A new city had been built in the distance from the ruins of Cross City.
Originally just a small town, it had inherited the role of a crucial hub along this ancient trade route after the destruction of Cross City, becoming a stopover for passing rchant caravans.
As more and more people gathered, it grew into a city.
This newly built inland city had no walls. At a glance, one could see layers upon layers of various buildings, and even standing on level ground, one could sense the prosperity within.
Although it hadn’t been built for long, it already had the grandeur of a great city.
It mirrored the splendor of the forr Cross City.
The tall Magic Wheel House passed by the outskirts of the city, drawing many onlookers from afar.
The magic wheels rotated continuously, propelling the house-like behemoth forward, kicking up trails of dust on the main road.
The Magic Wheel House was considerably larger than before. Vivien had made many modifications to it after becoming a priest, and had developed several divine techniques to work in conjunction with it.
Many people in the city ran out into the streets, or watched from rooftops and windows as the miraculous object passed by.
“What’s that?” The people in the new city craned their necks, pointing at the giant silhouette on the distant road.
“It’s the Demon-Hunting Group.” So recognized the emblem printed on the Magic Wheel House and imdiately showed uneasy expressions. Although the Demon-Hunting Group protected them, disaster followed in their wake, making ordinary people wary of their presence.
“Wow!” The young n and won of the city, however, didn’t think that far ahead. They gaped at the miraculous creation in awe.
“That’s amazing. The power of priests is truly incredible.” In a world of supernatural powers, young people’s greatest dream was to beco Ability users, and the existence of the Magic Wheel House filled them with fantasies about the priests’ extraordinary abilities.
Inside the Magic Wheel House.
The Vivien sisters sat by the window, studying a long scroll that collected intelligence from various parts of Yinsai.
People constantly moved up and down the stairs inside the house. So controlled the direction and speed of the Magic Wheel House, while others placed drinks and snacks in front of the Vivien sisters.
But Vivien had no appetite. Her face was full of worry.
Anli, on the other hand, was eating with gusto. The shadow cast by the Little Person in the Bottle had faded as quickly as it had co.
Before coming, Demon-Hunting Group Captain Vivien had spread rumors that Ghost Cult mbers were gathering in Cross City, possibly related to the aftermath of the ghost disaster years ago.
Anli wiped her mouth and fingers with a napkin, then asked her sister.
“Will Stuen really co? Won’t such a crude tactic be seen through imdiately?”
“This is just an empty city now. What would the Ghost Cult co here for?”
But Vivien believed her plan would work.
Just as so extrely low-level scams continue to find victims, it’s because those who fall for them desperately want sothing, or care deeply about soone.
Even when aware of the potential trap, they cling to that faint glimr of hope.
The deeper one sinks into despair, the more vulnerable they beco to deception’s sweet whispers.
“If he really is that person, he’ll co.”
“Cross City is the most important place in his heart. He absolutely won’t allow the Ghost Cult and that demon to insult and violate it again.”
Anli asked curiously, as she could barely rember much from her childhood.
“Which person?”
Vivien looked at her sister: “The one who saved you when you were little.”
She silently uttered that na, her voice filled with countless sighs.
“Lester.”
“A good person… who wanted to beco the best doctor, to eliminate pain and illness for everyone.”
The distant ruins of the city lood into view.
Half of the walls of this abandoned city had been dismantled, the large stones taken away to be used in buildings in other surrounding cities and towns.
However, most of the buildings in Cross City still stood, as many believed the city was filled with resentnt.
Local legend said that every house that once held people now contained a curse, and no one dared to venture deep inside.
This wasn’t Vivien’s first visit, but last ti she hadn’t dared to enter.
She feared that seeing the tragic state of the place would make her collapse.
But after all these years and experiences, she believed she had grown stronger, and now she returned, wanting to know the truth of what happened back then.
The Magic Wheel House stopped, and Vivien stepped out.
Pairs of eyes watched her from the open door, so worried, so wanting to follow her inside.
“I’ll go in alone. You all wait for
out here.”
Vivien walked alone through the ruins, her footsteps echoing in the eerie silence. Each familiar street and crumbling house stirred a whirlpool of mories.
At the sa ti, faces of people she once knew flashed in her mind.
The grocery store owner was a scatterbrain, always miscounting money. Local children liked to steal snacks and small toys from his shop, and sotis when he saw them, he pretended not to notice.
The trailer repair shop owner, though very strict, always looked out for her.
Although the neighbors liked to gossip, when Vivien’s family faced difficulties, they were the first to co and help.
Not everyone was perfect, but in Vivien’s mory, every person had their kind side.
The more she rembered, the more her eyes brimd with tears.
Such a city, countless people, just disappeared like this.
“God of Knowledge.”
“Can such a being really call itself a god?”
“What a joke.”
Vivien looked up at the sky: “True God! Why don’t you do sothing? Why don’t you bring down true divine punishnt on this self-proclaid god?”
A voice ca from afar, echoing through the empty streets and alleys to Vivien’s ears.
“Because God has abandoned us.”
“And also… because God has grown weary of our constant reaching out to Him.”
“He is God, the supre Yinsai.”
The voice, devoid of emotion, cut through the air like a bitter winter wind, sending icy tendrils of dread down Vivien’s spine.
It involuntarily evoked a sense of tragedy in others.
“He created us, He gave us life, He gave us the power of Ability.”
“We then begged Him to give us the power of giants, and when we couldn’t control that power, Saint Stan Tito pleaded on our behalf for the power of rituals.”
Vivien’s head whipped around, searching for the source of the voice: “Who’s there?”
But the voice appeared in another place, as if it were truly a gust of wind, or a vague, shifting shadow.
“The desires of mortals are endless, and the greed of mortals is boundless.”
“That demon was born from Anhofus’s greed and desire. Although the Royal Bloodline is gone, the curse continues.”
“God has grown weary of our greed, and tired of our endless pleas.”
“He is God.”
“Not a wishing cup for mortals.”
“In our repeated pleas and falls, we have exhausted the divine grace left to us by Redlichia, the King of Wisdom. We are no longer God’s firstborn, nor His beloved children.”
Vivien’s eyes darted from shadow to shadow, every sense alert as she sought the elusive speaker.
Finally, she saw a figure wandering as aimlessly as herself on the street behind her.
The other person was also looking at every building in this city, his mories and nostalgia for this place even deeper than Vivien’s.
For Vivien, this was her hotown.
But for the other person, it wasn’t just a hotown.
It was his everything.
All the mories and resentnt he carried ca from here.
Vivien called out the other’s na: “Blood Plague Stuen.”
As she had hoped and expected, this powerful monster who could contend with the Little Person in the Bottle, Anhofus, had also appeared in this city.
The blood-colored cloak didn’t answer whether he was Stuen, nor did he ask Vivien’s identity. Everything seed to be understood without words.
Vivien questioned him: “Stuen.”
“What right do you have to say such things? God is rciful, how could He abandon us?”
Stuen laughed coldly: “Haven’t you heard that rumor?”
“The eternal Yinsai will enter a long slumber, moving on to the next era.”
“You, the Trilobite n, and this world, will all beco the afterglow of the setting sun.”
This was Vivien’s first formal exchange with Blood Plague Stuen. In the past, mbers of the Demon-Hunting Group had occasionally encountered him, but he never paid them any attention.
It seed that Vivien’s choice to et Blood Plague Stuen in this place had indeed achieved its intended effect.
Vivien didn’t believe it at all, but she had indeed heard this rumor before.
“That was spread by the Ghost Cult. That demon even claims to be a deity created by Yinsai. Do you believe that too?”
Stuen: “I believe it, because these are the words of the spirit, and the truth I’ve seen.”
“Captain of the Demon-Hunting Group, wake up!”
“God won’t save us, because this disaster is of our own making.”
But Vivien said: “I don’t believe it. I believe Yinsai will be passed down forever.”
“We will beco the greatest civilization, we will constantly surpass our past selves.”
Stuen laughed, looking at Vivien with cold eyes: “And at the sa ti, more people like Anhofus will keep appearing?”
Vivien finally began to vaguely understand why Stuen was unwilling to interact with them.
He had no hope for the Trilobite n.
He hated the Little Person in the Bottle, and even more, he hated Anhofus who created the Little Person in the Bottle.
Because the root of all this was the madness and greed of the Trilobite n themselves.
It was their own endless pursuit and exploration of power that led to the descent of disaster.
What Vivien didn’t know was that deep in his heart, he also hated himself.
Because he, too, had once been among those who sought power without limit.
“Don’t co looking for
anymore, Captain of the Demon-Hunting Group.”
“What I want to do, I will accomplish on my own.”
Stuen’s eyes beneath his hood glanced at Vivien: “I… don’t need you.”
Blood Plague turned to leave.
He hadn’t encountered the Ghost Cult here as expected, but instead found Vivien of the Temple’s Demon-Hunting Group. He realized this was just a ploy to draw him out.
But he had his own thoughts and plans. He refused to join the Trilobite n in fighting against the Little Person in the Bottle, Anhofus.
Vivien grew anxious and chased after him.
“Stuen, wait!” she called out. “You can’t defeat that demon alone. The Temple of Truth can help. We share a common enemy—”
But Stuen ignored her completely. He walked down the street, his figure gradually fading into a shadow.
He was about to leave.
In her desperation, Vivien suddenly shouted out a na.
“Lester!”
This na seed to possess a magical power, instantly halting Stuen in his tracks.
Stuen stood rooted to the spot, motionless.
After a long while, she heard him muttering this na repeatedly.
“Lester?”
“Lester?”
Blood Plague Stuen fell into a state of confusion. He felt a surge of mories he had sealed away flooding back into his mind—mories of the most painful and despairing monts.
He suddenly let out a roar of anger, his eyes blazing with blood-red light, like a monster ready to devour.
“Ah!”
“Lester!”
“Lester, I’m not Lester!”
“No, I am Lester!”
“I didn’t!”
“I didn’t!”
Blood Plague Stuen fell to his knees, but his figure kept twisting.
Beneath the blood-colored cloak, his face could be seen constantly changing, sotis becoming the visage of a god, sotis that of a Trilobite Man.
Vivien finally saw clearly the face of the Trilobite Man, the face that occasionally surfaced in her mories.
“Lester!”
“It really is you.”
Vivien exclaid in disbelief as she looked at the powerful being before her.
Only now did she confirm that the legendary Blood Plague was indeed the young doctor she once knew, that friend full of passion and kindness.
Blood Plague Stuen let out an angry roar, as if desperately rejecting this na.
“No!”
“I am Stuen.”
But Vivien shouted loudly: “You are Lester.”
“Lester, it’s , Vivien! Don’t you rember?”
“Look around you. This was once our thriving Cross City. What happened here? What turned it into this?”
“Tell !”
“Lester, what exactly happened here back then?”
This question seed to tear open the most fearso scar in Stuen’s heart.
Blood Plague Stuen desperately ran forward, as if resisting the recall of those mories, and even more unwilling to hear Vivien’s voice.
He ran from Vivien’s pursuit, unknowingly arriving at an empty square.
He suddenly stopped again.
Because before him stood a stone pillar.
This was a place for judging criminals, and in his mory, a series of unbearably painful scenes imdiately surfaced.
“Kill him!”
“Kill him to avenge those who died in his evil experints.”
“What are you waiting for?”
“Light the fire! Burn this damned blaspher!”
Standing before the stone pillar, his hands fell limp at his sides.
Tears stread uncontrollably from his eyes.
He finally rembered everything about Lester.
At the sa ti, a gentle voice appeared before him.
“Stop it!”
“Don’t play with my life. Let
die as a Trilobite Man.”
He looked up and saw a familiar shadow, etched into his soul, passing by him.
He turned around, but could only see a fleeting afterimage disappearing in an instant.
He kept turning in circles, trying to grasp that figure’s hand.
But he could never catch that shadow.
“No!”
“Don’t leave , don’t leave .”
“Don’t go.”
“It’s all my fault. Everything… it’s all because of .”
“Forgive , please forgive !”
Stuen went mad in an instant. His body collapsed, transforming into a vast river of blood that crashed down.
At this mont, Vivien had just caught up to the square, and the rolling river of blood engulfed her.
In the river of blood, Vivien saw countless figures, many familiar ones, all transford into horrifying corpses.
Those people from her mories now all appeared in the river of blood.
Vivien felt a chill throughout her body. She had never seen such a terrifying and cruel sight.
“What… is all this?”
Vivien stood at the precipice of truth, the veil shrouding Cross City’s tragic past about to lift.
She looked up and saw the source of the river of blood.
The origin of everything that happened, a Trilobite Man tied to a pillar.
Lester.
Vivien followed the vast river of blood forward. She felt that if she could grasp that figure in the blood river, she would know everything that had happened.
She struggled forward, but felt the power of the blood river constantly eroding her.
It probably wouldn’t be long before it assimilated her, turning her into another corpse in the sea of blood.
“Almost there!”
“Almost there!”
In this life-and-death mont, she touched Lester’s corpse.
She also saw what had happened to Lester.
Ti reversed, and the scene returned to Cross City before the disaster struck.
It was a sunny day.
A statue of Lester had been erected on the city street, with hundreds and thousands of people looking at Lester with admiration and worship.
So bowed to him, while others knelt on the ground to express their gratitude to Lester.
“Holy Hands.”
“Holy Hands.”
They called out Lester’s title, worshipping him like a saint.
The scene shifted, and she saw Lester’s beloved wife falling ill in bed, with Lester at a loss.
“I’ve saved so many people, I must be able to save you too.”
His wife smiled and said: “I believe you can do it. You’re Lester, the Holy Hands, after all!”
Vivien saw Lester praying and sacrificing to the “God of Knowledge,” she saw Lester creating a panacea, but the panacea wasn’t as powerful as Lester had imagined, and its side effects far exceeded expectations.
All the people Lester had treated beca living dead, including his wife.
Lester’s statue was torn down. The patients and families who once thanked him now chased and beat him like a rat in the street.
Finally.
Terrifying light and thunder burst from the ground to the sky, and the clear day instantly turned a gloomy gray.
It wasn’t the dimness of dusk, nor the gloom of a rainy day.
It was more like…
The purgatory of legend.
Everything unfolded before Vivien’s eyes.
Lester’s tragic story, and his miserable end.
Vivien had imagined many possibilities, but she never thought the whole story would be like this. She wanted to shout and rebuke Lester, but she also pitied his fate and ending.
It was a tragic story.
What made it even more tragic was that the person who caused this outco originally had a heart that wanted to benefit everyone.
In the sea of blood, Lester’s corpse slowly moved.
The corpse called out the na of his old friend: “Vivien!”
“That’s right.”
“It was my fault. I let that demon descend upon Cross City.”
“I… killed everyone.”
Vivien looked at Lester, a hint of regret in her eyes.
“You were a good person.”
“But… a good heart doesn’t necessarily lead to good results. You were too eager to beco an excellent doctor, too hopeful to cure all patients.”
“And it was this hope and desire that pushed you into the abyss.”
Lester managed a weak smile: “I know, but in the end, it was all too late.”
“Vivien.”
“Leave everything to Stuen.”
“He will surely kill that demon and end all of this.”
Vivien shook her head: “But we’re running out of ti.”
“The Ghost Cult is growing stronger, and that monster is getting more powerful. If we don’t find a way to contain it soon, the situation will only get worse.”
“Lester.”
“Join us.”
Lester looked at Vivien: “What can we do as insects? Being as weak as dust.”
“Just wait quietly! After the darkness passes, dawn will co.”
“Stuen will eventually beco a myth and drag that demon down from the clouds.”
Vivien was not a person who waited passively. She was a very persistent person.
Just like her sister years ago, when everyone thought her sister was beyond saving, she never resigned herself or admitted defeat.
To sit at ho and quietly watch her sister die was sothing she could never do.
She would rather push a trailer and search the world for that faint, elusive hope.
Even if what she found in the end might not be hope, but despair.
She still had to push that trailer and search.
Vivien placed her hand on Lester’s shoulder and said loudly.
“You can’t do it for now, and neither can we.”
“But if we unite, we can definitely do it.”
Vivien said earnestly: “I will work with you to find a way to defeat that demon.”
“Even if he’s a myth, even if he possesses immortal power.”
“As long as we can bring down that self-proclaid god from the clouds, even if it costs
my life, I’d willingly fall into purgatory with it.”
Lester looked at Vivien and suddenly smiled.
“Vivien.”
“You really haven’t changed at all. Still as unyielding as before.”
Lester slowly closed his eyes, once again becoming a motionless corpse.
And the once turbulent river of blood, flowing with countless corpses, gradually receded, reforming into a human shape.
Lester’s will faded, and he beca Stuen once more.
But Blood Plague Stuen’s attitude had clearly changed. He looked at Vivien for a long ti, and finally knelt on one knee and said,
“My Captain, Stuen awaits your command.”
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