Falsely Accused, I Started Plundering Monster Traits

Chapter 62: A Saint Is Born in Agony

Underground—

"AAAHHH—!!!"

A hoarse scream echoed through the hall.

Lin Yan hung suspended in midair, his entire body engulfed in incandescent white energy.

White cracks covered every patch of exposed skin. They spread densely across his collarbones, neck, arms, and cheeks, as though something inside his body were slowly forcing its way outward. Blinding white light shone through the fissures, and every trace of blood that seeped from his flesh turned into wisps of pale red mist.

Lin Yan had long since screamed his throat raw. By now, the cries had gradually deteriorated into hoarse moans of pain.

Lucia stood where she was, watching him with an increasingly deep frown.

With the amount of energy she had forced into him, this body should have reached its limit by now.

So why was he still alive?

Lucia’s frown deepened, and she cut off the flow of Sacred Energy.

The incandescent energy surrounding Lin Yan rapidly began to fade. And the moment the white light receded, she saw what was happening to him.

The white cracks covering his exposed skin were closing at an astonishing rate.

One after another.

Split flesh knitted itself back together. Damaged surface tissue sloughed away in sheets, revealing fresh new flesh underneath.

And Lin Yan’s aura was still growing stronger.

"What did you do?"

She noticed? Lin Yan’s heart tightened, but he kept his head lowered, his shoulders still trembling faintly.

"Ugh... nnngh—"

Hoarse groans slipped intermittently from his throat.

For the first few seconds after the white light struck him, every scream had been instinctive. The pain had been real too. But after that, every additional second he endured made his body that much stronger.

And even now, his flesh was still rapidly processing the power it had absorbed.

Lin Yan kept his voice suppressed, maintaining the appearance of someone still suffering unbearable pain.

"Ugh... nnngh..."

But as the cracks continued to close, the sensation rising from deep inside his body grew stronger and stronger.

The groans he had been deliberately forcing out began to change in tone.

Lin Yan clenched his teeth tighter and tighter, his chest rising and falling more heavily with every breath.

Finally, the sensation broke completely through his act.

He jerked his head up.

"Haaah—!"

The Trait panel unfolded before his eyes.

[Universal Assimilation Physique]

[Sacred Physique II]

[Sacred Physique I]

[Sacred Affinity I]

Looking at those four lines, Lin Yan’s mind flashed back to the few seconds when the white light had been closing in behind him.

He had already changed direction several times, but the light stayed locked onto him, turning through the air every time he did. By the end of his third evasive turn, the incandescent glow was right behind him, its radiance pressing in from every direction until his entire field of vision had turned white.

"System! Save me!"

[The host must resolve the current situation independently.]

"Fuck!"

Lin Yan had genuinely panicked. The white light was still closing in at terrifying speed, leaving him only a few seconds to react. The instant the Trait panel opened, his eyes swept across it. All the usual considerations about combinations, comparisons, and tradeoffs vanished from his mind. He only wanted to grab something—anything—that might keep him alive.

Universal Assimilation Physique caught his eye first. The Trait could consume foreign energy and convert it into fuel for physical growth. The mass of white light chasing him around the hall was clearly some kind of energy, which made it worth betting on.

As for the remaining three slots, Lin Yan only had time for a few words to flash through his mind: Church. Saint. Awakening. Combined with the blinding white energy bearing down on him, a conclusion surfaced almost immediately—

This power was probably Sacred.

"Fuck it. I’m gambling!"

Lin Yan replaced all three remaining slots with Sacred Traits, and the instant the final Trait lit up, the white light caught him.

The result was obvious.

He had guessed right.

A massive amount of Sacred Energy still lingered throughout the hall.

From a distance, it looked like nothing more than incandescent white light. Up close, however, it had a strange, almost fluid texture—warm and slick. As the energy flowed across his palm and slipped between his fingers, it felt almost like warm egg white before drifting onward through the air.

Lucia had released far too much of it for the hall to contain. The excess had flowed along the passageways and upward into the church, spilling out through windows, doorways, and cracks between the stone walls.

That was the source of the white radiance that had turned the night outside into day.

Then a system notification appeared before him.

[Sacred-type Traits have entered an abnormal resonance state.]

[Current Status: Sacred Resonance.]

[Free Sacred Energy is converging on the host.]

Lin Yan froze for a moment.

The layer of white energy that had just slipped between his fingers curved back toward him.

Then the rest followed.

The Sacred Energy throughout the hall began to reverse direction. Like a tide suspended in midair, the white radiance rolled backward along the walls, across the floor, and through the passageways. Even the energy that had already spread into the church began flowing back underground, layer after layer converging on Lin Yan’s position.

The leading edge of the white light touched his body and melted straight through his skin.

Crack—

A dull sound came from deep within his spine, followed by a rapid series of grinding pops from his bones.

Lin Yan’s body began to change.

His skeleton stretched upward, his shoulders widened, and his chest expanded with them. Muscle swelled rapidly across his back, arms, and thighs, pulling his clothes tighter and tighter until the seams at his shoulders finally gave way. The fabric split across his back, then tore farther as his arms and chest continued to swell.

Riiip—

Lin Yan’s height surged past two meters, his frame expanding far beyond even the size he had reached while equipped with Trollblood. His broad shoulders, massive chest, and thick limbs strained against what remained of his torn clothing, every breath making the heavy muscles beneath his skin shift visibly.

And those were only the changes visible from the outside.

The Sacred Energy pouring into him was being rapidly converted, spreading through his bones, muscles, and organs. The same power that had nearly torn him apart from within now seemed to have found exactly where it belonged, gradually becoming part of his body itself.

Lin Yan lowered his gaze and slowly clenched his right fist.

The muscles in his forearm tightened.

A sense of strength unlike anything he had ever experienced traveled from his palm all the way to his shoulder.

Alongside those physical changes, something subtler began seeping into the depths of his mind.

Lin Yan stared down at his hand as the tension gradually left his features and his breathing slowly steadied.

When he raised his head again, his expression had changed completely.

Calm.

Solemn.

Almost devout.

Incandescent Sacred Energy flowed gently around his body, bathing his face in an almost holy radiance.

For a moment, the solemn aura around him bore an uncanny resemblance to the Archbishop’s.