The Light Church Was Everywhere

"Fuck you, Alikui'en, you son of a bitch..."

Pusiluo had lost count of how many times he had cursed him in his heart.

Ever since Alikui'en had turned him into a kitten and started petting him every day, Pusiluo had been on the verge of going mad.

He was a Volcano Giant, for crying out loud, forced to become a little golden cat and be petted by someone.

Pusiluo had never experienced such humiliation. All he wanted now was to kill that damned Alikui'en, to tear him limb from limb and smash him to pieces!

But all he could do was think about it. He couldn't do anything, because Alikui'en was his master.

A master was someone with whom he had signed a Master-Servant Contract. The contract was connected to the soul, and the soul was the foundation of the Coiling Dragon Universe. No one could defy a soul contract.

Pusiluo could only keep cursing inwardly before continuing to investigate the surroundings of Chiyan Mountain.

That was the order Alikui'en had given him, and he had to carry it out, simply because Alikui'en was far too cautious.

Then, a moment later, Pusiluo felt a slight shock.

At that moment, golden magma surged through the outer crater.

A fiery red head emerged from the magma, looking in confusion at the people flying toward the open sea.

"Strange. Who are these people? Why have I never seen them before?"

Pusiluo muttered in confusion.

Just now, a group of strangers had suddenly flown past, and every one of them was a Saint Realm expert.

Saint Realm experts were hardly common in the Material Plane. They were even rarer than Seven-Star Fiends in Hell.

And yet every person in that group that had just passed was a Saint Realm expert, and Pusiluo didn't recognize a single one of them.

After all, Pusiluo and Alikui'en had traveled around the continent before, and they knew their way around the continent's powerful figures.

But now, a group of unfamiliar Saint Realm experts had suddenly appeared, leaving Pusiluo thoroughly confused.

"They seem to be acting as a group, so they must have a leader behind them. And anyone who can lead Saint Realm experts must be a god. Could it be a god-level expert hiding in the depths of the ocean?"

Pusiluo's thoughts immediately began to wander as he speculated about the group's identity. No matter how he looked at it, there had to be a mysterious god-level expert behind them.

At the thought, Pusiluo grew excited and began to consider whether killing them might draw out the person behind them and get that person to kill Alikui'en.

But Pusiluo quickly gave up on the idea. Alikui'en was far too cautious—cautious to the point of madness.

Despite his great strength, he was much too wary. After all, apart from the Plane Guardian, there were only four Lowgods in the entire Bailun Plane. He and Alikui'en accounted for two of them, yet Alikui'en didn't dare make an enemy of the other two. He preferred to hide away deep in the volcano and never provoke them.

Pusiluo had urged him more than once, but Alikui'en remained unmoved. He took his caution to the extreme.

Pusiluo even suspected Alikui'en would keep hiding until he became a Highgod before going to another plane.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Pusiluo controlled his true body and went outside to kill a few more fire dragons.

Ever since Alikui'en, a god-level expert, had forcibly subdued Pusiluo, then a Saint Realm expert, twenty thousand years ago, Pusiluo had lost count of how many magical beasts he had killed.

Especially over the past few centuries. He had just become a god and gained the ability to change his appearance at will, and that pervert Alikui'en had actually made him turn into a cat.

He even had to let Alikui'en pet him in his arms. He was a Volcano Giant, a mighty and valiant Volcano Giant.

This life had gone on for hundreds of years. Pusiluo couldn't bear to imagine whether he would go mad if he had to endure this stifling life as a cat for a thousand years, or even ten thousand.

The thoughts of Pusiluo the kitten did not affect the Yulan Plane's expedition plans.

Bailun Plane, Light Continent, inside the Holy Capital Pope Palace.

Steaming mist billowed up from the water, the scent of the hot spring filling the air, while soft moans drifted out from within.

Then the sounds inside began to grow strange—struggling, excitement, shouting. Whatever was going on, it certainly didn't sound pleasant.

Outside the door, several guards stood solemnly at their posts, acting as though they couldn't hear the sounds from inside.

As proper guards, they knew what they should and shouldn't do.

A lot of the time, when their superiors were at work, there was only one thing they needed to do: keep their mouths shut.

It wasn't until a blue-haired, middle-aged man with a gloomy expression approached that the guards finally changed their faces. Two spears blocked his way.

"Lord Wuer Nuode, His Holiness the Pope is discussing work with Her Holiness the Saintess. You'd better come back later."

One of the guards spoke hesitantly, summoning up his courage.

"Discussing—work?"

Wuer Nuode's expression darkened even further. He was almost tempted to kick the door down.

He wasn't deaf. Was this what they called discussing work? What did they take him for?

But in the end, he took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed his anger.

"Notify His Holiness the Pope when he's finished. I have something to discuss with him."

Wuer Nuode emphasized the word "work." Then, without waiting to see whether the other man would respond, he turned and left with a grim expression.

"Whew, Lord Wuer Nuode looked terrifying. I thought he was going to attack!"

One of the guards waited until Wuer Nuode was far away before muttering under his breath.

"Lord Wuer Nuode is the chief inquisitor, after all. He's been in charge of punishments for years, so it's only natural that he has an imposing air about him."

Seeing that the other guard had spoken, his companion replied as well.

"It's just that even Lord Wuer Nuode can't do anything about His Holiness the Pope."

Guard A saw that the chief inquisitor had walked far away and continued muttering.

"Shh! Are you trying to get yourself killed? You dare talk about His Holiness the Pope? Don't you know what happened to your predecessor?"

Guard B quickly kicked him, as if to say, "If you want to die, go ahead, but don't take me down with you."

"I've heard. His Holiness the Pope took a liking to his sister, and then he..."

Guard A sighed, his voice tinged with helplessness.

These guards might have looked impressive, but working beside the Pope was like walking on thin ice.

In outsiders' eyes, the Light Church's guards had high status, good benefits, and the privilege of being close to the Pope, with a chance of catching his eye.

But they knew perfectly well that their jobs were anything but easy.

The Pope was moody and had a very perverted nature. He liked young girls and often sent people out to gather them. Most of the time, those who were brought back didn't live long.

He also liked to defile sacred things. He would select pure, beautiful, kind, and innocent girls, train them to become Saintesses, and then...

Compared to the others, these guards were relatively safe. After all, His Holiness the Pope wasn't interested in men, though he did occasionally torture a few to death.

But they had no idea what "occasionally" meant in practice.

When it happened to any one of them, it would be an absolute disaster.

Sometimes they couldn't understand how His Holiness the Pope could be like this when he cultivated the Laws of Light.

Even many who cultivated the Laws of Death weren't so cruel.

Those who cultivated the Laws of Death were usually interested in collecting souls; most of them weren't interested in torture for its own sake.

Meanwhile, after leaving the palace, Wuer Nuode couldn't help punching the wall.

But the wall was protected by a magic array. Even at the peak of the Saint Realm, he couldn't damage it.

His heart was filled with pain and anger, but it seemed there was nothing he could do.

"Lord of Light, my ass! If the Lord of Light dares show up in front of me, I'll spit right in his face!"

Wuer Nuode couldn't help cursing. He said he would spit right in Augusta's face.

In fact, Wuer Nuode had once been a believer in the Lord of Light. After all, the entire Light Continent was ruled by the Light Church, and anyone born and raised there would have at least some faith in the Lord of Light.

As a native, he had grown up with an education closely tied to the Lord of Light, so he had naturally felt a deep admiration for him.

Thanks to his outstanding magical talent, the Church had discovered Wuer Nuode. He had studied at an academy, joined the Church, and advanced step by step to the Saint Realm, eventually rising to the position of chief inquisitor.

But the upheaval that had taken place a hundred years ago had thrown the Church into complete chaos.

At the time, the Light Saintess, Liya, was a kind and beautiful woman. She had explicitly rejected Aodarming, a Saint Realm expert who cultivated death.

Aodarming had held a grudge ever since and had been waiting for a chance to take revenge.

That might not have been a problem, since Aodarming was merely an unaffiliated cultivator whose strength was only at the early Saint Realm. The Church had more than one peak Saint Realm expert. Why would they have cared about him?

But the man had been incredibly lucky. He found a spatial ring containing a divine spark in a mountain range.

Worst of all, it was a divine spark of the Light attribute. Despite the incompatibility, he had refined it anyway. Then, on the very day he became a god, he stormed the Church.

He clearly remembered how the old Pope and numerous powerful experts had been killed, and how the Saintess had been forcibly violated by Aodarming before taking her own life because she couldn't bear the humiliation.

That demon had carried out a massacre at the Light Church with brutal methods.

At the time, the chief inquisitor had been away. When he heard the news and hurried back, he immediately summoned the Glory of the Lord of Light in his fury, calling down the projection of a Highgod.

But when Aodarming saw the sudden appearance of the divine projection, he had actually knelt before the Highgod and declared that he was willing to serve him, begging like a dog.

Then, after a moment's thought, the Highgod disregarded Wuer Nuode's pleas and directly appointed Aodarming as the new Pope.

Afterward, the Highgod told Aodarming to remember to spread the faith of the Lord of Light, then disappeared without another word.

"The old Pope? The Saintess? Death? They have merely returned to the embrace of the Lord." That was what the divine projection said in response to the chief inquisitor's words.

After that day, Wuer Nuode understood that the so-called Lord of Light was all bullshit.

He wasn't benevolent at all, and he didn't care whether his followers lived or died.

To deal with Aodarming, Wuer Nuode had endured humiliation and hardship. He had tried to find the Beast God Buniu on the Dark Continent for help, and he had also gone to see Lord Alikui'en, who was living in seclusion at Chiyan Mountain, but both had refused him.