Since she couldn't find a handy brick at the crucial moment, Lily had been fighting rather frustratedly, so she angrily stole a kill, going up and tearing at the enemy, who had little ability to resist, dragging him around. It took Hao Ren a lot of effort to pull this "werewolf" girl, who had reached her instinctive peak, away. In the process, he almost got bitten by Lily—this girl didn't even protect her food this much when eating normally, but now she wouldn't let anyone touch it.
"Can you not bite people when you're fighting?" Hao Ren pinched Lily's ear hard to quiet her down. "You almost bit me!"
The golden light in Lily's eyes faded, and her anger bar slowly cleared: "Oh... I couldn't control myself just now, I was too excited."
Vivian looked strangely at the bloodstains on the corner of Lily's mouth, her face pale. The latter felt her fur stand on end from her gaze: "Bat, what are you looking at?"
Vivian pointed to the corner of Lily's mouth: "Smack your lips and savor the taste."
Lily: "Huh?"
Then she ran to the side to throw up.
"This thing can't run away, right?" Hao Ren cautiously approached the monster that was neither human nor ghost. After being ganged up on by a group of superhumans, it was almost unrecognizable, but even so, it hadn't died. It was just that it couldn't continue to hurt people due to broken limbs and blood loss. All that could be seen was a mass of charred human-shaped flesh struggling desperately on the ground, instinctively trying to stand up, as if it felt no pain at all. This bizarre scene made one's scalp tingle, and the nearest Erem Elves whispered among themselves: "What exactly is this?" "A local? Doesn't look like it." "No life signs..."
After confirming that the monster could no longer stand up, a captain of the Royal Guard announced that the crisis was over, but the soldiers still dared not relax their vigilance, but surrounded the center of the hall in circles. At the same time, a bishop shouted loudly: "Quick, go see how the Pope is!"
The scroll brought by the monster disguised as a church knight was obviously attached with some kind of curse or dark magic. After reading the scroll, the Pope had remained in one position without moving, as if his soul had been taken away by the scroll. The previous sentence, "His Holiness the Pope has been summoned by the Lord," made people feel uneasy. Several bishops immediately rushed to the Pope's side after reacting, but no one dared to move rashly: the Pope held the scroll with a stiff expression, his muscles all over his body tinged with blue, and his skin was taut like some kind of dehydrated fiber. His eyes were dim, but he was still breathing through his mouth and nose. No one knew how to deal with this strange state.
However, just when everyone was at a loss, the Pope suddenly shook all over, and then the look in his eyes quickly returned, and the signs of death on his body quickly faded. A heavy gasp came from the old man's nostrils: "Huff..."
Several bishops quickly stepped forward: "Your Holiness..."
"This is treacherous magic. An evil god tried to invade my mind, but it underestimated my loyalty to the Goddess," the Pope waved his hand to indicate that he was fine. "Those heretics thought everyone was as fragile as them, and they actually tried to use this thing to shake my faith... I'm fine. I could still vaguely feel the surrounding situation just now. How is that heretic?"
The bishops and knights guarded the Pope to the monster's side. The latter was still struggling on the ground, and when he saw that the Pope was safe and sound, he even let out a series of garbled curses, which seemed to prove that he could still think. The Pope frowned as he looked at the other party, with some pity in his eyes: "Poor monster, this is a creature made of flesh and blood by heretics... I can feel that there are at least a dozen painful souls in its body. John is also among them."
Hao Ren asked someone and learned that John was the name of the knight that the monster was disguised as. It seemed that the heretics had found a way to corrupt a real high-ranking church knight, whether by violence or brainwashing. In short, they had turned the once loyal and steadfast knight into a part of the monster.
Afterwards, Moron ordered the entire hall to be sealed off and all irrelevant personnel to be dismissed. The Erem Elves were also temporarily evacuated to other nearby rest areas. The scene quickly became quiet. Apart from Hao Ren and his group, only the King, the Pope, Ofra, and several high-ranking bishops and princes who were there to maintain order, as well as a small number of guards, remained.
"How could those heretics have infiltrated?" Becky, because of her special status, was not driven out. At this time, she asked with a nervous expression, "This is the royal city!"
"This may be a sign that they have finally been driven to a desperate situation," Ofra's voice was calm and powerful, with a power that calmed people's hearts. "Recently, we have been cleaning up this 'Returning Sect'. They are a loose organization. The core cult should only have a dozen people, but they have dozens of peripheral cult groups with various names and sizes. Now those peripheral groups have been hit very hard... They should be trying to fight to the death."
"It is truly a disgrace to the Holletta royal family that our honored guests were disturbed in this kind of occasion," Moron finally showed anger on his face. This always smiling and amiable king rarely got angry. "I am deeply sorry for this accident, and that the guests have seen such disgraceful things."
Hao Ren waved his hand: "It's okay, it's okay—the world is full of wonders... Well, that's not what I meant. Anyway, I've seen a lot of things, and I'm quite used to this scene. But about these heretics... How much information do you currently have? I also need relevant intelligence."
Hao Ren had told Ofra about this matter the last time he left. In order to track down clues about the Goddess of Creation, he had to know what exactly the giant brain that the heretics had summoned that day was—if possible, he even needed to connect with that giant brain again to obtain more details about the "origin of life." And this time when he came to Holletta, inquiring about the heretics was also on the agenda.
Ofra nodded: "There has indeed been a lot of progress recently, but... let's talk about it after the banquet."
Hao Ren looked at the scene. This mess was indeed not a place to exchange materials.
At this time, Lily finally came back after vomiting, complaining with a bitter face: "How long has this blood been expired... Are you even going to let werewolves fight properly!"
Hao Ren glanced at the girl: "Who told you to bite with your teeth? Can't you be less of an idiot? Don't you think it's degrading?"
"Werewolf fights are originally based on four major moves: pouncing, grabbing, tearing, and biting," Vivian shrugged helplessly. "That's what normal werewolves are like. It's the unorthodox way for big dogs to usually wield bricks and claw blades."
Lily's tail perked up: "That's right, biting people is part of the werewolf setting, don't play if you don't like it!"
Vivian smiled slyly: "Smack your lips again and recall the taste just now."
Lily: "... Blech!"
This time, even Hao Ren couldn't stand it: "Vivian, you also bit down just now."
Vivian: "... Blech!!"
After the two demon girls both found a place to retch, Hao Ren came to the Pope: "Old man, have you caught your breath? What exactly happened to that scroll just now?"
The Pope glanced at Hao Ren, hesitating whether he could let the other party see that dangerous scroll, but he quickly thought of the foreigner's magical power, so the old man frowned and nodded, handing over the scroll while cautiously reminding: "This thing is dangerous, be careful, it will attack your soul when you read it."
Hao Ren took the thing, feeling that it was just an ordinary scroll, but the material was neither paper nor leather, which was very suspicious. Before opening this thing, he cautiously asked the data terminal: "Can the mental barrier in my brain withstand this kind of soul attack?"
"No problem, your mental barrier has been blessed by the Goddess, and even if it can't withstand it, this unit can protect you," the data terminal shook vigorously in Hao Ren's pocket, indicating that it was full of energy. "If your mental reading is too low, this unit will knock you unconscious at the first time."
Hao Ren: "..."
He immediately felt that there was something wrong with the data terminal's protection method!
But in any case, Hao Ren still decided to take a look at what exactly was in that scroll. It wasn't that he was recklessly courting death, it was mainly that he was really curious about the things that those heretics had created: in this world where historical records were severely fragmented, religious legends were incomplete, and even the Radiant Church couldn't understand the ancient truth, how did a group of mixed heretics learn so much about the Goddess of Creation? Although their doctrines seemed equally unreliable, they at least knew how to summon a creature that was closely related to the Goddess of Creation—where did this knowledge come from?
Perhaps their magic principles could slightly reveal a thing or two.
Hao Ren asked the data terminal to pay attention to monitoring the scroll's information radiation, and then carefully opened the thing.
The scroll was blank.
Hao Ren had prepared himself to welcome a mental shock, but after channeling his inner force for a long time, he found that nothing happened.
"This thing has no effect..." He tossed the scroll casually, but before he finished speaking, a strange shriek suddenly came from the scroll, and then it fell apart.