Having traversed countless realms, can you possibly be as clever as me?

"You're the one who's caused the most trouble here!!!"

"Yes! But unfortunately, who made me practically inhuman from beginning to end?" Francesca said with a grin.

"My job is in hell, and I might receive my eternal punishment, but at least I can torment sinners like you, making you feel the pain of messing up an exam~~~"

"What right does a god who has never loved or shown us any kindness have to punish us!" Faldius slammed his fist on the glass beside him, gritting his teeth.

Francesca didn't answer his question, but instead gave a comical smile, opened the car door, knelt down, and said in an extremely obsequious voice...

"We've been waiting for you for a long time, great one—"

With a swish, Francesca's head was neatly severed. Stepping on her laughing head, Faldius saw the figure that had appeared on every screen.

Faldius froze, watching as the man in front of him took out a familiar, alien dagger belonging to the Hundred-Faced Hassan he had summoned, and without saying a word, simply smiled and placed it in Faldius's hand.

Then, he pressed the dagger against his heart, smiling as he looked at Faldius. He watched him gasp in astonishment, grit his teeth, and then exert force.

With a snap, the dagger broke.

Faldius lowered his head in dejection. You ask why? This is why.

As if to reinforce Faldius's understanding and prove how kind and saintly she was, Tsurugi slowly played him a video.

On that damned island, a blindfolded girl trembled as she prayed to Jesus, and then the cloth covering her face was lifted.

Before him appeared several men draped in linen and wearing crowns of thorns.

"Lord, is that you?" she asked, her voice trembling with childlike innocence and a sense of redemption, yet brimming with hope.

"That's right, we all are!"

These wealthy nobles, dressed as Jesus, tore at her clothes with gleeful laughter, matching the girl's desperate cries.

The sped-up video also shows them impregnating girls and then 'enjoying' the pregnancy with the babies.

After the blasphemous scene was broadcast, Faldius felt his heart tremble violently, and he didn't even dare to look at the smiling Tsurugi next to him.

He knew that beneath that smile lay unparalleled hatred and murderous intent! The fact that he could maintain that composure actually demonstrated his considerable self-control!

"I still don't understand..." Faldius said, his eyes trembling.

"Do you intend to punish everyone in the world simply because of the people on that island? Is your will truly the will of the Lord?"

He closed his eyes after saying that. How could it not be true? If the stories in the Bible are all true, then isn't this perfectly normal?

Rather than questioning a deity whom one cannot reach and is destined never to question, why they sent down heavenly fire to punish humanity.

Instead, we should ask ourselves why there are so few righteous people in this world that divine punishment has befallen us.

"You verbally worship gods, entrusting your unknown fears to them. But when a god actually descends to take over everything for you, you become unhappy," Tsurugi said softly.

"They call your two thousand years a brilliant history of humankind, great, base, depraved, and glorious, overflowing with stories of humankind rising and falling and rising again and again, praising it as a story of human striving that is no less than that of the age of gods."

“I don’t deny it, but unfortunately, I’ve never been someone who can look at things from a macro perspective. My mind is as narrow as my character.”

Dongjiang smiled, frankly admitting that he had always been a narrow-minded and petty person, and that he couldn't bring himself to view the world from a grand perspective of humanity or the world.

He's capable of doing things that affect countless people just because of a momentary whim, and if you ask why, Tsurugi's answer is always the same. The renowned author, Life Absorber, has joined the book club forum with his new work, "Traversing the Heavens, Can You Be Smarter Than Me?"

Since you cannot stop me, you should accept me. Since you cannot change the tragedy I witness, you have no right to question me on behalf of those I intend to affect: why did I do this?

“Like Him, I will give you a chance,” Tsurugi said slowly.

"Since you claim to be the mastermind, here's what we'll do: you still have three days to kill everyone on that list and make them die as painfully as possible. If you can do it, I won't punish you."

"But if even one person escapes the net, the trial will continue."

He looked out the window; swarms of mosquitoes were flying overhead, frogs crawled all over the ground, and the falling rain carried a foul odor. He looked at the dazed Faldius and laughed.

"Hurry up, time is running out!"

The next moment, Faldius scrambled out of the car, and as she watched his departing figure, Tsurugi's eyes were filled with mockery and malice.

"Do you really believe he can stop your trial?" Francesca, standing beside her, picked up the head that had fallen to the ground and pressed it back down, grinning as she spoke.

"How could that be? Even if you gave him several years, he couldn't do it," Tsurugi scoffed.

The list on that island included not only members of most of America's old money families, but also many members of European royalty, as well as a considerable number of prominent magician families.

If the first two problems might have a tiny chance of being solved, the last one is absolutely impossible.

Even if Tsurugi tells them that killing these people will save the world, for these people, sacrificing themselves to save the world is absolutely not one of their options.

Even when disaster strikes, they will only feel a sense of satisfaction at dragging the whole world down with them, even in their own death.

However, Dongjiang will not personally handle the souls of these people, or rather, he will only vent his anger and then send them, along with the video recording, to Teacher Daye and his father!

As for what will happen next, Tsurugi has no idea, hehe!

Tsugumi got out of the car, walked through the hospital corridor filled with twisted, deformed bodies struggling for release, and entered the ward.

The female doctor who guarded Tsubaki Hill had fallen into a deep sleep, and the Pale Knight stood quietly to the side, fulfilling the duty entrusted to him by Tsurugi.

"The first day is almost over, let's summon the second knight tonight." Tsugumi patted the Pale Knight on the shoulder and asked with a smile.

Who do you think will be the second one?

The knight riding a red horse, wielding a sword, signifies bloodshed; the blade symbolizes war and destruction, bringing conflict to the world.

Since the plague has already struck, it has brought disaster and also set wars on the move.

"How wonderful it would be if everyone in the world were as innocent and pure as this child." Tsugumi came to Tsubaki's side, gently stroking the child's innocent smiling face in his dream, and sighed.

"But if that were the case, human civilization would have no way to exist."

"From the moment it was born, civilization has been accompanied by evil~~~" Francesca smiled sweetly.

"Human civilization is, in essence, a history of crime. So your naive approach will ultimately lead to nothing."

"Shut up," Tsurugi said softly, tossing her aside to the pale knight beside him and ordering him to torture this pleasure prisoner as painfully as possible.

If death is not possible, then let suffering prolong the trial.

Outside their windows, the constant wails and screams of people could be heard as the Blood Cross Plague spread, turning a quarter of the city's population into incurable beasts.

Then, this quarter of the population will spread more calamities.

That night, countless people also tried their best to stop it all.

Heroes of the ancient past, magicians of the nation, police officers upholding order and justice, exorcising angels, and many more.

But the Church of Christ was nowhere to be seen.

They were supposed to save them, and they wanted to save them.

307

They wanted to save them, but the very object of the calamity made them hesitate.

So the priest, representing the will of the Church, knocked on the saint's door.

After passing through the corridor littered with the remnants of suffering, Father Hansa, wearing an eye patch, took several deep breaths before mustering all his courage and pushing open the door.

Inside the room were a girl sleeping soundly in a hospital bed, a doctor, an ordinary saint, a pale knight, and a half-dead demon.

After a moment of stunned silence, Father Hansa bowed respectfully to Tsurugi, then raised his head and said softly.

“I urge you, great saint. My name is Hansa Sevantis, the overseer of the Church of the Holy See residing in this city.”

He paused, glanced at the bright red holy mark on the back of Qiu Chun's hand, and said softly.

“I think you are indeed not this little girl’s servant.”

"Disappointed?" Tsugumi looked at the priest, whose entire body was over 80% modified into machines, with great interest and chuckled.

"You who aspire to be the sword of God, are you disappointed to see that the greatest representative of divine punishment on earth is actually like this?"

Father Hansa was silent for a moment, then exhaled softly and said quietly.

"I can't lie to you anymore; I am indeed somewhat disappointed..."

"Ha, disappointment is just right! Aspiration is the furthest distance from understanding." Tsurue spread her hands.

"Even the gods you worship, when you get close to them, are not as inviolable as you imagine."

Hansa remained silent. From afar outside the window came screams of agony, the sound of someone screaming. He had just walked down the street and witnessed countless people transformed into cruel beasts, hunting and devouring one another. Thinking of this, he clenched his fists slightly and pleaded.

“Holy people of the Lord, please have mercy and forgive these people, they... should not pay the price for the sins of others.”

“I know those people deserve to go to hell forever, but among those you are punishing are many innocent people who are trying to live their lives.”

“If Peter were here, he would be very disappointed in you.” Tsurugi didn’t directly address his request, but looked into his eyes and smiled.

“Your church now lacks both compassion and firmness, and has instead adopted a lot of cruelty and compromise from those magicians.”

"As expected, the church, tainted by worldly affairs and no longer able to receive the will of the gods, was destined to fall into such a state. In that case, what reason do you have to exist?"

"Not to mention educating the world, you don't even have the ability to witness evil and punish it! What face do you have to call yourselves shepherds?"

Hansa's body trembled uncontrollably. In this mundane world, few people had the right to refute the conclusion of the person before them. Precisely because it was the truth, Hansa felt sorrow and intense self-torment.

"But ultimately, those from the previous generation only had the mission of laying the foundation; they weren't obligated to bear the consequences for those who came after them," Tsurugi shrugged.

"Alright, let their plague end here. It was just a prelude anyway."

As soon as he finished speaking, the wailing outside quickly stopped, but it was replaced by deeper and more painful wails and screams.

For those trapped in this insane virus, the pain of waking up and realizing the magnitude of their sins may be worse than remaining in this state of confusion.

Father Hansa looked pleading and hesitant. As a member of the church, he had countless questions he wanted to ask the saint who was so close to the Lord, but he couldn't bring himself to speak them.

But he could sense that Tsuruga still had some goodwill towards the Church of Christ—at least compared to the goodwill towards the Magic Association and the United States.

Perhaps it's because, although their organization has come close to depravity, there are still some good people worth saving.

"If you do this, you'll incur everyone's hostility," Hansa kindly advised.

He hoped that Dongjiang could go with him to Rome, to teach them the true meaning of the Lord in the heart of the church, and then, with the help of the church, to atone for their sins even if it meant launching another crusade.

Tsugumi shrugged, completely unconcerned.

"I know that in the end everyone will gang up on me anyway, so I don't care..."

As they were talking, a sharp arrow, like a missile, shot towards Dongjiang from twenty kilometers away, just as he was about to reach the hospital!

A shell falling from the sky shattered the long-range sniping attempt.

Tsurugi raised his head and looked at the sky, as did Hansa. They both felt a scorching and frenzied aura that made their souls feel as cold as if they were frozen!