Chapter 842: The Importance of Knowledge

In the city of Morola.

The two exiles dueling suddenly dropped their longswords and clutched their necks.

A trickle of blood seeped from between their fingers.

The onlookers beside them and passersby on the street also froze, as if their heads were being yanked upward by an invisible hand, gradually tearing the muscles at their necks.

Within the boundless graveyard near the Knowledge Church, all the trees burst into crimson flames, and the soil above the graves writhed as if something sought to crawl out.

The clouds high above thickened, stained the color of fire.

At the peak of the Peak of Corpses.

Albus Medici's neck also stabbed with pain; his hand struggled weakly to lift, attempting to press against it.

He understood what was happening and did not hastily turn his head to look directly at "0—01"—that would bring severe contamination and might snap his neck, detaching his head from its position!

Albus slowly turned his body to face "0—01," yet closed his eyes.

At the same time, he heard rustling, clattering sounds across the wasteland.

Lu Mi saw the undead soldiers clad in iron-black full armor rising one after another, their eye sockets glowing with flickering crimson or pale flames, while the massive violet-flame vortex high above was being torn and smoothed by invisible force.

The anomaly finally manifested.

Albus did not hesitate; he immediately made his skin take on an iron-black hue, transforming his entire body into a metallic puppet.

He maintained his closed-eyed state and stepped closer to "0—01."

During this process, his neck stretched dramatically; the steel-film skin was pulled into countless fine metal threads, while deep, horrifying incisions appeared on the iron-black flesh and bones, and bright red blood oozed out at visible speed.

In just a few seconds, Albus Medici reached the side of "0—01," released his powerless right hand from his neck, and let it, dripping its own blood, extend toward the charred banner.

As another "Hunter," Albus possessed strong spatial imagination and targeting ability; moreover, the flag of "0—01" was violently flapping, roaring, and emitting sounds that reached Albus's ears, making it easy for him to pinpoint its location.

Of course, direct contact with the true body of "0—01" would bring real contamination—this could not be avoided merely by not seeing it—but Albus now had no other choice.

As soon as his hand reached the charred banner, he heard a "snap"—the sound of his metallic neck's steel skin being completely torn apart.

He immediately altered his form, shifting from a metallic puppet into a humanoid flame of blue.

This caused the blood on his palm to evaporate rapidly.

Albus, while guarding against a sudden attack from Lu Mi, accelerated his movements, continuously flinging the mostly evaporated crimson blood forward.

Across the wasteland, Lu Mi moved among the undead soldiers, his palm simultaneously burning hot and icy cold.

He dared not gaze at "0—01," so he did not know Albus's current actions, but he could roughly guess the man was making a final desperate move.

"This won't work—this situation has already slipped beyond your control…" Lu Mi muttered, choosing not to interfere.

He was more concerned that if he truly "teleported" beside the "Salingel Blood Flag" to stop Albus Medici from dripping blood onto it, he might trigger a hidden trap.

Given the current situation, Albus could very well adopt another strategy—since he could not achieve his intended goal, he would eliminate all competitors, making his own side the dominant faction, then use that advantage to reposition.

Thus, Albus was likely pretending to drip Medici family blood onto the "0—01" flag, actually luring Lu Mi into stopping him, thereby seizing the chance to kill the last competitor.

At the peak of the Peak of Corpses, Albus's humanoid flame form had been stretched severely, the upper and lower halves nearly separating.

Simultaneously, the light he emitted dimmed considerably, like an ordinary flame doused with a bucket of icy blood.

Snap. Albus heard the faint sound of a droplet striking the flag.

After over a thousand years, Medici family blood once again fell upon the charred banner of "0—01."

Yet, no additional change occurred.

This was within Albus's expectations—after all, the resonance had not yet reached its limit, while "0—01"'s awakening had far exceeded thresholds.

Albus's desperate act of leaving blood on the charred banner was primarily to plant a future seed, to make preparations.

The next instant, Albus, existing as a humanoid flame, felt an excruciating pain at his brow.

A strange force extended from "0—01," seemingly seeking to assimilate him into its own flame.

Albus whirled around, opened his eyes, and gazed toward the wasteland.

He must kill Lu Mi before being absorbed by "0—01"—eliminate the last competitor!

"That trash bin actually held his ground and didn't stop me from smearing blood onto '0—01'…" Albus felt regret, yet his flame-eyes "reflected" Lu Mi's figure.

Lu Mi smiled at him, activated the black sigil on his right shoulder, and vanished from his spot.

Albus made no effort to hide his disappointment and regret, reverting to human form.

His neck was split open, exposing white bones and blackened veins.

He immediately activated the crystal necklace wrapped around his wrist, causing it to explode.

Boom, boom, boom—the successive explosions of crystals formed a deep vortex before Albus; within its depths lay a profoundly dark, nearly lightless world, covered by a glass-like barrier.

That special mirror world.

In this emergency, unable to leave Morola directly, Albus Medici chose to leap into the dark vortex before him, falling toward the special mirror world.

At this moment, his neck was nearly severed, his cervical vertebrae exposed.

He plunged into that special mirror world, vanishing into deep darkness.

The dark vortex beside "0—01" was instantly ignited by invisible, colorless flames and vanished entirely.

In midair, the blue flame Albus had maintained quickly extinguished; the last traces of Julie's tainted blood continued falling, touching the charred banner.

Across Morola.

Nearly ten thousand heads, dragging white, blood-smeared spines, flew through the sky, while their headless bodies sprinted wildly through the streets.

In the graveyard, countless skeletons crawled from underground, dense and uncountable, their eye sockets burning crimson or pale flames.

Crimson "rain" fell from the sky, capable of igniting buildings and humans.

Inside the Knowledge Church, the Archbishop of Morola, Hera Beige, clad in a plain white robe edged with brass threads, stood before the open stained-glass window, sensing the walls subtly melting.

He sighed softly and raised his hand.

…………

In the underground mausoleum, upon the disturbed wasteland.

Lu Mi "teleported" to the side of the Peak of Corpses.

His legs, barely able to support his weight, was about to sit down against corpses and bones when an invisible force pulled him, slowly lifting him upright, guiding him toward the cluster of undead soldiers.

He needed no effort—he had no strength left to exert.

Lu Mi did not resist, did not struggle; only his self-awareness remained his own.

The burning pain and icy rot in his right palm kept him barely conscious.

"Just don't rip my head off my neck—everything else is fine…" Lu Mi muttered inwardly, listening to the brass talisman recounting knowledge, and, relying on external force, continued advancing toward the gathering force as a puppet of "0—01."

The current situation matched his expectations almost exactly.

Had he read even one less book beforehand, his head and body would already have been separated.

Knowledge is power. Knowledge is wealth!

After several seconds, the sky above suddenly darkened, and darkness surged back into the area.

"0—01" seemed gripped by an invisible hand; its trembling and shaking began to subside.

The flames across the area extinguished one by one; silent, icy darkness once again ruled this place.

"The Knowledge Church has finally suppressed '0—01''s anomaly… if it holds for a while longer, I'll truly become a puppet…" Lu Mi quietly exhaled, feeling the darkness like an invisible, icy current seeping coldly into his body.

The "Mingdao Man" sigil on his right palm emitted a stronger sensation of rot than before, helping him resist the encroachment.

Lu Mi "teleported" back to his preselected position and sat weakly against the corpses and bones forming the peak.

He closed his eyes and, in this lightless, pure darkness, focused intently on the knowledge streaming from his earpiece.

…………

In Trill, at the sacrificial plaza beside the third-level entrance of the underground crypt.

After answering Jianna's question, the faint, holy female figure vanished before her eyes, as if merely a fragment of a hallucination.

Jianna shook her head, her gaze returning to reality, meeting Franca's concerned expression.

"When I ascended, I seemed to sense Lady Clarismona again, and even exchanged a few words with Her," Jianna carefully recounted her experience to her companion.

"Sss," Franca asked curiously, "Are high-tier angels truly dead but not gone?"

"What did She say?"

Jianna immediately felt embarrassed:

"She said she must reconcile with her mirror-self, since they are one and the same. She said, she said her father was… the 'Blood Emperor'…"

"Huh?" Franca was both shocked and bewildered. "Why would She tell you that?"

Jianna felt even more embarrassed:

"I asked. I didn't think—I just blurted it out…"

"Is he really the 'Blood Emperor'? Then it's not your hallucination—this answer, you couldn't have conceived even in a hallucination," Franca whispered, growing increasingly excited.

"Damn, what do you mean I couldn't have thought of it in a hallucination? Uh, yeah, who'd ever guess?" Jianna instinctively replied.

Franca immediately clapped her hands together:

"That's an excellent question! Excellent! This information is extremely important!"

Her eyes gleamed as she said:

"Lu Mi previously suspected that the special mirror world was created by the 'Blood Emperor' Arista Tudo to combat the 'Primordial Witch,' and that the Tamara family may have played a crucial role.

"Now it seems this theory must be discarded—perhaps the special mirror world was jointly created by the 'Blood Emperor' Arista Tudo and the 'Primordial Witch'!

"Otherwise, how could a true god of the 'Hunter' path, lacking mirror magic, have created such a unique mirror world?"

(End of Chapter)