Chapter 105

Wu Chang stared at the familiar yet alien Ailin and asked, "Who are you?"

The Ailin before him still bore Ailin's appearance, but the presence within her body had clearly changed.

That sensation of superiority radiating from her bones, looking down upon ants like a god, reminded him of Jermain—the Jermain who nearly became an artificial demon god.

Ailin smiled, her face now animated with a vitality normal Ailin never possessed, as she regarded Wu Chang with mockery.

"Mortal, you claimed to see through everything—then guess who I am."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow. "The Great Mother?"

The atmosphere plunged into silence.

The mockery on Ailin's face froze.

I told you to guess—you actually guessed?

"Did Ebert tell you?"

Pfft.

Wu Chang couldn't hold back and burst out laughing. "You old bastards—all of you have walnut-sized brains. Whenever something happens, you assume someone must've snitched for anyone to figure it out."

He pointed at the halo above Ailin's head. "The emergence of the Sacred Scar was too deliberate. How could a mere church possibly obtain such power? And why would they believe Ebert's plan would succeed?"

"The church's upper echelons are only two kinds of people: one, clear-headed businessmen—they know religion is just a business, and all they want is profit and power; the other, brain-dead fossils—they'd hang Ebert the moment he showed up and burn his manuscripts."

"Unless the source of the Sacred Scar is flawed."

Wu Chang looked at Jermain beside him, still warm.

Thanks to Jermain's corrupted idol, which demonstrated the corruption of the Sacred Scar, he realized there was no essential difference between demon gods and true gods.

The only distinction might lie in the source of their power.

Lyman could send down miracles; the Great Mother could send down miracles too.

Lyman could teleport his eyeballs to the lower realm and project himself through them.

The Great Mother could cast a fragment of herself to her believers in the lower realm to descend.

He hadn't been certain before, but seeing Ailin reclaim the Sacred Scar, he confirmed his suspicion.

That's also why, in the church's hidden quest, finding Ailin was equivalent to recovering the Sacred Scar.

If you found the Sacred Scar directly, all would be well—the Great Mother could keep pretending to be dead until Ailin fused with it, feigning she'd never appeared.

If you only found Ailin and gave her the Great Mother's blessing, the Great Mother could use the necklace as a proxy to reclaim the Sacred Scar.

As for why the Sacred Scar went missing, the reason likely still lies with Ebert.

In the Starlight Lighthouse, Ebert's connection to the church never broke; Wu Chang reasonably suspected that this double-crosser had told the church everything that happened on the island.

Jermain needed the Seven Sins; the church wanted to purge Ailin's Seven Sins—perfectly mutually beneficial.

So the church played along, sending Ailin over to let Jermain complete his plan.

Once Jermain truly severed the Seven Sins from Ailin, turning her into a perfect vessel, the Great Mother could descend using Ailin's perfected form and personally cleanse the corruption from the Sacred Scar.

The Ailin—no, the Great Mother within her—stopped pretending.

Her black robe transformed into a pure white gown; the halo above her head became a wreath of flowers, resting on her forehead.

Green grass and flowers sprouted beneath her bare feet; where she walked, holy chants echoed and warm light glowed.

"An amusing ant. No matter how you deduced this, what will you do now?"

"Kneel and kiss my feet, offer me your devotion for immortality—or will you follow the pitiful Jermain, become a blasphemer, and meet his fate?"

Wu Chang scratched his head. "Can I choose both?"

In the state religion of the Orgre Kingdom, the true Lord was omniscient and omnipotent; the most beloved saint, the Great Mother, was hailed as the Great-Knowing and Great-Powerful.

Even the Great-Knowing and Great-Powerful Great Mother was momentarily speechless. She frowned. "How do you plan to choose both?"

Wu Chang said, "I'll kiss your feet—and be a blasphemer at the same time."

The Great Mother blinked, then her expression turned icy.

Those who believe in me gain eternal life; those who reject me descend into hell.

Since Wu Chang had made his choice, she had no intention of wasting words.

Watching the Great Mother's cold, disdainful, and disgusted gaze, Wu Chang suddenly felt even more certain.

Seeing her prepare to strike, he raised his palm to signal a pause.

The Great Mother: "Mortal, it's too late to change your choice now."

Wu Chang shook his head. "I just want to ask—right now, is your consciousness inside the Sacred Scar, or inside the necklace you blessed?"

"What do you mean?" The Great Mother felt an inexplicable surge of irritation.

"Nothing. Just don't want to accidentally damage it. By the way, you're in such a hurry to reclaim the Sacred Scar—didn't you notice something's missing?"

As he spoke, a chess piece appeared in his hand.

It was the Proof of Pride, still uninserted into the corrupted idol. "Item Name: Proof of Pride"

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Description: Holding the Proof of Pride allows free entry into the special space—Domain of the Dominator. Within the Domain of the Dominator, one is regarded as a Divine Envoy. The Divine Envoy may freely select one attribute as the standard to judge a target. If the target's attribute is lower than the envoy's, the target falls under the envoy's dominion."

He activated the Proof of Pride and became the Envoy of Pride.

The Prideful sin lies in disrespect toward the divine—disrespect means believing one's own radiance is no lesser than that of the gods.

At this moment, Wu Chang fully embodied the original sin of Pride.

Within the Domain of the Dominator, as the Envoy of Pride, his body radiated light equal to the Great Mother's.

For a moment, it was impossible to tell who was the true god.

Ailin, as the vessel for the Great Mother's descent, had been crafted from the Great Mother's own template.

The Great Mother's defining trait? Size.

!

Perhaps to suit popular aesthetics, the Holy Mother was only big where it mattered — her heart and mind were magnanimous, but her muscles and build were not large.

So Wu Chang bet that the Holy Mother did not excel in strength.

He chose to use Strength as his judgment attribute and unleashed Dominating Power on the Holy Mother.

If the Holy Mother's attribute was lower than his, she would fall under his domination.

How high was his Strength attribute?

140 points!

In the Wasteland Realm, let alone the Holy Mother, even if the Valkyrie herself came, she might not have such an overflowing value!

"Target's Strength attribute is lower than the Divine Envoy's. Judgment passed. Target has fallen into a dominated state."

Wu Chang pointed his finger at the Holy Mother and shouted: "Hold!"

The Holy Mother was as if she had truly been hit by a Body-Fixing Spell, her body frozen and unable to move.

If this were placed in a certain island nation, the academic term for it would be the "Time-Stop Series."

The Holy Mother looked at Wu Chang with surprise in her eyes, unable to believe that she, a mortal, could be controlled by a mere mortal!

While maintaining his Giant Whale transformation, Wu Chang shrank his body back to ordinary human size for ease of movement.

He walked up to the Holy Mother, looked at her trapped in the dominated state, and a wicked thought rose in his heart — facing the sacred Holy Mother, there was something he had long wanted to do.

Right in front of the Holy Mother, he pinched a strand of her hair, then slipped it into her nostril and gently tickled.

As he tickled, he also issued a command: the Holy Mother was not allowed to block her sense of touch, nor use any method to forcibly endure it.

Watching the Holy Mother want to sneeze but forcibly restrain herself to maintain her dignity, he felt his whole being elevated.

Satisfying!

A few minutes later, Wu Chang finally grew tired of the tickling game and contentedly let go of the hair, now glistening with crystalline liquid.

On the other side, when the Holy Mother looked at Wu Chang again, a rare trace of fear surfaced in her eyes.

A demon!

The man before her was absolutely a demon born of nature!

Even a true evil god couldn't do something so outrageous — starting off playing like this, what he would do next, she didn't dare imagine.

She felt some regret. She had thought that obtaining the Holy Stigmata, stripped of the Seven Deadly Sins and essentially complete, would be enough to make this powerful mortal submit.

She hadn't expected to have miscalculated again.

Having played enough, Wu Chang stretched lazily and asked:

"Jermaine tried to tempt me with a hidden side quest, and you tried to tempt me with immortality, but I refused both. Do you know why?"

He stared into the Holy Mother's eyes and found the answer there.

"Becoming a god? No, no, no, you've got it wrong. Even if I were to become a god, I'd do it with my own strength. Man-made divinity is too crude — I wouldn't even look at it."

The Seven Deadly Sins represent human desires, but isn't the whole point of being alive to satisfy one's own desires?

He, Wu Chang, was no ascetic, and never believed in binding himself for any cause. A person lives one life — to enjoy it.

Taking Eileen's path, abandoning all negative emotions and the Seven Deadly Sins — one might not even feel alive anymore. How could such a thing be called a god?

Taking Jermaine's path, focusing only on the Seven Deadly Sins — that's too extreme; one would easily become a madman or a pervert.

Moreover, even true gods are merely beings who operate on the second and third layers of the Abyss, not truly immortal.

Just like the evil god Lehman — once he came to the Wasteland Realm, he still got his eyeballs gouged out.

The Abyss Game has already shown him a path to the supreme. How could he possibly be interested in such a narrow back road?

He looked at the Holy Mother and said:

"There are always self-important fools who think that, by virtue of their status or ability, they have the right to control others' fates. What I love most is saying no to creatures like you."

The Holy Mother mobilized the power of the Holy Stigmata, barely breaking through part of the domination to regain her voice, and said in a flustered tone: "Mortal, I think we can talk."

Wu Chang clicked his tongue, sighed, and asked: "Do you still remember what I said when I drew the circle?"

The Holy Mother answered carefully: "You said that as long as one stood inside the circle, no demons or monsters could approach?"

Wu Chang shook his head. "Wrong. It was: as long as you step outside the circle, you'll meet a violent end."

(End of this chapter)