The Failed Holy Infant

Illumi put the little black bottle back where it belonged, raised a hand, and the cabinet door closed without a sound.

Bai Zhu's ragged breathing came intermittently through the earpiece.

"Make the core area chaotic? What exactly do you mean by chaotic? Let me make this clear first: I'm not accepting any plan that requires me to charge into battle."

"Charge my ass," Milluki immediately shot back. "You need to hold onto a wall just to stand up right now!"

Leaning against the back wall of the shed, Bai Zhu raised a hand and pressed against his tight, aching chest.

"Don't expose people's hardships, got it?"

Illumi had no interest in joining their nonsense. He merely lowered his head and unhurriedly adjusted his cuff.

"First step: cut off the eastern medicine supply."

The crunching of Milluki stuffing himself with potato chips abruptly stopped.

"Big Brother, are you planning to blow the place up?"

"No. The medicine here smells bad."

Milluki had yet to understand what his big brother meant.

Illumi's gaze had already shifted toward a corner of the medicine storage room.

A gray-robed steward stood there holding a metal barrel, his eyelids drooping and expression vacant. At the back of his neck, a Nen Needle so fine it was nearly invisible was hidden beneath his collar.

Illumi passed by him and left only two words behind.

"Fall down."

The gray-robed steward mechanically walked toward the door with the metal barrel in his arms.

Two seconds later.

Clang!

With a deafening crash, the metal barrel slammed onto the floor, its lid rolling far away. High-concentration "Holy Water Stock" spilled across the ground, and an indescribably pungent stench exploded through the room!

"Cough! Who told you to move the stock?!"

"Shut the valves! Close the ventilation! Turn on the air exchange!"

The nearby nurses choked until tears streamed down their faces, but another low-ranking priest under control had already reached the wall and expressionlessly twisted open the ventilation valve.

Whoosh—

The dense medicinal mist was violently sucked into the vents and spread wildly through the eastern supply corridor!

"Cough, cough! My eyes! I can't open my eyes!"

"Leak in the eastern medicine storage!"

"Where are the protective masks? Who the fuck took all the protective masks?!"

Listening through the earpiece, Bai Zhu seemed to regain some of his spirit.

"Damn, your brother's launching a chemical attack?"

Milluki stared at the surveillance footage, and the flesh on his chubby face twitched.

"Big Brother's being... strangely gentle today. Normally, those people would already be lying in neat rows."

Illumi ignored the comment and left the chaotic medicine storage room without looking back.

Very soon, the altar area experienced its first wave of unrest.

The eastern supply line had completely ground to a halt. Two medicine carts were forced to stop in the middle of the corridor, while nurses covered their mouths and noses as they retreated in panic. Even the guards were choking too badly to approach.

At the edge of the altar, a silver-robed bishop was flying into a rage.

"Connect the backup medicine supply! The Elder can't wait any longer!"

A technician clutched a clipboard, sweat pouring down his face. "The backup lines haven't been cleaned yet. Connecting them directly will contaminate the Holy Infant's parameters!"

"Contaminate?" The silver-robed bishop slapped him across the face. "Could the Lord's gift be contaminated by mere medicine? Who are you blaspheming?!"

The technician staggered from the blow, covered his face, and did not dare make another sound.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Illumi reached the edge of the altar area. This time, he saw the whole picture.

At the center stood a Black Crystal Mother Stone taller than a person, firmly secured by thick metal braces. The only difference between it and the piece in the Elder's chest was that the Elder's was alive, while this one was lifeless.

The Black Crystal's surface was riddled with holes. Dense pipelines extended from them, their other ends connected to rows of glass compartments surrounding it.

Inside those compartments lay the numbered women.

Number Seven, Number Ten, Number Twelve...

Their wrists, ankles, and even abdomens were secured by machinery. Their vital signs had become rows of cold data flickering across the screens.

The technicians beside them spoke as though they were discussing nothing more than lab rats.

"Number Seven's heart rate is dropping too quickly."

"Give her mental stabilizer."

"Number Ten's fetal movement has stopped."

"How much more can we draw?"

"Watch the Mother Stone's reaction. Don't worry about the host body."

Bai Zhu fell silent.

When he spoke again, all traces of his usual flippancy had disappeared.

"This is... their Sanctification Descent?"

Standing beside a cart, Illumi relayed everything he saw in the coldest possible terms while pretending to arrange documents.

"The pregnant women are fuel. The fetuses are tinder. The Black Crystal Mother Stone handles conversion, and the Elder directs it. The so-called Holy Infants are merely the ritual's final product."

Milluki's voice dropped very low, carrying even a slight tremble.

"There are remnants of Post-Mortem Nen in there too?"

"There are traces of chaotic Nen fluctuations around the Mother Stone. Their nature resembles the fragment on the surface, but they're stronger."

Bai Zhu frowned tightly.

"You said they're only remnants. Then where is the real Post-Mortem Nen? If they're going to 'descend,' shouldn't it be complete Post-Mortem Nen?"

Milluki did not answer. He did not know either; all of this was intelligence Illumi had sent through their private communication channel.

On the screen, a nurse pushed a cart past the glass compartments. Three inconspicuous little black bottles sat on it.

Milluki's pupils suddenly contracted, and his voice sank further.

"Those children in the choir... were most likely failed products from earlier experiments."

Bai Zhu said nothing.

As though forcing himself to finish, Milluki spoke rapidly and urgently. "After failed Holy Infants are born, they use Choral Agent to stabilize them. Their cognition deteriorates, their obedience increases, and their lifespans are drastically shortened. Then they package those children as sacred attendants and send them to the surface to sing! This ritual is called Pre-Sanctification Descent. Fuck, it looks like they just want to make another failed product!"

The microphone fell completely silent.

Bai Zhu casually tossed aside the empty hemostatic medicine bottle.

"These animals really know how to dress things up."

Milluki cursed under his breath.

"Even animals would think they were filthy."

Illumi passed the backup control console, where another technician stood with a badge reading "Maintenance."

He handed over the folder in his hand.

"Calibrate Number Seven's reserve pipeline."

The technician accepted the folder and lowered his head to glance at it.

There was nothing inside. Just as the technician was about to ask, a Nen Needle silently pierced his wrist.

The next second, he raised his hand and pressed a button on the console.

Beep.

Beep beep beep beep—!

Every instrument on the west side of the altar area simultaneously erupted in shrill red alarms!

"Number Seven's reserve pipeline is abnormal!"

"Number Twelve has reflux!"

"Number Fifteen's port is responding ahead of schedule! Who activated Number Fifteen's reserve line? She hasn't even entered yet!"

The entire technical team instantly exploded into chaos.

Someone rushed to the console and shoved the maintenance worker aside.

"What the fuck did you press?!"

The maintenance worker stood there with a blank look on his face.

"I... I pressed calibration."

"You calibrated the Number Fifteen port?!"

"Stop it! Stop Number Seven's extraction immediately!"

"We can't stop! The Elder gave a direct order—the ritual must continue!"

"All the parameters are red! Do you want the Mother Stone to backlash on the spot?!"

The piercing argument completely drowned out the instruments' alarms.

Watching the chaos unfold on the surveillance feed, Milluki's eyes gleamed frighteningly bright.