Strange Objects

"Whew... The ability to turn into blood, making him immune to physical attacks? What a pain."

Mas sat beside Lin, panting heavily. "But as a 'Son of Burning,' I command not only the flames of reality, but also flames that can burn spirits..."

"This time, we have the High Priest to thank for granting us that 'Strange Object'!"

Mas picked up the black stone, and his face suddenly filled with fear and dread.

Using a Strange Object came at a price!

He had used the ability of a high-ranking 'Dark Seeker,' and the price was flesh and blood rich in the spiritual essence of darkness!

"Fortunately, those two fools are dead. Their flesh and blood should be enough to satisfy the 'Light-Devouring Stone'!"

Muttering to himself, Mas saw that the patterns on the stone had turned into a gaping mouth lined with sharp teeth. He immediately dragged over the cultist's corpse, pierced through by a blade, and laid it on top of the stone.

Crunch, crunch!

A grating chewing sound rang out. The cultist's corpse visibly dwindled before disappearing...

"Not enough..."

Mas immediately backed away to fetch the headless corpse.

It wasn't that he didn't want to call Rem and the others, who were guarding the back door, for help. But it wouldn't look good to let them see him treating his subordinates this way.

He brought over both corpses and watched as the 'Light-Devouring Stone' devoured all the flesh, then returned to its previous appearance. He let out a long breath and prepared to retrieve the eerie object.

Just then, he suddenly yawned. "Something's wrong... Why are there so many particles in the air... Blue, green, red, black..."

Mas's thoughts grew increasingly muddled. He bit the tip of his tongue hard and instinctively tried to activate the Strange Object.

But it was too late.

At some point, countless invisible threads had appeared in the air. They wound around his neck and strangled him in an instant.

Thud!

Mas's headless corpse fell to the ground. The stone in his hand rolled a short distance, but remained completely still.

Footsteps thudded closer. Olivia walked over and picked up the 'Light-Devouring Stone,' then checked on Lin. "Thank goodness you're all right..."

She took a small metal vial from her clothes and poured some medicine into Lin's mouth.

"I..."

Lin struggled awake. "What happened to that 'Son of Burning'?"

"He's dead. I took care of the two heretics guarding the back door as well... Barnard is watching them. One of them, Calvin, was quite cooperative. He told me outright that Mas was carrying a Strange Object, so I came to help you."

Olivia explained.

Lin saw the corpse nearby and fell silent. "You want to recruit followers of the [Black Sun]?"

"Yes. Our Lord may be able to awaken their free will, as long as they haven't been poisoned too deeply..."

Olivia searched Mas's body and found several spiritual materials, along with a black book.

"'Words of the Sun Chaser'?"

She slowly read the title, flipped through a few pages, then closed her eyes. "Some of the occult knowledge in here is very useful. Once you've learned it, you can offer it to our Lord... Be careful while reading, though. It carries mild mental contamination..."

Lin looked at Mas's corpse instead, gritting her teeth. "I want to offer the spiritual essence inside him to our Lord!"

At Blackstone Manor.

Aaron held his hand over a burning candle, quietly sensing the change in temperature... A warm sensation spread through his palm. It was pleasantly warm but not hot, and he felt no pain or burning.

After a moment, he pulled his hand away and carefully examined his jade-like palm. There wasn't a single mark on it.

"Is this the power of the spiritual essence of darkness?"

Aaron murmured softly. "It doesn't seem to be much use, other than letting me escape a fire unscathed..."

After successfully stopping the Son of Burning's team, Olivia and Lin returned to their branch base in the department store and offered him the Son of Burning's spiritual essence, along with the contents of the Secret Records of Darkness.

If Olivia hadn't stopped her, Lin would even have wanted to offer Aaron the 'Light-Devouring Stone.'

But Aaron had already decided then that even if they offered it, he wouldn't accept it.

After all, spiritual essence and knowledge were both intangible.

Compared with tangible offerings, they were bound to be different in some way, and that was something he hadn't yet tried.

"I wonder if these so-called 'Strange Objects' and 'Eerie Objects' can cross the barriers between worlds..."

Aaron murmured.

According to Olivia, a 'Strange Object' was a combination of spiritual essence and a real-world object, and often possessed many incredible abilities.

Most of them came from successful or failed rituals conducted by cults and secret organizations.

Others came from the deaths of powerful beings...

They were largely the result of chance, and difficult to create at present.

More importantly, they were extremely dangerous!

Even simply carrying one would subject its bearer to constant, mild contamination and erosion!

Not to mention that each time a 'Strange Object' was used, it brought about extremely severe negative effects that had to be soothed by various means.

Otherwise, it would inevitably turn on its owner!

"Still, the greater the price, the greater the power... That 'Light-Devouring Stone' is equivalent to half a 'Dark Seeker'... The Black Sun Cult has lost so many people and an important object. They'll definitely keep investigating, won't they?"

Aaron felt somewhat helpless.

As the deity worshipped by the Light of Redemption, he couldn't personally guide the two women in every detail of how to fight back and stay hidden.

And Lin clearly held a deep hatred for the Black Sun Cult. As soon as she heard her enemies had arrived, she immediately went on the offensive—under the pretext of cleansing God's territory, no less. It left Aaron feeling helpless.

"Even with Olivia there, she might not be able to hold Lin back... And that's not to mention Lin finding out that Aike is dead..."

In fact, Aaron had long suspected that Aike wouldn't meet a good end.

But the news would undoubtedly be a blow to Lin.

"I can only tell her to get her revenge later... If she goes now, she'll just be walking to her death..."

Aaron rubbed his brow.

"Baron, Scholar Albert requests an audience!"

At that moment, Daili came in and announced.

"Looks like there's something else..."

Aaron waved a hand. Daili soon left, and before long, the portly Albert walked in and bowed. "Baron, there's been a reply from Raven at Sothoth Castle regarding Knight Yiman. The earl approves of your actions and has issued an order to the lords of Upper Green Forest to arrest the people on the list..."

"That's only to be expected. And then..." Aaron asked with a smile, seeing that Albert didn't seem ready to leave.

"There's also an unconfirmed piece of news. The earl intends to make you Xia Ya's godfather."