"How is this possible?" The Water God Sect woman's mind was in turmoil.
She had lived for a million years, and among Lowgods, she had never encountered anyone who could injure her so badly with a single strike. If that blow had been aimed at her head, wouldn't it have killed her outright?
Unfortunately, she had no time to think. The immense force sent her flying, and her body slammed into a mountain behind her. Although the bodies of ordinary Lowgods weren't very strong, they were still more than the rocks of a Material Plane could withstand.
The immense force tore straight through a mountain over a thousand meters tall. A tremendous explosion blotted out the sky, and then the entire mountain split apart and collapsed into a heap of rubble.
Fortunately, before attacking, Sean had already made sure no one lived in the mountain. Though ordinary people were no more than ants to him now, he still wouldn't deliberately harm them when he could avoid it.
But the people near the mountain were another matter. The enormous tremor, like an earthquake, sent shock waves across a hundred miles, frightening everyone into fleeing in all directions.
"Still not coming out?" Sean hovered above the rubble and spoke calmly. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried for dozens of miles.
His attack just now hadn't been aimed at her head, so it wasn't fatal. His divine sense had also locked onto her; there was no way she could escape.
A figure surged out of the rubble like flowing water and stopped below Sean. She looked up at him in terror, unable to understand how he could be so powerful.
But with her life in someone else's hands, she had no time to dwell on it. She bowed and said, "Lord Sean, please spare my life. Although I took part in the attack on the Radiant Church, I had no part in the slaughter at Shengyue City."
"What's your name?" Sean asked in reply.
"My name is Andrea, sir," Andrea said.
"Andrea? All right. Tell me, what's the story with that Middlegod who cultivates the Death Rules in the Darkness Church?" Sean asked.
The reason he hadn't killed Andrea outright was, first, that he wanted to test how powerful his material attack was. So far, the results were quite good.
With two Mysteries just beginning to fuse, and the body of a God-Eater Rat, he could easily kill a Lowgod with a single strike. If he could keep devouring Lowgod Sparks to strengthen his body, his physical attacks would inevitably grow even stronger.
The second reason was to get information from her.
The information he had obtained in the Dark Forest had come from a Saint-level expert at the peak. Leaving aside whether she had lied, even if she had told the truth, there might have been things she didn't know—especially anything concerning the Darkness Church's divine-level experts.
Before becoming a god, even Saint-level experts were ants, unworthy of knowing the secrets of the divine world.
Andrea knew that the only reason she was still alive was because Sean wanted information, so she said, "Lord Sean, I can tell you anything you want to know, but you must swear in the name of the Overgod that you won't kill me afterward."
"Is that so?" Sean's gaze turned cold, and a soul attack shot toward Andrea like lightning.
Under Andrea's horrified gaze, the soul attack struck her. At such close range, she had no way to dodge and could only withstand it.
Deep within her soul, Andrea had formed a transparent membrane with the Water Profound Mystery. A dagger-like blade of soul power struck it, and the membrane shattered instantly. A great deal of black soul power devoured her soul.
However, by the time it broke through the membrane, the soul power contained in the black dagger was already very weak. In the end, it severely wounded her soul, but then vanished.
"As expected of the Water Laws, the strongest in defense. You actually blocked seventy percent of my soul attack." Sean saw Andrea's aura weaken drastically, but she hadn't died. It seemed she really had blocked his attack.
Although he had begun fusing two Mysteries, he had only just started, and neither of them was suited to soul attacks.
Using only seventy percent of his power, he had been blocked by a Lowgod of the defensive Water Laws. Judging by her expression, though, her soul was still injured.
"Thank you for sparing my life, sir." Andrea forced herself to endure the terrible pain from the soul that had nearly come apart inside her mind and bowed submissively.
Now she understood. The man before her didn't care about her at all. With strength like his, he could probably even protect himself if he encountered the Darkness Church's Middlegod. If he wanted, Sean could simply go after other divine-level experts.
"I won't make you any promises. I ask, you answer. If you refuse to answer or you lie, I'll kill you immediately," Sean said indifferently.
With a Sovereign's Might in hand, he feared no one in this Material Plane. But using a Sovereign's Might here would be an utter waste.
So he needed enough information to decide what to do.
Besides, growth required advancing through battle. In his current state, it would be difficult for him to become a Middlegod just by going into seclusion, especially since he also wanted to fuse Mysteries and hadn't yet become a god in the Earth or Wind elements on his own.
All of this required tempering. Without any challenge, he might hit a ceiling. Even Linley in the original story had only grown after repeatedly facing life-and-death situations and reaching sudden insights.
"Yes, Lord Sean." Andrea didn't dare say anything more. She answered, "The Middlegod in the Darkness Church is named Patrick. He's one of the Darkness Church's three divine-level experts and cultivates the Death Rules.
"Several million years ago, he was notorious for unleashing an undead plague across the entire Zhongyuan Continent. Later, the Radiant Church hunted him down, so he joined the Darkness Church and cultivated in seclusion. No one expected that, just over twenty years ago, he would break through to become a Middlegod.
"Lord Sean, you should already know what happened afterward. Nothing else matters. What matters is that the Darkness Church now has a Middlegod, and its strength easily surpasses the Radiant Church's.
"The Death Rules favor slaughtering living beings and refining souls. After Patrick defeated the alliance of divine-level experts from the Radiant Church, he ordered hundreds of Saint-level subordinates to begin a massacre. I also thought it was too extreme, but I had no power to stop it."
"Did any divine-level experts from the Radiant Church fall?" Sean asked.
"None, but the only divine-level expert from the Fire God Sect did," Andrea replied. "The Radiant Church's six divine-level experts who cultivated the Light Laws used a special formation passed down from the Radiant God Plane. It actually managed to trap Patrick and kill another expert, but the formation didn't seem capable of holding for long. In the end, the Radiant Church still retreated."
"A formation?" Sean nodded. The Angels in the Divine Planes seemed to have formations too, though he didn't know whether they were the same kind.
Six Lowgods working well together could hold off a Middlegod for a while. With a formation, they might even be able to suppress one.
But if the battle dragged on, they would be at a disadvantage. Even so, it seemed the Radiant Church still had some hidden strength.
"We had no choice. If we hadn't helped the Darkness Church, we would have been killed on the spot. I hope you understand, Lord Sean," Andrea said.
"I understand. But you're still going to die." Sean finished speaking calmly, and a rat phantom dozens of meters tall appeared behind him. It was the God-Eater Rat's Innate Divine Ability: God Devour.
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