The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1145

Chapter 1142
I Don’t Want a Future Without Cirlex
In reality, Chloe had ample opportunity to assassinate Isabel back then.
She had already gotten within a few meters of Isabel, with no “Great” generation Extraordinary present. Eivass’s healing ability back then was far from sufficient to mend a fatal wound inflicted by a Fourth Tier Assassin…
—With a mere flick of her finger, the course of history would have changed because of her.
One could say that the future of the entire world was in the hands of a nobody.
And under these circumstances, Chloe missed that sole opportunity.
It sounds regrettable, but it was also inevitable. Because it wasn’t her mission in the first place, and in her understanding, stealth couldn’t be seen through. She wouldn’t have bothered to take extra precautions. To her, killing royalty was meaningless—that was the mission her mentor, “Bone Sculpture,” was responsible for, and she trusted Bone Sculpture implicitly. As an Assassin of the Path Adaptation, her primary focus was survival.
—It may seem like luck or chance dictated everything, but in reality, it was the inevitability built from countless details.
It couldn’t be called a mistake, nor was it fate. It was simply a difference in information.
Now, her grandfather, Thomas, faced an identical situation—
Master Assassin Thomas had an opportunity to eliminate Eivass.
Although the Sin Thorns Arrow wasn’t fatal to Eivass, as the Child of the Candlemaster, the condensed sin thorns within it would significantly increase Eivass’s conversion rate.
The conversion rate of a Sin Eater Beast wasn’t easy to improve. Eivass had consumed a large amount of mana healing his Blood Slave, but even so, the increase in conversion rate was less than 1%.
Eivass’s conversion rate was still 55%—this was only because Eivass had preyed on his foster father with Sin Thorns, obtaining all the sins from Professor Moriarty’s soul; otherwise, his conversion rate would have been less than half.
And now, just three Sin Thorns Arrows had directly pushed Eivass’s conversion rate to over 60%…
In other words, if Master Thomas fired all nine Sin Thorns Arrows in one go, he could raise Eivass’s conversion rate to over 70%.
When Eivass’s conversion rate reached 70%, he would permanently transform into his “Pure Deer Man” form. If Eivass could be delayed even slightly in removing the Sin Thorns Arrows, there might even be a chance to raise his conversion rate to 80%, thereby expelling Eivass from the Material Realm.
At that point, Eivass would be a genuine demigod, and upon obtaining a Heavenly Envoy Fragment, he would directly become a Heavenly Envoy. He might even be possessed by a Heavenly Envoy Fragment born from the Origin River simply by being expelled from the Material Realm.
After that, unless pulled down by the Ouroboros Ring, Eivass would be unable to return to the Material Realm.
Once he ascended to become a Celestial Envoy of the pure Path of Devotion, it would mean Eivass could no longer increase his level on the Transcendent Path through dreams. His Path would be completely unbalanced, unable to fuse into a power capable of transcending the Void and reaching miracles.
He would then completely lose the ability to resist the Void.
—The course of history, for a moment, was once again in the hands of a nobody.
But just like his granddaughter… Thomas’s mission was not to “kill Eivass at all costs.”
In his understanding, no one could survive being hit by a Sin Thorns Arrow.
That was the power obtained through High-Tier Divine Art by Cardinal Loki—Cardinal Loki had attacked Eivass by manipulating Sin Thorns back then. Eivass had also used Sin Thorns to kill his own foster father.
—If struck in a vital spot by an arrow while alone, even the Eternal Pope would be killed by a single strike.
The more powerful an Extraordinary, the more abundant the mana within them, and the greater the damage to their bodies when their mana is corrupted by Sin Thorns. It’s like hitting an Ordinary Person, who isn’t Extraordinary, with a large-caliber bullet. The cavity effect would shatter them, causing damage far greater than just the small hole left by the bullet entering the body.
And after being hit by Sin Thorns in the body, the Sin Thorns that invade the soul would corrupt Extraordinary Power, making self-healing impossible.
To prevent Eivass’s heart from being on his right side, Master Thomas specifically shot an arrow into each of his chests, and finally, one to the head.
This last shot was an absolutely fatal attack—while the first two shots were already fatal wounds, a damaged or even missing heart might not necessarily result in instant death; however, after the first two arrows sealed the Extraordinary Power that could be used for defense, the third arrow, arriving almost simultaneously, would directly pierce the head, which was no different from that of a mortal. The Sin Thorns exploding within the skull would directly melt and tear the brain apart.
Even a Child of the Moon would be killed by this arrow.
—In fact, the moment Thomas fired the arrow, he knew he had successfully killed Eivass. Just like an excellent basketball shooter who can confirm if a shot will score the moment the ball leaves their hands, excellent Assassins never need to confirm the status of their target. The instant they pull the trigger, the assassination is confirmed as successful.
That was his true inherited skill, one he hadn’t taught Chloe… and one he was unwilling to teach her.
—The “White Rainbow Secret Canon.”
It was the ultimate technique capable of defeating the strong with the weak and killing everyone in the world.
Although it was a secret canon of the Path Adaptation, it required mana from the Path of Devotion to activate. It involved pausing time, burning one’s own soul and life, and squeezing everything out to unleash a dazzling white rainbow.
The stronger the enemy to be killed, the greater the price to be paid and the higher the resolve required.
If that white rainbow happened to pierce the sun, it would signify that the resolve and price were sufficient, allowing it to bypass the process, ignore defenses, and directly strike the weak point. If the white rainbow missed, it meant the attack couldn’t achieve a guaranteed kill through the secret canon, but it could still be used to establish an advantage.
When he assassinated Eivass just now, he relied on a similar ability to ensure the hit.
—And the white rainbow had already pierced the sun.
This strike was guaranteed to hit.
In that instant, his hatred was resolved.
But Thomas felt no joy, only emptiness and confusion.
He didn’t retreat immediately, nor did he vanish into the shadows. Instead, he stood at the intersection, hands hanging low, the hand crossbow hidden within his sleeve, lost in thought.
His attack was flawless. The passersby nearby didn’t even notice he had attacked the carriage, and the carriage itself was completely undamaged. The coachman likely wouldn’t have felt any impact. If the coachman had been slightly slower to react, they might have only realized the passenger was dead upon reaching their destination.
Eivass’s head and chest would explode, sprouting countless hard, black thorns. His lower body, seated in the carriage, would remain intact, looking like a potted plant.
At that moment, a nameless emptiness and regret filled the old man’s heart.
—Perhaps it would have been better not to kill Eivass. He thought.
Was it truly better for the Irises to escalate the conflict to an irreparable point?
Or rather… did he truly love Chloe?
If he truly loved Chloe, would he have allowed her to join the EaglesEye? Would he have agreed to her going abroad to “gild herself” outside his control? When Chloe died, why did he not seek immediate revenge under the guise of “considering the bigger picture”? Now that everything was settled, why would he strike now, willing to kill Eivass at all costs… even risking war?
Was this vengeance born of love, or despair stemming from the extinction of the Cirlex family?
Compared to the love of “not wanting anything to happen to Chloe,” was he, from the very beginning, closer to the honor of “wanting the Cirlex family to endure”? Did he truly want to “kill those scum” this way, to cleanse the Irises once more? Or did he love the Irises that much?
“…So that’s how it is.”
The old man suddenly understood, murmuring softly, “So that’s how it is…”
The moment he personally killed Eivass, the old man, who had become sober and understood everything, found it laughable.
He had merely deceived himself in the name of love… and deceived the leader.
—Thomas simply did not want the EaglesEye organization, which “had no Cirlex family,” to fare well.
He might want to cleanse the Irises, as that was Thomas’s original belief when he became an Assassin. But from another perspective, if he accidentally brought ruin upon the Irises, Thomas would not feel too regretful.
Because that was a future without the Cirlex family.