Chapter 56

Leonard stared blankly as the qi blade pierced his protective aura and drove into his body; the intense pain felt unreal—how had he been dragged out of Divine Protection?

That was a high-tier divine spell, unbreakable by anyone except divine power.

Once, six angels unleashed Holy Radiance together, while an arcane mage cast an arcane spell at it, and seven or eight high-tier sword saints hacked at it from all sides—none could break it before Divine Protection faded.

The only drawback was its short duration—only a few dozen seconds—and the inability to move, but paired with a teleportation scroll, it was the ultimate survival technique.

He had paid a fortune to obtain it from Lord Gulliani—how could a gray bone skeleton reach inside it? Had he been sold a fake?

No matter how rich his imagination, he dared not think the skeleton before him possessed divine power—or was a god itself.

Am I going to die? Will I die? Waaahhh~! I don’t want to die! I’m a Divine Knight! I have so much money, so many lovers, so many things left to enjoy—I don’t want to die, waaahhh…

Feeling something slipping away, Leonard finally realized what was happening and broke into tears, faintly hearing a voice inside his mind scolding: Fool!

“Why are you crying? Afraid of dying? Don’t be. We’ll extract your soul, question you about what interests us, then let you die.” Lu Se comforted him, then, still uneasy, pinned Leonard’s legs, seized his hands, and clamped his neck before signaling backward.

Faelin walked over, pressed his index finger against Leonard’s brow bone, his middle finger against his temple, his thumb against his cheekbone, and chanted the incantation.

“Ahhhh!” The agony of soul extraction caused Leonard, on the brink of death, to briefly revive—he stiffened violently, but Lu Se held him fast.

A pale blue soul flame was forcibly pulled from his seven orifices; initially it flowed smoothly, but halfway through, it turned to black smoke. Leonard went limp, dead.

“Huh? What happened?” Lu Se asked in surprise. Was this a failure?

Faelin’s expression turned grim: “His soul was sealed. When someone tries to extract it, the seal dissolves it.”

Lu Se showed no reaction, but Lisa’s expression sharpened: “Who could seal the soul of a Divine Knight? Who can do this?”

Whoever it was, their power must far surpass Leonard’s—and this method wasn’t like the Church of Light’s. That meant Leonard’s master was someone Lisa didn’t know.

That was troublesome. The truly terrifying enemy was the unknown one.

Lu Se groaned: “Damn it! I didn’t know souls could be sealed. I should’ve held off killing him—extracted some intel first. This guy’s mouth is foul, but he’s a coward—he just cried like a baby.”

Faelin also sighed: “Careless. But there are still plenty of enemies here. While they’re fresh, let’s pick a few and soul-search them.”

Lisa shook her head: “Useless. These men are clearly Church of Light. Everything they know was already extracted from the two female priestesses Lu Se brought in. The dead one’s memories, cross-checked with the living one’s—no detail missed.”

She paused, then added: “Unless it’s the heavy-armored swordsmen killed by Lord Ang—maybe they knew something. But their souls were all reaped by Lord Ang.”

“Huh? Why say that?” Lu Se asked, confused.

“Can’t you see? The heavy-armored swordsmen aren’t the same as these holy knights and priests. And I’ve never heard of the Church of Light having a unit like this… Lord Ang! What are you doing?!” Lisa exclaimed.

As they chatted, Lisa happened to look toward Ang—and what she saw made her cry out instinctively.

Ang was plucking a soul flame from the Death Scythe and handing it to the angel skeleton. The little zombie already held a soul flame in its hands, gnawing on it—had already eaten countless ones. The Death Scythe now held only one soul flame left.

Lisa’s mind snapped into clarity—she screamed: “The heavy-armored swordsmen’s souls! Is that it! Lord, are those the heavy-armored swordsmen’s souls?!” She’d assumed souls reaped by the Death Scythe vanished—had they all been hanging on the blade?

Ang nodded.

“Too good! Don’t eat it! Hey hey hey! Gone!” Lisa cried out in frustration.

Just as she said “Too good,” the angel skeleton snatched the soul flame into its arms, eyeing her warily. When she said “Don’t eat,” the angel skeleton bit into the flame and slurped it all down in one gulp, as if afraid someone would steal it.

Thus, a soul flame—possibly holding precious memories—vanished into the angel skeleton’s mouth. All eyes turned to the last flame on Ang’s scythe.

“Don’t you dare eat it!” Lisa flung back her robe, adopted the fierce stance of a troll auntie, and lunged forward!

Having secured the last heavy-armored swordsman’s soul flame, Faelin chanted to extract its memories—but clearly, this was no easy task. His face twisted in agony, like he was constipated.

After a long while, Faelin collapsed, exhausted as if he’d run several marathons. Lisa, prepared, caught him.

Seems difficult? Ang tilted his head, glancing at the angel skeleton.

The angel skeleton was digesting the soul flame. Seeing Ang look over, it immediately spat out a small clump of impurities and offered it to him. To a soul flame, memories were impurities—this clump was pure memory.

Not so hard… Ang patted Lisa’s shoulder and handed her the memory-laden soul flame.

Once they understood what was inside, Lan, Lisa, and Faelin stared at each other. Especially Faelin—he’d nearly used every ounce of his strength, yet still couldn’t match a single angel skeleton?

Worse still, the little zombie spat out another clump of impurities and waddled over to Ang, holding it up, begging for praise.

Faelin was spent. These two clumps of impurity-flames fell to Lisa and Lan to process. After frantic effort, the two women uncovered information that shocked them.

“I’ll speak first, then you verify,” Faelin said. “These heavy-armored swordsmen aren’t designed to counter mages—they only suppress elements, yet are immune to holy light. They’re specialized to fight priests, holy knights, and Guangmingjisi . They have a specific name—Judgment Army.”

“Yes! Yes! Little Lu Se, drag a heavy-armored swordsman’s corpse over here—quickly!” Lisa said.

Called “Little,” Lu Se’s face darkened. Reluctantly, he dragged a corpse over, struggled to remove the tightly bound armor, and revealed a body wrapped entirely in bandages.

“The bandages are covered in holy seals—they’re made from burial shrouds,” Lan muttered, stepping back involuntarily, stunned.

Seeing these holy seals, she felt her own runes throb faintly—even though she’d lost all memory and no longer recalled that sensation.

None of the three liches dared touch the bandages. Lu Se had to tear them open himself, revealing a body with rotting skin. The stench confirmed what had been faintly noticeable—the odor came from the decaying flesh.

“Not dead. Alive,” Faelin said.