The malevolence of the strange eye was very obvious. Even though Lu Ze didn't look directly at it, it still glared fiercely, like a petty person. If it were a human, Lu Ze could easily ignore such a glare, but if it came from an evil and terrifying existence, such a gaze could be very dangerous.
Lu Ze only felt his head buzzing, and nosebleed instantly gushed out.
The illusory sound of a tide rose in his mind, helping him resist further harm, but the injuries that had already appeared continued. Blood flowed over his lips and chin, dripping onto Old Neil's floor.
Lu Ze knew his time was short. He took a deep breath, looked at the flickering candlelight, and prayed in a low voice.
"The Lord who created all things,"
Only after attending Old Neil's lessons did he realize that the strange language he spoke was actually Hermes.
With the first line of prayer, the world outside the Spiritual Wall suddenly darkened. Even the figures of Dunn and others, who were close at hand, became unclear. The blood patterns on Old Neil's body began to come alive, appearing vivid as if gaining life under the candlelight.
"The Master behind the curtain of Darkness,"
In the Darkness, some great existence was quietly rising. The world grew darker, with only two candle flames emitting a faint, bean-like light. Distorted whispers began to emerge, overlapping and causing an unbearable sense of irritation and anxiety.
The blood patterns quietly indented, as if consuming Old Neil's skin and superficial flesh, deeply imprinted on his chest. The illusory eye abruptly stopped floating, as if fixed in mid-air, no longer moving.
He couldn't chant anymore.
The whispers echoed in Lu Ze's ears, as if constantly hammering his nerves and excavating his brain. Lu Ze instinctively sensed danger. He interrupted the process of chanting the True Creator's honorific name, and using the influence that He had already bestowed, he shouted loudly:
"Praise the glory of the Lord, for corruption is the rebirth of all things!"
As soon as his voice fell, the blood-engraved pattern on Old Neil's chest began to squirm. The eye that had been attached to Old Neil's body swiftly plunged into Old Neil's body, as if sucked in by an invisible force.
Immediately after, the symbol of the True Creator dissolved, like pigment spreading into water, but it was constrained by a red circle, only able to diffuse within that small area on the chest. Before long, the skin within the red circle turned crimson, and something stirred beneath the skin.
With a 'poof,' four cracks bloomed on the red skin, then slowly expanded. They were, in fact, four indifferent, lashless eyes, two pairs of eyes, one above and one below, appearing on Old Neil's chest.
Perhaps it was Lu Ze's wishful thinking, but besides indifference, there seemed to be a hint of confusion in those two pairs of eyes.
"Bang!"
Lu Ze raised his dagger, piercing the Spiritual Wall, and in the whistling wind of spiritual power, he shouted loudly:
"Your Excellency Cecima, now!"
Whoosh!
The next moment, a white light flashed rapidly before his eyes.
Lu Ze found it hard to describe what kind of light it was; he only felt that the moment he saw the light, the world seemed to cease to exist, and only that beam of light remained in his eyes. When he came back to his senses, Creste, who had been behind him, had already appeared beside Old Neil. The silver-white metal briefcase crashed onto the floor behind Lu Ze, emitting a booming sound.
A large patch of skin had been cut from Old Neil's chest, revealing pink muscle, but strangely, not a drop of blood flowed from the wound.
"Plop."
A piece of bloody skin fell to the ground. The four eyes on it darted around rapidly. This piece of skin struggled and twitched like some creature, but ultimately, it didn't last long before turning into black ashes and completely dissipating.
"Did it succeed?"
Lu Ze's forehead was covered in cold sweat, and he mumbled in disbelief.
Dunn and the others also held their breath, awaiting Creste's judgment.
Creste stood sideways, concealing his right arm, which held something, at his side. He looked down at Old Neil, and after a few seconds, he said calmly, "It succeeded. It was expelled very cleanly."
Whew!
Lu Ze heard a collective sigh of relief from the group behind him.
"That's great!"
Daly's eyes were filled with tears. Although Dunn and Luo Yao didn't speak, their joy was evident.
They all looked at Lu Ze.
"Lu Ze, you saved his life."
Dunn strode up to him, pulled him up, and squeezed his arm tightly. "First Luo Yao and Klein, and now Old Neil. I'm very glad now that I invited you to join the team back then."
"Pure luck."
Lu Ze also grinned, mixed with a hint of lingering fear.
Luo Yao and Daly also gathered around, showering him with praise and thanks. While Lu Ze was happy, he also marveled at how popular Old Neil was, to have so many people care about him.
Just then, Creste looked directly at Lu Ze, his gaze calm.
"You used the fallen authority of the True Creator?"
he asked.
"You're amazing. You saw through it at a glance."
Lu Ze said.
This time, the ritual he used was called "Fallen Revelation." The original intention of the ritual was to incite a Beyonder to fall into corruption and lose control, becoming a sacrifice to the True Creator. However, Lu Ze used a restriction, confining the area of corruption to a small patch of skin on Old Neil's chest.
Because the loss of control was forcibly induced, the evil power that had been scattered and attached to Old Neil's body was forcibly gathered, and then, with the help of Creste's Goddess artifact, it was directly excised.
In other words, the original intention of the corruption ritual was bad, but Lu Ze executed it well.
"Haha."
Creste finally smiled. He looked at Lu Ze and said, "You are really smart. However, don't do this again next time."
He opened his mouth, smiling very happily.
Due to his perspective, Lu Ze saw the hidden part of the other person through the gap in his collar. It turned out that inside Creste's hidden mouth, each tooth was covered with transparent presences. They squirmed and swayed, revealing illusory human faces.
"..."
Lu Ze couldn't help but be startled. He suddenly understood why Creste always kept his lips hidden beneath his collar.
— — — —
Old Neil remained in a deep coma. He was covered with Dunn's overcoat, lifted, and placed on the round table in the living room, with Daly in charge of watching over him. The others scattered throughout the room, searching for any remaining hidden dangers.
Lu Ze entered the bedroom on the second floor. He casually flipped through the pages on the desk, and a piece of paper covered with writing fell out. He looked closely and saw what appeared to be a short honorific name and several rituals. At the end of the honorific name, a name was clearly written—
Hidden Sage.
He immediately widened his eyes.
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