Chapter 120: Eye of Gold

"See you in Heaven!?"

Wan's face instantly flushed crimson with excitement, and he began to babble. "Me... Heaven? Can I really, Lord Divine Envoy? I am only a high priest..."

Su Mu frowned and said solemnly, "Wan, remember this. The followers of the Primal Angel are not judged by rank, but by the devotion in their hearts. As long as you are sufficiently devoted, even an ordinary cultist can ascend to Heaven. But if that devotion is lacking, even the Pope will sink into Hell."

Wan grew even more thrilled. He tried to say something else, but Su Mu cut him off: "Wan, I will wait for you in Heaven."

Squelch!

Overcome with zeal, Wan plunged a dagger into his heart and gave it a vicious twist. He gouged out the bright red heart, its crimson blood vessels still trailing deep into his gaping chest cavity. His face rapidly paled, yet he did not die, nor did a single drop of blood spill from his chest.

"Lord Divine Envoy, please wait a moment. Your humble servant will go prepare the Eye of Gold."

Clutching his heart, Wan dragged his weakened body into the distance.

Watching Wan walk away, Su Mu turned and stored Mu Cheng's Mithril Alloy Cyborg in his Sheepskin Bag. He then watched Wan enter the nest of the Headless Ones. As Wan walked, he squeezed his heart hard; blood dripped steadily from it, painting a long trail across the ground.

Thanks to the soundproof barrier, the Headless Ones did not notice Wan's arrival, allowing him to lay out his formation in their nest.

By the time the blood formation covered the entire nest of the Headless Ones, Wan no longer looked human. He had turned entirely into a skin-and-bones corpse.

"That is a lot of blood," Su Mu marveled. He concluded that Wan did not have a human body; after all, he had never seen a person who could bleed a full ton of blood.

Kneeling at the center of the sacrificial formation, Wan tossed his shriveled heart aside and devoutly chanted an eerie incantation.

He then brought out Mu Cheng's soul and the Gold Leaf, placing both at the center of the formation. Gradually, as his chanting grew louder, a bizarre holy light suddenly flared from the massive blood formation. It looked like burning silver flames, and the air filled with a nauseating stench of blood.

The bizarre blood painted across the ground seemed to come alive at this moment. It writhed and twisted, eventually peeling away from the ground entirely to shoot into the sky as countless silver runic chains. They converged and intersected in midair, turning into a colossal chain cage that completely enveloped the nest of the Headless Ones.

It was only then that the Headless Ones finally sensed the anomaly. Though they could not see, this extremely bizarre, evil aura made them feel as if thorns were pressing into their backs. The Headless Ones began to riot.

But it was already too late. The formation was completely formed.

Whoosh!

Holy light shot into the sky, covering the entire world in silver. An indescribably oppressive aura filled the air, making it hard to breathe, as if the very atmosphere had become viscous and heavy.

"Praise the Primal Angel! Praise the Divine Envoy!" The fanatical, hoarse voice became Wan's final words. The zealot let out one last roar, then plunged the dagger into his eye. He fell to the ground, entirely devoid of life.

He had sacrificed his everything, including his soul, simply to satisfy the Divine Envoy's appetite. It sounded absurd, but in the eyes of a zealot, it was perfectly natural! God created all things to nourish man, and man had not one thing to repay God. Now that the Divine Envoy needed him, he naturally had to offer up everything.

Hum!

Eerie murmurs echoed between heaven and earth, sounding like the chanted praises of hundreds of millions of believers.

The Headless Ones went mad. They frantically tore at the ears covering their bodies, hoping to block out the eerie murmuring in this way, but they had far too many ears...

In the distance, Su Mu felt a sudden stir between his eyebrows. The silver mark there split open uncontrollably, revealing the Silver Vertical Pupil within. The pupil darted wildly around its narrow socket, as if it possessed a consciousness of its own.

Looking through the Silver Vertical Pupil, Su Mu saw a colossal entity appear in his vision. Its body was larger than this world, its silhouette blurry and twisted, while eight holy wings beat slowly on its back.

The Primal Angel!

Suddenly, the Primal Angel above the firmament moved. It opened its black hole of a mouth, and on the ground, the Headless Ones began to melt inch by inch. They dissolved into pools of thick blood that steadily grew, ultimately turning into a river of blood.

The river of blood surged into the sky, flowing into the Primal Angel's mouth.

Many white figures were mixed into the river of blood—these were the souls of the Headless Ones. They were incredibly hideous and twisted, as if suffering immense agony, swept up by the river of blood and dropped into the Primal Angel's mouth.

Su Mu even caught a glimpse of Mu Cheng's terrified soul, shrieking and howling madly in the river of blood, along with Wan.

The zealot looked entirely out of place among the others. There was no fear or agony on his face; there was only pilgrimage, as if he were returning to the embrace of his god.

Wan seemed to sense Su Mu's gaze. His head twisted an unnatural 180 degrees to look at Su Mu. Smiling, he waved. His lips opened and closed; although no sound came out, Su Mu judged from his mouth shape: "Lord Divine Envoy, see you in Heaven."

Once the river of blood had been entirely devoured by the Primal Angel, its colossal body began to slowly fade. The holy light in the world also began to dim, and everything returned to silence.

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but in the final moment before the Primal Angel disappeared, Su Mu felt that the entity had glanced at him.

Su Mu paid it no mind. After all, this wasn't his first time being watched by a god.

When the holy light dissipated entirely, the entire nest of the Headless Ones was completely empty and desolate. Only in the center of the nest did a dazzling ray of golden light shine.

Su Mu immediately walked toward the golden light. He saw that the original Gold Leaf had already taken root in the ground and sprouted. Like a gourd vine, it wrapped around a kneeling skeleton, its branches lush and its leaves dazzlingly bright.

And there, beneath the thickest Gold Leaf, a golden fruit shaped just like a human eyeball gleamed radiantly!

"The Eye of Gold?" Su Mu reached out and plucked the golden fruit. The texture was very peculiar; it looked as though it were forged from gold, but its overall feel had a softness and slickness to it, like holding an eyeball.

As the Eye of Gold was plucked, the Gold Gourd Vine instantly withered entirely, and Wan's skeletal remains collapsed and scattered across the ground with it.

"Sacrificing nearly ten thousand Headless Ones, plus the soul of a Silver powerhouse and the high priest of the Primal Divine Cult, just to exchange for a single Eye of Gold. It truly deserves to be the primary ingredient for the Gold Grade Awakening Potion." Su Mu marvelled slightly. He found that the true weight of a Gold powerhouse was still rising.

At the level of the Chiyan Empire, an expert of this caliber could already be called a strategic weapon.

No wonder the descendants of Gold powerhouses were nobles. For an expert of that level, wanting their offspring to enjoy endless wealth and glory was as easy as flipping a hand.

At the same time, he also felt the madness of the Primal Divine Cult. It seemed that as long as a matter could be solved through sacrifice, it would always be "easy" in their mouths.