The sound of an explosion ripped through the basement as a ball of intense fire suddenly hurtled from the side—but Duncan had already reacted before the fireball got close.

His senses were far quicker than his body. He had felt something was amiss the moment the abnormal energy appeared in the basement. Without time to think, he instinctively raised his hand to block!

A slight burning sensation came from his fingertips, but in the next second, the gushing Spirit Flame engulfed the fireball with the force of a reactive explosion. Duncan caught the ball of fire shot from the corner of the basement out of thin air, and the blazing flames were almost instantly dyed a layer of ghostly green. The explosive energy instantly became docile and began to burn quietly in his hand.

Holding the fireball that had turned into ghostly green Spirit Flame, Duncan slowly turned his head towards the direction of the attack.

The moment his gaze shifted, the abyssal hound known as "A'gou" immediately jumped backward. A rift surging with countless shadows and black mist suddenly appeared where it landed. It jumped in without hesitation, its black iron chains dragging Shirley along. Before flying into the rift, the latter spat violently to the side, spitting several blood-stained bullets onto the ground.

The next moment, the two vanished from the basement.

Duncan heard the movement and turned back in surprise, only to see the last glimpse of the girl's skirt disappearing into the rift—this bizarre duo had taken advantage of his momentary distraction to escape.

He still had a mountain of questions to ask!

And it was all because of a particularly tenacious cultist who had suddenly ambushed him.

Duncan's mood soured slightly. He turned back to the direction of the fireball, seeing the cultist priest wearing a sun mask leaning crookedly against the corner, barely holding on as he maintained a raised arm. He seemed shocked that the fireball he had summoned with all his might had not only been caught out of thin air, but even had its authority usurped. Even through the golden mask, Duncan could see the man's eyes were glazed over.

"Not finishing off your opponent after a fight is a bad habit…"

Duncan's face darkened. Muttering about a certain dog-swinging girl who didn't finish off her opponents, he slowly walked towards the heavily injured, but not yet dead, cultist priest.

He still held the quietly burning ball of ghostly green fire, and the power it released was quietly spreading through the basement.

With each step Duncan took, the oil lamps and torches set up around the basement seemed to be summoned by some unknown force. One by one, the flickering flames were dyed a layer of ghostly green, and under the reflection of the approaching eerie firelight, the masked sun priest finally felt a fear stronger than ever before—

He felt the connection between himself and the Sun God rapidly weakening. As lamp after lamp was "usurped," the Sun God's gaze was rapidly leaving his soul like melting ice in spring!

In great fear, a trembling voice finally came from beneath the mask: "You… you are no ordinary heretic, what exactly are you…"

The last lamp turned into ghostly green Spirit Flame. Duncan stopped in front of the priest, tilting his head slightly, his face appearing particularly sinister in the reflection of the Spirit Flame: "I wasn't finished asking questions, but you interrupted me. That's impolite. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

As he spoke, he noticed the state of the sun priest.

He realized he had misjudged Shirley—half of this cultist's chest had completely caved in, and his broken ribs had probably pierced his heart and lungs. This was undoubtedly a fatal injury, and in theory, there was no need to finish him off.

This priest was still alive because some even more powerful and strange force was keeping him alive, which was probably the "Sun God" these cultists talked about.

But even so, Duncan could clearly see that life was rapidly draining from this priest's body. Each breath was becoming weaker, and his last gasp was only a matter of time.

Although he didn't know why, it was clear that the Sun God's blessing was rapidly leaving this priest.

"Looks like the Sun God's blessing isn't that reliable," Duncan shook his head, his tone filled with emotion. "Your lord has left you."

He was just sighing casually, but he didn't expect that these words would stimulate the already dying priest. The latter's eyes widened in fury, and driven by the immense anger, he burst out with his last bit of strength. To Duncan's surprise, he suddenly pulled a blood-stained strip of cloth from his sleeve!

"I offer myself to the Lord! May the Holy Shroud cleanse the heretic before me!"

The priest shouted, splattering the golden mask with filthy blood clots and pieces of internal organs. He raised the "Holy Shroud" high in his hand and offered his most thorough and insane sacrifice to his lord—

He sacrificed his entire being, just to ignite the Holy Shroud and perish together with the heretic who had usurped the flames!

However, Duncan simply watched the final, mad sacrifice calmly—although he was indeed startled when the priest suddenly took something out of his sleeve, he became indifferent as soon as he saw what it was.

It was the strange strip of cloth that the other party had used to verify his "compatriot identity" when he first entered the gathering place—he just didn't expect that this strip of cloth would actually have such an amazing name as "Holy Shroud."

Just as Duncan had expected, the Holy Shroud was quiet and unresponsive. The cultist priest's most extreme sacrifice before his death did not awaken any miracles.

A trace of confusion appeared in the eyes beneath the mask. The cultist priest barely supported his body, looking at the silent holy object in his hand in despair, coughing up another mouthful of filthy blood as he refused to believe it: "I offer myself to the Lord…"

"I guess, you want this."

Duncan couldn't bear to watch any longer. He shook his head and pointed to the blood-stained strip of cloth.

The next second, a cluster of ghostly green flames erupted!

The Spirit Flame ignited the Holy Shroud, ignited the filthy blood coughed up by the cultist priest, and ignited the flesh of this madman. The priest roared in horror and anger in the Spirit Flame: "No, no, no… it shouldn't be like this… the Lord won't abandon me, the Lord… the Lord will punish you, you heretic… Who exactly are you?!"

In the raging fire, the cultist priest's voice finally weakened and dissipated. The life force supported by supernatural power ultimately failed to allow him to resist the flames that directly burned his soul—or rather, it was because of the existence of supernatural power that he was turned into ashes in this Spirit Flame backlash.

The Spirit Flame finally gradually extinguished, and the sun priest leaning against the corner had been completely burned away, leaving only a set of scattered clothes and the golden mask that imitated the sun's shape.

Even that so-called "Holy Shroud" had been burned to ashes in the flames for acting as a "medium."

Duncan frowned.

To be honest, this was not the first time he had seen a corpse—the "sacrifices" he had seen in the underground cave before and the priest who had been "sacrificed" had already steeled his nerves. He was just a little surprised at the moment.

Under normal circumstances, his Spirit Flame only affected supernatural items. He had tested this with various things on the *Lost Sea*, items that had been burned by the flames would be "usurped" and become the property of Captain Duncan, while if it was not a supernatural item, even a piece of paper would not be affected by the Spirit Flame.

The Spirit Flame had produced an actual burning effect just now, which was his active activation—he was worried that the cultist would really do something with that Holy Shroud, so out of caution, he ordered the Holy Shroud to self-destruct. From the results, this Holy Shroud did indeed faithfully execute the order.

But he didn't expect that the spreading flames would burn the cultist priest to ashes as well—this did not match the conclusion he had reached after completing the test.

It was normal for the Holy Shroud to be burned, because it was a supernatural item and would be affected by the Spirit Flame.

It was also normal for the cultist priest's clothes to remain intact, because those clothes were clearly "mortal objects." The Spirit Flame was like a phantom from a parallel time and space to mortal objects, and would not have any impact at all—unless the clothes themselves had been enchanted, or some supernatural materials had been mixed in during the weaving process.

It was also normal for the golden mask to remain intact, because Duncan was very interested in this obviously supernatural item, and he immediately issued an order after the flames began to spread to prevent the mask from being damaged in the fire.

Then… why was this cultist burned to ashes by the Spirit Flame?

Duncan squatted down in confusion, carefully examining the gray-black ashes.

Similar to the ashes after the Holy Shroud was burned.

Duncan had never tested his Spirit Flame on living people, let alone actively used this flame to take people's lives, and this cultist priest should be considered the first real victim of his flame.

At least, the first real victim under the premise of his conscious control.

Slowly, a bold idea suddenly popped into Duncan's mind.

Could it be… that these "mortals" who had received "blessings" because they worshiped specific gods could also be regarded as "supernatural items"?