Becoming Light, Illuminating the World!

As he listened to Doctor Lu explain the benefits, Yuan Zhu felt that the value of that "Reverse Pinduoduo Amateur Sacrificial Ceremony" was still climbing.

Even employees of a top-tier legal church had to stop patients in the hospital, chat them up, and drum up business before they would treat them.

Then it seemed perfectly reasonable for a pack of illegal, eighteenth-rate little Evil Gods to fight tooth and nail to answer an amateur sacrifice riddled with mistakes. In this world, it was not just mortals competing to the death—the divine circle was even more cutthroat.

After talking for so long, Doctor Lu let out a heavy breath, drained the tea in his hand, and showed a satisfied expression. "What do you think?"

Yuan Zhu said, "I think it sounds pretty good. As for exactly how I should alter my faith, I'll need to think it over some more. Anyway, I only need to submit it before the end of the year."

Doctor Lu said, "Make your decision early, act early, enjoy early. Believing in the Holy Temple is absolutely never a loss. We are a top global orthodox church, with countless internal sects. There will always be one that suits you. Fine, you don't seem interested in any of that, so let's get straight to the point. Accept the examination of Holy Light! Many devout believers only changed their minds and decided to throw themselves into Holy Light's embrace after personally experiencing it once."

Yuan Zhu found that strangely unsettling. Why did this Holy Light sound poisonous, as though it came with its own brainwashing effect? It even made him a little scared.

Lucius stood and walked into the open space of the consultation room. He reached for a cage fixed onto a wall rack and took down one containing a white rat. Then he gestured for Yuan Zhu to stand opposite him and wait for Holy Light's illumination.

Only then did Yuan Zhu realize that an entire row of cages sat on the angle-iron rack along the wall, each containing a white rat.

Not one of those rats made a sound or moved. They simply lay silently in their iron cages, staring down below. Even when Lucius caught one in his hand, it did not struggle or resist, as though it had gone stupid.

Was this also an effect of Holy Light? Did it make all the little rats collectively calm, as if they had undergone lobotomies? "Why are you holding a rat?" Yuan Zhu could not help asking.

Lucius answered in a matter-of-fact tone, "Of course it is the price of driving Holy Light! Holy Light is one of the few Extraordinary Systems today that has received global recognition as safe and controllable, capable of suppressing, expelling, and even completely purifying evil spirits and Pollution."

"Among those legal systems, Holy Light possesses the strongest exclusivity and the purest quality. At the same time, it is the friendliest to humanity, has the fewest side effects, and can even transfer its price onto others. The essence of Holy Light is to burn and offer oneself, using radiance to dispel darkness and bring warmth to the world."

As he spoke, he removed the glove from his right hand, revealing a finger with nearly half a knuckle cut away.

The first joint of his right index finger now had only half a nail left. At the cross-section of the severed finger, stark white bone jutted out. The flesh wound around the bone looked like a lit cigarette butt—charred black, concealing dark red sparks and flesh beneath, as though it could reignite at any moment.

Yuan Zhu's eyes suddenly widened. Was that still a human finger? Or a stub of flesh cigarette? Why was Doctor Lu so calm? Couldn't he feel pain?

Just seeing that finger cross-section burned to ashes and charred black made Yuan Zhu's scalp prickle involuntarily. He could not imagine how much it hurt. The instant Lucius removed his glove, the Blank Immortal Scripture started howling as well, beeping out nonstop alarms. Clearly, a Pollution Source had appeared yet again! "Surprised? This is the fire seed of Holy Light. Didn't I say it before? The essence of Holy Light is to burn and offer oneself, using light to drive away darkness and bring warmth to the world. And this is burning oneself."

As he spoke, he even waved that missing section of index finger at Yuan Zhu.

As the fingertip moved faster through the air, its charred cross-section came into contact with more air, and the faint hidden sparks grew much brighter.

Well, damn. So it really was "igniting" in the literal sense? After briefly displaying his unique index finger, he told Yuan Zhu, "Stand there and do not move. Don't panic either. Just wait. Everything you see next is a normal phenomenon."

He clenched his right hand around the white rat that had given up struggling, exerting force with all five fingers. The severed index finger in particular pressed its cross-section against the rat's chest.

The charred broken finger, flickering with sparks, brutally pressed down on the little rat's chest, scorching its white fur with sizzling sounds. As the pressure from the fingertip grew greater and greater, the numb and unresponsive white rat began twitching in agony. Driven by the instinctive struggle of a living creature, it let out sharp, shrill squeaks.

Lucius's index finger sank deeper and deeper, stabbing directly into the rat's body. A wave of high heat erupted from his fingertip, followed by the spread of milky white light. It was like turning on a phone's flashlight and then covering it with a finger—thin wisps of white Holy Light leaked from the gaps in the wound, while even more light continuously gathered within the little rat's body, roasting its internal organs.

At that moment, the little rat became light, illuminating the world!

Well, in Yuan Zhu's eyes, the little rat's organs, flesh, blood, soul, and even life force had all become fuel for converting into Holy Light.

An indescribable occult reaction erupted inside its body. The little rat's brain might have been burned out in an instant, yet its body shook and struggled wildly in Doctor Lu's hand as though possessed by a demon.

In the end, the high-energy reaction accumulated within it used its eyes as pressure-release points, madly venting and shining outward in the form of white Holy Light.

Lucius held the Light Rat in hand, his expression solemn as he continuously muttered incantations. He raised his right hand, aimed the rat's head at Yuan Zhu, and squeezed hard. The little rat, which had been convulsing and struggling madly, immediately opened its eyes wide amid its death throes and blasted two beams of Holy Light at Yuan Zhu like searchlights.

Lucius kept chanting scalp-numbing spells. With his left hand, he drew a circle around an upright triangle, while his right hand shook the Light Rat. Holding that living Holy Light flashlight, he swept it over Yuan Zhu from head to toe again and again while circling around him.

One sweep from the front, one from the side, then another from the back, over and over... Until the little rat's life and soul had been squeezed dry by Holy Light, until it could no longer even struggle or twitch and became a shriveled rat skin reeking of burnt fur, the long and agonizing minute and a half finally ended.

It was fucking despairing!

Just watching the Light Rat's crazed, desperate death convulsions was enough to imagine the pain and torment of offering oneself to Holy Light.

This was the globally recognized legal, righteous, safe, and efficient white-path Extraordinary power for exorcising demons? And they were putting on this impromptu performance in a hospital? Had they considered what animal protection organizations might think? Apart from the little rat whose brain had been burned through from the start, Yuan Zhu himself also suffered through an ordeal.

The instant that milky sacred radiance struck the surface of his body, the Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture lived up to expectations and began screaming alarms.

This time, the Mental Pollution erosion he suffered was stronger than ever before. Every instant, it refreshed back and forth between -2 and -3. Fortunately, it did not exceed the upper limit of his passive defense. Though his mental channel was tense, he still blocked it all cleanly.

His body had not suffered any erosion or transformation from Holy Light, but his mind was stretched taut.

He came to two conclusions. First, this Espionage Invasion cheat known as the Immortal Scripture, due to its inability to adapt to local conditions, treated every power under a Strength System outside the Immortal Dao Universe as toxic matter that polluted the soul.

Thus, it blindly and mindlessly rejected every unfamiliar external power other than Shadow. Even globally acknowledged safe white-path Holy Light made it scream warnings like a chicken being slaughtered.

The second possibility was that although this world's Holy Light was advertised beautifully—belonging to a top global Orthodox God church, the safest and most harmonious Extraordinary System, the friendliest to humanity, burning oneself to illuminate others, blah blah blah—

Its essence was equally evil and filthy, an evil power wrapped in the false skin of "sacred light." And the Immortal Scripture's girlish shrieking warnings truly were protecting him from external Pollution.

Yuan Zhu could not determine which guess was correct, but Doctor Lu's scene of igniting the little rat to illuminate him and repeatedly disinfecting him with Holy Light truly made his hair stand on end. Even recalling it now made him lose a little Sanity.

The screaming, struggling corpse; the surging Holy Light; the rapidly shriveling rat skin; the shockwaves of light warming the soul. The little rat used everything it had to illuminate Yuan Zhu in the darkness, illuminating a mysterious corner of this unfamiliar world.

After it all ended, Lucius tossed the shriveled little rat skin into the trash, put his glove back on, and returned to his chair. He looked at Yuan Zhu, who still wanted more—or rather, was still shaken to the core.

The row of surviving little rats on the wall rack had also been bathed in the Holy Light that had escaped just now. Each sat there blank and numb, utterly unmoved, looking thoroughly brainwashed and ready to offer itself to Holy Light at any moment.

"How do you feel?"

Yuan Zhu felt scared stiff, but he did not say so. He casually made something up. "Much lighter and more comfortable, like a layer of heavy pressure has been lifted away."

"Normal. Bathe in it a few more times, and you will come to love that soul-warming sensation."

Oh? Is that brainwashed feeling what you get when Holy Light shines on you? I want to try it too.

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