Believer

"Seventh Soul Skill! Myriad Beasts Possession!"

The book in Elder Chen's hand flipped rapidly, and phantom images of Soul Beasts flew out from its pages.

A massive azure bird, an armored wolf, a coiling golden python, and more entered Elder Chen's body one after another.

His body grew taller, his bones crackled, dark-golden beast patterns surfaced beneath his skin, and his pupils turned vertical.

Elder Chen clenched both hands. A pair of azure phantom wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, and with a powerful flap, he shot toward the red moon.

"No, still not fast enough!" Watching the moonlight shine toward him, Elder Chen's purple Soul Ring flashed. "Enhancement: Speed!"

His speed suddenly increased. Let's see whether I can destroy it before the moonlight affects me, Elder Chen thought.

His Soul Power drained faster and faster, and the beast patterns began to sizzle.

Just before one foot stepped into the moonlight's range, a sudden change occurred.

The Blood Moon abruptly vanished. Elder Chen suddenly lost his target, and his body continued forward under the force of inertia, but his speed grew slower and slower until he finally returned to the city wall.

He stared doubtfully at the place where the Blood Moon had been, his heart full of confusion.

Elder Chen had seen it clearly. He had not even entered the moonlight's range when the Blood Moon disappeared as if it had been suddenly erased.

Sunlight now shone down, dispelling the cold and eeriness from before. Not even a trace of black smoke remained in the sky.

Elder Chen kept his eyes fixed on that spot for a long time—so long that someone beside him called out to him three times.

"Elder Chen!"

Elder Chen responded, and the dark-golden beast patterns on his body began to fade.

"Did you... succeed?" the Woman surnamed Wen asked nervously.

Elder Chen did not answer at once. He opened his mouth as though he were still considering something.

"It vanished suddenly, but I didn't disperse it." Elder Chen sounded somewhat distracted.

A voice came from outside the city wall. Looking down, he saw that the Soul Master whose belly had swollen but had not yet torn apart had sat up. The man felt his stomach, pressed it repeatedly, then pulled open his clothes to look inside. Apart from a layer of sweat and several fading bluish-purple marks, there was nothing on his belly.

"It stopped..." the man muttered. "We're saved!"

Elder Chen closed his eyes.

"You should know how to handle the rest," Elder Chen said, with a trace of exhaustion in his voice.

"Yes, I'll take care of it. You should go rest," the Woman surnamed Wen agreed, then led the others downstairs.

Elder Chen looked up at the sky, which had already cleared, then turned and headed toward the deep pit from before.

Sunlight now covered the entire open space.

The pool of flesh and blood in the pit had dried up, leaving only half a pool of dark-red fragments lying wrinkled at the bottom like rotten mud that had dried in the sun before being soaked again.

The air was thick with the stench of blood mixed with the earthy smell of soil.

Elder Chen crouched down, his gaze sweeping over the corpses of the Evil Soul Masters by the pool. They still wore black robes, their faces bearing those benevolent smiles, their eyes half-open as they gazed at the sky, as if they were still having a beautiful dream.

He counted them once, then counted them a second time.

The exhaustion in Elder Chen's eyes vanished at once. One Evil Soul Master corpse was missing.

The corpse of the leading Evil Soul Master—the one standing at the very top, with the most devout gaze—was gone.

He quickly scanned the scene. There were no scraps of black robes, nor was there any fresh flesh and blood.

Elder Chen hurriedly gestured for a Soul Master handling corpses nearby to come over.

"One Evil Soul Master's corpse is missing." Elder Chen's expression was grave. "He likely escaped. Hurry and track him down. If he can perform this ritual once, he can perform it a second time."

The Soul Master nodded, saluted, and quickly headed into the city to report the situation.

Inside the academy infirmary.

Shitou continued, "The Blood Moon disappeared afterward. The whole city is talking about it now. They say the Blood Moon was the work of Evil Soul Masters. Some say Spirit Hall has already dealt with it, while others say it isn't over yet."

An Chen lay on the bed. Upon hearing this news, he let out a sigh of relief.

Then he recalled the gray mist that had wrapped around him earlier. It seemed somewhat similar to the mist inside his Iron Pot Wuhun and the mist on the system.

Thinking of this, An Chen sent Shitou and Qian Yiming away, then closed his eyes and activated the system.

[Big Iron Pot System]

[Name]: An Chen

[Race]: Human

[Wuhun]: Big Iron Pot

[Soul Power]: Level 15

[Soul Ring]: Yellow

[Pathway]: The Hanged Man

[Sequence]: Sequence 9 The Reader

[Digestion]: 100%

[System Status]: Concealment activated (enhanced)

[System Prompt]: The Iron Pot can be used to concoct Potions.

[Main Mission]: Absorb the Second Soul Ring (Shadow Attribute). Reward One: Listener Potion formula and ingredients. Reward Two: System ability rewards based on the Soul Ring's age.

An Chen's eyes flew open.

100%?

Over the past three months, he had prayed every night, observed others with Spirit Vision, and tried to conduct rituals, only increasing from 5% to 23%. How had it suddenly reached 100%?

An Chen stared at the grayish-white ceiling, thinking.

The core of acting as The Reader was prayer, and the essence of prayer was faith.

Earlier, between those walls of flesh and beneath that Blood Moon, he had nearly sunk into that "mother's" embrace.

At that moment, did he count as a devout believer?

Yes. Absolutely.

The most devout state he would probably ever experience in his life had been noticed by an existence whose name he was not even qualified to know. Then, like a used-up container, he had been discarded and sent back.

He had acted it to perfection and digested it completely.

At that thought, An Chen's lips twitched, and he somewhat wanted to laugh.

It was quite useful, but he did not want to use it again.

An Chen curled his lip.

"Brother Pot, we bought meat pies. They're pretty good, so we brought you one." Shitou's voice arrived before he did.

A small village thirty miles south of Tieyan City.

Night had already fallen.

Beneath the old oak tree at the village entrance, a black-robed man knelt in the mud.

His robe and face were covered in dried blood.

One by one, lights came on in the village. Someone called for children to come home for dinner over a courtyard wall. A yellow dog barked twice in the distance, then fell quiet again.

No one saw him.

He knelt there, chanting over and over with a hoarse voice that did not sound human, "Great Mother... God of Origin... Mother of All Living Things..."

"Your child has returned..."

"Praise you, Mother of All Living Things. Praise you, undying evil. Praise you, Great Mother."

As he reached this point, his body suddenly trembled.

Something surged from within his body, flowed over his arms and across his forehead pressed to the ground, "giving birth" to his body.

It was warm and viscous, like a current of living blood, completely unlike the Wuhun and Soul Power within his body.

His knuckles sank into the mud, and a moan escaped his throat, impossible to tell whether it was pain or pleasure.

Then he slowly raised his head.

The dried bloodstains still clung to his face, while his bloodshot eyes shone with terrifying brightness.

He looked toward the completely darkened sky in the direction of Tieyan City, and the corners of his mouth slowly split into a grin.

"She answered me." His voice was low. "She truly answered me!"

He stood, brushed the dirt from his knees, and walked in the direction opposite Tieyan City.

His steps were steady, one after another, as if he were walking along the ridges of his own fields.

The night soon swallowed him whole.

In the village, the lamp belonging to the person calling children home for dinner was still lit.