The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1067

Chapter 1066
No Need to Pray to Any God

“Are they alright?” Arsen cautiously approached. “I mean… can they recover?”

He didn’t recognize these blood slaves, who had been tortured beyond recognition. Or rather, the youngest of the blood slaves he knew from the Count’s Mansion years ago should have been able to walk by now. They were already destined to meet again in the afterlife. But this did not stop him from feeling compassion for them, and thinking of his past self.

Back then, he was also one of them. He had endured no less pain than they had, but he had pulled through with his own will. He had also seen others go mad or completely abandon their identity as humans.

“Under normal circumstances…” Eivass shook his head slightly. “All mainstream healing methods prevalent in the Material Realm should be useless to them. They aren’t just scared; their very personalities have been completely destroyed. They couldn’t survive the torture… and now they’re likely left with only animal instincts.”

“How could this happen…” Arsen murmured, looking at the blood slaves Eivass had healed. Their limbs had completely regenerated, but their pupils were still vacant and soulless. They couldn’t speak or act, only twitching with nervous reflexes. Sadness was evident in his eyes. He bowed his head slightly, mourning for them.

In Arsen’s understanding, if a person’s personality was destroyed, even if their limbs were intact and their soul complete, it was no different from death.

“—But to me, this is not difficult to resolve.” Seeing Arsen’s reaction, Eivass suddenly smiled proudly yet approvingly. “I acknowledge your purity as a devotee. But who do you think I am?”

Eivass, in the form of a Sin Eater Beast, raised his head and softly chanted: “I invoke your moonlight, dancer of the threefold… God of the sacred number one, God of death and rebirth, God of eternal sight – Hengwo!”

As Eivass’s voice fell, the Sin Thorns wrapped around him began to writhe, cutting his skin and drawing blood. The morning sun had already risen outside. But under Eivass’s invocation, day and night reversed— Amidst the chaos of people’s fear, joy, awe, and prayers, time seemed to flow backward, and the cold yet soothing white moon reappeared in the night sky.

Eivass was still praying. This was a Tier 5 Ritual Divine Art. Not the “High-Tier Divine Arts” that were essentially equivalent to turning oneself into an apostle of a god, but true “prayers” usable only at Tier 5! This level of prayer could only be used by Cardinals or the Pope. And Eivass happened to be both.

“I pray for your care, embodiment of Mother, Lover, and Child!” Eivass prayed. “My tears are the saltiest salt, my blood the most fervent wine, my flesh the sweetest fruit. I implore the moonlight to mend shattered minds, stitch broken souls, and retrieve lost memories! Strip my flesh and bone to brew the Luminous Truthful Nectar! —The wine of devotion in the name of love!”

As Eivass’s prayer continued, his flesh slowly dissolved under the moonlight. First, his skin disappeared, then his flesh and blood. Until more than half of his body turned into white bone. These dissolving flesh and blood were not pink, but a clear, cold white as pure as moonlight— a warm silver-white that emitted a faint golden light, like Eivass’s platinum-blond hair.

—This divine art was called “Brewing Lunar Nectar.” It could only be used once a month. A Tier 5 Priest would offer their flesh and blood under the moonlight to pray to Hengwo, thereby creating a peculiar wine—Lunar Nectar. This wine had to be consumed under the moonlight; it could not be preserved by other means and thus could not be prepared in advance.

Through this ritual, mental damage that was previously untreatable could be repaired—whether it was personality defects, shattered souls, or lost memories, all could be replenished this way. —This was the ability of the purest “Path of Love.” Not the power entangled with the Beast Path, almost corrupted into the “Path of Desire,” but the original, most straightforward “Devotionary Love.”

This was also the special requirement of this ritual—when performing it, the lives saved could not be closely related to oneself. Only in this way could the chaotic beastly powers be discarded, so that it was not for instinct, nor for oneself, thus achieving pure love. It was ironic. The Pillar God of the Path of Love was corrupted, leading to the purest love having to be sought from the Path of Devotion…

Eivass extended the Sin Thorns growing from his body to each of the mindless blood slaves and fed them the Lunar Nectar. For those who clenched their teeth and couldn’t open their mouths, Eivass simply dripped the Lunar Nectar into their eyes, as the difference was minimal.

Just one drop was enough to heal shattered consciousness and restore lost memories. Their very souls had become dim and turbid due to their experiences, making it impossible for them to tread any extraordinary path other than the Path of Love. Now, their souls had become bright again—their tainted potential was restored. One by one, they regained their senses and clearly recalled all the truth.

They were acutely aware that it was the holy yet bizarre white deer before them that had saved them—the white fur on its limbs and head emanated radiance, while its chest and abdomen, where internal organs should have been, were hollowed out, revealing only a half-exposed, stark and ferocious white skeleton. A sacred radiance and an empty skeleton formed a bizarre yet harmonious scene.

Not sure who started it, but they all prostrated themselves on the ground. Without a word, they performed the full prostration—with the utmost reverence they could imagine, they kowtowed to the white deer in the center. First, these healed blood slaves, and then even those hunched over, standing silently like phantoms on the side, were also treated. Eivass treated them all equally, and the dissolution of his limbs had spread to his extremities. Even his pulsating heart, which shone with a dark red light like a red gem, could be seen with the naked eye. Other than his chest and above, which were still held high, the entire white deer had turned into a skeleton.

It wasn’t just one or two people saved… but all the more than 140 blood slaves in the entire Count’s Mansion were saved. They could no longer be called blood slaves. Their shattered minds were healed, their personalities broken by torture were restored. Eivass had even completely cured their addiction from the Enchanting Kiss.

—The misfortunes they had suffered, the misfortunes they were about to suffer, and what they had done to others. These memories resurfaced with absolute clarity, filling them with heartfelt adoration for the holy white deer before them, who was no different from a god. Their bodies trembled uncontrollably, not from fear, but from excitement.

Some wept, some sobbed. Some praised him fanatically, while others remained silent. When they had suffered misfortune, they had also prayed to the gods. But unfortunately, no god had come to save them. They certainly knew that gods existed in this world, but to them, gods who couldn’t save them were no different from “non-existent.”

Rather, “gods” were the ones who gave power to the Children of the Moon and induced them to inflict abuse upon themselves! Nothing was more worthy of reverence than the white deer before them! Their lives were so lowly, considered unsalvageable meat by anyone, to be discarded; or puppets who had lost their right to be human due to their countless sins. Yet now they were all saved— not just their lives, their futures, but even their souls, which had fallen into the abyss, were purified. This was something even prayers to the gods could not achieve.

And such a great miracle actually required this holy earthly god to pay such a heavy price—just thinking about it made them feel their own sins and suffering.

“…It’s alright, you don’t need to kowtow to me anymore,” Eivass said softly. “I am not your god.”

When his divine art ended, his body suddenly burst into flames—in an instant, flesh grew back on the bones. In just a few breaths, he was fully recovered. The Sin Eater Beast’s body was always in a state of Illuminate Spell or Fire Worship. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to save everyone here—it was like the swimming pool in a primary school math problem, “emptying while filling,” allowing him to restore everyone at once. It was like under extremely powerful life recovery abilities, spells that consumed large amounts of life force instantly could also slow down blood loss significantly. If it were even faster, the loss and healing could reach a balance. But this was the fastest possible. If it were another Tier 5 Priest, they could probably only save three people at most at a time; any more would result in complete death.

“Sigh…” Looking at these people he had saved from the abyss, Eivass sighed softly. He wasn’t dissatisfied or disappointed for these people, but lamented that he could only do so much. He once again understood the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s words—there were no gods in this world. Even gods had their limits. They were just slightly more powerful extraordinary beings who had entered the Dream Realm earlier and obtained the power of the Origin River.

Even gods couldn’t make the world develop in the direction they desired at will. Eivass couldn’t even achieve the simple goal of saving these blood slaves, who were harmed by the Children of the Moon of Iris Flower—although he had saved over a hundred people at once, an unprecedented act of salvation, it was far from enough. This divine art could only be used once a month. At this scale, not many people could be saved in total. They harmed people much faster than Eivass could save them… it was like destroying and rebuilding simultaneously. The cost and effort between these two actions were completely asymmetrical.

…If only he had more power. Eivass thought this, and a hint of an eerie purple light flickered in the depths of his pupils. This purple light of transcendence gradually merged with the crimson glow in his pupils, turning into a beautiful purplish-red radiance like the sunset.

But even though Eivass said this, the former blood slaves still did not get up. Seeing this, Eivass couldn’t help but laugh. If they were still blood slaves, they would never dare to disobey Eivass’s “orders.” No matter what Eivass said, they should act immediately—before their brains could comprehend, their bodies should have already moved. And now, the fact that they could still kneel there was precisely because they had been restored. This was a genuine act of rebirth and salvation.

Eivass pondered for a moment, then transformed back into his human form under their reverent gazes.

“—In that case, go and redeem others.” Eivass said softly. If he let these people leave like this, they would probably remain obsessed. Coincidentally—some of these people had done evil deeds as blood slaves after being tamed by the Count’s Mansion’s Children of the Moon. They could now atone for their past misdeeds.

“From today onwards, for every person you have harmed in the past, you shall save three people.” Eivass’s voice was ethereal and holy. “For every unjust act you have committed, you shall perform three righteous deeds. If you cannot remember what you have done, then follow your heart. Continue doing so until your heart no longer aches, until you can face everyone’s questions and roars with your head held high. Go forth and do so. Continue until your eyes shine, your heads are held high, and you carry yourselves with dignity. If you do not know in whose name you should act, then act in my name.”

“Savior…” someone timidly asked, “What should we call you? To which god do you pray?”

It was a little girl. She appeared polite, seemingly of noble birth. Yet, even so, she could hardly exist as a “person” here. She had only been brought here recently and had not yet been driven to madness by torture. She had just been rescued by Arsen from the dining room—half an hour later, she would have been served as a midnight snack. Of course, not a “familiar” like Hannibal, but raw human meat without much seasoning. Or rather, live human meat.

Because the Children of the Moon who worshipped the Blood Heavenly Envoy disliked overly refined food, as it would only inflate human desire. Their inner wildness and hatred made them enjoy barbaric acts—for example, liking to eat food that screamed. It could only be said that it was fortunate there was no Slaanesh in this world, otherwise, they might have been spirited away. The one who was preparing to do the “rough work,” or “preliminary processing,” at the time was another blood slave kneeling beside her.

Her question about Eivass’s faith clearly indicated her intention to change her own. Eivass originally intended to say Candlemaster, then Lord of Scales and Feathers. But after thinking about their experiences, he fell silent. They were all people who had not been redeemed by gods. People abandoned by gods… If he let them change their faith, would it heal their wounds?

Under a sudden impulse, Eivass, a Priest, suddenly said, “No need to pray to any god… One day, even the gods will sing praises of my deeds.”