Chapter 140: Seizing the Wick

Inside the gravekeeper's wooden hut, Wu Chang, following the method Han Er had described, released the crow bearing an iron ring marked with the number 44 on its leg.

In less than an hour, the sound of unhurried hoofbeats came from the distant woods; a bell hung around the horse's neck, its chimes clattering rhythmically with the carriage's swaying motion.

A carriage, entirely black down to the pure-black horses pulling it, appeared before the gravekeeper's hut.

A man dressed in black leaped down from the carriage; his robe was open at the chest, revealing a large tattoo of the Flame of the Soul.

This man in black was a retriever of the Hunguang Sect Sect, specialized in recovering corpses awakened by the power of the Blood Moon.

Wu Chang lifted the felt cloth on the ground, revealing five living corpses whose heads had been smashed open yet whose bodies still twitched faintly.

"They are all here."

"So many?" The retriever was startled; usually, they recovered corpses one or two at a time, and seeing three appear simultaneously was a rare sight.

With five living corpses resurrected at once, if they regained consciousness halfway there, he would be hard-pressed to handle them alone.

Wu Chang said without changing expression, "The graveyard has been lively these past two days; unusually many things have crawled out."

In reality, he had dug up all five corpses himself using the Soul-Cleansing Banner, searching plot by plot, and to make up the numbers, he had even visited the adjacent Plot 45.

These five living corpses were dug up and had their heads smashed before they could even fully wake.

The retriever took out a crystal; the moment he placed it upon a living corpse, the crystal instantly turned red.

Clearly, the retriever had his own method for verifying corpses; trying to pass off ordinary corpses as living ones would not fool them.

Seeing all five corpses glow red, the retriever's expression improved slightly; he glanced at Wu Chang and said, "Ten gold coins per corpse, fifty in total; someone will deliver them to you by tomorrow evening."

"Wait, that number doesn't seem right," Han Er said, walking out of the gravekeeper's hut.

Seeing Han Er, the retriever asked strangely, "Why haven't you left yet?"

Han Er moved closer and whispered, "The day we agreed upon is the day after tomorrow; how could I leave now?"

The retriever nodded, finding Han Er's reason quite valid, and said, "I'm not lowballing you; the Blood Moon energy within these corpses is very faint, all of them are defective goods, but for your sake, I'll still count them at twenty gold coins each."

"Since you're here, and there are too many corpses in the carriage for me to watch over alone, come with me to deliver them back."

"No problem. Xiao En, stay and mind the place; I'll go with him for this trip." Han Er waved to Wu Chang and began helping the retriever load the corpses onto the carriage.

By the time the two finished loading the living corpses and drove away, the retriever had completely failed to notice that an extra person had slipped into the carriage compartment.

Wu Chang's true self had already activated Social Anxiety Disorder and traveled along with the carriage toward the Serina City District.

The carriage sent out to recover living corpses did not enter the Hunguangda Cathedral directly; instead, it circled the city several times before finally entering an underground passage via a small path.

At the end of the underground passage lay a massive crypt styled like a tomb chamber, where seven or eight carriages of the same model were parked, all having just finished recovering living corpses and now queuing to unload.

Judging by the direction the carriage had taken, they were currently located beneath the Hunguangda Cathedral.

When Wu Chang had previously used his spirit form to scout the Hunguangda Cathedral, he had specifically searched the top floor and the underground levels, discovering a total of four secret chambers, two of which were underground, both boasting security protocols superior to those of the chambers on the top floor.

During his earlier reconnaissance, he had failed to find a route into the secret chambers, never expecting that entry required coming through the underground tunnels outside the cathedral.

While the retriever and Han Er were unloading their cargo, Wu Chang slipped behind other retrievers and sneaked deep into the crypt.

Inside the crypt, activity was bustling; retrievers could be seen dragging living corpses into individual workrooms for disassembly and reassembly, and after four or five processing stages, firing them into special bricks.

These special bricks were the source of the awe-inspiring power within the Hunguangda Cathedral.

The special bricks were loaded onto carts and handed over to clergy members dressed in white pastor robes, who transported them to designated areas to gradually replace the ordinary stone bricks.

As a new cartload of living-corpse bricks came out of the kiln, a bare-chested retriever struggled to push the cart to the delivery point.

The pastor taking the bricks was frail; he grabbed the cart's handle and pulled hard, yet initially failed to move it at all.

"Doyle, why are today's bricks so heavy?"

Doyle, the retriever thus named, wiped sweat from his brow and replied with equal puzzlement, "Perhaps the bones inside the bricks are just particularly heavy."

The pastor exerted force again, nearly throwing out his back in the effort, before finally managing to drag the cart away.

The pastor brought the cart to the edge of a lift platform, pulled the entrance lever, and then rang the bell three times.

Three corresponding bell chimes sounded from above the lift platform, followed by the grinding noise of mechanical gears as the platform slowly ascended.

Ringing the bell three times signified a request to go up three levels.

Passing the second underground level, Wu Chang sensed a familiar aura; he disembarked from the cart and leaped from the lift platform down into Underground Level Two.

Due to the existence of the secret chambers, security on Underground Level Two was much tighter; every dozen meters or so along the corridor, two sturdy guards could be seen.

Not only were there many guards, but their quality was also high; judging by their aura, each guard possessed stats approaching those of a level 20 player, and each carried a device capable of triggering alarms.

Even if Lei Hu were here, he would be unable to force his way through the corridor without triggering the alarms.

However, while the guards were physically strong, their perception was much weaker, making them completely unable to detect Wu Chang, who had activated both Social Anxiety Disorder and Advanced Stealth.

Wu Chang strode boldly through the corridor, then crouched behind a stone door at the corridor's side; two minutes later, the stone door at the corridor's end opened, and a patrol of guards marched out, allowing Wu Chang to slip through the doorway and enter the main area of Underground Level Two.

Upon entering Underground Level Two, his perception of the objects stored within the secret chamber grew increasingly clear; following this familiar sensation along the corridor, he soon arrived at a ritual hall.

In the center of the ritual hall stood a massive altar, upon which rested a brazier over ten meters in diameter, where deep crimson flames brimming with vitality danced like living creatures.

Having witnessed the New Year's Eve celebration during the "Peace Year After Year" dungeon instance, Wu Chang was no stranger to this scene.

The flames dancing within the brazier were precisely the Year-End Fire!

The formation on the altar was nearly identical to the Great New Year's Eve Formation arranged in Huai Valley Village.

In Huai Valley Village, maintaining the Year-End Fire bonfire required the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lamps; naturally, maintaining the Year-End Fire brazier on this altar would also require corresponding artifacts.

And that artifact should be located within the secret chamber deep inside the ritual hall.

The ritual hall was extremely spacious, with only two pastors sitting by the entrance tasked with guarding the brazier; their job was simple, requiring them only to glance occasionally to ensure the flames had not extinguished.

It was currently two or three in the morning, the time when people are sleepiest; the two pastors were nodding off with heads bowed, completely unaware of anything happening inside the ritual hall.

Nevertheless, to be safe, Wu Chang delivered a knife-hand strike to the back of each pastor's neck, sending them into a deep sleep.

He crossed the hall and approached the stone door that had been blocking his spirit-form detection.

Installed on the stone door was a rotating mechanical combination lock; one had to turn the discs on the lock, aligning all discs simultaneously to the correct patterns, to open it.

There were five discs in total, each bearing twenty different runes.

There was no keyhole on the door, nor any magical aura or electronic components inside; this purest form of mechanical lock would make any master locksmith scratch their head in frustration.

With the password designed to such a degree, presumably only Hearing Zhanghuo within the entire Hunguangda Cathedral knew it. Wu Chang released his spirit body, ascended along the lift platform, and soon discovered Hearing Zhanghuo on the cathedral's upper levels, leading a group of nobles in prayer.

This meant there should be no one else in the secret chamber before him; it was the perfect moment to enter.

Trying to deduce the password was unrealistic, but failing to deduce it didn't mean one couldn't guess it correctly.

He retrieved from his personal space an item unused for some time: "Fortune Goddess's Favor."

He activated the item's skill, usable once per plane: Loaded Dice.

Three dice were thrown, all landing on one simultaneously; this result triggered the item's other skill: Strong Luck.

"Item Skill: Strong Luck."

"Throw three dice; when all display the number one, you gain the Strong Luck state, increasing the success probability of your next luck-related choice. The enhancement effect depends on your Inspiration value."

He pressed all five fingers onto the five dials simultaneously and flicked them downward at once.

The five dials spun together, then stopped simultaneously; at the instant they halted, accompanied by a faint click, the secret chamber's door opened.

Even the finest combination lock cannot withstand a lockpicker guessing correctly.

!

Just as Wu Chang had anticipated, a small altar stood inside the secret chamber, upon which floated a peculiar flame, red streaked with gold.

That sensation resembled Year-End Fire, yet it burned far more intensely than ordinary Year-End Fire.

Influenced by the flame, the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern within Wu Chang's personal space grew restless; he took out the lantern, and a prompt appeared before his eyes.

"Detected the wick of the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern. The lantern and its wick attract each other. Choosing to retrieve the wick will reunite them into a single entity."

"Note: This wick is in a bound state. Upon initiating retrieval, a permission contest judgment will commence against the original owner to determine ownership of the complete Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern. Both parties will be compared based on their Willpower and Inspiration values; the party with the higher sum of these two attributes will erase the opponent's soul imprint on the item."

"Retrieve the wick of the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern?"

Was there even a need to think? Compared to other attributes, Wu Chang might hesitate, but regarding Willpower and Inspiration, he had never feared anyone in the Wasteland Realm.

"Retrieve the wick!"

As the command to retrieve the wick was issued, the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern soared upward, its body hovering above the wick, rotating slowly.

The red-and-gold flame danced joyfully, like a wanderer about to return home, swiftly plunging into the lantern's body.

Simultaneously, Hearing Zhanghuo, who had been leading the nobles in prayer, suddenly stopped; his eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the prompt appearing before him.

"Note: Your Year-End Fire Lantern wick is currently fusing with the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern. Due to a binding permission conflict, a permission contest judgment will automatically initiate in ten seconds. The permission contest judgment will make a final determination based on the sum of both parties' Willpower and Inspiration. If the judgment fails, you will lose ownership of the Year-End Fire Lantern wick."

Several nobles watched Hearing Zhanghuo, who had suddenly frozen motionless, unsure what had gone wrong; one noble stepped forward to inquire, "Hearing Zhanghuo Sect Leader, you..."

"Silence!" Hearing Zhanghuo, having no time to deal with these natives now, turned half his face toward the noble and shouted coldly, instantly startling the man into silence.

The system had granted him only ten seconds of preparation time; disregarding the gazes of the others, he retrieved seven or eight consumables from his personal space.

Among them were Heroic Potion and Iron-Heart Solvent, which increased Willpower, as well as Alchemical materials like Blood of the Wireless Puppet and Owl Heart, which increased Inspiration upon use.

Hearing Zhanghuo cared nothing now for the value of these consumables, their side effects, or whether their effects conflicted with one another.

Only one thought occupied his mind at this moment: he absolutely could not allow the opponent to seize the wick!

In the eyes of the nobles, Hearing Zhanghuo, usually mature, steady, refined, and amiable, now appeared as if possessed by a devil, frantically devouring various strange substances.

Consuming potions of different colors in succession was one thing, but bloody animal hearts and viscous, foul-smelling brownish-green blood—he stuffed them into his mouth without blinking, swallowing in great gulps.

The Sect Leader, always sacred and merciful in public, seemingly possessed a completely different side in private.

Several nobles instinctively huddled together, trembling; they knew they had seen something they shouldn't have, wondering if closing their eyes now and claiming they saw nothing would still be in time.

Hearing Zhanghuo swallowed all the consumables in one breath, finally managing to raise his Inspiration to 53 points and his Willpower to 42 points just before the permission contest judgment began.

These values would be formidable not only in the Wasteland Realm but even on the second layer of the Abyss.

What a joke; did they not know what Hearing Zhanghuo did for a living?

You foolish fellow, how dare you compare Inspiration and Willpower with the Sect Leader of a sect?

Nevertheless, thanks to the opponent's death-defying sense of humor, his lost Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern had been recovered; ever since the "Peace Year After Year" dungeon was broken that day, he had expended great effort searching for the thief who stole his lantern, yet failed to find him, never expecting the culprit to deliver himself to his doorstep today.

Truly, one searches in vain wearing out iron shoes, only to find it effortlessly when it arrives.

"Countdown complete; initiating permission contest judgment."

Hearing Zhanghuo rubbed his fists together, preparing to impose some intensity upon the opponent, intending to inflict soul trauma while seizing the permission.

But before he could gather his spiritual power to brace for the impending soul collision, he felt a sharp pain erupt within his head, as if someone had inserted an egg beater into his brain and begun stirring rapidly.

"Permission contest judgment concluded. Due to the excessive disparity between both parties, you have lost ownership of the complete Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern and sustained certain soul trauma; your maximum Willpower and Inspiration are permanently reduced by 5 points."

"You damned thief!"

Hearing Zhanghuo's features twisted together from the excruciating pain in his mind; tears of blood streamed from his eyes as he shouted in grief and indignation.

Losing the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern was far more than merely losing an item for him; this was akin to gouging out his kidneys!

His name was Hearing Zhanghuo Saint; this was not merely his name, but also the name of his class specialization.

The Hearing Zhanghuo Saint was a class that manipulated flames; the stronger the flame he wielded, the greater his power. Year-End Fire was the flame most suitable for him and the one that could maximize his abilities.

The loss of the Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern had already affected him significantly, yet he could still comfort himself that he had lost only the lampshade, while the true wick remained in his hands.

Once he harvested the Hunguang Sect, he could take the wick and fit it with a new lampshade.

Who could have expected that the thief who stole his Four-Direction Year-End Fire Lantern, before he could track them down, would instead haunt him like an unquiet spirit, following him all the way to steal his wick as well!

This was simply too insulting; since the opponent dared to show themselves, Hearing Zhanghuo swore he would fight that damned thief to the death!

"Guards!"

Hearing Hearing Zhanghuo's cry, a squad of patrol guards entered.

"I have received a revelation from the gods; He tells me that the sacred artifact He bestowed upon His believers has been stolen by a despicable heretic! Immediately seal all exits of the entire Hunguangda Cathedral; do not let even a single fly escape. Then, take men to the underground Sacred Fire Altar and capture the thief who stole the sacred artifact!"

"Yes!"

Upon hearing that the sacred artifact had been stolen, the entire Hunguang Sect erupted in turmoil; if you stole the sacred artifact, how could they perform the Rebirth Ritual in the future?

It must be remembered that priority access to the Rebirth Ritual for staff family members was written explicitly in the recruitment notice!

They must capture that damned heretic and then hang him from the Hunguangda Cathedral!

(End of Chapter)