Act 8: Morning Song of Alba

Foreword:

There is no need to wait for a torch; if there is no torch afterward, I will be the only light.

--Lu Xun, "Hot Wind"

John D. is an Egypt.

His mother was Berenice II, and his father was Ptolemy III.

The Pharaoh married Berenice, a princess of Cyrene, and this marriage united Cyrene and Egypt.

After the birth of her first son, Ptolemy IV, this ruler, who was known as [Ευεργτη·Charity/Giving], was cursed, and they gave birth to a baby that "did not exist".

Berenice II did not abandon the child. Like his brother, Jodi was well cared for, with a blind couple acting as his foster parents. From a young age, his psychic abilities protected him, making him invisible. But this was not a good omen; this extraordinary psychic power foreshadowed impending disaster. To escape this calamity, the Pharaoh's child concealed his true form early on.

What happened next was just as recorded in history books.

Jodi's aunt, Berenice, came to her brother Ptolemy III for help.

Because of the infighting within the Antiochus Dynasty, this aunt's child was poisoned. Ptolemy III then used this political conspiracy as a pretext to launch the massive Third Syrian War.

During the war, Berenice II prayed for her husband and cut off a lock of her hair to offer to the temple, but the hair mysteriously disappeared. The Greek astronomer Samos Conon comforted the queen, saying that it was the will of the gods, and that Her Majesty's hair had been taken to the heavens and become stars.

It was all just Jody's prank.

Young Jody didn't understand war; he only knew that his father, who had never spoken more than a few words to him, was going to use superior violence to destroy another superior violence.

During the reign of Ptolemy III, Hellenistic Egypt reached its zenith. This pharaoh defeated Syria, the Seleucid dynasty, and seized the southwestern coastal region of Asia Minor.

The cause was simply the family drama surrounding my aunt's husband Antiochus II.

--The king named [Θεο·God] married his aunt Berenice and severed relations with his ex-wife Laodice I. So the old queen jumped over the wall and when her husband appointed Xin Huan's son as his heir on his deathbed, he poisoned the young prince and established his own child as the new king.

All of this caused the Seleucid Kingdom's situation in Syria to deteriorate rapidly, making it the biggest loser.

At this moment, Jody, standing from an observer's perspective, was unaware that a catastrophe was about to befall Egypt.

Twenty years later, Ptolemy III died on the throne of Pharaoh at the age of fifty-five.

Jody's brother naturally became Ptolemy IV, a leader who indulged in debauchery and revelry.

Instigated by treacherous ministers, Ptolemy IV turned on his family, killing his mother, brothers, uncles, and his wife.

Jody dared not speak out, nor could he speak out. He had been an outsider from beginning to end, and this "non-existent prince" could do nothing about his brother's actions.

Ptolemy III expanded his territory with the help of the Spartan king Cleomenes, making him the most powerful commander of the Ptolemaic dynasty. However, in the eyes of Ptolemy IV, his family members were thorns in his side, threats to his rule. How could he allow such a sharp sword to remain untouched?

Shortly after ascending the throne, Ptolemy IV arrested the King of Sparta.

There's no need to wait until the next life, or even a hundred years later, to see how the calendar is written.

The ambitious Syrian King Antiochus III launched the Fourth Syrian War. To explain this family feud in detail, Antiochus III's father was the new king supported by Queen Laudis.

During the Third Syrian War, the new king was first defeated by Ptolemy III, and later fell from his horse and died in battle.

Whether it was a personal feud or a national grievance, a war between Egypt and the Seleucid dynasty was inevitable.

On the other side, Jodi could only watch helplessly as his brother continued his evil deeds until 205 AD, when the two countries were locked in a fierce battle, with Macedonia and Rome also eyeing the throne. The gradually declining Egypt no longer had the ability to resist, and Jodi, as an invisible man, had no political voice, watching his five-year-old nephew ascend to the throne of Pharaoh.

Antiochus III outlived his incompetent rival, leaving only a five-year-old puppet pharaoh. However, at this time, familiar allies turned against him, baring their fangs at the Seleucid dynasty and Egypt.

Before these two unfortunate allies could wait for a decisive victory, the Roman warships sailed majestically through the Dardanelles. In 190 BC, Antiochus III was utterly defeated, suffering a crushing defeat at the Battle of Magnesia, thus bringing the Roman-Syrian War to a complete end.

Nine years later, Ptolemy V, at the age of twenty-three, also died in a court poisoning drama.

His son Ptolemy VI succeeded him, and what followed was an endless cycle of royal infighting, fratricide, and incest.

A century later, Egypt welcomed Cleopatra VII, the infamous Nile River Fairy.

At this time, Jordi was still alive. He had lived for over 150 years in the long river of history. He did not know where his immortality came from until he met Pellegrini Touan.

This slave from ancient Greece transformed himself into a strategist for Mark Antony, the great Roman general.

To recount Pellegrini's life, as he himself described, he murdered his teacher and devoured his flesh and blood—this wise teacher was Antiphon, Plato's brother.

Historically, Antiphon was executed for opposing Athens democracy. In his youth, he once said that the vast majority of Athens residents were slaves and foreigners who had no right to attend meetings or concern themselves with Athens laws. Therefore, Athens laws were against the will of the majority; they were not laws but violence.

Ultimately, his death also stemmed from the betrayal of a slave, and he died in Athens violence— Pellegrini Tuan devoured the scholar's flesh and blood, and thus gained immortality.

Jordi's entire life was intertwined with Pellegrini's. The struggle between Ptolemy and Seleucus was swayed by court intrigues, orchestrated by Pellegrini Tuan. In the ancient, primitive power system bound by family, both crude political tactics and exceptional political wisdom would inevitably emerge. These vulnerabilities became the catalyst for Pellegrini's treacherous schemes, ensuring that Ptolemy and Seleucus would never find peace.

Beneath the endless abyss, across the long river of time, the two met once more in the pure realm of the Original Seed.

This is a purgatory deeper than hell, a core area that transcends intermediate zones like Limbo, and which even the living cannot reach through methods like astral projection.

Deep within Niflheim, between the Earth's core lava and iron-nickel hills, in the very depths of the Demon Palace, two chaotic humanoids were reshaped by the primordial essence of the Earth Mother into tormented bodies resembling molten slag and coke.

Jody: "I'm no match for him."

"Could this message be delivered to Judas's ear?" Pellegrini Touan asked.

Jody: "You're stronger than me in terms of psionic talent."

At this point, Pellegrini Touan gave up.

As the mastermind of the Immortals Alliance, he racked his brains in this godforsaken place but couldn't figure out a way to transmit information—just like in the mythical city of Pandemanninan, once a spirit arrives in the Pure Land, there is no chance of turning back, not even through a dream.

They could only watch helplessly as one colleague after another was sent here, perhaps next to be Judas.

The bizarrely shaped demon palace built by the Original Seed, the fact that they died at the hands of the gunsmith, and that the warden who managed the demon palace was Big Sister —all these phenomena led Pellegrini to vaguely suspect a terrifying truth.

"This is your first day here. Come on, let's go see the Demon King."

Crossing the charred, soft iron core road, Jody's spirit was initially scalded by the intense heat and crawled around on the ground. Over time, it became numb and went mad with pain. When it reached the streets of the demon's lair, it saw hordes of vengeful spirits being tortured in various ways in front of the rooms on both sides.

Mary Stuart, who had a penchant for killing and bloodshed, was stuffed into an iron virgin. She seemed to have grown accustomed to the rhythm of bloodshed. As the steel coffin opened and closed, the needles constantly changed shape, creating different holes. Mary, however, showed no expression and even greeted the newcomer warmly.

Lawrence and Johnny were playing chess at the intersection of West Street. They were both leaders of the Madness Butterfly Sect and had worked on several major projects. The crimes needed to be broken down and punished one by one. Their former deputies were holding the case files and arranging the punishments. Lawrence had been raped several times yesterday, and today he was given the punishment of having his kidney and liver removed. So two henchmen from the War Gang were in charge of administering the punishment.

Johnny was the same; he was involved in gambling, prostitution, and drugs during his lifetime, so his punishment was similar to Lawrence's.

The demon's lair was bustling with activity. The streets and alleys were filled with either mournful howls or joyful laughter. The nameless man's grove of merit was a hive of activity. Before long, a demon king riding a black horse emerged from the palace.

That's the Big Sister—

--In the eyes of the prisoners, this Big Sister's appearance was constantly changing. Lawrence glanced back and saw Glory transformed into a fully armed, armored figure. To the other prisoners, she appeared in different forms at different times.

In this wondrous purgatory, it seems that Glory's spirit is influenced by other observers.

The only thing that remained unchanged was the black horse beneath the Big Sister. It was like a soft, sticky lump of oil, constantly deforming and rolling forward. Only the blood-red eyes and blurry outline of its skull could be interpreted as a "horse"—this part of its essence also came from Mother Earth. It was like a spirit relay, allowing Glory to temporarily attach herself to it.

Jody greeted the Big Sister and received a thick file from the black-horse knight. It was filled with detailed plans for her 206-year sentence, with different plans every day. The Big Sister remained silent, seemingly tired of dealing with too many cannibals and no longer interested in arguing with them.

Pellegrini patted his younger brother on the shoulder and said in a low voice.

"I suspect that Ming De and the Original Seed made a deal."

"It summoned a powerful evil god, which possessed the gunsmith; Glory and the gunsmith are the same person."

"This selfish and ruthless beast, in order to consolidate its rule, made a deal with this terrifying witch—our souls are the reward for Ming De."

Jody tensed up, and when she saw the several "major projects" in the file, she suddenly felt despair.

He had originally thought that perhaps death was not the end, and that he could become a spirit and continue to wreak havoc on the world. He could be like the demons in various spirit-summoning rituals, using all sorts of summoning and spirit-raising spells to travel back to the material plane to cause trouble and deliver the news that the gunsmith was not dead to Judas's ears.

As it turns out, death is not the end, but the beginning of endless suffering.

Lawrence and Johnny were still playing chess. They had grown accustomed to this pain, chatting and laughing as they endured the agony of being skinned and dismembered.

"I originally thought that Keshua of the First Transportation Department, Krozo Van Dien, was my biggest rival," Lawrence said. "After this battle, looking back, I can only applaud Glory."

"Yes," Johnny said, admitting defeat wholeheartedly. "In the six years that followed, the number of people in this inferno grew, and sometimes I wondered if all these guys were really killed by the gunsmith alone. Asking me to do it seemed like a pipe dream. If we calculate it according to probability, I probably only have a 0.037% chance of defeating so many powerful enemies and escaping unscathed."

"This guy gets stronger the more he fights; he's constantly evolving." Lawrence tilted his head and pursed his lips, perhaps the torment of purgatory had forged a father's love in him. "My child is his student, my genes remain in the material plane, and at this moment I actually feel a sense of relief and relief. It's truly strange."

Pellegrini squatted beside the chessboard. At that moment, another unfamiliar executioner put a wheel full of spikes on Pellegrini's head, piercing the ethereal body of the strange bird until it was a bloody mess. Jodi watched with trembling legs, but Pellegrini was already used to it. He limped over and squatted down next to the two "young men".

"To put it in a wonderful analogy, he was like a kind and friendly friend to the gunsmith."

He would invite you to his home, then chat with you warmly, and then you would drink from the same pot of tea.

"While you're still feeling constrained and uneasy about details like politeness and propriety, your stomach is already churning."

"When you want an excuse to leave, like going to the restroom, cough."

At this point, Pellegrini experienced a heart and lung problem, spitting out several steel nails from his mouth. He was then dragged to the square by the executioners, where he was subjected to the cruel wheel torture, rolling around in the street several times.

When Pellegrini returns--

He continued, his face expressionless.

"You'll find that the gunsmith has unknowingly blocked your way to the toilet. He's going straight for your vitals, making you lose face and breaking down your defenses. Such a perfect toilet shouldn't be enjoyed by outsiders beforehand—he's just that kind of vulgar, despicable, and hateful guy."

"When you smell the stench emanating from yourself, the defeat is already decided. You can't even fight back; you can only watch helplessly as he walks away nonchalantly, sitting on the toilet and firing his gun."

"I"

"It's time to eat," Johnny called to his fellow inmates as they headed to the canteen.

Without the constraints of the material plane, the leaders of these Madness Butterfly showed no interest whatsoever in the Immortals boss, and not even the most basic respect.

Clumps of dark, charred iron transformed into the image of jailers, who brought out scalding lumps of black soil and dark red lava. These were the traditional delicacies of Gongdelin. When suffering spirits saw these "foods," they would involuntarily turn into hungry ghosts and swallow all the lava, soon suffering scalding and their intestines would be torn apart.

A group of newcomers, represented by Jody, couldn't bear the torment. They lost consciousness from the pain after only a few bites, but the intense hunger forced them to get up again.

At that moment, Mary Stuart's persistent shouts echoed from the cafeteria.

"I want you to feed me by hand, Glory! Glory!"

Saladin town has welcomed a new psychologist.

As Zhang Congfeng walked into the house of Saint Josh Joris in the clear morning air, he felt that the quartermaster's arrangement was somewhat disrespectful.

Oscar, who was helping to pack, casually remarked, "Don't be angry, Doctor Zhang. There are patients with mental health issues in town, and they're used to discussing things in this little house—it gives them a sense of security."

Jiang Xueming retorted, "Am I supposed to cook for them? How dare they?"

"Uh," Oscar put the printed copy of his medical license into a picture frame and mounted it on the wall. "Of course, they were killed by cannibals before, you have to show off your skills, right? How about I cook and you do the talking?"

Xue Ming rolled her eyes--

"--Okay."

To be honest, he didn't want to take on the mess left by Saint Josh. Previously, many of the patients in the Saladin Town hunting party had gone insane due to the regional spiritual pressure and needed psychological counseling. However, Saint Josh's treatment methods had also caused serious problems with their diets.

Patients treated by others are like graphics cards repaired by official after-sales service. If you were a computer repairman, would you be willing to take on such a difficult task?

But there's no other way. As Lu Xun said, "Don't wait for the torch, become the light."

It is evident that Lu Xun had also watched Ultraman Tiga, read Buddhist scriptures, and knew that the direct translation of Amitabha Buddha's Sanskrit name is "Infinite Light"—at least he was much more reliable than believers who only chanted slogans without understanding their meaning.

Xue Ming thought the same way. If one or two of these patients were possessed by Berloberg, it would save him a lot of trouble. He could directly screen and select from the patients and put this rebellious boy, Berloberg, into the hilt of his sword.

And so Feng's little clinic opened today—

"Let's take a look at the first patient, let me see what kind of person he is."

Xue Ming opened the appointment list on his phone; the patient was already standing outside the door waiting.

"Please come in."

Wolf stood at the kitchen counter. This VIP was very approachable; Dr. Feng had helped him a lot along the way, so he had to return the favor.

The patient was the mayor's eldest nephew, named Kerry, seventeen years old, with beautiful orange hair and freckles all over his face.

Without saying a word, Kerry sat down opposite Jiang Xueming.

"Doctor, I feel like I'm getting depressed lately. Saint Josh can't help me; he doesn't seem to be able to cure me."

Jiang Xueming didn't even look up, and casually asked, "Have you ever eaten his cooking?"

Kerry: "No, he thought I was too noisy and said I was just making trouble for no reason."

Jiang Xueming: "Oh, what's wrong? Let's talk about it in detail."

Kerry took out his phone--

"--This is the game. I like playing MOBA games on my phone, a 5v5 team battle game."

Jiang Xueming: "Ah"

Kerry continued, "Every time I open it, my aunt and uncle say I have bipolar disorder. I'm usually a very quiet and obedient person. They all say I'm polite and a boy who loves to laugh."

But what about it?

"Once I open a mobile game, it's like I'm possessed by a demon. Dr. Feng, I heard you're also a priest, is that right? Can you exorcise this demon for me?"

Jiang Xueming thought for a moment--

"--Can I see your phone?"

Kerry nervously handed over his phone.

Xue Ming opened the game and checked the battle record.

"Uh, isn't that perfectly normal?"

It's normal for game records to be mixed, with both teams winning and losing.

"No, no, no, I'm not happy at all," Kerry explained, then his expression suddenly changed, becoming fierce and ruthless. "If I can't go on a killing spree, what's the point of the game? I can't be happy! Even if my teammates carry me to victory, I feel pathetic! I can't stand being inactive! I want to decide the outcome of the game! I want to be the best one. Me."

Oscar exclaimed, "Please, you'd better talk some sense into them!"

Jiang Xueming took out his treatment tools from his doctor's bag.

He grabbed a small steel hammer and smashed it down on the phone.

With a "smack!", the phone was reduced to a piece of scrap metal.

"What are you doing, Doctor!" Kerry was about to explode.

Zhang Congfeng grabbed the patient's finger and raised the hammer again. "If it's not the phone's fault, then it's your finger's fault, right?"

Kerry stopped talking, seemingly having let go of everything.

Jiang Xueming sent over four hundred Hui Stone Currency for his mobile phone.

"Next!"

Act.7 hasn't been released yet.

I've updated it now! I'll ask the editor on Monday.