Chapter 105: The assistant priest

The thick white mist in the high sky blocked most of the light, keeping the entire dream ruin in a dimness like dusk.

Lu Mi stood up, looking toward the bloody "mountain peak" while moving his hands and feet, examining his own state.

Compared to "Hunter," "Provoker" had slight improvements in strength, reaction, speed, and agility, but not by much.

Lu Mi felt the changes were mainly in three aspects:

First, his body was sturdier, and his recovery ability seemed to have improved significantly;

Second, his spirituality had increased to a certain extent. For example, he could only maintain the possession state for three minutes before, but now he could increase it to four minutes;

Third, he had obtained the Beyonder ability named "Provocation."

It could bring about permanent state changes and must be actively triggered to produce the desired effect.

The former referred to Lu Mi's insight ability having a qualitative change, far exceeding ordinary people, allowing him to effectively perceive which languages, behaviors, and things the target was more sensitive to, and in which aspects they were more easily angered.

Once "Provocation" was actively used, it would combine with insulting language and humiliating behavior, causing the communicable target to lose their reason.

The more targeted the insulting language and humiliating behavior, the better the effect of "Provocation," but even just a "piece of shit" could make people angry to a certain extent.

For guys who couldn't communicate, "Provocation" would make Lu Mi radiate a feeling that they loathed.

This ability was very compatible with the traps and ambushes that "Hunters" were good at, but for the current Lu Mi, its practical significance wasn't as great as he had expected.

He didn't have time to do more hunting; he just wanted to further explore the "city wall" area around the bloody "mountain peak" and solve the secret of the dream ruins.

By comparison, the increase in spirituality and the sturdiness of his body made him even more joyful, at least he could delve deeper into that dim area that would make people fall asleep.

Relying on the improvement brought by the "potion," Lu Mi raised his hand to pinch his temples on both sides.

This time, he activated "Spirit Vision" very smoothly.

He finally possessed a simple action to toggle "Spirit Vision."

Without any delay, after calming his mental state, Lu Mi changed his clothes, brought the "Fallen Mercury," the iron-black axe, and the cloth bag containing cheese and biscuits, strapped on his hunting rifle, exited the semi-underground two-story building, and walked through the wilderness in the faint gray mist permeating this area, entering the ruins.

He followed the familiar route, bypassing areas where monsters might exist, and advanced step by step.

After delving into the area where he had encountered the three-faced monster earlier, Lu Mi began to dance, half-activating the black thorn symbol.

Relying on this "amulet," he traversed an increasingly dangerous environment, scaring away several terrifying monsters.

Finally, he arrived before that thorny "city wall" composed of various houses aggregated together.

After thinking for a few seconds, Lu Mi chose a direction.

He prepared to go to that area that seemed to be shrouded in darkness, where one would want to sleep as soon as one entered.

His intuition told him that there was indeed a high probability of having something quite important behind that high wall composed of twisted trees, but the place that felt like night had fallen was more likely to hide the secret of the dream ruins.

After all, "night," "sleep," and "dream" were words that were often connected.

After a while, Lu Mi, who had danced another ritual dance, arrived at the place that was clearly much dimmer than the surroundings.

He slowly let out a breath and stepped in firmly.

Almost instantly, Lu Mi felt as if he had come from a foggy day to a cloudy dusk, with many things in the surroundings only remaining in outline.

Holding the "Fallen Mercury," he began to yawn while walking.

"Can't sleep, can't sleep!" Lu Mi supported himself forcibly and continued to move forward.

Along the way, he didn't forget to observe the rooms that existed in a disorderly manner on the "city wall," but failed to find anything that hid the secret of the dream ruins.

As for things like gold coins, he could no longer care about them.

After walking for several tens of meters and delving into this place, Lu Mi's eyes could only remain open through sheer willpower, and intense sleepiness occupied his mind.

He thought for a moment and decided to retreat, first explore behind the wooden wall, and then enter this area that made people want to sleep from another direction.

That would likely help him explore places he couldn't reach currently.

Lu Mi turned his body and walked back a few steps, but that sleepiness didn't fade; instead, it became more severe as time passed.

Finally, he couldn't support himself, closed his eyes, and slowly fell down.

His vision went completely dark again.

…………

Lu Mi's abdomen suddenly felt intense pain, making him unable to help but curl up his body and open his eyes.

The first thing that caught his eyes were the magnificent murals, the circular arched ceiling, followed by the assistant priest's face with its serious expression and hooked nose, and Pons Bénet's right fist being retracted with a ferocious smile.

I was caught and brought to the church? Lu Mi wasn't unfamiliar with the scene above at all and instinctively observed his surroundings.

He saw Raymond's father, Pierre Clegg, saw Ava's father, Guillaume Lizier, saw the neighbor Louis Bedek, and saw almost all the villagers.

He also saw that the altar had become unrecognizable. Placed there were no longer various sunflowers, but things symbolizing that hidden existence, such as lilacs and tulips.

The sun holy emblem behind the altar didn't know where it had gone, replaced by a twisted thorn ring that seemed to have black liquid flowing on it.

As soon as he saw this familiar symbol, Lu Mi felt a bit dizzy, and his chest felt slightly hot.

He knew very well that this was a manifestation of the contamination within his body being slightly stimulated but failing to seep out the blue-black symbol.

The assistant priest and the others directly turned the church into an altar for that hidden existence? Saint Sics really was wronged too much... Lu Mi suspected that if Valentine saw this scene, he would go berserk on the spot.

Tied up tightly, he tried hard to look around again and found that those stained-glass windows and the murals describing the greatness of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" and the missionary acts of Saint Sics were unaffected and still existed.

It seems this modification was done very hastily... Lu Mi roughly figured out the situation in the church.

At this time, the villagers were all very quiet, quiet as if they were wax statues.

The assistant priest observed Lu Mi's performance for a while, turned his head, and said to Pons Bénet:

"How can you let him stay asleep?"

"As soon as you brought him back to the church, you should have woken him up, no matter what method you used!"

"I know." Pons Bénet looked at the assistant priest with eyes full of extreme humility, as if this were the god he believed in, his master.

Lu Mi leaned against a pillar, looked up at Guillaume Bénet, and asked:

"Where is Aurora?"

The assistant priest smiled:

"You'll know in a moment."

"What about those three outsiders?" Lu Mi, while his thoughts raced, pondering ways to escape, looked for topics.

Guillaume Bénet looked outside the stained-glass window, his expression relaxed as he said:

"They escaped. They should have reached the nearest alpine pasture by now."

"However, don't expect them to come to save you and Aurora tonight. Based on my understanding of the officials, they will choose to drag things out, watch, and wait in everything, waiting until the situation is confirmed before taking action. Sometimes, they would rather do nothing than do something wrong. I was delayed by them for more than ten years of my life."

Lu Mi had to admit that the assistant priest's words had some truth, but the reason Ryan and the others were watching and waiting absolutely wasn't this.

He knew that without knowing what the evil god believers were trying to do by capturing him and Aurora, Ryan and the others wouldn't take radical actions for the time being. For example, they wouldn't trigger the cycle by leaving Cordu Village. They still wanted to wait for the arrival of the twelfth night to see what exactly had caused the problems here, thereby laying a solid foundation for escaping the predicament later.

Seeing Lu Mi silent, the assistant priest smiled even more obviously.

He said in a tone of notification:

"I intend to complete the ritual tonight."

Ah? Lu Mi was somewhat bewildered.

Guillaume Bénet was in a good mood and explained patiently:

"I'm preparing to move the ritual on April 9th to tonight. Those three outsiders won't have a chance to come and cause trouble."

What? The twelfth night can be moved forward? Lu Mi was surprised, astonished, and inexplicably terrified, to the point where he couldn't speak.

At this time, the assistant priest Guillaume Bénet turned his head and said to Pons Bénet:

"Before sending him to the altar, you must watch him and not let him sleep. I allow you to use any method, as long as you don't kill him."

Pons Bénet asked with full anticipation:

"What if I kill him?"

"We will all die together!" The assistant priest glared at his brainless brother.

Sending me to the altar to restart that ritual? That blue-black symbol on me can play a role again? Lu Mi listened to the conversation between the Bénet brothers, and his heart calmed down a bit.

The assistant priest turned his gaze back, looked at Lu Mi's face, leaned down, and said:

"Don't worry, you are not the container; we have a better choice."

A better choice? Lu Mi felt a shock in his heart and followed the assistant priest's gaze, looking toward the original altar position.

Aurora didn't know when she had appeared there. She had changed into a simple white robe, her golden hair draped down without any decoration, and her light blue eyes were hollow and lifeless.

"Aurora!" Lu Mi shouted.

Aurora was like a statue, without response.

The assistant priest nodded with a smile:

"That's right, your sister is the better container."

"Your role in the ritual is to help us move the date forward, without having to wait for that specific moment, without having to wait for the changes in the constellations."

Lu Mi listened, both terrified and bewildered:

Why can I help them move the twelfth night ritual forward?

The assistant priest leaned down once again, looked into his eyes, and smiled with full anticipation:

"Because the vast majority of the gifts we pray for are within your body."

What? How does he know? Lu Mi's pupils instantly dilated, wanting to see Guillaume Bénet's face more clearly.

The assistant priest Guillaume Bénet moved his head forward, leaned into Lu Mi's ear, and whispered with a laugh:

"You don't think only you and Pualis can retain memories in the cycle, do you?"

ps: Seeking monthly votes~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 106 =====