Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 192 Behind Levels and Experience
"Who did it?"

When the body was brought before Du Yi, Du Yi was also quite angry—although he had almost forgotten what the priest who had been beheaded was called, it did not stop him from expressing strong condemnation of the matter.

You have to understand that he only has four priests who can do the work, and if one dies, there will be one less, and he simply can't find a suitable replacement.

"Ah, this can still be replenished."

Just as Du Yi was frowning, the leader of the four priests, Ansag the Crowned, spoke up and added a sentence.

"At least in the... well, in the deeds of the eagle-headed men, in the prayers of those evil eagle-headed men, there are stories of eagle-headed men going to the underworld to bring souls back, if it's you..."

Ansag the Crown didn't say the rest directly, but it was clearly a request to Du Yi to find a way to bring Melk's soul back from the underworld.

So, here's the problem.

How do I get to the underworld?
Looking at the still-thin eagle-headed sun god on the ground, Du Yi knew that this matter would probably not be so easy to get the answer from.

However, now that he knew the soul could be brought back, Du Yi wasn't in such a hurry. In any case, according to the other three priests, Melk would linger in the underworld for a while even if he died, and wouldn't just disappear completely.

"That's alright then. If all else fails, I'll go get them all together when the three of you are dead."

Although the specific procedures for bringing back souls from the underworld are still unknown, at least according to these three priests, the eagle-headed man didn't find it too troublesome—so it would be even less troublesome for him, since his skills couldn't possibly be worse than the eagle-headed man's.

However, in order to find out how to leave the Underworld, the familiar torture of the Sun God was once again put on the agenda. Unfortunately, this time the eagle-headed man unexpectedly chose not to cooperate, which allowed Du Yi and the three priests to torture him for a few more days.

However, it only lasted a few days.

This is not because they extracted anything from the interrogation.

It was because yet another priest had been murdered.

The four priests became three, and the remaining three immediately had a huge workload. In order to keep the newly established kingdom running normally, the remaining three priests could only take time to come and torture the sun god. However, just as they went back to deal with those documents, Ban, one of the remaining three priests who controlled the treasure bottle, was also split in two.

This time it's quite obvious that the perpetrator used a heavy weapon like a greatsword or axe. Of course, the possibility of using a one-handed sword cannot be ruled out, but to split a person in two, bone and all, with a one-handed sword would require superhuman strength.

Simply put, this couldn't have been done by an ordinary person. Although that sounds like a pointless statement, since Melk's death couldn't have been caused by an ordinary person, at that time, they all suspected that perhaps one of Melk's close associates had betrayed him.

But now, just looking at these wounds, we can immediately pinpoint the killers to those experts.

Yes, you're an expert.

This is also what makes the world different now compared to before.

In the past, people all wanted to be priests, whether they were priests of the sun god or priests of other gods. In short, being a priest who served the gods was a good thing. Not only would you feel a great sense of accomplishment, but your family and friends would also feel proud.

Now, after the unification of the upper and lower reaches of the river, as stories of victory gradually spread, people's impressions of priests have also been gradually changed by these stories.

No one wants to be a priest anymore. The once glorious priests have become villains in stories. In those stories, these evil priests often shout in the name of God and then commit a bunch of evil deeds under the guise of glory.

And when the priests in these stories began to do evil, brave warriors appeared.

These warriors possessed superb martial arts skills honed through countless battles, and they also had a training method called "Levels." Although these warriors were often weak at the beginning of the story, through persistent training, they eventually defeated the evil priests and became renowned masters. For example, there was Setka the Mad Axe, one of the "Four Warriors."

As one of the four warriors who personally killed the evil god high priest Matt Perry, Setka was a highly skilled fighter.

"But I really didn't do it!"

Seeing that Ansag the Crown and Sathek the Greatsword had both come to confront him, Setka quickly waved his hands in defense, even throwing the axe on his back aside to show his sincerity.

"This really wasn't me, you have to believe me. No matter how arrogant I am, how could I... Well, even if I wanted to challenge someone, it would be a direct challenge to High Priest Sarthek. I've been eyeing your divinely bestowed blade for a long time."

"Ok?"

Satek the Greatsword immediately frowned, and his right hand was already on the hilt of the sword behind his back.

However, just as Sataik was about to lose his temper, Ansag stopped him.

"Let's observe."

Ansag silenced Sataik with a look, then gestured for Setka the Mad Axe to continue.

In the ensuing conversation, although Setka repeatedly insisted that he hadn't done it, he made no attempt to hide his greed for the divinely bestowed blade—in a sense, this was a common trait among these warriors, regardless of their level, they all had an unexpected obsession with equipment such as weapons and armor.

Just like now, Sethka even boasted that he would help find the murderer if Sartek was willing to lend him the God-given Blade.

"Actually, these kinds of things aren't hard to investigate."

To show his sincerity, Setka simply spoke first.

“A master killer doesn’t kill without a purpose; it’s either for equipment, for leveling up, or both… According to the two priests, the other two priests’ Libra and Divine Bottle haven’t been turned over, which means the killer doesn’t really care about these kinds of accessory equipment…”

"Wait a minute?"

Ansag, the Crowned One, suddenly frowned.

He himself already possessed things like levels and experience points. After all, after the Serpent God absorbed the eagle-headed man's technology and created the divine glasses, many of those who fought for the Serpent God equipped themselves with these items. And after seeing experience and levels, people were indeed more enthusiastic about grinding for experience to level up.

This was within Ansag's understanding, after all, he himself had improved his experience through training. Although leveling up might be a bit too long, seeing the experience increase that accompanied his training still gave Ansag a great sense of accomplishment.

If it weren't for the limited production, which meant that the magical glasses could only be given to warriors first, the four priests would have even planned to make this convenient item available to everyone under the Serpent God's rule, so that they could all gain experience and level up.

But now...

Killing people to level up?
"problem occurs!"

Ansag immediately realized the immense hidden danger involved.

(End of this chapter)