Chapter 1958 - 1957: Betrayal

"I don’t know where you borrowed your power from," an immense purple radiance surged into the purple-haired girl’s body, and the immense force directly pushed He Ao’s hand away, causing his entire body to stagger back a few steps.

The purple-haired girl floated in the air, looking down at He Ao, the dazzling purple brilliance spread out in all directions in an instant, "You must die here today."

How many more people is the Church of the Grim Reaper hiding? No matter how many are killed, there seems to be no end to them.

He Ao looked up, gazing at the purple-haired girl.

The all-encompassing brilliance instantly covered the entire surrounding district.

He Ao glanced up and saw that in the nearby apartment buildings, many residents had already turned on their lights, seemingly preparing to see what was happening here.

This area is all residential, and the sacrificial array would encompass a lot of people.

If all these people were successfully sacrificed, who knows how much power the Grim Reaper would cast down.

With this severely injured body, I can’t maintain high-intensity combat for long.

He Ao withdrew his gaze, looking back at the purple-haired girl in the sky.

"What?" The purple-haired girl looked down at He Ao, and sneered, "Do you feel the majesty of the Divine Being, are you afraid?"

As she spoke, she felt a faint pain in the marks on her neck from being grasped, instinctively raising her height a bit more.

The radiant light gathered in the sky, as vague illusions walked out from the darkness.

They were evil spirits from the Netherworld, creatures carrying curses.

The ’Bod’ in front of him seemed like a different person, clearly having a non-combat Talent Sequence, yet the reaction when she ambushed was completely uncharacteristic of a Transcendent with rich combat experience.

Now, why does it suddenly seem like he’s turned into a Berserker?

Could his Talent Sequence be along the path of the Furious Man?

A faint and sharp howling sound emerged from the void, the entire night becoming increasingly dim, with a chilling aura permeating the air.

The surrounding illusions grew in number, densely gathering on the shattered pavement, their heads lowered, gazing at He Ao below, with their eyes flickering with a faint purple glow.

That was greed, and hunger.

He Ao paid no mind to the illusions emerging from the shadows; he could sense that the power of the purple-haired girl continued to rise.

Bod’s perception before being attacked was correct; the purple-haired girl indeed carried some higher-level power from the beginning.

It seems the Grim Reaper is quite generous this time.

Taking a couple of shallow breaths, feeling his body recover a bit of strength, He Ao exerted force with his legs.

The purple-haired girl looked down, watching He Ao closely, prepared to dodge the moment He Ao exerted strength.

Yet her actions were still a step too slow. In an instant, it seemed as if He Ao’s body vanished from her field of view.

When she regained sight, that blood-stained hand had once again grasped her neck.

At that moment, she gritted her teeth, the dazzling purple glow gathering in her pupils.

Her body was being enhanced at this very moment, an intangible aura reverberating through the void, carrying the intimidation of a Higher Being, and rushing towards He Ao’s consciousness.

She reached out with both hands, grasping fiercely at He Ao’s wrist, trying to break free from his grip.

The move she’d relied on in the past had always been effective—the Divine Power would enhance her body and strength, and carry an intimidation of a higher level. Even if it wasn’t pure Divine Power, it was enough for her to seize a temporary overwhelming advantage in battles against ordinary B-levels.

When she previously ambushed Bod, she used this power but barely missed killing Bod there.

If it weren’t for that guy’s overpowering obsession to save his daughter, he would’ve died there on the spot.

With the help of this power, even if she couldn’t beat the opponent, she could create an opportunity to escape for herself.

But this time, the higher-level amplification did not take effect.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break free from that seemingly not-so-strong hand.

In fact, the grip of that hand was slowly increasing.

Her consciousness started to blur at this moment, the immense force nearly crushing her throat, the suffocating feeling making her mind chaotic.

Seems like there’s no other choice! With so many materials around, if used up, I’ll just replenish them.

In an instant, the purple-haired girl clenched her teeth, and intricate array patterns unfolded behind her. An immense invisible hand suddenly reached out from the massive array, grabbing towards He Ao.

A terrifying and suffocating power instantly surged out from the array, emanating from that giant hand.

All surrounding radiance seemed to be absorbed by this giant hand, making the night even darker, like an invisible wall that pressed down, stifling one’s breath.

As the target of this giant hand, He Ao vaguely sensed a layer of intangible, suffocating pressure from it.

This pressure made it hard to breathe, almost impossible, but what bore the brunt even more than the body was the soul.

The pressure exerted on the soul made He Ao feel as if he was seeing the lord of all souls, instinctively not wanting to resist, not daring to resist, only wanting to prostrate on the ground, surrendering to the giant hand’s life-or-death decision.

Even as the summoner of the giant hand, the purple-haired girl momentarily lost breath, her soul prostrating under that pressure, leaving her only with shivering and terror.

Experiencing this pressure, He Ao had only one thought in his mind.

Truly, the power granted by the Grim Reaper.

However, the array’s ritual structure is quite interesting. Through the array, it replicated a part of the extremely subtle corner of Divine Blessing power.

This ultra-weakened version of Divine Authority, although useless for intimidating Usurper Gods, would even strongly control weaker Angels for a couple of moments, not to mention mortals not yet at the Mythical Tier.

But to recreate such level of Divine Authority would likely require substantial Gifted Power.

Is the Grim Reaper so idle now, so willing, or has this person already paid the price in advance?

As he thought, the giant hand already pressed down, reaching He Ao’s head, passing through his flesh and body, and grasping—at the corner of his soul.

Boom—

The next instant, the invisible giant hand seemed to have gripped some colossal and ungraspable thing, forcibly pushed open, and shattered.

Seeing this scene, the purple-haired girl was momentarily stunned, her eyes filled with incomprehension and disbelief.

"How—could—this—be—"

Her throat rasped with her life’s final sentiment, as if witnessing the sun rise from the west and the ocean surge into the sky.

Accompanied by immense pain from her body, her reason crumbled in an instant.

Boom—

He Ao descended from the firmament with her body, crashing again into the road.

The intense tremor extended to both sides of the street, tearing open the deep layers of the earth, causing the surrounding buildings to start swaying slightly.

He Ao lowered his head, gazing at the girl whose consciousness was already a bit blurred, and raspily asked, "Where is my daughter? Who sent you?"

The purple-haired girl, whose consciousness was somewhat collapsing, slightly opened her mouth, "Church... Church..."

"What church? The Church of the Grim Reaper?" He Ao was slightly taken aback.

At the same time, He Ao’s soul power spread out, sensing the thoughts surfacing on the girl’s soul.

The purple-haired girl slightly opened her mouth and whispered, "Life... Church..."

He Ao was suddenly stunned.

As the voice fell, her body stiffened slightly and lost all vitality.

The faint light enveloping the purple-haired girl gradually faded, revealing the appearance of a fifty or sixty-year-old woman with graying hair and a face full of wrinkles.

Bang—

With a crisp sound, the luminous purple array around them shattered with a loud crash.

At the same time, her body began to rapidly decay at a speed visible to the naked eye, as the divine being claimed the price she hadn’t yet paid.

He Ao raised his hand and reached towards the decaying body of the woman, a flash of grayish-purple light passing through his fingertips.

A gemstone resembling a purple eyeball appeared in his hand.

The ’Dream Weaver’ Talent Sequence was merely tainted by the Death God Power.

Normally, this Talent Sequence would be reclaimed by the divine being as well; He Ao often had things snatched from him like this.

This time, he learned and constructed an array.

The principle was straightforward: as the ’Sacrificer,’ he could also sacrifice the woman, and he directly sacrificed her to himself, then intercepted a portion of the power.

And as the closer ’Sacrificial,’ he naturally could choose which part to intercept, and he directly intercepted the Talent Sequence part.

The Talent Sequence intercepted in this way still existed in the form of ’Extraordinary Items,’ but without fusion and evolution with the Transcendent’s remains, extracting the Talent Sequence would be easier.

"Cough—"

He Ao coughed lightly, glancing at the blood in his palm.

The soul of the Usurper God was still too powerful; even though he had improved his magic with the Secret Wizard’s power and folded most of his soul to hide it in the void, it only prevented pressure on this body when restrained.

Once he began to exert power, this severely injured body still couldn’t directly withstand it, especially the soul power.

So he chose to muddle the consciousness of the Death God Cultist before sensing her thoughts, which would ease much of the pressure.

Once his injuries healed, things should be much better.

"Cough—"

He Ao coughed again, turning his gaze towards the corner where he had just been lying.

At this moment, the wall was already covered with fine cracks, and a blood-covered doll lay under the wall, staring blankly ahead.

The watch with the broken strap lay quietly in front of the doll.

He Ao walked over slowly and picked up the watch.

This was a mechanical watch, its crystal glass face already shattered, but the hands beneath the crystal continued to move slowly.

He Ao raised his head and looked once more at the blood-stained doll.

Based on the thoughts of the deceased Dream Weaver, her mission should have been twofold: one was to kill Bod and take his corpse back.

The other was to kidnap Bod’s daughter and hand her over to a specified contact.

Bod’s daughter should still be alive because the mission assigned to the Dream Weaver required that Bod could be dead or alive, but the daughter had to be alive.

So they first dealt with Bod’s wife upon entering the house, set up a trap to hunt Bod, and then kidnapped his daughter.

And those who took over Bod’s daughter claimed to be from the ’Life Church,’ and once they had her, they left Keskein immediately.

Life Church.

He Ao savored the term, slightly raising his gaze to look at the blood on the ground, and towards the direction from which the blood came.

······

"The commotion over there seems a bit loud." The slender man in a combat suit stood guard in front of the small building, raised his head, and looked past the off-road vehicle parked at the street’s edge towards the neighborhood obscured by buildings.

"Our Vice President may look ordinary, but he’s actually a bona fide B-level Extraordinary," a middle-aged man beside him scoffed, lighting a cigarette, "It’s not unusual for there to be some noise."

"I wonder how strong these B-level Extraordinaries really are," the slender man also pulled out a cigarette and bit it in his mouth, "The rumors are pretty wild."

"Trust me, you don’t want to know." The middle-aged man took a drag on his cigarette, his gaze sweeping over the lit rooms between buildings, "These guys are gutsy. If they see something they shouldn’t, they won’t live to see the next week’s sun."

"No matter how strong he is in normal circumstances, he’s injured like that. How strong can he be?" the slender man couldn’t help but say.

"Enough talk," the middle-aged man shook his head, turned around, and looked at the house behind them, "Let’s finish our task, or we’ll get in trouble with the higher-ups, won’t even know how we died."

At these words, the slender man seemed to recall something terrifying, took a deep breath, "Alright."

He glanced at the small building in front of him, pressed a button on his arm, then turned his gaze to the middle-aged man beside him, "Okay, let’s go."

At that moment, the middle-aged man seemed to sense something, raised his head, looked into the corner of the street, and shone his powerful flashlight over, "Who? Who’s there?"

A blood-soaked figure appeared in their field of view.

Without hesitation, the middle-aged man raised his gun at the bloodied figure and shouted, "It’s Bod! Open fire!"

The slender man was slightly dazed, then immediately raised his Gauss rifle, aiming at the figure in the street corner.

Bang bang bang—

Fierce gunshots rang out in the darkness, like piercing thunder slicing through the night.

Boom boom boom—

And responding to the gunshots was a series of dull thuds that seemed to hit a concrete wall.

Then in the next instant, a shadow appeared before the two men.

Immediately after, their throats were grasped by a powerful force, pulling their bodies backward and down, their entire frames instantaneously controlled.

"Mmm—"

They wanted to speak but couldn’t make a sound.

He Ao looked at the familiar combat suits the two wore and paused, "I’ve seen you before. You’re from the Secret Service Bureau? Why weren’t you here earlier?"

He slightly raised an eyebrow, "Skewis wants to kill me?"