Chapter 514: We Now Belong to the Light Church

Ange summoned forth his scythe.

Great Xiao Gu summoned forth his shield-hammer.

Anthony saw this and quickly followed suit, summoning two one-handed swords.

Feti, seeing the situation, quickly followed suit as well, summoning his own scythe.

Abuke looked left and right, then quietly shrank back a few body lengths.

The carriage swayed a few times; the hanging curtain darted forward several times as if something were about to burst out, while at the same time, Lord Nai Ge Li Si's anxious voice came through:

"Don't go out, don't go out! A little girl appearing in a place like this is too conspicuous. Stay in the carriage for me. Ouch, don't hit my face! Silba, help me hold her back."

A clearly sleep-deprived, bewildered voice sounded: "What?... You called me? What for...?"

But it no longer mattered. That silver skeleton had already turned its cleaver around again, transforming it into a broom. While sweeping the floor, it twisted its head and swept toward the distance, slipping away, slipping away...

"Huh? It can run? Is this really a skeleton?" Feti flashed forward and dragged the silver skeleton back.

Surrounded in the middle, the silver skeleton looked left, looked right, obediently dropped the broom, and knelt down.

Anthony hesitantly asked, "Do you guys feel like this silver skeleton's intelligence is a bit high?"

"Yes, yes, yes! It's too smart. Is this still a silver skeleton? Even a golden skeleton wouldn't be this slick," Feti said.

Anthony asked, "What is your name?"

The silver skeleton raised its head and looked at Anthony in bewilderment.

Anthony quickly changed the question: "What are you doing here?"

"Purification." The silver skeleton seemed unable to use soul vibrations to produce sound in the air; instead, it spoke directly with its soul.

"Purification? Does that mean sweeping, cleaning?" Anthony asked in confusion. Why was the wording so 'holy'? One might think it belonged to the Light Church if they didn't know better.

The silver skeleton shook its head: "Purification."

"Oh, killing people counts too. Basically, you purify anything that doesn't belong to the temple—dust, enemies, trash, and so on, right?" Anthony asked.

The silver skeleton nodded.

No wonder it turned its weapon around to kill people as soon as it saw everyone: "Then why did you run?"

The silver skeleton said, "Can't win."

Even Lord Nai Ge Li Si inside the carriage couldn't help but laugh. What an honest skeleton! If you can't win, you run. Isn't that perfectly normal?

"You can't escape even if you run. What do you do if you can't escape?" Anthony teased it.

The silver skeleton looked left, looked right: "Spare my life..." A wisp of soul fire floated up.

"..."

Seeing Ange, Anthony, and Feti exchanged glances. This silver skeleton was too 'normal'! If you can't win, you run; if you can't run, you surrender. Yet, what place was this? The Temple of the Undead God. Being too normal here actually made it seem abnormal.

But regardless, the soul flame was real. Seeing Ange signaled Great Xiao Gu to receive it.

"It's a bit strange. High intelligence, yet no soul connection, and it's sweeping in such an important place. I can't quite figure it out." Lord Nai Ge Li Si poked his head out from the carriage to say, though his eye sockets were swollen.

Everyone knew who had done the beating and pretended not to see. The person who could swell up a bronze dragon with such high defense must have had quite a strong punch.

Silba also poked his head out and said, "Important my soul! If it were important, this place wouldn't be abandoned. The Old Undead built it and then left it alone. I haven't been here in many years either. Maybe no one was ever supposed to manage it in the first place."

Anthony asked the silver skeleton, "Are there other souls here?"

The silver skeleton nodded.

"Where?" Anthony asked.

The silver skeleton pointed at the ground, then arched its body, and its soul let out a piercing shriek.

Countless pale, gray-white hand bones pierced through the ground. Zombie skeletons pushed themselves up from the earth, looking around in bewilderment.

Anthony quickly said, "I'm not talking about these kinds of souls. I mean souls that can speak, stronger souls."

The silver skeleton pointed toward the center of the ruins.

"How many? How many are there?" Anthony asked.

The silver skeleton bent its fingers, counting one by one, and finally held up seven finger bones.

Silba couldn't help but sigh, "It's smarter than the stupid son of the ranch I used to stay at. That stupid kid could only count up to five; once it exceeded one hand, he couldn't count anymore."

"What caused this situation? Did it study at my temple? Was it inspired by the Enlightenment Halo there?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said in confusion.

"We'll know once we go in and take a look. There are seven souls; let's find a few more and ask." Anthony said.

However, Anthony was disappointed. Entering the temple ruins and searching around, he found four silver skeletons and three copper-skinned zombies. These were the existences with souls stronger than the first silver skeleton.

However, strangely, these silver skeletons and copper-skinned zombies all possessed normal levels of intelligence. They were not as smart as the first silver skeleton and knew nothing when asked.

"Why are you so smart? It's truly strange. From now on, I'll call you 'Great Xiao Gu' so you don't get mixed up with the other silver skeletons." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said in puzzlement.

Everyone searched around. Apart from these silver skeletons and copper-skinned zombies, not a single higher-level superior undead creature could be seen. This truly confirmed the meaning of the word 'abandoned'.

"No people is better; it saves us from unexpected incidents. I found the Reincarnation Altar. It is indeed abandoned, but the main components are still there. We don't need Du Luo Ken to fix it. Just give it enough soul energy and try to operate it," Anthony said.

Everyone came before the Reincarnation Altar. It was a two-tiered platform, raised two or three meters above the ground, now mottled and covered in thick layers of Xirang soil and dust.

"Fortunately, the Xirang soil is thick enough; otherwise, weeds would have grown all over and eroded it," Anthony said with relief.

Buildings in the Undead Empire last longer than anywhere else. The biggest factor is that plants, fungi, and the like cannot grow here.

They straightened some broken pillars, pieced together cracked stones, then infused soul energy and attempted to start the altar.

《Against the Heavens: The Evil God》

Damaged areas would automatically repair themselves during the altar's operation.

Of course, small missing parts could be automatically repaired, but large missing sections could only be fixed manually. However, this did not stump Anthony and Lord Nai Ge Li Si.

Since automatic repair was not needed for the future, they piled up some gravel, touched it with the Touch of Gold Rod, and quickly patched it up. Then, Anthony carved energy circuits onto it and made corresponding modifications to the Reincarnation Altar, enabling it to reincarnate both undead creatures and living beings.

Because the design of this Reincarnation Altar was so large, the workload was considerable. It took a full day to complete the work.

After placing a full twenty thousand soul crystals inside, faint soul fires rose from all the energy circuits of the Reincarnation Altar. The operation was successful.

Anthony said to Seeing Ange, "My lord, could you preside over this? Your exquisite control and spiritual power can increase the success rate of reincarnation by at least twenty percent."

Others took it for granted, but Silba and Abuk, who had never witnessed Seeing Ange's prowess, hesitated; with Seeing Ange's nature of minding nothing but planting vegetables, how could he possess such exquisite control?

Yet they dared not question, merely stepping aside silently: "You go first; your form is small, and your reincarnation will be swift."

"You go first; you are older and of higher seniority."

"No, no, no; I cherish the juniors. You go first."

"No, no, no; I respect the elders. You go first."

They pushed and pulled, nearly coming to blows.

In the end, it was Anthony who kicked Abuk up to reincarnate as the Black Knight first, since reincarnating a living creature required first removing the dragon corpse, undoing the petrification, and so on, which was very troublesome.

Seeing Ange followed Anthony's method: first this and that, then that and this, and finally this and that; a flurry of movements fierce as a tiger, and it was done.

Abuk shrank into a soul sphere as substantial as matter, black qi slowly expanding and contracting like breathing.

"Is this enough?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si poked his head out curiously to look. Having searched the vicinity and found no other creatures, he no longer needed to hide inside the carriage.

The reincarnation of the Black Knight had been discussed with Anthony years ago; many key difficulties were overcome under his guidance, yet this was the first time he had witnessed the actual reincarnation.

"It is ready. Once it adapts to the fluctuation between void and substance in this soul, it can condense a form and become the Black Knight. However, it is a dragon soul; its spiritual power is far too great, so it will require more time to adapt," Anthony said.

Silba could not help but exclaim, "It is too miraculous. The old immortal often told me he knew a very capable young man who mastered the technique of materializing the undead; that young man must be you."

"It should be me. I invented this technique. Thank you, Your Majesty, for the praise." Anthony politely placed a hand over his chest and bowed.

"My turn, my turn! I can hardly wait to become a living great dragon and no longer be trapped in this frail body." Having witnessed Seeing Ange's technique, Silba was no longer worried; instead, he grew eager.

Seeing Ange opened the Divine Realm and slowly moved the petrified dragon out. This was no easy task; the Divine Realm had its peculiarities. When activated, nothing could be moved within it, so only the petrified dragon inside could be moved out.

And that was a fifty-meter-long, several-thousand-to-ten-thousand-ton giant "stone block." Moving it was already difficult; to move it "without damage" was even harder. One could hardly undo the petrification only to find it missing an arm or a leg.

For anyone else, they would likely have to summon a hundred or so mages to cast Feather Fall spells and gently "lift" it. But here, Seeing Ange could handle it himself, though it would take some time.

It took five minutes and several thousand Feather Fall spells cast upon the petrified dragon. Anthony, Feiti, the Little Zombie, and Seeing Ange, stationed at the four corners, gently lifted the great dragon and moved it onto the reincarnation altar.

"It almost wouldn't fit. Fortunately, fortunately," Anthony said, relieved, looking at the petrified dragon with at least half its body still sticking out.

It was not necessary to place the entire thing inside the altar; as long as the topmost tier could accommodate the head and the heart, that would suffice.

Once positioned, Seeing Ange drew out the Petrification Crossbow, preparing to undo the petrification of the great dragon, when he suddenly looked up toward the southern sky.

He saw that in the southern sky, a squadron of undead cavalry was slowly treading through the air, followed by a hearse.

"Could it be such a coincidence? The lich we met on Death Prison Island? Quick, quick, hide the great dragon, hide it!" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said urgently.

"It is too late. Even if we hide the petrified dragon, this brand-new reincarnation altar will tell him that someone has been here," Anthony said, shaking his head.

"Then what do we do?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si had a headache.

"Hide to the side. Once they are attracted by the petrified dragon and descend to investigate, we will wipe them out in one strike and take them alive. By the way, quickly change identities; we are now of the Church of Light." After Anthony finished speaking, the soul armor on his body receded, and he frantically fumbled out a set of Battle Bishop's robes to put on.

----------Author's Note----------

Thank you to Youxian de Xiaoyu for the donation.