Taking Extraordinary Characteristics Again

"This prayer is your reward for stopping the spread of Orlando's loss of control."

"If you encounter an enemy that cannot be defeated or avoided, you can try chanting this prayer. Although you will be devoured and transformed by the white worm, the Church will also send someone to try and communicate with it to trade for you."

"Remember, do not chant the white curse unless absolutely necessary."

"Although the white worm is one of the very few Old Ones that can be communicated with, the success rate of completing a trade with it is still very low, do you understand?"

Bishop Byron's gaze was solemn as he earnestly instructed him.

"I understand, Your Excellency the Bishop."

Ning Xiuyuan nodded seriously, but couldn't help but curse the Church's ancestors in his heart. What kind of reward was this?

It was essentially a blank check!

The initiative to save him or not rested entirely with the Church, and even if they tried, the success rate was very low.

In other words, even if they didn't save him, the Church could claim they had sent people to rescue him, but the white worm had refused to trade.

Honestly, instead of this illusory reward, a few more Supernatural Bullets would be more practical.

At least the right to pull the trigger was in my hands.

"Go, get some good rest. May the Lord favor you!" Bishop Byron made a sign over his chest with his right hand, bestowing the Dawn Ceremony.

Ning Xiuyuan quickly returned the gesture.

He turned to leave, but suddenly remembered Sister Angela's invitation and stopped, saying, "Your Excellency the Bishop, Sister Angela has invited me to practice medicine at the Church hospital. Do you think it's alright?"

Bishop Byron smiled, "Everything is truly God's arrangement!"

"Actually, even if Angela hadn't invited you, I was planning to arrange for you to go to the Church hospital after you've initially integrated your supernatural abilities. I just didn't expect you to have such extraordinary talent in medicine. Whether you integrate your supernatural abilities or not is no longer important."

Ning Xiuyuan quickly replied, "It is all the Lord's blessing!"

Bishop Byron nodded with a smile, "Go. Just patrol the church candlelight morning, noon, and night. Don't overdo it. Remember, light is in the Dawn. As long as the Dawn exists, light will always exist."

"Arthur heeds your teachings."

Ning Xiuyuan nodded, made a sign over his chest with his right hand, bestowing the Dawn Ceremony, and then turned to leave.

Click, the door closed, and the office fell silent.

"I always feel his faith isn't devout enough!" a faint voice echoed in the office.

"Heh, you didn't have that attitude before," Bishop Byron chuckled.

"His demeanor makes me somewhat uneasy," the voice carried an inexplicable wariness.

"It's understandable to be cautious when you're in a foreign land. You're still looking at him as if he were a heretic."

"Perhaps!"

Bishop Byron shook his head, paced back to his seat, and couldn't help but recite, "The night gave me black eyes, but I can use them to seek the light."

The office was dead silent, with no response.

Leaving Bishop Byron's office, it was already dark.

Ning Xiuyuan habitually patrolled the church once before returning to the stable.

On the way, he made up his mind. Once he returned to his dormitory, he would consume the extraordinary characteristic of the bird-beaked oddity.

The Church's reward had made him completely see the unreliability of external forces.

To grasp his own destiny, he could only rely on self-improvement.

Thinking this, Ning Xiuyuan became more invigorated, his steps quickening involuntarily.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

The crisp sound of footsteps echoed on the bluestone-paved street, gradually growing fainter until it disappeared.

Wandering in the ocean of his thoughts, Ning Xiuyuan suddenly realized something and abruptly stopped.

He raised his crystal lantern.

The flickering candlelight illuminated a three-foot radius around him. The familiar walls built from crushed stones disappeared, and the bluestone road beneath his feet turned into a chaotic blackness.

In the darkness that the candlelight could not penetrate, faint low growls, venomous whispers, and mournful cries could be heard.

At first listen, it sounded like distant dog barks from a farmhouse late at night, but upon closer inspection, it was entirely different. It was clearly the murmurs of indescribable things that transcended the limits of imagination!

Ning Xiuyuan remained silent for a moment, then took a step forward, allowing the unimaginable provocations and hatred from the darkness to wash over him.

After a long while, a glimmer of light appeared ahead.

"Hoo—"

Ning Xiuyuan exhaled slightly and quickened his pace. Just as he was about to step out of the darkness and into the light, he abruptly retracted his step.

He looked around. The darkness had become much quieter, but there were still faint rustling sounds.

It felt as if countless eyes were watching him.

"Where is this?" Ning Xiuyuan shouted.

The darkness and chaos remained, with no echo.

Ning Xiuyuan stood silently and solemnly for a moment, then turned and stepped towards the light.

The instant he stepped into the light, a series of overlapping calls suddenly came from the darkness, all uttering a single word.

"Door... door... door..."

The endless echoes, like soul-snatching monsters, relentlessly drilled into Ning Xiuyuan's ears, even though he had already left the darkness.

"Screeeech—"

Ning Xiuyuan took a deep breath, feeling as if the sound was an ice pick piercing his soul, chilling him to the bone and piercing his heart with pain!

He could even feel his yet-to-be-integrated extraordinary characteristics boiling.

After an unknown amount of time, this indescribable pain finally subsided slightly.

"Hoo... huff..."

Ning Xiuyuan panted, his gaze sweeping over the world before him, though his mind was still replaying the shock and terror of hearing the responding voices in the darkness.

He didn't know if the word "door" was a response from intelligent beings, or the roar of monsters he had disturbed.

But either way, he would know if he tried again.

However...

Thinking of how the single word "door" had subjected him to pain like being sawed into a thousand pieces, Ning Xiuyuan decided to wait until his strength grew further before attempting it again.

With his thoughts settled, Ning Xiuyuan also finished observing his surroundings.

It was a large farm. The stalks of recently harvested crops, compressed into huge cylinders by a baler, lay scattered in the fields, looking like giant building blocks.

Looking around, the farm was vast, with no sign of people or birds.

"It looks like I'm back in that Foundation world again."

"Of course, if one world can resemble Earth, it's not surprising that another world would resemble the Foundation world."

Ning Xiuyuan mused as he spread out his Heart of the Beast.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

Soon, a large group of field mice scurried out from the straw, swarming around Ning Xiuyuan's feet.

"Huh? The fusion with the Disease Deceiver actually boosted my Heart of the Beast. I could only control six before, but now it's twenty-seven?"

"No wonder transcendent beings divide their realms by the number of extraordinary characteristics they've fused. It turns out they complement each other."

Ning Xiuyuan marveled briefly at how his Heart of the Beast had become stronger, then scattered the controlled rats in a circle.

At the same time, he didn't stop, taking out the seal bottle he carried, unscrewing the crystal lantern, and aiming its opening at the bird-beaked strange's extraordinary characteristics.

Instantly, the bird-beaked oddity's extraordinary characteristics surged backward, slowly flowing into the seal bottle.

As expected, this process again drew the ravings of the rootless soul.

—·—

"Don't seal me, my master, I am but a wisp of a rootless soul, I have no value, no no no, I do have value, my value lies in knowledge, no no no, don't extract my mental body! Wait, how do I know about the mental body? What is the mental body?"

—·—

Ning Xiuyuan listened for a while, and after the rootless soul began its repetitive madness again, he finally shifted his gaze to the seal bottle.

The bird-beaked oddity's extraordinary characteristics were scarce, barely covering the bottom of the seal bottle.

In the lamp oil, the dark brown liquid, now inside the bottle, became slightly lighter in color, with a hint of scarlet.

Ning Xiuyuan brought the bottle's opening to his nose and sniffed carefully. A faint smell of blood wafted out, but it was sweet, with a strange allure.

He pondered for a moment, thinking of his powerlessness in recent days, and gritted his teeth, lifting the seal bottle and downing it in one gulp.

— He was tired of just going with the flow!