novelraw Chapter 352: The High Priest and the Prayer Book
Chapter 352: The High Priest and the Prayer Book
[The Extreme Evil Exploder High Priest discovers your arrival, its gaze filled with malice.]
[It does not directly launch an attack at you, but instead lets out a loud shriek…]
[As a battle-hardened Ninja Master, you immediately sense extreme danger!]
[You hear successive explosions erupt from every corner of the temple. In an instant, countless crimson streaks of light shoot toward you!]
[At this moment, your eyes reflect densely interwoven red lines as unknown attacks come at you from every direction, front, back, left, and right.]
[The Qi within you surges and roils. You stomp hard on the ground and leap into the air, avoiding countless crimson streaks of light.]
[The air that the crimson streaks cut through twists and steams, carrying scorching heat, melting a huge crater into the ground beneath your feet.]
[The crater is filled with crimson hot currents like magma. If you were struck by such an attack, with your fragile body, you would unquestionably die on the spot.]
[You land lightly and look toward every corner of the temple, only to see one blurry outline after another gradually become clear…]
[Dozens of insect-people tainted by Extreme Evil appear as they leave their mimicry effect. Their appearance is also like the Exploder High Priest, except they look like the High Priest shrunk down to a normal human size.][One by one, they lift open the lower part of their robes, revealing bloated spider-like abdomens. The spewing organ at the end of each abdomen is still emitting searing white steam.]
[You have discovered the Extreme Evil Zealot Cleric!]
[The Exploder High Priest glares at you viciously, yanking open the lower robe to reveal its bloated abdomen.]
[The abdomen writhes violently, and the spewing organ at the end suddenly points toward you…]
[Under the enemy’s eerie gaze, you only feel your hands and feet grow sluggish. Your flesh body cannot keep up with the speed of your thoughts at all. Even using all your strength to dodge, you only barely move one step away.]
[A deafening boom explodes. A scorching beam of light grazes past you, striking the forecourt pillar behind you.]
[The thick stone pillar that would take several people to hug is instantly vaporized, leaving only a small remaining stump of crimson stone, scorching hot like magma.]
[Just from the scorching beam brushing past you, the sleeve on your left shoulder is burned through, turning a charred black, sending a sharp pain through your shoulder.]
[Looking closely, the flesh at your shoulder is also charred black like the sleeve, giving off a burnt stench.]
[Dozens of Zealot Clerics around the temple are ready to strike again, writhing their abdomens once more…]
“No martial ethics, huh?”
The monster in front of him was clearly a BOSS, and a BOSS with a bunch of lackeys.
Contrary to its robust appearance, it was a long-range output monster, and it also had a negative skill similar to interference and sluggishness.
He sneered and directly switched to the newly obtained Shell to test its power.
[You possess the Shell of the Ascended Prototype Purgatory Angel!]
[At this moment, the Spiked Exoskeleton Combat Armor wrapping your body, under the stimulated activity of Hive Consciousness, has already been repaired for the most part.]
[The moment you possess the Shell, the deafening explosions sound again.]
[Crimson light attacks again from every direction. The red beam fired from straight ahead by the Exploder High Priest is especially thick and scorching!]
[Countless crimson beams instantly reach your surroundings!]
[You ignore the dense attacks and resolutely activate the skill Cruel Thorn Bone Spikes!]
[The pale bone wings on your back stab fiercely into the ground, rapidly spreading and growing…]
[Countless bone spikes as sharp as razors and nail-like spikes instantly burst from the ground, forming a thorn prison that pierces through the entire temple.]
[In the blink of an eye, dozens of Zealot Clerics are pierced into a thousand holes, pinned tightly within the thorn prison, blood spraying in torrents.]
[The Exploder High Priest also fails to evade the assault of Cruel Thorn Bone Spikes. Dozens of sharp bone spikes pierce through its body, crossing and jutting out.]
[In an instant, the monster that had been so imposing just now becomes a bloody giant hedgehog.]
[At the same time, countless scorching beams strike you.]
[With a zzzzt, the scorching liquid shot by the Exploder High Priest carries an extremely terrifying high temperature and splashes onto the armor.]
[That high-temperature venom, hot enough to melt thick stone pillars, is completely unable to pierce your armor. It only leaves a patch of pitted crimson marks on your chest before vaporizing and dispersing.]
[As for the other dozens of high-temperature venom streams, they cannot even leave a mark on your armor before vaporizing away.]
[When you retract the pale bone wings, the temple is dead silent. Corpses riddled with holes lie in heaps, and flowing blood stains the ground red.]
[The corpses do not even twitch or struggle. They are clearly dead beyond death.]
[You have defeated the Extreme Evil Zealot Cleric. Experience value increases slightly!]
[You have defeated the Extreme Evil Zealot Cleric…]
[You have defeated…]
[…]
[You have defeated the Extreme Evil Exploder High Priest. Experience value increases greatly!]
[You have obtained Fading Trace Spirit Essence of Insight x16]
[You have obtained Zealot Cleric Robe (Common equipment) x6]
[You have obtained Zealot’s Hot Venom Gland (Epic item) x2]
[You have obtained Faint Spirit Essence of Profound Unfathomability x1]
[You have obtained High Priest’s Prayer Book (Document)]
[You have obtained Map of the Flying Dragon Hatchery Pool (Route Map)]
[You have obtained High Priest’s Exoskeleton Mask (Epic+ equipment)]
“This kind of satisfying harvesting, it’s been a long time…”
Lin Xun felt like he was playing a mowing game, one slash dealing 99999 damage, orange gear and divine-grade artifacts exploding all over the ground.
[Your special attribute Hive Consciousness +7 has improved. Current state: Hive Consciousness +8]
[Your special attribute Calamitous Fallen Karmic Fire has improved. You have been tainted with the 21 Stacks of Calamitous Fallen Karmic Fire!]
Joy surged in his heart.
It was expected that the Purgatory Angel could massacre small monsters and instantly kill a BOSS.
What he did not expect was that after killing the BOSS, he not only gained an increase to Hive Consciousness, but also gained an increase to the Calamitous Fallen attribute.
After killing the Extreme Evil Great General, his Calamitous Fallen Karmic Fire had skyrocketed to 20 Stacks.
Now, by defeating an Extreme Evil BOSS, the Calamitous Fallen attribute increased again. Although it was only a small increase of one stack, it suggested a certain possibility.
[You look toward the bloated corpse lying directly ahead, covered in wounds…]
[Shell of the Extreme Evil Exploder High Priest: Once the High Priest stationed in the temple, the highest leader of the temple in Stink Bug City, taking it upon himself to spread the Desire Wet Nurse’s divine revelations. Yet because a large amount of foreign factors remained within its body, it fell into Extreme Evil and became a crazed monster. Compatibility: 72% (+55%)]
When he had been farming outside earlier, Lin Xun attempted to parasitize Shells with changed prefixes.
For Ascenders that still retained a humanoid form, even though the malice corruption was severe, aside from eerie smiles, malicious gazes, and pitch-black patterns on the body surface, there were no other changes.
He could still complete Perfect Parasite on such Ascenders, even if their prefix had changed and was neither Aberrant nor Ascended.
But for Ascenders that had completely lost their original form, meaning those that had become malice plant Ascenders, when he used Perfect Parasite on them, the hellish game popped up a prompt saying he could not parasitize.
The original text was [This container does not belong to an insect-person Shell. You cannot parasitize!]
“It should be that the malice factor remaining inside the monsters is too much, exceeding the extreme value their bodies can bear, which causes them to mutate into a malice plant form…”
Just like Sakura Falls’ little emperor, who was injected with too much malice by the Great General, falling into Extreme Evil and losing human form.
Only, in the evil god apocalyptic chapter, Shells and characters were naturally able to perfectly integrate Extreme Evil factors, so cases like the little emperor were extremely rare.
Thinking to this point, Lin Xun felt something was off.
It seemed like he had missed some key information, but for the moment he could not recall what it was.
He thought for a long time and still had no clue. He shook his head, set the doubt aside, and chose to parasitize the BOSS Shell.
[…]
[Parasitism successful. You have perfectly taken control of this container!]
[Your Shell Ascended Full-Adaptation Parasite is temporarily replaced with Ascended Exploder High Priest!]
He opened the Shell Panel to check the stats.
[Shell – Ascended Exploder High Priest]
[True Name: Aspid]
[Compatibility: 137% (17%)]
[Shell Quality: Legendary]
[Shell Level: 80 (+5)]
[Shell Equipment: None]
[Shell Skill: Ascension Mimicry (Epic+ skill): Using this skill allows you to simulate the surrounding environment, preventing enemies from detecting your existence. After rapid movement or attacking, the mimicry effect is removed.]
[Shell Skill: Chaotic Tentacles (Epic+ skill): This skill will automatically take effect when launching an attack, inflicting a brief Sluggish effect on the enemy, greatly reducing the enemy’s dodge speed and movement speed.]
[Shell Skill: Cannon-Launch Hot Flow (Legendary skill): Using this skill, you make the glands within your writhing abdomen spew extremely high-temperature hot-flow venom at the enemy, dealing massive burning damage. After a direct hit, this skill has a very high chance to inflict the Burned state, thereby causing a large amount of continuous damage.]
“An invisible turret… this Shell is not bad.”
The High Priest’s three skills supported each other. It could use mimicry to become an invisible turret, and when firing hot-flow venom it could also reduce the enemy’s chance to dodge.
Even after obtaining the Purgatory Angel Shell, this Shell could still play a significant role in specific situations.
[…]
[The divine idol of the Desire Wet Nurse at the deepest part of the temple stands silently.]
[You attempt to search the temple, but only find a few hymn books. Other than that, there are no gains.]
Lin Xun checked the rewards he had just obtained.
The most valuable item dropped by the small monsters was the Zealot’s Hot Venom Gland.
An Epic one-time attack item had considerable power, and two dropped at once. Selling them would net a small profit.
Aside from one piece of equipment, the BOSS also dropped a Document item and a map item, which should contain important intelligence and clues.
He clicked the Document item to view it.
[High Priest’s Prayer Book (Document)]
[…]
[Merciful and generous –, the great god who cherishes the children, we extol Your holy name, we thank and praise You. You deserve all supreme worship and praise!]
[O –, I praise You, for how greatly You love me and favor me. I bless –, for You are the children’s strength and faith, You are our refuge, our harbor amid the great waves…]
[T/N: The author put thick black bars into this text which I replaced with –]
[…]
[The entire prayer book is a prayer praising the Desire Wet Nurse. Originally, there was nothing special about it, but what makes your scalp go numb is that all words like Desire Wet Nurse, mother, and the like have been blotted out with black ink.]
[Only the sincere words of praise remain in the book, as if what they now praise is no longer the Desire Wet Nurse who was once admired by the children…]
[You quickly skim and flip to the end of the book, discovering a piece of paper tucked inside with handwriting…]
[A revelation has come from the Sacred Nest Center. The Desire Wet Nurse bestows grace and is about to grant the favor of the White-Fleece Snow Season.]
[The Desire Wet Nurse not only recalls most frontline soldiers back to the Divine Kingdom, but also wants all children to bathe in divine grace, behold the angels’ holy bearing in the snow, and praise the Desire Wet Nurse’s holy name.]
[It has not been long since the last White-Fleece Snow Season passed. Many citizens have only just Ascended and advanced once. It should not be so frequent to Ascend and advance.]
[It is said from news in the Sacred Nest Temple that the Desire Wet Nurse wants the citizens to advance collectively, then gather forces to launch a general offensive against the demons.]
[This is truly exhilarating news!]
[I should not question the great Desire Wet Nurse. As the High Priest, I only need to act according to the Desire Wet Nurse’s will, convey and spread the revelation, and let the citizens bathe in divine grace once again…]
[…]
Lin Xun shook his head. The outcome of obeying the Desire Wet Nurse’s revelation was everyone falling into Extreme Evil and becoming a source of power.
These people would never understand just how unscrupulous the Desire Wet Nurse truly was.
What he cared about was not the latter half of the Document item, but the content within the prayers in the first half.
All the prayers that originally praised the Desire Wet Nurse had their holy name wiped away, giving him a bad premonition.
These monsters that had fallen into Extreme Evil clearly no longer believed in the Desire Wet Nurse.
Clone Body Flanda, no, it should be said the Desire Wet Nurse had once told him that abundant evil was the breeding ground for the birth of a god.
If that sentence was true, did it mean that numerous faiths could create a god out of thin air?
Extreme Evil monsters no longer believed in the Desire Wet Nurse. If he and the Desire Wet Nurse did not seize the power quickly, would it give birth to an Extreme Delusion Fruit that belonged to this world?
Lin Xun held a doubtful attitude toward what the Desire Wet Nurse said. The results inferred from incorrect information were mostly incorrect as well.
But judging only from the Prayer Book’s content, he felt that what the Desire Wet Nurse said did not seem false.
After thinking for a long time without any clue, he turned to the next item.
The map item after the Document item recorded a location.
[You unfold the Map of the Flying Dragon Hatchery Pool and carefully browse it, learning the location of a new place.]
[You have learned the exact location of the Flying Dragon Hatchery Pool!]
“Flying Dragon Hatchery Pool?”
Previously, after killing the Dragon Knight and the giant dragon at the Divine Kingdom’s border, he had learned there was a Dragon Hatchery Pool, a similar kind of armory.
In the build list of Bush Cricket City there was also a building named Griffin Hatchery Pool.
It was only because he changed the plot direction that Bush Cricket City would ultimately also have everyone fall into Extreme Evil. Expecting Extreme Evil monsters to build an armory for him was obviously unrealistic.
Now, upon seeing a new armory, Lin Xun’s interest surged.
“If I’m not wrong, the new map should be a place to obtain a mount!”
After confirming there was nothing else in the temple worth exploring, he left directly.
The surface area of Stink Bug City was enormous. It took most of the day for him to circle the entire city, killing many Extreme Evil monsters.
Unfortunately, aside from the Ascension Temple, there were no other special buildings in the city.
From this, it could be seen that within Stink Bug City’s territory, important places like the Flying Dragon Hatchery Pool were also hidden underground.
He summoned a Courier Mole Cricket and headed straight for the Flying Dragon Hatchery Pool.