Gallo's Response

Gallo felt the call of that spiritual fluctuation and immediately associated it with the tampered manuscript he had handed to Sacia yesterday; it was originally a ritual intended to summon the Subspace entity Gorak, which he had altered.

For Gallo, who possessed knowledge of Subspace, tampering with the ritual was not difficult. He simply needed to attach a trace of his own spiritual fluctuation to the manuscript, so that whenever someone performed the ritual using that document, the spiritual fluctuation on it would naturally begin to link with Gallo's own spirit.

It was akin to setting a startup command on the manuscript via spiritual fluctuation; as long as the content was followed, the fluctuation attached to the document would trigger, and once all the ritual requirements were met, it would activate the preset function Gallo had left behind.

The difference was that rituals intended to communicate with Subspace entities usually required particularly bloody sacrifices, involving the offering of a large number of sentient, conscious living beings according to the fixed ritual content.

When these living beings were used as sacrifices, the moment they died, their souls would sever their connection to the physical world and enter Subspace entirely, causing the various negative energies within their souls to erupt violently.

This was like broadcasting a signal at a fixed frequency within Subspace, and when the summoned Subspace entity received this signal through its own psionic power, it would rush over through Subspace to receive and taste the sacrificed souls.

If the Subspace entity was in a good mood, it might respond to the ritual's call and communicate with the ritual's host on a conscious level.

If the host of the ritual was a psionic, the success rate of such conscious communication with a Subspace entity was often very high; ordinary people lacked psionic talent, so unless the Subspace entity was willing to expend great effort and pay a price, it could not communicate with them on a conscious level.

However, even with the correct ritual, one had to be careful when offering sacrifices that other terrifying existences within Subspace might be watching, as the negative energy fluctuations emitted by sacrificed souls were a delicious temptation to those entities.

Therefore, any ritual involving Subspace was accompanied by extremely high risks, and the success rate depended on the scale of the sacrifice and whether the host possessed psionic talent.

At this moment, as the call originating from his own spiritual fluctuation became urgent, Gallo knew he could no longer wait or hesitate.

Once this signal was missed and allowed to dissipate, Gallo would no longer be able to track where the signal was leading.

I didn't expect Sacia's group to be so impatient to start the ritual on the manuscript; I only gave it to her yesterday, and I thought they would wait for a while.

He paused, then thought: If I don't respond in time this time, they might think the ritual failed, or suspect there is a problem with the content of the manuscript, and besides coming to find me again, it's uncertain whether they would continue to perform the ritual next time. Furthermore, performing the ritual itself consumes the residual spiritual fluctuation I left on the manuscript.

It's just that...

Gallo sensed something that puzzled him; the residual spiritual fluctuation he had left on the manuscript should not have caused such a strong fluctuation. It was as distinct as the difference between a soft whisper in one's ear and a full-throated shout.

He gently placed the bread he was spreading with butter and jam onto the opened beeswax cloth.

He took the unique "coordinate" perceived by his Inspiration—the pull of the spiritual fluctuation that was one with his origin—and began to project his own spirit directly.

On the level of Subspace, distance lost its meaning; intent was the path.

He focused all his spirit, imagining a portion of his soul like an arrow released from a bow, projecting precisely along the direction from which the call originated.

The process was not without turbulence.

He felt as if he were passing through a turbulent flow composed of chaotic light, shadows, and whispers, surrounded by the indescribable murmurs of Subspace.

But thanks to the clarity of the source of the call and his own powerful control over spirituality and Inspiration, the process of spiritual projection was quite smooth.

Almost the instant his thought completed, his "perspective" shifted abruptly.

His Inspiration brought a portion of Gallo's consciousness into a... large, elegantly decorated indoor space.

It looked like a vast living room in a large building, but it was currently in a state of chaos.

"Where is this place?" Gallo's inspired consciousness scanned the scene quickly, filled with doubt.

He had originally assumed that Sacia and her group would perform the ritual in a more secluded location that fit the "ritual" atmosphere, such as a hall or a church, rather than in a residence that looked quite decent.

Immediately after, he saw the two sides in a standoff.

One side consisted of a dozen people wearing dark gray trench coats, holding firearms, moving with professional efficiency, and wearing cold expressions.

Their temperament immediately reminded Gallo of Agent Clovin, whom he had seen through remote viewing earlier.

"Is it Clovin's people? I didn't expect them to suddenly break in while Sacia and the others were performing the ritual."

Gallo was visibly stunned; he knew Clovin had been secretly watching Sacia and her group, but he hadn't expected Clovin, as an official force of the Empire, to intervene while they were holding the ritual, and to act so quickly.

The other side surprised him even more—they were several people wearing robes similar to those of priests!

Some of them had already fallen to the ground, and while others held weapons, they were clearly at a disadvantage, completely suppressed by the firepower of Clovin's agents.

Sacia Taylor was being pinned to the ground by a Clovin agent, and Malcolm... Gallo's attention swept over the lifeless body in the corner, confirming that he was dead.

"Dressed clearly as clergy. Are they with Sacia? What kind of organization is this?" Gallo's confusion deepened.

The forces behind Sacia were far more complex than he had imagined; they seemed to be a secret cult with a specific faith.

And at the center of the entire chaotic scene was the old man wearing the red High Priest robe.

He stood before a makeshift altar, his body surrounded by flames that were invisible to the naked eye of ordinary people.

But psionics could clearly perceive the scorching spiritual flames through their Inspiration—he was sacrificing himself!

It was this desperate, crazy act that greatly accelerated the progress of the ritual while strengthening the transmission of the spiritual fluctuation from the manuscript through Subspace, which was the reason for the unusually strong call signal Gallo had perceived.

At this moment, Gallo's spirit was like a curtain of rain; his spirit descended and filled the entire room.

The passage of time around him became extremely slow to Gallo's consciousness, yet he clearly perceived the ecstatic expression on the High Priest's face and the terrified looks on the faces of the psionics among Clovin's men.

Gallo descended in response to the ritual's plea, but this was not a physical presence; it was a projection of psionic power through Subspace into reality. To better deceive Sacia and her group, Gallo had carefully forged the descent to carry a sense of "divine majesty."

The psionic power he projected focused on the High Priest, spreading out like ripples and instantly filling the core area of the ritual site.

Damon, as the person in charge of Clovin's operation, was about to take final measures against the High Priest, but suddenly stopped all the Clovin agents who were in action.

Her eyes, sharp as a hawk's, stared fixedly at the High Priest, her face showing an expression of extreme solemnity and wariness.

She had clearly also perceived that suddenly appearing, powerful, and eerie psionic fluctuation, as well as the High Priest's highly unstable state of deep connection with Subspace.

"Cease fire! Seal the perimeter! Everyone, fall back!"

She barked the order, her voice strained with extreme tension, shocked that they had actually managed to attract a manifestation of a Spirit Realm entity.

She knew full well that killing the High Priest at this moment would be no different than detonating a psionic bomb with a lit fuse.

The High Priest was using his own spirituality as fuel to forcibly maintain a fragile gateway to the Spirit Realm. Any violent external interference, especially a lethal physical attack, would likely cause the gateway to collapse uncontrollably, triggering a catastrophic psionic meltdown—a disaster far worse than any explosion, plague, drought, or natural disaster in the physical world.

As for the High Priest, the moment Gallo's spiritual projection descended, his burning psionic energy and life force seemed to have found their destination.

He tilted his head back, his wrinkled face devoid of pain, instead blooming with an almost intoxicated, ecstatic radiance.

In his perception, heightened to an abnormal degree by the excessive burning of his spirituality, the spirit projected by Gallo carried a cold, sublime sense of "divinity" that he had pursued his entire life.

Tears mixed with blood slid from the corners of his eyes. He spread his arms and, using his final strength, let out a hoarse but devout cry:

"Holy... True Lord... You... have truly descended... I am your servant... You have answered the call of your humble servant!

I see you... Holy True Lord... You are truly so beautiful!"

Gallo was momentarily stunned, wondering if the old man had lost his mind. For a split second, he had actually worried that the man's Inspiration could pierce through the Subspace to see his true appearance outside Lubo Lane. But right now, Gallo's Inspiration permeated the surroundings, turning the building into an absolute domain under his psionic control.

It was impossible for this old man in red high-ranking clerical robes to bypass Gallo's psionic domain and the path of his projection to see Gallo's physical body.

It could only be said that the old fool's emotional agitation must have caused his sanity and reasoning to fracture.

Even if he had somehow seen Gallo's real-world appearance, how could an old man possibly describe a boy using the phrase "so beautiful"?

At this moment, the battle inside the villa seemed to hit a pause button.

The Clovin agents held their guns with tense vigilance, their gazes shifting between the High Priest and the high-ranking investigator.

The surviving cult members looked on in horror and confusion, seemingly stunned by the sudden cessation of the Clovin assault. As ordinary people, they couldn't sense what was happening on the scene; only the High Priest and the four high-ranking Clovin investigators present understood.

Sacia lifted her head with difficulty, her eyes filled with disbelief. Was there truly a turning point in this situation?

Gallo's spiritual consciousness hovered calmly at the center of this chaotic space, where time seemed to have frozen.

As Gallo focused his intent, the spiritual power permeating the room began to rapidly contract and condense.

Before the horrified eyes of everyone present, a soft, majestic white-gold radiance appeared in front of the altar, gradually outlining a blurred humanoid silhouette.

The outline lacked clear facial features, showing only a general shape, yet the presence it exuded felt as solid as reality, pressing down on every ordinary person present until they couldn't breathe.

Even the four high-ranking Clovin investigators felt their own spirituality trembling violently, as if they had encountered an existence of a higher order... no... one whose level was far beyond their ability to estimate or calculate.

"It... it has manifested!"

A surviving cult member gasped, his legs giving way, nearly collapsing to his knees.

For ordinary people, the impact of witnessing a "miracle" firsthand was immense, and for a priest, this sense of shock transcended that of a commoner.

Gallo's spiritual consciousness manipulated the white-gold humanoid radiance, beginning to "stroll" through the devastated living room.

His pace appeared slow, yet it carried a lightness that ignored physical obstacles, as if he were walking in another dimension, only occasionally running parallel to the space-time they occupied, allowing them to see him.

He deliberately bypassed the four high-ranking Clovin investigators who stood ready for battle, showing no hostility or interest, as if they were merely insignificant background scenery.

At the same time, he had to carefully control his spiritual fluctuations to prevent them from dispersing, lest he drive these four psionicists insane.

His goal was clear.

First, he "walked" to the side of Malcolm's corpse.

The white-gold radiance looked down slightly, as if confirming something.

Gallo's spiritual perception swept over, confirming that Malcolm's soul had long since dissipated. It must have already entered the Subspace. When a living being's physical body is in the real world and their soul is projected into the Subspace, if the physical body dies without a means to anchor the soul, the soul loses its anchor to the real world and enters the Subspace, where it slowly fades into silence.

Unless one was unlucky enough to be discovered by other Subspace entities, the probability of that was extremely low.

At this moment, Malcolm had no residual soul consciousness left.

This put his mind at ease. This middleman, who had monitored him for so long and knew parts of his background, had been silenced for good. He then spotted the corpses of two other acquaintances in another area—the two who had been monitoring him alongside Malcolm, now dead by Clovin gunfire.

Next, he turned toward Sacia Taylor, who was being held on the ground.

Sacia looked up, her eyes filled with pleading—a mix of awe for the "miracle" and the hope of surviving a desperate situation.

She opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but under the gaze of that white-gold radiance, she could not make a sound.

Gallo knew that Sacia must not be taken away by Clovin for interrogation.

She knew too much—about the notebook, the translated manuscripts, and her past collaboration with Gallo Channing in Lubo Lane.

Once Clovin pried this information from her, he would be the next one they came for. Until he understood Clovin's stance on psionicists, he would not make contact with them.

Therefore, he had to make her "shut up," in a way that Clovin could not decipher.