Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 328 After the Disaster
"I understand." The weak expression on Luo Xiu's face faded a little, and he said, "I'll take a short rest and then go find our comrades."

After Luo Xiu finished speaking, "Shining Knight" Olivia nodded, then she turned around and jumped into a deep crack not far away.

Luo Xiu then sat down on the relatively smooth stone surface, took a long breath, and prayed for the healing magic.

After performing several healing spells on himself to free himself from the "severely injured" state and put himself in a moderately injured state, Luo Xiu opened the panel again and conducted a more detailed examination of himself.

In the panel, the "Golden Pegasus" had died in the previous explosion.

However, due to its racial characteristics as the "Beast of Glory", it will not truly perish. It just requires a certain amount of resurrection time and some sacrifices for resurrection summoning.

This is also the reason why Luo Xiu recalled Tatia, Fenrir and Wu Ye in advance, but did not recall Pegasus... Riding it can run faster and suffer less damage is one thing, but the reason that Luo Xiu is relieved is that it will not really die.

The first time Pegasus died, it would take three days to revive him, and a sacred material of "epic" quality would be required as a sacrifice. These were all minor problems... Luo Xiu thought.

This should be considered a work-related injury in the Holy See. After returning to the Church and reporting to Archbishop Sid, he can ask the Archbishop to reimburse him...

While Luo Xiu was planning all this, he scrolled down the panel to his [Status] column.

He always felt that the power of the previous explosion was extraordinary, and when the "aggregate puppet" exploded, he seemed to have been hit by a critical hit of scarlet rays.

In addition to the physical injuries, his mind seemed to have been invaded by something... His brain was throbbing with pain, as if worms were wriggling inside and sucking his brain marrow.

Swiping to the [Status] column, he indeed saw the cause of his mental discomfort—

[Taboo Infection·Deep Obscuration (Cannot be purified, 173 hours, 36 minutes)], [Deep Obscuration (Deepening Abnormality, 23 hours, 48 ​​minutes)], [Deep Obscuration (Deepening Abnormality, 16 hours, 22 minutes)]...

A halo that reduces intelligence! .jpg
As expected, something dirty appeared in his [Status] panel. Perhaps it was the explosion of forbidden knowledge hidden in the explosion, or it could be the forbidden infection hidden in the scarlet rays of the aggregated puppet.

[Forbidden Infection·Deep Ignorance] is an abnormal state that cannot be purified. Its effect is to reduce the "Wisdom" attribute of the owner of this state by 20%, and there is a certain probability of deepening it every 1 minute, adding a new [Deep Ignorance] state with a random duration to the owner of the state.

Luo Xiu knew that the "Hidden Omniscient" did have similar means of attack, which was to "stuff" forbidden knowledge directly into the brains of normal people in some way, thereby causing them to become mentally disordered and weakening them at the mental and even soul level.

At the very least it could disgust the other person for a while. In Luo Xiu's opinion, that was very similar to an experiment he had done earlier - directly using the "Holy Book of the Abyss" to disgust someone's eyes.

Luo Xiu didn't know how long he had been unconscious in the explosion... He now saw that he had three abnormal states of [Deep Ignorance]. Under the reduction of the "Resistance" attribute, his "Wisdom" attribute was also reduced by about 20% due to these three abnormal states.

He did feel that his thinking had become noticeably slower, and this state was likely to worsen every minute.

"..." This time, Luo Xiu personally experienced the feeling of being contaminated by "taboo".

He then raised his arm, and a golden holy seal pattern appeared on the back of his hand, with the pattern of [God's Holy Seal] flashing rapidly in between.

Luo Xiu then placed the back of his hand against his forehead, and the holy seal of [Divine Announcement] was completely activated towards himself!
The outline of his body was suddenly coated with a layer of brilliant golden light, and a pure white "angel" phantom quickly condensed behind him. He held a white rattle in his hand and shook it lightly above his head.

He looked at Luo Xiu with pity, and uttered an ancient divine message that did not belong to humans:

"—You will be baptized!"

After the archangel announced the [God's Word], His figure slowly disappeared, but the light surrounding Luo Xiu did not fade, but became even stronger.

He felt warm—as if he were surrounded by pure white fire, but he didn't feel hot.

In a trance, the wriggling feeling in my mind gradually disappeared, and what was reflected on the panel was that the colors of the three abnormal status entries of [Deep Ignorance] gradually faded and finally dissipated.

Luo Xiu felt that his mind had become much clearer as a result, and he returned to his original normal state.

However, [Divine Notice] had not disappeared yet and was still acting on Luo Xiu——

In addition to the three states of [Deep Ignorance], he now also has another non-[Glorious] gain state.

That was the "Mark of Domination" state from the specialty "Domination of All Spirits", which was originally imposed on Wu Ye, and gradually dissipated with the effect of [Divine Message].

For Luo Xiu, this was just a side effect of the [Divine Word] Seal imposed on himself... but it was not so bad, as this Seal of Authority would only lock the status bar for one hour, after which he could just impose a new seal on them.

……

Only after purifying the abnormal state hidden within himself did Luo Xiu stand up from the ruins and brush off the dust on his body.

The "Shining Knight" Olivia, who had met him before, had gone down to the depths of the ruins. Luo Xiu then fulfilled his previous promise and went deep into the ruins to look for his "comrades".

The originally secretive Black Crystal Factory has now been blown upside down.

Amid the thick smoke, the former Black Crystal Factory was in ruins. The dome used to cover and conceal things had long since disappeared, and among the ruins, the puppet prototypes, various machines, and alchemical vessels were now just fragments and debris scattered all over the ground.

When he arrived at the ruins of the peripheral factory, Luo Xiu saw the stumps of limbs and arms scattered everywhere, as well as the scarlet color smeared on the ruins that was unbearable to look at.

Those were the "slave workers" who had been working in the peripheral factories before. The "spiritual vision" did not capture the colors of any living creatures, most of them were already dead.

The air around him was filled with the smell of sulfur and burning. Luo Xiu followed the location in his memory and went down to the deepest part. He saw from afar another "Glorious Knight" Kruel who was searching.

Next to Krull, on a relatively smooth broken stone surface, the dishevelled "Glorious Knights" Gulanbato and Had were leaning there, breathing heavily.

They were also covered in blood, but their condition looked similar to Luo Xiu's before. They had taken healing potions made with holy water, which had stopped their injuries from worsening.

They also saw Luo Xiu from a distance, with expressions of surprise and relief on their faces. Luo Xiu walked towards them, and Gulanbato waved to him.

"You're okay, Luo Xiu, that's great... cough cough."

Gulanbato greeted Luo Xiu, then coughed twice, coughing up a ball of black pus and blood.

According to Luo Xiu's detection on his panel, he was indeed seriously injured... but his injuries were relatively minor and there was no danger of further deterioration.

And his [Status] column also has the status abnormality of [Forbidden Infection·Deep Ignorance], but it has not deepened into a new [Deep Ignorance], which is due to the high "resistance" of Gulanbaator itself.

"I'm fine...you should rest first. Where are Richester, Evans and Adele?"

Luo Xiu half-knelt down and cast a healing spell on Gulanbaator, making his pale face slightly rosier.

"Evans and Adele should be fine...Olivia is looking for them."

The "Glorious Knight" Hader beside Gulanbaator responded to Luo Xiu. Luo Xiu looked up and saw that his condition was slightly better than Gulanbaator.

Luo Xiu also cast a healing spell on him. Had nodded, thanked him, then frowned and said:

"…The one in most danger now is Bishop Richester."

"He was closest to the center of the explosion and he is the most vulnerable among us... I am very worried about him."

"I'll go find him." Luo Xiu nodded and responded.

"Then you and I will split up." Krull looked at Luo Xiu and said, "I will search the east and you go to the west. Please."

The west side of the ruins... that was exactly the direction where the Gravel Dwarves were gathered to protect under the "Shelter of the Sky Lake"... As Luo Xiu pondered, he saw Krull standing up, stepping on the broken stones of the ruins, and going deeper into the ruins on the east side.

After settling Gulanbaator and Had, Luo Xiu also stood up and searched deeply on the west side of the factory ruins.

Along the way, he opened his "spiritual vision" and tried to find the spiritual color belonging to Richester, but before he found any trace of Richester, he had already arrived at the place where the "gravel" dwarves were previously settled.

The hidden room, its door and half of the building were completely destroyed by the explosion, leaving only the other half crumbling among the rubble, with short, fat and thin dwarves lying in disarray inside.

Thanks to the protection of the "Shelter of the Sky Lake" barrier, the dwarves of the "Gravel" tribe were not seriously affected. Except for four dwarves with only two destinies who were too fragile and located at the edge of the barrier and thus unfortunately died in the explosion, the remaining thirty-nine dwarves all survived the explosion.

It's just that they all had some injuries on their bodies, and their minds were even more blurred due to the [Forbidden Infection]. Even though such a terrible catastrophe had happened before, they seemed to be unaware of it, and were still staring blankly at the air with dull eyes.

Luo Xiu gathered them together again and used "group healing" on them to stabilize their injuries slightly. He then temporarily placed them in the current room and continued to search for the whereabouts of "The Illuminator" Richester.

……

Twenty minutes later, Luo Xiu met the "Shining Knights" Olivia and Kruel who were in charge of the search several times and discussed the progress of the search. Only then did they find the dying Richester in the deepest and most remote corner.

The bishop of "Qihui", who was closest to the center of the explosion at the time, was blasted hundreds of meters away, and his waist and abdomen were pierced by a thick and sharp steel bar.

The bishop's robe on his body was already riddled with holes, and most of it was stained with muddy blood. He had already lost consciousness, and his face was as sickly as gold paper. Every time he breathed unconsciously, a wisp of black blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

"The Illuminator" Richester, he was the one who was truly on the verge of death... Luo Xiu and Olivia, who discovered him, did not dare to neglect him and gave him emergency treatment.

Olivia was a Brilliant Knight whose second profession was "Great Blessing of Enlightenment". Together with Luo Xiu, she cast several healing spells for Richester, and only then did she pull Richester from the near-death state.

But Richester's condition is still not optimistic - he is the most affected by the [Forbidden Infection], and the deepening [Deep Ignorance] has been superimposed to eight layers, and Richester's "resistance" is not high, and his "wisdom" attribute has been almost destroyed by 80%.

If we allow this [taboo infection] to deepen, when Richester's "wisdom" is completely wiped out, he will become a real "mentally retarded person", and it will be difficult to save him. Even if he is cured, he will still drool...

But Luo Xiu had already used the Holy Seal of [God's Word] on himself. In order to completely cleanse the [forbidden infection] on Richester's body, he could only send him back to the Main Church and let the Archbishop or other bishops who hold the [Holy Seal of [God's Word]] treat him.

Luo Xiu then pinched the "purification" ball of light and purified three layers of [Deep Ignorance] on Richester's body to stabilize his condition.

Afterwards, Olivia supported him and went to meet up with Gulanbato, Had and the others. The two injured "Glorious Knights" then escorted Richester back to the direction of the Cathedral.

Luo Xiu went to look for the "Glorious Knight" Krull, and he found Adele and Evans, one seriously injured and the other slightly injured. After giving them emergency and simple treatment, Krull escorted them away from the ruins of the battlefield first.

Before leaving, Krull told Luo Xiu:
"Please, Luo Xiu. I have to take them back first. Please go find Raymond and help him escort the 'Hidden Elder' Baberon back."

Escorting Baberon... Luo Xiu recalled that when he had just woken up, Olivia of the Shining Knight had told him that the Hidden Elder Baberon had been [imprisoned] by Raymond...

But his condition was quite bad at that time, so he didn't think much about it. Now that Krull mentioned Baberon's name again, Luo Xiu nodded slightly and agreed to him and said:

"I understand. I will go and meet with Bishop Raymond. You can rest assured."

Since Krull said so, then Baberon is most likely still alive. I can just go and check on him and retrieve Said's Notebook from him...

After Luo Xiu agreed, Krull nodded.

Afterwards, under Luo Xiu's gaze, Krull turned around, supported Adele with his left hand and Evans with his right hand, and limped back with them towards the main church.

……

(End of this chapter)