Chapter 236: The Beginning of an End

Even with demolition and forced dismantling, the three dealt with the problem swiftly, giving the lich no chance to act.

So after a brief moment of confusion, the lich finally reacted, screaming wildly, even the crown on its head tilted with anger.

"You! You have no martial ethics, I still have a bunch of evil magic I haven't had a chance to use!"

"You bastard, I'll harshly criticize you, I'll scold you till you go home to your mother!"

With his jaw broken and askew, he fell to the ground, trembling while cursing loudly.

"First, this very ill-mannered big tin can! You hit people but not the face, you scold but not the mother—how could you hit the face? Who taught you to start by smashing someone's jaw?"

"And that little dwarf over there, who's your magic teacher? Didn't he teach you that when dueling peers, you must wait until both sides are ready before acting?"

"And you, wow, don't think just because you're good-looking and play your instrument well that I won't scold you—I… you! Don't come over!"

The lich's bodily structure differs from humans'; even without a body, it can power spells using its soul fire.

So he quickly released a levitation technique, making his head wobble and float up, preparing to flee.

"Hey, you can still play with spinning your head, huh?"

Yet how could he escape Ji Ming's grasp? Though he indeed flew out, he was caught again after just a few meters.

"Damn it, I'll fight you to the end!"

Unable to endure the insult, the lich began casting, but before it could finish the first syllable of the incantation, a violent shake interrupted it.

Moreover, he heard that man start to scream loudly.

"Damn it! He's about to self-destruct, I can't stop him—I'll just annihilate him!"

"What?"

"If this head is gone, I'll just spend a few years slowly regenerating using the Life Box."

"Who the hell wants to self-destruct? Let me go quickly!"

But he only managed to let out a gasp before seeing what lay ahead grow brighter and brighter.

Just as he thought he was about to be silenced, the surroundings suddenly went dark again.

After an unknown amount of time, he felt his previously muddled thoughts become lively again.

He stared with his mouth open for three seconds, then the lich tentatively controlled its lower jaw, lightly tapping it against the upper teeth.

Snap!

"I'm still alive!"

"At least this head is still here!"

Moreover, he was astonished to find that he hadn't been killed, but had been transported to another place.

Unfortunately, there seems to be some kind of magic circle here that suppresses the exchange of his magical power with his soul fire.

So if he wants to look around, the lich can only repeatedly open and close its mouth, causing it to writhe on the ground.

And when he managed, like an old turtle, to turn over with difficulty, he saw that what lay ahead was no longer a cold wall but a tall iron railing.

"Prison!"

Then surely on the other side of the iron railing is another prison cell.

So the cellmate inside is……

"A giant dragon clearly bearing a hint of divine aura, yet curled up in the corner, eyes dull as if humiliated, silently shedding tears—could it be an earth-yellow dragon?"

The golden flame in the lich's eye socket flickered.

"Done for!"

"Waaah, it's all my fault for being useless; I originally wanted to capture him alive, but he chose death over surrender and self-destructed!"

Holding the ashes he had just casually crushed, Ji Ming walked back to the collapsed door with a face full of self-reproach.

However, we're all colleagues in the same department, and besides his excellent reputation, he's also a connection of the company boss.

Thus the other two naturally wouldn't blame him, instead they all rushed to comfort him.

"Actually, this is normal; back when I was a Regional Knight Corps Captain, I often encountered stubborn sorts who refused to submit and tried to violently resist by suicide."

"When I studied in the Royal Capital, I also learned that many of those evil cultists or anomalous creatures were pitiful people turned by others' influence, but once they engaged in wrongdoing, they could no longer be called pitiful."

And with the arch-fiend slain, the previously bustling vast underground space instantly fell into extreme silence.

Gazing at the surrounding mountains formed of piled white bones, Ji Ming suddenly thought of something.

"Priest Stirling, based on your combat experience, how do you usually handle these suspicious anomalous things?"

As the words fell, Stirling, who was resting leaning on his hammer, showed no response for a long while.

Only when Ji Ming wondered if he hadn't heard at all did he finally mutter a sentence.

"Handle it properly."

?

"Um… my point is, as a responsible Holy Light believer, following my god's teachings, we need to clean this place up."

???

Ji Ming immediately took out a deluxe edition, a globally limited run of one thousand copies of the Gilded Deluxe Holy Light Book, and began flipping through it.

And indeed, in the sixth clause of the 138th revision, he found a similar description.

——Any believer participating in an anomalous extermination operation has the duty to properly clean up afterward, to avoid causing secondary harm to ordinary civilians.

Although there is some sense to it, has the God of Holy Light lost its mind?

Why, amidst a bunch of war-related new regulations, would they inexplicably add such a clause!

【Savior, actually this isn't the God of Holy Light's fault; blame the 108th Savior from a thousand years ago】

【His chosen plug-in is a drill that can grow infinitely, and by joining the Holy Light faith it was upgraded into the Holy Light Impact Drill】

【The benefit is that almost no anomalous being can withstand such an attack, and his upgrade speed is like riding a rocket, hunting monsters everywhere】

【The downside is that every anomalous being he attacks gets ground alive into bloody pulp, scattered everywhere】

【If it were clean monsters like skeletons and magic stones, that would be fine, but when facing those rotting corpses, maggots, and even tumor monsters, the scene would become very……】

【Actually, if it were only this, even if he brought many originally normal Holy See members who turned into lunatics who love restricted-level combat, looking at his outstanding achievements, the Holy See could still wholeheartedly clean up after him and tidy up.】

【But when facing an evil god whose authority is plague, in that generation the Holy Son had already found a method to safely resolve it and was about to succeed, in order to win the affection of a certain princess, he forcibly used his own drill capable of piercing the heavens.】

【And the result of doing so was that he himself was drowned alive by the foul-smelling poison, not to mention that the resulting disaster and pollution were even more severe than the destruction caused by the evil god itself, to this day nothing grows there.】

【The Holy Light God sat motionless in the divine realm for a whole night, and finally added this line to the book.】

Seeing this, Ji Ming's mind involuntarily conjured up an image.

It was a sun hanging at the edge of a floating island, with a giant cigar-like plant drifting beside it.

——"Damn it, how did the savior become like this!"

No wonder Ju Chui Ge looks so lost; that's why.

After all, even if you can shout for and hire people to help, the participants of the task must also be present on-site to labor until everything is cleaned up before they can leave.

With such a large area and such thick bones, to completely process them all would likely take at least half a month—how pitiful.

【……】

Wait, I seem to also be a participant in the task!

"Cough, haha, I just received a revelation from my god; He decided to bestow a reward and help us clean up this place."

Holy Light God: Ah…… ah, how did I arrange this?

Ji Ming took out his Light Ring, moved the teleport coordinates linked to the Underground City from the Clinic into the ring, and threw it upward.

But when it reached the highest point, the Light Ring did not fall; instead it stuck directly to the ceiling and then suddenly expanded.

Sylvia and others were casting spells on the other side of the teleport coordinates, and the little boss acted as a smart detection device for filtering.

This teleport coordinate turned into a selectable vacuum cleaner, continuously sucking the bones on the ground into the ring.

Countless whites flew into the air; the scene was extremely spectacular, and the devout Stirling performed a Holy Light Rite.

"Praise my god, his power is boundless!"

The broken bones in the basement were thus cleaned spotless, ready to be assembled and repaired by Grissen and others as raw material for the public test account.

Sigh, the internal test has only opened one-third, and the sponsors of the public test are urgently pouring production funds into the account—what a feeling to be destitute……

With a light sigh, Ji Ming again took his Light Ring back to the ground.

The door was broken, and the skeletons outside naturally had their source cut off, turning into a bowl of egg-drop soup that only flows out, never in.

And seeing the surrounding undead finally begin to dwindle, the irrepressible joy began to spread among the crowd.

But among them there was the joy of surviving a disaster, and also the secret delight of "may my fellow daoists die while I survive."

So when they saw the three emerge from the ruins completely intact, many people's smiles froze directly.

History tells us that humanity has learned nothing from history, and the folks in Sunlight City are the same.

Perhaps players from all corners of different countries can still sense a bit of collective strength under pressure.

But for this bunch already rotten to the core, even labor reform until death might not make them better.

The only way to wake them up is to quickly send them for reincarnation, to be reborn as new people……

Therefore Ji Ming suddenly realized that Lao Yang Tou's going back on his word might not be a bad thing.

If He wants to turn Sunlight City into a bridgehead for his attack on the civilized world, He must inevitably shake up all the major forces in Sunlight City.

Then I could take advantage of the Strange Council's inability to reach, while my own proximity offers convenience, and directly snatch the peach!

Perhaps this is what the bizarre fortune wants to tell me: tonight will be a beginning, the start of an ending.

If so, then I must both express the anger at being toyed with and provoke Lao Yang Tou into doing something even more outrageous.

Therefore, after confirming that the strange incident had been resolved and everyone had dispersed, the first thing Ji Ming did was return to the Underground City.

Taking out the magic conduit that can communicate with Wendigo, I prepared to give a performance to this accomplice who will assist me in striking at Sunlight City.

As for the piece to be performed, naturally it is the excellent children's animation theme song "Don't Judge Me Just Because I'm a Sheep"·New Arrangement of the Suona.

——"Perhaps He could still be an old deer!"

And in the depths of the distant barbaric plain, the drifting goose-feather snow has already covered the entire grassland.

Although history also has heroic lords who launched surprise attacks amid mountain-wide wind and snow, the current Wolf King obviously does not need to endure such hardship.

Therefore, as the minister most relied upon by His Majesty, the National Teacher Wendigo is resting in a warm, spring-like wooden cottage.

As he expected, in just three months this cruel and greedy old wolf is no longer satisfied with merely being the master of the grassland.

Under the guidance of the bard he specially sought out and various legendary stories, he has already regarded the human kingdoms further north as new prey.

"National Teacher, those weak humans do not deserve such fertile land; it should belong to the wolf clan!"

Hearing the Wolf King lowly growl these words while prowling, Wendigo knew his purpose had already been achieved.

Therefore, with the Wolf King's help, he began, under the pretense of "the Strange Council lacks one seat, urgently seeking knowledgeable individuals," to massively recruit new assistants.

The Lich Rodrigues was the first; his ability is strong, but he is too arrogant, and such a prickly fellow staying in the team would only undermine his rule.

So Wendigo dispatched the clueless him to cause trouble in Sunlight City, and also mixed in several thousand scrap skeletons with a few genuine goods as the cost of scouting.

If we calculate the time, it should already be……

"Huh?"

He put down the black grimoire he was writing in, and suddenly noticed that the soul fire representing Rodrigues had gone out.

Although the Lich is cunning and hasn't told them where his phylactery is, what lies here is merely a pinch of powder from his skull.

But this also indicates that he is already "dead," and together with the dead soldiers he entrusted to him, they have all been wiped out.

That fast?

Fortunately, I have already recruited the second "Seventh Seat".

"What's up, Lord Wendigo? Did you suddenly get inspired in your creation?"

Sitting opposite him is a person with backward-pointing ears, obviously a vampire transformed from a golden elf.

Exceptional talent, graceful bearing, noble and elegant—even when eating, he wipes his mouth.

Besides enjoying trailing the little lich Marsa and offering unnecessary attentiveness, he seems relatively normal for a weird.

But Wendigo has already investigated thoroughly; the other party is actually a traitor who, five hundred years ago, betrayed the Holy Tree Kingdom, allied with Lionheart King, and slaughtered their own kind—a faithless one.

Although I'm not exactly a good person either, bad people won't tolerate another bad person staying nearby—so…

"Your Excellency Andal, one of my enemies just called via magical communication; can you teach me how to politely respond to him?"

"I never thought someone as courteous as you, an old gentleman, would also have enemies; that must be a very cunning villain."

Andal's impression of Wendigo is not bad; after all, a big deer‑headed one who speaks slowly and deliberately looks rather interesting.

Thus, having only joined the group three days ago, he naturally took over the magical channel passed by the chairman, preparing to win over the other party's parents with his ancient, elegant pronunciation.

However, just as the connection was made, before he could utter the first word, he heard…

Blood Clan (unspeakable scream): "Ahhhhh!!!"

Almost instantly, he transformed from a handsome young noble in old‑fashioned aristocratic robes into a flaming skeleton.

In the soul‑cutting torment as sharp as a razor, his consciousness was shredded, and even his clothes turned to flying ash.

Seeing this, Wendigo showed no reaction at all, merely lightly resting his feather pen on the pen holder.

……

"Regret is useless, Wendigo; the path to godhood will inevitably attract many…"