Chapter 313: Curse-Kill
Chapter 313: Curse-Kill (End of Chapter)
"What virtue and ability do I possess to actually attract the descent of a main god?"
High in the sky, the Lust Mother God's soul trembled. The twenty-four main gods of the Ocean of Light and the Abyss of Darkness had not taken action for countless millennia.
The demi-gods who secretly spread their faith among humans were, in the eyes of the main gods, no different from vermin hiding in dark corners, to be purged every once in a while.
The Lust Mother God had evaded the Order Church's encirclement and annihilation campaigns not because she was particularly powerful, but because the Order Main God simply didn't deem her worth his attention.
Of course, luck played a part as well.
"Which one of the twenty-four main gods was it?"
The Lust Mother God maintained her frantic escape speed, her mind barely managing to calm down.
She felt that the main god who had taken action was probably not specifically targeting her, but had merely taken the opportunity to eradicate the Lust Church.
"Luckily, I wasn't at the church."
A look of relief appeared on the Lust Mother God's face. If she had been at the church, facing that short and fat man, she felt she wouldn't be any different from the other clergy and believers.
"I can't go back to the Plateau of Nations."
The Lust Mother God was like a startled bird. "Although the price was steep this time, at least I survived."
The Lust Mother God's face lit up. "Since I've survived, there's hope to gather faith and raise the divine kingdom."
In the underground palace beneath Ampere City.
Lin Yuan stood beneath the statue of a god and suddenly opened his eyes. "I've found you."
Through the causal connection with the Lust Mother God, Lin Yuan had locked onto her approximate location across a distance of billions of miles.
"Not at the Plateau of Nations?"
Lin Yuan's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "That's not a problem."
As long as he could borrow the power of causality, locking onto the Lust Mother God's position would make things easier.
"Curse-kill."
Lin Yuan's expression turned slightly solemn. Following the rules of causality, he traced the cause to its effect, and a terrifying power instantly crossed a distance of billions of miles.
The art of curse-killing was a certain application of the rules of causality.
To curse-kill someone, a 'medium' was needed. This 'medium' could be an item, or it could be the causality between the two individuals.
Secondly, the curse-killer's realm had to be at least two major levels higher than that of the target. The Lust Mother God was a seventh-level demi-god, and Lin Yuan's true realm was the ninth level, fulfilling the conditions for a curse-kill.
Finally, once the curse-kill was successful, the curse-killer would have to withstand the backlash from the rules of causality, at the very least paying the price of a sufficient amount of lifespan.
The art of curse-killing was fraught with restrictions and did not occur frequently in the main universe's main world due to its high cost. Moreover, it was not a permanent kill, and the target, if their talent was high enough, could still be 'resurrected' by a supreme being.
High in the sky.
Just as the Lust Mother God was rejoicing in her survival under the hand of a main god, her face suddenly underwent a drastic change.
In her perception, a formless and intangible power that she was far from able to resist had instantly descended upon her.
"This..."
Before the Lust Mother God could form any thoughts, her physical body and soul were simultaneously reduced to dust, permanently erased from this world.
"Dead?"
Lin Yuan sensed the 'causality' between him and the Lust Mother God completely disappear, confirming that she had indeed perished.
If the Lust Mother God had possessed some other life-saving measure, this 'causality' should have still existed. Determining death through causality was the primary means employed by the strong in the main universe's main world.
"Hmm?"
"Is that the backlash?"
Lin Yuan's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he vaguely sensed a minuscule portion of his lifespan disappear without a trace.
It was roughly equivalent to a thousand years.
"Curse-killing a mere seventh-level being cost me a thousand years of lifespan?" Lin Yuan shook his head. This was indeed a very poor deal.
Unless there was some deep grudge or enmity. But for a ninth-level powerhouse to kill a seventh-level being, there were far too many means and methods. The art of curse-killing had the lowest cost-effectiveness.
"It's just a thousand years of lifespan."
Lin Yuan didn't mind. If he were in the main world, he might have regretted the loss of a thousand years of lifespan, but while traversing worlds?
With the known limit of his stay being only one thousand one hundred and ten years, lifespan was the least meaningful thing to Lin Yuan.
Even if he possessed a lifespan of one hundred million years, once that limit was reached, wouldn't he still have to return to the main world?
It was precisely because of this that Lin Yuan had not hesitated to use the art of curse-killing on the Lust Mother God. After all, lifespan in this world was essentially free.
"However, in this world, the eighth-level divine spirits, who embody the faith of all living beings, don't seem to have the concept of lifespan?" Lin Yuan thought to himself.
Under the rules of this world, fourth and fifth-level knights rarely lived past two hundred years, and sixth-level legendary knights rarely lived past a thousand.
A thousand years was the lifespan limit for the beings of this world.
As for the seventh-level demi-gods? After igniting their divine fire, the essence of their lives began to change. As long as the divine fire of a seventh-level demi-god didn't go out, they wouldn't die. Normally, a seventh-level demi-god could easily live for tens of thousands of years or even hundreds of thousands of years.
Although this was still far inferior to the seventh-level evolvers in the main world, compared to the average lifespan of all living beings, it could already be considered a long life.
While seventh-level demi-gods could easily live for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, they would still die if they didn't raise the divine kingdom.
As for the eighth-level true gods and the ninth-level main gods, throughout the ages, there had been no records of any true gods dying of old age, except during divine wars.
"The Lust Church has been dealt with."
"It's time to go back."
Lin Yuan glanced around the great hall and turned to leave.
The reason he took action against the Lust Church was, firstly, because of Long Shan Yuan's enmity with them, and secondly, because the Long Shan Ridge area was the base of operations that Lin Yuan had been cultivating during this traversal.
Leaving the Lust Church, an unstable factor, unattended was not a good idea. Who knew what kind of trouble they could stir up and whether they would once again attract the attention of the Order Church.
The Order Church was the church of the main gods, and before regaining his ninth-tier status, Lin Yuan was reluctant to come into contact with beings of the main god tier.
Now that Lin Yuan had the strength to do so, he naturally took the opportunity to erase the Lust Church.
"Get rid of those corpses."
Lin Yuan's mind stirred slightly, and the bodies and bloodstains within the palace vanished without a trace.
If it weren't for the fact that this underground palace was beneath Ampere City, any disturbance would have affected this prosperous city.
Lin Yuan even considered making the entire palace disappear.
"That's about it."
"Even if someone investigates this place afterward, they will, at most, think that the Lust Church has moved again."
Lin Yuan stood at the palace exit and looked back one last time.
The Lust Church had kept their activities in Ampere City secret, but they hadn't left no traces at all. Lin Yuan's actions in erasing them would definitely be discovered during the subsequent investigation.
However, it would only be discovered that they had disappeared. Lin Yuan had already fabricated the scene to make it seem like the entire Lust Church and their Lust Mother God had vanished from the world.
"Magic Net."
Lin Yuan faintly sensed the strands of power that enveloped the world, which belonged to the 'authority' of the Goddess of the Magic Net, one of the twenty-four main gods.
By constructing a net that covered all of humanity, the more beings that used the Magic Net, the more faith power would be provided to the Goddess of the Magic Net.
He could have simply erased the entire Lust Church from outside.
Long Shan City.
Lin Yuan was chatting with his parents.
A hundred years had passed, yet Long Shan Fang and his wife looked as vibrant as ever, with no signs of aging, thanks to Lin Yuan's secret nurturing with the power of the world.
The life expectancy in this world was severely suppressed, but with the power of the world, Lin Yuan was confident that he could help Long Shan Fang and his wife reach the upper limit of a thousand years, a lifespan that only sixth-level legendary knights could hope to attain.
As for living longer? According to the rules of this world, one would need to ignite their divine fire and change their life form.
However, with Long Shan Fang and his wife's talents, it was obvious that they couldn't achieve this, unless they followed in Lin Yuan's footsteps and advanced their martial arts to the seventh and eighth tiers, which would also greatly extend their lifespan.
But that was clearly more difficult.
Just then, the Sun Primordial Divine Spirit transformed into strands of solar power and returned to Lin Yuan's body.
Lin Yuan glanced in the direction of Ampere City.
"Son, is something wrong?" Long Shan Fang asked, seeing the look on Lin Yuan's face.
"It's nothing. I just took care of a small matter."
Lin Yuan replied casually. With the Lust Church eliminated, there would be no trouble in the Long Shan Ridge area, giving him some peace of mind.
After chatting with his parents for a while longer, Lin Yuan returned to his cultivation room.
Whoosh!
The Taiyin and Sun Primordial Divine Spirits appeared opposite him, sitting across from Lin Yuan.
Since he hadn't recovered to his peak strength yet, Lin Yuan hadn't brought the Mysterious Gourd with him, and the two primordial divine spirits remained in their soul state, without transforming into physical entities using the Secret Art of Illusory Truth.
"Our cultivation speed is still too slow. I need to quickly regain my ninth-tier strength and create more spatial layers," Lin Yuan said, feeling the pressure. After all, within the Xuan Huang Secret Realm, he and Xi Lan were still being pursued by Hun Yi. Although they were safe for the time being due to the unique environment of the secret realm, who knew what unexpected variables might arise?
If possible, Lin Yuan didn't want his Sun Primordial Divine Spirit to be annihilated, and the call from the Xuan Huang Secret Realm was tempting.
"Advancing from the eighth tier to the ninth tier is just a matter of energy accumulation for me. I just need enough energy to quickly return to the ninth tier."
Lin Yuan glanced at the eternal stars in the sky, the divine kingdoms of the true gods, which theoretically contained infinite energy.
But for now, it wasn't wise for Lin Yuan to directly oppose the gods.
"It looks like I can only rely on those churches," Lin Yuan thought to himself.
The churches were the intermediaries of the gods in the mortal world, spreading their faith among humans.
While the seventh-tier demi-gods were also establishing churches, they couldn't compare to the true god churches, which had direct connections to the true gods and could call upon their power if necessary.
The godly power incarnations, though unable to wield the full might of the true gods' divine kingdoms, were still far superior to seventh-tier demi-gods and could easily dominate the mortal world.
However, summoning these godly power incarnations required a large amount of energy, so each true god church stored a large number of 'god crystals' to attract the attention of their respective true gods when needed.
In the competition for faith, conflicts occasionally arose between the gods, even resulting in clashes between their godly power incarnations.
And Lin Yuan's target was the 'god crystals' stored in these churches, an extremely pure form of energy, purer even than the 'Taiwei Qing Crystals' of the main world.
"From now on, you two will search for 'god crystals'," Lin Yuan thought, and the two primordial divine spirits immediately understood his intention, as they shared the same consciousness as a trinity.
As soul-like entities, the two primordial divine spirits could gather and disperse at will, making them perfect for this task.
Ampere City Underground Palace.
At this moment, members of the Order Church stood at the entrance of the underground palace.
"This palace should be one of the bases of the Lust Heresy, but I don't understand why it has been abandoned," said one of the bishops of the Order Church, his brow furrowed. The Lust Heresy had caused quite a stir in the imperial capital, enthralling many nobles and royals with its hedonistic pleasures.
Later, the Order Church discovered that a demi-god was secretly gathering faith among the followers of the Lust Heresy and promptly launched a campaign to eradicate them.
The remnants of the Lust Heresy fled the capital, and over the years, the Order Church had been searching for their whereabouts. The recent disturbances in Ampere City had caught their attention, and they had finally confirmed that the Lust Heresy had been active in the city.
"Bishop, we've checked, and there are no clues left behind. It seems that the heretics deliberately erased all traces of their presence," reported one of the Order Church members.
"So it seems."
"The Lust Heresy really did evacuate on their own accord."
Bishop Ryan of the Order Church nodded slightly, finding it odd that the palace was too clean. He had deduced that this place was indeed a base of the Lust Heresy based on the murals on the walls and the remnants of certain rituals.
"But..."
Bishop Ryan's brow furrowed as he sensed that something was amiss. If the Lust Heresy had indeed evacuated, why did they do so?
The Order Church hadn't discovered them yet, and the Lust Heresy could have safely remained here, slowly growing their influence. Why did they suddenly leave?
Bishop Ryan had dealt with the Lust Heresy many times in the past and had even led the campaign to eradicate them. Thus, he had a deep understanding of their nature. The Lust Heresy was a highly influential cult that controlled its followers by manipulating their desires and, in turn, their very beings.
The process was subtle, and even those with strong willpower would find it difficult to resist the 'corrosion' of the Lust Heresy.
Once 'corrupted' by lust, the followers would provide faith power to the Lust Mother God, the patron deity of the cult.
If left unchecked, the Lust Heresy and the Lust Mother God would eventually give rise to another powerful true god in the Abyss of Darkness.
"But what?" asked the other bishop.
"Wouldn't these heretics, who are as good as dead, just wait for us to wipe them out?"
The other bishop shook his head, not understanding the sudden evacuation.
"Perhaps," Bishop Ryan replied thoughtfully. Although he didn't know why the Lust Heresy had left so cleanly, the actions of heretics were often unpredictable and irrational.
"However, since they've abandoned Ampere City, they must be hiding elsewhere. We'll have to search every region of the empire to find their new base," Bishop Ryan instructed.
(End of Chapter)
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