Chapter 101: The Gods Are Dead
Violet’s eyes flickered with a strange and ferocious light. It took a long time for her twisted expression to gradually return to normal.
She had to obtain the Seed of Life, no matter the cost.
Only the power of the Seed of Life could soothe her tormented soul, otherwise, she would truly go mad.
The sounds from upstairs had disappeared. It seemed that Qin Chu and Ekaterina were done. She had made careful preparations, using Moonflower pollen, even revealing the First Hero’s soul fragment, and humbling herself to beg Qin Chu to stay, all for this moment.
There was no other way. In order to maintain the existence of the Temple of Storms and suppress the pollution brought by divine knowledge, the Storm Witch’s strength was no longer what it used to be. Just as Qin Chu had speculated, she didn’t have enough capital to fight against four powerful enemies at the same time.
Especially since one of them was Shaye, the Dark Witch. Although she looked frail, she was still the Dark Witch, the strongest among the Witches.
Four Witches who had accepted divine authority had already been killed by Shaye. Such a terrifying existence, even if her strength had declined for some reason, who could guarantee that Shaye didn’t have any hidden trump cards?
So she could only put on a gentle appearance and lower Qin Chu’s guard.
But as long as she seized the Seed of Life, no one in the Heavenly Continent would be her opponent.
She even wanted to mock Anthea. This woman was still as foolish as she was a thousand years ago. There was such a treasure right beside her, yet she didn’t know how to obtain it.
But before she could make a move, Ekaterina had taken the lead.
This greatly annoyed the Storm Witch. She had deliberately separated Qin Chu and Ekaterina by floors, but this woman had actually run upstairs on her own.
She couldn’t just barge in and join them.
But now that it was finally over upstairs, she wondered if Qin Chu was still capable.
While pondering in her heart, the Storm Witch stood up her tall body and walked towards the door.
But just as she reached the door, a sound, slightly different from before, came from upstairs again.
Hiss…
The Storm Witch gasped.
Seriously, again?
Didn’t they know what it meant to be tired?
Even if they wanted to continue, they should at least rest for a while, right?
Although she felt increasingly irritated, the Storm Witch had no other choice. She could only stay quietly in her room, listening to the sounds from upstairs while patiently waiting.
She started to get a little worried…
If the Seed of Life was completely taken by Ekaterina, there would be nothing left for her.
…
On the other side, Qin Chu gently pushed open the door.
Listening to Ekaterina’s voice coming from the room behind him, Qin Chu’s expression was a little strange.
Honestly, Ekaterina’s acting skills were really not that good. Just listening to that voice, the tone was flat, perfunctory, without any fluctuation. Anyone with a little experience could sense something was wrong.
Be more professional, please. Couldn’t she put a little more emotion into her voice?
However, considering that the Storm Witch had lived here alone for over a thousand years, it was hard to say whether she had experienced this before. Even if she had, she would have probably forgotten about it long ago.
Presumably, the Storm Witch shouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Humans were curious creatures.
Qin Chu was no exception.
Reason told him that his goal was only revenge, to take care of his own matters. What had happened in the Heavenly Continent in the past, the conflicts between those true rulers, the deities, had nothing to do with him. Forcing himself to get involved wouldn’t do him any good.
But curiosity killed the cat.
The more he was told not to know something, the more he wanted to explore it.
Moreover, Qin Chu vaguely felt that he had already been caught up in this huge whirlpool. Since that was the case, knowing more wouldn’t do him any harm.
Once this thought surfaced in his mind, the slight resistance he felt instantly disappeared, and he walked towards the room next door with a clear conscience.
This seemed to be an office. The Storm Lord’s emblem still hung on the damaged wall.
The desk was covered in dust, a thick layer like snow.
There were also some documents on the desk. Qin Chu walked over slowly, first cautiously sensing his surroundings. After confirming that there were no hidden mechanisms or traps, he reached out his finger towards the documents on the desk. But just as his finger touched the paper…
Silently… as if he had touched a string, the documents instantly turned into powder.
It was a fine powder, like ashes after being burned by a raging fire.
Not only the paper, but also the scrolls on the wall, the desk, everything vanished in an instant. Even the porcelain placed nearby as decoration turned into fine sand.
Qin Chu’s eyes darkened. A thousand years was enough to erode everything.
The beds in his and Ekaterina’s rooms, the doors, windows, even the floor and walls of the temple, were all prepared by Violet later. This woman stubbornly wanted to maintain the original appearance of the Temple of Storms, not wanting it to completely disappear, even though apart from its barely presentable exterior, the interior had long since decayed… Everything that originally belonged to this temple had already reached its end in the long river of time.
There was nothing left to explore in this room. Qin Chu walked to the next room, but the situation there was no different. Even the airflow caused by Qin Chu pushing open the door directly caused the remaining things in the room to turn into dust.
But Qin Chu didn’t give up. He believed that there must be something in this temple that could guide him to the truth.
He went through room after room, the scene before him almost identical.
Second floor, third floor, fourth floor, fifth floor…
Qin Chu didn’t miss a single corner.
In the end, Qin Chu even ventured to the first floor.
Far away from where Violet was, Qin Chu found a dark little room. In this small room, there was even a complete statue of the Storm Lord, seemingly a room for confession and prayer.
No one knew what the deities looked like. The statues were only depictions based on the imagination of believers.
This was a tall and sturdy man. Although a thousand years had passed, the majesty of this statue remained undiminished. This seemed to be where Violet often stayed, unlike other places that were covered in thick dust.
On the surrounding walls, messy words, patterns, and symbols were scrawled with almost frantic strokes… From the deep grooves on the walls and the stiff and distorted strokes, one could see how chaotic the person who left these marks was.
Even the statue itself had traces of repairs. Some places had even been repaired many times, the cracks showing distinct layers. The repeated damage and repairs made the statue look somewhat eerie.
On the wall above the head of the Storm Lord statue, a few distorted words seemed to have been carved with a knife.
Where is He?
At the end of the stroke, a long crack was forcefully dragged down the wall.
At the foot of the statue, there was also a dark-covered notebook with two crossed crosses on it.
Qin Chu subconsciously wanted to reach out, but he hesitated, worried that the notebook would turn to dust like before.
After a brief hesitation, Qin Chu finally extended his finger and touched the cover of the notebook with the gentlest force possible… This time, the notebook didn’t turn to ashes.
It was just a simple action, but Qin Chu felt like he had exhausted himself. He secretly wiped the sweat from his forehead and opened the notebook.
The first thing that caught his eye were a few chilling scarlet words:
The Gods are dead!
…
On the other side, Karsus the Death Knight had already left the place where Benson’s body was.
Riding his skeletal warhorse, he galloped like a ghost against the strong wind. Even the cold night wind couldn’t extinguish the flames in his heart.
Because when he was collecting Benson’s remains, he found a white stocking tightly clutched in Benson’s hand.
On the stocking, Benson had drawn two symbols with his own blood.
One symbol represented the Holy See.
One symbol represented the Church of the Earth Mother Goddess.
He had never been so angry as he was now.
The blood-stained pattern was clearly a signal Benson had left him before he died.
If Benson had simply been killed by Demon Beasts, Karsus would be sad but not to this extent, after all, humans and Demon Beasts were natural enemies.
But being killed by his own people, this made Karsus’s anger completely uncontrollable.
Karsus was the dumbest member of the Hero Squad, followed by Benson and Muse the Mad. The three of them had the best relationship and the deepest bond in the Hero Squad, and because of this, they were even jokingly called the “Three Stooges” by Jie Luo.
Karsus never felt this was an insult. On the contrary, he felt it was a sign of the Hero’s closeness to him.
In fact, Karsus wasn’t originally so stupid.
Part of the legends about Karsus were actually true. He did come from a prominent family. His father was a famous nobleman, and noble blood flowed through his veins.
He was indeed incredibly talented, his strength growing at an extremely fast pace from a young age.
He also had a fiancée who, although not a Grand Mage, was quite strong, elegant, noble, beautiful, and gentle.
However, he was also arrogant and impulsive.
His master warned him that although he was very strong and his progress was rapid, his state of mind was unstable, and he needed to slow down, to let his heart catch up with his strength.
But the arrogant Karsus didn’t listen to his master’s words at all. He continued to strive for higher levels, and this brought disaster. When he was trying to break through, because of his unstable mind, he began to hear some indescribable, incomprehensible whispers in his ears.
He didn’t know where the voice came from, but it made him feel extremely irritated.
Countless strange and distorted illusions appeared before his eyes, confusing him and driving him crazy.
In a state of extreme madness, he frantically destroyed everything around him. When he regained consciousness, he saw his father’s head in his hands and his mother’s body cut in half…
His brother’s body was split in two with a single slash.
He became a murderous demon, and his fiancée left him.
He was condemned and hunted down by countless people…
From that moment on, Karsus changed. He was no longer the handsome and elegant nobleman. He became dull, numb, and stupid.
He didn’t want anyone to see his face again, so he covered his entire body with thick black metal armor.
When he was all alone, it was the Hero who reached out to him.
He became the Hero’s companion, but because of his dullness, numbness, and stupidity, he could only follow Jie Luo’s or other Hero Squad members’ orders, never making decisions on his own.
But now, he was completely enraged.
This was the first time he had made a decision based on his own will since his change.
He wanted to avenge Benson.
He wanted to use the blood and heads of those damned priests of the Holy See to commemorate his best friend.
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