Chapter 5

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Chapter 5: Resurrection Overture (V)

If you wanted to ask Qi Leren’s mood after entering the Courthouse, it would be really necessary to describe it as having great ups and downs. Regardless of the fact that he was almost stopped in the office of the Court’s boss, his mood was full of ups and downs just after he entered the underground world.

He had assumed that the Prophet should be a very kind old man. After entering the underground world covered with snow and ice, he had felt that he should be a serious and stoic elder. When he fell into the ice pool and saw the Prophet, he was completely fooled by his divine temperament and judged him by his appearance as an exorcist of the Holy See full of love and divinity like Maria.

—Until he spoke.

In three sentences, he completely destroyed the “divinity” created by the prior foreshadowing and replaced it with a “man” who had a long story.

Qi Leren fully understood the feelings of Si Ling and others. If he was a judge, he wouldn’t want others to see the Prophet.

As for when he had met this master, Qi Leren had already figured it out—when he had finished the undercover mission with the Slaughter Secret Society and came to the Courthouse to pull out the seed of slaughter.

At that time, the Court told him that because it would involve the secrets of the Court, he would lose his memory of these seven days. It turned out that he had spent these seven days underground with the mysterious Prophet?

Look at what they’d done… Studied makeup together… It was no wonder that in the days after leaving the Court, when he had walked down the street he’d been able to tell at a glance that the girls walking opposite to him were wearing inner eyeliner!

Qi Leren suddenly felt that he didn’t really want to recall these memories that had a gay aura…

“Please get down to business,” Si Ling said coldly.

Qi Leren nodded: “I went to the Holy City before…”

Qi Leren gave a brief account of what happened, and then took out the Scepter of Hell from the item bar.

When it was taken out, the ice lotus floating in the water suddenly turned black and cracked all throughout. The continuous sound of glass shattering echoed in the quiet and deep waters, and the polluted black lotus was broken into numerous pieces, which slowly sank in the water and fell to the bottom.

Qi Leren felt that he had caused some big trouble and looked at the Prophet anxiously. The Prophet looked at it with a complicated expression: “Maria really left me a problem.”

“What the hell…” Qi Leren subconsciously wanted to ask, but once he’d sait it, he regretted it again—he really shouldn’t know too much, knowing too much was not a good thing.

“Such a thing made the Devil of Power abandon her own body to intercept you.” The Prophet held the scepter in his hand. In an instant, an evil black fog spread to his whole body along his arm. The ice coffin suddenly opened, and a beam of white light lit up in the coffin. The scepter in the Prophet’s hand was placed in it, and then the ice coffin was closed again. This evil item was firmly sealed inside.

The Devil of Power… The girl who intercepted him turned out to be Devil King of Power?! Qi Leren suddenly felt like dying.

“Thank you for bringing it, I should give you some reward,” the Prophet said what Qi Leren wanted to hear most. “Maria has paid a part of it and she has helped you repair your body with the power of her remaining faith, otherwise… In short, you will now be a little more resistant to exercise than normal people, and can withstand injuries from falls. You should have felt it just now. Your resistance to cold has increased, which is one of the benefits. You’ll be able to feel other benefits slowly.”

“…” He felt that the Prophet’s tone had brightened again, and Qi Leren understood that he was going to let himself go again.

“In addition, I can give you an item, half-field level, which can summon an archangel to come for a short time, possess you to help you fight, and help you condense a field as soon as possible. What style would you like?” The Prophet stretched out his right hand and a mass of white light was rolling in his palm, constantly changing its shape.

Si Ling signaled his disapproval with his eyes. No matter how you looked at a half-field item, their cost was too high.

“Think of it as a reward for fulfilling Maria’s last wish,” the Prophet said generously.

“Thank you very much! I have no requirements for style.” The ecstatic Qi Leren dared to ask for it!

The Prophet smiled again, but it was a devious smile: “How about a nipple ring? You would look good with one.”

Qi Leren: “…”

Si Ling: “…”

“I still want it to be normal…” Qi Leren said with difficulty, praying that the Prophet wouldn’t make a huff about it at this critical moment, or else he really didn’t know if he should use such a god-level item.

“What a pity,” the Prophet sighed half-heartedly, and the ball of light hovering in his hand instantly contracted and collapsed into a hanging pendant with metal wings, fully matching the mechanical sensibilities of steampunk.

[Prophet’s Heart: A god-level item hand-made by the noble and great Prophet that can make you feel the pleasure of turning into a bird. Holders can summon an archangel to come and fight on their behalf for 3 minutes with a cooling time of 24 hours.]

Qi Leren looked at the item’s introduction and couldn’t help his mouth from twitching.

“From the item’s design to it’s description, it was all arranged by myself. I give myself 100 points,” the Prophet boasted of himself happily and got a dirty look from Si Ling.

“You should go back and rest,” Si Ling said.

“Well, I’ll give Qi Leren a piece of advice and a suggestion before he goes to bed,” the Prophet said.

Qi Leren held the pendant: “Go ahead.”

“First, when you are free, you can go to the mountain on the far side of Undead Island and find a blind old man there. He has many unique skills he can teach you; Second, reduce the use of your resurrection skill.”

“How do you know…” Having his cards suddenly exposed, Qi Leren felt as if his heart had stopped, and then he thought about how the Prophet was the man behind the Trial Court’s curtain. It wasn’t surprising for him to know, so he only asked, “What’s wrong with that skill…?”

The Prophet looked at him faintly: “You’ve probably already sensed that when you use it to escape from death, death will only be closer to you. You don’t have to resist; when you have no choice, you should use it. Just remember that it is your last resort.”

As he left the Courthouse, Qi Leren looked at the ground the whole way.

In fact, he had realized the negative effects of S/L Data. He often suffered from insomnia, had nightmares more and more frequently, and had often been woken by dreams of his death. Those deaths that he had escaped from in the past had never really left him. They were firmly rooted in his memory and gradually destroyed his spirit and will in a different form.

Qi Leren knew that he had a problem. Although this psychological problem wasn’t serious, it would only continue to deteriorate in the Nightmare World and, eventually, he would collapse completely.

It’s time to quit S/L Data, Qi Leren thought.

Out of the underground space, Si Ling politely said goodbye to Qi Leren, as he had other jobs. He called Miao Li and asked her to be responsible for sending Qi Leren out of the Courthouse.

This wonderful executive was an old acquaintance of Qi Leren’s. She had once instructed Qi Leren in his dreams on how to go undercover.

“Do you know what’s going on beneath the Courthouse?” Qi Leren asked.

“You mean the Prophet? I know some things.” Miao Li eyed him, curious about why Si Ling had unexpectedly taken him into the underground area.

“From his appearance, the Prophet is also a player. How many years has it been since he entered the game?” Qi Leren asked.

“He’s existed since the establishment of the Twilight Township. It’s been more than 20 years… I can’t disclose anything more to you,” Miao Li said bluntly.

Qi Leren understood and stopped asking.

Not too far away from the Court, Qi Leren suddenly felt something in his heart and looked up ahead. On the steel tower was Chen Baiqi, looking at him commandingly. When she saw Qi Leren looking at her, she jumped down from the tower as if it wasn’t a dozen meters high at all but rather was a low school wall, but her landing posture was a bit strange, and it turned out to be her landing on one foot.

Qi Leren couldn’t help but look at her feet. Chen Baiqi was wearing trousers and he couldn’t see anything strange. He immediately guessed that this probably had to do with a skill card.

“Where is Ning Zhou?” Qi Leren asked, faintly feeling ominous.

“Let’s walk while we talk,” Chen Baiqi said.

The two people walked all down the road all the way to the Village of Dusk’s coast. Although the sky was fully sunset, it was actually late at night. Because of the confusion between day and night, people in the Village of Dusk generally had chaotic work and rest, so there were still many pedestrians on the street.

The thick buildings on both sides highlighted the unique features of the Village of Dusk, which were really unique when viewed from a distance. However, walking between these buildings that were strewn at random like giant machines made one feel gloomy and heavy.

Qi Leren had been waiting for Chen Baiqi to open her mouth. When he’d seen Chen Baiqi waiting outside the Courthouse alone, he’d had a premonition.

“Ning Zhou… left the Holy See,” Chen Baiqi said.

“Where did he go?” Qi Leren asked. He didn’t realize the meaning of “leaving”.

Chen Baiqi sighed: “You don’t understand what I mean. I said Ning Zhou left the Holy See.”

Qi Leren froze. In this endless sunset, he stopped in the busy street.

Everything was walking: the dusk-laden clouds in the sky were walking in the sea breeze, the fragrance from the restaurants on both sides of the street were walking, and the ringing and depressing bell on the tower being blown by the wind was also walking. He was the only one who suddenly forgot to move.

Those words caught in his throat and stopped him, or maybe it was the gentle and stinging love that stopped him.

In this strange and horrible world, how fortunate was he to meet Ning Zhou, but how unfortunate Ning Zhou was to meet him.

The believer who lived with faith could have a heart that never hesitated. Yet the short but passionate love had puzzled him. When he loved a female soulmate, God blessed him. But when he loved a male soulmate, God cursed him.

His soulmate once wandered in a different gender’s body, but they still had the same character, same quality, and same virtue—it was the same soul, and he would fall in love with “her”, so he was destined to fall in love with him.

So a saint had walked down the altar, ignoring the thorns and poisonous snakes crawling on the steps, and made himself walk every bloody step. He was so pious, so determined, so loyal, but it was these beautiful qualities that made him suffer twice the pain and hardship when he made his choice.

People advised him to stay on the altar, because his lover was dead anyway.

“I advised him before he left, and I said that now that you were dead, there was no need for him to leave the Holy See. But Ning Zhou answered me and said…”

Chen Baiqi always remembered that image: when he arrived it had been raining cats and dogs, and when he left, the wind and rain did not stop.

Ning Zhou had stood by the door. His clothes were not even dry. The warm and comfortable room could not keep him. He had finished his story and was about to leave.

For the rest of his life, he would drift in the wind and rain and there would be no roof to shelter him from the rain, and no one would stop him and find love unexpectedly.

Chen Baiqi had advised him, but Ning Zhou had answered her in a hoarse, tired, but firm voice: “However, this impermissible love will not end because of his death. In my lifetime, whether he is alive or dead, whether we can get God’s blessing or not, I will always love him.”

—But he said: Love never stops.

In the busy streets, Qi Leren couldn’t stop the tears that were flowing down.

He heard about the love of a brave, pious, and faithful person.

That love was for him.

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