Manifestation: Mysterious Magic Circle

"Slaughter the city?" Sean was stunned, unable to speak for a long moment.

Although he had envisioned many possible endings for Shengyue City, including scenarios where the Radiant Church lost and the original inhabitants were forcibly expelled, only for the city to be occupied by others, he had never once considered a total massacre.

In the Coiling Dragon universe, while it was a world where the strong preyed on the weak and experts killed commoners on a whim, the mass slaughter of ordinary people was rare. Because of the existence of faith energy, commoners were still quite useful to gods. For many years on the Zhongyuan Continent, the fundamental goal of the struggles between the various churches was the competition for faith energy by the god-level experts backing them.

"It's not just Shengyue City; many cities in the surrounding area have been slaughtered as well. And it was done by Saint-level experts personally, killing indiscriminately," Leilia said, his eyes reddening. Although he didn't know most of these people, such large-scale slaughter stood in stark opposition to the education he had received since childhood.

"Killing one city might be to vent anger or for revenge, but killing so many suggests there must be a specific purpose," Sean said.

Recalling the Saint-level death mage they had killed earlier, Sean realized that the purpose of such a massacre of commoners must be for Soul Golden Beads. Among the seven elemental laws and four edicts, only death-type god-level experts could benefit from such a massacre.

Other gods, no matter how twisted they might be, wouldn't engage in such random, inefficient slaughter; they would be better off finding ways to make these people believe in them to gain faith energy and increase their cultivation speed.

This seemed somewhat similar to the dark turmoil in the Shrouding the Heavens universe next door; without profit, those supreme beings wouldn't slaughter indiscriminately, no matter how evil they were.

Looking at it this way, it was highly likely that the mid-level god of the Darkness Church was of the death type, or if not, he had arranged for a death-type low-level god to carry out this task.

Soul Golden Beads could only be created by death-type experts at the low-level god stage. After all, Soul Golden Beads were also of great use to gods, even surpassing faith energy.

The appearance of a death-type god in a material plane would indeed be a catastrophe.

"What is the reason?" Leilia asked.

"I don't know. Such things must be ordered by the god-level experts of the Darkness Church; it's useless for us to know." Sean didn't tell Leilia about these things. Firstly, it was hard to explain how he knew, and secondly, knowing was truly useless. Not to mention a god-level expert, even a powerful Saint-level expert would leave them both in dire straits.

"Since Shengyue City has already fallen, we aren't very safe here; we're too close," Leilia said. "I know the forces of the Radiant Church are retreating to the south, and I plan to change my appearance and head there. What about you?"

"I don't plan on going back yet. I want to venture into the nearby Dark Forest. If I don't break through to the Saint level, going back is meaningless," Sean said, shaking his head.

After reaching the 9th rank, there were many good things he could materialize, and appearing in crowded places was not ideal. Furthermore, returning to the church would make it impossible to explain the Purple Blood God Sword in his possession; any god-level expert would discover it.

Although he belonged to the Radiant Church faction, he wasn't foolish enough to voluntarily hand over his supreme treasure to others. If he ran into someone else killing to seize treasures, that would be truly idiotic.

"That's fine. Once you reach the Saint level, come find me," Leilia said. If he weren't concerned about his father and family, he wouldn't want to go back either. For prodigies like them, reaching a higher level was clearly more significant.

However, this wasn't something one could achieve just by staying in seclusion every day. Even when the Radiant Church was powerful, many geniuses often needed to go out and train—either by challenging human experts or by engaging in life-and-death battles in places infested with magical beasts, such as the Dark Forest Sean mentioned.

In this process, many geniuses died. No matter how much the church grieved, there was nothing they could do; one had to pay a price to grow. Therefore, even super geniuses weren't guaranteed to grow up. Of course, if one had exceptional talent or a very strong background, they might have experts secretly protecting them while they were out training.

But in the current situation, they could only rely on themselves to temper their skills in life-and-death situations. Whether going to the Dark Forest or returning to the new headquarters of the church, both were equally dangerous.

"Alright, no problem. Come, let's have a drink; the supplies are getting low," Sean said, taking some wine and food from his spatial ring.

"Come, let's have a hearty meal. Tomorrow, we brothers will part ways, and I don't know when we'll be able to meet again. If it weren't for you, I would have died long ago. I won't thank you for such a great kindness," Leilia said boldly.

Not to mention the Saint-level death mage who died under Sean's sword, even with his severe injuries during this period, he would have surely died without someone to care for him. Sean staying by his side actually carried a certain amount of danger. Fortunately, he was a practitioner of earth magic and had been extending the cave deeper during this time, which greatly increased their safety.

"You're too polite," Sean said with a smile. If Leilia hadn't wounded that death-type Saint mage first, it wouldn't have been so easy for him to kill the opponent. Moreover, his spatial ring was also given by Leilia; this item was extremely expensive and should have been crafted by a god-level expert—something money couldn't buy.

Without this spatial ring, whether hiding underground or avoiding the Darkness Church outside, everything would have become very troublesome. Below the Saint level, one still couldn't go without food or water.

The two of them could be considered brothers who had shared life and death. However, all good things must come to an end, and eventually, they had to part ways.

After the two enjoyed a hearty feast, they went their separate ways the next day. Before leaving, Leilia gave Sean another treasure: a mask that could change one's appearance.

Once this item was used, as long as one kept a low profile, they could ignore the wanted posters issued by the Darkness Church. Unless they encountered a Saint-level expert, no one would notice the abnormality on his face. The probability of that was very low, and even if they did encounter one, Saint-level experts generally wouldn't check with soul energy casually, so it was a significant increase in safety.

Unless his soul aura was known to the other party, in which case no disguise would work. But that was basically impossible; Sean had always lived in Shengyue City, and his soul aura was only known to the Saint-level experts of the Radiant Church. When the Radiant Church was powerful, the Saint-level experts of external hostile forces didn't dare enter Shengyue City.

Unless someone within the Radiant Church betrayed them and also happened to know Sean, then it would be unsolvable.

The Dark Forest was located about 130,000 li southeast of Shengyue City, covering a vast area of tens of thousands of li, filled with a large number of magical beasts.

Sean traveled slowly, moving as a warrior through the desolate, uninhabited land. It took him more than three months to reach the vicinity of the Dark Forest.

Walking deep into the forest, he killed many magical beasts that dared to attack him on the way and encountered some mercenary groups, but he didn't stay long. After spending some time, he finally found a canyon where the number of magical beasts seemed to be low.

Thus, Sean immediately communicated with the Coiling Dragon book in the depths of his soul and flipped to the chapter he had read before: Volume 5, Chapter 2: The Four Supreme Planes.

He had been in this same spot when he materialized the Purple Blood God Sword, just before Linley dripped his blood to claim it.

And now, with a thought from Sean, a massive magic array appeared before his eyes, though the Purple Blood God Sword was gone, and the energy seemed to be dissipating.

Without a second thought, Sean immediately re-inserted the Purple Blood God Sword, and the magic array returned to normal instantly.

"It's actually still effective." Sean felt a surge of joy. Before materializing the magic array, he hadn't been sure if re-inserting it would work. If it hadn't, he would have had to run.

But now that it was a success and the magic array had stabilized, Sean could immediately feel the concentration of dark elements in the vicinity beginning to rise rapidly.