The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1129

Chapter 1128
Next time, the death of the Blood Heavenly Envoy!
Eivass held the Light Spear high in his hand, ready to go like a javelin athlete.
The radiant, sun-like bright golden radiance condensed in his hand.
What was parasitic within “Wuqun” was not the complete Whisper of the Void, nor was it the Pillar God of the Void Path. At most, it could only be called a child of the Void.
—In the end, it was merely a derivative similar to an apostle.
Eivass gazed at the child of the Void, pierced by the silver spear of moonlight, and threw the divine spear of Paradise he held.
The moment it left his hand, it accelerated to three levels. The speed at which its tail grew was equal to its throwing speed—because of this, it appeared as if it had never left Eivass, only its front rapidly extending and transforming into a thicker, more ferocious form.
Those dark golden runes floated, encircling the outside of the light spear in rings.
There were three rings of runes in total, with more runes and larger forming circles towards the rear. It was like a segmented rocket—the front part was only as thick as an arm, the second stage was already bucket-thick, and the final third stage was as thick as a giant tree that several people could not encircle.
And at this moment, “Wuqun” had already broken free from the silver moon spear.
Her chest and right arm had been dissolved by the power of the Blood Heavenly Envoy and Hengwo, leaving only her head. But because of this, the silver spear that was nailed to her chest also fell off.
But at this time, the child of the Void voluntarily shattered the last piece of “Wuqun’s” body!
Time itself seemed to slow down at this moment.
No, that was not an illusion—
The world became clearer and slower.
Colors collapsed, sounds distorted, and everything was gradually plated with a dim yellow hue, as if frozen and preserved in amber. Even the divine spear Eivass had thrown was frozen in mid-air… It no longer emitted light, appearing more like a rune-covered monstrous tree cast from brass.
And as Wuqun’s head completely shattered, a mass of pitch-black, lusterless turbid smoke flew out.
It circled the arena—Eivass clearly felt something sweep over him.
It was a slight tearing sensation. Not of the skin, nor of flesh and blood… but a fleeting stimulation from the soul.
If anything, it was somewhat similar to the light prickling sensation on the tongue when drinking carbonated water with abundant bubbles.
Eivass, Isabel, Sherlock—the child of the Void’s gaze swept over them, but it was clearly not interested in them. Or rather, it could not inhabit their bodies.
It was Arsen…
The child of the Void obviously showed some interest in him.
Although, not a great deal of interest.
It was like someone at a cheap buffet, looking troubled as they passed by barrels of unappetizing food, but unexpectedly finding something that was somewhat edible, or rather, something that was difficult to dislike no matter how it was cooked—for example, glistening roast chicken wings.
—The gaze of that smoky mass towards Arsen was like looking at a barrel of roast chicken wings.
Whether it was Eivass, Isabel, or Sherlock—their hearts had no loopholes.
None of them now had the possibility of falling into the Void.
But Arsen was different.
He had just begun to doubt the meaning of his existence and felt the emptiness of life. Coincidentally, the sum of his Sacred Numbers on the Path was exactly ten—
Arsen’s eyes suddenly widened.
He tried desperately to clench his fists and avoid the Void. But in the frozen world, he could not even move his body.
—Is it me?
In just an instant, Arsen realized the truth.
The next host of the Void… is me?
To be parasitized because of meaninglessness, and then to die meaninglessly like this.
To dissolve past glories, to melt away the love received…?
To die like this—defeated because of weakness, alone and transformed into the Void?
But just as he was about to be touched by the Void, Arsen’s pupils suddenly enlarged.
In his heart, his past suddenly surged forth.
What a short, ugly, meaningless life it had been—
At first, he had done nothing wrong.
He worked as a loader at the dock, toiling away but barely able to support himself. Later, he was innocently tricked onto a ship, only to discover it was a pirate ship disguised as a merchant vessel.
—The Sea Monster.
Smuggling, theft, murder… Of course, as a child, he hadn’t gotten his hands bloody.
At sea, there was a saying that “women are an ill omen,” and bringing a woman aboard might anger the Abyss Heavenly Envoy, thus causing tsunamis or storms. Therefore, ships on long voyages often had brothels to satisfy the sailors’ personal needs.
Of course, such legends were nothing compared to actual gold. If they captured a young lady, she would certainly be sold ashore after they were done with her, not drowned directly. After all, it was for money. They were all going to hell sooner or later, so they didn’t need to care too much about divine retribution.
—But that’s what they said, it was best to avoid it if possible, and there was no need to actively seek death.
Thus, there was another approach.
That was to recruit clean-cut, handsome young boys whose appearances were ambiguous, to serve as杂役 (za ji – handyman/errand boy). They could serve as men, women, and beasts—one couldn’t expect the combatants to do the manual labor, could they?
There was no end to such days. Piracy was not a long-term profession, and death at any moment was not unusual.
So later, when they docked, he stole some money and quietly left.
It was not the first time he had stolen—for a child with no one to care for, if they couldn’t steal or guard against being stolen from, they would have starved to death in some corner. But this was by far the most dangerous… Failing on shore would, at most, cost him a finger, but if discovered on the ship, he would surely die.
—It was a meaningless life.
However, it was precisely because of his experience at sea that he had the opportunity to become a sailor on a cargo ship at a minor age. He demanded less pay, was taciturn and obedient; the captain liked to find such people—they wouldn’t cause trouble for them.
Later, out of habit, he stole and caused the death of the second mate. He realized something was wrong with himself, so he stopped stealing and intended to focus on being an industrious and capable sailor.
Later… he was discovered by the “Sea Monster,” and implicated an entire ship.
But that couldn’t be blamed on Arsen… After all, even without him, the merchant ship would still have been plundered by these pirates. The only difference was that Arsen’s presence decided the pirates to teach them a lesson, and even after receiving the captain’s tribute, they still chose to shoot and kill.
Fortunately, with the captain, who was an Extraordinary, they fought back with all their might and killed the pirates.
But only three of them were left.
On the sea, with its scarce medical resources, the two survivors besides Arsen soon succumbed to their injuries.
Another crew member had already died. Only Arsen and the captain remained on the ship.
So, the captain passed on his inheritance to Arsen.
“…Captain, I’m sorry!”
The young Arsen’s voice broke into hysterical sobs, “It’s all my fault!”
He couldn’t accept that all this had happened because of him.
Because of his mistake, he had caused the death of the second mate.
And because of his existence, he had caused everyone’s death.
“You are not wrong, Arsen.”
The captain, still wearing his blood-stained captain’s uniform, lay in a deck chair.
He held an unlit pipe in his mouth and muttered unclearly, “Children are not wrong. Blame this damned world.”
“No, it was all my fault for harming the second mate…”
“He harmed himself, Arsen. I told you, you can’t hide your mistakes… Even if you can hide them for a while, you can’t hide them forever. That scoundrel didn’t know when to stop, and he was bound to face retribution sooner or later…”
The captain scoffed, “I’m no different. I’m not a good person either, you just weren’t on this ship when I killed people…
“Hey, on this sea, how many people have clean hands? If you don’t kill, people will kill you… In places without police, killing someone once is more profitable than making three trade trips.”
He wasn’t looking at Arsen, as he could no longer see anything.
“Listen carefully, Arsen. You kid…”
The captain’s words were not finished.
The pipe he held in his mouth fell.
Arsen, who was weeping uncontrollably, didn’t know what the captain had wanted to say back then.
And after that, he continued to live a meaningless life.
He wanted to accumulate good deeds, steal money from the rich and give it to the poor, but the rich remained rich, and the poor remained poor; he wanted to join the Eagle Eye organization and fight for justice, fight for humanity… but the missions he received were to kill and steal.
People worshipped the chivalrous thief Arsen, regarding him as a symbol of justice and rebellion.
Little did they know, he was fighting for those in power—killing their political rivals, stealing evidence of crimes.
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And later, he was captured by the Child of the Moon and made into a blood slave.
He endured the restraint of the Charm Lock with his tenacious willpower, and through his reputation and speeches, he made other blood slaves regain their senses and decide to pursue freedom—the consequence was that they were all hunted down and died miserably.
This was still meaningless.
He lived a meaningless life, becoming a meaningless person.
He tried his best, pushing a stone from the mountaintop, only to have it fall into the valley on the other side.
No matter how much he tried to do something well, fate seemed to mock him. All his efforts were meaningless; the more he tried, the more counterproductive it became.
Was it his fault?
And now… he had come here fully armed precisely because he wanted to confront the Blood Heavenly Envoy.
He didn’t understand the Void much, but what he did understand was enough.
—If his body were occupied by the Void, he would replace “Wuqun” and become an even more formidable enemy.
After all, Wuqun had deleted her professional level to become a First Tier—while he was approaching Fifth Tier, and even possessed the inheritance of Heaven-Stealing Secret Arts!
Would his efforts once again backfire?
At that moment, an inexplicable, intense rage surged within Arsen—
—I refuse to die like this!
Even if I have to die, I will not die in defeat! I will not become a puppet of the enemy…
I will not be reduced to a slave and an object again, to be held in others’ hands, to persecute my kin and close friends, to become a traitor aiding the wicked!
—Move!
Or, at least—
Let me shatter!
The moment Arsen’s heart was no longer empty, the time that had frozen him began to waver.
The stagnation of time no longer had absolute effect on him.
Arsen’s skin instantly turned crimson, the veins and tendons on his neck bulging.
Horrifying veins protruded on his forehead, the blood vessels at the bottom of his pupils suddenly ruptured, and his eyes were filled with blood.
The entire world began to shake with his intense rage.
Like an earthquake, it gradually intensified from a slight tremor. It was like amplifying the sound of boiling water countless times, mixed with intense tinnitus, placed directly in one’s ear.
In the silent world, a rumbling sound gradually rose, becoming louder and louder, filling the entire still world.
In the entire world, only Arsen had color—a nearly purplish dark red filled his skin, as if he were about to be strangled.
The next moment, the world shattered.
The dim yellow hue instantly faded, and time resumed its flow.
Arsen, filled with overflowing rage, had his limbs completely shattered within the near-stagnant time, his flesh and blood a bloody mess.
The child of the Void had not attacked him—in reality, he had attacked himself. It was like someone bound in shackles, struggling so hard that all their limbs were fractured. It was even more cruel than that…
Because Arsen couldn’t move even an inch, he tore his own skin and muscles with his willpower.
His heart was smoking, like an overloaded machine.
In just a few more seconds, he would have suddenly died.
Because of that near-boiling rage against fate, that fragment of the Void could no longer integrate into his body.
It was like hitting a wall and being suddenly repelled. It was even like a leech encountering salt, partially melted by Arsen’s boiling emotions, becoming incredibly weak.
In an instant, Eivass’s divine spear of Paradise pierced through it!
But because of this…
The disembodied child of the Void was not shaken in the slightest by this attack.
It was not a spirit body.
It was an information body.
It didn’t even have a soul structure or filling, it was merely a “layer,” a “texture” in itself.
At this moment…
The Blood Heavenly Envoy suddenly rushed back!
—She grabbed that fragment of the Void!
Because she had sufficient resistance to the Void, the Blood Heavenly Envoy could not be completely invaded by it.
But under the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s active fusion, a part of the Void infiltrated the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s soul.
But rather than the child of the Void drilling into the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s soul, it was as if the Blood Heavenly Envoy was taking the child of the Void and forcibly stuffing it into her own body!
This completely conflicting fusion caused the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s skin to shatter inch by inch. Black patterns appeared on her face, collarbone, and back… The child of the Void also clearly realized something and tried to break out.
But it was too late.
And when the child of the Void gained a body again, it meant that it now existed correctly in the world.
Therefore—
The divine spear of Paradise did not pause for a moment before suddenly piercing the Blood Heavenly Envoy!
The radiance was incredibly dazzling, pouring into the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s body in an instant.
The light illuminated from within the Blood Heavenly Envoy, dispelling the darkness—she was like a shattered porcelain vase, from which infinite light seeped out.
At that moment, Isabel hesitated.
She subconsciously grasped Eivass’s hand—not to stop Eivass, but instinctively wanting to stand with Eivass.
Like “accomplices,” wanting to lend strength to Eivass.
And Eivass did indeed hesitate for a moment, considering whether or not to hold back…
But after their eyes met—in just a brief exchange of glances, Eivass understood the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s resolve.
Without any hesitation, Eivass fully unfurled his white wings.
The triple rings—platinum, bright gold, and dark gold—intertwined and began to spin at high speed…
“—Paradise Lost!”
(End of this chapter)