Chapter 158: Spirit Artifacts Become Human
“Lord Aus, do you need me to handle such a trivial matter as capturing the Saintess? Has the Holy See run out of capable people?” a subordinate in a black robe stood behind Viper, speaking indignantly.
The old man’s emotions were peaceful. He was not angered by the man’s disrespect and merely raised his eyes indifferently. “I have already sent people to surround the glass house, but the Seven-eyed Level Calamity Realm’s new exit is established very quickly. They will inevitably escape from elsewhere. To recapture Cha Nai Xue sooner, sending you directly is more efficient.”
As he spoke, Archbishop Aus slid the document on the table towards Viper. “Here is their information. Along with Cha Nai Xue are two others, Mu Qingtong and Xia Feng. According to the Holy Department’s records, these two have not been promoted to First-stage for more than two months and are not a concern. You only need to focus on Cha Nai Xue. At only twenty years old, she is already a Third-stage Spirit Master, possessing not only an A-class Spirit Artifact but also unknown methods bestowed by the Pope.”
Viper’s dark green vertical pupils casually scanned the document’s information, nodded, and handed it to the two subordinates behind him. “Take a look, and if there are no issues, go capture them.”
Groundhog took the document and, after a quick scan of a few seconds, suddenly chuckled, “Heh, this Xia Feng is interesting. Copying others’ Spirit Artifacts, that ability is quite intriguing.”
“So, I remind the two of you,” Aus nodded. “Although the data indicates he can only copy one Spirit Artifact at most, if your Spirit Artifacts are very powerful, it’s best not to display them in front of him to prevent him from obtaining them.”
“Heh heh, then Lord Aus is worrying too much,” Groundhog shook his head. “Our Spirit Artifacts have long obtained the ‘Spirit Bestowal’ from the Heavenly Gift Great Calamity. If he dares to copy it, I fear he will suffer a Great Calamity-level Calamity Force backlash and die without knowing how.”
Calamity Nightmare and Calamity Misfortune were different. Calamity Misfortune used rules to kill people, while Calamity Nightmare killed through infection and disaster.
For example, the Heavenly Gift Great Calamity could spread a Spiritual virus called ‘Artifact Calamity.’ For any Spirit Master infected by ‘Artifact Calamity,’ their Spirit Artifacts would turn into living beings with their own consciousness, such as cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, or even humanoid forms.
The believers of the Heavenly Gift called ‘Artifact Calamity infection’ a ‘Spirit Bestowal.’ Because after being infected by Artifact Calamity, although the Spirit Master would become tyrannical and bloodthirsty, and the Spirit Artifact might even develop its own consciousness and potentially be beyond the Artifact Master’s control, the Spirit Artifact would also gain a very slight amplification in its abilities.
Furthermore, by destroying and devouring other Spirit Artifacts, the bestowed Spirit Artifact could continuously gain minor amplifications. As long as enough Spirit Artifacts were destroyed, these amplifications would accumulate over time and achieve a qualitative leap.
In addition, ‘virus-type Calamity Misfortune’ was generally contagious. The transmission method of ‘Artifact Calamity’ was attack—any Spirit Artifact that attacked a Spirit Artifact carrying the ‘Artifact Calamity virus’ had a chance of being infected by ‘Artifact Calamity.’
Of course, the infection success rate was highly subjective. Some said it was determined by the Spirit Pressure level, while others said it was based on the Spirit Artifact’s rank—higher-ranked Spirit Artifacts were harder to infect, and so on.
“That’s good then.”
Archbishop Aus nodded. Viper’s two subordinates were both Third-stage Spirit Masters, more than enough to deal with those three youngsters.
“Wait.” Just then, a voice came from the darkness. “Lord Aus, please allow me to accompany you.”
Everyone turned to look. It was a handsome man in dazzling golden armor with deep eyes. He stood tall and chest out. This person was none other than Cha Nai Xue’s ultimate sycophant, Ye Lixing.
Aus raised his eyes and glanced at him, saying calmly, “Fourth-stage already?”
“Without any major setbacks, I have not failed Lord Aus’s expectations,” Ye Lixing bowed respectfully to the old man.
“I know you have feelings for the Saintess,” Aus’s aged voice was low. “Don’t worry, Cha Nai Xue still has uses, and she won’t be allowed to die.”
Ye Lixing shook his head. He was not worried about Cha Nai Xue dying. He just wanted to show the Saintess how powerful he was now! He was already looking forward to the scene where the Saintess would be shocked by his promotion to Fourth-stage, then abandon Xia Feng, and rush into his arms shyly.
“Lord Aus, I believe it is still somewhat risky for two Third-stage cultivators to capture them,” Ye Lixing said with his head held high. “But with me, a Fourth-stage Spirit Master, added to the team, they will have nowhere to escape.”
“Tsk, is that really necessary?” Groundhog frowned, unhappy. “Ye Lixing, are you looking down on our strength?”
“Oh, you know your place, do you?” the Eternal Day Emissary, who was watching the show, said while crossing his legs, seizing the opportunity to mock him.
“!” Groundhog’s anger flared again. He cursed and was about to step forward, but Aus lightly tapped the table and said in a deep voice, “Alright, for the sake of caution, Ye Lixing, you shall go too. Resolve this quickly and return to report.”
Although he also felt that such caution was unnecessary, to ensure the smooth descent of the Eternal Day Goddess’s projection, caution was never wrong. Ye Lixing felt a surge of joy and bowed, his hand on his chest. “Understood, I will not disappoint your expectations.”
With that, Ye Lixing left the church with the two Third-stage Spirit Masters from the Burning Heaven Sacred Hall. These two Spirit Masters were codenamed Groundhog and Yellow Rat—names that clearly belonged to underlings, Ye Lixing scorned internally, but still put on a smile. “Two, I have a small request.”
“Hmm?” Groundhog glanced at Ye Lixing sideways.
“I want to be infected by Artifact Calamity…” Ye Lixing noticed the two’s expressions turned strange and quickly corrected himself. “Spirit Bestowal. I want to receive the Spirit Bestowal. Could the two of you help me with this favor?”
Hearing this, Groundhog’s gaze became suspicious. “You believe in the Black Moon Goddess, right? Are you sure it’s okay to receive the blessing of the Heavenly Gift Great Calamity?”
“There are risks, but as long as no one else finds out, it’s fine. Besides, ‘Spirit Bestowal’ sounds very cool, don’t you think?”
“I must say, Brother Ye, you have excellent taste!”
Upon hearing Ye Lixing’s compliment, Groundhog’s attitude did a complete 180-degree turn. He was very satisfied with this Black Moon Knight’s perceptiveness and grinned. “Then attack me with your Spirit Artifact. If you attack me, you have a chance of obtaining it.”
Ye Lixing spread his palm, and a long, emerald green bow woven with grass leaves appeared in his hand. With a slight movement of his thought, the bow materialized an arrow and shot towards Groundhog.
!
After waiting for a long time, the long bow did not change at all.
“Spirit Bestowal is a blessing from the Nightmare God; not everyone has the chance to receive it. So, Brother Ye, there’s no need to be discouraged by failure…”
At this point, Groundhog’s words abruptly stopped. The long bow suddenly disintegrated into specks of emerald spiritual light, and in an instant, it reformed into a woman with pointed ears, wearing an emerald green long skirt, like a fairy from a fairy tale. Her slightly lowered eyelashes slowly lifted, and her vacant emerald eyes gradually lit up with spirit and radiance.
“Hiss—it’s actually humanoid?”
*
“Save me… save me…”
In the Calamity Realm world, after more than twenty hours, Jiang Zhizi was still holding a flower, standing in the center of a blood river, staring obsessively at the gardenia in her hand. Countless mournful souls whispered and wailed, but their voices were clearly much weaker than at the beginning, likely having completely collapsed amidst endless reincarnation. After all, experiencing Jiang Zhizi’s painful memories once was enough to drive someone mad, yet these nobles had endured it millions upon millions of times within the gardenia. Under such torment, these nobles had also become like the victims—heartbroken people who no longer hated, no longer loved, and had completely lost hope of living.
“Time is almost up. Everyone, be prepared.”
Xia Feng looked towards the horizon. The entire Calamity Realm world suddenly began to tremble, and cracks appeared in space, like shattering mirrors. Countless dense pure white chains emerged from the spatial rifts, dancing like dragons and snakes in the thunderous and lightning-filled sky and earth.
Xia Feng was completely focused. At the last moment, with a slight movement of his thought, an exit light portal instantly opened ten meters underground, 2.1 kilometers east of the glass house. The figures of over three hundred people within the calamity realm flickered and disappeared.
His vision changed. Xia Feng looked around and found himself in a very spacious silver hall, surrounded by all sorts of bizarre experimental equipment. It looked like an underground laboratory base.
