Several days had passed, and the oppressive atmosphere continued to spread within the Inner Ring. Even Qi Lin, who was buying vegetables, felt sothing was amiss.
"Judge Qi Lin, you gave the wrong amount. This should be 15, and you only gave 10."
"Oh, I apologize. I was distracted."
Qi Lin imdiately handed the vendor an additional 5 dollars. He then glanced at the nearby newsstand, wanting to buy so newspapers, but realized he had run out of change.
As he hesitated over whether to use a larger bill, Lu Luo took down today’s newspaper from the stand and handed it to Qi Lin.
"Dad, it’s been a long ti."
Dad! What a strange word it was!
Qi Lin’s aged hands trembled slightly. He looked at Lu Luo, and after a long silence, he finally nodded.
"Good, I’m very good. Indeed, it has been a long ti. Are you doing well too?"
Qi Lin was sowhat incoherent, which shouldn’t have been the case considering he was neither ill nor lacking in knowledge and experience.
But the surge of emotions was indescribable.
The appearance of Lu Luo was undoubtedly a powerful shot of adrenaline for him.
It left the elder Qi Lin sowhat overwheld at the mont.
"Yes, I’m doing well, don’t worry, Dad. Qi Xinzhu is also fine. Moreover, we already had a child, a daughter nad Lu Xiaofang."
"Xiaofang, Xiaofang... ’Fang’ as in ’fragrant grass.’ A very good na. It’s great that you all are living well. In fact, you don’t have to worry about us old folks; we are also living well here, no need to worry."
Seeing Qi Lin’s expression, Lu Luo felt a pang of remorse.
Qi Lin had already resigned from his position as a Council mber, and even his role as a judge of the Inner Ring had been revoked.
There was no helping it; his identity was far too special now.
Both Qi Xinzhu and Lu Luo had put certain pressures on the Inner Ring.
The Inner Ring could no longer employ soone with an identity as questionable as Qi Lin’s.
No matter how capable or fair he was, the Inner Ring could not afford to use him at this ti.
Without work, Qi Lin could only live off his savings.
Life gradually started to feel the pressure.
Although they were not in dire straits, the long-term joblessness still left him feeling sowhat irritable.
"Dad, it won’t take much longer."
"What are you talking about? If you ca here today just to say such things, then go ahead and leave."
When Lu Luo spoke those words, Qi Lin’s expression suddenly turned stern. Then, he grew sowhat despondent.
"Don’t talk big before you succeed, understand?"
"I understand. Thank you for the lesson, Dad. I’ll keep it in mind."
"Do you want to co over to the house for a visit? Your mother misses you both." Qi Lin tried to invite Lu Luo, but Lu Luo declined at this mont.
"I have sothing very important to do next, and it’s a bit dangerous. If I were to see you now, it might bring so trouble to you. So, it’s better not to!"
Qi Lin nodded at Lu Luo’s words and didn’t press the invitation.
Old Qi Lin could still discern right from wrong at this ti.
As a forr high-ranking official of the Inner Ring, he was well aware of the current state of the Inner Ring.
Doom might co at any mont.
He didn’t know what his family would ultimately face, but what he could do was to live honestly and not cause trouble for his children, like Qi Xinzhu and his son-in-law Lu Luo.
Of course, now there was also their granddaughter, Lu Xiaofang.
"Alright, if there’s sothing that needs to be done, go do it. Don’t worry about us. Just focus on your work, and after you’ve completed your tasks, there will be plenty of ti."
"Dad is right, there will be ti later. Today, I ca to see you and to tell you about Qi Xinzhu and Xiaofang. I believe it won’t be long before you can see your daughter and granddaughter."
"That’s wonderful!"
It was evident that Qi Lin was very pleased, but he couldn’t say much.
Taking the newspaper, Qi Lin left straight away, without even saying much of a goodbye to Lu Luo.
Standing under the morning sunlight, Qi Lin’s silhouette seed to grow taller.
"Dad..."
Qi Lin didn’t turn back. He was like a passerby, barely glancing at Lu Luo.
Seeing the attitude displayed by Qi Lin, Lu Luo already had his answer.
This was perhaps the care and love an elder has for their younger kin.
...
「In the ruins of the Second Ring, a tall woman was searching for sothing amid the debris.」
Just as her expression showed a hint of disappointnt, suddenly, she spotted a faint glimring light in the ruins.
"Hmm?"
With a light wave of her finger, the surrounding rocks imdiately shattered, revealing the true form of the glimr.
A badge, a badge belonging to Pope Fan Zhen.
"I’ve finally found it!"
This woman was Luo Dan, the one everyone in the Inner Ring was searching for.
At this mont, she was using a half-face mask to cover most of her face.
Her voice also sounded sowhat distorted and unclear due to the presence of the mask.
Standing in the midst of the ruins, flickering in and out of sight, she appeared sowhat eerie.
The ruins were the place where Fan Zhen and Bai Qingshuang had once fought. Because of the revolution in the Inner Ring, there was a shortage of labor. With an absolute divide between the Church and the Council, this part of the Second Ring hadn’t been repaired.
But this was a situation Luo Dan was pleased to see; if the place had been rebuilt, she wouldn’t have had the chance to obtain Fan Zhen’s badge.
The undead... What a fine gift. Since Lu Xiaotian is so eager to see dead, why not give her a chance? Let her see what the true foundation of the Dawn Church is.
The badge in Luo Dan’s hand was the Pope’s insignia of the Dawn Church.
It was sothing only the Pope of the Dawn Church could possess.
Its function was simple. It could summon the past sages of the Dawn Church—the undead from beneath the earth—to aid its wielder once.
Each Pope could use it only once, serving as the final assistance from these past sages to the Church’s leader.
Luo Dan certainly had the right to use the insignia, but it had been lost since the battle between Fan Zhen and Bai Qingshuang.
It was only today that she had found it.
This object would also beco her greatest trump card against Lu Xiaotian.
"Pope, should we go back now?"
Even though Luo Dan was viewed with hostility by many, even by mbers of the Church itself, as Pope, she still had a group of loyal followers.
As Pope, Luo Dan had indeed done many things. But her radical ideas differed from those of most of the slick mbers of the Church, leading to the current situation.
This ti, even though she knew that the other party was coercing her into showing up and might even have laid an ambush for her at a certain place, she still had to et the challenge.
Because she was the Pope, and the Pope had her duties.
Expelling the external foes of the Inner Ring was one of her duties.
Indeed, just as many masters had surmised before, though killing Luo Dan ant weakening the upper limits of the Inner Ring’s power, if Luo Dan truly failed to stand up at this ti, the present Inner Ring would essentially be without a capable defender.
Thus, she had to face it.
"Indeed, we can go back now. There are always things to confront; everyone will face their own tomorrow."
Luo Dan’s voice beca sowhat ethereal, and upon hearing her words, her subordinates knelt on the ground one after another.
"I swear fealty unto death to His Holiness the Pope!"
In the Wasteland Alliance, everyone had their own choice, and their choice was simple—to pledge allegiance to Luo Dan.
There was no room for regret, for without reaching the end, no one knew whether their path was the right one.
...
「That night, Luo Dan returned to the Church with her followers in tow.」
The Pope’s arrival was not t with cheers from the believers; instead, they looked at her with strange gazes.
This attitude seed almost as if they were questioning why she hadn’t gone out to explain herself yet.
Despite already feeling alienated from the current Church, Luo Dan still detested such glances.
Those gazes were naked rejection, treating her as an outsider, even a monster.
Hah, indeed, these humans will only recognize what they wish to recognize. They have forgotten my past, forgotten all that I have done for them. They think I’m a monster; they think I am unworthy to be the Pope...
Luo Dan’s voice was extrely cold. When she uttered the word ’humans,’ her subordinate also slightly lifted his head.
He felt it was sowhat improper for Luo Dan to describe these people as ’humans,’ because they too were human. Since they were all human, it was rely a matter of different factions, not sothing that should escalate to an issue of race.
But just as he thought this, Luo Dan suddenly turned her head to look at him.
"Do you find any issue with what I said?"
"No, no issue," the subordinate stamred.
The oppression Luo Dan exuded was simply too overpowering.
Faced with such oppression, he felt sowhat at a loss.
"Right, there is no issue. Humans are pathetic creatures, like a swarm of pitiable insects struggling in a world built on the compassion of others. Only I can save them, but they still have not understood this."
Luo Dan slightly raised her head, appearing sowhat proud.
But for a mont, her subordinate even thought that His Holiness the Pope whom he served had gone mad. Yet, he did not say much, for serving the Pope was his own choice.
"Let’s go. Let us see what kind of drama these scum of the Church have prepared for ."
Upon arriving in the great cathedral of the Inner Ring, the surrounding crowd began to disperse outward.
A few Seventh Tier Elders stood at the center of the cathedral, silently watching Luo Dan’s arrival.
The woman before them, the one who stirred such incredibly mixed feelings within them, had finally appeared!
"Your Holiness the Pope, you have finally returned," one Elder said, not particularly respectfully.
Luo Dan didn’t even glance at him and headed straight for the deepest part of the cathedral, which was the Pope’s seat.
"Luo Dan, you..."
"Insolence! Is the na of His Holiness the Pope also sothing you can casually call out?"
Luo Dan’s subordinate sternly rebuked the other. Though the other was a Seventh Tier master, he wasn’t afraid, for he had faith.
A person with faith has nothing to fear.
"Very well, I shall see just how long you can keep up this pretense."
"How long I can hold out is not up to you to decide, but them."
"Them? Who else could there be besides us here?"
Several Elders of the Church were puzzled, but Luo Dan no longer paid them any attention, instead turning her gaze to the sky and muttering, "You’re too old. You’ve lost your perception of the world, and you’ve lost your own sharpness. Now, you are nothing but decaying things. Explanation? Why bother with an explanation? When you have the strength to change everything, any explanation is superfluous. It’s because you’re afraid that you seek a nebulous explanation. Do you think I’m right?"
Luo Dan seed to be having a conversation with soone, but this person didn’t appear to be any of the Elders standing there.
The people of the Church looked at each other in confusion, unclear about what Luo Dan was really talking about.
"Luo Dan, what are you talking about? Who are you talking to?"
"Who am I talking to? Of course, it’s the being that you all fear. Am I right? Nightmare Demon, or Lu Xiaotian?"
Nightmare Demon?
When the people of the Church heard this na, everyone started to panic.
Although the Nightmare Demon had always been in the Fourth Ring, the pressure she exerted on the Inner Ring was too great.
Without Holy Radiance, the Inner Ring no longer had the power to contend with the Nightmare Demon.
Their sparse population left them in an utterly awkward predicant.
The remaining Seventh Tier could only struggle to survive to so extent, not launch a counterattack against the Fourth Ring.
The Council’s Seventh Tier, each harboring their own selfish desires, could hardly unite to confront the Fourth Ring—it was nearly impossible.
In such a complex situation, the power of the Nightmare Demon grew stronger and stronger, to the point where even the current Inner Ring was struggling to breathe.
"You ntioned the Nightmare Demon? She’s here, where is she?"
"She? She’s in the sky. Don’t you see her?"
When Luo Dan said this, most people looked up at the sky with terror, only then realizing that the sky tonight seed darker than usual.
This darkness was none other than the colossal body of the Nightmare Demon in her full form, blotting out the sky.
"The Nightmare Demon!"
"The Nightmare Demon! It really is the Nightmare Demon."
"Why hasn’t the alarm sounded? Where are the Wall Guardians?"
"How should I know? The Wall Guardians are controlled by the Council."
Could it be that the Council has also betrayed us?
The people of the Church started to panic. So began to flee, while others started to bla each other.
When the Nightmare Demon appeared alone here, not a single person thought to stand and fight her.
How ridiculous this scene was. Even the forr Fourth Ring was better than this, much, much better.
"It seems that your perception hasn’t dulled after all, Luo Dan," Lu Xiaotian’s bright voice resounded from the sky, her words laden with implication.
At this mont, Luo Dan did not shy away; at this point, with the victor as king, she had nothing left to hide.
"It’s not that it hasn’t dulled, but that it’s been ’Enhanced.’"
"Enhancent? If turning into a robot counts as enhancent, then Noah wouldn’t have bothered going through so much effort to beco human."
With those words, the Nightmare Demon nearly confird the transaction between Luo Dan and Noah.
By then, the people of the Church looked at Luo Dan with complex gazes.
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