'; before the Resentful Orphan dies, the Archbishop cannot awaken.

The blacksmith is not lying—this is the only information he knows. He is a blacksmith, willing to help anyone resisting the Old God's power and those suffering misfortune due to it; Azazel is clearly one of them.

The blacksmith will use the Ash Furnace obtained by Azazel to help him forge a weapon for dealing with the Resentful Orphan.

Azazel's clues are now quite clear: defeat the Resentful Orphan, finally meet the Archbishop, and through the Archbishop, save the elder senator.

Immortal One (Key), Dwarf Zephos (Ash Furnace), Resentful Orphan (current wielder of the Old God's power).

After Azazel kills all of them, the Archbishop's purpose is fulfilled; he cannot leave the Redemption Church, or he will die immediately; once everything succeeds, he will be free.

The Archbishop's purpose is to become the new Old God; for this, he has caused the death of over 99% of all living beings in the Light and Dark World.

The Archbishop's plan is like after defeating the 'Evil Dragon', the warrior gazes upon the scattered treasure, and extends his claw, now fully grown with dragon scales.