Feel the Mother Goddess's Gift!

The events of this morning have already spread throughout Border City.

The Seaside Daily was the first to report, its news-gathering senses as sharp as a dog's.

First, they retracted yesterday's headline, "#Crushing Evils and Benefiting the Good! Paladin Calvin's Secret Witch Hunt Operation#,"

and replaced it with the latest hot topic: "#Shocking! The Holy See's First Failure in Sixty Years, and the Reason is Him?#"

Various newspapers followed suit, reporting "#Nameless Hero, Border City's Guardian of the Dark Night#,"

"#Big Reveal! The True Face Behind the Nameless Hero#,"

"#Why Did Border City's Esoteric Cult Mysteriously Disappear? Why is The Radiant One Silent? Is This the Distortion of Humanity or the Decay of Morality?#"

All sorts of bizarre rumors, embellished by the media, grew like wild grass after a spring rain, spreading wantonly throughout Border City.

It seemed the public was indeed very interested in these news stories.

Of course.

After all, the mysterious, powerful, and nameless Dark Night Hero archetype was most appealing to young girls and most admired by young boys.

And he didn't charge money.

When the Holy See cleared out the Esoteric Cult, they would levy a tithe from the common people.

Suddenly, a hero appeared who did the job without asking for money, so naturally, he was very popular.

The public's biggest question now was: who were these heroes?

As the buzz continued to grow, the Holy See Paladins' failure last night and the loss of composure by Calvin, the quasi-saint, also spread.

The next two days were uneventful.

With Ansu's industrialization system for sacrificing Esoteric Cultists preliminarily established, the act of sacrifice became a streamlined process.

On the second day, he gained 90 Life Points and 60 Faith Points.

The cleared area expanded from a radius of ten kilometers to fifteen kilometers.

The Holy See's clearing of surrounding strongholds was usually not thorough.

After all, they always left some seeds to sprout again with the spring breeze next year; it was a sustainable form of "fishing the pond dry."

But Brother Xian Zong was different.

Adhering to the principle of "kill them all," he didn't let any go—he'd just move to another place after finishing. Ansu wouldn't stay in Border City forever.

What could be guaranteed was that at least for the next year, child abduction cases in Border City would be halved.

Ansu cleaned up very thoroughly. Besides having Enya mop the floor, he became even more excessive afterward.

This guy even took away the Esoteric Cultists' altars, digging up the grass on the ground.

He prepared a large carriage and loaded all the ritual items—like human heads, human skin, sacrificial filth, forbidden texts, etc.—onto it, taking them to a place to bury them himself.

According to Ansu's reasoning, "Since I'm already here..."

Maybe they could be used later?

Meanwhile, his second secret identity was becoming increasingly popular in Border City, with scorching heat.

The media called him "Dark Night Hero" and "Heretic Bane."

The whole city was searching for who these heroes were.

On the third day, the harvest was not as good as the previous two days.

Perhaps he had been too active the previous two days, and the Esoteric Cultists had heard some rumors. They knew about the "Heretic Bane" and realized a super-powerful individual was massacring people in the borderlands. Even the usually fearless Esoteric Cultists got scared.

How about taking a day off this year?

The Esoteric Cultists were killed so much they were on holiday.

The harvest on the third day was only 20 Life Points and 15 Faith Points that had not yet been exchanged.

So the total income over three days was 170 Life Points and 115 Faith Points.

40 Faith Points had already been spent on the first day, exchanged for four Magic Points, making him a Second-tier Sorcerer.

Upon reaching Second-tier Sorcerer, the exchange ratio became 20:1.

Ansu spent another sixty Faith Points to increase his total magic capacity to 13.

For the remaining 25 Faith Points, he planned to exchange them for several low-tier Holy Light Magic spells to complement his abilities.

Life Points were used to exchange for a large number of magic spells: several low-tier spellbooks, one mid-tier Dark Magic spellbook, and one high-tier Dark Magic spellbook.

Among those low-tier spells were some non-Dark Element spellbooks—after all, the Mother Goddess's authority wasn't limited to darkness.

The Child of Curse used half the mana for Dark Magic, so he could use mid-tier spells as low-tier and high-tier spells as mid-tier, which was barely enough.

The remaining 10 Life Points were all added to his physical attributes.

Thus, his Light-Dark Priest School of Thought system had preliminarily taken shape, reaching its first stage.

On the third day, earlier, before he had even started much business, Ansu's great undertaking encountered an accident.

Ansu ran into the Holy See's Holy Knights.

It was barely a stretch to call them the Holy See's Sacred Knights, because there was only Calvin.

They seemed to have split up.

Ansu had heard that he had some minor conflicts with the Knights Order.

After two consecutive days of fruitless Witch Hunts, Calvin angrily declared that he would find the person behind the scenes causing trouble and challenge them to a duel to reclaim his honor.

Actually, the Border Holy See also had a lot of issues with Ansu.

First, he had snatched prey the Holy See had their eyes on. Second, he had diminished the Holy See's authority. The common folk now worshipped some Dark Night Hero, so who would pay taxes to the Holy See anymore?

Calvin's priest father had also secretly issued orders to find and deal with the troublemaker.

When they encountered each other, the Blood Moon was red, and dismal clouds spread across the leaden sky.

Ansu was driving his carriage and spotted the Holy See's Sacred Knight from afar. Without hesitation, he immediately removed the title [The Newborn] and switched to the newly acquired [Gradual Eastern Dawn], while instructing Enya to conceal herself.

This was to prevent anyone from spotting their identity with Scouting Magic.

Calvin rode his beloved horse, his eyes narrowed slightly, staring at the suspicious carriage before him.

At this hour, why would there be a carriage on the desolate plains?

Moreover, he detected the scent of blood from within.

Years of intuition told Calvin that the person before him was the one he was looking for.

He had finally found him!

The culprit who had subjected him to such humiliation for the past three days!

Enemies see each other, and their eyes burn with fury.

Even though he knew the opponent was incredibly powerful, Calvin, blinded by rage, couldn't care less.

Besides, even if he couldn't win, he just needed to stall for a moment.

Once the other Paladins arrived, they could deal with him together.

Tonight, he would surely wash away his humiliation and prove himself with honor for all those who looked down on him!

This would be a sacred contest of honor.

A fair and square one.

"My name is Calvin Pearson. State your name."

He dismounted, picked up his staff, and shouted at the person in the opposite carriage.

After a long pause.

A reply came from the other side, "Just call me Brother Xian Zong."

"I challenge you to a duel—a duel of honor!"

Calvin said righteously, the crisp, cold wind rustling his cloak.

What a moron.

Ansu still had monsters to hunt.

You hunt your monsters, I'll hunt mine. We'll stay out of each other's way.

Besides, Ansu understood that this so-called duel of honor was also laughable.

Calvin certainly hadn't come alone.

As long as he could stall, until his accompanying Paladins arrived, it would turn into a group assault under the guise of honor.

Dealing with Calvin would be easy, but the group of Paladins would be troublesome.

"Do you need me to take care of him?" Enya whispered softly in Ansu's ear.

Even if Enya made a move, it would only result in a mutually destructive outcome.

And if Enya acted, his identity would easily be exposed.

If a squad of Sacred Knights suddenly went missing, the Border Holy See would be enraged and would definitely launch a full-scale investigation.

It might even attract Inquisitors of Heresy from headquarters.

Inquisitors of Heresy were all Fourth-tier or above in strength, specializing in handling the Holy See's dark affairs.

At that point, the matter would truly blow up.

A normal player would choose to quickly kill Calvin, dispose of the evidence—for example, sacrifice him and frame the Esoteric Cultists, then slip away before the Paladins arrived.

This still carried a certain risk of exposure, and tonight's gains would be lost.

This was the normal approach: no benefit, but low risk.

However, Ansu was a Heretical Player.

Heretical Players had their own methods.

He had contingency plans for this unexpected situation.

"No, I'll do it myself," Ansu replied. He had already thought of a solution.

This was also a good opportunity to test his system and see if it was feasible or needed any adjustments.

He was in need of experimental subjects, and it was time for some real combat.

This "experimental white mouse"—this was likely the contribution of Calvin, an NPC without any special traits.

Coincidentally, his magic power was also similar to Ansu's.

"I accept your duel."

Ansu dismounted and walked closer. The blood-red moonlight fell upon his face.

"As you said, this will be a battle of honor."

When Calvin saw the face of this Brother Xian Zong, he instantly felt that the latter was unfathomably terrifying, clearly a master hiding his true strength.

The scholar's face exuded a natural, unfathomable pressure. Seemingly ordinary, his brows constantly radiated a steady aura.

Moreover, this person was very young, unexpectedly young.

But this did not make Calvin lower his guard.

Calvin observed the opponent's movements, tightly gripping the amulet around his neck. This amulet was a mid-tier artifact gifted to him by his father—it could withstand two enemy attacks.

It could even block curses.

What magic would Xian Zong use?

Would it be the highly destructive Fireball?

Or perhaps a Holy Light series spell, like a Light Spear?

Or maybe something from the Druid system?

Plant magic?

But no matter which magic system he used, Calvin was confident he could handle it and had plans for each. As a quasi-Second-tier Sorcerer, he was quite confident.

"The Gods'—"

Xian Zong finally moved.

The blood-like moonlight enveloped Xian Zong, lending him a touch of divine radiance.

He stood straight on the plain, majestically and sacredly chanting. Suddenly, the heavens and earth churned with wind and clouds, and waves of energy surged across the field. It felt as though a great deity was about to descend upon this world.

"Gift."

The Gift of the Gods—Calvin had never heard of such a spell.

Judging by its name, was it a Holy Light spell?

Was it a Blessing Magic?

"Alright, what a truly honorable duel!"

Calvin's blood instantly boiled with excitement.

Correcting a previous data point, the rain has been forgotten.

The mana cost for [All Things Grow] has been changed to 2. The previous chapters have been updated. I'm informing you all here.

There will be another chapter later.

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