Demon Bible

Chapter 144: Finback Mountain

The essence of Holy Blood lay in the bloodline of a Saint.

A Saint was an entity formed when a God injected Divine Power into a qualified human or other living creature.

The so-called Saint Child was not an entity that naturally existed.

The son of a Saint was merely a descendant. They might inherit some of the abilities from the Saint's bloodline, but they could absolutely never be crowned with the title of Saint.

Take the Dartmenerly family, for example. They possessed the Saint's bloodline, and the bones of those among them who awakened this bloodline could be called a Saint's Bone, yet those awakened individuals could never be granted the title of Saint.

Originally, Nemus had assumed that the so-called Saint Child was simply another way of referring to a Saint.

He had always believed that the Old Priest's goal in researching Holy Blood was to become a Golden Rank himself, or perhaps even a Saint.

Throughout that entire process, no Saint Child ever appeared. The Holy Blood research materials obtained from Opper merely indicated that the Old Priest was developing a potion capable of activating a person's Saint's Essence, transforming them toward the state of a Saint.

From beginning to end, the term "Saint Child" seemed completely inconsequential, existing only within the Old Priest's desperate howls.

Now, sparked by the opportunity presented by Finback Mountain, Nemus immediately sensed that something was amiss.At the same time, the Alchemy he had studied over the years finally proved useful.

'As above, so below; as below, so above. The ultimate truth of Alchemy lies in transformation.'

'Saints cannot be artificially created, because one must first possess the qualifications before a God can bestow Divine Power for the transformation.'

'Therefore, if one wishes to create a Saint using Holy Blood, the best method is not a single, immediate step.'

'Rather, it is to create this so-called Saint Child.'

This seemed to involve a question of sequence.

'A person undergoes a long period of enlightenment, allowing their soul to be sublimated and purified, thus gaining the qualifications of a Saint. This comes first.'

'The gods sense this and bestow Divine Power, causing the lifeform to undergo a metamorphosis and ultimately become a Saint. This comes later.'

'But regardless, there must be a connection between the qualifications of a Saint and Divine Power.'

'According to the Alchemical principle of "as below, so above", the very existence of Divine Power can serve as an environment, acting as the "above" effect.'

'Just as it is much easier for Clerics to emerge from a family of Clerics.'

'Therefore, the core of the Saint Child Project lies in cultivating them from a young age!'

Everything instantly clicked into place for Nemus.

The Saint Elixir the Old Priest created was never meant for himself; it was meant to be consumed by the Saint Child.

The so-called Saint Child was, in all likelihood, an individual who had been constantly exposed to and influenced by a Holy Blood environment from the very embryo stage.

Because they were born into that environment, their soul would very likely shift toward the soul state of a Saint as they grew, simply to adapt.

The Dartmenerly family's experiment of feeding the flesh of Holy Blood to children was most likely just a simplified version of this.

The true Saint Child Project presumably involved soaking the subject in Holy Blood from early childhood.

The resulting Saint Child would, in theory, become the perfect vessel for a Saint.

Their soul state would be innately pure, theoretically making it easier for them to achieve enlightenment. Once enlightened, even without a God bestowing Divine Power upon them, they would be the equivalent of a half-Saint.

This was the true face of the Saint Child Project.

The experiments in Sky Spring City had essentially been wiped out.

Then, when the Old Priest later relocated to Finback Mountain to continue his experiments, would he have created another Saint Child?

Instinctively, Nemus felt he had grasped onto something crucial.

The Revelation from the Breath of Holy Precepts was just about to activate, but very soon, Nemus sensed another force intervening. In the end, his Revelation failed to show him any useful visions.

'There's a master operating behind the scenes!' Nemus's trace of Spiritual Insight was overwhelmed, yet a surge of excitement rushed through him. It seemed that this Tail Fin Town was no longer going to be so boring.

Previously, aside from the mysterious Rhine and a so-called Demon Warlock, Nemus could basically bulldoze his way through Tail Fin Town by relying on the existence of Angel A.

As long as no Golden Rank experts were drawn out, Nemus could handle the fallout no matter how chaotic things became.

All he needed were the resources to advance to Golden Rank and to demonstrate his ability to maintain order, paving the way for his future entry into the core of the Church.

As for the Dartmenerly family, they were essentially half-dead insects at this point.

If they had simply stopped struggling, they might have lasted another few decades or even a century. But now, all their desperate flailing to obtain a Golden Rank was only accelerating the family's demise.

Over the past six months, the Dartmenerly family had wanted to tear up the unspoken rules to take Nemus down, yet they still harbored some reservations.

It was like smashing the cauldrons and sinking the boats, only to hesitate because they could not bear to part with a few scraps of iron.

Of course, from the perspective of the Dartmenerly family themselves, they were simply planning for the future.

After capturing Nemus, they would still need some time to transform the results and gestate a Golden Rank.

Their current behavior was to avoid crossing the line entirely, leaving a shred of leeway for the future and preserving a modicum of dignity for the family.

As Angel A put it: they were already shooting an adult film with their faces uncensored, yet they expected a tiny censor bar or a band-aid down below to protect their innocence. It was completely laughable.

Therefore, the Dartmenerly family's true state could easily be deduced from their coy and indecisive posturing.

Perhaps they still possessed some items or secret techniques passed down through the Saint's bloodline.

Patriarch Dartmenerly might even have some sort of special scheme.

But that was the extent of it.

From the occurrence and exposure of the Bloodline Experiment to its ultimate failure, the Dartmenerly family had essentially been handed a death sentence.

Even now, this supposedly half-successful subject of the Bloodline Experiment—'Nels'—was nothing more than an illusion Nemus had fabricated using the Precepts of his Divinity combined with methods like the Holy Nails.

'Looking at it this way, the Old Priest's failed experiment really might be successfully replicated on me.' Nemus possessed Divinity, and that was an absolute advantage.

'So, if necessary, I must get my hands on that Saint Child the Old Priest created alone.'

'The Old Priest arrived in Finback Village twenty years ago. From restarting the experiment and gathering materials to actually beginning the process, it probably took him a few years.'

'That means the Saint Child is most likely only a teenager right now?'

'I was unaware of the secrets behind the Saint Child Project, only grasping the truth now through a shred of perception.'

'But Sky Spring City wouldn't be as ignorant. So, was the Saint Child the Old Priest hid on Finback Mountain taken away?'

'Or are they still on Finback Mountain for some reason?'

After all, when grasping the Historical Trajectory this time, what he sensed was Finback Mountain.

With these thoughts in mind, Nemus immediately contacted Opper in secret.

Opper had been managing the Whale Products business for him over the past six months, and the man was currently at a critical juncture in his advancement to Iron Rank.

Upon hearing Nemus's summons, he immediately chose to personally head over to Nemus's house outside the Cathedral.

Nemus specifically asked him for more details regarding his past mining of Whalehide Ore on Finback Mountain.

He quickly drew a conclusion: the Mine Shaft on Finback Mountain had originally been excavated by the Old Priest.

Now, it seemed highly likely that the Old Priest still had some hidden laboratory up on Finback Mountain.

'This also explains why a Golden Rank like Gotthard personally led a team here back then.'