Chapter 243: The Unleashed War and the World Built by Holy Relics

"I thought the apocalypse hadn’t happened yet, but it turns out it’s been here all along."

Qi Suian muttered to himself. Ever since the "War" Chapter of the Destructive Sacred Object, the *Apocalypse*, descended, the fighting had never stopped.

This Sacred Artifact had granted everyone an Extraordinary physique and the potential for growth. According to Qi Suian’s estimate, even an ordinary person now possessed 5 points across two attributes.

Furthermore, they could use Sacred Artifacts to further increase their power.

The price, however, was endless war.

But one thing puzzled Qi Suian: after centuries of non-stop world war, how was the population sustained?

Then, on second thought, ’If a concept like war itself can manifest, a simple matter of population is surely something a Sacred Artifact can solve.’

So he immediately tossed the question to the back of his mind.

He then killed the few men, threw them into the Melting Furnace, and observed the survivor count.

"Good news. I can get two Extraordinary systems this time."

"The survivors aren’t native to this Sacred Artifact World."

"Next up is getting the Sacred Artifact, the *Chapter of Disease*." Qi Suian looked at the Pyramid in the distance.

He hadn’t managed to get much information from the members of that covert squad—just some common knowledge about this world and a few details about the *Chapter of Disease*.

He couldn’t torture any more out of them. They had confidentiality measures on them left by multiple Sacred Artifacts.

Even if they wanted to talk, all sorts of secrets were impossible for them to reveal.

As for using a Sacred Artifact to probe for information, its success would depend on whether the priority generated by your own combination and number of Sacred Artifacts exceeded that of the multiple Artifacts used for secrecy.

Multiple compatible Sacred Artifacts could be combined, forming a kind of jigsaw-puzzle-like structure that made their effects stronger and their side effects weaker.

Just like the *Chapter of Disease*—if he could find the other three Chapters, it could be turned into the *Hymn of Revelation*.

Its power would be like a weaker version of the *Apocalypse*.

There were only two tiers of Sacred Artifacts: Destructive Sacred Objects and regular Sacred Artifacts.

Beyond that, there were no levels dividing the Sacred Artifacts themselves. It all came down to the user, the number of Artifacts they possessed, and their compatibility.

Some Sacred Artifacts that might seem useless on their own could, in the hands of the right person or when paired with other Artifacts, undergo a transformative change and unleash immense power.

Take Qi Suian, for example. He was a perfect match for the *Chapter of Disease*. Combined with his Radiation Force Field, the effect was incredibly potent.

Once it became a module, it could even synergize with the Seal of the Profound Dominator and his Viral Bloodline Implant, making the Profound Virus even stronger.

As for the *Apocalypse*? Qi Suian had never even considered wanting that Destructive Sacred Object.

It was an SSS-rank Sacred Artifact at a minimum. The Tai Sui God couldn’t control it.

’But if I do get my hands on it, I could consider trading it to the Doomsday Game for something.’

’Even just improving our relationship would be good. It would be best if we could go from a cold war to just cold indifference. That would make it easier for me to wipe out the survivors later.’

Of course, that was all assuming Qi Suian could actually get it without being killed by the Destructive Sacred Object first.

If the Artifact’s quality turned out to be X-rank, Qi Suian would turn and run without a moment’s hesitation, getting as far away from it as he possibly could.

For the Doomsday Game to classify something as X-rank, the unknown tier, meant even it couldn’t handle it. Qi Suian would just be asking for death if he went after it.

His SSS-rank Death Re-forge would definitely not withstand an X-rank disaster. It would be a guaranteed death.

After taking care of business, Qi Suian approached the Pyramid.

This Pyramid was not a perfect cone like the Egyptian Pyramids, but rather an incomplete one like a Mayan Pyramid, lacking a pointed top.

Up close, it appeared very crude and was covered in images and text.

Qi Suian gave it a cursory glance, not bothering to examine it closely.

The AI, however, quickly compiled the images and text into a file for Qi Suian to review.

It seemed to have been built by some indigenous tribe from the rainforest. The story it told was of them receiving a divine revelation and gaining control over the power of disease.

Later, to honor this revelation, they used the power of disease to construct this palace for worship and sacrifice.

And after that, the power of disease put them to an eternal sleep within the palace.

"AI, I’ve found a blind spot."

"If they’re all eternally asleep, then who carved this last part..." Qi Suian commented wryly.

"Perhaps... they carved it and *then* died?"

The AI wasn’t sure either. After all, the Sacred Artifacts in this Sacred Artifact World were rather hard to explain.

It wasn’t impossible that they had died and then came back to carve it.

"Tsk, isn’t that just lying then," Qi Suian teased, then his expression turned serious. "Let’s go. We’ll check things out inside."

As Qi Suian spoke, all the Floating Cannons circled around the Tai Sui God.

A Dark Energy Beam directly disintegrated the entrance door.

A massive cloud of dust billowed out. Fortunately, the shield on the Tai Sui God was a comprehensive shielding module that filtered and isolated it, so it was completely unaffected.

Not even the foul smell could penetrate it.

Unfortunately, this feature was of little use to Qi Suian himself. He was inside an expedition-grade ecological circulation device, completely sealed off from the outside world.

As for the Tai Sui God, it wasn’t even human, so it was even less affected.

He then stepped inside. The dark corridor was littered with bones.

These bones must have belonged to the indigenous tribe that had once obtained the *Chapter of Disease*.

"No signs of a struggle. The cause of death wasn’t injury from any kind of weapon."

"It was disease. And it seems they died willingly." Qi Suian observed the bones, which were arranged in a very orderly fashion.

"Perhaps it was the price for using the *Chapter of Disease*," the AI suggested.

Every time a Sacred Artifact was used, a price had to be paid.

But the price wasn’t always severe. For example, the Healing Insect Statue used by the captain of the Xuan Empire’s covert unit only cost a bit of white hair with each use.

However, it couldn’t be used consecutively. Doing so would increase the statue’s level of activation.

If the user’s hair turned completely white and they continued to use the Healing Insect Statue, the statue would come to life, devour the user whole, and then revert to its inanimate state.

As for how many diseases it could cure or whether it had an upper limit, no one had ever tried to find out.

Trying to test its limits like that would most likely result in dying from the Sacred Artifact’s backlash, not successfully exploiting a bug.

If it were that easy to exploit bugs, the "War" from the *Apocalypse* would have likely been glitched out long ago.

Even Qi Suian could think of several ways to abuse the system. The simplest would be to use a Sacred Artifact that could alter cognition or tamper with common sense to make everyone perceive the meanings of "war" and "peace" as swapped.

But you could make your changes, and the Sacred Artifact just wouldn’t acknowledge them.

The Sacred Artifacts were in the position of power. On what grounds could a weakling demand that a powerful being change itself?

Even if you made such a demand, you’d be lucky if the powerful being didn’t kill you. Being ignored was already a kindness.

"Oh, a minor issue." Qi Suian didn’t care at all, instead looking over the 3D schematic of the Pyramid provided by his reconnaissance network.

"Anyway, as long as the initial quality isn’t too high, it’ll definitely become SSS-rank once it’s turned into a module. Any side effects or costs will be eliminated."

"And if they aren’t eliminated, that’s even better."

The reason was simple. If an SSS-rank module still had costs or side effects, it meant its primary effect was powerful beyond imagination.

Otherwise, such a situation would be impossible.

The Doomsday Game might be lame in some ways, but as long as you didn’t run into anything X-rank, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted.

The Tai Sui God was, after all, top-tier equipment from the Doomsday Game. It had the power to back that up.

"That said, is this supposed to be this easy?" Qi Suian was already about halfway through, yet nothing had happened.

"It’s easy for you, since you cannot be infected by disease," the AI replied. "The Tai Sui God ensures your isolation from the outside world."

"But you should not let your guard down."

"So the greatest danger is actually disease infection, but I’ve completely bypassed that problem."

"As expected of a fortuitous encounter." Qi Suian felt this opportunity had probably been blessed by a +3 enhanced Seven Elements Relief from a protagonist’s halo; otherwise, how could things be going so smoothly?

At the end of the corridor was another stone door. Behind it, the *Chapter of Disease* was enshrined.

The Floating Cannons directly disintegrated it with a Dark Energy Beam.

The moment the stone door vanished, a dense mass of bones surged out like water from a broken dam.

For Qi Suian, however, this wasn’t a major problem. The Floating Cannons fired a volley of Ghost Energy Storms, and all the bones were disintegrated before they could even get close to him.

The torrent continued until no more bones poured out.

"This is... absurd." Qi Suian really wanted to know how they had managed to pack themselves in so tightly.

The Floating Cannons cleared a path for Qi Suian to the center of the chamber.

A skeleton dressed in magnificent robes sat upon a throne cast from iron and copper, its left hand holding a jewel-encrusted scepter.

The skeleton’s right hand cradled a yellowed piece of scrap paper. It looked extremely tattered, yet the text on it was perfectly clear.

This was the purpose of Qi Suian’s trip: the Sacred Artifact, the *Chapter of Disease*.

"Looks like a Priest." Qi Suian sized it up, not reaching for the artifact immediately.

"I wonder if this scepter, the rings, necklace, and clothes are also Sacred Artifacts."

’I should just strip them all off,’ Qi Suian thought.

They might not have any Extraordinary value, but at least they looked good.

After observing it for a moment, he finally reached for the *Chapter of Disease*.

The reason he observed it first was that he was worried the thing might suddenly come to life.

The previous four Doomsday Worlds didn’t have this kind of supernatural stuff, but there was no guarantee the Sacred Artifact World didn’t.

Certain Sacred Artifacts could indeed control the Undead.

After confirming there was no problem, he gave it a pull.

But it wouldn’t budge. The skeleton’s right hand was clamped tightly around the *Chapter of Disease*.

It had looked easy to take, but that was clearly not the case.

"Intruder, you have disturbed the slumber of the King of the Forest." The skeleton that looked like a Priest spoke in a hollow voice.

That wasn’t the point. The point was that it had actually moved.