Chapter 374: Indestructible Holy Flame

"You?" Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing turned to the priest, their eyes filled with doubt.

During their escape, they had asked the priest about his specialties; according to his own description, he was a player specialized in dungeon clearing, with high inspiration and willpower, suited for exploring dungeon plots.

In plain terms, he was a survival-type player.

Yet having survived his way into the top hundred of the combat rankings meant he had reached the peak of survival-type players.

With his abilities, he was never suited for direct combat, and his obscure inspiration specialty further lowered his physical attributes.

Now trapped within the Steam Rule, his combat power was arguably the lowest among all players—what could he possibly do?

Xiang Jianxing's gaze at the priest grew strange—could it be that this guy had been playing them all along, selectively revealing his abilities, and only now revealed his true self because he couldn't hide it anymore?

Seeing their hostile expressions, the priest quickly explained.

His class transformation was called Divine Covenant Priest; his ultimate skill differed from other class transformations—not a transformation or status-boosting combat skill, but one that communicated with the deity of the dungeon dimension, forming a Divine Covenant to borrow the deity's power.

The activation requirements for his ultimate skill were complex: first, the dungeon dimension must have a religion; second, the religion must worship a genuine deity—for example, the original Saintly Church of Stilran could not respond to his Divine Covenant.

Then, the worshipped deity must be powerful; if merely an ordinary native deity, the power lent to him would be minimal.

Finally, and most crucially, a Divine Covenant—by definition a covenant—is mutual: he borrows power from the deity, and afterward must offer corresponding repayment.

Though the skill's usage was so complex, the combat power gained upon successful covenant formation was equally substantial.

As long as the Divine Covenant was formed, during its duration, he could gain power comparable to that of top-ranked players.

As the apex of survival-type players, merely "joining when outmatched" was insufficient to place him among the top hundred of the combat rankings.

Previously, during dungeon clearing, he had sensed the presence of two deities—their auras frequently appeared in the dungeon dimension, easily identifiable as belonging to the Church of Serenity and the Apocalypse.

For the evil gods of the Believers' Circle, the priest dared not lightly taint himself; covenants with them were grossly unequal treaties, and the borrowed power often carried side effects—he'd rather use items to escape the dungeon than deal with these evil gods.

But just now, as he gazed at the Gray Church, he sensed the aura of a third deity.

Affected by the deity's aura, his class's ultimate skill—previously unusable under the Steam Rule—flared to life.

This meant the entity was not merely a demi-god with a seed of divinity, but a true god whose divinity had awakened—only true divinity could break through the dimensional rule's blockade.

More importantly, the divinity within the Gray Church was warm and serene; through his inspiration, it felt as if he were lying on his back in a spring meadow, bathed in gentle spring breezes—utterly unlike the dark, twisted, hallucinatory evil gods of the Believers' Circle.

Moreover, as the price for borrowing power, the deity demanded only three missions of proselytizing across dimensional realms.

Such a cost was practically a gift to him.

"So, I just activated my class's ultimate skill and borrowed the deity's power."

Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing stared at the priest in surprise—players from the Wasteland Realm truly hid dragons and tigers; they never expected this unassuming priest they'd casually rescued could borrow divine power.

The priest said, excitedly:

"The power I borrowed from that deity can temporarily dispel the Steam Rule around us—do you have any high-speed movement skills? If so, prepare now."

Xiang Jianxing infused energy into Chang Feng; the sword qi rippled, coalescing into two sword qi avatars that hovered beneath Leng Shan and the priest. "I'm ready."

Leng Shan no longer held back—he increased his energy output, thrusting both hands forward, summoning three walls of ice condensed from the Source of Cold, blocking the anti-magic bullets fired from afar.

Hearing Leng Shan also held nothing back at this moment. He increased his energy output, thrust both hands forward, and three ice walls condensed from the power of the cold origin rose from thin air, blocking the demon-breaking bullets fired from afar.

The priest did not hesitate—he immediately activated his energy and used the borrowed divine power.

The Divine Covenant activated; it felt as if a black hole had opened within him, devouring his stored energy at an terrifying speed.

In a single breath, he lost ten percent of his energy.

The energy consumption was horrific—but the effect was entirely worth it.

As energy poured in, a white holy flame appeared above his head; the moment it emerged, the oppressive fog surrounding the three instantly dissipated, and even the air grew noticeably fresher.

The three felt lighter—under the protection of the white holy flame, they were temporarily unaffected by the Steam Rule, and all their skills functioned normally.

Xiang Jianxing formed a sword seal; his flying sword lifted the three, transforming into a streak of light as it shot toward the Gray Church slums.

With the white holy flame clearing their path, the three moved with exceptional ease, covering five hundred meters in seconds, entering the slum district before the Executioner could make his next move.

Upon entering the slums, the three instantly sensed the difference.

As Xiang Jianxing had said earlier, the slum area was like another world compared to the outside Grimlan.

The Gray Church slums were not only quiet and peaceful, free from the filth and disorder common in most of Grimlan, but also completely unaffected by the Steam Rule.

Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing exchanged glances—if conditions were like this, perhaps they could win.

The only problem now was how to lure the Executioner inside.

Before they could devise a plan, they saw mist surging outside the slums—the Executioner, driving his steam carriage, smashed through the ice wall Leng Shan had left behind, accelerating without pause straight into the slum zone.

Upon entering the slum area, the sudden disappearance of the Steam Rule stunned the Executioner—but he did not retreat; he continued driving until he stood before the three.

The Executioner stepped down from the driver's seat of the steam carriage, looking down at Leng Shan and the others.

Leng Shan looked up at the Executioner, whose height exceeded four meters, and asked Xiang Jianxing beside him:

"If I'm not mistaken, didn't he grow larger?"

Xiang Jianxing replied: "He has indeed grown larger."

Although Ailin's divine realm could block the influence of the Steam Rule, it could not prevent the First Law of Esotericism in the dungeon dimension.

After the battle on Bai She Street, countless transcendents and ordinary people had developed fear of the Executioner, believing it invincible.

Amplified by this collective perception, the Executioner's power had further increased—even without the Steam Rule, his strength had reached boss-level.

That was why he dared to ignore Ailin's divine realm and chase them all the way in.

Though Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing marveled at the Executioner's growth, whether they could win still depended on actual combat.

The two coordinated their attack, as always, with Xiang Jianxing striking first.

Without the Steam Rule, the filament-like sword qi surrounding Chang Feng could be fully unleashed; the swirling qi spun like a drill, driving toward the Executioner's chest.

This time, the Executioner did not let the flying sword pierce his chest—he swung his serrated long blade, slicing through Chang Feng mid-air.

The two clashed; the Executioner's Steam Source power surpassed Xiang Jianxing's, and Chang Feng could not resist—it was knocked flying by a single blow.

Leng Shan's attack followed immediately—he did not summon ice spikes this time, but instead condensed a mountain of ice that rose from beneath the Executioner's feet, sealing him entirely within.

Leng Shan's attack followed immediately; this time, he did not summon ice spikes, but instead condensed a Bingshan, which rose from beneath the Executioner and sealed him entirely within.

Ice mountain solidified, with countless sharp ice spikes gathering toward the Executioner from its surface, resembling a giant ice version of the Iron Maiden.

Facing Leng Shan's attack, the Executioner demonstrated astonishing adaptability again; though his body was temporarily controlled by the Ice Origin Force, it did not freeze.

Red patterns flickered across his skin, just as when he consumed large amounts of coal jade on Bai She Street—vast heat catalyzed into massive Steam Origin Force, instantly melting the surrounding ice.

The ice cones prepared to pierce the Executioner melted before they could reach his body, swallowed by the steam.

The Executioner did not rush to break the ice mountain; instead, he raised his left hand in place, and now his left hand had transformed again into a flesh-and-blood spear, its muzzle thicker than when it had been on Bai She Street.

Moreover, this flesh-and-blood spear, inherited from the Spear God, had devoured enough flesh and blood of transcendent beings during prior battles; even the threat radiating through the ice mountain was enough to make Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing's hearts tremble.

The power contained within the spear's muzzle could level the entire Grey Church Slum.

In the world of transcendent beings, the power within the Executioner's muzzle was a non-radiation transcendent nuclear weapon.

A single ice droplet fell from Leng Shan's temple; the current scene was undoubtedly the worst scenario in dungeon clearing—being utterly crushed by the boss's raw power with zero room for maneuver.

Without needing to communicate, he and Xiang Jianxing simultaneously pulled out items to forcibly exit the dungeon and activated them. Abandoning the world dungeon would bring heavy losses, but as long as they lived, everything remained possible.

As the exit item glowed, a flash of white light blinded them; when their vision returned, they faced the Executioner's dark, gaping muzzle once more.

What the hell?

Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing strained their eyes, realizing it was no illusion—they had not moved from their spot.

After careful inspection, they saw a prompt pop up before them.

"Due to special rules, players cannot forcibly exit the dungeon at this time. Please leave the current area and try again later."

After a brief freeze, the usually calm Leng Shan slowly exhaled one word.

Shit!

He Ping only said the Grey Church Slum blocked Steam Rules—he never said it could also block players from exiting the dungeon!

If Wu Chang could hear what Leng Shan was thinking inside, he would surely reply:

How novel—the Grey Church Slum is Ailin's divine realm, a deity's exclusive territory, where even the realm's own rules cannot interfere. Do you think a god cares about face? Players come and go as they please.

Leng Shan was truly panicked now; though he had faced life-or-death crises multiple times during past dungeon clears, he had never reached this dead end.

What made him even more resentful was that if he poured out all his strength and still failed to clear the dungeon, only to lose at the boss's hands after uncovering its truth, he could at least die like a breaker of the system.

But in the Steam Phantom dungeon, he had slacked off almost the entire early phase, spending half the dungeon as a mole—before he could even act, the dungeon boss had slammed right into his face, ready to crush him with absolute power.

This death without any sense of participation was more unbearable to him than death itself.

If Leng Shan died here at the Executioner's hands, his resentment would be at least purple-red level.

But in Ailin's divine realm, even dying wasn't that easy.

Though Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing could not see it, a wall of white holy fire had already risen before them.

This ability, forged from divine power and involving mid-tier deity rules, was sufficient to block all of the Executioner's attacks.

Receiving the legacy left by the Great Mother, she had begun mastering the Unyielding Holy Fire Force—this was Ailin's gain during her time in the slum.

Through these days of healing in the slum, Ailin's understanding of both herself and her abilities had greatly improved.

On the Quiet Town realm, when she was in Ogui'er Wang Cheng, she often visited various parts of the city, aiding the impoverished lower-class masses.

But back then, she was still the Holy Maiden; the places she went were, to some extent, restricted, and she never saw the world's true darkness.

In a sense, she had always been under some form of protection, never truly knowing what the world was like.

Though she would never say something as absurd as "Why don't they eat meat if they have no grain?" like Emperor Hui of Jin, or "Why not eat cake if they can't afford bread?" like Marie Antoinette, she would still say, "See a doctor when sick, seek help from the church when facing hardship."

Due to her limited perspective, Ailin's understanding of the world was shallow—put kindly, she believed "goods grow automatically on shelves."

If she did not truly understand the rules and order of the world, how could she comprehend the power to control them?

Thus, her understanding of the Archangel's ability had long been stuck in a bottleneck, with no breakthrough.

But after this period of experience, as she continuously interacted with the lowest-tier poor and communicated with them, she began to realize that some people truly had nothing—many things she took for granted were as unattainable as climbing to heaven for others.

She began to understand the fundamental rules of societal operation, and through them, sensed the Steam Rules drifting above Gremlan.

Through the realm's Steam Rules, she saw the Archangel's ability to govern the world's order, and based on her grasp of the Archangel's power, she touched upon the Unyielding Holy Fire.

Now, Ailin possessed genuine Archangelic power and had reached the peak of a lower-tier deity.

Outside her divine realm, she still needed to respect the realm's rules and restrain herself.

But within her divine realm—such as against a figure like the Executioner—she could flatten him or mold him as she pleased.

For a lifeform like the Executioner, who had long transcended humanity, she felt no pressure whatsoever when acting.

Just as Ailin worried the explosion's noise might disturb the slum dwellers' rest and considered eliminating the Executioner outright, she suddenly sensed something and halted.

At the very moment the Executioner's barrel ignited, about to unleash its fire, a voice like thunder descended from above.

"Man!"

Wu Chang descended from high above, using his strength value to smash his elbow like an axe through the ice mountain, half-melted by Steam Rules, and struck the Executioner directly in the face.

The Executioner staggered—he did not understand why, as a mechanical lifeform, being hit in the head by an elbow still made him dizzy, but he was indeed dizzy.

Not only dizzy—he was flung dozens of meters by the elbow's 300+ strength, crashing through the ice mountain and rolling along the ground; in his dazed state, the shot condensed in his muzzle naturally dissipated.

Wu Chang retracted his elbow and turned to Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing: "Good thing I made it in time."

Leng Shan warned: "Be extremely careful—that guy isn't an ordinary Steam Councilor."

Although Leng Shan had heard that He Ping once repelled the Joyful One who descended into the Wasteland Realm, he had only heard it—he had never witnessed it himself.

No one knew how much power the Joyful One retained after descending into the Wasteland Realm under its rule suppression.

He had not seen the descended Joyful One, but he had truly seen the S-rank near-uncontrollable dungeon boss, the Executioner—seen him casually fire one shot to kill over ten top-tier Wasteland Realm players and dozens of dungeon-native transcendent beings.

Such lethality was impossible even for players returning from the Li Realm, capped at the current world pillar's limit.

Moreover, the Steam Phantom was the Executioner's home turf; even He Ping, if careless, might still fail.

Wu Chang nodded, his gaze returning to the Executioner, filled with excitement.

On the Executioner, he had rarely seen Blood Testament—deep crimson Blood Testament.

Entering the Steam Phantom dungeon, the resentment he'd seen mostly came from trash mobs, offering only intel—this time, at last, he saw something worthwhile.

The Executioner had killed over a hundred Transcendents on Bai She's main street. Whether it was because those Transcendents died too quickly, or because of the influence of the Plane Rules, only a dozen or so vengeful grudges clung to the Executioner, and none had reached deep crimson.

The only two blood-colored testament-level deep crimson grudges on the Executioner both came from somewhere other than Bai She's main street.

One of the two grudges' owners was a man named Versatile Hand, whom the Executioner had killed during a previous hunt of Transcendents.

The other was someone Wu Chang knew — it was the Gun God, who had used anti-magic bullets to assassinate Nestor's and Marca's clones.

Because of him, Wu Chang had led people tonight to wipe out the entire Conservative Party leadership, turning them all into Sun Dolls. When he went looking for the Gun God, he couldn't find him and thought the Gun God had escaped. He never expected that the Gun God had just finished playing the Hunter, taking out Nestor's and Marca's clones, only to immediately become the Executioner's prey.

The blood-colored testaments within the two men's grudges were extremely pure — both demands were 【Get rid of the Executioner, avenge me.】

He liked these kinds of pure players. Their grudges were simply about revenge, none of that flashy nonsense.

The negative example was his cousin Schultz. The blood-colored testament Schultz left behind — he still had no leads on completing it.

Setting aside the two men's revenge grudges for the moment, Wu Chang quickly rifled through their grudges and discovered a common point between them.

Both men's abilities were compatible with the Steam Rules, unaffected by the Steam Rules, and able to exert their full strength.

This was their advantage, but it also became the reason the Executioner had targeted them.

By fusing with Versatile Hand, the Executioner transformed from a half-human, half-mechanical modified human into a pure mechanical lifeform.

By fusing with the Gun God's arm, he also inherited the Gun God's ability to turn his flesh into a gun.

Combined with the reminders from Hearing Leng Shan and Sword Star behind him, he also saw the anti-magic steam punch-press core embedded in the Executioner's face.

This three-piece set, paired with the Steam Rules, could be called a Transcendent quality-remover. No wonder it could run a one-click sweep on Bai She's main street, easily killing over a hundred Transcendents.

He refused Hearing Leng Shan and Sword Star's offer of help and strode toward the Executioner.

Versatile Hand's and the Gun God's abilities were good — he wanted them.

(End of this chapter)