Chapter 189: Something Down Below

Shift left, shift right, shift sideways, shift up and down, shift in circles, write characters while shifting... forget it, too difficult, Seeing Ange had never written characters before...

The white ghost held up its two little hands like that, drifting along behind the holy light, chasing after it. Only when Seeing Ange finally stopped teasing it did it let out a soulful sigh of relief, contentedly guarding the holy light's side, "roasting" its own little hands.

"Roasting" was just a figure of speech — in reality, it was basking in the holy light's radiation, but it didn't dare make direct contact with the holy light, as it wouldn't be able to bear it.

Seeing Ange only found it amusing, but Lord Nai Ge was completely baffled by it: "Sacred... ghost? Kuabada, there's such a thing?"

Sacred Skeletons, Holy Light Corpse Witches and the like can still be artificially created, but a Sacred Ghost? Who would make something like that?

A naturally formed Sacred Ghost — isn't that just like "bright" darkness? That's not theology.

Apart from this little ghost, the plaza remained deathly silent, with nothing at all. As time passed, the howling in the air gradually grew quieter. Looking up, that breach was slowly shrinking, and before long it would close completely.

After a dozen or so minutes of treatment, Bai Hou had recovered, and the torn wing membrane had healed. Seeing Ange withdrew the holy light.

Oh dear, this panicked the little ghost badly. It circled Seeing Ange's hand in a frenzy, and finally, in its desperation, hugged Seeing Ange's hand and tried to twist it outward — perhaps thinking that twisting this hand would reward it with holy light.

However, a ghost had no strength to twist Seeing Ange's hand. After twisting for a long time with no result, it finally became so dejected that its entire form radiated an aura of despondency.

Seeing Ange lit up a single fingertip. The little ghost jolted awake and pounced straight onto it. Because the holy light on the fingertip wasn't intense, it even directly hugged Seeing Ange's finger.

It was only a tiny bit of faint holy light, costing no effort at all, so Seeing Ange just kept it going.

"Seeing Ange, take out two heavy-armored zombies and have them walk in front," Lord Nai Ge said.

Two heavy-armored zombies were brought out — one shield-bearer and one swordsman. They shouldered their two-handed swords and shields respectively, and marched in neat formation ahead.

Xia Mala's nose twitched, as if she had sniffed out the aura beneath the armor, and muttered: "Undying heretics..."

For a pure saint like her, destroying heretics was an instinct carved into her very bones. But a voice inside her was desperately telling her: Don't move rashly, moving rashly means death! Don't move rashly, moving rashly means death!

The heavy-armored zombies cleared the way ahead, with Seeing Ange and Bai Hou following behind. After a few steps, they noticed that Bai Hou walked with its wings clamped together, its rear wiggling from side to side like an old hen, very clumsy.

Lord Nai Ge said helplessly: "Put it back. Having a dragon walk on the ground is too much to ask of it."

The situation here was unclear, and it couldn't be allowed to fly — who knew where there might be defense towers or the like that could blast it out of the sky with one shot.

Bai Hou was returned to the Resting Palace, leaving only Seeing Ange and Xia Mala here. Of course, there was also that little ghost.

The entire Sacred Heaven was empty. Leaving the Gods' Plaza, they walked straight along the Holy Light Avenue to the end, then circled around the surrounding buildings — nothing could be seen, not even any defenses. The two heavy-armored zombies swaggered along ahead, walking this holy heaven avenue, yet not a single holy light struck them down in judgment.

"Looks like it's truly dead through and through — not even an automatic defense function, nothing but a layer of barrier membrane. But a membrane is dead, how can it defend against the living?" Lord Nai Ge sighed.

Seeing Ange ignored it, and instead turned back to glance at Xia Mala in confusion. From not long ago, he had felt Xia Mala's emotions constantly fluctuating, anger steadily building up, like a live volcano on the verge of eruption.

Sure enough, Xia Mala's eyes were filled with rage, and the breath she exhaled carried black flames of fury.

Lord Nai Ge noticed at this point too, and hurriedly asked: "What's wrong with you?"

"I want to slay the gods," Xia Mala said word by word, gnashing her teeth, her eyes wide with fury.

Seeing Ange instinctively stepped back two paces and summoned the Death God's Scythe to be on guard.

Xia Mala demanded angrily: "What are you dodging for?!"

"You want to slay the gods," Seeing Ange said. He was an undying god, squarely within the category Xia Mala wanted to slay.

"It's none of your business. I want to kill every single one of the Light Gods!" Xia Mala said word by word, as if swearing an oath, and the black holy flames on her body suddenly swelled by another fraction.

Lord Nai Ge was somewhat baffled: "Why on earth would you swear such an oath out of the blue? This is a God-Slaying Oath, you know — failing to complete it is very troublesome."

"They deceived everyone. There's no heaven, no happiness. This place isn't meant for the living," Xia Mala said, raising her hand to point at the surrounding buildings.

"Hiss, now that you put it that way — yes, this isn't a world for the living. The Light Gods are liars. What about those believers who were guided up to heaven? Where did they go?" Prompted by Xia Mala, Lord Nai Ge came up with a chilling thought.

In the Holy Light Scriptures, devout believers, after death, would be guided to a heaven where the ground was covered in grain and the riverbeds flowed with honey. There was no sickness, no hunger, countless handsome men and beautiful women...

But coming all this way, there were all manner of buildings, but absolutely no grain, no honey rivers, and none of what the living needed — not even a place to light a fire and cook.

Could it be that the grain covering the ground had to be eaten raw?

If this place simply wasn't heaven, that would be one thing. But the Gods' Plaza, the Holy Light Avenue, the Light Dome — everything matched the scriptures' description exactly. This was heaven.

Then the question arose: where were the believers who had been guided to heaven?

If they had been arranged to go somewhere else, that would be one thing. But the greater possibility was that there had never been any guiding at all, and all the believers had been disposed of by them.

Xia Mala was so angry she didn't hesitate to swear a God-Slaying Oath — clearly, she had already found her answer.

"It was that voice inside you telling you again, wasn't it? Sigh, why don't you ask me first before swearing oaths willy-nilly? What if the Light Gods are gone — how will you slay them? What if you can't complete the oath?" Lord Nai Ge said.

Whether soul oaths or God-Slaying Oaths, they were things with both gain and loss. A soul oath established a soul connection, linking one to the sovereign's soul network, allowing one to borrow the sovereign's power at any time.

Take Ouke, for example — he had never learned magic, yet through fanatical faith, he borrowed Seeing Ange's power and killed Hermeltos.

Although Hermeltos was somewhat watered-down, he was still a god — don't look down on a Bug God just because he's a bug god.

The God-Slaying Oath was the same — it consolidated Xia Mala's conviction, causing her divine power to become more condensed and her strength to greatly increase, but this came at a price. Failing to complete the oath would have very serious consequences.

But now the Light Gods were all gone — where would Xia Mala go to complete her oath?

Xia Mala said with a strange expression: "Although I appreciate your concern, there's no need to worry. My oath has no time limit."

"Pfft..." Lord Nai Ge nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood. Thinking back on it, indeed, there was no time limit in Xia Mala's oath — meaning it didn't matter whenever she completed it.

"Who would have thought — you look so fair and delicate, yet you've learned this trick too." Lord Nai Ge hadn't expected that someone as pure as her would also resort to such sly tricks.

Xia Mala smiled faintly: "This trick has been around in the Church for many years. I simply disdained to use it, but now it doesn't matter anymore."

That last "doesn't matter anymore" gave Lord Nai Ge a very heartache feeling. Before, she had only been disappointed in the Church of Light; now, she was disappointed in the entire Light itself.

A fanatic believer had become an oath-sworn god-slaying apostate.

Lord Nai Ge sighed inwardly, not knowing what to say, and just walked along silently. This continued until they finished their big circle and returned to this end of the Holy Light Avenue.

This end of the Holy Light Avenue passed through the Gods' Plaza, ending at a magnificent temple. Climbing the long flight of steps to the entrance, they saw the empty temple entrance with a lone sculpture standing there.

This was a sculpture of a Holy Spirit angel, about 1.4 meters tall, wings spread wide, mid-stride, face raised to the sky, one hand slanting upward as if shouldering something, as though ready to fire at any moment.

Whether the expression on its face or the wings on its back, everything was vivid and lifelike down to the finest detail, like the work of a master sculptor.

Similar sculptures could be seen everywhere here — around the Gods' Plaza stood sculptures of the gods, nothing unusual. The only thing was that this sculpture was a bit more detailed and stood at the doorway, somewhat blocking the way.

Seeing Ange was about to walk around the sculpture, but as he passed beside it, he suddenly stopped and said hesitantly: "It's real."

"Real? What's real?" Lord Nai Ge asked, puzzled.

"A real Holy Spirit, petrified," Seeing Ange said.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si projected his consciousness over, delving deep into the statue's body, and indeed 'saw' distinct structures of flesh, blood, and bone — a sculpture could not possibly have carved out all these internal details.

"It's real after all, not stone — it actually petrified? What happened?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si exclaimed in surprise.

If this were a true Holy Spirit, then given its height plus wings, it would be at least a Six-Winged Great Angel.

And the shape of its single pair of wings also matched Lord Nai Ge Li Si's guess — angels only have one true pair of wings; whether four-winged or six-winged, the remaining wings are light-wings, so they vanished after petrification.

Why would a Six-Winged Great Angel be petrified here? Was the Heaven invaded? Or was there some other reason?

This is a Six-Winged Great Angel that could actually fight Jian Gu Luo Ke.

"It seems to be carrying some kind of weapon — look around, is there a weapon nearby?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said as if suddenly thinking of something.

However, he was overthinking — the surroundings were completely empty, nothing at all. Perhaps some force was at work; even dust was gone, spotlessly clean, the kind of place where even a street sweeper would be out of a job.

Annoyed, Lord Nai Ge Li Si cursed: "Carry the statue off, damn it — this Heaven is poor as a ghost, no weapons, no gear, no treasure, no food, nothing left but some buildings that can't be moved. This trip is a total loss."

Seeing Ange stored the petrified angel away.

Continuing inward, they entered the temple.

Finally, inside this temple, they discovered something different — rows of stone-coffin-like objects, placed in one of the temple's chambers.

Seeing Ange lifted one open — ah, indeed a coffin. A slender, pristine-white skeleton lay quietly within.

The current God of Knowledge had long since updated his knowledge of such skeletons, recognizing at a glance that it was a Holy Remains.

"All one-meter-ninety first-tier angels, useless." Seeing Ange already had several thousand such Holy Remains on hand — no use at all.

Speaking of Holy Remains, Lord Nai Ge Li Si immediately thought of those planted in the ground: "Right, those Holy Remains used to plant souls — have any intelligent souls been born from them?"

Seeing Ange shook his head.

"That hard?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said disappointedly. They had already been away from the Rest Abyss for nearly a year, and over a thousand Holy Remains still hadn't given birth to a single intelligent soul?

Not just the Holy Remains — the ordinary skeletons planted later also failed to produce intelligent souls. Is the birth of an intelligent soul really this difficult?

Then why did Seeing Ange pick up two so casually?

Besides Holy Remains, Seeing Ange also found some metal eggs, fist-sized, with intricate holy runes inscribed on their surfaces.

"Holy Spirit Armor? This many?" Before him sat a pile of crates, each crate holding six eggs, twenty crates in total — and many more crates were empty.

"One hundred and twenty sets of Holy Spirit Armor — a huge haul! Quick, pack them up; at least we won't go back empty-handed." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said joyfully.

One petrified angel statue, one hundred and twenty sets of Holy Spirit Armor — these were all of Seeing Ange's gains. Over the next few days, Seeing Ange combed every corner of the entire Heaven, finding nothing else.

"Impossible — didn't you say the guy who stole your divine power was on a plane where the wind blew one night? Could it not be here? Where's the guy who stole your divine power? Could it be this little fellow?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si looked at the little wraith on Seeing Ange's finger — the only thing in the entire Heaven that could move.

Of course, a wraith fighting a false god for divine power — even a fool knows that's impossible. So who was fighting Shamara for divine power?

Shamara shook her head and said firmly: "It's right here, it's hiding from us."

"Hiding from us? Why would it hide from us? Something that can fight you for divine power — wouldn't it jump out and drive us away instead of hiding?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si exclaimed.

Shamara said, puzzled: "Why wouldn't it hide? Even if I were ten times stronger, facing an existence that can blast through barriers, I'd hide too."

That made perfect sense. Putting oneself in its shoes — if it were him, he'd definitely hide too. Who would dare take Jian Gu Luo Ke head-on?

"If that's the case, the Gods of Light definitely didn't return — at most they were reborn, or perhaps newly born deities. So what do we do now? If it keeps hiding, we can't find it."

The Holy Heaven was no small place — nooks and crannies everywhere, buildings connected in all directions. If someone was determined to hide, without a thousand or so people, it would be very hard to search them out.

Obviously they couldn't just wait here. Go back first and figure something out — but for now they still had to wait until night, when the Rest Wind blew, to see if it would tear another breach.

Waiting around was boring. Seeing Ange looked at the greenery and gardens on the Plaza of the Gods, his hands itching. Without a word, he ran over, summoned his scythe, and in a few strokes felled a great tree.

"I... you... forget it — you want to chop down the garden to plant vegetables, right? What you just cut down is a divine tree. Since you've cut it, don't waste it — store it away." Lord Nai Ge Li Si was so annoyed he didn't want to say anything more.

But it was fine — there were quite a few divine trees in the garden; chopping them all down would count as a haul. If Seeing Ange hadn't chopped them, he wouldn't have remembered that every plant here was actually quite valuable. Since there was nothing else, might as well chop trees.

"The floor tiles are pretty valuable too — these holy runes, this material — sell them to Anthony, he'll definitely love them. How about you dig up a few tiles too?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si suggested.

Seeing Ange vigorously felled all the divine trees; a few he even uprooted entirely, moving them into the Palace of Rest to see if they could be replanted alive.

A pile of floor tiles on the Plaza of the Gods were dug up by him too, intended to be brought back and sold to Anthony. But as he dug, he discovered there was something beneath the plaza.