Mystery: The Undead Don't Die from Linking the Fire

Chapter 197 Terrifying

Why ask your lover?

While feeling uneasy about the evil "skinning" ritual, a question also took deep root in Audrey's heart. She subconsciously looked at the figure across the table, hoping to get an answer from Ember.

At this moment, with the help of the Fool, the 'World' has materialized the appearance of Bishop Miller that he encountered.

Upon seeing the round bishop draped in a human skin robe, Ember hesitated for a moment before slowly speaking:

"The Skin God Apostles usually develop followers in remote mountain villages and hold grand festivals every now and then. During the festivals, the chosen 'dancers' will skin all the villagers, both men and themselves. The 'high-quality hides' that are skinned off will be used as offerings to the Skin God Apostles."

"The skinned men will be thrown into the fire, and the dancers will dance wildly during the festival to please the apostles of the skin god. And these skinned villagers will be given some twisted but powerful powers before they die."

"That bishop may have obtained similar power through the ritual, but as far as I know, the ritual of the Apostle of Godskin did not include beheading or sacrificing flesh."

Fors felt a chill run down his spine. Even without considering beheadings and flesh sacrifices, the act of skinning was terrifying enough!

Even just listening to Ember's account sent chills down her spine. How could a cult with such cruel rituals exist? Wasn't Bansie Island the territory of the Church of Storms? How did they manage to allow a cult to grow and thrive on their land, even corrupting a bishop of the Church of Storms?

For no apparent reason, a word came to Audrey's mind:

Leather factory!

Those "Godskin Apostles" will turn the villages they rule into leather factories, and the villagers they rule will be the raw materials for the leather!

Just imagining the cruel methods of the sacrificial ritual and the gruesome sight of people being skinned alive made Audrey extremely uncomfortable. Although she had access to much information about extraordinary worlds and had even personally experienced the "Great Smog of Backlund" incident that nearly caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands, this barbaric, backward, and bloodthirsty sacrificial ritual was still beyond her comprehension!

Alger, the "Hanged Man," pondered for a moment, then frowned and analyzed:

"The skinning and flesh-sacrificing rituals may be related to local customs. The indigenous people of Bansi Island have a tradition of human sacrifice, and they once worshipped an evil spirit called the Weather God. Of course, from today's perspective, they may still be worshipping this evil spirit."

"Overseas, in the Southern Continent, there are many similar evil spirits. They appear to have been eliminated, but they actually survive in strange states. Many people die suddenly in those places, not necessarily from disease. If you have similar travel or adventure plans, don't be careless."

The Hanged Man paused for a moment, then asked in confusion:

"However, I've never heard of this organization called the Godskin Messenger..."

The World chuckled softly and said:

"That's what I think too. That bishop might be worshipping two evil spirits from two different cults and creatively combining the sacrificial rituals of those two cults together."

Audrey and the others' expressions became somewhat subtle, as they simultaneously worshipped two different beings.

This seems quite fitting to describe them, since they each have their own gods to worship.

Audrey and Hugh worship the Goddess of Night, while the Hanged Man is a follower of the Lord of Storms. Emlyn worships Lilith, the progenitor of the vampires, Fors is a follower of the Lord of Steam, and even Little Sun worships the Creator. In a sense, they all fit the description of "simultaneously worshipping two different beings"...

"No, it's different. At least the two gods I worship are not evil gods, unlike those fallen ones who worship two evil spirits and perform cruel sacrificial rituals!" Audrey comforted herself in her heart.

Alger, the "Hanged Man," frowned, completely bewildered by what had happened on Bansi Island. As a pirate captain, he frequently visited Bansi Island—literally, not just raiding it. He mainly went there to replenish his supplies, and as an "official pirate," he occasionally maintained contact with the island's church.

For example, in the scene that appeared in the 'world,' Bishop Miller, who was three meters tall and wore a robe made of human skin, was someone Alger also knew. But he never found any signs that Bishop Miller had betrayed the church or joined a cult.

It is no exaggeration to say that Alger felt that Bishop Miller's faith in the Lord of Storms was much stronger than his own.

Why would someone like that suddenly join a cult?

Moreover, why Pansi Port in particular? Pansi Port hasn't had any problems for hundreds of years, so why are there signs of cults appearing at this time? What is the connection behind all this?

Alger attempted to portray the events in Bansi Port as a chance occurrence, an accident within the realm of understanding.

Suddenly, he heard a slightly low laugh.

The laughter came from the head of the long, weathered table!

Mr. Fool... The Hanged Man suddenly turned his head.

Mr. Fool! Things in Bansi Port are not as simple as they seem! "Justice" Audrey immediately looked at Mr. Fool, who was sitting upright in a high-backed chair.

Seeing the various gazes—some filled with doubt, some with curiosity, and some with excitement—Klein smiled leisurely, his tone tinged with reminiscence:

"This reminds me of an angel king."

"The Medici who founded the Rose of Salvation, whose descendants live in Pensie."

Redemption of the Rose! The King of Angels connected to the true Creator? Audrey hadn't expected things to escalate so rapidly, and subconsciously asked in confusion:

"Pinsey?"

"That's the old name for Banshee," Alger, the Hanged Man, replied in a low voice, his hands clasped together loosely.

"That's about it."

Seeing that he had successfully piqued the interest of the others, "Fool" Klein muttered to himself.

He didn't intend to continue, firstly because stopping short was more in line with Mr. Fool's persona, and secondly because he didn't know any more information anyway, and saying more would only lead to more mistakes, so it was better to say nothing. Although Klein utterly disliked riddlers like Emperor Roselle, he didn't mind occasionally being a riddle himself; in fact, it felt quite good.

Fors asked somewhat hesitantly:

"So, does that mean the weather god is very likely Medici?"

Bansi Island is the secluded retreat of the Medici family descendants, and the people there also worship a "weather god," making it hard not to connect the two. Not only Fors, but most members of the Tarot Club share this suspicion.

Ember pondered for a moment, then gently shook his head and said:

"It's unlikely. Medici is long dead. Even if he survived until now as an evil spirit, he only recently escaped his predicament and couldn't possibly be connected to the weather god who existed hundreds of years ago."

"Dead?"

The Tarot Club fell silent, everyone looking bewildered.

An angel king, an angel king who was above Sequence 1, died just like that.

Almost everyone else instinctively looked towards the person in the head seat, trying to see Mr. Fool's reaction. However, what they didn't know was that Mr. Fool was even more shocked than they were!

"Medici is dead? And turned into an evil spirit? That means the evil spirit I encountered in the underground ruins was Medici?!"

A huge uproar suddenly erupted in Klein's mind. As he searched for the process behind the answer, he almost immediately became certain of Ember's statement:

That evil spirit died over a thousand years ago and has been trapped in the underground ruins for the past millennium, unable to escape.

However, he possesses a blasphemous card made by Emperor Roselle over a hundred years ago. Excluding the possibility that an evil spirit went out specifically to retrieve this blasphemous card, only one answer remains:

Someone brought this blasphemous plaque to that underground ruin!

Why would anyone do this? Isn't this just the effect of the law of convergence of extraordinary properties?

The greater the mass, the stronger the suction!

Aside from the true gods, isn't the existence with the greatest 'mass' in this world Sequence 1?

As a Sequence 1 Angel King, it's perfectly reasonable for him to attract a Red Priest card! And those extraordinary beings who died in the underground ruins were undoubtedly drawn there under this aggregation effect…

No, that's not right!

Since Medici is dead, the entity that killed Medici must have taken his Sequence 1 Extraordinary trait. In other words, Medici now only has a Sequence 2 rank at most.

Of course, even so, he possessed enough 'quality' to attract those extraordinary individuals of lower to mid-sequence levels. And it was precisely because the other party was Medici himself that he was so familiar with the secrets related to Medici and the Rose of Redemption!

To conceal his shock and to resolve his doubts, Klein manipulated the 'world' and asked in a hoarse voice:

"Mr. 'Lover,' are you saying that the evil spirit in the underground ruins is Medici himself?"

Embers said frankly:

"It's just a guess, but it's very likely."

"There must have been a godhood ritual performed in that underground ruin, and such a ritual requires three Sequence 1 Extraordinary Abilities. So the ancestors of the Medici, Soren, and Einhorn families all became victims of this ritual. Their Sequence 1 Extraordinary Abilities were concocted into potions and ingested by the user during the godhood ritual."

"Their souls remained in the underground ruins and became evil spirits. Originally, there were probably three evil spirits. But they may have fought each other, and in the end, only Medici's evil spirit survived."

"So, the seal imprisoning the evil spirits in the underground ruins requires the bloodline of these three families to be broken?"

Klein immediately recalled the evil spirit's conditions and demands, and reason told him that Ember's guess was very likely the truth! But this truth not only failed to resolve his confusion, but also made him feel even more incredulous.

If someone really did kill Medici and the other two angels who were Sequence 1 'Red Priests', then who did it? If the other party really took the potion and successfully completed the ritual, then that party should have become a Sequence 0 'Red Priest', becoming a 'true god'!

If that's the case, then why are there seven gods instead of eight?

Unless the other party's ascension ritual was disrupted, or they were killed when they took the potion, and Klein considered the least likely possibility but a persistent suspicion that lingered in his mind:

The opponent had already become a god, but ultimately ended up falling!

If it truly involves the fall of a deity, then it must have left a significant mark on history!

As a history student, Klein immediately began searching his memory and found the corresponding information almost instantly—

The Tudor Dynasty!

The underground ruins bear the emblem of the Tudor dynasty, proving that they belong to the Tudor dynasty.

The ruler of the Tudor dynasty was the "Blood Emperor"!

"Could it be that the Blood Emperor orchestrated the deaths of three Sequence 1 Extraordinary individuals who were Red Priests, thereby consuming a potion made from their Sequence 1 Extraordinary characteristics and becoming a Sequence 0 True God?"

It was just a guess, but the more Klein thought about it, the more likely it seemed!

The war between the Four Emperors left a significant mark on history. If the Blood Emperor is a true god, then could the other three emperors also be true gods?

According to the diary of Emperor Roselle, he learned some details of the war between the Four Emperors from Mr. "Gate":

"For example, the four emperors are the true Black Emperor who was resurrected from the Solomon Empire, the half-mad Blood Emperor of the Tudor Dynasty, the Night Emperor of the Terensost Empire, and the Underworld Emperor of the Southern Continent, also known as the Grim Reaper."

"For example, in the war between the Four Emperors, the Black Emperor, the Blood Emperor, and the Night Emperor fell one after another, and the Underworld Emperor gained the greatest benefit."

Mr. Azik's reply also contains a similar account:

"I looked up at them, and the Blood Emperor glanced at me, and then I lost consciousness."

"I should have been involved in that battle between the Four Emperors to some extent, but I still need to recall the specific details. Perhaps it was the trauma I experienced that led to this."

It made me lose my memory again and again, die repeatedly, and then wake up again and again.

Even when Mr. Azik was severely injured, he was still able to leave Ince Zangwill, who had already advanced to Sequence 4 and held the '0-08', helpless. He was very likely once a Sequence 2 angel!

Only a true god could be able to inflict such a severe injury on an angel with a single glance!

The Blood Emperor is a true god. The other three emperors in the war of the four emperors can be compared to him, so they must be true gods!

The Underworld Emperor, also known as the God of Death, is most likely a Sequence 0 true god. The Black Emperor himself corresponds to Sequence 0 of the "Black Emperor" pathway, and he is also a true god, which makes perfect sense.

And since the remaining Night Emperor is not a true god, how could he possibly receive the full support of the vampires in the war of the four emperors?

You must know that vampires are a proud bunch. After all, their ancestor was Lilith, one of the eight ancient gods. Only a true god could make them willingly bow down and submit!

The Abraham family's notes also contain detailed records of some of these details:

That is, the true god once personally participated in this war of the four gods!

If the battle of the Four Emperors is a battle of true gods, then it makes perfect sense!

Only battles between true gods can force a true god to personally intervene!

Moreover, many details can be confirmed from Mr. Azik's reply—

For example, "The True Black Emperor Who Has Been Resurrected" and "The Half-Crazy Blood Emperor".

Mr. Azik is not the kind of person who uses words carelessly; even though his memory is now impaired, he would not make mistakes in describing similar matters.

The phrase "the true Black Emperor who has been resurrected" says it all. This is a true Black Emperor, a true god of Sequence 0! But why does Mr. Azik describe the Blood Emperor as "almost irrational, on the verge of losing control"?

(End of this chapter)