I'm not just human!

The city of Augustus had four gates, but the checks on people entering and leaving the city were not strict at any of them.

The reason is simple: the nobles are mostly superhumans, or even very powerful superhumans. Therefore, there is no need to be wary of ordinary people entering the city, even dangerous individuals such as robbers and thieves, as long as they are not openly carrying swords or guns.

As for those with superhuman abilities, there's no way to defend against them; they have a million ways to get into the city.

Not to mention, even in the lower city of Augustus, there are a large number of superhumans mixed in, and ordinary bandits and thieves can't get away with it.

The best example is the small-time thug named Smith who was involved in the second out-of-control snow monster incident. He was robbed in the lower city and was immediately subdued by the shop owner who had signed a secret contract with the controller.

"By the way, now that it's been confirmed that Pompeii was the mastermind behind the Snow Demon's second loss of control, what was he going to do with the portion of the Mithril Emblem's power?"

On the way out of the city, Xia Fa suddenly thought of this.

Although Pompeii's true purpose is still unknown, it seems that we can deduce it by following this line of reasoning.

The Mithril Emblem was damaged because a portion of its power was stolen and could not be restored.

According to Banli, the consequence of this is that people who are now possessed by snow demons will need to wear the Mithril Holy Symbol and stand in the sun for a full three hours instead of just one hour as before.

At the same time, the healing and light shield defensive capabilities of the Mithril Emblem have been greatly reduced.

However, the drawback of the Mithril Emblem as a sealing object—that if it is worn for a long time and forgotten to be removed, it will cause the bones in the whole body to turn into mercury—has been greatly reduced, so that instead of one day, this phenomenon will only occur if it is worn for a full five days.

"Could it be that Pompeii's act of using Smith to steal a portion of the power of the Mithril Emblem was related to the creation of the Snow Demon that went out of control a second time?"

As Xia Fa pondered this, he joined the large group leaving the city and headed towards Rum City.

From Rum to Augustus, all that could be seen was a dirt road flanked by vast stretches of wilderness, overgrown with weeds and crumbling statues.

The collapsed statues were not statues of gods, but rather extremely bizarre ones. Some had eyes growing out of their hair, while others had human bodies and snake heads... They all looked like monsters.

Xiafa understood what had happened here, or rather, everyone in the entire Augu Kingdom knew.

This large area between Augustus and Rum was not once a wilderness, but a fertile land covered with farmland, where the most important economic crop was grown—wheat.

Of course, there are also many farmers' houses scattered among the farmland.

Along the way, farmers even set up tents to offer travelers a bowl of tea or a piece of oat bread—of course, the tea was free, but the oat bread would cost money.

The area did not form villages because it was bordered by Rum and Augustus. After all, farmers could get what they needed from the city, and many farmers moved to the city after they became wealthy.

The wheat grown on such a large area of ​​land could feed almost 20 percent of the population of Augustus and the three smaller towns combined!

However, all of this was destroyed more than a thousand years ago when a strange, angelic being wreaked havoc.

Xia Fa was not clear about the specific details, as they were not recorded in history books, perhaps to prevent ordinary people from losing control.

In short, when the Augustus family, which was still royalty at the time, took action, the emperor of that generation, as the ruler, killed the angel-level monster with swift and decisive means. However, the pollution caused by the death of the angel-level monster turned this area into a wasteland, making it impossible to grow crops.

In fact, those collapsed statues were an attempt by the Selenes royal family to perform some kind of land purification ritual after they took over the Augu Kingdom.

But it was no use; it was almost a curse, a curse on the land.

That's why those statues broke and collapsed, and this place remains a wilderness overgrown with weeds.

"The curses and corruption left behind by the bizarre deaths of angelic beings are beyond even the control of the rulers, and it seems that the royal family's prayers to the nine righteous gods have gone unanswered..."

Xia Fa couldn't help but recall the history recounted by the bard. It seemed that there were simply too many life-bearing planets in the universe for the gods to attend to.

Furthermore, according to the bard, during this ten thousand years, the nine great gods have been residing in their respective earthly kingdoms, not only rarely responding to prayers, but also no longer walking the earth as they used to, occasionally displaying miracles.

what is this?

To say that you can avoid the Great Old Ones is simply impossible. The single God of Absolute Defense alone can destroy all the Great Old Ones.

Moreover, there is the Paradox Joker, a god who, according to popular legend, seems to be extremely powerful.

Moreover, Xia Fa suddenly remembered that, according to what he had heard from those unknown beings when he first signed the secret pact, the god [First History] seemed to possess some kind of power to monitor the activity of any being in the entire universe, whether in the real world or the Protoss realm.

Therefore, those unknown entities dare not approach the real world.

In this situation, with the First History present, the Great Old Ones had nowhere to hide. It is estimated that they were wiped out by the Absolute Defense and other righteous gods as early as the beginning of the universe.

So why do the nine righteous gods insist on staying in their earthly kingdoms and not coming out, and even refusing to respond to the prayers of believers?

Even the bard himself was turned away when he tried to visit.

As he pondered these complex yet worthwhile questions, Xia Fa suddenly realized that he had arrived at the city gates of Rum City.

As a small town, Rum City had only two armed guards dressed in royal knight uniforms at its city gate.

One of the guards was even dozing off against the wall, while the other guard simply glanced at the people entering the city to make sure that no one was blatantly carrying weapons.

Xia Fa is still dressed as a bartender, and even his face has been slightly altered with mud that is close to his skin color, making him look more like a fat man than a thin man.

But just as he was about to approach the city gate and enter Rum City—

The guard who had been dozing against the wall suddenly awoke with a start, his extremely sharp gaze abruptly turning towards Xia Fa's direction, his face instantly becoming tense as if facing a formidable enemy:

"Hey... bartender, don't make any sudden moves! Or I'll shoot!"

He raised his bolt-action rifle with a bayonet, pointing the muzzle directly at them.

Xia Fa felt a chill run down his spine, wondering if his killing of Bald and his son had been discovered so quickly.

But that shouldn't be the case. He has already changed his identity several times and avoided the possibility of being divined. Moreover, it has only been two hours since he left the city. It's impossible to investigate so quickly.

"Ugh, ugh... Guard, what... what are you doing? I... I haven't broken any laws."

Suddenly, a muffled voice, reeking of alcohol, rang out from behind.

Xia Fa was stunned for a moment before turning around with a strange expression.

Behind him stood a man dressed as a bartender, holding a large bottle of cheap vodka that was already empty.

The bartender's face was flushed, his red nose was even redder than if it were congested with blood, and his steps were unsteady, as if he was about to fall at any moment.

But that's not the key point. The key point is... he actually had a large-caliber musket blatantly tucked into his waistband!

Such a drunkard, carrying a gun with considerable firepower... Xia Fa finally understood why the guard had suddenly woken up and was on high alert.

He almost misunderstood just now, thinking the guard was pointing a gun at him...

Warninged by the guards, the drunken man who looked like a bartender dared not move forward an inch. Instead, he walked directly to a tree and slowly sat down with his back against it.

He had barely sat down when he took a sip of his vodka and then, as if he were leaning back on the sofa, he collapsed drunkenly to the floor.

Xia Fa didn't pay much attention and strode into the city gate. During the process, the two guards didn't even glance at him, their attention was entirely on the drunk bartender with the gun.

After entering Rum City, Xia Fa, as usual, wandered around the back streets and alleys a few times, and even went to the port, before regaining his appearance and identity.

But he didn't rush home; instead, he went to church for a while.

It was almost six o'clock in the afternoon, and Chestnut and the others had long since left. Xia Fa sat alone on a bench in the church hall for a few minutes, letting the sunlight shining on him through the stained glass windows.

Once inside the church, any curses or marks he was unaware of that might have been left on him because of this operation could be completely removed, thus putting his mind at ease.

when--!

when--!

when--!

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the church bells rang on time, as if it were a signal to drive everyone out. All the clergy, believers, refugees and so on rushed out in a swarm.

Xia Fa did the same. He looked back and saw that deep inside the church, the Baal Blade on the golden hilt gleamed with a pale gold hue in the dim sunlight.

"It seems that all nine churches do this; after 6 PM, no one is allowed to stay in the church..."

Reflecting on his experiences over the past few days, Xia Fa was quite puzzled.

In fact, if he could have stayed in the church indefinitely, he wouldn't have needed to wait for the church to send over the mithril emblem; the snow demon wouldn't have dared to descend into the church at all.

But this was a secret about the nine churches, that is, the nine true gods who reside in the cosmos and look down upon the human world. Xia Fa didn't even dare to think about it. He walked all the way along Daniel Street back to his own attic.

He closed the door, sat on the dark red leather sofa, and began to recall the battle.

In a sense, this was the first time he had taken initiative since coming into this world and becoming a superhuman.

Fortunately, the efficiency was very high, the results were obvious, and there was even unexpected income.

The key is……

"I entered the Silver Throne state as an Insect-level transcendent, and my defense is already so high that even Little Bald, who is at the Elephant-level, couldn't break through it with his full power? This is too monstrous..."

Although he used "Red Silver Defense" to block the high-temperature light sphere and the rag doll's self-sacrificing explosion, he did manage to block it after all. The Secret Bond ability is meant to be used.

Moreover, Xia Fa understood that he had used the Red Silver Full Defense out of caution. In fact, he always felt that even if he had withstood the attack in the form of the Silver Throne, he should not have suffered much damage.

On the other hand, recalling the two clean and efficient attacks that dealt with the Bald father and son, Xia Fa sincerely felt the usefulness of the "Star Silver Rush" secret ability.

The Star Silver Rush involves converting the mystical living silver flowing in one's blood into "Star Silver," an extremely unstable substance that can vaporize at any moment, and then releasing it in a burst to achieve extreme speed in an instant...

Moreover, he hadn't even used the sealing artifact in the shape of the horse-slaying sword yet. If he did, the extreme speed combined with the horse-slaying sword's indestructible and extremely sharp edge... Xia Fa felt a great sense of longing just thinking about it.

"The Bald father and son were only elephant-level superhumans after all, and they were still too weak. I didn't even have time to try out the two secret abilities, 'Silver of Destruction' and 'Mithril Seal,' before they died..."

Actually, besides wanting to try out the other two Secret Contract abilities, Xia Fa was also thinking about what amazing effects it would have if he used the burning sensation in his body to activate the four Secret Contract abilities, including Star Silver Advance.

After all, the last time he was urged to do this, he transformed Fireball into the unforgettable "Sun" spell for his teammates.

However, as I said before, the Baldr family was simply too weak...

"Oh right, that bone-dice-like sealing artifact..."

Xia Fa suddenly remembered this. When he left the villa, the bone-dice-like seal had completely dimmed and was about to break. It was obviously a one-time use item, which was why he didn't take it with him.

After briefly reviewing the details of the operation and determining which aspects to pay more attention to and which to optimize, Xia Fa put aside his wandering thoughts, sat on the sofa, and rested for a while.

Then, he took out "Benise's Training Notebook" from a black pouch shaped like a button on his collar.

Fortunately, Benedict's training notes were not a sealed item, but they didn't look like a secret treasure either. In any case, they could be put into the bag, which was very convenient.

Xia Fa skillfully flipped to the back of the third page, his gaze sharpening as he noticed a new long row of records.

He felt like he was watching a TV series, and immediately became excited, but also a little worried, as he started watching from where he had missed the beginning.

After a long journey, Beneath and the siren Cyril finally arrived at the Forest of Bones.

The area is filled with towering, tree-like spines, giving it an eerie and terrifying appearance; hence the name "Forest of Spine Bones."

After a quiet discussion, Beneath and the siren Cyril decided to rest for a while, as they were both exhausted.

[Benise and the siren Cyril have had a good rest!]

After discussing tactics, the two girls set off towards Fenrir's lair.

Seeing this, Xia Fa shook his head and chuckled.